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Cordless Phone at Odds with Skype

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Skype usually works great for making phone calls, but when I moved my office a few weeks ago people stopped being able to hear me.  I finally traced the problem to my cordless phone that was now sitting near my wireless access point.  I moved it 3 feet away and Skype call quality returned to normal.  So if you are having trouble with Skype on a wireless network look for sources of interference. … [Read more...] about Cordless Phone at Odds with Skype

Offending the Entire VA Industry

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Let me start off by saying that this is a long post, but I wanted to share the story of my experience interacting with virtual assistants other than India over one of my previous posts. If you are an easily offended virtual assistant, you might want to skip this. If you think you might ever want to use a virtual assistant, read on. Ok, so I haven't offended the entire industry--just a subset of the people on the Virtual Assistant International Group. My Ultimate Guide to Virtual Assistants generated a lot of input from virtual assistants. Most of them were telling me that I could get much higher quality help if I was willing to pay more money. The idea that paying someone four times as … [Read more...] about Offending the Entire VA Industry

Wireless Card Reader

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I have been attempting to move everything possible to wireless.  There is only so much you can do to route wires to keep them from looking sloppy.  Getting rid of the wires entirely is ideal. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my new printer (HP 2605dtn) has a memory card reader that shows up on as a network drive in OS X. I can stick in a card and then pull it down to my computer over my Wifi network.  So there is one less device and wire I have to keep on (or near) my desktop. … [Read more...] about Wireless Card Reader

Batch Processing

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Darren at Problogger has written a great post on Batch Processing. Basically he has found that he can get more done by batching similar tasks together. I generally set aside Monday mornings (and usually Wednesdays also) for writing posts. I take my laptop - camp out in a cafe - spend most of the morning off-line (so there are no other distractions) and just write. My goal is to write at least 5 posts that I can then use later in the week. Quite often I’ll write as many as 10 posts in a 5-6 hour period. About twice each year I do something similar for Productivity501. I'll spend about a week writing posts for the next 6 months. I'll spend 3 or 4 hours a day for 4 or 5 days just writing … [Read more...] about Batch Processing

Credit Cards as a Productivity Tool

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Credit cards are an important part of how I manage my finances efficiently.  I don't recommend them for going into debt, but the can make it much easier to track expenses and do things in a paperless manner.  One big time saver is the ability to give an assistant their own card on your account.  You can setup whatever limits you need (if you don't trust them completely) but it sure is easier than trying to deal with giving them cash to run errands for you. … [Read more...] about Credit Cards as a Productivity Tool

5 Tips for Dealing with Mail

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Everyone gets mail. It can consume a lot of your time, effort and storage space to process and store. Here are 5 tips to help you manage your incoming mail. Open your mail over a trash can. This simple tip can help make sure that any mail that doesn't belong in your house gets taken back out. If you have a trash can outside, that may be an even better place to open it. This is a particularly good way to make sure that the envelopes and generic mailings don't clutter up your work area. Get off the lists. If a company has you on their mailing list, but you don't want to receive anything else from them, simply ask to be taken off. It is better for the company, better for the … [Read more...] about 5 Tips for Dealing with Mail

Ease of Collaboration

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Most people completely overlook the collaboration tools they have at their disposal.  If you find yourself doing a lot of inefficient collaboration, take some time to learn how to use some of the following: Comments in Word, tracking changes in Word, Shared Google App Documents, and Wikis.  Investing in a little education about your tools can pay very high returns. … [Read more...] about Ease of Collaboration