Productivity501

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Costs Going Down?

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Bank for International Settlements says that if economies keep cooling we may be in for a period of deflation and falling prices.  On one hand, this doesn't sound bad, but a small rate of inflation is usually considered healthy.  If the house you bought for $100,000 today is only worth $75,000 next month, it tends to have all kinds of bad side effects. … [Read more...] about Costs Going Down?

Contests

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Just a reminder about two current contests.  First we have the Belkin Concealed Powerstrip giveaway.  When we get to 1250 email subscribers of them will get the powerstrip.  (We are currently at 1088.  It has been slow because many people have been switching over to feedreaders.) Second we have the Bento software giveaway. The last person to comment on the post gets the software. … [Read more...] about Contests

Younger Look for Resume

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Thursday's WSJ has an example of how a 49 year old woman was able to get more attention for jobs by adding a photo to her resume where she was dressed to look younger and trendy.  She also tried to minimize the length of her experience by removing her graduation date and some of the earlier jobs. What do you think of adding a photo to  your resume? … [Read more...] about Younger Look for Resume

Virtual Box

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Sun has released a free virtulization tool that is similar to Parallels and VMWare Fusion.  If you have a Mac and need to run another OS, this is worth looking into.  The have a commercial and opensource version.  I haven't tried it yet.  If you have used it, drop me a line and let me know what you think. … [Read more...] about Virtual Box

Laptop Unfriendly Library

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I went to a library today to do some research and some writing on my laptop.  The internet browsing librarian informed me that I wasn't allowed to plug my computer in to the outlet.  I asked why and he said it was "library policy".  This wasn't an answer--he was just being redundant.  I prodded a bit more and found him even less helpful--probably because I was infringing on his valuable web surfing activities.  I gave up and just used my battery. Most libraries are trying to redesign themselves to attract people.  I've been to some where they added rows and rows of tables with Ethernet and power jacks for people with laptops. This one seems to be concerned that patrons might actually come … [Read more...] about Laptop Unfriendly Library

Back to My Mac

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I've recently started trying out the Back to my Mac feature of Leopard that works with a .mac account.  It didn't work at all until I installed 10.5.3, but now I've been pleasantly surprised. In a nutshell it lets you access computers as if they were on your local network--even if one computer is at your house and the other is at Starbucks.  It makes it easy to look over the shoulder of my assistant if she needs help with something or quickly transfer a file. … [Read more...] about Back to My Mac

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

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

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

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

Stop Reading on the Internet

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A few weeks ago, my eyes started bothering me when reading things on the computer.  I think they were just tired, because they seem fine now.  However I did make one small change that has proved useful.  I've tried to stop reading news on the Internet.  I subscribed to the Wall Street Journal and it comes every day with more news than I care to read.  If I catch myself starting to go to a news site on the internet, I stop and pick up the newspaper.  I've found that this reduces the amount of time I spend reading news and the quality of what I'm reading is usually higher. … [Read more...] about Stop Reading on the Internet

Quick Paperless Update

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My paperless experiment is going well.  Most of my incoming paper gets filed in DevonTHINK and I've been very happy with the the results.  DevonTHINK will let you do stuff like put the same file in two folders.  Once you get a number of documents in the right folders, DevonTHINK can automatically suggest where to put new incoming documents.  This is surprisingly helpful and extremely accurate. The ScanSnap is good with flat paper, but sometimes has trouble with items that have been folder (think anything that comes in the mail).  I'm contemplating looking for a higher end scanner just to simplify the scanning process.  It isn't bad, but it isn't a smooth as I'd like it to be. … [Read more...] about Quick Paperless Update

Learning to Delegate

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When working with an assistant it can be difficult to learn to delegate.  One way to practice is to find a task that they can't mess up.  For example, getting quotes on a print job from a handful of print shops.  Let them know that there isn't anything they can mess up and tell them you want them to handle the process on their own.  Give them as much info as they need and ask them to clarify if they have any questions.  Then turn them loose on the project and don't interfere.  This is good practice for you and good practice for them. It will teach you both how to work together more efficiently. … [Read more...] about Learning to Delegate

Michigan’s Big Bet

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Recently the state of Michigan made a big bet.  The government decided that they could spend money more efficiently than businesses could, so they raised business taxes.  I don't understand the logic making it harder for businesses when a good percentage of your work force is looking for jobs.  The result is that businesses are moving out of Michigan.  This along with a number of companies simply shutting down is putting a strain on the economy.  The thought of "if we only had more money we could fix our problems" is prevalent in government, business and personal life.  If your focus is on getting more money you will often overlook solutions that actually solve the problem.  Worse still, … [Read more...] about Michigan’s Big Bet

American Airlines Suitcase Charge

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American Airlines is going to start charging an extra $15 if you want to check a suitcase to help with the high cost of fuel.  I've heard that some airlines are considering charing passengers "by the pound" so the cost of your ticket better reflects the cost of the fuel required to move you from point A to point B.  What do you think?  Would you mind paying for flights based on your weight? … [Read more...] about American Airlines Suitcase Charge