Follow Up your way to Success

One of the most important things to do to be successful is to follow up.

Why don't people follow up?  There are many reasons people don't follow up but the main one is fear of appearing rude. Many times you contact someone like John and ask him to send you a copy of your test results.  But alas John is busy and doesn't have a good system for following up.  So John is very busy and doesn't get back to you.

But you wait and wait and wait. Eventually you forget about the test results and at some point don't follow up with your doctor.

The first thing to realize is just because you ask someone via email, in person or phone to do something it doesn't mean it will get done. What if the person is on vacation or sick?

What if John asks his employee to send  the test results but the worker forgets or is working on an urgent issue?

What if I sent John an email and he never got it because it went to his spam folder or the receptionist accidentally delete all the voice mails?

Waiting to follow up can cause issues as the longer time that passes the less likely someone will follow up.

The first thing to do is keep a list of who and when to follow up with people and check it daily. This is best incorporated into your to-do list.

On the opposite side is you're own need to follow up requests. If someone sends you an email to do a task, tell them you got the email and when you'll be able to get to it, about how long it will take and what other priorities you're dealing with.

Using Microsoft Outlook is a good way to follow up as you can mark emails with the Follow up indicator. You could also set an alarm to remind yourself to follow up.

One technique to get follow up is to copy people's bosses on emails. This can backfire as the person may get angry and go out of there way to not help you. Never address a request to multiple people, address it to one of them and cc the other.

If you send an email to a group sometimes called a DG (Distribution Group) make sure to include at least one of the actual names in the cc list.

Another way to increase follow up by others and to be very thankful when people do help you. If you can give them a subtle or direct compliment.

"Wow, that was great service... I really appreciate you help"

and copy their boss.

Another way is to use the software I helped create called http://Time-creator.com which uses Excel to create alarms that help with follow up.

Anyway if you have suggestions, comments or tips I'd love to hear from your below.

AB.

Verizon Droid Turbo Continually Reboots and Verizon Don't Care

I got my first droid Turbo about 6 months ago before the headphone jack stopped working.  I brought it to the Verizon store and it cost me 2 -3 hours waiting and traveling. After waiting for them to look at my phone for an hour the tech said he couldn't help me because the phone isn't under my name, it's under my wife's. I started RAISING MY VOICE and making a scene. The tech said if my wife could  give me a password they sent to her phone and they would help me. Why don't they tell me ahead about this issue than scare and stress me that they wouldn't fix it?

The tech asks me what's wrong and after telling him the headphone jack doesn't work he orders me a replacement phone.


A few days later the new phone arrives in the mail. I have to back up the old phone and load everything to the new phone. Why didn't Verizon do this for me?

From the first day I get the phone it re-boots randomly. After 3 months I'm fed up with this lemon and decide to get the phone replaced.

I arrive at the Verizon store and explain the problem to the tech. He  the tech goes to the back and when he finally comes back he says "it didn't reboot." Almost implying that I was lying. Then he accused me of running too many apps and showed me how to shut them down.  He said "There is a fix from Motorola, but we don't know when they're going to make it."

WTF.  I showed him on the battery usage and how he could see the reboots in the gaps. I shutdown all the running apps and the phone reboots the minute I get home.  To make matters worse the phone rebooted 2x while I was sleeping and wakes me up.

I also noticed a high data usage one day when the phone kept rebooting. I believe the video I was watching was downloaded multiple times. The tech said he couldn't help me.

They did nothing for me and now I'm ready to switch carriers.

How to pass the driver's test?

My son failed the driver's test in NY State 2 times in a row and today I figured out why.

Confirmation Bias is the reason.

A confirmation bias is where something confirms a bias you have. One day I noticed a few bad drivers from New Jersey and I thought about the term "Jersey Driver."  From that day on I noticed so many bad drivers from Jersey. I set a rule in my mind. "People from New Jersey are bad drivers." Whenever I saw a Jersey driver doing something bad it reinforced my bias. But if I saw a New York driver doing something bad I had no rule for them. There could be hundreds of drivers from New Jersey who drove perfectly fine but if just one was bad it would reinforce my rule.

When I realized I had this bias I noticed that both New York and New Jersey has it share of bad drivers.

So how do you pass the driver's test using this information?

When the Motor Vehicle Dept. tester steps in the car they may reach a conclusion right there on whether you pass or fail. But I realized that my son didn't stop at stop signs well. He would drive to the sign and slow down too early. So on the driver's test when he stopped poorly the tester immediately had a bias that he's a bad driver.  We worked on this until his stops were much better.

So the thing to do is get off to the best start possible and make the pull  out and first stop as good as possible. If you do this you can set the tester on a bias that you're a good driver and they'll excuse any bad thing you do on the test. Also make sure the car is clean, has no visible damage and smells nice.

