Tuesday, May 31, 2011

7 ways to organize your email in Outlook

With meetings and the general chaos of a normal work day, your email Inbox can quickly get cluttered. An unorganized mailbox can make it difficult to find the email you need and know where to get started. This messy situation can be remedied. Microsoft Outlook offers great tools that help you organize your messages in meaningful, easy-to-control ways. Whether you're using Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 or still using Outlook 2003, you'll be able to stay on top of your mail.

Not using Outlook at all? Perhaps you're using Outlook Express, or you’re using Windows Live Mail or Windows Live Hotmail. These programs offer some features similar to those described here for Outlook, but they don’t offer the same breadth of tools for email management. Use the Microsoft Outlook Connector to add your Hotmail account to Outlook, and then you can use these tips to organize your Hotmail also. Or read about the Hotmail features that can help you organize information in your Hotmail system. For instance, you can combine mail from your other email accounts, like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, so that you can receive, read, and respond to all your email in one place.

You can use one or more of the tools covered in this article to help shrink your Inbox and make it easier to find the information you need.

1. Sort messages quickly
Outlook 2010 has a great new feature for organizing messages by date and arranging them by Conversation. Using this feature, messages that share the same subject appear as Conversations that can be viewed expanded or collapsed by clicking the icon to the left of the Subject line. The messages within each Conversation are sorted with the newest message on top. When a new message is received, the entire Conversation moves to the top of your message list, making tracking email threads a snap.

To turn on Conversations, on the View tab, in the Conversations group, select the Show as Conversations check box. You can reduce the size of a conversation with Clean Up, which deletes duplicate messages in the conversation. On the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Clean Up, and then click Clean Up Conversation.

In all versions of Outlook, you can find messages in mailbox folders more quickly by changing how they're sorted in your email folders. For example, you can arrange your email by date, sender, file size, or level of importance.

2. Group similar messages in folders
By creating new mail folders you can group messages related to each other. For example, you can group messages by topic, project, contact, or other categories that make sense to you. You can even create a folder for all the messages from your manager or that include tasks that you have to complete.

To create a new folder in Outlook 2010, on the Folder tab, in the New group, click New Folder.

To create a new folder in Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003, on the File menu, point to New and then click Folder.

3. Create Search Folders to find messages fast
Search Folders are a quick and convenient way to look at predefined collections of email messages. They don't actually store any messages themselves, but instead are virtual folders that offer a view of all the messages stored in your mailbox depending on the attributes you've defined. Outlook provides default Search folders—such as Unread Mail—but you can also create your own. For instance, you can use Search Folders to help you find all the information related to a particular project, an important client, or an upcoming conference.

Create a Search Folder in Outlook 2010:

In Mail, in the Folder tab, in the New group, click New Search Folder.

Create a Search Folders in either Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007.

In Mail, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Search Folder.

In all versions of Outlook, specify whether you want to use a predefined Search Folder or create your own custom folder, and then follow the instructions on the screen.

4. Route mail efficiently using mailbox rules
By creating rules for Outlook, you can automatically perform actions on both incoming and outgoing messages based on the criteria you establish. For instance, you can automatically forward to your manager all messages sent by a certain person as soon as they arrive, assign the category Sales to all messages you send that have the word "sales" in the Subject line, and much, much more. Routing mail efficiently not only organizes your mail for you—but also frees up your time from performing routing tasks.

5. Reduce unwanted email with junk filters
Keep distracting and unwanted messages out of your inbox by using Outlook Junk Email filters. These filters send email flagged as junk to a separate mail folder under your Mailbox. You can review the contents of this folder to ensure that no legitimate messages have been sent there, and if they have, you can adjust the filter to avoid flagging such messages in the future.

6. Assign a color category
Assign a color category to a group of interrelated email messages, as well as to other items in Outlook such as notes, contacts, and appointments, so that you can easily identify and organize them. For example, keep track of all the messages, meetings, and contacts for the Morris project by creating a category named Morris Project and assigning items to it.

