Glen Stansberry wrote a nice article on 10 Examples of Tremendous Business Leadership on Open Forum. It is well worth a read if you are in any type of leadership position. … [Read more...]
How I Learned Racial Discrimination
Footsteps pounded the sidewalk behind us. We turned as a young man careened around the corner and headed down the narrow Boston side street toward us. My wife and I stepped out of the way. At 25 feet, I noticed he was clutching a woman's purse to his chest. His quick glances over his shoulder made it obvious that he was being pursued. At 20 feet, I realized that everything I was seeing was telling me he had stolen the purse and someone was coming running after him. At 15 feet, I sized him up to determine if I could stop him. He didn't have a weapon, wasn't any bigger than me, and his haste would make him easy to delay. At 10 feet, I decided I could easily stop him by tripping … [Read more...]
The Happiness Project Book
The Happiness Project : Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun chronicles Gretchen Rubin's year long project to see if she could increase the amount of happiness in her life. The book blends her personal narrative with facts from her research into a wonderfully fulfilling read. The book is truly brilliant and I highly recommend it. At the beginning of the book, Gretchen formulates her "Secrets of Adulthood" that she uses to help ground her project. Here are a few: People don't notice your mistakes as much as you think. It's important to be nice to everyone. If you're not failing, you're … [Read more...]
Removing Distracting Sounds
A single interruption of only a few seconds can cost you 15 minutes of your day. When you get distracted from concentrating, it takes up to 15 minutes to get back to where you were before the distraction. Our ambient sounds help reduce the amount of noise distractions in your workplace. Don't forget, they are still on sale at a greatly reduced rate. … [Read more...]
10 Timesavers for Office Workers
If you work in a traditional office, you need specific strategies to help you make the most of your time. This post looks at a number of simple things you can do to save time at work. Most people can easily free up another 15 minutes per day, simply by following a few of these strategies. In the ideal world, your boss would let you cut out early with those 15 minutes you saved, but unfortunately, our society seems to be more focused on how much time you put in rather than value. Even if it doesn't translate into more time away from work, these tips can help you use your time more effectively so you can get more done and out-perform your peers as you advance your career. If you … [Read more...]
Are You Interesting?
What is so special about you? Why would someone want to talk to you? More importantly (as Keith Ferrazzi points out in Never Eat Alone), why would someone want to talk about you? It is easy to get stuck in a rut of focusing on the things that make us successful in our work, but our skills are only one part of the equation. Our relationships with others are at least as important as our skills. Building relationships is much easier when you aren't a one-dimensional person. If all you do is work, you may be very good at your job, but you are drastically limiting your circle of friends. Worse still, you are limiting them to people who are very similar to yourself. Making the … [Read more...]
The Difficult Things
When I'm working on something very, very difficult, I often find myself bumping up against an invisible wall. It is as if my mind just isn't clear enough to break through. For example, when trying to learn a new, complex mathematical concept, I seem to spend a lot of time teetering just on the verge of a full understanding with no real idea of what is holding me back. It is like looking through a fog. The feeling is similar to running at your top speed and trying to go just a little bit faster. Obviously, this is very frustrating. You can almost taste success, but it just isn't happening. When I find myself in this situation, I can sometimes get past it by focusing more. … [Read more...]
A Culture of Obesity
I hadn't heard of Kevin Smith until reading in the news that he had been asked to deplane a Southwest flight because he was too big. Evidently, he directed and acted in some movies I haven't seen. For those of you who missed all the "excitement," here is what happened. Due to his ample girth, Mr. Smith buys two Southwest tickets when he flies. (Correction: Kevin says this is the first week he bought two tickets and he does it because he is shy. Southwest says he routinely buys two tickets. Doesn't matter for the point of this article, but I thought I'd be clear.) That way, it guarantees him an open adjacent seat. If the flight sells out, Southwest keeps the price of the empty … [Read more...]
