Scientists did an experiment with a bunch of children where they gave them several tests that got increasingly more difficult. After the first two tests, they told the children that they had done very well. Group A was praised them for being smart and talented. Group B was praised for their hard work. Next they gave them a very difficult test--so difficult that many children didn't get a single question right. They then told both groups that they hadn't done as well on this test and asked them if they knew why. The students from group A said that it must be because they weren't smart enough. Group B said that it must be because they didn't try hard enough. That in itself is … [Read more...] about Effort vs. Ability
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Christmas Gift Ideas
Christmas is coming soon so I thought I'd do a few posts with gift ideas based on things I've used this year and found to be exceptionally useful and or fun. Here is the first post and I'll try to do a few more as I think of ideas and have time to write about them. If you have suggestions, please add them in the comments. You might be able to suggest the perfect gift that another reader hadn't though of. Fingerless Gloves Fingerless Gloves ~ $3.50 My office is in the walk-out basement of our home. It is typically 60 to 65 degrees in the winter, but when there is a strong wind on the walk out portion of the house, it can get a lot colder. This isn't to big of deal because I can … [Read more...] about Christmas Gift Ideas
LifeRemix Announcements
Productivity501 is a member of LifeRemix--a network of bloggers who are all focused on enriching people's lives in one way or another. Everyone has been pretty busy writing books, starting podcasts, and creating courses. Here are four of those projects ranging from a free manifesto PDF to a paid course on living without clutter. The Tower Chris Guillebeau from The Art of Non-Conformity has released a new manifesto called The Tower. You might be familiar with his previous Brief Guide To World Domination. The Tower is a beautiful PDF that is designed to be viewed on an iPad. (But in my experience looks very nice on a normal computer screen.) There is also a Kindle version available. It … [Read more...] about LifeRemix Announcements
Shopping Challenge Wrap Up
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Holiday Shopping Challenge. We had a lot of great Christmas shopping tips and suggestions. The winner of the $250 gift card is Jennifer Marie. She was chosen based on a random number from www.random.org. So how did my shopping, turn out? You can read about it below. My Dad The local hardware store was offering a sale on "gear wrench" sets. These are wrenches with the normal open end on one side, but the closed end has a gear mechanism in it that allows it to turn the bolt in one direction, but it "slips" when you push it the other. So it lets you ratchet the wrench back and forth to turn the bolt without needing to take the wrench off and … [Read more...] about Shopping Challenge Wrap Up
Holiday Shopping Challenge
Last week I got an email from someone at American Express asking if I'd be interested in doing some Christmas shopping (at their expense) and blogging about it. To really make it enticing, the offered to give a $250 gift certificate away to a reader of Productivity501. (See below for details.) So here is the plan. In this post I'm going to discuss some strategies for getting the most out of your credit card benefits and rewards programs--particularly related to Christmas shopping. I'll use American Express as an example, but most everything will relate to other cards as well. Then I'm going to try to buy 5 gifts for family and follow up with a post on what I found in a week. In that post … [Read more...] about Holiday Shopping Challenge
Desk Organization Tips
A few months ago we put out a request for tips on keeping a desk organized. Here are the tips that were submitted. Simplify instead of organize. Have as few things as possible, and you don't need to organize. Leo - Zen Habits Try to keep the desk clean, leaving only the essentials on its top. The rest goes into the drawer, boxes, the archive, or the bin. Your computer, the phone, and the paper you are currently work on is enough. Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann - DEVONtechnologies LLC Buy the smallest desk you can possibly find - then you're forced to be organized! Joe Bennett - Tweddle Group Clean desk is key. Have the following folders available on one of those accordion style … [Read more...] about Desk Organization Tips
Announcements
Here is a collection of products, events and applications that people have sent in over the past few weeks that might be of interest to readers. If you try any of these things out, please take a few minutes to leave a comment on your experience for others. Manvotionals The Art of Manliness has launched their second book, this one is called Manvotionals. Christmas is coming and it might be the perfect gift for a man in your life. Executive MBA Online Fair The Economist is holding an Executive MBA online fair. Executive MBAs are generally aimed at people who are mid career and follow a schedule that allows busy professionals to complete their MBA degree while working full time. They … [Read more...] about Announcements
Are You Reading Too Much?
I ran across and interesting quote by Albert Einstein the other day. Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. ~ Albert Einstein This isn't exactly the best known quote by Einstein and I doubt many teachers quote this to their students. Reading is generally a good thing, but if it starts becoming a substitute for thinking on your own it can hold you back from reaching your potential. This quote touches on a problem that holds many people back from actually accomplishing things. It is easy to spend so much time researching that you never actually … [Read more...] about Are You Reading Too Much?
End Malaria Book
The Domino Project has released a new book called End Malaria. The book is available for the Kindle and in paperback. It is a great idea! They got a bunch of authors together and put together a book where $20 from every sale goes to help end malaria. The contents are short essays by many famous business authors. There are three sections: Focus, Courage, Resilience. The contents of the book are great. They are all short and you can pick it up and randomly read any page to get something out of it. What most impressed me though was just the idea for the project. It is a great example of how creative thinking and a little organization (ok maybe a LOT of organization) can bring people … [Read more...] about End Malaria Book
Share Your Desk Organization Tip
I'm collecting short desk organization suggestions. Just visit this form and fill it out with your 200 character or less suggestion for keeping your desk organized. If you have multiple tips, feel free to add more than one. I'll edit them and publish a big list of desk organization tips. Feel free to share this link with anyone else you think might like to participate. http://bit.ly/pkXJNq … [Read more...] about Share Your Desk Organization Tip