I've been writing some posts for Manilla and they asked me if I'd be interested in working with them on an iPad contest giveaway for Father's day. The long legal rules are here, but here is how it works in a nutshell. Once a day from now until the day after Father's Day I'm going to tweet a question from @Productivity501 tagged with #manilladad. Tweet back an answer (also tagged with #manilladad, so we can track the answers) and you will be entered in the contest. It doesn't get much simpler than that. Manilla is going to handle contacting the winner, etc. If you want all the legal details, check them out here. Hope to see  your answers on Twitter! … [Read more...]

Christmas is coming soon so I thought I'd do a few posts with gift ideas based on things I've used this year and found to be exceptionally useful and or fun. Here is the first post and I'll try to do a few more as I think of ideas and have time to write about them. If you have suggestions, please add them in the comments. You might be able to suggest the perfect gift that another reader hadn't though of. Fingerless Gloves Fingerless Gloves ~ $3.50  My office is in the walk-out basement of our home. It is typically 60 to 65 degrees in the winter, but when there is a strong wind on the walk out portion of the house, it can get a lot colder. This isn't to big of deal because I can … [Read more...]

Productivity501 is a member of LifeRemix--a network of bloggers who are all focused on enriching people's lives in one way or another. Everyone has been pretty busy writing books, starting podcasts, and creating courses. Here are four of those projects ranging from a free manifesto PDF to a paid course on living without clutter. The Tower Chris Guillebeau from The Art of Non-Conformity has released a new manifesto called The Tower. You might be familiar with his previous Brief Guide To World Domination. The Tower is a beautiful PDF that is designed to be viewed on an iPad. (But in my experience looks very nice on a normal computer screen.) There is also a Kindle version available. It … [Read more...]

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Holiday Shopping Challenge. We had a lot of great Christmas shopping tips and suggestions. The winner of the $250 gift card is Jennifer Marie. She was chosen based on a random number from www.random.org. So how did my shopping, turn out? You can read about it below. My Dad The local hardware store was offering a sale on "gear wrench" sets. These are wrenches with the normal open end on one side, but the closed end has a gear mechanism in it that allows it to turn the bolt in one direction, but it "slips" when you push it the other. So it lets you ratchet the wrench back and forth to turn the bolt without needing to take the wrench off … [Read more...]

Here is a collection of products, events and applications that people have sent in over the past few weeks that might be of interest to readers. If you try any of these things out, please take a few minutes to leave a comment on your experience for others. Manvotionals The Art of Manliness has launched their second book, this one is called Manvotionals. Christmas is coming and it might be the perfect gift for a man in your life. Executive MBA Online Fair The Economist is holding an Executive MBA online fair.  Executive MBAs are generally aimed at people who are mid career and follow a schedule that allows busy professionals to complete their MBA degree while working full time. … [Read more...]

The Domino Project has released a new book called End Malaria. The book is available for the Kindle and in paperback. It is a great idea! They got a bunch of authors together and put together a book where $20 from every sale goes to help end malaria. The contents are short essays by many famous business authors. There are three sections: Focus, Courage, Resilience. The contents of the book are great. They are all short and you can pick it up and randomly read any page to get something out of it. What most impressed me though was just the idea for the project. It is a great example of how creative thinking and a little organization (ok maybe a LOT of organization) can bring people … [Read more...]

A week or so ago I asked what Productivity501 readers had been writing. This post highlights some articles written by our readers. I encourage you to check them out. If you see something that you like, be sure to let the author know in their comments or in the comments here. As someone who does a lot of writing, I know first hand how encouraging it is to hear from a reader. Managing Expectations Begins with your Members and Clients - William Biggs works as a communications consultant and has been a long time reader of Productivity501. This is an article he wrote about working with donors for non-profits. Much of it is relevant to the for profit sector as well. Don't Focus on … [Read more...]

My wife, two kids and I had a trip planned to Florida to spend a week with her family on the beach. Originally we were going to drive, but at the last minute decided that was a bad idea and bought plane tickets on Delta. My parents graciously drove us to the airport in Kansas City. We checked our luggage and paid the $50 to take the pack and play and our suitcase. The fee was expected, but it still amazes me how much airlines can get by with. Oh well, at least Delta doesn't charge for using the restrooms like some airlines are trying. We went through security, found we had drastically over-estimated how long that would take, and settled in to wait for a few hours watching the planes with our … [Read more...]