I hope this helps you also. Please leave a comment below if it does.

Shortcuts - Ctrl+Shift+.....

I remember working on a computer with a co-worker named Kenny Eng about 15 years ago. He said, "If you're not using shortcuts you're wasting time." He showed me a few shortcuts in Microsoft Word to go to the next word and select the whole word, Ctrl+right arrow and Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow.

Today, I can't tell you how valuable that lesson was. It is especially useful for when you do something over and over again.

The main problem you will find are your habits. Don't use shortcuts and your wasting time. Breaking the habits which can be difficult and you'll save time in the long run. You should learn these slowly one at a time. Look them up here if you don't remember and try a new one each day.

The following are the main shortcuts I use:

Windows

The following shortcuts work on most windows, browsers and software.

Alt key - Press hold to see if there are any shortcuts associated with it.Excel has many useful keys 

• Alt+F4 - Close window
• Alt+Tab - Next Window
• Alt+F - File menu
• Alt+Space+N - Minimize window
• Alt+Enter - A new line within an Excel cell

Ctrl Key

• Ctrl+A - Select All 
• Ctrl+C - Copy to clipboard - 
• Ctrl+X - Cut - 
• Ctrl+V - Paste - 
• Ctrl+Z -  Undo - 
• Ctrl+F - Find - 
• Ctrl+Home - go to top
• Ctrl+End - go to the end
• Ctrl+Right Arrow - Next Word
• Ctrl+Left Arrow - Prev Word

Use computer without a mouse. This is difficult but will quickly teach you how to get around without a mouse.

Other keys

• Esc - Escape to close dialogs
• Enter - to press default button on a dialog
• Shift - Hold down to do a multi-select of items
• Ctrl - Hold down to select multiple non-continuous items
• Windows 
• D - hides windows and shows the desktop
• R - brings up the run Dialog
• L - locks computer

Other Actions

• Hover - Placing your cursor over a control will show the shortcuts
• Underscore - The underscore tells you that Alt+U in this case will run the shortcut

September 19th 2015

I decided today to walk the Highline right away I noticed the amount of construction going on the High Line is beautiful and makes me feel good I'm really liking it

There are places to sit beautiful plants nice pleasant owners of the dance the genius of whoever thought of this is amazing my walk in the morning butter when I come down the hotline
What is the highlight is a lot of noise from construction now and scaffolding this something very peaceful here amongst all the noise I passed the brass monkey which has a rooftop bar

And that the trip goes to a close I'm approaching and passing through the repacking district maybe one day they'll extended bold way to Wall Street

I decide to walk down along the West Side Highway in the water is a cross over to Riverside Park I get the first glimpse of the Freedom Tower
There are many joggers in Riverside Park the days a little more warm specially for September 19th leave the jungle solo. Lot of people walking the dog the Parkers all week down 2 Wall Street cast the Freedom Tower and it's a very pretty place pretty safe but I would stay out of it at night time if I wasn't familiar with the area
Along the water there are many piercings look at it into the river people exercising have to David and delightful it just me or are they just get a twinge of meeting it makes me forget about work it really isn't that bad consider alternatives it's about houses on the next year
I guess a place on Christopher where I had my bachelor party can't remember the name
It's called Hudson River Park which makes sense because it separates New York aqfrom New Jersey blogger frustrates me because I would like to take pictures while talking but it's difficult in a lot of switching yes back I remember you say same place on a weekend and it was full of game in hanging out probably in the eighties I'm at Pier 40 over there are many boats docked there's also a dog park it

The two minutes there about HR is a minute and they said to come in waves I would say most of women
A woman dreams super boxing dreams can I see a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty out in the water
Favorite of mine is there is a wooden boardwalk that's very relaxing I'm a new woman go buy an electric skateboard both on the same one and the guy fishes Chinese cooking at 10:32 no
There are few homeless people in the park that's it don't seem to be aggressive mostly sleeping at this time which is about 9 a.m.
It's amazing how noisy the streets are from the car traffic Battery Park baseball and soccer field on Western and Lawrence
Its called West Street that was in high school beach volleyball Battery Park City Barnes and Noble Bed Bath and Beyond how to read the street signs 4 hour parking on West Street by your bike path community college grocers Davidson 8 a.m. 7 p.m. Sundays Whole Foods

Thinker's Block on a Walk Through NYC

Companies are constantly going out of business I see new ones popping up old ones closing. No one opens a business and thinks it will fail but most do. According to StatisticsBrain.com 55% fail after 5 years.

