Why do people use credit cards? If you have financial self discipline, using a credit card can be much safer than using cash or debit cards. Credit cards offer you better protection from fraud. They are also setup to protect your rights as a consumer because you can leverage the credit card company against a merchant who sold you a defective product. In a previous post, I discussed 4 Reasons You Should Use A Credit Card. Many people are conditioned to avoid credit cards at all costs. This is a good strategy if you have no financial discipline--just a like an alcoholic should steer clear of even driving near a bar. If you treat your credit card like a checking account and keep track of … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Credit Cards
Archives for 2008
American Express Concierge 2
Last Monday we looked at using the American Express concierge service for scheduling a tuneup on my car. This week we will try something else. I have been looking for radiometers to send as a corporate gift to some of my clients. (A radiometer looks light a light bulb but instead of a filament it has metal vanes that spin in the sunlight.) Unfortunately most of the ones I've found for sale were packaged for kids science experiments. The radiometers are fine, but the packaging doesn't look very "corporate". I figured this sounded like a job for super concierge, so I called them with a request. I explained what I was looking for and in particular asked them to find a radiometer with … [Read more...] about American Express Concierge 2
Reader Question – Desk Organization
What should you have on your desk? Everything you need to do your job and as little as possible to distract you. Is a clean desk an organized desk? Not necessarily. If you clean your desk simply be stuffing everything into your drawers, your clean desktop may just be superficial. The best measurement of organization is how quickly you can find anything you need. If you have to spend a lot of time hunting for files and bits of information, you are not organized--no matter how clean your desktop is. Also see the post 12 Tips for an Organized Desk. On Fridays we publish questions from our readers. If you have a question you'd like to see answer here, please send it to … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Desk Organization
Michael Sampson on the Dvorak Keyboard
We've talked about the Dvorak keyboard before when I learned Michael Sampson was making the switch. Since it has been a few months, I thought it would be interesting to checkup and see how it was going so I sent him a few questions about the change. checkout his responses below. What promoted you to switch to the Dvorak keyboard? There was one main reason that I switched: I was suffering from severe RSI in my left lower arm and hand, and I needed to find a better way of doing things. I knew of the Dvorak layout, and had recently read Mark Hurst's excellent book (Bit Literacy) in which he talked about his own transition from QWERTY to Dvorak. So I did some online study on the Dvorak … [Read more...] about Michael Sampson on the Dvorak Keyboard
Reader Question – Lighting for your office
I have an office in my basement. My desk is a table with a fluorescent light over it. My question: should my desk be parallel or perpendicular to the light for best lighting? Thank you for your time and attention to this question.Sincerely,Lou Sartori Louisville, KY If the light is over the table, you will probably get the most even light by having the light parallel to the table. If it is perpendicular to the table your body and objects will tend to cast more of a shadow. With the parallel arrangement you have more light hitting your workspace from different directions which will help keep shadows off your work surface. I'm assuming you are talking about a 3 or 4 foot fluorescent light … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Lighting for your office
The Promise of Sleep — Book
Sometimes we focus on the wrong things. For example, it is easy to focus on trying to do more during the day while short changing our sleep at night. This book looks at how and why we sleep. It is based on a lot of sleep research, but the writing style is very accessible and makes for an interesting read. For example, the author explores the right balance of sleep to let you fall asleep quickly and wake up without feeling worn out. He talks about situations where people sleep too much and then suffer from insomnia until their body gets tired enough to fall asleep again. One of the more interesting concepts in the book is the idea of a "sleep debt". This theory basically says … [Read more...] about The Promise of Sleep — Book
Passive Income
Last week we talked about defining wealth in terms of long you can go without a job before running out of money. With this definition of wealth we can increase our wealth from two sides. One side is to reduce our spending the other is to increase our savings and our income that isn't tied to work. Money that you don't have to work for is usually called passive income. This includes interest and other types of income that you get more or less automatically. Here is a list of some passive income sources: Interest income - Money that the bank pays you for the use of your money. Rental income - Real estate lease or other sources of income in exchange for the use of property. Royalties … [Read more...] about Passive Income
Remote Executive Assistant – Some Lessons
Last Monday I wrote about my experience with using a remote executive assistant in the US. It didn't work out so well, but the experiment provided a lot of insight into how to work with a remote assistant. Here are some takeaways from that experience. 1. Make sure you have a good project management system in place. You need a way to track the work assigned and keep track of time spent. If you don't know how much time is being spent on each project it is going to be very difficult to understand what is working well and what isn't. Without a good time tracking system, you may not know something is wrong until you've spent a considerable amount of money. It is possible to keep track of all … [Read more...] about Remote Executive Assistant – Some Lessons
