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Questions and Answers

2009 by Leave a Comment
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Here is a collection of some random questions that have come in, either by email or search terms that brought people to this site. The run the gamut from banks to bullets and cover a lot of area in between. If you have questions you'd like to see answered, please send them to questions@productivity501.com. Why do banks fail? In the US, banks fail when the FDIC decides they are under-capitalized and force them to sell to another company.  This happens when a company makes a bunch of loans that go bad.  Much of the current financial crisis was brought on by banks investing in complex investments in mortgages that turned out to be much more risky than originally thought. Why create a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Misc Tagged With: , ,

Your Desk its own Desk

2009 by 1 Comment
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With all of our modern gadgetry, it is easy for our desks to get covered with wires, routers, cell phone charger cables, etc.  Here is a simple solution to help cut down on the amount of visual clutter you have to face when working. Get a Desk for Your Desk After all, shouldn't your desk have a work area for itself?  There is no reason it needs to share with you all the time. :) By getting a small table, shelf or box and placing it under your desk in a place you don't need for your feet, you can move all of your electronics down out of view where they can still perform their function, but not contribute to clutter on your desk. Depending on how your desk is set up, you may even be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Organize Tagged With: , ,

Simple Way to Speed up Elevators

2009 by 11 Comments
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Last week we looked at a beautifully simple solution to reduce crime in low income housing areas. I wanted to give a few more examples. A contractor had built a skyscraper downtown in a large city. The new occupants were moving in and the contractor and new owners were finishing up dealing with little issues in finalizing all the little details of the contract. As the number of people in the building increased, the office workers started complaining about the elevators being too slow. Trying to make changes to the elevator would have been a pretty expensive modification. The people who had designed the building came in, timed the elevators, and determined that they were … [Read more...]

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Don’t Depend on Your Job

2009 by 12 Comments
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I see a lot of people who become overly dependent upon their job. This isn't surprising and it's very easy to do--particularly with highly motivated performance oriented individuals. However, if your entire identity, self-worth and financial resources are tied up in your job, you are setting yourself up for catastrophe. I'm not saying you shouldn't be proud of your work or enjoy your job, but I am saying that you shouldn't let yourself get blinded to all these economic realities. No matter how good you think you are, you can be replaced. This is true now more than ever. In fact, if you are an extremely high performer and are being paid commensurate with your capabilities, your salary … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Money Tagged With: , ,

Taking the Time to Read

2009 by 9 Comments
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There are few people who wouldn't benefit from spending a little more time each day reading a good book.  If you want to keep yourself at maximum creative capacity, you have to make sure you are taking in new ideas and thoughts.  If you aren't continually feeding your mind, you'll eventually find your creative reserves starting to run dry.  Continually producing output without taking any input is a good way to burn out. Here are eight tips that I've found help me in my personal reading habits: Read books. There is a lot of material available on blogs and other internet sites, but make sure you are taking time to read actual published books.  The quality of published materials … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Development Tagged With: , , , , ,

Ways to Deal with Distraction

2009 by 3 Comments
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Focus and dedication are things that everyone must master in order to be successful and productive. We've gathered a list of articles intended for various audiences on the subject of focus. Working in a cubicle Dealing with Distractions-Dawn Foster Those that work in close proximity with others know that even small things can become major distractions. This article points out a few ways to deal with this problem. Sounding off on Cubical Survival Tips-Office Smurf This article gives some sound advice (pardon the pun) for eliminating or coping with a loudness in the workplace. Noisy Coworkers: 5 Ways to Deal with Them-noisycoworkers.com When the cacophony becomes to bad, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: , ,

10 Tips for Creating Secure Passwords

2009 by 16 Comments
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If you do anything with computers, you deal with passwords and you probably have a handful of different passwords for different sites and systems. The best password is something that you will never forget, but even your family or closest friend would never guess. In my experience people either have extremely secure passwords like J!*xurQ1# that are so difficult to remember that they have to write them down (which defeats the security of a password) or extremely unsecure to start with, like Jonny (the name of their spouse). The goal of this post is to give you some ideas on how to generate secure passwords. The tips start out with some simple ways to come up with terms and end with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , ,

Remote or Local Assistant?

2009 by 7 Comments
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There has been a lot of interest in virtual assistants. The idea sounds great.  You hire someone to do the work you need remotely.  Since you don't have to be in the same city, state or country, you are free to choose the most cost effective assistant from anywhere in the world. On the other hand, there are some significant advantages in hiring someone locally. Here are some advantages for both types of assistants. Benefits of a virtual assistant They can work while you sleep. If you hire someone from a different time zone, they may do the bulk of their work outside of your business hours. Depending on your line of work, it can be very convenient to hand someone a project at 5 PM … [Read more...]

