Fire (or keep) the Workaholics
A while back Jason Calacanis made a list of things to save money in a startup. One of his points was to fire people who aren't workaholics. David from 37 Signals responded with a post saying that you should fire the people who are workaholics. Since then Jason has changed his position, but the idea of how much time you should expect employees to dedicate to their work is thought provoking. Both of these posts are worth reading--even if you have no intention of starting a business yourself. … more
Borrow from your IRA
Usually I write about stuff that I recommend doing. In this post, I want to look at something that is possible, but not recommended under most circumstances. With hard economic times, there are a lot of people trying to find ways to borrow from their retirement funds. Many 401k accounts allow this, but what if your money is in an IRA? You'll probably want to ask: "Can I borrow from my IRA?" Well, can you borrow from your IRA? Or perhaps, can you borrow against your IRA's value? Technically, … more
Paperless Office Stories
We recently interviewed a group of businesspeople about their experiences with going "paperless." For some people, things went very well. For others...interesting mishaps ensued. However, each response would be helpful information to anyone that is looking into setting up a paperless office. We have been working toward a paperless office for some time, we try to do all contract exchanges and paperwork electronically, and generally this works very well. However, one requirement in our business … more
Power of Routines
Routines are a simple method to guarantee that you do the same thing at the same time in the same way every day. Routines allow you to decide ahead of time what you are going to do, make the decision once, and then spend all of your effort executing rather than pondering what you should do next. Here are some examples of beneficial routines: Reading something helpful for your career for 15 minutes each day during your lunch break. Going for a 30 minute walk every evening. An hour first … more
Letting Go of Paper
I've been surprised at how difficult it is to let go of my paper. As I move more and more of my paper to a digital format I keep finding myself hesitating when I get ready to shred a document. We are trained so very well to keep our paper records. Has anyone else experienced this? I think part of the issue is that most people have suffered some type of data loss with their computer. Even though I have multiple systems in place for backup I'm still haunted by losing important files years … more
100 Personal Outsourcing Ideas
The idea behind personal outsourcing is to free up more of your time by delegating tasks that don't require your personal touch to complete. I've heard of people outsourcing reading to their kids and even arguing with their spouse, but the whole point of personal outsourcing is to free up time from unimportant tasks to focus on family and other things of high importance. In this list we are going to look at 100 different ways you can use an assistant to save you time. Some will … more
Technology
Übernote Review
Within the past few years, developers have flooded the web with task management/note taking applications. Most … more
Development
Diplomas – What to do with them?
Erin at Unclutterer posted an interesting reader question about what you should do with your diplomas. Some of … more
Productivity
Improve Your Focus
One of the most important skills you can develop is the ability to focus. Anything you can do to improve your focus … more
Money & Finances
You Are Self Employed
I was recently talking with a friend who said he'd be scared to try to start his own business because it seemed so insecure. … more
