This is the time of year when most publications offer up their Best Of and Top 10 lists for the previous year. While we adore lists and general guidance on what was important in the world, we prefer to look forward instead of backward.

Resolutions that promise increased productivity and all-around happiness. Happy New Year.

In that spirit, we’re publishing our list of what you should focus on in 2012. We’ve separated it into two sections: one for IT leaders and one for employees. It’s not just a smattering of unattainable goals; these are resolutions you can keep. Get crackin’.

For IT Leaders

1. Formulate a social media policy. Yammer‘s Maria Ogneva wrote a comprehensive guide for Mashable, and in it she offers practical tips and sensible advice: “The best way to ensure buy-in to your social media policy is not through threat of disciplinary action. Rather, it’s by providing education and resources, and building the right processes.” We like how she thinks. Read it here.
2. Change is good. Embrace the mobility megatrend. See TechTarget’s big picture article here, and its how-to for CIOs here.
3. Help your folks help themselves – offer software support and training (read an old PC Helps Blog post, “Designing Graceful, Not Godawful, Solutions” – its message is still applicable).

For Employees

1. Use Excel formulas more, manually vet less. (See our repository of Excel tips here.)
2. Change your password when prompted, without the added griping.
3. Hoard mail less, archive more. Your email program will run faster, and you’ll find old mail easier. (Find email tips here.)
4. Save constantly (on a PC, Ctrl+S; Mac, Command+S), and, while you are at it, learn more keyboard shortcuts. (Get Windows keyboard shortcuts here; Mac shortcuts here.)

Happy 2012!

Jenny Sweeney Year in Review archive, Excel, keyboard shortcuts, Mac shortcuts, Mashable, productivity, security, Social Media, TechTarget, Yammer

Last week, we recapped what the tech publications were writing about in 2010. This week, we take a look at ourselves.

Below is a collection of our favorite posts from the past year. Some offer handy tips for getting things done (including iPhone, Excel charting and spelling tips), some offer advice to IT departments on preparing for upgrades and migrations (Windows 7, Office 2007 & 2010), and others look at the future of IT support (“Preparing for the Multiplatform Workplace,” October 2010). And then there’s the unclassifiable evergreen post that reminds you not to pen your e-mails in all caps, unless of course you intend to shout at recipients.

Enjoy the re-read, and happy new year. If you got an iPad in your stocking, we know your 2011 will be happy.

1. What’s in a Name (1-12-2010)
2. Stop Shouting and Other E-Mail Etiquette Tips (2-8-2010)
3. The Workplace Today: On Fake Happiness & Forced Morale-Boosting (3-30-2010)
4. Windows 7: What IT and End-Users Need to Know (4-22-2010)
5. 4 Spelling Tips Every Manager Should Know (5-27-2010)
6. 7 Productivity Boosting iPhone Tips (6-15-2010)
7. 3 Excel Tips that Promise Charting Greatness (8-4-2010)
8. Preparing for the Multiplatform Workplace (10-8-2010)
9. iPad & iPhone in the Enterprise: What’s Your Plan (11-15-2010)
10. Teaching People Tech (12-17-2010)

Jenny Sweeney Lists, Year in Review Etiquette, Excel, iPad, iPhone, Office 2010, Windows 7

As always, the last few weeks of the year are reserved for retrospection. This is the time of year when we make resolutions for better living, all while reading the endless Best Ofs and Top 10s courtesy the media, niche and mainstream. We aren’t going to offer a standard Top 10 in this post, nor are we going to come up with any flimsy resolutions; we’re just going to take a look at what the business tech world’s been yapping about all year.

“The iPad is becoming, in effect, a jumbo BlackBerry.”

If there were three main themes this year in tech, they were this:

• The consumerization of IT/BYO tech
• Enterprise domination by iPads and tablets
• The increasing use of mobile devices for business and the growing need for specialized mobile IT support

Here’s a look at some recent bookmark-worthy articles that touch upon these topics: Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Android, BlackBerry, Cloud Computing, iPad, iPhone, Mobile Devices, What We're Reading, Year in Review Montreal Gazette, Network World

If there’s one idea that characterized 2009, it is “doing more with less.” If I had access to LexisNexis, I’d tell you just how many times it’s been used in print, but, alas, I don’t. Let’s go with it anyway.

The recession has forced managers and the C-suite to scrutinize budgets, choose which projects to embrace and which to scrap, and decide how many employees to sack. It has left a bad taste in many mouths.

“Doing more with less”: trimming the fat; getting back to basics; losing the bells and whistles; re-featuring; making tolerable tradeoffs; dialing down; innovating; repurposing.

Here are some variations of “doing more with less”: trimming the fat; getting back to basics; losing the bells and whistles; re-featuring; making tolerable tradeoffs; dialing down; innovating; repurposing.

Usually, I consider buzzwords and catchphrases as an affront, or a ruse to get me to think I matter as a worker. Then I remembered a column I read on Washingtonpost.com earlier in the year, “Eating Down the Fridge,” written by Kim O’Donnel, who happens to be a good friend of a good friend.

The column is O’Donnel’s challenge to her readers to skip trips to the grocery store for a week, and instead use what’s already in the fridge and pantry. It’s an experiment in doing more with less. (O’Donnel’s effort was inspired by fellow foodie Steven Shaw, co-founder of the web site eGullet.org, who endured his own no-shopping-for-a-week challenge.)

After re-reading it, the idea of getting back to basics in business offends me less, and almost seems noble. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Year in Review doing more with less, eGullet.org, Kim O'Donnel, kohlrabi, Outsourcing, recession, shallots, software support, Steven Shaw, trueslant.com, Washingtonpost.com

It’s that time of year when we look back on what was and ponder what is to come. The year 2009 brought a number of significant tech developments — the iPhone as a legitimate business tool (AT&T’s bandwidth issues notwithstanding); the Cloud’s emergence; grandmothers embracing social media; Windows 7 — all of which promise to change the way we work.

Still, all our readers cared about was learning how to use a secondary axis in Excel, how to change BlackBerry calendar views, and why help desk techs are so surly.

Here’s a list of our top 10 posts from 2009. Read and enjoy.

10. Get It Together: 5 Ways to Stay Organized in Outlook
9. 5 Lessons to Learn Before Outsourcing
8. A Kinder, Gentler Help Desk
7. Top 5 Most-Asked Help Desk Questions
6. 7 Productivity-Boosting iPhone Tips
5. Out of Office, Out of Mind
4. How the Help Desk Earns its Bad Reputation
3. Follow the Format: 5 MS Word Tips for Managers
2. 4 BlackBerry Tips Every Manager Should Know
1. Management Tool Best Practices: 3 Excel Tips that Promise Charting Greatness

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Jenny Sweeney Year in Review BlackBerry, Excel, FACEBOOK, How To, iPhone, Outlook, Social Media, the Cloud, tips and tricks, Twitter, Windows Mobile