Clearing up a cluttered Inbox Part 2 – Out of Office Messages

In an earlier post, I talked about creating a rule to unclutter your Outlook inbox by moving Meeting Responses directly into another folder.  Today, I am proposing you take this effort one step further and do the same for Out of Office messages.

Follow these simple steps to create a rule that will automatically move Out of Office messages from your inbox to another folder.

1. Create a folder to hold your meeting responses. For me, I created a folder called .OOO (note the period at the beginning. That will move this folder to the top of my alphabetical folder list).

2. Next, from the Tools menu, select Rules and Alerts…

3. Click New. Then, click Move Messages with specific words in the subject to a folder.

 

4. In the Step 2 portion of the dialog box click Click Specific Words, type "Out of Office" (without the quotes).  Click Add, then, OK.

 

5. In the Step 2 portion of the dialog box click Click specified, find your .OOO folder created in step 1.  Then OK.

 

6. Click Finished, then OK.

GTD Digest 2007-10-28

Weekly recap of GTD news and views from around the web

Kelly Forrister talks about over engineering your GTD system. I have been a victim of my own over engineering. Good post. Simply GTD with Kelly: Matching Brain Toast By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly) One of the temptations when starting with GTD is to over-engineer it. I see it all of the time. The more creative people are, the more they want to create a sophisticated system for their lists with lots of bells, whistles, ... Matt offers up some excellent strategies for dealing with e-mail. Got the email blues? Only three things you can do: Get fewer, Get ... By Matthew Cornell(Matthew Cornell) My main recommendation is to learn and apply a methodology like Getting Things Done. I've found these types of approaches are the most effective way to rapidly process your inbox. You learn to be decisive, spend two minutes or less per ... I am a big fan of articles that talk about how others have implemented GTD. This is a good article with a tip or trick that you might find useful. Getting Over GTD By Chrissy For those of you who don't know, GTD stands for Getting Things Done . It'sa book (and an entire system) about productivity and organization by David Allen. If you are at all "into" the blogosphere, you most likely understand that GTD ...

Kelly talks about finding time for your weekly review Simply GTD with Kelly: The belt that keeps the pants up By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly) For as hard as travel can be--I log about 100000+ air miles per year--there is one huge benefit: I get long stretches of uninterrupted time to get my system clean & current. I relish a cross-country trip where I don't have any new input ... An "oldie, but goodie" YouTube video with David Allen talking about GTD. This blog is run by a "Missionary Geek". This pretty much confirms for me that GTD can apply to anyone in any profession! Getting Things Done Intro video By Jeff(Jeff) David Allen is the creator of the "Getting Things Done" productivity model. If you're still struggling with how to organize your stuff this five minute video will give you an taste of what the GTD methodology looks like. A good quick article on GTD for Educators. Links to other GTD+Teacher resources. GTD Cafe: 3 Activities to Keep You Grounded as a Teacher By Mike I walk the halls several times a day in order to get out of the office but also to connect with other people. As an administrator, I now walk the halls to also catch the pulse of the school on a given day. Resources for the Road GTD for ... Strategies for avoiding distractions. Good post. How to work around distractions Hartford Business - USA Simply by having a space that mostly focuses on getting things done will also subtly remind others that you're on the job to work. ...

