It’s never too late…or too soon! ®

Posted on July 14, 2011 by tambroni

12/19/2011 – Download the 7 Day Jumpstart e-book FREE!!!!!!!!!

What is a life coach?

A coach is someone who assists a client in solidifying and clarifying their goals, means to achieve their goals, and directions. There are many goal-oriented coaches, career coaches, and executive-type coaches.

My specialty and experience is with education, personal organization, technology, and workflow. I help clients streamline their current workflow using their available technology to make their lives simpler, productive, and accountable. I have helped many colleagues and friends streamline their workflow and maximize their utilization of technology.

Why pursue life coaching?

  • You feel overwhelmed. There’s just too much ‘stuff’ coming at you from different directions.
  • You don’t want to ignore all these stimuli but you want a way to deal with and work with them all.
  • Your nerves just feel ‘frayed’. If only you had a system to deal with all this ‘stuff’ in your life.
  • You have lots of things to do but don’t even know where to start.

Why Me?

As an experienced and trained educator I can not only know my content but am able to relate it in a meaningful and sequential manner. I work well with people and can easily adapt my style and content information.

I specialize in managing the external information that we are constantly bombarded with by creating a smooth workflow and sustainable task management system.
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Potential & Realization

Posted on January 19, 2012 by tambroni

Imagine this: one person has a cup that holds 16 ounces, another person has a cup that can hold 12 ounces. The 16 ounce person only pours in 9 ounces while the 12 ounce person fills theirs to capacity. Who is the better musician?

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Dealing With Email

Posted on December 24, 2011 by tambroni

1. Accept you may be overloaded.

2. Unsubscribe from lists that are no longer relevant. Be careful here – if you receive a spam email with an unsubscribe button, the sender may be looking for you to unsubscribe so they know they have a real email address. But if it’s something you know is legitimate, unsubscribe. For example,my father likes to shop at Bass Pro Shops, so I often buy him gift cards online. I am then on Bass Pro’s email list. I unsubscribe as I know it is legitimate and somewhere that I had submitted my email address.

3. Put things into storage. Scan you inbox. Any two or more messages that have the same subject or are related get put into their own folder.

4. You can also create folders like David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’. I have a ‘Waiting-For’ email folder that I scan 2 – 3 times per week.

5. Your inbox is NOT a place for storage. Either reply and delete, file into a folder or delete the message.

6. Email signatures. Just include your name, title, and contact information. Don’t add quotes and other ‘personalizations’ regardless of how wonderful you think they are. It never looks professional.

7. Be mindful and aware of the difference between REPLY and REPLY ALL.
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Nozbe

Posted on December 19, 2011 by tambroni

I’m a GtD (Getting Things Done) evangelist! I love the system. I read the book about 10 years ago and it changed my life. But I’m also a gadget guy and techie. I’ve been implementing this productivity system since owning a a Handspring Visor, various Palm PDAs, and now iPhones.

I’m always in search of the systematic holy grail – simple yet powerful and something that seamlessly allows me to focus on doing rather than organizing (although I do enjoy the organizing!).

I really liked Minimalist ToDo on the iPhone. The beautiful, clean interface was very nice but it didn’t sync with anything. Wunderlist is an amazing tool that I used since it was introduced (can’t remember when) until a few weeks ago. I still recommend Wunderlist for most people – it is easy to use and available for almost every platform and it syncs seamlessly.

But then I found Nozbe. More powerful, more labels, ability to add contexts, a better iPad interface, seamless syncing, NO CRASHING. And for us power users we can link Dropbox, Evernote and other services to it. I manage a lot of projects that have a a lot of supporting material to go with them. Nozbe is a subscription service but at $9.95 a month (less if you prepay) I feel it’s worth it. I immediately signed up and have been loving it!! And, really, I’ve gotta quite a bit done in the past few weeks.

-Check out my music education Rhythm Ruler project at Kickstarter.com
-I’ve finished revising my next edition of my textbook, “An Introduction to Double Bass Playing”
-Oh yeah, I’m a full time public school music teacher. I also teach private students on the weekend.
-I manage MostlyBass.com, The Evolving Educator.com , and small consulting project.
-I’m also preparing to launch an online class on personal workflows,technology, and productivity.
-I’m the bassist for the band, Jungle of Cities and do our audio editing.
-Did I mention I like to workout and sleep? (Not at the same time)

Anyway….Give Nozbe a shot – there is a free version of it.

