In the United States, most people are paid for their time instead of for their work. In many other cultures this is unheard of. A young man from Africa was going to college in the U.S. and his land lady hired him to dig a ditch. She was going to pay him a reasonable amount per hour. He was horrified! Why would she pay him per hour? Time didn't represent the amount of work that was actually accomplished. Having a finished ditch was a much better measurement of work. If he went slow it would be easier and he'd make more money. If he worked quickly, it would be harder and he'd make less. They eventually reached an agreement, he dug the ditch and was paid a fair rate. This young … [Read more...] about Work Less, Accomplish More
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Subscription Contest
Edit: Since we didn't have a winner the contest has been revised slightly because we really want to give away an iPod! Another recent feature of Productive Strategies is the ability to get new posts once a day as an email. The email list is managed by FeedBurner. To subscribe just add your email address to the form on the right hand column of the blog. See it over there? Just fill in your email address and you'll be signed up so you'll never miss a new post here. So you're still reading this? Why aren't you over on the side panel filling in your email address? Ok well maybe you need a little more incentive to type your email address into that little box. What … [Read more...] about Subscription Contest
Getting the Most out of Podcast Lectures
The list of podcast lectures has generated quite a bit of traffic to this site. I've spent quite a bit of time listing to audio lectures and taking other forms of distance education from various universities. It can be challenging to keep focused on difficult topics, when you don't have the visual input from actually being in a classroom. Personally I prefer to be in a classroom, but at some point in life, having a job and earning a living starts becoming a bigger priority. Audio lectures can be a huge advantage for those of us who can't attend school full time. Here are seven tips that help me keep my mind engaged to get the most out of audio only lectures: Decide what you want to … [Read more...] about Getting the Most out of Podcast Lectures
Free Academic Podcasts
About a year ago, I put together a listing 30 or 40 free podcasts of lectures from Universities. When I started putting together another list, I was amazed at how many more lectures are available. The lectures in this list are all free and don't require any type of authentication--you don't have to be a student to download them. The links are to the rss feed of class lectures. If you copy the URL and in iTunes click on Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast it will automatically download the lectures and new ones as they become available. I was hoping to find the Physics of Superheros in the list or a Pottery lecture. Maybe next year. Also be sure to checkout our study tips for students … [Read more...] about Free Academic Podcasts
Contest Winner
Congratulations to Barrett in Indiana on wining the Effective Executive book contest! We didn't have as many entries as I was expecting (considering we have about 100 people check the site every day in their RSS readers). All in all that says something about the audience of this site. I think most people who are interested in a blog about how to be productive, don't have time to add something else to their reading list. I guess we might do better with a contest that gives the winner an extra 30 minutes of free time. :) We'll probably do some more contests in the future that are targeted at people who already have a full reading list. … [Read more...] about Contest Winner
Contest: The Effective Executive Book
For quite awhile I've been meaning to run a contest giving away a book on being effective and productive. So here it is, we are giving away a copy of The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. This book talks about how to be effective as an executive. Drucker defines executive as someone who is responsible for their contribution. Even if you aren't officially an executive at work, the fact that you are reading a blog on productivity means you do take responsibility for what you accomplish. The book talks about the need to focus on doing the right things. I found it to be very insightful and I've given away several copies to friends already. Ok for the … [Read more...] about Contest: The Effective Executive Book
Decisions in Advance take two
Today I was skimming an article on LifeHack.org that referenced another article. The quote made some good points, but it seemed vaguely familiar. On a closer reading I realized that it was a link to and quote from my article from this site about making decisions ahead of time. Reading it in this way gave me a fresh perspective and some other ideas on how to make decisions in advance. … [Read more...] about Decisions in Advance take two
Optimal Time for Productivity
Often times our productivity on a given task is very much tied to the time of day. For example, I find that exercising in the afternoon seems to work best for me because it lets me unwind from the day. I've always found it odd that my most productive times for programming are after 10pm. There are obviously advantages to doing things late in the evening--fewer distractions, etc. However, even when I'm not going to be interrupted during the day, I still can't seem to get into the "zone" as much as I can late at night. I think I've finally solved the mystery. When I'm working on a task that where I don't know how long it will take, I generally do better when I don't have any hard and … [Read more...] about Optimal Time for Productivity
Large Monitor = More Productivity
Apple hired a company to study the productivity impact of using a 30 inch monitor as compared to a 20 inch and 17 inch monitor. The results indicate that a user on a 30 inch monitor will save about 1.3 hours per week over a user on a 17 inch monitor. The report is based on what they consider to be normal usage. This isn't a huge productivity gain, but it might make it a little easier to justify upgrading your monitor. Also, even small productivity gains add up. At 1.3 hours per week, you'll be getting over half a day of savings each month. Depending on your work, the savings in productivity could be much greater. If you work with many different applications at the same time while … [Read more...] about Large Monitor = More Productivity
About
Productivity501 is a site dedicated to bringing you regular tips and tricks to help increase your personal productivity. This site focuses on original content, so the publication schedule is a little slower than other blogs out there. Generally we try to have at least one new article each week, but the focus is on posting when we have something that will benefit our readers. Author: Mark W. Shead - I work as a consultant using technology to solve business problems. This blog is a place where I can share ideas that help me be more effective in my practice that (hopefully) will be useful to others as well. Most of my formal education has been in music composition and software … [Read more...] about About