A collections of 11 Outlook shortcut keys 11 Best Keyboard Shortcuts for Outlook 2007 By Bill Bullock With so many things going on in Outlook at any given time, those in the "Getting Things Done" (GTD) ultra-high-productivity camp probably think that keeping everything straight and minimizing mouse navigation is a nightmare in Outlook. ... Good quick read on why you should not be "reactive versus proactive"... and, yes, it ties in an emergency appendectomy. What Emergency Appendectomy Taught Me About GTD By Al This week’s post was supposed to be a description of how I completed my iterative initiation to GTD by putting my home stuff through the GTD workflow. However, I spent much of last week recovering from surgery on my ruptured appendix ... Geeks Guide to GTD moves their blog to a new URL. Pretty good blog... Moved The Blog To A Super Cool New Location By UberTech We have moved over here…so please stop by and join the big fun. shalom. An overview of using Gubb.net to GTD. Gubbing Things Done IT Management - Darien,CT,USA And you've almost certainly heard about David Allen's "Getting Things Done" productivity system. The Gubb service, the Getting Things Done system and ... A review of Gubb along with some practical tips. I'm going to have to check Gubb out. Gubbing Things Done InternetNews.com - USA By Mike Elgan Gubbing Things Done Why Gubb is the ultimate "Getting Things Done" productivity tool If you're into personal productivity, you've probably ... The top 100 business blogs The Top 100 Business Blogs By John ... Successful Blog T: 1432 A: 44935; Small Business Canada T: 1517 A: N/A; David Allen, Getting Things Done T: 1549 A: 53592; Springwise T: 1913 A: 23858; Small Biz Trends T: 2155 A: 63364; Fast Company T: 2310 A: 12141 ... An example of how to manager project lists. I love hearing how other are using GTD. The GTD Projects List By Shannon Over the past few months, I have been experimenting with David Allen's Getting Things Done system to help me manage my work and personal projects. I have to admit, I have streamlined the system quite a bit. If followed exactly, GTD is ...

A review of "Jot it, the desktop write-board". Not sure I would find use for something like this. Pretty but useless? GTD with Style By Lisa M. Hendey My Jot It has been sitting adjacent to my computer for the last ten days and has become a regular part of my GTD system.  Here's a blueprint of the product:  your Jot It is a desktop write board which comes bundled ... Even I am not technical enough to tell you what "mutt" is... Getting things done with mutt ZDNetIndia - Mumbai,Maharashtra,India The GTD methodology can be used in many different areas and has been built upon to include concepts such as "Inbox Zero," lifehacks, and more. ... Morphing GTD with the 4 hour work week. I'm not convinced, but semi-interesting none-the-less. GTD (Getting Things Done) Is Flawed By Rob That means that I've read David Allen's book, Getting Things Done and I've put his time management system to use. Explaining the GTD method is beyond the scope of this article, but to give you a picture it goes something like this... ... Trials and tribulations from someone looking for that "silver bullet" software app for GTD getting things done, round 5 By wlai years ago i read getting things done by david allen (gtd), and found it incredibly simple and sensible. since then i've tried many tools to maintain my gtd habit. i've tried: 1. microsoft one note. pro: freeform editing allows quick ...

GTD App for the Mac TaskPaper 1.0: Simplify Your GTD Setup By Marvin Sum TaskPaper is a GTD app that we’ve been keeping tabs on. It’s not just another GTD app; it’s getting things done at its simplest level. What makes this app so unique is that your entire to-do list is stored as a plain text file. ... Quick overview of a few GTD Mac apps Can Getting Things Done Be Too Easy On A Mac? By katem@mac360.com(katem@mac360.com) As long time Mac users, we love those indispensable little Mac utilities that become a daily part of the digital life. After all, we use our Macs to get things done, to manage tasks and projects, and to communicate with the rest of the ... An overview of GTDing with Task Paper Minireview: Getting things done with TaskPaper 1.0 Ars Technica - Boston,MA,USA His latest application, TaskPaper, a GTD (Get Things Done) task list, similarly concentrates on doing one thing well. Before you say "OmniFocus," Jesse ... Details on a Mac app called TaskPaper Getting Things Done with TaskPaper Blognation - London,England,UK Long-time readers know that I have been honing my Getting Things Done (GTD) skills for many years and have been a vocal proponent of David Allen's common ... Another review of Taskpaper. A new Mac app for GTDing. TaskPaper 1.0, a review tuaw.com - Santa Monica,CA,USA Good thing there is a whole cottage industry developing around the concept of "Getting Things Done." The idea behind GTD (as the Getting Things Done wonks ...

