SMART Blog

Smart Services has been providing independent agents with proactive, fast, and expert technology services since 1991.

Sick of Sifting Through a Packed Inbox? Unsubscribing is Easier Than You’d Think

Sick of Sifting Through a Packed Inbox? Unsubscribing is Easier Than You’d Think

The average email inbox can easily become packed with so many unwanted messages… not necessarily spam, per se, but threads and feeds you’re just no longer interested in. Fortunately, there are capabilities baked into Gmail and Microsoft Outlook alike that allow you to remove these messages from your concern.

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Three Simple IT Habits That Will Immediately Improve Your Workday

Three Simple IT Habits That Will Immediately Improve Your Workday

Take it from us: technology, for all its benefits, can be frustrating.

That being said, it can bring a lot of value to your business when implemented and maintained properly. 

Let’s talk about some quick habits you can deploy to make your workday much easier when working with business technology.

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Stop Typing the Same Email Over and Over! Use Templates Instead

Stop Typing the Same Email Over and Over! Use Templates Instead

If you’re reading this on the day it's posted, it's Wednesday. How often have you had to rewrite the same messages, over and over, in your internal reporting and client interactions so far this week? Probably quite a bit, and certainly more than you’d prefer.

The trouble is, this is all wasteful. Not only does replicating this message over and over spend valuable time, but it also uses up mental energy… plus, simply copy-pasting can easily lead to errors and oversights. Fortunately, modern email platforms offer templates that can be used to generate consistent and quality messages. Let’s review how.

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How to Use Browser Bookmarks to Their Full Capability

How to Use Browser Bookmarks to Their Full Capability

Generally speaking, most people need to access the same websites repeatedly for their work purposes, including calendars, applications, and portals. Bookmarking these resources provides a simple way to quickly and easily access them on demand.

Let’s go over some practices that can help you take these handy utilities to the next level of usefulness. 

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Unlock Peak Productivity with Micro Mental Resets

Unlock Peak Productivity with Micro Mental Resets

How often do you find yourself feeling the weight of your agenda putting pressure on you, stressing you out, and—counterproductively—distracting you from the task you’re currently working on? Believe it or not, one of the best ways to power through and stay on track is to step away and take a minute to get your stress back under control. 

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3 Simple Productivity Hacks That Will Dramatically Improve Your Work Performance

3 Simple Productivity Hacks That Will Dramatically Improve Your Work Performance

If you feel like you never have enough time to work through your to-do list, you’re far from the only one. If you make small adjustments to the way you tackle everyday tasks and responsibilities, you might be able to change your productivity habits for the better. Today, we want to explore just that: how you can make the most of your workday with simple, easy tricks.

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How a Longstanding IT Joke Can Help Your Business Flourish

How a Longstanding IT Joke Can Help Your Business Flourish

While it’s the longest-running joke in the world of IT, the question “Have you tried turning it on and off again?” is still an important one to consider when things are going awry. There’s a good reason why it’s such well-known advice, too: turning your device off can help solve a significant amount of technical issues. Why is this the case, and what can you learn from it?

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Why “Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again?” is a Valuable Question

Why “Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again?” is a Valuable Question

We’ve all heard it, perhaps even rolled our eyes at it: “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” This seemingly simplistic question has become a running gag in the world of IT support. But beneath the humor lies a fundamental truth: rebooting a device is often the most effective first step in resolving a surprising number of technical glitches.

We understand that, although it might sound elementary, this advice is based on solid technical principles.

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Tip of the Week: Use Snipping Tool in Windows 11 to Take Screenshots, Scan QR Codes, and More

Tip of the Week: Use Snipping Tool in Windows 11 to Take Screenshots, Scan QR Codes, and More

The Snipping Tool is a handy little utility application integrated into Windows that provides users with significant screen-capturing capabilities.

Let’s review how to use it and how it can prove valuable to your business.

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Reposition the Taskbar in Windows 11

Reposition the Taskbar in Windows 11

Windows 11 takes a page out of Apple’s design playbook and features a taskbar that, instead of being off to the side, is smack in the middle of the toolbar. While some may like this change, others may not.

