Mark Shead's articles

What change has made the most difference in making you effective? Mmmm...tough question. Ironically, I think having less time available for discretionary projects has made me more effective in the areas of my life that I choose to spend time in. So get married, have kids and take a job that keeps you busy all the time: it'll make you more effective! Brendon Connelly from Slacker Manager (rss) This seems counterintuitive, but I guess it makes sense. Having more stuff to do should help force you to be more efficient. … [Read more...] about Interview: Becoming Effective

Welcome Stumblers.  If you like this post, please consider subscribing to the RSS feed. This is the first of a three part post where we asked a bunch of productivity experts three questions. Read after the jump to see their answers along with my commentary about each one. Thanks to everyone who participated. What is the single biggest way people waste time without even realizing it? … [Read more...] about Interview: Biggest Time Waster

I have contacted a number of individuals who run blogs about time management, personal productivity, and organization. I asked them all three questions: What is the single biggest way people waste time without even realizing it? What change has made the most difference in making you effective in life? If someone were to read just one post from your site, which would you recommend they read and why? The response has been spectacular and I've thoroughly enjoyed reading all the different perspectives. One of the participants said this project was "ambitious". I didn't really understand what they meant until I started trying to organize all the information into a … [Read more...] about Interviews With Productivity Experts

Freelance Switch has a nice article called 10 Ways to Eliminate Distractions. Below is their list of 10 items along with my commentary. See the original post for their detailed discussion about each item. Turn of email notifications -- This goes along with the idea that humans can't really multi-task so you are better off only focusing on one thing at a time.  I understand that in Switzerland some companies have policies only allowing employees to check their emails once each day to help minimize the interruptions from email.  Your job may require to to check it more often, but each incoming email shouldn't jar you away from your current task.  Remember, email is there to work for you … [Read more...] about 10 Ways to Eliminate Distractions from FreelanceSwitch

I'm moving some things around and switching from Typepad to Wordpress, so pardon the mess while I get everything sorted out. I'm afraid that FeedBurner may have reset the last 10 feeds, so I apologize in advance if a bunch of old posts show up as new again. There is still a lot of work to do in tweaking the site, but I think all of the links should work. If you come across something that seems to be broken, please let me know in a comment or email me at mwshead (at) gmail (dot) com. … [Read more...] about New Changes at Productivity501

As a follow up to this mornings post, I wanted to show you a video of a new alarm clock called Clocky.  It was developed by some students at MIT.  The video will give you a good idea of how it works, but basically when the time comes, it shrieks, jumps off your night stand and starts running around the room making R2D2 noises. The idea is that you have to get up to turn it off.  On the positive side of things, it will make you get up and move around a bit so you'll be awake.  On the negative side, it may put you in a very bad mood.  I heard that someone was designing something similar that would fly above your bed until you swat it down.  Waking up to a giant electronic insect isn't my … [Read more...] about How NOT to Wake Up

Congratulations to Desi and John--the two winners of the Behance Action Pad giveaway. I'll be shipping them out be the end of the week. Thanks to everyone who entered by suggesting different ways to manage todo lists.  You can read all the comments here. Here are a few random suggestions that I found interesting along with my comments: … [Read more...] about Behance’s Action Pad Giveaway

Yesterday we looked at Behance's Action Pads.  Today we are going to give a few away to random commentors on this post.   Specifically we are looking for comments, ideas, suggestions, or random thoughts about how to make a better todo list.  So anything you've done to let you better manage, capture, or execute your list of actions is fair game. So to get things rolling, here are a few suggestions for todo lists based on my experience: Braindump list -- keep a list of all the random "todo someday" items that you think of.  This gives you a place to capture them without cluttering up your daily list. Use objects -- sometimes using objects to represent your … [Read more...] about A Better ToDo List – Behance Giveaway

Awhile back we looked at Behance's Action Method Process. They have a line of products to help support this process.  They offered to send me a few to see what I thought and to give away to readers of Productivity501. At first I must say that I was skeptical. When it really comes down to it, the Action Pads are places to record a list of your actions--so how is that any different than the to-do list I normally keep on the index cards I carry with me?  I mean can't you capture the same information using whatever paper you have available?  Yes, you can. But I found that the design of the products helped change the way I approach creating a task list in positive ways. … [Read more...] about Behance’s Action Pads

