One of the most important skills you can develop is the ability to focus. Anything you can do to improve your focus is going to make you more successful. Any non-trivial task requires focus and attention if you want to reach any level of productivity. When you aren't focused, tasks take significantly longer, are prone to mistakes and in some cases progress is impossible. Multi-tasking Myth The multi-tasking myth has done more to destroy our ability to focus than just about anything. People consider multi-tasking to be something they are proud of. After all, computers multi-task right? It turns out that humans are amazingly horrible at multi-tasking. Many people feel like they are … [Read more...] about Improve Your Focus
Mark Shead's articles
Mark Shead
Diplomas – What to do with them?
Erin at Unclutterer posted an interesting reader question about what you should do with your diplomas. Some of the suggestions in the comments really blew me away. Here are a few: Hang them in your closet or bathroom where no one will see them. Give them back to your school. Put them in a binder on a bookshelf. Evidently some people feel awkward about putting them on the wall in their home, office or cubicle. Granted, everyone's college experience is different, but I think people are missing out on some of the motivational value of keeping your diploma visible. Inspiring Your Children While I don't believe that college is for everyone, there are many people who could … [Read more...] about Diplomas – What to do with them?
Interview with Jennifer Armitstead
Back in June I met Jennifer Armitstead who runs a career coaching company and does a weekly radio program called Job Club Radio. She does career coaching at both the corporate and individual level so she has some great insights into current issues on what it takes to find and get an ideal job. She graciously agreed to be interviewed about some of the current trends in the job market and career planning. You can read more about Jennifer's company at JA Career Coaching and be sure to check out her blog for more career tips. I know you work as a career coach, but what exactly does that entail? Can you give us an idea of what you do for clients? As a career coach, I work with people … [Read more...] about Interview with Jennifer Armitstead
AppSumo
AppSumo has a productivity bundle that will give you a bunch of subscription services for only $55. The bundle includes are: Evernote - The subscription gives you OCR, larger storage and some other features. (Our review of Evernote) Remember the Milk - Online To-Do list. Time Bridge - Calendar and scheduling tool. Mind Meister - Mind mapping software Rescue Time - Time tracking service that shows how you spend your time. ShoeBoxed - Document scanning service. (Our review of ShoeBoxed.) If you've ever thought about trying one or two of these apps, it may be well worth checking out their package deal. They have just a few left to sell and the deal is only good for the next … [Read more...] about AppSumo
Would You Hire An MBA?
My post Never Hire An MBA has been getting quite a bit of attention particularly in other countries. If you read the comments, you'll see that there is a lot of disagreement with my point of view. However, nearly everyone who is commenting seems to have or be in the process of earning an MBA. If you are in a position to actually hire people, I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts and comments. … [Read more...] about Would You Hire An MBA?
