Michael Linenberger's first book - Seize the Work Day - Using the Tablet PC to Take Total Control of your Work and Meeting Day has finally arrived.  I ordered it on the 2nd of February and it finally arrived, after being delayed three times, on April 28th!  Allow me to point to my open letter to anyone who writes a book....

Anyway I really enjoyed Michael's second book, Total Workday Control, so I am looking forward to this book.

I finished How to do Everything with your TabletPC last night.  I have to say - it was a good book.  By that I mean at the time it was published it was a good book, but it is a bit too dated now.  It was interesting from a historical perspective though - sometimes I forget how far we have come. 

I would love to see an updated version released for Vista, but unless that happens I don't think I would recommend it.

The other night I finished reading Michael Linenberger's 2nd book Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook.

What a great read.  This is not a technology book or a book that explores Outlook in any great detail.  Rather Linenberger teaches you some basic principles of task management.  He then procedes to teach you a whole system of task management wrapped up into eight best practices of task and email management.  Finally Linenberger teaches you how to configure Outlook to best implement his task and email management system. 

Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook  focuses on configuring Outlook 2002 and 2003 but as I am using Beta 1 TR of Office 2007 I have implemented the system in that version.  Not only does it still work some new features in OUtlook 2007, such as the To-Do bar, really enhance the system. 

If you are struggling to complete all your daily work tasks, are working late or work hard all day and then feel that still have gotten nothing done then you should read this book and start applying the techniques Linenberger teaches you.  As recommended in the book I started applying the techniques as I read the book and I have already noticed that I feel more aware of my priorities, more in control, more effective and more productive.

Last week I finished reading The Google Story by David Vise and I have to say it was a facinating read.

Going in I would say that I knew more about Google that the average punter, but I still learned a lot.  The story behind the founding of Google Inc. is facinating and Vise tells it well.

I don't think that I truly appreciated the sheer scale of the Google search capability or the Google money machine.

The Google Story  also provides an interesting look into the culture of the company.  You learn about Googleisms like:

• free healthy meals for staff.
• 20 percent time
• the ideas culture.

Overall - well worth checking out.