One of my clients is a Fortune 500 company.  They need some help setting up some software for their developer teams.  According to their contractor policy, no consultant can come on the premises unless they have a signed PO.  That seems to make sense, but here is the problem:  They recently upgraded their PO system and it didn't quite go according to plan.  No one in the entire company can create a PO.  So I can't come on their property until the system is fixed. What would be really ironic is if I was the person they needed to fix their purchase order system. I wouldn't be able to fix it until it was working. :) … [Read more...] about Bureaucracy in Action

When my wife and I first got married, she moved into my apartment with me.  I had a large L shaped work area made from joining two desks that we shared.  When we bought our house and she started on a Master's degree, I separated them in our office so she had her own and I had mine.  I also went out and bought her a good leather office chair. It turns out this was one of the best things I ever did as far as our productivity. It was amazing how much easier it was for us both to work when we had our own work area--even though the large combined work area was more than big enough for both of us. Every person in a household needs to have their own dedicated work area and storage space.  … [Read more...] about TIP: Two Desks

I wanted to take a post and thank the people who have taken the time to comment here over the past week or so.  I've really appreciated all the feedback we've been getting and I've learned a lot from the many insightful comments. Below is a list of blogs from people who comment here.  I actually made the list several days ago, so I apologize if you are a recent commenter and your blog is missing. Thanks again to everyone who participates here. … [Read more...] about Productivity501 Community

My talk to the high school students went very well.  Thank you to everyone who made suggestions. I worked a lot of your comments into my talk. Talking to a high school seniors made me remember my first year as a freshman working on my bachelors degree. When I went to college, the internet was just becoming something you could get access to outside of the academic world.  Netscape was the hub for finding anything else on the web and the only way to check your email in your dorm was to signup with AOL or a local BBS system. Out of a campus of 5000 students in 1995, I was the only student with a cellphone (I did a lot of work for a health care system and they needed to be able to get a … [Read more...] about Thanks for Your Help & Thoughts on Technology at College

I am giving a talk to a bunch of high school seniors about personal productivity and life skills as they prepare to enter college next semester.  I wanted to ask for some help. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself a few months before high school graduation? Specifically I'm looking for productivity advice related to college and entering the work force. Here are a few things I wish I had known: Don't expect other people to keep records for you. Keep copies of your transcripts, employment agreements, paycheck stubs, homework grades, etc.  It doesn't matter if other people are supposed to keep those records or not, take responsibility for your own paper … [Read more...] about What Would You Tell Yourself in High School

Narek posted the following comment that made me realize that the focus of this blog might encourage people to shift the work life balance to the extreme side of work: It's sad that you consider everything in life must be done productively. "Wasting Time in the Car -- Subscribe to podcasts and get a connector for your MP3 player in your car. Spend your time learning instead of just sitting there driving." That's what pushed me over the [edge].. dude you just got to relax, just because something you are doing isn't making your life more productive doesn't mean it's a waste of time. Sometimes it is nice to just drive around to get out of the house or relieve stress. Listening to music … [Read more...] about Get a life, buddy.–Is it crazy to spend your drive listening to Podcasts.

It is easy to get so involved in our activities and tasks, that we stop taking time to just sit and think.  Taking the time to think and plan for the future is rarely urgent, so it often gets bumped by all the little emergencies of daily life. But taking the time to think is vitally important for your productivity. Thinking can lead to more efficiency.  Thinking can lead to new ideas.  Thinking can help make sure you are focused on the things that are really important to you. If you aren't taking the time to sit and think, I can guarantee that you are not reaching your full potential. Your ability to improve is going to be tied to your ability to be creative and creativity … [Read more...] about Time to Think

In the US, April 15th is tax day.  Hopefully you have your return filed already and everything is taken care of.  I'd like to make a quick suggestion: Take some time today to prepare for tax season next year.  There really isn't any better time because right now you probably know exactly what would have made your life easier for tax season had you done it 1 year ago. So at a very minimum, get some folders out and label them with whatever groupings you wished you had of had this year.  If you have a place to put the information ahead of time, the chances of it ending up in the right place is much higher. … [Read more...] about Prepare Ahead for Tax Season

Berkeley has an interesting study from 2003 that looks at how much information is being produced in the world. The results are pretty amazing.  Here are some of the highlights: … [Read more...] about How Much Information Is There?