Never Hire An MBA
If you are responsible for hiring people, someone with a master's degree in business administration might look like an attractive hire. While, "Never Hire An MBA" might be a bit extreme, I see a lot of people who overvalue an MBA. In particular, small and medium sized businesses will often try to "hire an MBA". Consider that statement. Wouldn't it seem strange to say, "I want to hire a Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering"? A Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering isn't a person--it is a degree. You can't hire a degree. What you really want is a software engineer or maybe a computer scientist--a person. But when it comes to the MBA degree people talk as if you can just hire … [Read more...] about Never Hire An MBA
100 Personal Outsourcing Ideas
The idea behind personal outsourcing is to free up more of your time by delegating tasks that don't require your personal touch to complete. I've heard of people outsourcing reading to their kids and even arguing with their spouse, but the whole point of personal outsourcing is to free up time from unimportant tasks to focus on family and other things of high importance. In this list we are going to look at 100 different ways you can use an assistant to save you time. Some will work with a virtual as well as an on site assistant, some will only work with on site help. Obviously you need to match the job with the skills of your assistant, but this can provide a valuable starting … [Read more...] about 100 Personal Outsourcing Ideas
The Role of Lighting
Lighting plays a much greater part in our productivity than most people realize. There is quite a bit of research that supports the idea that productivity increases along with the amount of light in your workspace (at least up to a certain point). However, if the increase produces glare, it is counter-productive. This is especially true for people working in front of a computer. The best lighting solution is one where the lighting is indirectly bounced off the ceiling. This helps diffuse the light and cuts down on the amount of glare. Some of the best lamps I've used are the halogen floor lamps that shine their light all on the ceiling. Another thing to consider in lighting your … [Read more...] about The Role of Lighting
Five Time-savers
Logging into and navigating voice mail. Of course, you have to check your voice mail; but there are some things you can do to keep it from interrupting your day. Personally, I find that navigating voicemail menus is a huge waste of time. I have set my voice mail system to send me an email with the message attached as a .wav file whenever someone leaves me a message. This centralizes all my messages to the same place (my email box) and doesn't require that I navigate using the phone keypad. Reading emails. Here are several tips for streamlining your email reading: Make all your emails come to one place. If you have to log into several different accounts to read email you … [Read more...] about Five Time-savers
Borrow from your IRA
Usually I write about stuff that I recommend doing. In this post, I want to look at something that is possible, but not recommended under most circumstances. With hard economic times, there are a lot of people trying to find ways to borrow from their retirement funds. Many 401k accounts allow this, but what if your money is in an IRA? You'll probably want to ask: "Can I borrow from my IRA?" Well, can you borrow from your IRA? Or perhaps, can you borrow against your IRA's value? Technically, no. But there is a short-term loophole that you can use if you have no other option. In this post, we are going to explore the loophole. Individual Retirement Accounts An individual retirement … [Read more...] about Borrow from your IRA
Continual Self-Development
One of the biggest reasons people don't reach their full potential is because they don't really understand continual improvement. Skills and capabilities aren't things that you achieve and then coast on for the rest of your life. You can't exercise for three months and then decide you are set for the rest of the year. Pretty much everything you want to improve will require at least a small amount of effort on a regular, ongoing basis. Exercise and health If you want to stay healthy, you must continually eat, sleep and exercise. Bursts of healthy eating for a week followed by a month of eating junk isn't going to really help you. You must build healthy habits into your lifestyle where … [Read more...] about Continual Self-Development
Circles, Amex, Passwords and Public Relations
I got an interesting call last week. The vice president in charge of public relations from Circles gave me a call. Circles is the company that provides concierge services for American Express. A number of their current and former employees have commented here at Productivity501 and one revealed what Circles considered to be proprietary confidential password from their client, American Express. The VP of PR asked that I remove the password. Me: I vaguely remember a comment that had some type of access code in it, but it just looked like a telephone number. Is that what we are talking about? Circles Public Relations: It has the same number of digits as a telephone number, but it is … [Read more...] about Circles, Amex, Passwords and Public Relations
Are You Becoming An Idiot?
Pop quiz! Are you becoming an idiot? Wouldn't you hate to wake up one day and suddenly realize,"Oh my! Over the past 10 years, I've become an idiot!" It would be better to know now and take corrective action before you reach the point of no return. This is a ten question quiz to determine whether or not you are becoming an idiot. Have you read at least two non-fiction books during the last 12 months? Do you spend more than 2 hours a week channel surfing? Have you taken any formal college training in the last five years? Has it been more than 5 years since you did a long division problem by hand? Have you been to at least one cultural event in the last year? (Museum, opera, … [Read more...] about Are You Becoming An Idiot?