Fortunately for these others, a simple setting change can return the taskbar to its familiar place like on older versions of Windows.

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Tip of the Week: You Need to Know These YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts

Tip of the Week: You Need to Know These YouTube Keyboard Shortcuts

Websites also make excellent use of keyboard shortcuts you use every day to improve your productivity. YouTube is an excellent source of entertainment and education, so today, we want to help you get more value out of it with keyboard shortcuts. Here are some of the best that you should know.

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Tip of the Week: Stop Location Data Collection on Your Mobile Device

Tip of the Week: Stop Location Data Collection on Your Mobile Device

At the beginning of this year, a massive data breach struck a location data broker called Gravy Analytics and took possession of a dataset with 30 million points from devices worldwide. This data could potentially be used to track individuals and their movements, tellingly, through healthcare, government, and military facilities. 

Unfortunately, nothing can be done about data that has already been breached, but preventative steps can and should be taken to protect your business. Let’s discuss how to prevent your applications from tracking your movements.

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Tip of the Week: Getting Windows Off Ghost Screens

Tip of the Week: Getting Windows Off Ghost Screens

If you want more productivity from the workday, then multiple monitors can help you achieve this goal. You might run into the issue of “ghost monitors,” though, where your PC believes you are connected to screens when you’re not. If you experience this issue and your application windows are off-screen and unobtainable, you’ll find this week’s tip helpful.

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Are You Providing Internal Communication Capabilities?

Are You Providing Internal Communication Capabilities?

Businesses have a variety of communications to manage, including their internal ones. For many, this may be put on the back burner, as they prioritize their operational and sales-encouraging communications. However, internal communications are just as crucial, which is why we’re going over some of your options here - and how you need to use them.

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Tip of the Week: Three Ways Collaboration Can Be Improved

Tip of the Week: Three Ways Collaboration Can Be Improved

Collaboration is critical for a business’ success, but with more teams than ever split amongst their homes, it is arguably even more crucial to their operations. For this week’s tip, we’re going over three ways that your team can collaborate more effectively while making remote operations work.

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Do You Know How to Build Solid Passwords?

Do You Know How to Build Solid Passwords?

The password is the core element of both data security and user authentication. This makes the construction of them extremely important to protecting digital assets. Unfortunately, not everyone understands how to construct passwords that actually work to protect the information on the other side. Today, we will discuss how to build a solid password that works to keep your digital resources safe.

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Tip of the Week: A Beginner’s Guide to Wireless Networking

Tip of the Week: A Beginner’s Guide to Wireless Networking

When creating an office’s network, wireless functionality has become a necessary element to include. Of course, this is usually easier said than done, as wireless signals can be notoriously persnickety. That’s why we’re offering some tips to help you make the most of your business’ wireless network setup.

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Tip of the Week: Fixing Your IT Without Breaking the Bank

Tip of the Week: Fixing Your IT Without Breaking the Bank

As the business world remains restricted in their operations, costs have been a consideration that organizations need to put some serious thought into. Fortunately, there are many ways that you can invest in technologies that significantly benefit your business operations without breaking the bank. Let’s go over five ways to maximize your benefits, without maximizing your investments.

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Tip of the Week: Using Your Android Device from Your Desktop

Tip of the Week: Using Your Android Device from Your Desktop

Windows 10 has long played nice with the Android platform, but did you know that there is a way that you can actually use the same apps you would find on your mobile device on your PC? For this week's tip, we'll go over how you can enable this capability.

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Tip of the Week: Linking Text Across Microsoft Word Documents

Tip of the Week: Linking Text Across Microsoft Word Documents

Microsoft Word has a lot of time-and-effort-saving capabilities baked in. For instance, did you know that you can paste the same text—down to the formatting—across numerous documents? This makes it simple to replicate text without having to fix it each time, and to make changes everywhere the text appears all at once. Let’s go over how to do so.

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