Happy April Fools Day.  Here is a tip for playing an April Fools joke on a coworker, spouse or friend. Make a screen shot of their desktop. (On windows, this is done by pushing "print screen" and then pasting the clipboard into Paint and saving the image.  On a Mac this is done by hitting Apple+Shift+4 and then selecting from corner to corner.) Set the screen shot as the computer's wall paper. You will have two icons for each desktop icon.  The real one on top and the fake one underneath. Move all the real icons to the other side of the screen, but leave the trash can in the original location. When they see the duplicate icons, they will most likely move them to … [Read more...] about April Fools Day

Most office supply stores sell high-lighters.   The idea is pretty good.  You high-light important text in yellow or pink to make it easy to find again.  So if you are reading a book or report, you simply high-light the important parts of the text. Obviously this can help you find information more quickly in the future, but it isn't really the most productive method.  Instead of using a high-lighter use a black magic marker and simply cover up all the text that isn't important.  That way it won't be around to distract you when you come back looking for the important stuff. This is particularly helpful if you are working with legal contracts.  … [Read more...] about Blacklighter

I'm right handed, but I feel for people who are left handed and living in a world where so many common items are designed for "North paws".  Sometimes there isn't much you can do about it, but when it comes to the standard wooden pencil, left handed writers no longer need to suffer.  Here are the steps to convert a normal right handed pencil into one designed for left handers. Start with an unsharpened number 2 standard lead pencil. Wiggle the metal that holds the eraser until it comes off in your hand. Push the metal over the opposite end. (The end the right handers usually sharpen.) If necessary, use a pair of pliers to help crimp the metal back to the pencil. Sharpen the end … [Read more...] about Left Handed Pencil

We've previously mentioned the benefits of working from home, but this won't work for everyone.  An alternative is to only work one 40 hour shift each week.  So if you come in to work Monday at 7am and work until 11pm Tuesday night you will have worked just as much as your co-workers who come in for 8 hours 5 days a week..  The benefits are huge.  Just think, you could drive to work just one day per week. If your boss seem reluctant to let you do this, just point out the benefits of being able to really focus in for a whole 40 hours instead of interrupting things every 8 hours to go home and come back. … [Read more...] about 40 Hour Work Day

Previously we did a series of 5 posts called the Most for Your Minute on time management issues. Here are links to each of the five posts along with their titles. Time is an Investment The Order of Tasks Invest in Technology Simplicity Organization FYI: You can get Productivity501 fed directly into Google Reader and Desktop here: … [Read more...] about The Most for your Minute Posts

The March April edition of The Futurist has a short interview with John Robinson.  John has been studying how people spend their time for many years and was one of the pioneers of keeping time journals to help measure where your time is being spent. One of the things that seems to be changing the most is the way people are multi-tasking.  It is making the ability to track where people are spending their time much more difficult.  Beyond just making his job more difficult, he is concerned that multi-tasking is training people to be unable to concentrate on a single task in ways that are unhealthy. Other researchers are noticing the same thing especially in the younger … [Read more...] about A Time Expert’s Perspective

Since we recently moved, I had a chance to revamp the way my desk was organized.  Today, it suddenly occurred to me that some of my setup made absolutely no sense at all.  I had arranged things so it would look nice, but things that needed to be in reach were too far away and things I didn't need to ever touch were close by. For example, my phone was back in a corner of my desk where I couldn't reach it.  My wireless router was within easy reach.  The thing that amazed me the most is how long it took me to actually stop and think about how things were arranged. So here is a challenge for you.  Take 30 seconds and look at your desk top.  Are the things you need often within close … [Read more...] about Within Reach

The open in tabs command is a shortcut to opening multiple sites simultaneously.  This is a good technique when you want to be able to quickly open multiple sites.  I use this for opening daily news sites as well as the statistics pages for several of my servers.  This video shows how it works. Let me know what you think of the video and if you have any suggestions.  I'm still playing around with it and would appreciate any feedback. … [Read more...] about Firefox Tip: Open in Tabs

The iPod contest is providing valuable feedback on the Productivity501 website.  I wanted to share the comments we've received so far and I figured a Saturday post was a good place to do this.  If you aren't interested then skip this post as it is more about the site and less about actual productivity tips. However, if you'd like to see the debate about whether or not my photo is "creepy", read on. If you have any suggestions or comments about the suggestions below, please put them in the comments. (Or consider writing a review on your own site for a chance to win an iPod Shuffle.) John Chow thought the picture made the blog seem personable, but thought I should post more frequently. … [Read more...] about A Review of Reviews