If I Get Fired…
On a recent Sunday afternoon I was sitting on a bench at the local park watching my daughter on the playground equipment. I overheard an interesting conversation among another family. The adults were commenting on what their 8-year-old boy wanted to be when he grew up. Mother: "Of course he wants to be a fireman when he grows up." Boy: "Or a policeman!" Father: "Well, which one do you want to be?" Boy: "Well, I'll be a policeman if I get fired from being a fireman." Mother: "Well that is sure aiming high!" What I found fascinating about this was that the 8-year-old boy understands something about the modern job market that many adults have a hard time grasping. Your job isn't … [Read more...] about If I Get Fired…
Productive Airplane Rides
Today I heard an interesting statistic: One hour of work on an airplane is equal to three hours of work in the office. Wow! Sounds incredible, doesn't it? If that is true, then basically, you'd get just as much done if you spent three hours every day on a plane and take the rest of the time off. Offices of highly paid workers would be better off if they would stop leasing expensive floorspace and just get everyone airline tickets every day. Okay, so maybe it doesn't scale to something you can do every day of the week, but if you've ever worked on a long plane ride, this statistic doesn't sound completely unreasonable. Planes offer the following: A bunch of people you probably … [Read more...] about Productive Airplane Rides
10 Paperless Office Myths
The paperless office is no longer being held back by technical challenges. Everything you need to "go paperless" exists. The current barriers are cultural and process issues more than anything technical. In this article, we are going to look at ten of the common myths about going paperless. 1. Technology isn't ready for a paperless office The components of a paperless office are readily available and fairly inexpensive. The technology is readily available not only to scan in your existing paper, but to eliminate the creation of new paper through better workflow tools. While the technology for going paperless is readily available, the rate of adoption for these tools and this system is … [Read more...] about 10 Paperless Office Myths
Severance and FICA Taxes
Current tax law says you and your employer must pay a tax of 15.3% of your total wages (subject to certain limits) because of the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA). This is what pays for social security and medicare. This tax is only due on earned income and it is split between you and your employer. A recent tax court ruled that severance payments are not earned income and are thus not subject to FICA tax. If this applies to you, your former employer will need to file to get the taxes back, but it might be worth checking with anyone who paid you severance since 2006. … [Read more...] about Severance and FICA Taxes
5 Tips for Networking Geniuses
Your network is the people you know and stay in contact with. The size and quality of your network has a huge impact on your opportunities in life. Obviously, keeping your network "healthy" is instrumental in growing it. What is a healthy network? A healthy network is one where the people who know you, think of your name when there is an opportunity that you might be interested in, a job you might like, or question you can answer, or a favor you can provide. Notice, it isn't just about taking--it is about people thinking of you both when they need something and when they can help you. In this post, we are going to look at five tips that will help make you a networking genius--someone … [Read more...] about 5 Tips for Networking Geniuses
Why You Aren’t Successful
If you feel you are wildly successful, then you probably don't need to read this. However, if you are only moderately successful, you probably spend a lot of time wondering what the people who are wildly successful are doing differently than you. There is one huge difference between successful and unsuccessful people. That difference is their ability to finish. Yes, luck, connections, family, training and a number of other factors influence success, but none of those things really matter if you can't finish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPTfO8U3kCs Things of Value Success is a matter of producing things of value. That doesn't mean everything you create and finish will be a … [Read more...] about Why You Aren’t Successful
Happiness Project Video
We reviewed the Happiness Project a month or so ago. Gretchen just wrapped up a television advertising campaign. You can watch the ad on YouTube. If you are interested in television advertising, be sure to read how she used Google to get her ad on national television. … [Read more...] about Happiness Project Video
Technology Worth Noticing
Here is a short collection of different pieces of technology I've dealt with lately that might be worth looking into if you ever have a need for the particular problems each one solves. Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Ubuntu's newest version of Linux is a nice step forward. Ubuntu is an operating system. You can install it in place of Microsoft Windows or OS X. After playing with it a few hours, I've been impressed with the new look and feel. It includes a number of free applications as part of the default installation very much on par with (if not better than) what you'd expect to get with a commercial operating system. For general computing where a good deal of your work is done on the Internet, … [Read more...] about Technology Worth Noticing
How to keep from Wasting Time on the Web
I saw this quote on a mailing list: For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer. (I also have not net connection much of the time.) To look at page I send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page back to me. It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time. -- Richard Stallman Basically, if he wants a page, he sends an email to a special address asking for it and the page is emailed back to him. That is definitely one way to keep from wasting time on the internet. A lot of times the internet doesn't help productivity because it wastes just as much time as it saves. Here are some tips for keeping focused. Block Ads - Ads are there to … [Read more...] about How to keep from Wasting Time on the Web
Prepare for Next Year’s Taxes
With tax season behind us, it is worth taking a few minutes to prepare for next year. As the deficit rises, it seems pretty difficult to imagine that our taxes won't be going up in one form or another. A little preparation can help make sure that you pay no more than your fair share. Tax folder Start a folder today for 2010 tax papers. Even if you don't put anything in it, having it ready helps make sure that you don't accidentally misplace something when it does come in. Many people spend more time looking for tax papers than they do actually preparing their taxes. This folder is also a great place to keep anything that will help you with your taxes. If you read about a tax credit … [Read more...] about Prepare for Next Year’s Taxes
Can Exercise Make You Fat?