Clearing up a cluttered Inbox Part 1 – Meeting Responses

For those who use Microsoft Outlook to handle their e-mail, there are a multitude of ways to manage your Inbox. There is no single tip or trick to keeping your Inbox in check. With that, this is the first in a series of posts on tips and tricks for managing your Outlook Inbox. One caveat; what works for me, might not work for how you to manage your Inbox.

------
When you schedule a meeting in Outlook, you inevitably get responses back from a majority of the attendees. Meeting Accepted, Tentatively Accepted, or Declined. For me, these meeting responses needlessly clutter my Inbox with messages I do not need to action or think about immediately. I may be curious later about who accepted my meeting invitation, but as I am working my Inbox, I could care less.

As with any incoming e-mail in Outlook, you can create a Rule to deal with these types of messages. Unlike standard, simple, Outlook Rules, dealing with meeting responses in a bit tricky. Follow the steps below closely, and you too can rid your Inbox of meeting response clutter.

1. Create a folder to hold your meeting responses. For me, I created a folder called .Meeting Responses (note the period at the beginning. That will move this folder to the top of my alphabetical folder list).

2. Next, from the Tools menu, select Rules and Alerts…

3. Click New. Then, click Start from a blank rule, click Check messages when they arrive, and then click Next.

4. Under Which condition(s) do you want to check?, click to select Uses the form name form, click the form name link in the lower pane, and in Choose Form, click Application Forms in the list. Click to select the following:

- Accept Meeting Response
- Decline Meeting Response
- Tentative Meeting Response

Click the picture below to enlarge the image for a better representation of this step

5. Click Close, then Next

6. Check Move it to the specified folder, then click specified link in the lower pane, then select the folder created in Step 1. In my case, .Meeting Responses.

7. Lastly, click OK, then Finished.

That’s it. No more meeting responses cluttering your Inbox. You can review your .Meeting Resposnes folder when you want to, and using shift-Delete, delete the responses that you do not need to address.

I’ll get to that e-mail later

A quick Outlook tip… When I get an e-mail that I need to follow up on by a specific date, I move it to my calendar. This gives me a few options.

1. I can schedule the item for a specific date and time and work on it then.
   
2. I can schedule the item to get done sometime over a span of days (by scheduling it as a multi-day all-day event, with Show Time as: Free).
3. I can schedule it for review the day before it is due.

To move an e-mail message to my calendar, I right click on the e-mail and drag it over my calendar button. Then select Move Here as Appointment with Attachment.

GTD Stuff on SlideShare

SlideShare.net is a pretty cool website dedicated to sharing PowerPoint presentations. You can search by topic, tag or popularity. For those of us who are part of the PowerPoint generation, SlideShare.net is a great resource for finding PowerPoint template ideas, finding presentation content, or sharing your own PowerPoint decks.

A quick search on the term "GTD" turns up 21 hits on presentations dealing with "Getting Things Done".

For example, here is a good SlideShare.net post on productivity, "the pickle jar theory".

| View | Upload your own

Adding SlideShare.net content to your blog or website is a snap. Each SlideShare.net presentation gives you simple cut-and-paste HTML code to add the content to your website or blog.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Fighting Viruses, Spyware and Malware on a Budget

Someone recently left their computer with me and asked me to “fix it”. I was told the computer had some viruses that needed to be cleaned up. No problem. I don’t mind helping someone out. It usually only takes an hour or two to update someone’s virus software, run a full system scan and return it. Piece of cake.

My initial time estimate was quite wrong. It turns out this particular Windows XP PC was quite infected with a virus or two… Make that 1,000+.

After booting the machine, I quickly noticed that the version of Anti-Virus software, Kaspersky (a personal favorite of mine), was an expired 1 month free trial version. So much for simply updating and scanning. Time to fix this PC on the cheap.