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The Distribution of Inspiration — Productive Blogging

2009 by 12 Comments
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Most successful blogs post new content every weekday.  People looking to start successful blogs look at this and think, "I guess I need to write something every day."  The problem is that inspiration isn't evenly distributed.  One day you may have ideas for 10 posts and the next two weeks--nothing. To be a productive blogger, you need to learn to use the mountain tops of inspiration to help fill in the valleys where you can't think of anything to write.  This can be as simple as keeping a word processor document of future posts.  If your blogging platform supports it, I suggest using the scheduled post feature. Write your post when inspiration strikes but set it to go live when … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Organize Tagged With: , ,

MacSpeech Dictate

2009 by 6 Comments
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I haven't used speech recognition software since 2001. Back then, I was working in a hospital and we were experimenting with Dragon Naturally Speaking (now owned by Nuance)as a way to streamline the medical transcription process. The software was interesting, but far too primitive to save time for anyone who typed with more than two fingers. When I was offered a review copy of MacSpeech Dictate, I was intrigued.  How much of a difference would eight years of development and processor speed bumps make on speech recognition? Evidently, (thanks to Moore's Law) eight years makes a huge difference. I have honestly been blown away at how accurate the software is. In fact, after using it for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: ,

Reducing Expenses vs. Being Productive

2009 by 1 Comment
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We usually think of being more productive as a way to make more money, or at least make the same amount of money with less effort.  This is a short sighted approach.  Being more productive really means doing things that will give you more time to pursue the things that are really important to you. If I am able to maintain my same level of pay and cut my work time in half, I've made some pretty significant improvements in my productivity.  But what if, instead of maintaining the same level of pay, we just try to maintain the same standard of living. Or better yet, just maintain the same standard of living on things that are important to us. This type of thinking suddenly opens up … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Time Tagged With: , , , ,

Beautifully Simple Solutions

2009 by 7 Comments
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The study of aesthetics is the study of beauty. When you really think about it, the way we react to art and music is fascinating and not very well understood. Sometimes beauty seems to be only in the eye of the beholder--subject to cultural conditioning. Other times beauty seems like something that can be appreciated by all humanity--transcending cultural considerations . The way we react to beauty is really an emotional response. I don't know how to really define it, but for me, the reaction to something beautiful feels like it comes from something in my chest instead of my head. Maybe that sounds weird, but that is the best way I know to describe it. In college and graduate … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: , ,

Google Voice Mobile App

2009 by 1 Comment

If you have a Google Voice account (formerly Grand Central) you might want to check out their new application for Blackberries and Android phones.  It appears to do a lot of what the GVDialer does, but it is free.  You can send SMS messages and place calls using your Google Voice number.  If you have a plan where you can add a number to your "circle" or "friends" you can add your Google Voice number and drastically reduce the number of minutes you have to use.  Google Voice is still in a closed beta, so there doesn't appear to be a way to sign up for an account if you don't already have one. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Asides

Great Amex Platinum Concierge Service

2009 by 4 Comments

I've been critical of American Express Platinum Concierge Service, but last week I had an interaction that was very impressive.  A deer ran into our car and broke the mirror.  Due to a misunderstanding, the local shop didn't order the part in time for our trip.  I sent the concierge service a map of the route we were going to take, the time we were leaving and asked them to find me any dealer with the part in stock on our route.  The concierge came back with a list of dealers with it in stock along with a list of dealers that could get it in two days near our destination. This was a huge time saver for me and very helpful.  Do you have any success stories from using the concierge … [Read more...]

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Cost of a New Computer

2009 by 10 Comments
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It is very easy to underestimate the cost of a new computer. The cost of purchasing a computer is relatively straightforward. You pay the price that on the sticker. However, there are two other areas of cost that are often overlooked. Let's briefly look at each of them. Maintenance costs Computers are like cars. They have a finite life and at some point it is very likely that they will both need repair. The older they are, the more likely it is they will need repair. When people buy computers, they often focus on the sticker price and not the total lifetime cost. The one year warranty that comes with a computer automatically may be a lot cheaper than the three-year coverage, but how … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Money Tagged With: , , ,

Scanned Signatures and Handwriting

2009 by 5 Comments
way-nan

Previously we've looked at how to create a scanned signature that you can use to sign documents without printing them out. Today we are going to look at how to get your signature and handwriting into a font that you can use on your computer. First off, lets look at why you'd want to do something like this. Benefits of a Scanned Signature and Handwriting Having your signature as a font has some big advantages over having it as a .PNG or .GIF file.  Fonts are mathematical representations of the shapes they contain.  This means you don't get jagged edges, no matter how big you make it.  .PNG or .GIF files work ok if you are making them smaller, but you will start to see artifacts and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , ,

