When working with someone from another country it is easy to forget that they will probably have a different holiday schedule than what you are used to. If you hire a remote executive assistant, make sure you get a list of their holidays. It helps with your planning and is a great way to better understand their culture. … [Read more...] about International Holidays
Blog
Looking for Bloggers to Interview
I'm working on a new set of interviews on various productivity and life management topics and I'm looking for bloggers who would like to participate. We will then publish all the answers to a particular question together along with the name, website, and RSS feed of the person who contributed each answer. This can be a great way to highlight your website and your writing. You choose which questions you want to answer, so it only takes a few minutes to participate. If you are interested in participating, send an email to [email protected] with the subject interview and a link to your website. … [Read more...] about Looking for Bloggers to Interview
Brook Sounds are Quite Popular
Yesterday I posted an MP3 that I use to give me ambient noise. The audio is the sound of a brook. Evidently brook sounds are very popular. Here is what my outgoing traffic looked like for the past few days. The blue line is my outgoing traffic, which suddenly jumped when it was posted. It looks like a couple thousand people downloaded the file. If you were one of the ones who downloaded it, please give me some feedback on whether it was useful or not. I've got a few other ones with different sounds that I'm thinking about releasing and I'd like to know what was good or bad about the way this one worked. If you didn't download it and want to check it out, the link is in the bottom … [Read more...] about Brook Sounds are Quite Popular
Leo’s Desk
Leo Babauta talks about his minimalistic home office setup. … [Read more...] about Leo’s Desk
Getting the Most from a Large Monitor
Recently I read about a study that showed productivity increased (up to 52% increase for certain tasks) when people used a larger monitor--up to 24 inches. After that productivity started dropping off again. Having used monitors 24 inches or larger for the past 3 years, I've learned a few things about getting the most from screen real estate. I think I know why productivity doesn't continue to go up with even larger screens. To use a larger screen effectively you have to break a lot of bad habits developed over years of using smaller display devices. This is a lot harder than it sounds. In this article I want to explore some of the ways to get more from your screen as well as some tips to … [Read more...] about Getting the Most from a Large Monitor
No Refund
If you live in the US, today is the day your personal taxes are due. It is also a good time to take a look and consider whether or not you got a refund. If you got more than a couple hundred dollars back beyond the economic stimulus payment, it is a sign you need to adjust your deductions. Don't get excited when you get money back. It simply means you've over paid and gave the government an interest free loan. Your HR department should be able to help you readjust your deductions. … [Read more...] about No Refund
Commercial Memory Application
Jeff wrote in to say that he has a created a commercial memorization application based on the technique and tool I demonstrated in the How to Memorize post. … [Read more...] about Commercial Memory Application
Ambient Sound Download – The Brook
Have you ever wished you could tune out background noise--maybe to drown out an annoying co-worker or just to stay focused? I know a lot of people use music for this, but personally I find music divides my concentration (a possible side effect of my training in music theory and composition). To help concentrate I need something that will stay in the background. Trying a bunch of sounds, I've found that water seems to be the most effective. Someday I'll probably get a fountain for my office, but until then I've created an MP3 file to help me concentrate. I'm making the file available as a special bonus to RSS and Email subscribers. If you'd like to download it, just subscribe to the … [Read more...] about Ambient Sound Download – The Brook
Mac Audio Input
If you try to use your Mac for Skype you'll probably want to get a headset microphone some time. Be aware that Macs don't actually have a microphone input. They have a line in input. This means with most microphones the signal will be too soft. You can get around this problem by getting a USB headset or some type of preamp. Hopefully this little bit of knowledge will save some readers a few hours of time and 3 or 4 trips to Radio Shack. (I speak from experience on this.) … [Read more...] about Mac Audio Input
QWERTY vs. Dvorak
An article about standards and another from Reason.com both look at the comparison between Dvorak and QWERTY keyboards and suggests that there is a less of a difference than is commonly advertised. Of particular interest is the look at how the research was conducted for the Dvorak layouts. … [Read more...] about QWERTY vs. Dvorak