Most people will change careers several times in their life, so it is difficult to use college to directly prepare for your career. Think of how many problems the average person has with modern technology.  Things are just so complex that to someone unfamiliar with them, it can be difficult to change your thinking.  This video illustrates a new technology being introduced.  Take a look at it below. … [Read more...] about Preparing for New Technology

Email has become a part of our daily lives.  For some people, 75% of their work time is spent just dealing with email.  Many executives have to block out hours each day, just to keep up with all the information coming into  on email.  The ease of sending email has lowered some of the barriers to communication.  On one hand this is a good thing because it promotes communication.  On the other hand it can promote unnecessary communication that results in informational noise. Here are a few select articles on dealing with email that may be useful in your quest for achieving balance with electronic mail: … [Read more...] about Links: Dealing with Email

Behance is an online magazine that targets "brilliantly productive creative professionals". Based on their work with creative professionals they have identified a three "bucket" (my term not theirs) approach to making sure you get the most from every idea. They call this their Action Method. Basically you take every idea and capture the following from it: Action Items - Things that need to be done. Backburner Items - Things that might need to be done. Reference Items - Things you need to record. Here is a graphic from their site that demonstrates the process: Lets run through an example. We could use something all business and work related, but right now I'm hungry which … [Read more...] about Behance’s Action Method Process

Productivity501 hit a milestone today.  If you look over to the right hand side of the site, you'll see that the FeedBurner subscribers is now at 1,007. So we've finally broken the 1000 subscriber mark. It will probably fluctuate, but that isn't going to keep us from celebrating! Hurray! Thank you all for visiting and subscribing.  If you have any suggestions on how Productivity501 could be better, please let me know. (By the way, don't forget about our iPod Shuffle Giveaway.  If you have a blog and are interested in winning an iPod, please consider entering.) … [Read more...] about 1000 RSS Readers

Like what you see? Click to add to Google Homepage or Reader. According to the 2003 Census report, the average commute time is 38 minutes each way for some parts of the country. That is 76 minutes each day, over 6 hours per week or 41 work days each year. If you live somewhere that has a long commute time, it is easy to see how much time is just spent driving back and forth. If you were able to eliminate the commute even one day per week, you would save over 65 hours per year. That is over 8 work days of time or equivalent to an extra 1.5 weeks of vacation. … [Read more...] about Convince Your Boss to Let you Work from Home

Here is a short video showing how to add short cut folders to your side bar in OS X.  The video shows me adding the folder ebooks and then removing the folder (it disappears in a puff of smoke). I use this to keep project files in easy reach.  Since it is simple to add and remove folder or other items, the side bar can function as a work area to keep track of things you need fast access to. One benefit of this is that the items will show up when you  do a "Save As" or "File Open" as well. This little trick saves me a tremendous amount of time because I can quickly reconfigure things for whatever I'm working on. When I'm busy with a particular client, I'll … [Read more...] about Adding Shortcut Folders in OS X

This week I was reworking the archives in response to some of the suggestions from the iPod Review Contest and ended up going through some older posts all the way back to 2005. I wanted to wrap this week up with a few links to some previous posts: Two Type of Technology Users - Also known as the myth of gadgets, this post looks at how different people approach technology. So which type are you?   Social Glass Ceiling - The people you surround yourself set a limit on how much you can accomplish. The Rat Experiment - Managing others perception can help you be more productive and effective. Investing in Exercise - Another rat experiment that showed the importance of exercise. The … [Read more...] about Previously Popular Posts

(In this series of posts, we are looking at some components of good time management.) Organization If you are disorganized, it will be very difficult to make good use of your time.  When you can't find important items, it is easy to spend 15, 30 or 60 minutes each day just looking for stuff. When you have a "place for everything and everything in its place" you can focus on your actual work and not just managing your "things". When I was in college, I asked my grandmother to make me a patchwork quilt and matching pillow case for my dorm room bed.  I liked it a lot and it gave my room a distinct look and made it trendy in a way that only dorm rooms can be. … [Read more...] about The Most for your Minute

I spoke to two community college classes this morning about technology and the internet.  I took a quick poll and was amazed at how few of them had ever bought or sold anything on eBay.  It isn't like eBay is some new tool, but most of them had never used it. … [Read more...] about Experiment with Online Tools