7. Flag for follow up
You can use the Flag for Follow-Up feature to flag email messages, tasks, and more to help classify them or mark them for action. Flags can remind you to follow up on an issue, indicate a request for someone else, or set a reminder for a message or contact. Best yet, they make organizing your mail folders a breeze, because you know exactly what to do—and when to do it. Note that when you create a task and set a due date, the task is automatically flagged, so that you don’t let that due date slip past you.


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Incredible weekend




I sure love my family and had an incredible Memorial Weekend with them.

Jonathan and Carrie and Christina and Joseph and their kids came down from Utah.

We had all 6 of our kids here. We got pictures at Freestone Park,

went swimming at the Moyers several times, planned our July family reunion up in Utah,

ate lots of meals together, laughed, played, went to the cemetery

to remember our loved ones, and just had a wonderful time together. It feels so good!


Each member of our family is so different and unique and adds their own spice or flavoring.

I'm so glad to be feeling well and be in remission with cancer so that I can enjoy these

special times with each of them.

I want to be around for many years to come...and I will.

Here is a picture of Larry and me and another of us and our kids.






Monday, May 30, 2011

10 Deadly Sins of Negative Thinking

1. I will be happy once I have _____ (or once I earn X).

Problem: If you think you can’t be happy until you reach a certain point, or until you reach a certain income, or have a certain type of house or car or computer setup, you’ll never be happy. That elusive goal is always just out of reach. Once we reach those goals, we are not satisfied — we want more.
Solution: Learn to be happy with what you have, where you are, and who you are, right at this moment. Happiness doesn’t have to be some state that we want to get to eventually — it can be found right now. Learn to count your blessings, and see the positive in your situation. This might sound simplistic, but it works.

2. I wish I were as ____ as (a celebrity, friend, co-worker).

Problem: We’ll never be as pretty, as talented, as rich, as sculpted, as cool, as everyone else. There will always be someone better, if you look hard enough. Therefore, if we compare ourselves to others like this, we will always pale, and will always fail, and will always feel bad about ourselves. This is no way to be happy.
Solution: Stop comparing yourself to others, and look instead at yourself — what are your strengths, your accomplishments, your successes, however small? What do you love about yourself? Learn to love who you are, right now, not who you want to become. There is good in each of us, love in each of us, and a wonderful human spirit in every one of us.

3. Seeing others becoming successful makes me jealous and resentful.

Problem: First, this assumes that only a small number of people can be successful. In truth, many, many people can be successful — in different ways.
Solution: Learn to admire the success of others, and learn from it, and be happy for them, by empathizing with them and understanding what it must be like to be them. And then turn away from them, and look at yourself — you can be successful too, in whatever you choose to do. And even more, you already are successful. Look not at those above you in the social ladder, but those below you — there are always millions of people worse off than you, people who couldn’t even read this article or afford a computer. In that light, you are a huge success.

4. I am a miserable failure — I can’t seem to do anything right.

Problem: Everyone is a failure, if you look at it in certain ways. Everyone has failed, many times, at different things. I have certainly failed so many times I cannot count them — and I continue to fail, daily. However, looking at your failures as failures only makes you feel bad about yourself. By thinking in this way, we will have a negative self-image and never move on from here.

Solution: See your successes and ignore your failures. Look back on your life, in the last month, or year, or 5 years. And try to remember your successes. If you have trouble with this, start documenting them — keep a success journal, either in a notebook or online. Document your success each day, or each week. When you look back at what you’ve accomplished, over a year, you will be amazed. It’s an incredibly positive feeling.

5. I’m going to beat so-and-so no matter what — I’m better than him. And there’s no way I’ll help him succeed — he might beat me.