Step 1: Uninstall the expired version of Kaspersky. START | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Find Kaspersky Anti-Virus | Remove

Step 2: Find a decent freeware virus scanner. These days you can find a decent free virus scanner; you can find a decent Spyware/Malware scanner. You cannot find a decent program that does both. I stumbled upon AntiVir Personal Edition, a free virus scanner. In the past I would have gone directly to http://free.grisoft.com/ and used a free copy of AVG. Unfortunately, I have found that AVG noticeably impacts system performance. The last thing I want to do is slow down the PC I’m working on. So off to http://www.free-av.com/ to download a copy of AntiVir.

Step 3: Once installed, I run a full system scan. 1,000+ cleaned infections later, the system appears to be virus free.

Step 4: Knowing full well that most free virus scanners do not adequately catch all forms of Malware/Spyware, I download a trusted, free, well know, scanner; Spybot Seek & Destroy. I have been a loyal user of Spybot S&D for many years now. It’s simple, it’s free, it works well! Once installed, Spybot cleans the machine of all Spyware/Malware flawlessly. One reboot later, and the machine is running Virus/Malware/Spyware free!

Lessons learned:

1. There is not a single virus scanner in existence (paid for or free) that will catch any/every virus/malware/spyware variation.
2. There is quality freeware available (for personal, non-business use) to fight the virus/malware/spyware problem if you have the time to find them and work through the sometimes non-intuitive user interface.
3. AntiVir does a nice job actively cleaning viruses (for free). The user interface is a bit kludgy, but it works well and fast.
4. Spybot Search and Destroy is perhaps the best anti-spyware product available. It’s free and the latest version (1.5) offers an excellent, always-on program called “Tea Timer” that watches your PC as you surf the web. Again, the user interface has something to be desired, but Spybot Search and Destroy works damn well. I will load this application on every PC I own.
5. Viruses, Malware and Spyware are a pain in the A**. Do not underestimate the amount of time it takes (as I did) to clean them up.
6. Pay the $50 (or so, per year) to Kaspersky, McAfee, Symantec or whoever your favorite Security software vendor is. It will be money well spent. The commercial programs available do a nice job cleaning most virus/malware/spyware.

My Top 5 reasons for following GTD

1. It frees my mind (I am in a state of having a mind like water). I put my ideas & thoughts in a "trusted place". My “trusted place” is a Moleskine notebook when I'm on the road. Outlook, when I get in the office.

2. With all those "seemingly good" ideas, I get a chance to review them before actioning them (and weed out the bad ideas).

3. Agenda items for meetings are developed "as I think of them" using Outlook Tasks

4. My work & life issues are incorporated into my system. Even the simple things in life like, movies I want to see, books I want to read, places I want to travel to, etc...

5. My e-mail inbox has ZERO messages at regular intervals. My inbox is clutter-free!

Tracking your user-id’s and passwords

How many websites require you to login with a password? Seems like hundreds, doesn’t it? To track my website login-ids and passwords I use a program called Password Corral. I’ve been using it for a few years now. It’s a small little freeware program that is easy to use, easy to install and keeps your passwords safely encrypted. I’d highly recommend it.

Don’t trust your passwords to a Word document or text file. Give something like Password Corral a try. Check out Password Corral at http://www.cygnusproductions.com/freeware/pc.asp.

Related Links:

• Password Coral Review (yes, this blog misspells the name of the software, but it is referring to the same software).

Reuse, Reycyle, Make a Difference

I am not an environmentalist by any stretch of the word. In fact, I’ve never studied environmental issues. I’ve never taken up an environmental cause. Until now…

Today, October 15, 2007 is Blog Action Day. A day when all bloggers post an article about the environment. The issues, the causes, the possible solutions.

OK, so technically I’m not doing anything more than blogging about environmental issues. Let me correct that; I did a ton of research and I am using that research to inform you of 38 environmental facts. Interesting, but useless? Yes and no… it depends on what you do with this list.

For me, I plan to be a bit more environmentally conscious and change my (bad) habits.

For you, well, it’s up to you.

With that, I leave you with my list of facts. Do with it what concerns you most… Most importantly, DO SOMETHING; I know I will.

