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Awhile back we looked at Behance's Action Method Process. They have a line of products to help support this process.  They offered to send me a few to see what I thought and to give away to readers of Productivity501. At first I must say that I was skeptical. When it really comes down to it, the Action Pads are places to record a list of your actions--so how is that any different than the to-do list I normally keep on the index cards I carry with me?  I mean can't you capture the same information using whatever paper you have available?  Yes, you can. But I found that the design of the products helped change the way I approach creating a task list in positive ways. … [Read more...] about Behance’s Action Pads

One of my clients is a Fortune 500 company.  They need some help setting up some software for their developer teams.  According to their contractor policy, no consultant can come on the premises unless they have a signed PO.  That seems to make sense, but here is the problem:  They recently upgraded their PO system and it didn't quite go according to plan.  No one in the entire company can create a PO.  So I can't come on their property until the system is fixed. What would be really ironic is if I was the person they needed to fix their purchase order system. I wouldn't be able to fix it until it was working. :) … [Read more...] about Bureaucracy in Action

When my wife and I first got married, she moved into my apartment with me.  I had a large L shaped work area made from joining two desks that we shared.  When we bought our house and she started on a Master's degree, I separated them in our office so she had her own and I had mine.  I also went out and bought her a good leather office chair. It turns out this was one of the best things I ever did as far as our productivity. It was amazing how much easier it was for us both to work when we had our own work area--even though the large combined work area was more than big enough for both of us. Every person in a household needs to have their own dedicated work area and storage space.  … [Read more...] about TIP: Two Desks

I wanted to take a post and thank the people who have taken the time to comment here over the past week or so.  I've really appreciated all the feedback we've been getting and I've learned a lot from the many insightful comments. Below is a list of blogs from people who comment here.  I actually made the list several days ago, so I apologize if you are a recent commenter and your blog is missing. Thanks again to everyone who participates here. … [Read more...] about Productivity501 Community

My talk to the high school students went very well.  Thank you to everyone who made suggestions. I worked a lot of your comments into my talk. Talking to a high school seniors made me remember my first year as a freshman working on my bachelors degree. When I went to college, the internet was just becoming something you could get access to outside of the academic world.  Netscape was the hub for finding anything else on the web and the only way to check your email in your dorm was to signup with AOL or a local BBS system. Out of a campus of 5000 students in 1995, I was the only student with a cellphone (I did a lot of work for a health care system and they needed to be able to get a … [Read more...] about Thanks for Your Help & Thoughts on Technology at College

I am giving a talk to a bunch of high school seniors about personal productivity and life skills as they prepare to enter college next semester.  I wanted to ask for some help. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself a few months before high school graduation? Specifically I'm looking for productivity advice related to college and entering the work force. Here are a few things I wish I had known: Don't expect other people to keep records for you. Keep copies of your transcripts, employment agreements, paycheck stubs, homework grades, etc.  It doesn't matter if other people are supposed to keep those records or not, take responsibility for your own paper … [Read more...] about What Would You Tell Yourself in High School

Narek posted the following comment that made me realize that the focus of this blog might encourage people to shift the work life balance to the extreme side of work: It's sad that you consider everything in life must be done productively. "Wasting Time in the Car -- Subscribe to podcasts and get a connector for your MP3 player in your car. Spend your time learning instead of just sitting there driving." That's what pushed me over the [edge].. dude you just got to relax, just because something you are doing isn't making your life more productive doesn't mean it's a waste of time. Sometimes it is nice to just drive around to get out of the house or relieve stress. Listening to music … [Read more...] about Get a life, buddy.–Is it crazy to spend your drive listening to Podcasts.

It is easy to get so involved in our activities and tasks, that we stop taking time to just sit and think.  Taking the time to think and plan for the future is rarely urgent, so it often gets bumped by all the little emergencies of daily life. But taking the time to think is vitally important for your productivity. Thinking can lead to more efficiency.  Thinking can lead to new ideas.  Thinking can help make sure you are focused on the things that are really important to you. If you aren't taking the time to sit and think, I can guarantee that you are not reaching your full potential. Your ability to improve is going to be tied to your ability to be creative and creativity … [Read more...] about Time to Think

In the US, April 15th is tax day.  Hopefully you have your return filed already and everything is taken care of.  I'd like to make a quick suggestion: Take some time today to prepare for tax season next year.  There really isn't any better time because right now you probably know exactly what would have made your life easier for tax season had you done it 1 year ago. So at a very minimum, get some folders out and label them with whatever groupings you wished you had of had this year.  If you have a place to put the information ahead of time, the chances of it ending up in the right place is much higher. … [Read more...] about Prepare Ahead for Tax Season

Berkeley has an interesting study from 2003 that looks at how much information is being produced in the world. The results are pretty amazing.  Here are some of the highlights: … [Read more...] about How Much Information Is There?