Problem: Competitiveness assumes that there is a small amount of gold to be had, and I need to get it before he does. It makes us into greedy, back-stabbing, hurtful people. We try to claw our way over people to get to success, because of our competitive feelings. For example, if a blogger wants to have more subscribers than another blogger, he may never link to or mention that other blogger. However, who is to say that my subscribers can’t also be yours? People can read and subscribe to more than one blog.
Solution: Learn to see success as something that can be shared, and learn that if we help each other out, we can each have a better chance to be successful. Two people working towards a common goal are better than two people trying to beat each other up to get to that goal. There is more than enough success to go around. Learn to think in terms of abundance rather than scarcity.

6. Dammit! Why do these bad things always happen to me?


Problem: Bad things happen to everybody. If we dwell on them, they will frustrate us and bring us down.
Solution: See bad things as a part of the ebb and flow of life. Suffering is a part of the human condition — but it passes. All pain goes away, eventually. Meanwhile, don’t let it hold you back. Don’t dwell on bad things, but look forward towards something good in your future. And learn to take the bad things in stride, and learn from them. Bad things are actually opportunities to grow and learn and get stronger, in disguise.

7. You can’t do anything right! Why can’t you be like ____ ?

Problem: This can be said to your child or your subordinate or your sibling. The problem? Comparing two people, first of all, is always a fallacy. People are different, with different ways of doing things, different strengths and weaknesses, different human characteristics. If we were all the same, we’d be robots. Second, saying negative things like this to another person never helps the situation. It might make you feel better, and more powerful, but in truth, it hurts your relationship, it will actually make you feel negative, and it will certainly make the other person feel negative and more likely to continue negative behavior. Everyone loses.
Solution: Take the mistakes or bad behavior of others as an opportunity to teach. Show them how to do something. Second, praise them for their positive behavior, and encourage their success. Last, and most important, love them for who they are, and celebrate their differences.

8. Your work sucks. It’s super lame. You are a moron and I hope you never reproduce.

Problem: I’ve actually gotten this comment before. It feels wonderful. However, let’s look at it not from the perspective of the person receiving this kind of comment but from the perspective of the person giving it. How does saying something negative like this help you? I guess it might feel good to vent if you feel like your time has been wasted. But really, how much of your time has been wasted? A few minutes? And whose fault is that? The bloggers or yours? In truth, making negative comments just keeps you in a negative mindset. It’s also not a good way to make friends.
Solution: Learn to offer constructive solutions, first of all. Instead of telling someone their blog sucks, or that a post is lame, offer some specific suggestions for improvement. Help them get better. If you are going to take the time to make a comment, make it worth your time. Second, learn to interact with people in a more positive way — it makes others feel good and it makes you feel better about yourself. And you can make some great friends this way. That’s a good thing.

9. Insulting People Back

Problem: If someone insults you or angers you in some way, insulting them back and continuing your anger only transfers their problem to you. This person was probably having a bad day (or a bad year) and took it out on you for some reason. If you reciprocate, you are now having a bad day too. His problem has become yours. Not only that, but the cycle of insults can get worse and worse until it results in violence or other negative consequences — for both of you.
Solution: Let the insults or negative comments of others slide off you like Teflon. Don’t let their problem become yours. In fact, try to understand their problem more — why would someone say something like that? What problems are they going through? Having a little empathy for someone not only makes you understand that their comment is not about you, but it can make you feel and act in a positive manner towards them — and make you feel better about yourself in the process.

10. I don’t think I can do this — I don’t have enough discipline. Maybe some other time.

Problem: If you don’t think you can do something, you probably won’t. Especially for the big stuff. Discipline has nothing to do with it — motivation and focus has everything to do with it. And if you put stuff off for “some other time”, you’ll never get it done. Negative thinking like this inhibits us from accomplishing anything.
Solution: Turn your thinking around: you can do this! You don’t need discipline. Find ways to make yourself a success at your goal. If you fail, learn from your mistakes, and try again. Instead of putting a goal off for later, start now. And focus on one goal at a time, putting all of your energy into it, and getting as much help from others as you can. You can really move mountains if you start with positive thinking.