Sounds like a stupid question doesn't it? We all know the answer. Exercising in and of itself will not make you fat. However, the side effects of exercising can encourage behavior that will make you gain weight. Unless you understand how you mentally react to exercising, it is easy to get in a situation where your rituals around exercise can make you put on the pounds instead of shedding them. Self-control Most people tend to treat self-control as a finite commodity. In other words, if they exercise self-control in one area, they will lessen the self-control they apply in another area. Some of this is a mentality of trying to reward yourself for good behavior. So if you exercise for … [Read more...] about Can Exercise Make You Fat?
Diversified Income
Nearly everyone knows that, when it comes to investing, you shouldn't put all of your eggs into one basket. Investing in many different types of investments helps lower the risk that a downturn in a particular area will wipe you out, financially. (See the story about a man who only invested in street cars.) Most people don't take what is common knowledge about investing and apply it to other areas. In particular, they don't apply it to their income. When you are in a position where all of your income is determined by a single employer, you are just like the guy who had all of his money in street cars. Many dual-income families have some level of diversification by having two adults … [Read more...] about Diversified Income
Reading More
Most people agree that reading is very beneficial and lament the fact that they don't have time to read more. Here are five simple tips to help you fit more reading into your busy schedule. Keep a book with you. Keeping a book with you gives you a productive way to fill in those little 10- to 20-minute pockets of time where you are waiting on someone or something. Not every book is good to read in short bursts, so choose something that works well with the time spans to which you plan to commit. Stop reading something if you don't like it. Just because you started a book doesn't mean you have to finish it--no matter how many awards it has won. I started reading The Sound and the Fury … [Read more...] about Reading More
Stop Squandering Time At Home
Most of us put a good deal of time into running our households. There are always floors to vacuum, bathrooms to clean, and garbage to take out. Other than hiring a maid, there is no way to do away with all these activities. However, a little planning ahead can drastically reduce how much time you spend on some of these activities. This is a list of simple time- and work-saving ideas for your home. Minimize soap scum It seems that soap gets everything clean except shower walls. In your bathroom, soap becomes the dirt you are trying to remove. However, some soaps stick more than others. I recently tried an experiment with different types of soap and noticed a very big difference in the … [Read more...] about Stop Squandering Time At Home
Money Thoughts
Here is a short collection of money tips and thoughts as we reach the April 15th tax deadline. Homebuyers credit The home buyers credit expires after April 30. First time home buyers can get a $8,000 refundable credit and there is a $6,500 credit available for current home owners to buy a different home. April 30th is the deadline to sign a binding contract, but you have until June 30th to completely close the deal. Claiming the home buyers credit will force you to file on paper and your return will be subject to much closer inspection. The IRS plans to audit some 200,000 returns of people who took the home buyers credit so be sure to do your best to provide all the necessary … [Read more...] about Money Thoughts
Power of Physical Mail
In a world where many of us send off over 100 emails each day, it is easy to overlook the power of a physical letter delivered by the mail man. With so much information coming by email, sending a physical letter can help make your message special and more memorable. Here are some thoughts for making the most of sending physical letters. Real stamps Don't go to all the trouble of making something personal and special and then ruin it with an ugly postage meter. Use real stamps. In many cases, you can match the purpose of your letter to a specific stamp design. Forever stamps will let you mail a First Class letter, even if the cost of sending letters goes up in the future. You buy … [Read more...] about Power of Physical Mail
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
A Talk With The FBI
