What is the single biggest mistake you see people make that causes disorganization? Not following simple daily routines and systems. It is really easy to spiral into disorganization and chaos in any area of life. Success all comes back to basically two things: systems or routines that make sense for our life and our goals, and daily discipline to maintain them. If routines and systems are optional, there will be way too many days we end up not following them. As soon as we even start thinking about not sticking to our simple routines, we begin to spiral into disorganization. Melissa Michaels from The Inspired Room (rss) It tends to be the little things that are done consistently that … [Read more...] about Interview: Cause of Disorganization
Mark Shead's articles
Mark Shead
Good Bookshelves
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
Jumpstart Creativity at the Library
Quick Tip: When you need an injection of creativity, consider spending an hour browsing your local library. I find that the change in environment and letting my mind explore whatever it feels like is a great way to great way to get into a creative mindset. … [Read more...] about Jumpstart Creativity at the Library
Lowering Gas Prices
While visiting relatives last week I saw some television. Since we don't have a TV hooked up to watch any type of broadcast programming, it was interesting to see some of the things that are on now days. On one show (I think it was the O'Reilly Factor) the host was interviewing someone who had written a book about oil, oil prices or something like that. The host kept asking the guy "so who sets the price of oil." The author tried to explain that it was a market, but the O'Reilly didn't seem to get it and asked, "so does OPEC set the price of oil?" Then I saw on the news that several presidential candidates are contemplating a gas tax holiday during the summer months. This leads me to … [Read more...] about Lowering Gas Prices
Productivity Family Tree
Mike Pierre wrote a cute post at lifehack.org that mentions this site. I'm listed as the "up-and-coming son" with the "arguably most stylish productivity website". … [Read more...] about Productivity Family Tree
Cleaning Supplies
Quick Tip: Keeping a rag and bottle of Windex near your desk can make it much easier to keep your work area clean. … [Read more...] about Cleaning Supplies
Handheld Copy Machine
Quick Tip: A digital camera can serve as a simple hand held copy machine. If you need a copy of a rebate before mailing it in, just snap a photo. Want a copy of a deposit before mailing it off? Grab your camera. … [Read more...] about Handheld Copy Machine
Reader Question – Emailing Your Boss
How to write emails to your boss Don't try to impress with the length of your email. Most of the time they will appreciate a short and to the point message. If you need to explain something in more detail, consider listing the main points as bullets at the top and add the rest of your explanation at the bottom or as an attachment. This allows them to quickly grasp the issue without reading through several hundred words. Another advantage of a short message is that it is more likely to get read. If your boss is busy, they may read a short email and leave longer ones to be read later. You can help your boss prioritize your emails, by adding a short code in the subject. For example, … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Emailing Your Boss
Simple Todo List
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
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
Paperless with the Kindle
James Harris has some interesting thoughts on going paperless when it comes to magazines. In particular he looks at how his Kindle has changed the way he reads. I have a Sony Reader which uses a similar screen and I agree with him that it is a very pleasurable way to read. Here are some quotes from his post. We are really very close to having a paperless society that pundits have talked about every since I can remember. People always exclaim they hate reading off the computer screen even though they spend hours a day doing so. Now the Kindle offers a better way to read, even better than paper, and that starts to suggest going paperless is possible. I'm a little less optimistic. I … [Read more...] about Paperless with the Kindle
Vote: Best Organization Tip
We have been interviewing a number of people for their best tips in a number of areas. Now we need your help to vote for the best tip. Select a question from the list and vote for the best answer. They answers you are show are selected at random so once you start to see a bunch of repeats, move on to another question. … [Read more...] about Vote: Best Organization Tip
Reader Question – Hanging Folders
How do you use hanging folders? I use hanging folders to hold regular manilla folders. So I may have a hanging folder for "Personal Taxes" and another for "Business Taxes". Then within each of those folders, I'll have one for each year "2004 Personal Taxes", "2005 Personal Taxes", etc. (I talked about this in a previous Tuesday's Tip.) Many people organize their files alphabetically. This isn't a bad idea, but if you have a few files, it may be slower than some of the alternatives. For example: Every time you use a hanging folder put it in the front of the drawer. That way the most frequently used folders are always in the front and the less frequently used folders slowly make their way … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Hanging Folders
Links On Remote Assistants
I asked my remote executive assistant to put together a list of a few posts that discuss working with a remote/virtual assistant. Below are the results: The Personal Outsourcing Olympics: Bangalore Butler or American Assistant? - Tim Ferriss Very appealing but informative article on the latest trend of entrepreneurs - Outsourcing. Having had a positive experience on all the jobs assigned to a virtual assistant, the author invites others to give their comments through this article. For a novice at outsourcing, he has chalked names of reputed companies in this field. How to get your virtual assistant to schedule your doctor’s appointments - Ramit Sethi Should you have problems … [Read more...] about Links On Remote Assistants
