Today I was getting ready to order material for a new deck. The manufacturer was already giving me about 20% off the normal price. I figured that the sales of high end decking materials might be down in this economy so I decided to ask for an additional $1,000 off. The sales person said he would call me back. Thirty minutes later I had reduced the price by $1,000 simply by asking for a discount. Not everyone will be willing (or able) to give a discount, but it doesn't hurt to ask. … [Read more...] about Discount on Deck
Archives for September 2009
Inteview: Biggest Productivity Challenge
What is your biggest challenge to productivity and how do you overcome it? (671) That is the question we asked a number of bloggers and here are their answers. As a student, I was a master of procrastination, running down the clock as long as I could before beginning a project. What resulted was strong work and ridiculous levels of self-induced pressure. (I suppose that's the academic version of living on the edge.) The strategy that I now like to call granularity helped me to overcome my tendency toward procrastination, by making it possible to see a large project as a matter of many smaller, more manageable tasks. Michael Leddy from Orange Crate Art (rss) My biggest challenge … [Read more...] about Inteview: Biggest Productivity Challenge
Dealing with Difficulties
I was reading a biography of Albert Einstein and was struck by his determination and persistence. It wasn't the way that he developed his theory of relativity that was impressive. I was impressed with the way he approached difficult reading materials when he was young. Einstein had been given a book by Maxwell about electromagnetic. He started reading and made it about 10 pages into the book before he was confused. So he started over. The second time he made it 15 pages before he stopped understanding the text. So he started over again. Gradually he made his way through the entire book. I was very impressed with his determination and the willingness to start over if … [Read more...] about Dealing with Difficulties
6 Mistakes That Look Dumb In Email
These are six things that will make you look stupid in email. In some cases, breaking these rules will make you lose your job. In others, they will simply annoy your readers. If you have any suggestions that should be added, please leave a comment. 1. Put Your Entire Message In The Subject Just because you can see the entire subject as you type it, doesn't mean it will show up for your recipient the same way. Depending on their email program, it might even truncate it. 2. CC A Bunch Of Unrelated Recipients If you need to send something out to a large number of people who don't already know each other, don't put them in the CC field. That broadcasts their email address to … [Read more...] about 6 Mistakes That Look Dumb In Email
Tips for Airport Travel
The next time I check luggage at an airport I'm going to say: "I am flying to Hartford. Can you please send one bag with me and one bag to Boston?" When they say, "we can't do that," I will reply, "really? You did it last time..." Joking aside, here are some tips I've compiled from the time I've spent in airports. Ship Your Luggage With the additional fees airlines are charging simply to check a suitcase, shipping your luggage to your destination can be cost effective. Not only do you skip the extra fees, but you can avoid the long lines some airports have waiting for your checked luggage to be x-rayed. Minimize Metal Anything you can do to reduce the number of metal objects … [Read more...] about Tips for Airport Travel
Minimalist Guide to Mac
Leo at www.mnmlist.com (got to love that url) has a Definitive Guide to a Minimalist Mac Setup that is an interesting read for OS X users out there. I think he is missing out by not using Time Machine, but he links to a bunch of great apps and has a lot of ideas on how to keep your computer lean and work focused. … [Read more...] about Minimalist Guide to Mac
Moving a Home Office
We bought a house and I've been working on getting my office moved. Here are a few things I've learned in the process: Set up new internet before switching off the old. If you want to minimize downtime, don't turn off your old office's internet until you have everything set up and running in your new space. Vacuum, vacuum. If you have the floors cleaned before you move in, make sure you give yourself time to vacuum two or three times before you start moving your stuff in. Pack by what you need. Make sure the things you are going to need access to are easy to find. I put all the stuff I needed for the next week or so in my laptop bag where I knew I could find it. Don't set … [Read more...] about Moving a Home Office
Using Different Parts of your Brain
There was some research done into what parts of the brain were triggered when writing at a computer versus what parts were triggered when writing with a pencil and paper. The experiments showed that writing by hand triggered activity in significantly different portions of the brain than when writing at a computer. (See Mozarts Brain and the Fighter Pilot book.) Obviously, it is expected that there would be some difference because of the varied muscle motor skills required by each activity. However, the difference was greater than what would be expected by just the required motor differences. The conclusion of the researchers was that we think significantly differently when writing … [Read more...] about Using Different Parts of your Brain
TIP: To-Do Email Folder
I gave up trying to keep a clean email inbox years ago. Everything I had read said that I should sort anything I needed into folders and keep my inbox clean, but I finally just gave up. I finally decided on keeping anything that might be slightly important in my inbox where I can search for it. It turns out that, for me, this is far more productive than trying to move things around and categorize them. It was very liberating, and I found that nothing bad happened by keeping older emails in my inbox. In fact, I discovered it was easier to find things, because it only required a simple search instead of trying to find the folder where I had filed something. However, there is a … [Read more...] about TIP: To-Do Email Folder