Reader Question – Uncompleted Tasks
I've been an avid enthusiast (not to say follower) of GTD and productivity blogs in general. (This one has long been chief on that list; keep up the good material without diluting it.) Currently I just started a new role at work where I have a bit more responsibility.To keep track, I've been using tasks--via Outlook 2007 and Remember the Milk. Both are great ways to quickly catalog things to be done. However, the other side of my job is that I can get "interrupted" with urgent things that legitimately take precedence over my (usually) non-urgent tasks. So days can go by without me getting any tasks completed. This feels pretty crummy. What do I do with that? Any mentality tips you can … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Uncompleted Tasks
Portable Scan Snap S300
Fujitsu has released a portable version of the ScanSnap line of scanners. It can run on its own power cable or use power from the USB connection. This is particularly useful if you are traveling or working of your laptop with a battery. When running off the USB power it is a little slower to scan. When plugged into its own power connection it can handle 8 pages per minute. The S300 is only for Windows. It is fairly new, so they may release a S300M version sometime in the future. You can buy the S300 from our online store for $291. … [Read more...] about Portable Scan Snap S300
Definition of Wealth
One of the most important things you can do in aligning your finances to be more productive is define what wealth means to you. Obviously being wealthy is something of a relative term. Someone at the poverty line in the US would be seen as extremely rich in other parts of the world. The Rich Dad Poor Dad books give an interesting definition of wealth. They say that wealth is determined by how long you can survive at your current standard of living if you quit your job today. So once you stop getting your regular paycheck, how long can you live off your savings and passive income sources before you go broke. I think this is a very healthy description of wealth because instead of … [Read more...] about Definition of Wealth
Subprime Problem Explained
Thanks to everyone who helped answer my questions in the previous subprime post I now have a much better understanding of what is going on. I thought I'd go ahead and explain it here. The first reason is to share with anyone who is interested. The second is so the financial wizards among my readers can correct me if I got anything wrong. Over the past several decades home prices have been going up. This has made them a fairly safe investment. If someone can't make their payments they can always sell the house--usually at a profit--and pay the mortgage company back. In order to create as many loans as possible, mortgage companies will take a group of mortgages and turn them into a special … [Read more...] about Subprime Problem Explained
Remote Executive Assistant – First Try
I find that I have a lot more ideas of things I'd like to do than I have time to do them. I get all the important stuff done, but there are many smaller things that I'd like to accomplish that I simply don't have enough time. I looked at a lot of the companies that provide remote executive assistants, but decided I'd rather work with someone directly. I found a paralegal from Texas who was looking for work as a virtual assistant. My thinking was that someone who grew up in the US would be easier to communicate with than someone from a foreign country. I also wanted to keep the work in the USA if I could instead of sending it out of the country. When I spoke with I called one of her … [Read more...] about Remote Executive Assistant – First Try
Reader Question – Working from Home
Why would it be valuable to work from home? Lets say you commute 30 minutes to work each day. Working from home will save you at least 5 hours per week of drive time. If you apply this time to your job, you should be able to pull ahead of people who have to invest those 5 hours in driving to work. You can also choose to invest those extra 5 hours in sleep, your family, a hobby or whatever you like. Sometimes working from home can help you focus. Being out of the office means it is more difficult for people to distract you--they can't just pop into your office or cubicle. Of course if your home work environment is distracting, you may not see much benefit. If you want to know more … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Working from Home
Another Scanner
A reader pointed me to the Fujitsu 6140. It is faster than the Scan Snap at 80 to 120 ppm (each side counts as one page) and seems to be a little more heavy duty in its construction. It looks like it uses dual rollers where the Scan Snap 510 and 510M only use one. This might help guard against misfeeds and paper jams. The 6140 comes with Kofax workgroup software that will handle some scanning tasks including processing bar codes scanned on documents. The scanner appears to only support the Windows platform. The 6140 is quite a bit more expensive with a list price of $1999. You can get it in the Productivity501 Store for $1,660. … [Read more...] about Another Scanner
10 Signs You Will Be Poor
Here is a list of signs that indicate someone is likely to be poor in the future. If any of these apply to you, it might want to consider making some changes. 10. The only type of CDs you know about play music. Not understanding basic investment tools is one sure sign that you will mismanage your finances. This is especially true because a basic financial education is so readily accessible on websites, through library books, etc. 9. Your bank account balance goes down each month. You don't need any fancy charts to see if your net worth is improving or decaying. If you usually have less money in your accounts each month then your lifestyle is not sustainable on your current income. You'll … [Read more...] about 10 Signs You Will Be Poor
