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Traditionally, specialization has been the path toward making more money. A brain surgeon can make more money than a physician who is in general practice. An engineer that specializes in building long-span bridges can make more than a general engineer. This makes sense because the more specific a customer's need, the fewer people there are normally going to be to fulfill that need, and when there are fewer people to choose from, the price will migrate higher. Based on this, some of the most common advice for making more money is to develop more specialized skills. However, another shift that has occurred over the past 5 to 20 years is that the new tools are increasing the amount … [Read more...] about Specialization vs. Broad Skills

The trouble with most New Year's Resolutions is that they aren't focused on something quantifiable and specific. Vague resolutions are very easy to break because it is never clear if you are actually achieving them or not. For example, with a resolution like "exercise more" you'll never know if you actually did it or not. But a resolution like "do three pull-ups every night" is much more specific. There is no ambiguity about whether or not you did three pull-ups or not. One of the best ways to track New Year's Resolutions is to get a calendar where you can mark your progress each day. So for the pull-up example, you might put the calendar on the wall near your pull-up bar and put an X … [Read more...] about Productive New Year’s Resolutions

Becoming a smarter person is obviously a good way to get more done. However, we live with a bit of a myth that what we are born with is what we are stuck with when it comes to raw brain power. There are all kinds of aspects to this, but for today, I want to focus on one interesting experiment that involves mice. With two young kids, my family and I like to spend a lot of time at zoos. When we travel, we'll often try to visit the local zoo. If you've been to a zoo recently, you've probably noticed all kinds of strange things in with the animals. The elephants have colorful balls and even a car tire. The monkeys have plastic toys for toddlers. Even the otters have a pool of bubble bath … [Read more...] about Becoming Smarter and More Productive

1. Label Everything Make sure your cell phone, laptop, luggage, etc. have your name and contact information on them somewhere. If you accidentally leave your phone in a cab or a bag on a plane, you have a much greater chance of getting it back if people can tell to whom it belongs. For luggage, I like using engraved metal pet tags. If you look around, you can find them on the Internet for $2 or less. They are durable and won't rip or tear. If you get the "dog tag" style, they look more like a luggage tag and a bit less like something you'd expect to see on a dog or cat collar. 2. Plan for Taxi and Shuttles If you are going to need to take a taxi from the airport, it can be helpful … [Read more...] about Tips for Travel

In this post, we are going to talk about several ways to make your computer run faster. I've seen a lot of people buy a new computer when their old one was perfectly adequate, but had just gotten bogged down with too many things running at the same time. For your computer to make you productive, you want to reduce the amount of time you spend waiting on it to do something. Some of these tips can help. 1. Reboot regularly Some people leave their computer on for weeks at a time. The problem is that some programs will start other programs, and these don't always get shut down properly. They can consume memory or use the processor in ways that you might not expect. Doing a reboot will help … [Read more...] about Make Your Computer Faster

Whether you work from home or not, most people have some type of home office or place where they do work from home either for their employer or for themselves. In this post, we are going to look at five things to consider when designing your home office to maximize productivity. 1. Proximity Matters When you are designing a home office, make sure you put things that you need often near where you need them. For example, if you want to get better about shredding documents with sensitive information on them, don't put your shredder across the room or in the closet. It needs to be out where you can easily get to it. The more effort it takes to do something, the less often you will want to … [Read more...] about 5 Tips for a Productive Home Office

On a recent trip to Philadelphia, I was struck by how much paperless functionality is available in modern cell phones. The two things that appear to be driving this change are: Cameras built into every phone Constant network connectivity Let me walk you through a small portion of my recent trip to give you some examples of what I'm talking about. With a 6 am flight, we arrived the night before at a hotel near the airport. I had all of my reservation information in an email Gmail on my Android Nexus S phone so I didn't have to print it out ahead of time. Before going to bed, I confirmed the flight time on my phone, also using Gmail's search capability. In the morning, we used … [Read more...] about Mobile Paperless

When it comes to what you accomplish in life, how can you be extraordinary? In this post we are going to look at some habits and traits of people who get an incredible amount accomplished. 1. Perseverance What often separates "good" from "great" is the ability to push just a little harder, to try a few more times, and not to give up just a little longer. If 99% of people will give up after trying something 99 different ways, trying it one more time may very likely put you in the 1% that get extraordinary results. I've been in a lot of situations where my success had nothing to do with being skillful and everything to do with being stubborn. Years ago, I worked in the IT department … [Read more...] about Being Extraordinary

We have a large yard that takes a long time to mow. By large, I mean over two acres. By "long time" I mean three to five hours with our three-blade riding mower. This spring I found myself very short on time and went ahead and made an investment in finding someone who could mow it for me. It took a little while to find someone. The first guy that was recommended to us made it clear that he wanted to be paid in cash in order to avoid losing his disability benefits and his pricing seemed more like rolling the dice instead of somehow relating to the size of the job. Finally we found someone who seemed like they would do a good job. He just finished a few hours ago. I'm very pleased with the way … [Read more...] about Delegating and Outsourcing