Productivity501

Pieces of the productivity puzzle.

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EVDO Card for Productivity

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I am posting this note from the road.  My wife is driving and I'm busy answering emails and arranging work with collegues from my laptop.  The thing that makes this possible is a Sprint EVDO card. From a productivity standpoint, it is well worth the $60 per month.  It more than pays for itself if I'm able to squeeze in an extra 30 minutes of work each month. … [Read more...] about EVDO Card for Productivity

Skype Now Sends Caller ID

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Several months ago I tried using Skype and it wouldn't allow you to display your Skype-In number as the caller id to people you were calling.  This was frustrating and I even sent a letter to the CEO of Skype about it. However, as Hayden Tompkins pointed out, this now works--I just hadn't checked it since it was fixed.  You may have to manually enable it, but logging into your account and going into the Caller ID preferences.  This is a great improvement because many people will just ignore calls that say UNKNOWN or from strange looking numbers. … [Read more...] about Skype Now Sends Caller ID

Cell Phones and Sleep

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Some experiments seems to suggest that using a cell phone before going to bed can make it more difficult to fall asleep.  It seems that the radio waves can mess with the mind and excite it.  The effect is fairly subtle and is about equivalent to drinking half a cup of coffee, but still something to consider if you are having trouble going to sleep. … [Read more...] about Cell Phones and Sleep

Working Effectively with a New Assistant

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Most successful and efficient people will eventually come to a point where they at least consider hiring an assistant.  It seems like a very logical step.  If some of your work can be handed off to someone else, then you can concentrate on the things that can only be done by you which will increase your personal productivity.  Unfortunately many people hire assistants and end up in this type of situation: Lets say you are a mad scientist out to destroy the world.  You can spend more time thinking up doomsday scenarios if you had an assistant to study gauges and push the buttons that simply must be studied and pushed to keep your diabolical lab running smoothly.  So after a careful search … [Read more...] about Working Effectively with a New Assistant

The Zone

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There are two things that will impact how much you get done.  First, there is the amount of time you spend.  Obviously, you can get more done in 20 minutes than in 2.  The second is how focused you are.  This factor is referred to as, being in "the zone". When it comes to your personal productivity, the second factor is usually more important than the first.  How many times have you spent 30 minutes working on a task that you didn't really want to do and made very little progress, but when you truly decide you want to complete that task it only takes 15 minutes? This a common occurrence for most people. Often the biggest differentiator between highly productive and less productive people … [Read more...] about The Zone

The Rat Experiment

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There was an experiment where researchers were given a set of rats and told to rate their ability to learn mazes.  They were told that certain rats were "smart rats" and had an abnormally high IQ.  When the researchers tested the rats, their studies showed that the "smart rats" performed significantly better than the ordinary rats. The experiment, however, wasn't focused on the rats, it was testing the researchers.  All of the rats were the same, but telling the researchers that some of the rats were smart caused them to rate the rats better, even though there was no difference. People will view what you do through their own set of prejudices.  To a certain extent, your ability to … [Read more...] about The Rat Experiment