I recently had a chance to talk with an FBI agent who works with computer evidence. Here are some of the things I took away from the conversation. A lot of his job is fairly easy because most criminals have no idea how a computer works. I asked if he ran into any type of encryption very often and he said it was very rare. There was only one case where someone was using encryption and he said it was completely luck that they were able to catch him because he hadn't chosen a very good password. Now I'm not telling you this so you can go out and start a life of crime. But the things that make Mr. FBI Agent's life easier also make the life of identity thieves a lot easier. So what do … [Read more...] about A Talk With The FBI
Email newsletter problem
It looks like our last email newsletter went out without showing the excerpt for each post and instead only showed an internal ad for our ambient sounds. This ad should have only been shown when viewing the full feed. This wasn't intentional and I apologize for the mess up. I'm working with Aweber to get this fixed. … [Read more...] about Email newsletter problem
Harvard Online Master’s Degree
There are few things that will give you a better boost in lifetime productivity than a good solid education--you are essentially upgrading your mind to understand, comprehend and process more. Modern technology is making education surprisingly easy to obtain and inexpensive. Years ago, you'd get a bachelor's degree, go work for a big company and eventually retire with a gold watch. That model doesn't really work anymore. If you want to maximize your potential, you need continual education. This can be be formal and informal, but in this article we are going to look at my experience getting a formal education that leads to a degree while working full time. In particular, we are going to … [Read more...] about Harvard Online Master’s Degree
Home Office – Effective Design
I work from my home office. My commute is a 30-second walk down the hall, down the stairs and into the portion of our house dedicated to my business. As we've moved around, I've built 7 or 8 different home offices. My home offices have ranged from a small corner in a bedroom in downtown Durango, Mexico where the chair would collapse several times each day and we had to be wary of scorpions, to my current, spacious 1000 sq foot office with its own bathroom, fireplace and outside entrance. I've found a lot of things that work well and a lot of things that didn't work out so well. In this post, we are going to discuss some of the issues and planning that should go into setting up an effective … [Read more...] about Home Office – Effective Design
Your Intelligence – Reading, Writing & Arithmetic
We looked previously at some ways to appear smarter and look more intelligent. In this post I want to talk about ways to actually become smarter. A portion of your intelligence appears to be fixed. Research seems to indicate that there is little you can do to drastically increase your IQ. However, IQ is only one component of functional intelligence. Your knowledge, experience and training have a very profound effect on your ability to solve real-world problems. So even if you can't directly increase your IQ, you can increase your ability and speed to solve problems, which functionally accomplishes nearly the same thing. We are going to look at three areas as the foundation for … [Read more...] about Your Intelligence – Reading, Writing & Arithmetic
9 Tips for Effective Online Meetings
Recently we wrote a popular article on how to have effective meetings. Some people pointed out that online meetings require a special set of skills, and it can be difficult to follow the same advice that we gave for in-person meetings. With so many people working from home, it seemed like a good idea to address these types of meetings. Since I primarily work from home, a good percentage of my meetings are done using video conferencing and screen sharing. After doing this for several years, here are some of the top tips I'd offer for people who are starting to do online meetings. 1. Stay focused It is easy to get distracted or try to multi-task when you are in an online meeting. Don't … [Read more...] about 9 Tips for Effective Online Meetings
5 Tips To Become More Valuable At Work
Not all workers are equal. If your company gets ready to do round of layoffs, you want to be in the group of people who are seen as vital and valuable. In this article, we are going to look at a few ways to increase the value you bring to your job in ways that are likely to get noticed. 1. Show up 5 minutes early If your boss shows up at 9 am like clockwork, then getting to work at 8:59, yourself, is a very worthwhile 1-minute investment. Even if you have to arrive 5 minutes early, it is well worth it to be there before your boss if at all possible. Think about it this way: If your boss has to cut one employee and all other factors are equal, do you think he will cut the person who he … [Read more...] about 5 Tips To Become More Valuable At Work
