Outlook-ing for Google

Microsoft Outlook is a product in the Microsoft Office package, and it used by a variety of businesses and in personal homes as the main means of sending and receiving email. The program is aesthetically reminiscent of the themes that Microsoft has designed into all of their 2012 Office package, which makes it easy to navigate if you have worked with any of the Office products before.

One the program is open, there are a variety of options on how you can use Outlook to your advantage. It has an inbuilt calendar and task manager, along with an easy to use and  functional contact base, along with a working inbox and outbox for your email uses. Once you have created events in the calender, it is an easy issue to then send an email with those particular details out to various others, which would load quickly onto their computers. Each part of the program interacts with the others, with tasks and the calender easily tied into the email system for ease of access. This would be of particular benefit to businesses wanting to use a unified system.

The program itself seems fairly easy to use at a first glance, and that would be a correct. It is easy to navigate through the various functions of the Outlook program - but the program itself can be a bit restricting merely in its own design Because the program is based only on your one computer, all of the settings, emails and events that you have saved on it are locked to that one computer. Whereas Google Calenders can be integrated into your mobile phone for ease of access and for quick reference, the Outlook programming can only be found on the computer that is installed on. 

This too can be slightly restricting for businesses, if they are constantly on the move. Desktop notifications of events are a handy integrated tool of the program, but not if you are somewhere else. Google Calenders has an ease of access that the Outlook program doesn't have, but, the Outlook program's Calender is more user friendly. The task lists are easier to use than the Google alternative, and do not require an internet connection to view.

And of course the program has its email, which can be forgotten under all of the other features that the software boasts. The email program is just like any other, with varying files for junk mail, and other folders to sort email's into. The inbox itself is fairly straight forward, not unlike the Google alternative, if only for layout.

To summarize everything here; I believe that the Outlook is a reliable and trustworthy program, capable of performing all of a businesses needs or demands with little hassle. However the program itself can be a bit restricting if needed for quick reference on a different computer or handset, since all the program only stores the information on the single machine. Depending on the Business type, Microsoft Outlook is absolutely one of the best choices when it comes to email and calender software.

I've... Had...The Quadrant Of My Life!!

Below, is my life, taken apart, and thrown into quadrants which represent where I spend my time, and how it is prioritized. At least, to me.

	URGENT	NOT URGENT
I M P O R T A N T	I ·         Work ·         Assignment o   Study (When left undone)	II ·         Personal Care (Showering) ·         Study ·         Classes ·         Family Activities
N O T I M P O R T A N T	III ·         Food	IV ·         Sleep ·         Surfing the web (favorite forums)- ESCAPING ·         Social ·         Watching TV

The above table, along with the graph that I designed in The Desk of my 168 hours of the week, shows how much time I tend to spend on what is called 'Chill out time' or what I should more truthfully call it 'Wasted time'. An enormous 54 hours of my entire week went into this wasted time, which was still me being a little bit modest. My actual study time probably only accounts for one hour of the day, and its normally stress filled, emotional devastating, and generally, last minute. I spend the rest of my time wasting it away on the computer, while I could be more effectively spending it.

More often than not, Study and Assignments are in Quadrant I, there because of the reasons above, and I spend most of my life in Quadrant IV. My sleep patterns are particularly bad, sleeping between 1am and 9am, depending on the particular day.

Surveys: For the Light Hearted?

Quick Survey: Have you, over the last week, made a survey on stress?

Well if you answered 'yes' then give yourself a big high five and reward yourself with an ice-cream sandwich, or some other kind of ice cream to treat yourself for your good work.

This week we all went onto the site Survey Monkey and designed a fun little survey on stress. It was good fun, navigating the site to add questions, and then making the questions! It was almost that fun that I'm surprised it isn't illegal!

Survey Monkey? This is BANANAS!

 In all seriousness though, Survey Monkey was actually quite enjoyable to use, and the interface was simple to navigate. I personally found the process quite easy to use. I can definitely see the practicality of such a site - the surveys are easily accessible no matter where you are, and the surveys themselves are quick to answer and easy to use.