(In this series of posts, we are looking at ways to better manage time). Simplicity Complexity is the nemesis of productivity.  One of the fastest ways to gain time is to reduce the complexity in your life. Sometimes this means trimming functionality to the things you actually need to do instead of trying to do everything.  For example: Rather than invest a bunch of time and effort in setting up our home theater to show broadcast television, the VCR, game console, etc. I just set it up to play DVDs.  We could move some wires around to watch something else, but since that only happened 2 or 3 times a year, the simplicity of having one remote was well worth it. … [Read more...] about The Most for your Minute

In this series we are looking at different ways to manage our time or to "Make the Most of Each Minute". Invest in Technology Technology has an incredible potential for helping you make the most of your time. It wasn't that long ago that getting information took weeks because you had to call a company or write a letter and then wait for it to arrive in the mail.  Now you can get most common information online quickly and easily. … [Read more...] about The Most for Your Minute

For the past 6 months, my wife and I haven't had our own place.  We've been all over the US and Mexico staying with friends, relatives, and in hotels. It has been an interesting experience and I've developed a few practices that help me be the most productive while working out of a suitcase. Obviously you would want to tailor these for your own line of work, but hopefully everyone can find at least a few tips that are helpful. Work Bag - For me, this is my laptop bag.  Almost everything I need to work goes in the bag.  If I am approaching a deadline, I can stop anywhere with internet access and get right to work without needing to pull things from several suitcases. If you do a lot of … [Read more...] about Working from a Suitcase

The last two lists of academic podcast lectures were quite popular, so I've created an updated list for this semester.  Universities are starting to limit podcasts to registered students and some have given up on podcasting.  As a result our list is shorter than last semester.  However, there are still over 60 classes publishing public RSS feeds--most people should be able to find something interesting for their daily commute. The list only contains actual courses.  Many universities have distinguished speaker podcasts that are intentionally not included in this list.  If you are aware of other podcasts of current courses please add them to the comments.  … [Read more...] about Free Academic Podcast Lectures (Spring 2007)

We got a Yorky puppy about 5 years ago. We had resolved that she would be a very well trained animal, etc. etc. She isn't. She is sweet and we love her, but she is spoiled and thinks she is a person. However there was one thing we did that was turned out wonderfully and made our lives much easier. When we first got her, we bought a small bell and hung it from the door in our apartment where she could reach it with her nose. Every time we took her outside, we'd ring the bell with her nose. She learned to ring the bell when she wants to go out and this has proved to be even more convenient than we thought it would be. Whenever we travel, we can just take the bell with us and hang … [Read more...] about Tuesday’s Tip: A Bell for Your Dog

This week we reached the 250 mark for email subscribers and randomly selected one individual to receive an iPod Shuffle engraved with www.productivity501.com on the back. The winner was Conrad Zhuang and he should be getting his iPod in the next week or so. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest.  If  you subscribed just for the contest, feel free to unsubscribe now. :)  In the coming months we'll probably do another contest to encourage people to subscribe to the RSS feeds.  If you have any suggestions of something that would make a good giveaway and would cost less than $100 please leave them in the comments. As a side note, I want to mention another 501 site: … [Read more...] about We Have a Winner!

Take a few minutes to reflect on what you've read over the past year.  Now assume 2007 will consist of a similar "intellectual diet".  Will you feel like you've adequately invested in yourself at the end of 2007? If you feel that you'll be pleased with your personal growth in 2007 based on this exercise then you are in good shape.  You already place an adequate emphasis on your personal development. However, for me, this shows how much I fall short of my ideal personal investment. Our health is determined by what we eat on a daily basis.  It doesn't really matter what we do as part of a 1 week diet.  Our intellectual health is determined by what we do … [Read more...] about Intellectual Diet

Just a quick note to let you know the status of our iPod Shuffle giveaway.  The contest is an unashamed self promotional strategy to get  you the reader to sign up to get new Productivity501 posts directly into your email inbox. The contest is still running.  We weren't able to hit our goal of 250 email subscribers by Christmas, but we are very close.  We need another 25 subscribers to get to our goal of 250 subscribers to our email list. If you haven't signed up already, you can use the form on the right hand side of the page to enter.  If you've already entered, you can help by encouraging your friends to sign up.  The sooner we get 250 users the sooner … [Read more...] about Contest Update