Using Different Passwords
Recently some hackers got a hold of a list of usernames and passwords for a dating site. By itself, this wouldn't have been too big of deal. However, many of the victims were using the same password on other sites. This gave the hackers access to many Facebook, MySpace, AIM and GMail accounts. The hackers then did everything they could to embarrass the victims by posting things online. This ranged from making a minister look like he was having an affair to creating a panic that someone was going to commit suicide. I've previously talked about how it is a good idea to use different passwords, if not for every site, at least for every type of site. (You don't want to use the … [Read more...] about Using Different Passwords
Fall Cleaning & Organizing
As the summer draws to an end, it is a good time to consider arranging your surroundings to maximize your productivity. 1. Purge Old Files If you still have paper files, it may be time to get rid of some of the older ones to make things easier to find. Even with paperless digital files, there are times where it makes sense to delete or at least archive off the older files to reduce the amount you have to look through. 2. Take Stuff Home Whether your office is in a spare bedroom or in a skyscraper in downtown New York, there are always going to be items from home that migrate to work. Taking a few minutes to identify these items and move them back to where they belong in your home … [Read more...] about Fall Cleaning & Organizing
Starting a Business in a Down Economy
A friend of mine is starting a business selling Cupcake Towers. When I first heard what she was doing I thought, "Why would you want to start a business right now?" After further consideration, I realized that if you have a good product or service, now might be the best possible time to start a business. Here is why: There is less competition for workers right now so you can get good help for a reasonable cost. If you have a business idea that you can run on the side, it makes sense to start before you quit your day job. Technology has drastically reduced the cost of running a business. You can get a web store up for $20 to $40 per month (sometimes even less). If you want to … [Read more...] about Starting a Business in a Down Economy
Save $10 on Ambient Nature Sounds
For the next 24 hours we are doing a sale on our Ambient Nature Sound CDs. These CDs are designed to make it easier to concentrate by covering up distracting conversations. You can choose from the sound of a Brook, Rain, Ocean or Rain on a Lake and if you use the code HKBHVUXS you'll get $10 off each CD. (You can also buy directly from Amazon, but there they sell for the full $21.75.) … [Read more...] about Save $10 on Ambient Nature Sounds
4 Day Workweek 3 Day Weekend
On April Fools day, I made a post about working all 40 hours of your work week at once and then having the rest of the week off. In the post where we discussed working from home, I mentioned that one way to reduce your commute is to work a shorter work week. Before I go any further, let me address all the people who are poised to send me vicious hate mail saying things like "What type of world do you live in?!" or "My boss would never let me do this!" Please recognize that this won't work for everyone--I know that. However, it is a good thing to keep in mind throughout your career because there may be a point where it would work for you. Okay. Now that that is out of the way … [Read more...] about 4 Day Workweek 3 Day Weekend
That Looks Easy!
This weekend, my brother-in-law graciously offered to tile our bathroom. He does this for a living, so he is naturally very good at it. I, on the other hand, do not, and am naturally very, very bad at it. What struck me as amazing is how easily he came in, looked at the bathroom, came up with an optimal placement and started on it. It looked pretty easy. Later, he was marking the tiles that needed to be cut and handing them to me to cut on the tile saw. He would hold the tile one way, make a mark, hold it another, make a mark and then use a square to draw a line showing me where to cut it. Simple. Not really. I tried my hand at marking the tile while he made some complicated … [Read more...] about That Looks Easy!
Making Sense and Dictation Software
The other day my assistant told me, "When I proof your writing I can tell if you used Dictate. Usually you make sense." Every once in a while she will run into a sentence that she can't make heads or tails of that came from MacSpeech. It is still a wonderful tool, but her comment underscores the importance of carefully proofing your work if a computer transcribed it for you. … [Read more...] about Making Sense and Dictation Software
Skill & Focus
Personal productivity is something that is fairly difficult to quantify. Most people tend to just assume if they are doing better than the average person, then they are doing well. For people who really want to achieve their full potential, simply comparing themselves with others isn't particularly rewarding because it doesn't say anything about their true capabilities. If most of your work is repetitive or easily quantifiable, it is easy to measure your productivity against yourself. You just consider how many of units of work you accomplished in a given amount of time. Unfortunately, most work doesn't lend itself to this type of measurement. If we could measure both our … [Read more...] about Skill & Focus
Experienced-Based Education
Everyone is familiar with traditional education. You sit in a class and a teacher teaches. This is an important part of development. But at some point, every individual has to take charge of their own education. To do this, one must look at the root of learning. What is it that makes some experiences add tremendous value to our lives while other experiences do not? On a very basic level, experiences that are unfamiliar usually add more value than experiences that are familiar. This is because unfamiliar experiences require much more of our attention, which means we are in a better state to learn something new. Obviously, this concept must be used in moderation. Someone who … [Read more...] about Experienced-Based Education