Nozbe
 

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Simple Tool – Book Darts

Posted on September 29, 2011 by tambroni

I like gadgets. I love technology. But sometimes there’s nothing like simplicity or good ol’ fashioned books. I like to buy my books because I view them as life long tools. I highlight, underline, and dog-ear. Here’s a very cool product (and inexpensive) that makes reading and referencing easier. Say hello to BOOK DARTS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Write Concise Emails

Posted on September 23, 2011 by tambroni

http://five.sentenc.es/

The Problem

E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it.

The Solution

Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.

five.sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be five sentences or less. It’s that simple.

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Tech Tip – Toolbar Gone Awry?

Posted on September 20, 2011 by tambroni

I recently had a question about the back and forward arrows on a web browser that had disappeared. Here’s a quick video on how to fix it. You can also customize the top portion of your browser to your liking.

ArrowFix

 

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Pull Yourself Out of a Rut By Doing Just One Small Thing

Posted on September 12, 2011 by tambroni

Here’s a great article from LifeHacker.com.

Falling into a rut or a deep funk is really easy. Dragging yourself out of it is another thing. Sometimes all you need to do to pick yourself up is deal with one small task you didn’t even know was weighing on you.

There are probably several things you’ve been meaning to do but never got around to doing—things that, if you were to accomplish them, could dramatically lift your spirits or get you going again. Things like clearing off a messy desk or dealing with non-urgent paperwork that you’ve been shuffling around daily.

When you’re in a rut—just going through the motions—or, worse, at rock bottom and feel like you’re incapable of doing anything, try doing just one small thing that has plagued you forever. Because it’s bothered you for so long, the sense of accomplishment may be greater.

Fix a wobbly doorknob that’s been bugging you, cancel that Netflix subscription already, make that doctor’s appointment you’ve been putting off.

Taking action, however small, is the cure for inaction. Take it from someone who’s been there and finally cleared off her desk and raised her monitors to proper ergonomic height after a desk chair swap experiment. No matter how bad it gets, try one small thing. Photo by Dan Foy.

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Being Yourself

Posted on September 9, 2011 by tambroni

“How to be yourself”is a decent little article and pairs nice with “The Complete Guide to Not Giving a $#%*“. The latter has plenty of good advice if you can understand that it’s not about being nihilist or not caring and you can disregard the language.

 

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Set Absolute Priorities

Posted on August 11, 2011 by tambroni


Have 3 Daily MUST  – DOs

“There is no easy or difficult, only familiar and unfamiliar.” – Kenny Werner

It’s all about setting priorities and adjusting your outlook on your daily tasks. We often place too high of a priority on things that don’t really affect. And the little things that do affect us we often dismiss or put off for another day. Personally I have three things that I MUST DO everyday. These things happen before other things and my brain has incorporated them into my schedule and prioritized them.

1. Go to work. That sounds simple and it is. I like my job and enjoy coming to work but it’s something that must happen each day. It’s obviously a priority to most of us but by bringing it to the conscious level you brain works out a schedule for other daily events to make things run smoother.

2. Exercise. I plan on working out everyday. Sometimes life happens and the workout gets missed but by shooting for everyday those missed days make a perfect rest day. I used to plan a 5 or 6 day workout routine with a scheduled rest day but inevitably, one of my workout days would get missed due to meetings or just not feeling well. By planning on it daily I never have to feel guilty.

3. Practice. I am a classical musician and daily practice is essential. This one probably doesn’t apply to most of you but I’m sure you have something you can put here. Perhaps spending time with your family, writing, painting, taking a class, or reading a book.

 

After these three things happen, anything else is a bonus. Embedding these priorities in my psyche helps me accomplish my goals before I hang out with friends or watch tv.

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Organizing from the Inside Out: Form a Plan of Attack for Lifelong Organization

Posted on July 31, 2011 by tambroni

Here’s a great post from LifeHacker about organization.

If you’re disorganized, unhappy with your clutter and the time wasted looking for things, and ready to get things in order, come along as we take a tour through the New York Time’s bestselling organization book: Organizing from the Inside Out.

You’ve got lots of stuff, you’ve got limited time, and those two factors conspire against you to turn your home, car, and office into a pit of disorganization. Today we’re taking a look at tips from Julie Morgenstern’s New York Time’s best selling book Organizing from the Inside Out. Let’s get our spaces in order.

Read more here.

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