There were so many options available - if you were willing to pay for them. Being a student with limited funds I wouldn't pay for the advanced features, but at the same time I don't have a real reason (other than for my own personal amusement) to pay for a target audience. The results that we are looking for will still apply with the limited numbers that we have, mostly because of our age and gender differences. Though having thousands of people run at my beck and call to answer the survey that I wrote about which flavor of ice-cream is more tasty would be amusing, for someone in my shoes, it would be a complete waste of time.

Though don't pretend that you wouldn't take part of that survey.

There are so many resources out there that deal with stress - its almost amazing to think that people deal with it at all. But I can understand why. Looking at wonderful motivated posters about how you should prioritize your workload and make a more effective schedule are good thoughts - in theory. Once you've gotten to week six of the term, you've already developed a routine of procrastination that is almost impossible to get past. As the stress levels rise, and you're wondering how on Earth you let those assignments get so late, you just find yourself more stressed. You wind yourself up then trying to figure out where to start until the easiest thing to do is to eat that ice-cream you were offered earlier.

I know I stress. I stress a lot about my assignments and completing themselves, and I know that I need to work on my stress management, and my effective time management before I'm going to get anything done.

A Social Networking Nightmare

Social Media. We all seem to have access in today's society to all sorts of social media, be in our ten Facebook accounts, or through Twitter and MySpace, to interact with people we never would have dreamed of interacting with before, or making connections we never thought possible. We are keeping in touch with friends that we only ever see twice a year, and we get to thank Aunt Judy for our birthday card without having to send a letter back via snail mail.



Next year though, could you PLEASE use the postal service, instead of a pigeon?

 But with any great advancement, it has its drawbacks. With the ability to now connect with so many people easily, to hear the smallest of thoughts on there boring and mundane lives makes you wonder what have we really achieved? I can now honestly say that I know what my best friend had for dinner. That guy that I've never actually met who lives in America is watching something called Shark Week. I'm being spammed with hundreds of silly pictures which are supposed to be motivational but amount to nothing more than 'Cuddling is great' or some other useless piece of information that I really don't think is really important to me right now.

The ability to over share is perhaps a danger in itself. How easy is it to share on Facebook that you're going to take a sick day because you'd rather walk around the house in the nude and paint artistic depictions of religious events? Really easy. How easy is it to forget that your boss can read every status that you make? Really easy. How much time would it take to piece together that maybe the email you sent in to your Boss saying that you came down with a rare case of the Bubonic Plague and need the rest of the week off, may actually be a lie? About two point three seconds.

I'll teach you for not getting an invite...

So what do we do? Well, there isn't a lot you can do. Social media is here to stay in a lot of ways. Though in a few years time we may move on from Facebook to some other ambitious new social media site, social media itself is ingrained in our society. Even if they haven't used it, everyone knows what Facebook is. The only thing we can do is censor ourselves. Deleting anything from a social media site is like trying to rip your arm off with a toothbrush. Practically impossible. Once you upload that status, consider it up there for good. Want to upload that picture of yourself scantily clad in a pose that would make any parent want to rip their eyes out? Sure thing, make sure that you realize that when it comes to your next job interview, that particular photo may come back to haunt you.

Employers have taken more and more lately, into checking people's Facebook and social media accounts to look at their digital footprint. Is there anything on your social media accounts that you wouldn't like a potential employer to see? I know that mine is riddled with them. Think about THAT next time you think about writing a status updated calling your current employer the worst person that ever existed.

One Note, or many?

Group work has never been my forte, and I probably won't be the first to admit that working on a document at the same time that anyone could edit or add to isn't exactly in my comfort zone either. It was good though to be able to see others working on other parts of the document which was shared without having to correspond through email. The program itself was useful though, if was much more flexible than a Word Document, in the fashion that you could create several pages that you could easily skip to. That being said, the Word Processing capabilities were poor, every time I wanted to change the text size or bold a particular item using the ribbon, I would have to pick on the button to show it. I'm sure though that there was a way of doing it that was easier, but I just didn't see it.

But, onto the subject matters at hand. It was fairly basic principles that we dealt with really - not opening suspicious emails which might contain viruses is something that we should really all be doing. There are plenty of people out there that for some reason, want nothing more than to infect the worlds computers with an insidious virus for no more pleasure than making the world pull their hair out.