Simple Timesaver
When you need new socks, get rid of all the old ones and just buy all the same type. It is much easier to match if all of the white socks match each other and all of your dark socks match each other. … [Read more...] about Simple Timesaver
Six Tips for Eating Out Frugally
Most of the time, people go out to eat, not just for the food, but for social and entertainment purposes. These six suggestions will help you get the experience at a "discount". Order water - In the US, you'll usually pay $1 to $3 for a soft drink with your meal. Water is healthier and can often reduce the cost of your meal by 10% to 20%. Go out for lunch - Many places charge more for the evening meal than for lunch. Sometimes the evening portions are bigger, but this isn't always the case. If you go out for lunch you'll often save 35% to 50% on your meal. (This seems to be particularly true for Chinese restaurants.) Go out just for dessert - Eating at home and going out for … [Read more...] about Six Tips for Eating Out Frugally
Simple Tip
When buying electronics, try to get items that can be charged using a standard USB cable. It makes it a lot easier to travel when one charger fits multiple devices. … [Read more...] about Simple Tip
Breaking the Internet
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
Excellence – Perfection vs. Efficiency
I use to work for an organization that put a lot of emphasis on "excellence". This sounds like a good thing, but it was very poorly defined and tended to become an excuse for wreaking mayhem with the budget. Spending 100% more for a 10% gain toward perfection didn't seem like what I would define as excellence. As I thought I about it, I realized the the problem stemmed from equating excellence with perfection. Excellence is actually made up of more than one dimension. Perfection is one of those dimensions, but you must have another dimension that recognizes we are dealing with finite resources. Usually this is best represented as cost in monetary terms, but it could also represent … [Read more...] about Excellence – Perfection vs. Efficiency
Plaxo Question
Has anyone found a good way to sync Plaxo (an online addressbook) with a Blackberry over the air? Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful. … [Read more...] about Plaxo Question
Interviews
I've been busy working on a new set of interviews with over 100 different people. I'm pretty excited about how this is turning out. We'll have some more on this late on the week. … [Read more...] about Interviews
Reader Question – Organized Work Desk
How should I organize my desk at work Get a file cabinet. Most of the junk on a work desks is paper that should be filed. Take the time to setup a reasonable filing system and then commit to keeping your papers stored in the file cabinet. Limit your personal clutter. A family picture or two is fine, but 20 framed photos, three baseballs, 2 snowglobes, and 4 unidentified objects is a bit excessive. Keep your extra stuff at home. Don't use your desktop for storage. If you need additional storage space, get some boxes you can put on the shelf or a cabinet of drawers. If you use the top of your desk for storage it will quickly accumulate many more items. Route your wires. Computer and … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Organized Work Desk
Productivity501 on Stumble Upon
Consider adding Productivity501 as a friend on StumbleUpon. … [Read more...] about Productivity501 on Stumble Upon
Vote!
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!
American Express Concierge Employees
We've had some interesting comments from former and current AMEX concierge employees. Worth reading if you are thinking of using their service. … [Read more...] about American Express Concierge Employees
Bank Mistake
I have a bank that didn't get my last change of address notification. When the mail was returned to them, they found my address and sent it to me along with a note telling me to change my address with them. The odd thing was along with my statement were 5 other statements from people I don't know. I called them and confirmed the address change and mentioned the other statements. They said they would take care of it. The other day I got my next statement--and the statements from 5 different people I've never heard of. I don't mind getting other people's statements. However, I'm very concerned that some of my statements may be sent to total strangers. This is one advantage of online … [Read more...] about Bank Mistake
Large and Multiple Monitor Study
Study from Utah.edu about productivity and larger monitors (pdf start on page 31). NPR interview regarding study. In particular the NPR interview is well worth the time. … [Read more...] about Large and Multiple Monitor Study
Some Online Tools
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
20 Tips to Save Money on a Home Office
1. Go cheap on your desk. When it comes down to it a desk is simply a work surface. If you are on a budget, concentrate on getting something stable as a desk and put the savings to work elsewhere. A used door can make a great work surface once you remove the door handle. Place it on some sawhorses and you have an easily adjustable solid surface. Place it on two file cabinets and you now have desk drawers. This type of desk is what Amazon uses for all their employees. They attach 4x4s to a desk and it is ready to go. In the early days Jeff Bezos made the desks him self--now a carpenter makes them. When it comes down to it, as long as your desk is solid it probably won't make a … [Read more...] about 20 Tips to Save Money on a Home Office
Bigger Monitors
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
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
Reader Question – Getting Your Money