6 Ways to Look Smarter
In life, many opportunities are tied to what other people think of you. If the people around you think you are smart, you are more likely to get asked to participate in projects that will enhance your career. If people think you are dumb, you'll probably be passed over. Looking smart is just as important as being smart. Assuming that you are actually smart you don't have to fake anything. Your goal is to make people think of you as a smart person. Humans aren't particularly good at judging the intelligence of other humans. Here are six things you can do that will help enhance people's perception of your intelligence. 1. Look Smarter by Asking More Questions Most people try to show … [Read more...] about 6 Ways to Look Smarter
Reader Question – Memorization
How should I memorize a speech? I don't generally memorize any of my presentations. If you create a detailed outline and then practice giving your speech to a few friends, you'll probably do fine unless you have really bad stage fright. If you do have stage fright, simply memorizing your speech word for word is likely to cause you problems because it will be difficult to remember while under pressure. If you want to give your speech word for word, you can memorize it, but keep the speech with you just in case you have to revert to reading the speech. If you do this, make sure you use some type of method to keep track of where you are in the speech. You don't want to stumble around for 2 … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Memorization
Productive Home Office
Earlier I asked readers to share their favorite home office tip as a follow up to the previous interview. Here are the responses: Many of my clients struggle with organizing their offices (home or otherwise) because they try to fit a "square peg into a round hole." Meaning, they try to use systems and setup that works for others, but does not match the way that they think and function. Recognize are you an "innie" or an "outtie"? Innies are people that function better (are more creative, get more done, etc.) when their space is clear. They can frequently get distracted to other tasks if there are piles laying around. Tools good for innies are systems with drawers and cabinet doors. … [Read more...] about Productive Home Office
Productivity and Finances
A lot of people tend to think of productivity in a vacuum. They want to get more done. However at the end of the day your work translates into money which translates into purchasing power. Sometimes instead of just concentrating on how to do more work, it is more efficient to concentrate on the conversion process--how the work turns into money and then turns into things you need. For example, if you currently work for $50 per hour and you are able to make a change that allows you to turn your work into money at a rate of $75 per hour, you've increased your productivity by 50%. On the other hand, if you can make your money go further you can also increase your productivity. For … [Read more...] about Productivity and Finances
Productivity501 Store
Productivity501 is launching a webstore with products specially selected to help make you more productive. In particular be sure to check out the paperless category. Here are some other items that might be of interest: Mozarts Brain and the Fighter Pilot - A great book about how the inner workings of the human mind. Hon Leather Chair - My personal favorite work chair that I've been using for over 5 years now. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - The biography of an incredibly gifted scientist. It is sure to challenge the way you see the world around you. Mindmapping - This is the book I purchased years ago before taking an intense college history course that had been condensed … [Read more...] about Productivity501 Store
Share Your Answer – Tips for a Home Office
Recently we did a group interview with a bunch of bloggers. Each one was asked for the single most important tip they could share for setting up a home office. The answers were great and I know I learned quite a bit by reading through them. Now is your chance to participate. If you have a tip on setting up a home office you'd like to share, please submit it here. If you have a blog or website be sure to fill in the appropriate blanks--if people like your answer they may want to checkout the other things you've written. We will only keep things open until Tuesday afternoon, so if you have something to share, please do it right away. I'm experimenting with some new technology for … [Read more...] about Share Your Answer – Tips for a Home Office
Reader Questions – Being Absent
I went through my site statistics and found some interesting questions that were typed into Google and led people to Productivity501. Over the next few fridays I'm going to attempt to answer some of these questions. Should you call your boss if you are going to be absent? Yes. I can't think of any reason you shouldn't call and let your boss know that you are going to be absent. It doesn't matter if you are sick or have some type of personal issue you need to tend to. Simply not showing up is one of the worst things you can do. Even if you don't feel your current job is where you want to work, you should still approach it professionally. Treat your boss with the same courtesy that you … [Read more...] about Reader Questions – Being Absent
Habit List Course
The Habit List Course is now live. You can signup below. If you are reading this in an email, you may not be able to see the form. Visit the site in order to sign up. Using the Habit List 30 Days - 10 lessons This course explains the Habit List–a method of tracking habits you want to develop that shouldn’t be on your regular to-do list. It explains the theory behind the list and includes the popular PDF allowing you to print your own Habit List. (In Testing: Signup Below for Beta) Name: Email: … [Read more...] about Habit List Course
