Every year, a new slew of gadgets promises to solve all of our problems. Manufactures are constantly adding more features in hopes of getting us to upgrade. I've managed technology for an institution that had a large "gadget budget". Employees were able to request pretty much anything they wanted as long as there was a slight chance that it might in some way make them more effective at their jobs. I noticed that some people seemed to use the technology very well and it seemed to make a big difference in their productivity. On the other hand, there was another group of people who never seemed to get much of a benefit out of their tools. What was odd, is that the ineffective group … [Read more...] about The Two Types of Technology Users
Search Results for: two types of technology users
Past Post: Two Types of Technology Users
Two Types of Technology Users - A short look at how different people approach technology. … [Read more...] about Past Post: Two Types of Technology Users
Previous Post: Technology Users
With the launch of the 3G iPhone, I thought it was a fitting time to point to one of this site's first posts called Two Type of Technology Users. … [Read more...] about Previous Post: Technology Users
Two Types of Technology
Two Types of Technology Users - One of the first posts from Productivity501. Which type of user are you? … [Read more...] about Two Types of Technology
17 Things you Should Stop Doing
This is a list of 17 things you shouldn't be doing any more because they waste time. Old habits die hard and it can be difficult to shift yourself from an old familiar way of doing something to a new, better way. Take a look at the list and see if there is anything you can change to help make you more productive. If you have any suggestions please add them in the comments. Manually Depositing a Paycheck -- That is what direct deposit is for. If you spend 15 minutes every two weeks dealing with depositing your paycheck that is 65 hours over the next 10 years. Put this time to better use. Writing Checks for Bills -- That is what the bill pay service from your bank is for. … [Read more...] about 17 Things you Should Stop Doing
Past Favorites
Since we've nearly doubled our audience in the past few weeks, I wanted to post some links to some older content that has been popular in the past. If you enjoy reading this site, I'd encourage you to refer a friend. A great way to invite someone is to let them know about our current iPod Shuffle giveaway. Here are links to some of the more popular articles from this site over the past year: … [Read more...] about Past Favorites
Top 5 Worst Productivity Ideas
Here are some of the top five traps I find people fall into when they try to increase their productivity. Most of them aren't bad things in and of themselves. However, if they become your focus, you can be sure you aren't going to be getting the benefits you are striving for. Buy (yet more) software to make you more productive Software needs to enable your system. Just buying a piece of software won't make you any more productive. Sometimes when you buy software you are also buying the system and procedure that comes with it. This isn't bad, but if you don't understand that the real thing of value is the system you are setting yourself up for disappointment. I know people whose … [Read more...] about Top 5 Worst Productivity Ideas
Nexus S 4G Sprint Android Phone Review
Switching phones is expensive, so I try not to do it very often. The cost of phones isn't that bad, it is the time investment required to get a new device setup, the important data transferred over and learning how to use it. I've been using an old Blackberry Curve for years, but when it started randomly shutting itself off, I finally decided it was time to go ahead and get and updated device. In this post I'm going to review the Nexus S 4G and cover some of the technology decision points I made along the way to selecting it. Most of the reviews I've seen concentrate on the technical specifications of the Nexus. This review of the Nexus S is going to be focused … [Read more...] about Nexus S 4G Sprint Android Phone Review
Skill vs. Better Tools
I have been doing quite a bit of programming over the past few months. Last night I took a few hours to see if I could find some better tools. I tried out a different programming environment and tested some tweaks to Eclipse (the program I currently use for programming). My goal was to see if I could find a way to get my tools to help autocomplete certain parts of the code I was typing into the web templates. For example, if I start to type " I found a few things that look promising, but I couldn't find anything that worked automatically out of the box. I started wondering if it was worth spending those hours looking for a better tool. What if I had of spent two hours in just … [Read more...] about Skill vs. Better Tools
Online Degree Programs
Over the next ten years, I believe we are going to see an ever increasing shift toward online degree programs in areas where people have traditionally attended a physical university. There are a number of obvious reasons for this trend, but here are a few: Low cost to scale - A well designed online degree program may have a high fixed cost, but a low-cost to add an additional student. The cost to provide a degree program to 20 students vs. 40 students requires a much smaller percentage increase than doubling the number of student physically coming to class. Tighter focus on education - Online degree programs tend to be much more focused on the actual educational process with less of a … [Read more...] about Online Degree Programs
New House Checklist
If you are looking at moving, here is a checklist of not-so-obvious things to consider: What time does the mail come? I still prefer reading a newspaper. Most newspapers are delivered via the postal service now, so I let my last two subscriptions expire because the mail didn't come until late in the day. We just moved to a new house, and the mail comes at 9:30--much more convenient for reading financial news. How many minutes is it from the nearest grocery store? It isn't a bad idea to time how long it takes to get to the places you plan to go on a regular basis. Just because a house is physically closer, it doesn't mean that it will take less time to get there. What types of … [Read more...] about New House Checklist
Internet Access
The most important component of my work environment is a connection to the Internet. With a decent connection, I can work from pretty much anywhere in the world. In this post, we are going to look at some of the different technologies used to connect to the Internet and talk a bit about each one's strengths and weaknesses. Cable Modem Cable modems have the capacity to offer extremely high speeds. Usually this is limited by the cable company. In most places, you can get 1Mbps to 10Mbps downloads with .5Mbps to 2Mbps upload speed. Cable modems share the bandwidth with other people on the same cable, so your speeds may be at least partially dependent on what your neighbors are … [Read more...] about Internet Access
Best Posts from 2005
I've had some readers asking what I considered my best past posts, so I took some time and went through the archives for 2005 and compiled a short list of what I consider to be the best content. Some are long, some are short, but these are the posts that challenged me the most in my personal productivity. Two Types of Technology User Paradox of Powerful Tools Social Glass Ceiling The Rat Experiment Making Decisions in Advance Define and Conquer … [Read more...] about Best Posts from 2005