1. If we raise fuel efficiency standards in American cars by one mile per gallon, in one year, we would save twice the amount of oil that could be obtained from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
2. Raising it by 2.7 mpg would save enough to eliminate all the oil imports from Iraq and Kuwait combined
3. Raising it by 7.6 mpg would save enough to eliminate 100% of our gulf oil imports into this country
4. If just 25% of U.S. families used 10 fewer plastic bags a month, we would save over 2.5 BILLION bags a year.
5. On the average, the 140 million cars in America are estimated to travel almost 4 billion miles in a day, and according to the Department of Transportation, they use over 200 million gallons of gasoline doing it.
6. Every year we throw away 24 million tons of leaves and grass. Leaves alone account for 75% of our solid waste in the fall.
7. Over 100 pesticide ingredients are suspected to cause birth defects, cancer, and gene mutations.
8. Every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil.
9. About 1% of U.S. landfill space is full of disposable diapers, which take 500 years to decompose.
10. Energy saved from one recycled aluminum can will operate a TV set for 3 hours, and is the equivalent to half a can of gasoline.
11. Glass produced from recycled glass instead of raw materials reduces related air pollution by 20%, and water pollution by 50%.
12. Americans use 50 million tons of paper annually -- consuming more than 850 million trees.
13. Homeowners use up to 10 times more toxic chemicals per acre than farmers.
14. By turning down your central heating thermostat one degree, fuel consumption is cut by as much as 10%.
15. Insulating your attic reduces the amount of energy loss in most houses by up to 20%.
16. Enough glass was thrown away in 1990 to fill the Twin Towers (1,350 feet high) of New York's World Trade Center every two weeks.
17. One ton of carbon dioxide that is released in the air can be prevented by replacing every 75 watt light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs.
18. Many banks lent large sums of money to developing nations. In order to pay those debts plus interest many nations have turned to the mining of their natural resources as a source of financial aid.
19. Every day 40,000 children die from preventable diseases.
20. The human population of the world is expected to be nearly tripled by the year 2100.
21. A three percent annual growth rate will result in the doubling of consumption and production of food and other products in 25 short years.
22. The amount of motor vehicles that are expected to be operated will increase 15 million year until at least 2010.
23. The world's per capita grain production has been on the downfall since 1985 despite the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
24. Already a train system has been developed (back in 1987) which is based on magnetic levitation and causes minimal pollution. These versions of a train are already in use in several countries.
25. Fibre optics, made of glass, are being used to replace copper cables throughout the world.
26. The uncontrolled fishing that is allowed has reduced the amount of commercial species. Some species, up to one-tenth of their original population.
27. Every day 50 to 100 species of plants and animals become extinct as their habitat and human influences destroy them.
28. The United States contains only 5 percent of the world’s population, but contributes 22 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
29. Between 20 and 25 percent of carbon emissions come from deforestation and land use change.
30. Personal cars and trucks in the United States emit 20 percent of the United States' carbon emissions.
31. Air conditioning and heating account for almost half of electricity use in the average American home.
32. Climate change is linked to stronger hurricanes, more drought and increased coral deaths from bleaching.
33. Ratio of pollution generated by a leaf blower in one hour to that generated by driving a car one hundred miles: 1:1
34. Percentage of Kuwait's freshwater supply still contaminated with oil spilled by Iraqi forces during the Gulf War: 40
35. Ratio of New York bird deaths last summer attributed to West Nile virus to those attributed to pollution: 2:3
36. Chances that a body of water in Mexico is too contaminated to swim in: 3 in 4
37. Days it takes an adult in Los Angeles to breathe in more air pollution than EPA guidelines recommend for a lifetime: 25
38. Ratio of the estimated U.S. cost of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol to the cost of the Iraq war so far: 1:1

GTD Digest 2007-10-14

Weekly recap of GTD news and views from around the web

Is Thinking Interrupting Your Sleep?
Huffington Post - New York,NY,USA
You can find out more about David Allen and GTD at Davidco.com. The David Allen Company is a professional training, coaching, and management consulting ...
Great article by David Allen on his blog at Huffington Post