Paperless Office – Reducing Paper Creation
When people think of a paperless office, they usually focus on how to store documents in a digital form. This is important, but it misses the real point of going paperless. The real benefit comes from creating documents in way that they are digital for the entire lifetime. Once a document gets printed out, you've broken the paperless life cycle. This is why scanners are simply a stop-gap solution for paperless offices. If your paperless system is set up right, scanners should only be needed to handle documents from people who aren't yet paperless. So how do you create documents that can remain paperless for their entire life cycle? Here are some areas to think about: How will others … [Read more...] about Paperless Office – Reducing Paper Creation
Valuable Activities
When it comes to what you spend, your money on you should focus on things that appreciate instead of things that depreciate. For example, if you buy a house for a fair price, it will generally be worth more in 15 years than what you paid for it. If you purchase a sports car, it will generally be worth less. When it comes to how you spend your time, you have to think in the same way. Some activities are inherently more valuable than others. Activities that make you more valuable or create something that will produce an income for later make for a better use of your time than activities that produce no lasting benefit. A common trait I see in successful people is that what they do for … [Read more...] about Valuable Activities
Passwords – Different For Each Account
The founder of Facebook has been accused of using information from Facebook to break into email accounts at Harvard Crimson (Harvard's newspaper). While I don't know if it is true or not, the technique is plausible and is an excellent demonstration of why you shouldn't use the same password for every website and how important it is to create secure passwords. The story says that the Facebook founder was concerned about a story the Crimson planned on running. He located people on Facebook who said they worked at the Crimson. Since it sounds like Facebook stores passwords in a secure manner, he couldn't simply look them up from the database. Instead, he went through the server's logs to try … [Read more...] about Passwords – Different For Each Account
Reducing Email Overload
Email is one of those things that can be both a great time-saver and a huge waste of time. The idea of being able to send a message to someone across the country and get a reply back in hours or even minutes is amazing, even though we take it for granted. Unfortunately, email has become a victim of its own success, and it's easy to drown in the huge volume of electronic messages that come in each day. In this article, we are going to look at some ways to help reduce email overload by looking at strategies and methods for getting the most out of email without letting it run your life. Multiple Mailboxes Not all email is created equal. Some email you never want to see. Other emails … [Read more...] about Reducing Email Overload
How to do a Time Audit
There is often a great discrepancy between the way you spend your time and the way you think you spend your time. A time audit helps you look at exactly how your time is being used so you can better understand where your time is going. One form of a time audit is to simply keep a log of your time. This works to a certain extent, but it tends to better show how you want to spend your time instead of how your time is actually spent. For a time audit to be effective, it needs to reflect your actual work history. Here is a simple method for doing a time audit that will help show how your time is actually spent. Get some type of timer that can be set for a specific interval of time. You … [Read more...] about How to do a Time Audit
Productivity – What is it?
What is productivity? Productivity is simply the amount of output you get per unit of input. It is a way to compare the cost of something to its benefit. So if you have an input of 5 and output of 5, your productivity is lower than something with an input of 5 and an output of 10. Productivity is kind of like the miles per gallon on your car. It tells you how far you can go on a given amount of input (gasoline for your car). In this article, we are going to look at productivity from your boss' perspective and then talk about personal productivity. Employee Productivity In mathematical terms, productivity is output divided by effort. So if O = output, I = input then P = … [Read more...] about Productivity – What is it?