Online Backup Options
I've been trying out several online backup tools. I plan to write in more detail about my experiences with each one later, but here is an overview. My wife and I travel quite a bit. While I can take an extra hard drive with us for backups, but this seems a bit pointless since the biggest threat to my equipment is probably theft. If someone breaks into my hotel room and steals my laptop, they probably aren't going to overlook an external hard drive. I need a solution that will give me quick access to all my information if my computer is stolen or damaged. Here are three services I've tried. If you have any suggestions of other services I should check out please post them in the … [Read more...] about Online Backup Options
Tuesdays Tip: Time for Reading
This might be a personal idiosyncrasy, but I bet I'm not the only one it applies to. When I don't spend some regular time reading, I start feeling drained of creative ideas. And I'm not talking about spending some time reading articles on the web, I'm talking about sitting down with an actual physical book and doing some good old fashioned reading. I suppose this makes sense. If you are constantly trying to produce using the creative part of your brain you need to be feeding it new stuff, but I suspect that the effect goes well beyond just having some new ideas to think about. Reading (at least for me) seems to trigger new ideas about totally different subjects. So spending some time … [Read more...] about Tuesdays Tip: Time for Reading
Understanding How Different Genders Think
One of my consulting clients has a company thats purpose is to help lower the divorce rate in America. One of their big goals is to teach people how to understand each other. Here is a short excerpts of one of their videos explaining the difference between the way men and women think. Obviously this is a generalization, but it is a useful reference point for planning discussions with people of the opposite sex--not just your spouse. For example, if you are a woman trying to negotiate a business agreement with a man you should be aware that he is less likely to see the holistic benefits of the arrangement. He is more likely to view the deal in isolation instead of seeing the advantages … [Read more...] about Understanding How Different Genders Think
Thinking For Yourself
This morning I read a news article that started out: SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Some women in Springfield are regretting their decision last week to get a tattoo from a door-to-door tattoo salesman. link Um. I think I would have seen that one coming. One of the biggest differences I noticed in Mexico was the fact that people expect to rely on their own good judgment. In the US I find people tend to think: If it is legal it is right. If it is for sale, it must be safe. If I'm not physically prevented from doing something it must be ok. In the US if you are near a cliff there would be a rule that says you aren't allowed to go near the edge. There would probably be a fence or other … [Read more...] about Thinking For Yourself
Best Time to Look for a Job
The best time to look for a job is when you don't need one. That probably sounds counter intuitive, but let me explain. When you need a job, you are in the worst bargaining position possible. Anytime you put yourself in a position where you can't walk away from a deal--or where it is hard to walk away--you lose your advantage in negotiating. I found out about a job opportunity that would have been the perfect fit for a friend of mine. I told him about it, but he didn't want to apply because he was happy with his current job. This is they way most people think. If I like my job, why should I go to the trouble of getting my resume ready and talking to someone else? What most people … [Read more...] about Best Time to Look for a Job
Reader Questions
In the next few weeks I'm going to start posting answers to reader questions every Friday. I'm going to start off with some existing questions that have come in via email or on Google searches, but I wanted to open it up to everyone. If you have a question you think would be interesting to see answered here, please send it to [email protected]. … [Read more...] about Reader Questions
Advice for Setting up a Home Office – Group Interview
If you like this post, why not subscribe to the RSS feed or email feed for this site? I recently emailed a number of bloggers asking them for the most important non-intuitive piece of advice for setting up a home office. Here are their responses along with my thoughts. If you find a response that seems especially relevant to you, consider subscribing to the author's blog rss feed (included below). I learned this from Tannaz Sassooni, one of my favorite Wise Bread bloggers: Put an old fashioned egg timer on the desk. When I start a long or boring project, I'll set the timer at 15 minutes, and no matter what happens, I'll force myself to take a break when the alarm goes off. At first I … [Read more...] about Advice for Setting up a Home Office – Group Interview
How to Jump Start an Economy?
Right now the US is trying to figure out how to jump start the economy. Most of the proposals involve sending people money from the government or temporarily lowering taxes. The idea on sending everyone a "rebate" goes like this: When people have extra money they spend more, when people spend more businesses have to hire more workers. When more people have jobs, the earn money and in turn have more money to spend. So the idea is to "prime the pump" and get the cycle started. The idea of lowering taxes follows the same thinking, but there has been some talk of lowering corporate taxes. The idea here is that if businesses are charged a lower tax rate, investors will be more willing to … [Read more...] about How to Jump Start an Economy?
