Course Syllabus
Taking Control of Your Digital Life With Michael Boll
Enroll in the Taking Control of Your Digital Life course. (This is required one time to enable access to materials. Only available to Concordia employees and students.
\Modern day humanoids find themselves overwhelmed with the sheer volume of input and digital communication that flows in each day. Email, instant messages, and the Internet have made access to information (and you) far too easy. “I only have 54 emails left to answer” is too often the depressing indicator of a successful day.
The good news is that while access to information (and you) have increased exponentially, so have tools to help manage those streams of digital input and communication.
Desired Outcomes: Participants will walk away with a variety of tools to help them take back control of their digital life. An understanding of efficient and effective workflow systems will be covered.Workflow systems include:
- Effective use of personal digital assistants
- Getting to inbox zero
- Note taking systems
- Online and offline task management
- The power of RSS
- Collaboration tools
- Bringing it all together
Lessons
1. Inbox Zero Part One
Taking control of your inbox is the first step in controlling your digital lifestyle. The Concordia email server sends and receives over 10,000 (yes that number is correct) emails per day! This does include students, but much (if not most) of that email is directed at you. Take a look at your email box if you think I am wrong.
2. Join the Taking Control of your Digital Life
Run, don't walk, to this site and join the group for this class. You can post assignments, get help and unwind there.
3. Inbox Zero Part Two
Now that you have a general understanding of what Inbox Zero really is, let's take a look at how we can get to that point in our email lives. What processes are involved to make it happen. Just how much joy will this bring to our lives?
4. Centralizing All that Input to Your Mobile Device
The sheer volume and speed with which information comes our way is a big stressor in our lives. It is hard to process and handle the tremendous numbers of inputs we receive on a daily basis. This includes email, of course, but also eBooks, social media (Twitter , Facebook, etc.), eBooks, list serves, TV shows, music, calendar alerts, and more.
5. Digital Storage Systems
There is way too much access to information today. There is way more information than we can possibly remember. There is way too much faith that a pencil and paper can help us enough.
6. To Do Lists
To do lists have been around since the dawn of man. Recently archeologists discovered drawings in caves that appear to be a list of to dos by early man. It had photos of a man need to hunt, bring back kill, clean kill, feed family.
7. Project Management Systems
Wikipedia defines a project management system as something that "has a capacity to help plan, organize, and manage resource pools and develop resource estimates. " Ok, that is a confusing definition. I see a project management system as a giant to do list that is shared with others and allows easy communication between involved people about what they are doing. In addition, it must be easy to share resources that are part of the project.
8. Creating a Workflow System
Wow, look how far you have come! Great work. You are well on the way to be a productivity super star. People will be rushing to you on a daily basis asking you how you became so efficient happy and successful. Well there is one more step: Creating a workflow system so the tools all work together and are in sync. We need to create a map that helps us channel this crazy amount of input into a stream that lets you decide what you wish to prioritize Your life will become much less stressful.
9. Personal Digital Assitants
oday's world allows us to have ubiquitous access to our email, digital storage, to do lists, project management and workflow systems. However, we have to ensure that our personal digital assistants (iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows) devices are all connected to our world.
10. SUNY Credit Option
11. Post Course Survey
Enroll in the Taking Control of Your Digital Life course. (This is required one time to enable access to materials. Only available to Concordia employees and students.
Course Summary:
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