Reputable Language
When you put yourself into a new social context, one of the things you learn is a new vocabulary. This is natural and normal. However, you must give care to develop vocabulary habits that will benefit and not hinder you in the future. I started college in 1994. After a few weeks on campus, I realized there were quite a few words and phrases that were in common usage that I was going to start using simply by being around them. While most of them were benign, there were several that I was a bit unsure whether I wanted to adopt or not. I'm not talking about obscenities. I'm talking about things like: Crap - Often used as an expletive, adjective or adverb. Sucks - Used to describe … [Read more...] about Reputable Language
5 Questions To Help Organize Your Desk
Look at your desk right now. Is it messy? If so, don't feel too bad. It isn't uncommon. This post is a series of questions to ask about the stuff that is currently on your desk. Asking these questions will help you find the cause of a messy desk and give you some ideas for stopping the disorganization at its root. This is vastly more beneficial than simply taking the time to clean your desk right now, because if you don't change your process and organization, you'll be back in the same position in a week or so. 1. Do you have reading materials on your desk? One common source of desktop disorganization is reading materials. Magazines, newspapers, etc. that come to you that you feel … [Read more...] about 5 Questions To Help Organize Your Desk
The Power of Knowing
A lot of time-management techniques suggest creating some sort of prioritized to-do list. Why? What is so special about having a pre-determined order assigned to the things you need to do? Obviously, picking your kids up from school is a bigger priority than washing your car, but for the things that are nearly equal, what does it matter? It turns out that there is a very good reason that so many people recommend this. Good time management has an arch enemy. It isn't interruptions or even procrastination. The big foe to good time management is indecision. Knowing exactly what you need to do next wards off indecision. Even if the order is somewhat arbitrary, there is value in having … [Read more...] about The Power of Knowing
It’s Hard to Learn From Your Own Mistakes
Failure gives you a chance to learn. When you make a mistake you can learn from that mistake and not make it again. Right? Well, yes, in theory. The problem with this approach is that failure triggers strong emotions and makes it very difficult to focus on the cause of the failure. For example, let's say that you were fired from a job. (Feel free to substitute your own big failure for this scenario.) When you think about being fired, your mind will focus on the emotional part of it--the being fired part, cleaning out your desk, walking out of the building, looking for a new job, etc. These are the things that are strongly branded in your brain because they contained the most emotion. … [Read more...] about It’s Hard to Learn From Your Own Mistakes
Privacy and Technology
There is a current court case that involves a school that provides laptops for its students. The students are allowed to take the laptops home. These laptops had video cameras, and the school would occasionally activate the webcam of a laptop to try to figure out where it was. They activated the camera of high school student Blake Robbins and took a picture. It seems that he had some candy visible in the picture and the school system decided it looked like drugs that he was taking or selling. After Robbins was disciplined for drug use/sales, he sued the school system basically saying that not only was he falsely accused, but that they should have never turned the camera on in the … [Read more...] about Privacy and Technology
On the Job MBA
A Master of Business Administration degree is designed to give a broad set of skills needed in running a business. A good deal of what you would learn from an paid, formal MBA program can be gleaned from on-the-job experience if you are paying close analytical attention resulting in a free MBA level education. This article is going to explore some of the ways you can leverage your job experience to develop many of the skills you'd get going through an MBA program. In fact, if you apply yourself to this type of education, your free MBA skill set would put you well ahead of some state school MBA's I've had to work with. Business is not rocket science. A lot of what you need to know is … [Read more...] about On the Job MBA
Income Diversification
Most people make money from their job working for someone else, and that is it. This is an extremely precarious situation, because if the job goes away, it takes away 100% of their income. The ideal situation is a number of different income sources that can all be ramped up, if necessary. In this post, we are going to look at several different sources of income. Job This is where most people make their money. They work for an employer that pays them for their time. An advantage of this type of income is that the employee doesn't have to know much about running other parts of the business. They can concentrate on their portion of their job. A janitor at Google doesn't have to … [Read more...] about Income Diversification