My Posts

A first encounter with sketchnoting

One of the talks I attended at the Microsoft Build conference was called “Sketchnoting 101” and given by Nitya Narasimhan. It gave a very high level view of the approach and how anyone can quickly pick it up.


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Rethinking conferences in a remote only world

I recently attended the fully virtual Microsoft Build conference. There is no way I would have been able to attend the real “physical” conference due to the location, financial commitment and time required however this gave me an opportunity to benefit from something normally out of my reach.


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Increasing productivity using a simple magnetic whiteboard

Whenever I work I am always jotting down things on pieces of plain paper next to me - this could be things to do, ideas, random thoughts, planning for meetings, etc.. Every week or so I do a cull of this stack of paper and then start on a new piece of paper.


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A quick fix for missing Gmail notifications on Android phones

I occasionally stop getting Gmail notifications on my Google Pixel 2XL android phone. I later find that I have a whole bunch of emails that I had missed. I am not sure what causes it however I have found a way to make it work again.


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The fastest way to switch Gmail accounts on Android phones

Using Gmail on Android it is possible to support multiple email accounts. The normal way you can change which account you are looking at is by pressing on the account picture in the top right hand corner and then selecting the user.


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Finally a to-do app I use ... Microsoft To Do

I have tried numerous to-do applications in the past; from the very simplest to the all-singing, all-dancing applications and they have never stuck. I used them for a week or so and realised a month later that I hadn’t used them for a while.


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Yet another productivity book summaries site

I came across an excellent site for summaries of productivity books. There are a lot of sites out there that provide summaries however the quality of the video summaries is excellent and seems to be updated fairly frequently.


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Boost productivity with meeting free days

It is very easy for your work week to become a random collection of meetings - all with different attendees and different agendas. For developers in particular this can cause a huge hit on productivity as their day becomes disjointed and they are unable to stay focussed for the longer periods they need for their work.


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The ultimate paper airplane database

This site contains a collection of easy to follow designs for paper airplanes. Something for the “kids” to try.


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A simple addition to every meeting

We have a lot of remote meetings as most of our team work a significant amount of time from home. Face to face meetings are much better for some types of meetings - especially workshops and retrospectives. As the level of expected collaboration increases the more it favours face to face interactions.


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