Friendly Space
I've heard a lot of people say that people on the East coast are less friendly than the people they meet in the Midwest. One of my professors at Harvard who grew up in Kansas said that he didn't think Wal-Mart would do well in the Cambridge area because they wouldn't be able to find anyone who could cheerfully say "Welcome to Wal-Mart!" at the front door. So what might account for the difference in friendliness between people in rural Kansas and Harvard Square? I think there is a simple explanation, and it is the same reason people don't talk on elevators. When you get on the elevator with a bunch of people you don't know, it is rare for anyone to talk, even if they are people you … [Read more...]
The Dangerous Boss
When you work for a bad boss, it is easy to just try to "keep your head down" and do your job. If your boss is merely annoying, this isn't a bad strategy. Maybe he/she will get replaced someday and the risk of trying to find another job may not seem like it is worth it. However, I want to suggest that if your boss is really bad, he/she can do a lot more damage to you and to your career than just being an annoyance. Let me tell you a story. The names have been changed to protect the guilty and the innocent, but the facts are real. Acme Inc. employed about 150 people. One of the assistants there seemed very competent. We will call her Sally. Sally was an above average worker, … [Read more...]
EchoSign Review – Electronic Signatures Made Easy
This is a review of Echosign a popular product for handling online electronic signatures. In my years in college and in the work force, I haven't heard many people say that they enjoy paperwork. Sometimes it's time consuming, rather boring and potentially messy. EchoSign is a product designed to help eliminate physical paper trails. Keeping track of several different documents from the same transaction can be frustrating, especially if you want to work in a paperless environment. For those that prefer to keep the paper trail organized in computer files instead of physical files, EchoSign would be a great help. This Echosign review will attempt to familiarize readers with the basics of … [Read more...]
Random Stuff
Here is a bunch of random information I've discovered over the last few months. I figured it might be interesting for someone, so I thought I'd post it all together. If you see anything that you think would be interesting to see a full post about, please leave a comment and we'll try to write about it in more detail. Overdrive Digital Library Many state libraries have digital books, audio books and movies that can be checked out electronically from a company called Overdrive. Most of the time, all you need for access is a card from a local library or your state library. The checkout process works like it does for physical books. If the library has only purchased one copy, … [Read more...]
High Goals and Expectations
Everyone has a different idea about success. Many times our expectations are determined by the way we were raised and our interaction with our peers. These expectations can cause us to set artificially low goals. I know a man whose goal is to get his GED so he can get a job and make payments on a car. I just met a girl who has a goal to finish a 9-month cosmetology program so she can work at SuperCuts in front of Wal-Mart. When looking at your goals, make sure you understand the expectations you carry that influence the magnitude of those goals. If no one in your family went to college, you will probably set your expectations for your education lower than someone whose parents … [Read more...]
Tuesday’s Tip: Dressed for Productivity
You've heard of "Dressed for Success." Well, what about "Dressed for Productivity?" I think that the way we dress can have a big impact on our performance. Where I went to college required that all the guys wear ties and all the gals wear dresses to class. There was quite a bit of debate among the students about whether this was really beneficial or not. Many students met the dress code to the letter, but were extremely sloppy in the way that the were dressed. Overall, it would probably be impossible to tell if having a dress code helped make anyone a better student (although it helped guarantee that all the guys knew how to tie a tie by the time they graduated.) Personally … [Read more...]
The Most for Your Minute
(In this series of posts, we are examining ways to better manage our time.) The Order of Tasks There is a survival simulation where you are trapped in a cave. There is a single ladder going to the surface that can only hold one person at a time. There are two other individuals with you. One is younger than you and can climb faster. The other is older than you and can climb slower. Your job is to decide the order that people should leave the cave--oh I forgot to mention there is water rising and if you don't do it in the correct order, someone will drown. The trick is to send the older person last because they can still be on the ladder climbing as the water covers the … [Read more...]
Links from Comments
In this post we wanted to highlight the websites from a few members of the Productivity501 community who have left comments recently. Thank you to everyone for reading and to comment leavers for taking part in the discussion. Enlightr We hear a lot of talk today about how the internet can bring about information overload to those who use it. Enlightr is a product that summarizes important information so that you don't have to wade through irrelevant information. MikeKey.com Michael Key writes about lifestyle design and entrepreneurship at this site. He offers bits of wisdom concerning finances, learning and other topics. The Paper Tiger The Paper Tiger is a product that is a hybrid … [Read more...]