Google Plus & Google Apps Google Plus is starting to offer games on their new entry to social networking. However, they still haven't figured out how to let Google App users (you know, the people who pay google to use Gmail on their own domain) join the service. It seems odd to roll things out to you paying customers last. Are Ebooks a Good Deal? I've seen from several sources that students are buying ebooks in record numbers.  I can understand the advantage of ebooks, but the economics are usually pretty poor. If you buy a real book, take care of it and sell it to someone taking the class next semester, I think you'll have a hard time justifying the cost of ebooks. Of course if … [Read more...]

Here is a short collection of very random links that may or may not be of interest. They are just various things that I've found interesting and wanted to share. Non-Profit Donations - Most people are involved in some type of non-profit organization.  This post lists some of the options available for accepting donations online.  The good news is that it is a lot easier than it used to be. The Thin Home - I'm not sure I'd want to live in a house this thin, but it sure makes efficient use of the space between two buildings. Throwing a tomahawk - I spent many hours trying to figure out how to do this with hatchets growing up. First and last shuttle launch - This is a picture of a … [Read more...]

Gojee is a web application that helps you find recipes. You can kind of think of it as a recipe search engine. You tell it what you crave, what you have and what you dislike. I told it I have peanut butter and meat. The results included several Asian recipes with different types of peanut sauces and a bunch of different types of deserts (without meat). When you find  a recipe you like, Gojee gives you a link to the original recipe site.  It is a nicely designed site and each recipe has a picture for people like me who have a hard time visualizing from a recipe. If you avoid trying new exotic recipes because you don't like buying a bunch of ingredients you don't already have, this is … [Read more...]

A few weeks ago my wife and I went to Joplin to help with the cleanup.  The the pictures and videos you see don't really convey the level of devastation.  Last I heard there were around 150 people who died.  Just looking at the destruction, you'd assume that thousands died. From what I understand, FEMA is going to pay for 90% of the cleanup if it is done by early August. The city will be responsible for the remaining 10%.  However, volunteer hours count toward the city's portion.  So if you are in a position to go help, you'll be helping in more than one way. We spent half our day clearing a bunch of trees from a neighborhood near the hospital that was … [Read more...]

Self-Reliance is an essay that was first published by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1841. Emerson's didn't always write in the most accessible prose, but the essay is short enough that it should be within the reach of most readers. In Self-Reliance Emerson is issuing a call to avoid conformity--without worrying about what other's think. This essay contains the following quote which you may have heard before: To be great is to be misunderstood. Since Self-Reliance is old enough to be out of copyright, you can easily find a copy from Project Gutenberg or other online resources. The Domino Project has printed a nice hardback edition that they were kind enough to send me.  The right hand pages … [Read more...]

Everyone gets older, but have you ever wondered why? Our bodies heal themselves, so why do organs eventually fail? The answer is fascinating. Our cells divide and make duplicates of themselves, but each time this occurs there is a section of the DNA that gets a little bit shorter.  DNA replication starts at the middle and a bit of the ends don't get copied. These sections are called telomeres. Telomeres are basically end caps to the information in our DNA.  If this was important information for creating a new cell, then the duplicate cell would be incomplete. The telomere data is not necessary data for the creation of a new cell.  However each time the DNA is duplicated the telomere … [Read more...]

Looking at my web stats, here are some of the frequent questions people end up coming to Productivity501 searching for.  In this post, I simply wanted to list them in one place to make it easier for people to find the answers to frequently asked questions. What is a professional email address? A professional email address is something that you feel comfortable giving out to someone who might want to offer you a job.  1hotgirl@hotmail.com is NOT a professional email address.  A professional email address looks best when it is from your own domain.  So sue@suesmith.com looks very professional.  However, using gmail or another service can look professional as well.  Something like … [Read more...]