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Creative Wedding Invitation Cards






























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Sunday, May 29, 2011

The top six women bodybuilders over 55 kg

The top six women bodybuilders over 55 kg (from L to R): Andrea DECKER (6th place); Alevtina GOROSHINSKAYA (4th place); Larissa CUNHA (2nd place); Elena SHPORTUN (1st place); Simone LINAY (3rd place) and Alina CEPURNIENE (5th place).

The 2007 IFBB world women’s bodybuilding over 55 kg champion Elena SHPORTUN (Russia).
The 2007 IFBB world women’s bodybuilding overall champion Elena SHPORTUN (Russia) congratulated by the IFBB President Dr. Rafael SANTONJA (right) and the IFBB Vice-President for Asia Datuk Paul CHUA (left).


The top six women body fitness up to 158 cm competitors (from L to R): Marisa LOPEZ (6th place); Martina TARKOVA (4th place); Anna RASPUTNYAK (1st place); Natalia REVAJOVA - LENARTOVA (2nd place); Yolanda ESTESO (3rd place) and Agnese RUSSO (5th place).

2007 IFBB world women’s fitness overall champion

2007 IFBB world women’s fitness overall champion
The top six fitness women up to 163 cm (from L to R): Dagmar PASTERNAKOVA (5th place); Loana MUTTONI (3rd place); Margarita BYELINSKA (1st place); Vera EGOROVA (2nd place); Diana MONTEIRO (4th place) and Anna MEKHNINA (6th place).

The 2007 IFBB world women’s fitness overall champion Jana STÖCKELOVA (Czech Republic) congratulated by the IFBB President Dr. Rafael SANTONJA (far left); ANOC Vice-President Dr. Julio MAGLIONE (second from left) and CEO of Santa Susanna’s Tourist Foundation Mr. Joan CAMPOLIER.
The 2007 IFBB world women’s fitness overall champion Jana STÖCKELOVA (Czech Republic) with her trophy.



he top five fitness men in the open category (from L to R): Roberto DALLAKIAN (4th place); Mikhail IVANOV (2nd place); Tomasz PIETRAS (1st place); Andrzej BACZYNSKI (3rd place) and Jan BÖHM (5th place).

Female bodybuilding Dagmar PASTERNAKOVA Czech Rep.

Female bodybuilding Dagmar PASTERNAKOVA Czech Rep.
2007 Santa Susanna Fitness Weekend was so long that we could title it “The Fitness Week” this year. Many IFBB officials came to this Spanish spa on Tuesday, September 18, to take part in the World Judges Seminar, then amateur athletes joined them to compete for medals at the 2007 IFBB World Women Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships and World Men Fitness Championships

IFBB Female And Male Bodybuilding Upcoming News

IFBB Female And Male Bodybuilding Upcoming News
2004 world champion (90 kg) Bogdan Szczotka (left) and 1996 world champion (80 kg) Oleg Zhur (in the center) currently work as national bodybuilding coaches of Poland and Czech Republic respectively. Here, with Czech official Stanislav Pesat (right).


CLOSE OR OPEN
What is better for bodybuilder: to keep his mouth open or close while performing compulsory poses? From L to R: Anwar El Amawy (Egypt) and Mauro Rainieri (Italy).



CHRISTMAS TREE
Visible lower back details are the best proof of top shape and definition. This “Christmas tree” was displayed in Manama by the three-time world champion, Sazali Abd Samad of Malaysia.


FACES OF BODYBUILDING
2008 world women’s bodybuilding heavyweight champion Alina Popa (Switzerland).



FITNESS WARRIOR
2008 World Women’s Championships: Tatiana Tishchenko (Russia).



DANCING QUEEN
2008 World Women’s Championships: Slovak fitness champion Barbora Buncakova.



THAI BODY
2008 World Women’s Championships: Thai fitness champion Apiporn Chomsomboon.



FAR EAST STYLE
2008 World Women’s Championships: Japanese fitness star Tomoko Mikuni