The other day I had someone send me something and I couldn’t find it. I insisted that they hadn’t sent it to me. It turns out it was in my Junk Mail. I didn’t even know what that was. Talk about living in a dream world. Now I check my Junk Mail every day. I guess what happens is that you can set up rules in your email that will direct many of the things you receive immediately to Junk. Depending on how you set up your rules it may be nonspecific enough to make items that you would like to see end up there. I have a purpose for writing this article. It does have something to do with Hunsingers Half Acre and my newsletter. Many of you have signed up but because of the rules that may exist in your email the newsletter isn’t recognized as an important message so it ends up in junk which may be where it really belongs, but if you do want to get it each month and read the new posts then check your junk mail and tell it that this isn’t junk. Once you do that it will go to your regular inbox. Problem solved. Obviously, if you have decided that it is junk then you don’t have to do anything.
Since we are talking about electronic communication, I want to mention an incident that happened the other evening. My son says he wants to set up a Zoom call with me and his family. Sounds easy enough. I remember that when Kathy was alive we would Zoom with Jeff and his family regularly. Apparently, something happened to that entire situation. So Jeff sends me an invitation and I try to get into Zoom. Not happening. He sends me a message and wants to know where I am. Why am I not on the call? I tell him I can’t get in. He tells me to go to the browser and enter Zoom.US like every other person in the world. Suddenly I can’t even remember my name. I feel overwhelmed and he continues to try and get me in. It turns out that I need to sign into Zoom and I need my password to do that. Guess what I don’t know my password so I request to reset my password. The system is not working very fast and his kids need to go to bed so I tell Jeff we will do this another time. Clearly, both Jeff and I are very frustrated. We close everything out and I decide to continue on my end and finally reset the password and got in. So I ask Jeff to resend an invitation and OMG we actually had our Zoom call. Unfortunately, it was shortened because the kids had to go to bed. Cooler heads prevailed and it happened. Now I have my new password and can now participate in Zoom calls going forward.
This reminds me of computer classes. I remember signing up for a computer class on Excel. Honestly, it was extremely important in my business to be able to use and manipulate spreadsheets. I also used the quick reference sheets that you can purchase at stores like Staples that give you all of the key elements of various Microsoft Programs. Here’s the thing. I took this class and while taking the class everything seemed so clear. It all made sense but frankly, as soon as the class was over I felt pretty much the same way I did before I took the class. The only way you become proficient at a program like Excel is to use it every day. Then you learn all the different ways to enter and deal with data. I did not use Excel every day so all I could do was use my laminated quick reference sheet to produce usable spreadsheets and manipulate them. I am not suggesting that you sidestep computer classes…they have value…but for me actually doing the work is the only way I became more proficient with Excel.
I don’t know if any of you ever saw the skit on Saturday Night Live about the “Company Computer Guy”. He would be called in to help various employees with any computer issues. He would ask some questions and when the employee would answer or not answer he would immediately roll his eyes, sigh and move them out of the way. He would get on their computer and fix the problem in seconds and move on. Very annoying. The interaction was kind of obnoxious…very funny but you wouldn’t want to be that employee. We used to have a help desk and these people were amazing and no question was too dumb. They had patience on patience to help you. I never felt like I was talking to the “Company Computer Guy” with an attitude. Think about this when your child or friend is tech challenged. Use patience and help them actually hit the keystrokes themself to solve the problem. Lose the attitude, the eye-rolling and sighing. In the long run, bullying never wins the day. Great Tech Day to you all.