DAMN YOU PERSON I'LL PROBABLY NEVER MEET!

There were other important subjects to think about, such as how not to use your email. How many people actually know that there are laws which restrict how or when you can send spam, and what is considered spam? I didn't know the legalities behind it, at least. Who knew that if you didn't have a clearly marked unsubscribe button, you'll be penalised for it?

And a final almost unrelated thought; I really need to get out of this bad habit I seem to have kept since my High School days. Assignments don't need to be crammed in the last minute - there are entire weeks set aside for them. Why I procrastinate until the last possible moment, in the wee hours of the morning, is completely beyond me. I really need to get better at this.

Calendars are evil!

Calendars. We all seem to have them for one reason or another, for planning events and trying to keep our overly hectic lives in balance. How many of us, though, actually use these devices to their full potential? How many of the daily calendars that are sold in newsagents and shops, actually used instead of played with for a few weeks before it is forgotten and left at the bottom of the handbag or desk draw. I am personally a huge fan of the paper based calendar, a small diary that is easy to carry around and alter as I need to.

Not pictured: Pencil

But why, when we have Android phones and more access to the internet than any generation before us, would I rely on archaic principles such as paper to keep my life in order. I have never really used anything like Google calendars, even the inbuilt calendar on my phone is only there for aesthetic purposes. Why write people's birthdays down when Facebook sends us a nice reminder that your great aunt Gillian is turning 50 today?

Well sports fans, what happens if Facebook, or Google has some sort of server malfunction. Or maybe something more likely, a lack of internet reception, power or quite simply access. When the Apocalypse occurs I shall be the one laughing as I continue to plan my events in my paper diary while everyone goes into chaos without their technological devices!

Say goodbye to your free Wi-Fi.

Okay, perhaps it won't be anything as dramatic as that example. Google has its advantages however, especially when you're travelling. Why carry about a small book when you can access Google calendars or Facebook anywhere there is some type of internet reception. That's its major advantage over the hard copy that paper has yet to solve. When did you last hear the excuse that someone accidentally threw your Google calendar through the wash, or put it in the fire because your house mates ran out of firewood?

I think that I'll try out the Google calendar for this class - if merely for its convenience, and the fact that I've misplaced my paper diary at the present moment. I can assess whether I truly approve or disapprove of it at the end of the term. For now I think I'll reserve judgement. So far it looks very useful, even if some of the features take a little while to understand.

In the end, in a society as jam packed and chaotic as ours, we can't escape them. Calendars are here to stay.

Whether we like it or not.

First Week Jitters - A Reflection on Week One

I must admit to being very skeptical about using Google accounts for anything than an alternate contact for password recovery; however I did find myself with at least a small database of knowledge on the subject of Gmail before it came to start the class. Although I already had a working and functional Gmail account, I believed that it would be beneficial for my studies if I created a new account to use as a contact for at least studies in this unit and perhaps the course.

Email accounts are something that everyone seems to have a myriad of in today’s society – one email for some reason just isn’t enough to sate the normal human, so it is important to know how to use various email accounts to their full potential, and Gmail isn’t an exception to the rule. With the advent of Google+, Gmail has become more complicated and difficult to use. General settings aren’t easily accessible and the process of adding contacts one doesn’t appear very streamlined or efficient. I personally find Gmail to be overly complicated and dry, compared to my iinet account, which appears to be fairly simple to use in comparison.

Most of the subject matter that we dealt with today was fairly simple to understand – creating a signature for instance isn’t something I would generally bother about with my email accounts, but know the practicality of them in the standard office environment. I am perhaps lucky to have grown up in an era where computers and technology were taught to me at a young age, so many of the things that I consider common knowledge or computer basics are actually a struggle for some to learn for the first time.

This first week of classes however has been informative on where this unit is headed and what will be expected of us in the coming weeks. Although it looks daunting now, looking at the many hours of work that lays ahead is something that dreads even the most dedicated of students. As long as I remember to do everything within the allotted time and keep up to date with work every week, I’m sure that it’ll all just breeze past. Just have to remember to check the new Google account, and not leave every assignment to the last minute.

I know that I usually do – and it hasn’t worked up to now!