Gym Membership
My wife and I have been planning on joining the local gym for several months, but we've been on the road so much that it hasn't been practical. Now that our travel schedule is slowing down we went ahead and filled out all the paperwork and signed up last week. When we turned everything in we asked about the schedule and what was the busiest times of day. The receptionist told us, "oh January is really busy with New Years resolutioners, but they will all be gone by February." One of the biggest mistakes people make with resolutions is shooting too high. Some people think, "if I shoot for 100 maybe I'll hit 51 which is better than if I shoot for 50." In reality it doesn't work that … [Read more...] about Gym Membership
Last Night
Last night I got a new electronic book device. It was the size of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and had 600 dpi resolution. The quality was excellent. It worked in bright sunlight without a problem. I put all my scanned documents on it and found it was just as easy to read them as it was on paper and it was even easier to navigate and find documents than using the filing cabinet. I loaded it with all the PDF articles I wanted to read and found it worked flawlessly. Then I woke up. I was very disappointed. Should I be concerned that I'm now dreaming of becoming more paperless? … [Read more...] about Last Night
Habit List Web App
Tom from App Engines put together a web app based on the Habit List. (Thanks Tom!) It keeps all your data in a cookie on your local computer. (If you delete your cookies your data for the app will be gone.) Check it out here. … [Read more...] about Habit List Web App
Tuesday’s Tip: Kind of Like a String Around Your Finger
You've brushed your teeth and you are headed to bed. Suddenly you remember something very important for tomorrow. You can't forget. You can go write it down, send yourself an email, etc. but you really just want to go to bed. How can you make sure you remember? Simple. Grab your shoe and put it on top of the toilet. In the morning, you'll stumble into the bathroom, see the shoe and groggily think "What in the world is that doing there?" As your brain clears you'll remember you put it there for a reason and soon you'll be awake enough to recall what caused you to put the shoe there in the first place. This is very similar to tying a string around your finger. You can do it with about … [Read more...] about Tuesday’s Tip: Kind of Like a String Around Your Finger
My Desk Layout
This weekend I rearranged my desk. My goal was to remove some equipment that was no longer essential and try to reposition everything where in a way that reflects my work pattern. Here is a diagram of the current layout. I've experimented with the 30 inch display in several different positions. When I started moving things around I originally had it up against the wall, but I found I couldn't see it from that distance. When I got the new display a graphic designer friend of mine asked if I found myself pushing back from my desk because the screen was so huge. I've found the opposite is true. The high resolution means there are quite a few more pixels per inch that what I had … [Read more...] about My Desk Layout
Time Machine in the Real World
Today I used Time Machine on my first real world data loss problem. I'm embarrassed to even describe what happened, but here it is, anyway. I am working with an online store that sends me an email each time an order is processed. At first this was done just for testing, but there is some automation that happens when certain types of orders come into my mailbox. This is a temporary setup, so I don't want to take the time to move everything over to a separate mailbox. The downside is, one of my email accounts gets 10 to 40 emails that are just copies of sales confirmation. Each one represents an interruption to my day. So the logical thing to do was to setup a rule to take these out … [Read more...] about Time Machine in the Real World
Is Acrobat a Necessity for a Paperless Office?
As work toward creating a paperless office, I'm coming to the conclusion that Acrobat is a necessity. Not the free version but the multiple hundreds of dollars standard version. This isn't a problem for me because my ScanSnap came with Acrobat 7 Standard. I was hoping to find that there was enough capabilities built into OS X or free tools to have something less expensive to recommend. Here are the things that I can't find good ways to do outside of Acrobat: Rearrange Pages - And Acrobat isn't great at this, but I can extract, remove, rearrange, or add pages as needed. In 7 it isn't particularly user friendly, but it is a whole lot easier than any other way I've found to handle … [Read more...] about Is Acrobat a Necessity for a Paperless Office?
Tuesday’s Tip: Throw Away Those Extra Pens
If you are like most people you probably have a coffee cup or pencil holder full of writing instruments sitting on your desk. If you are like me, a good percentage of those pens and pencils are ones that you don't like and will likely never use. So why are you letting them still clutter up your desk? Go ahead and throw them out or give them away. If you have things on your desk that you never use it just introduces visual "noise" into your work environment and a bunch of pens and pencils that you dislike aren't going to do anything to help you be more productive. My problem is that my pen and pencil holder is full of things that my wife likes and that I hate. I don't like cheap bic … [Read more...] about Tuesday’s Tip: Throw Away Those Extra Pens