It's a very humid morning and I decide to walk 3 - 4 miles to work I see a dog pooping and realized my son figured out that if the tail is straight dog's pooping and if the tails curved the dog is peeing.

I realized that stepping out of your zone of comfort means going against habits and that's why it's hard. 

Beautiful architecture 14th & 8th

So I start on my morning walk from Penn Station to Fulton street. There's not much to see between 31st and 23rd street. There's some beautiful architecture on 8th Ave. and 14th street. On 8th Avenue and James Street one block south of 14th I pass some very beautiful flowers and a  crazy guy appears to be yelling at somebody. I'm trying to put my thoughts on the paper but of course the act of trying it means I'm not thinking of anything to write.

Pretty flowers

Whitehorse Tavern

I pass the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street. I think it's one of the oldest bars in New York City. The prices are very reasonable last time I was there the food was very good.

and you can sit outside on picnic tables. It might not be a good choice if the weather is too hot or too cold.

Bagel Store

Streets and sidewalks are very empty at this time just before 8 a.m. to 9 am. I pass a bagel shop and feel sad that I can't have one because of what it does to my blood sugar. It's on Christopher and Hudson.

I pass a guy with a dog and wasn't sure what kind it was. I wanted to ask him but stopped because he was wearing headphones. I pass outdoor sidewalk cafes that would be nice to have breakfast at on Barrow and Hudson.  Hudson is the street Eighth Ave. goes into and some of the streets are very pretty.

I pass a vacant lot that looks like it's getting ready for construction I'm amazed at how the plants can grow anywhere or as they like to call them weeds.

Construction

There's an interesting chocolate store on Hudson and Charlton and they always doing construction in the city.

Pretty Streets

At Spring Street and Hudson the Freedom Tower pops up behind the buildings.

Near Hudson and Canal there is a Classic Car Club and a nice little park called Freeman Plaza.









Right off of Canal a  restaurant called American Flatbread looks like it recently closed.

On my way home at 5 p.m. I pass an interesting building on Lafayette and White Street

As I walk up Lafayette there is an interesting building off of Grand near Lafayette which i think is now a police station. There is a restaurant/bar called O'Neill's where I've heard some scenes from Sex in the City took place.


I pass some stencil art on a building in Lafayette. 

Blue Man Group tube show is on Lafayette near Astor Place and a place called Joe's Pub is across the street.



Lafayette goes into 4th Avenue and there is a pool hall Amsterdam billiards and bar which you should call ahead to make sure there's no leagues taking over all the tables.




 also right next door is the post from a few Seinfeld episodes.

Post office from the Seinfeld TV show

The is also an interesting costume store and used book store on the west side of 4th Ave.

This costume store is open year round

Small bookstore

A few blocks away is Strand bookstore which is on 13th and Broadway, one block to the left. If you make a left off of 4th Avenue Union Square Park is a nice park will be on your left side as you walk up 4th Avenue and you can see the MetLife building what used to be the PanAm building.

People lounging on the perimeter of Union Square Park

Bathroom on North East Side of Union Square park

View looking up Park Ave.

Great Barnes and Noble bookstore

Restaurant on the North side of Union Square Park. Only open during the nice weather

Great sporting goods store Paragon on Broadway

Sept. 8, 2015

Up at 3 AM due to my wife's snoring and maybe due to getting up to go to the bathroom. I've been having trouble sleeping lately.

I was getting pain in my left Achilles heel and bought a device at Paragon Sports called the Pro-Tec Achilles Tendon Support. I was surprised to find that it worked. The pain is gone this is a freakin miracle. I've tried so many different things but this worked. I was limping for a long time and just stopped. I can run without pain. If you have this kind of pain give it a try.

At Paragon's they were selling Canada Goose coats and I found one that cost  $1300. That's a lot for a coat.

The summer is semi-officially over with the passing of Labor day. But the temp is supposed to be in the 90's and maybe break a record.

I'm missing my son who is in college. At least I spoke with him last night.  Sounds like he's having a good time and his classes aren't that difficult.

I'm a little pissed off that I wasn't invited to my friends 60th birthday. I go on Facebook and see a post from my friend with a picture of his birthday cake and a number of friends around him. I thought he was a good friend of mine but I guess it's not mutual.

Blood Sugar

I have a goal to lower my blood sugar. I'm trying to do more accurate tests to see what works and what doesn't. One of the things I want to start doing is charting my BS trend. Also I want to lift weights or maybe join the Citibike program. These are the blue bikes you see everywhere in NYC. I've been hesitant to do it due to the frustration I've had with the program in the past. I worry that I'll have to wait for a bike, won't find a place to park it, etc. 