My Time Management Organizer History

2009 by 6 Comments

In high school, I tried a month of using a Day Timer planner.  It was nice and I liked the small wirebound planners, but I ended up using a Day Runner planner even though the pages tended to rip out because it only used a three ring binder.  In college I went to a Franklin seminar and started  using the Franklin system. While the actual pieces of paper weren't too different from what I had used before, the training that went along with it was very valuable. I stuck with the Franklin for about six years, but eventually found that I was at my computer enough I could rely on a digital calendar.  My switch to digital was complete when I finally moved to a Blackberry that could sync over … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Asides

Shred Everything

2009 by 10 Comments
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Even before I started my paperless office experiment, I purchased a shredder. The amount of private information on the paper I was throwing out started to concern me when I realized that I had no idea where most of it was going. The novelty of turning every random scrap of paper kept my normal waste basket empty for the first week. After this fascination wore off I started asking myself "Do I really need to shred this?" Surprisingly, most of the time I found it was better to shred pretty much anything that came in the mail. Flyers and other mail that gets sent to everyone is spared from shredding, but most of the junk mail goes into the shredder. Here is some of my reasoning for some … [Read more...]

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Doing it All

2009 by Leave a Comment

Erin over at Unclutterer has a nice piece about how she does everything by cutting down on the things that aren't important. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Asides

Interview: Areas to Stay Low Tech

2009 by 7 Comments
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Everyone uses technology, but I thought it would be interesting to see in what areas people have decided they are better off avoiding technology.  So we asked a bunch of bloggers: Are there areas where you have decided it works better to go low tech? (3593) Personally, I have found that I prefer a mechanical watch.  I think there is something about having to set it and make sure it is wound that makes me more aware of time and how I spend it. My experience with daily planners and forms is that paper forms, all things considered, are better than a bunch of software that we're prone to fiddle with.  The focus and tangibility of paper planners is a powerful productivity … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , ,

Internet Access

2009 by 2 Comments
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The most important component of my work environment is a connection to the Internet.  With a decent connection, I can work from pretty much anywhere in the world.  In this post, we are going to look at some of the different technologies used to connect to the Internet and talk a bit about each one's strengths and weaknesses. Cable Modem Cable modems have the capacity to offer extremely high speeds.  Usually this is limited by the cable company.  In most places, you can get 1Mbps to 10Mbps downloads with .5Mbps to 2Mbps upload speed.  Cable modems share the bandwidth with other people on the same cable, so your speeds may be at least partially dependent on what your neighbors are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,

Productive Finances Checklist

2009 by 4 Comments
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Here is a checklist for your financial productivity. Most of these things seem minor, but taken together, they really add up and can make a big difference in how efficiently you are using your time and money. Are you using direct deposit for your paychecks? -- If you are still manually carrying a check to the bank or putting it in the mail, stop! Direct deposit will get your money to the bank faster so you start earning interest as soon as possible. Even if it only saves you 5 minutes every two weeks, that is an extra 2 hours each year you can spend on something more important. Is your money in the bank earning at least 4% interest? -- If not, look for a different account. There … [Read more...]

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Tips for Car Travel

2009 by 4 Comments
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As the summer months approach, I wanted to share some simple tips for traveling by car. We do a lot of travel and these are some of the tips we've found that make our lives easier on the road. Driving into the Light When I was younger I could drive through the night without a problem. Now I find that I get very tired driving past about 10:30pm. Tired enough that it isn't safe. By leaving early in the morning I can drive into the day light. I am much more alert getting up at 2 am and driving until 5 pm than leaving at 10 am and driving until 1 am the next day. Podcasts On a long trip I can make the hours fly by listening to technology podcasts. I feel better traveling when … [Read more...]

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Interview: Productive Time of Day

2009 by 4 Comments
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We interviewed a number of people and asked: What time of day do you feel you are most productive and why? (198) Here are their answers.  What about you?  Leave your thoughts in the comments. I feel most productive in late morning and early afternoon.  My energy peaks at this time of day, and I have found I am able to focus more on important tasks.  I am not a morning person, so usually I end up going around in circles or repeating something- basically, wasting my time.  Late afternoon, beginning around 3, I begin to get sluggish and often need a nap!  It is important to know when your energy level is at its highest and when you are least distractable.  That is when you should … [Read more...]

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10 Cell Phone Tips

2009 by 2 Comments
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Cell phones are playing an increasingly important part in most people's lives.  Here are 10 things to consider when you get ready to upgrade phones. 1. Connectivity Does the phone connect well with your computer and other devices?  Some phones have bluetooth and can keep your address book synchronized every time you come near your computer.  Others require a USB connection.  Some only have synchronization software that works with particular operating systems.  Make sure you know that the device will connect with the things that are important to you before you buy it. 2. Email People are using their phones for email more and more.  Make sure you understand not only what the … [Read more...]

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