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You are here: Home / 2011 / Archives for April 2011

Archives for April 2011

The Causes of a Messy Desk

By Mark Shead 11 Comments

Messy Desk

Right now my desk is a complete mess. Now I have a pretty good excuse. I am in the middle of switching over to a new laptop. I'm also in the middle of trying to switch from AT&T to Sprint for cell phone service. An order of sample  gifts for clients just came in yesterday. I have rebates from sales that are partially filled out and waiting for additional documentation that is on the way. I'm working with a graphic designer on a new logo, so I have samples stuck to my walls. I don't want to throw away any of the boxes for my new equipment so they are all stuffed under the desk or on a bookshelf. Etc. etc. I'd like to say that the picture above is just something I found on Flickr. … [Read more...] about The Causes of a Messy Desk

Personal Outsourcing Caveats

By Mark Shead 2 Comments

Asian Efficiency has a nice post on personal outsourcing. The article makes some good points, but it falls into a few common traps. I'd recommend reading the article and then coming back here to read my list of gotchas when it comes to personal outsourcing. 1. Not all of your time is valued the same It is easy to assume that if you make $20 per hour, any task that you can pay someone $10 per hour to complete should be outsourced. My normal rate for consulting is $145 per hour.  If I was to apply this logic, there are very few things I'd do for myself.  But, I have a limited number of hours each month that are worth my $145 rate.  Those are my best and highest performance hours.  Even if I … [Read more...] about Personal Outsourcing Caveats

Do The Work – Review and Free Book

By Mark Shead 4 Comments

Steven Pressfield is  the author of a number of  books including The Legend of Bagger Vance and War of Art. His newest book Do The Work walks you through a process for getting work done.  This quote gives you a good idea of what you'll find in the book. Our enemy is not lack of preparation; it's not the difficulty of the project, or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account.  The enemy is resistance. The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications and a million reasons why he can't/shouldn't/won't do what we know we need to … [Read more...] about Do The Work – Review and Free Book

Excel Transpose Trick

By Mark Shead 5 Comments

This one minute video shows you how to take a list of items in a column and copy it to a row. It is pretty simple, but when you need it this can really save you a lot of time. … [Read more...] about Excel Transpose Trick

Should he drop out of college?

By Mark Shead 7 Comments

In a recent conversation, I had a friend explain how he was trying to talk someone out of going to college. The young man he was referring to was going to a community college to appease his mother who wanted him to go to a university. He was talented at computer repair and my friend thought he should drop out and focus on acquiring more computer troubleshooting skills. I disagree with my friend's assessment, but it made me wonder why I value college education so much. Surely there is something to be said for someone who enters the workforce and learns everything then need to know through on the job experience. Is my belief that getting a degree is better rational or is it just … [Read more...] about Should he drop out of college?

Personal MBA

By Mark Shead 2 Comments

Josh Kaufman sent me his new book  The Personal MBA.  His "Personal MBA" started out as list of recommended reading for someone who wanted to really learn how business works, but wasn't sure an MBA was really worth it. The list grew with input from others and now consists of this list organized by topic along with reviews of each book. Eventually Josh decided to distill what he had learned into his own book and the result was The Personal MBA. I think the book is excellent. He first talks about his quest for learning  how businesses really work and lays out a pretty effective argument that top MBA degree programs are: A poor investment - If you use the things … [Read more...] about Personal MBA

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