How do you get money back from someone who owes you? Generally if you are asking this question, you've probably made a mistake somewhere. Here is a list of rules I follow for loaning money. Never loan money to friends or family that you can't afford to lose. If you can't forgive them the debt without holding it against them, you are not the person who should be loaning them money. Do everything in writing. Don't expect to remember the terms of the loans. Get it in writing and signed. Make sure you have terms listed to handle the case where they don't pay. This could be listing an item as collateral, late payment fees, etc. You need to leave yourself an out if they don't pay. Be … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Getting Your Money
International Holidays
When working with someone from another country it is easy to forget that they will probably have a different holiday schedule than what you are used to. If you hire a remote executive assistant, make sure you get a list of their holidays. It helps with your planning and is a great way to better understand their culture. … [Read more...] about International Holidays
Looking for Bloggers to Interview
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
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
Leo’s Desk
Leo Babauta talks about his minimalistic home office setup. … [Read more...] about Leo’s Desk
Getting the Most from a Large Monitor
Recently I read about a study that showed productivity increased (up to 52% increase for certain tasks) when people used a larger monitor--up to 24 inches. After that productivity started dropping off again. Having used monitors 24 inches or larger for the past 3 years, I've learned a few things about getting the most from screen real estate. I think I know why productivity doesn't continue to go up with even larger screens. To use a larger screen effectively you have to break a lot of bad habits developed over years of using smaller display devices. This is a lot harder than it sounds. In this article I want to explore some of the ways to get more from your screen as well as some tips to … [Read more...] about Getting the Most from a Large Monitor
No Refund
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
Commercial Memory Application
Jeff wrote in to say that he has a created a commercial memorization application based on the technique and tool I demonstrated in the How to Memorize post. … [Read more...] about Commercial Memory Application
Ambient Sound Download – The Brook
Have you ever wished you could tune out background noise--maybe to drown out an annoying co-worker or just to stay focused? I know a lot of people use music for this, but personally I find music divides my concentration (a possible side effect of my training in music theory and composition). To help concentrate I need something that will stay in the background. Trying a bunch of sounds, I've found that water seems to be the most effective. Someday I'll probably get a fountain for my office, but until then I've created an MP3 file to help me concentrate. I'm making the file available as a special bonus to RSS and Email subscribers. If you'd like to download it, just subscribe to the … [Read more...] about Ambient Sound Download – The Brook
Mac Audio Input
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
QWERTY vs. Dvorak
An article about standards and another from Reason.com both look at the comparison between Dvorak and QWERTY keyboards and suggests that there is a less of a difference than is commonly advertised. Of particular interest is the look at how the research was conducted for the Dvorak layouts. … [Read more...] about QWERTY vs. Dvorak
Adapx
Adapx is another company selling a digital pen. This one converts your writing into computer text. … [Read more...] about Adapx
Mindnode – Mind Mapping Software
If you have OS X 10.5 and are looking for a simple free mind mapping program, take a look at Mindnode. It is very basic, but that helps keep things very simple. If you want a good introduction to the mind mapping process, you should take a look at this book. … [Read more...] about Mindnode – Mind Mapping Software
Podcasting Conference
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
Live Scribe
If Live Scribe works as well as their demo it will be an incredible tool. It was supposed to ship in March. Does anyone actually have one of these? … [Read more...] about Live Scribe
Darren gets Control of his Email
Darren at Problogger talks about the changes he has made to manage his email. Basically he moved everything to Gmail. I like the idea of keeping the archives around, but I don't know if I'd want to trust Gmail with the only copy of all my messages. … [Read more...] about Darren gets Control of his Email
Reader Question – Tidying Up Computer Wires
How do I clear my desk of computer wires? Make sure your cables are long enough - Many messy wire situations are caused by using cables that are too short. Route your cables using velcro straps - Bundling wires together and routing them out of sight can help you keep your desk clear. Black electricians tape is another option if your wire setup doesn't change too often. Get rid of equipment you don't need - If you have a bunch of gadgets that aren't being used, remove them from your desk. For example, your scanner might be better of keeping in the closet if you only use it once or twice each month. Use wireless - WiFi for networking and bluetooth for keyboards, mice, and audio can … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Tidying Up Computer Wires
Big Monitor, Big Mouse Pad
If you get a large monitor, consider getting a larger mouse pad as well. It will help you navigate the larger screen without requiring that you pick the mouse up and move it. … [Read more...] about Big Monitor, Big Mouse Pad
Popular Post: How to Memorize
How to Memorize Verbatim Text has been our most popular post for the past month. If you missed it, be sure check it out--particularly the Javascript tool toward the bottom. You type in the text you want to memorize and it gives you a "cheat sheet" to help with the process. … [Read more...] about Popular Post: How to Memorize