Getting Things Done
Links to: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/GettingOrganizedWhileDrinkingFromTheOutlookFireHose.aspx
By mcurphey
Another good blog from Scott Hanselman (also recently joined MSFT) about how he uses Outlook to get organized. There is a good article in Wired magazine this month profiling David Allen of the GTD movement. Foot Note: Yesterday I posted ...
Check out the “Links to” article for a great set of GTD Outlook Tips

Moleskine Hacks for GTD
By Charity
Because it's blank, you can modify your Moleskine to fit your GTD style, instead of modifying your style to fit a templated planner. (I don't buy in entirely to the GTD system, but I admit some concepts are valid and extremely useful. ...
A handful of cool Moleskine Hacks. – OK, it may have gotten 4 stars only because I am a Moleskine junkie.

24 Things You Can Do With an Index Card
WebWorkerDaily - San Francisco,CA,USA
In the world of Getting Things Done, context lists are central to organizing tasks. You can create a card for each context — computer, home, errands, etc. ...
Got an index card? Want to put it to good use?

Queue to Zero: making sure the support queue stays manageable
TechRepublic - Louisville,KY,USA
The Getting Things Done movement has gained a lot of traction with the lifehacking crowd on the Internet. Created by David Allen, GTD is built around the ...
Applying GTD to your Helpdesk – Great overview

Getting the most out of Outlook 2007
By pepethecow
Also, I've recently been introduced to the Getting Things Done methodology and was interested in that. Some of these sites use GTD as their basis, but all the tips are useful even if you're not specifically using Getting Things Done. ...
A nice list of links to articles on using Oulook along with a specific set on Outlook+GTD

Updated GTD/Productivity Links List 04th Oct 2007
By SpiKe
It's been a while since I updated my list of GTD & productivity sites/blogs so today I will add some new sites for you to check out, update old URLs and move inactive sites so the list is up to date (this update brings the list to over ...
A list of 26 GTD website/blogs

Getting Focused 01
By Dave Seah
I recalled David Allen saying something similar about this in Getting Things Done, and while googling for the quote I found the following interview on Fast Company on values, which has been on my mind quite a bit lately. ...
Food for thought on focusing on the right things

Personal Development List
By Kirsten Harrell
David Allen at The David Allen Company. David Bohl at Reflections on Balance. David Finch at David Finch.com. David Richeson at 360 Degree Success. David Rogers at How to Have Great Self ...
The definitive list of Personal development Website & Blogs

Getting Things Done
By weavermom(Amber)
It's called Getting Things Done and it is written by David Allen. Mr. Allen is a coach and management consultant for CEO types who are trying to juggle multiple priorities and who need a way to stay on top of all of those priorities ...
Book review of Getting Things Done. Cute Blogsite

Getting Things Done With Management
By Xanik
I've dealt with, and worked close enough to management to know there are tricks of the trade. It seems in the majority of places where I've worked, there is often a 'wall' between management and the 'grunt' employees. ...
Good post on Getting Things Done (not in the traditional David Allen sense) with your boss.

Quick GTD Hack for Flooded Inboxes
By Shanti A. Braford
If you are like many a modern knowledge worker, your email inbox quickly gets overloaded if you slip even a day or two behind on trying to keep it cleaned out. Some people have had to declare email bankruptcy because this problem got so ..
A few GTD tips for Gmail users

Getting Things Done
By abwhitford
I'ma big fan of organizational/"getting things done" systems. (That's GTD, for David Allen pupils.) Here are a few neat things that hit my radar screen this week for those of you with similar compulsions: ...
3 quick links to decent articles on Getting Things Done

Geeking out with GTD
By David
I've tried several different personal organizer apps (Circus Ponies Notebook, Lifeshaker), and some specifically GTD-oriented programs (Kinkless GTD, Midnight Inbox) but the one that most closely matches my needs despite its hiccups is ...
Review of GTD apps for the MAC

