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Archive for June 30th, 2008

Mon 30 June 2008 - 900 emails later

Posted in Geek, Retrospectives — Daniel @ 11:06pm

On the 12th of August 1990, I sent out an email. It went to a handful of friends, under the name “Toxic Custard Workshop Files.” It was the first of many, initially made up of (allegedly) humorous writing, though these days it’s mostly the previous week’s blog posts.

Tonight, 30th of June 2008, I’m sending out the 900th of these emails (more or less; the numbering isn’t exact). For some reason, I’m not sure why, people are still reading them.

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Mon 30 June 2008 - Daniel’s rules for phone conferences

Posted in Working life — Daniel @ 7:00am

The over-arching rule is: Don’t waste people’s time.

Don’t invite everyone in the known universe, unless they’re all genuinely needed on the phone at once. Talk to them individually if possible; it’s often more efficient.

If plans change and some people aren’t needed after all, let them know.

If you have people in different states/cities, use a service with a frecall 1800 number dialin, or at least a local 1300 dialin. People dialling in from home don’t want to incur a long distance bill just to sit on the phone for an hour to say their ten words.

Start the conference on time. If you intended to kick things off at 10 past, schedule the damn meeting for 10 past.

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