Congratulations to Violeta on winning the iPod. If you are interested in other contests, go ahead and enter so you'll be notified when they run. We should be doing another one in the next few weeks. We haven't given anything away for awhile, so I thought it is about time we did another contest. Here are the details: The iPod is going to be given away to one person who likes both Productivity501 and Mark Shead's page on Facebook. If you have already liked both pages, you are already entered in the contest. If either page gets over  750 "likes" we'll give away two iPods to two different people. (So sharing the contest with your friends may double the number of prizes given out … [Read more...]

Every one likes to hear how awesome they are.  I like it.  You like it.  One of the best things you can do to advance your career is to sincerely compliment the things you admire in the people around you.  The key here is the word sincerely. However, you need to be very aware of praise that is being given to you with ulterior motives.  Some people will try to flatter you just to get on your good side. Others will outright lie in hopes of getting you to make a mistake or look foolish. In 2003 there was a singing competition held in several major cities around the US.  Contestants were selected, flown to Hollywood to take part in a competition.  They were given vocal coaching, … [Read more...]

Here are some random question we've had from visitors to this site along with some attempts at answers: How does a paperless office work? A paperless office means different things to different people. Some people consider themselves paperless if they aren't storing any paper.  Other people are trying to keep from producing or consuming paper. I once worked at a hospital that switched to a paperless system in order to save a couple million dollars in medical records storage space.  They still produced and consumed paper, but the eliminated the storage part. Most people who want to move to a paperless office are going to try to find some way to scan in their existing documents so … [Read more...]

My company spends about 25% of our effort doing consulting with other businesses to help them become more productive and efficient. If your job encompasses any type of business responsibility, you'll probably benefit by signing up for my monthly business newsletter. The content covers a wide range of business and technology information that will help you make better decisions, avoid dangerous technology mistakes and make your business operations more efficient. You can sign up using the form below (you may need to click through to the website if viewing in RSS or email) or go to my company site and sign up in the right sidebar: Xeric Corporation Xeric Corporation … [Read more...]

I've updated the design of Productivity501, please check it out and let me know what you think.  In particular, let me know if you see anything that looks wrong or needs fixed. The design is similar to the original so you may not notice too many changes.  The biggest differences are in the ways the site deals with images--it will now autosize images so we don't have to do quite as much work in an image editor. Let me know what you think!  Also if anyone has suggestions for improvement, please let me know. I can't change to match every suggestion I get, but I'd appreciate any feedback about any aspect of the site.  It helps me plan ahead for the next time we revamp the design. For … [Read more...]

Throughout the past few years, open source applications have been rapidly increasing in popularity. Venerable products such as Firefox, Thunderbird and Linux are widely used by the public, and Firefox, especially, has become a success. A group of developers called OSAF (Open Source Applications Foundation) has created a personal information management product called Chandler. Chandler is based on some of the principles of GTD, much like OmniFocus. However, Chandler also shares some characteristics with Evernote, such as the fact that both products have a web version and desktop version that sync with each other, providing automatic back-up. Chandler is free, runs on Mac, Windows and … [Read more...]

As we enter the cold part of the year in the Northern hemisphere, here are 50 tips for how to winterize your home.  If you have a suggestion that isn't in the list be sure to add it in the comments. Replace any old or inefficient windows. Windows are one of the major ways heat leaks out of your house. Seal off drafty windows and patio doors with clear plastic. If you have a lot of outside doors that leak air, you can seal a few off using plastic or caulk putty. If your furnace is more than 10 years old, there's a good chance that it wastes a lot of fuel. Consider upgrading to a newer one. Insulate the hot water lines around your hot water heater and turn down the temperature … [Read more...]

Last night I made a late night run to the grocery store. As I got out of my car, I noticed a woman walking around the lot looking at the ground. She had her hand cupped as if she were holding something. By the time I exited the store, she had worked her way across the parking lot to the store entrance. In her hand, I saw five slightly smoked cigarettes. I watched her continue her search as I got into my vehicle. It took me a few minutes to realize what she was doing. She was looking for cigarettes that had been partially smoked and discarded. I assume that she would take them home and finish smoking them. While I admire her frugality, it was a sorry sight. She was going through … [Read more...]