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Good Bookshelves

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Quick Tip: When buying bookshelves beware of particle board shelves. They are usually decorative and not designed to hold the weight of real books. After a few months they will bow and eventually dump your books on the floor. You can sometimes glue or screw a board to the bottom of each shelf to improve its strength, but solid wood is a better option. … [Read more...] about Good Bookshelves

Simple Todo List

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There are many different ways to manage your todo list.  I am currently having the most luck with a single sheet of paper placed in the center of my desk.  I draw a line across the middle.  The things above the the line are the things I must complete.  The things below are the other items I think of during the day.  I write big so I can only fit a finite number of items on the page.  For right now this is working very well. … [Read more...] about Simple Todo List

Vote Again

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With well over 3,000 votes in the Organization category, we are ready to move on to the Personal Development section.  So take a few minutes to vote for your favorite answers. You just select a question that looks interesting and then select the best answer from the two presented.  When you stop seeing any new interesting answers, just move on to another question. … [Read more...] about Vote Again

Breaking the Internet

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I just saw a video where someone explained that typing Google into Google can "break the internet".   I sent the link to my dad and then went and tried it at Google.  I immediately (I'm not joking) got a message from my remote executive assistant saying that her internet was down.  I think I broke the internet in India.  Sorry about that everyone. … [Read more...] about Breaking the Internet

Vote!

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As I mentioned before, we are doing a series of interviews for Productivity501.  However to help make things a bit more interactive, I'd like some help in determining which tips are the best.  If you have a few minutes take a look at this question and answers about the most useful gadget. You'll see two answers.  Simply click on the vote button for the one you think is the best answer.  You can do this as many times as you like.  Once we get a number of votes, we'll publish the results. … [Read more...] about Vote!

Some Online Tools

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Rajesh pointed me to Jiffle a web based program for scheduling meetings that integrates with Outlook and Google Calendar. One of the more interesting uses is allowing customers to directly schedule and appointment when you whenever you are free. It looks like it provides many of the features of an Exchange server--without the server. Louise wrote to tell me about PassPack an online password manager. It will let you autologin to your saved sites and will generate passwords for you. … [Read more...] about Some Online Tools

Bigger Monitors

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WSJ has a post referencing a study showing that people with a 24 inch monitor were 44% faster than people with 18 inch monitors on a particular set of tasks.  They said that performance started to go down again when given 26 inch monitors. I find that most people don't really know how to use a big monitor--especially with Windows.  I've watch a lot of people open an application and maximize it regardless of how big their screen is.  Then they jump back and forth between screens just like they would with a smaller monitor.  You have to learn how to get the most productivity out of a bigger monitor--especially if you are in the habit of working with a smaller computer screen.  This is … [Read more...] about Bigger Monitors

Noise Canceling Headsets

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Many years ago, I was reading a popular science article reviewing the first noise canceling headsets.  (Noise cancellation is done by creating a sound wave exactly the opposite of the ambient noise so the two waves cancel each other out and you hear silence.)  The reviewer noted that he had no jet lag when wearing the headset on a long flight. Has anyone experienced this? … [Read more...] about Noise Canceling Headsets

Looking for Bloggers to Interview

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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

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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

No Refund

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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

Mac Audio Input

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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

Podcasting Conference

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I'm attending a day long conference of educators talking about podcasting at Kansas University today. At lunch it was very interesting to hear the professors talking about how their students approach to learning has changed after coming out of No Child Left Behind style education.  They felt that current students tend to take much less responsibility for learning than students from 3 or 4 years ago.  One teacher said he had 5 students go to the dean because they had attended every one of his lectures and didn't understand how they got an F in the class.  Their grades were evidently less impressive than their attendance records.   … [Read more...] about Podcasting Conference

Binge Productivity

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Glen at LifeDev writes about how is is trying out Binge Productivity.  Instead of dealing with a big todo list, he is working on whatever project he wants for as long as he wants.  If you have the flexibility to work like this, it can be a great way to take advantage of the intense focus that comes from getting into your work zone. … [Read more...] about Binge Productivity

Fixing the Mighty Mouse Finger Ball

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Apple's Mighty Mouse works reasonably well, but they didn't provide a way to clean the finger ball.  If the ball stops working it is probably because of dirt.  Sometimes you can fix it by turning off the mouse and pressing down on the ball very hard with your thumb.  Move it forward, backwards, and side to side.  So for this has worked for me in dislodging the internal dirt and getting it working again. … [Read more...] about Fixing the Mighty Mouse Finger Ball

Praise for the Procrastination Prevention Course

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Since its release the Procrastination Prevention course has quickly gained over 550 users.  Here is what some of them are saying: Thank you so much for these Procrastination Prevention emails, they have been very interesting and useful. Changing one small thing has had profound effects and I feel much less likely to procrastinate in the future now I have tools like the 5 minute contract to hand! - Dianne … [Read more...] about Praise for the Procrastination Prevention Course