One new rule I have is if I have pizza I can't eat ice cream as this will throw my bs too high. Also in the past if I had junk food I'd have as much as possible but it appears that the more junk I have the higher my bs will go. My highest measured was 215 after a lot of sweets. A 5 hour energy shot may have contributed but I'll have to do some testing

For fun I'm thinking of testing a snickers bar and other foods for breakfast. Today I'll test one questbar each day of the week to get some baseline information. My morning walk doesn't appear to lower my blood sugar. My bs seems lower if I don't walk. I think it may be due to being dehydrated but I'm not sure.  

Listi.net

Continued moving the website to SQL server. I spent 2-3 hours with an error 500. The cause was a missing " (quote). This is very frustrating.

Excel Diet

My weight hit 165 yesterday, due to eating out. It's so difficult to lose weight. Last night I went out for dinner to Friday's to celebrate the end of summer. I had nacho's, "500" calorie meal and some nachos with cheese. I've been off the Bulletproof coffee for a week and I didn't do that well while on it. This morning it was 163.4. I plan to continue walking both ways from and to work and count calories keeping it around 1500 per day. My first goal is to get my trendline heading downwards. My chart could use a moving average or a smaller trendline.

I'm not sure if it will help with your diet but testing my blood sugar has shown me how bad carbs are and I'll be adding a new chapter to my book The 69 Immutable Laws of Weight Loss

Wisdom of a Dad

Did some editing of the book. I think I'll try to spend an hour a day on the book. My goal is to get blatant typos removed and update the pdf one time per week. Please take a look at this someday bestseller and tell me what you think. 

Home Chores

• Mowed the lawn
• Watered the grass, but hose broke
• Vacuumed the leaves
• Put away dishes and loaded dishwasher
• Cleaned out a box of junk
• Picked up the poop

Fun

Solving the quote problem felt good but the pain of finding it wasn't worth it. I'm wondering why I even need Listi?  How does it make my life more fun?

Problems are Opportunities

The 500 error problem due to a missing quote. I might pay for a debugger if the offer was from the 500 Error page. 

• Could offer a business that fixes these or prevents these from occurring
• Could have program that looks for standard issues
• Could have web host display the syntax error instead of the 500 message
• Could convert databases from Microsoft Access to SQL server
• Book
• Do it
• Website

Book I'm reading

$100 Start up

Key Principle of the Day

MYOB - My Own Business. 

Liking

Achilles heel protector that I bought at Paragon's Sports 

Hating

Blogger that it's not easy to create headings and text, I hate the extra steps. The interface for +Blogger doesn't appear to have changed in many years. It's missing some basic functionality that would make it easier to use. I guess it's free. 

I hate that I can barely eat ice cream and pizza in one day. Eating just one of these foods has been elevating my blood sugar. I think I read somewhere that my body might not be use to the high carbs but if I ate more carbs my blood sugar wouldn't spike.

Twitter

My tweets could use a picture as it appears that pictures do better. I should always include a link otherwise what's the point of tweeting. I'd like to do some more A/B testing on my tweets. I'd also like to identify the best time for tweeting. I'd also like to automate the process more.

News

I heard we broke a record in NYC for the most consecutive days of over 80 degrees at 61.

Bernie Sanders has surpassed +Hillary Clinton in the primary polls for New Hampshire. 

Listi.net and ASP Debugging

Spent a few hours trying to find cause

I had to use a binary search to find the issue which turns out to be a missing quote. I tried the Excel VBA method. You take your ASP code and paste it to the VB Editor to help find error 500, but it fixes the issue by adding the missing quote. So next time I find that there is a 500 error and Excel doesn't show me the issue then it must be a missing quote at the end of a statement. The error also occurred in code that I just changed, but for some reason I couldn't see the issue.  There is also a very easy way to find these errors if I run the code locally in internet explorer and turn off friendly errors.

I'm angry about the time wasted and how boring it was to find it. As always problems are obvious in hindsight. It's time to set up a 500 error checklist.

Finding Syntax Errors

Many times a syntax error is caused by mismatched quotes, parenthesis or if and else end statements. An easy way to find them is to number if-then-else statements.

if ..... then
    if ... then
       ....
       ,,,,
    else
       ....
    end if
    if .... then
       else
          .....
       end if
    end if
end if
    

by number the if's else's end's with a comment you can easily find where you went wrong:

if ..... then ' 1
    if ... then ' 2
       ....
       ,,,,
    else ' 2
       ....
    end if ' 2
    if .... then ' 2
       else ' 2
          .....
       end if '2
    end if ' 1 <--- this is the extra one
end if '0

With parenthesis or quotes you can do the same thing.

((())(())))())())))((((()))
12332233210 

Just write a number on the line below for each parenthesis until you find the mismatched on