5 great Gmail web tools for doing things other than email
By A Silken Touch(A Silken Touch)
It incorporates a Getting Things Done tool with Gmail. It was once ranked #12 in the 'Top 50 Firefox Extensions' article in .NET Magazine. Gmail Todo is yet another tool from the stable of SourceForge.net project, which also allows you ...
5 cool Gmail add-ons

NextAction! - BlackBerry GTD application on Handmark network
By k
Some time ago we wrote a still up-to-date and complete article talking about "Getting Things Done" (GTD) on your BlackBerry. It is one of our most visited articles here at BlackBerryInsight. Since then we have always took a look to the ...
Blackbery GTD application

Which "GTD" program
By blosserl
New to mac and wanting to learn to love it, I have been finding all kinds of new software that I can add. I love that you can delete a program so easily with mac! I have been looking for some kind of organizational program to store info ...
Quick description of a MAC based GTD App that can run from a USB stick or portable hard drive

Objective Satisfaction announces What ToDo 1.3 for Mac OS X
TechWhack - New Delhi,Delhi,India Objective Satisfaction announces that version 1.3 of What ToDo, a Mac task management program for Getting Things Done, is now available. ...
Todo list management for GTD on the MAC

Shopping-hack: Where to shop for the best price?

During the 1^st week of August, 2007, Management Ventures, Inc. (MVI) did a pricing study at 3 of the largest US retailers; Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart. Conventional wisdom says that Wal-Mart, with their Everyday Low Price (EDLP) strategy would come out ahead. On the other hand, I’ve heard that Target strives to price products at Wal-Mart’s EDLP.

All three stores, in the Boston area, were within a 5-mile radius of each other: Wal-Mart in Lunenburg, MA; Target in Leominster, MA; and Kmart in Fitchburg, MA. Product categories included: household cleaning, non-food grocery (i.e., health & beauty, personal care, and OTC), and shelf-stable food.

Following are the results (click the image for a larger view): I was surprised at the results. …and considering Kmart did not carry all of the products in the study, I’m not sure I will shop Kmart again. If you are a Wal-Mart die-hard, you may want to reconsider Target.

Interesting stuff…

Trials and tribulations of a Moleskine notebook owner: A real feel good story

About 2 months ago, the spine of my Moleskine notebook started tearing. Not enough to bother me, just an irritant. Within a month, the tear crept its way almost halfway up the spine. Time for repair. A few thick pieces of scotch tape, and I am good to go. It’s ugly, but I am OK with the tape, since I have only used half of the notebook pages. Hopefully the tape will keep things together for another 3 months.

The tape lasted about a week. Rather disappointing. …then it hits me; Moleskine notebooks come with a warranty! Yes, a notebook that comes with a warranty. How cool is that?

Inside the back pocket of every Moleskine notebook is a small pamphlet that describes the history of Moleskine notebooks in several languages. On the bottom of this pamphlet it says:

Every notebook is handmade and it has been carefully checked for quality. If, despite our best efforts, we have overlooked a defect of any kind, please let us know. Send an e-mail to: info@modoemodo.com, and include a digital photo that shows the problem you found, the quality control number (that identifies the notebook in your hands) shown here, along with the model name and your mailing address. We will send you a new notebook.
Together, we can prevent mistakes in the future. Thank you.

I’m skeptical, but I try it. I get my digital camera, snap a picture and, e-mail it off.

Within a week, I get a response saying:
Dear Mr. Kwiatkowski,

I'm very sorry for the trouble. All the notebooks are hand made and so they are not perfect as the ones made by machine. We have a strict quality control but sometimes it's very hard to find the defects. We will send you immediately a new Moleskine notebook and please, accept our apologise.

Kindest regards,
Laura

Low and behold, one week later, I receive a brand new Moleskine notebook in my mailbox. Shipped direct from Italy at no charge to me whatsoever. Incredible! What a fantastic company! In this day and age, it’s refreshing to find a quality company that makes such a fine product that they will stand behind.

I am officially hooked on Moleskine notebooks.