Asides

I ran across some interesting research the other day that I wanted to take a few moments to share here. For years scientists have known that giving mice "enriched" environments makes the mice smarter. They would put in colorful toys, tunnels, exercise wheels, etc. and mice who lived in the "enriched" environments performed better on tests than the mice in the non-enriched cages. Finally some scientists started trying to figure out exactly what it was in the enriched environment's was making the mice smart. It turned out it wasn't the colorful balls or toys. it all came down to the exercise wheel. Even though the mice loved the toys the thing that made them smart was running on the wheel. … [Read more...] about Intelligence Follows the Wheel

Productivity501 has a Google+ Page now. If you use G+, please consider adding it to one of your circles. … [Read more...] about Google+

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

Danielle LaPorte is hosting a tele-Q&A on communications. It will cover topics from blogging to publishing.  She is doing this as a fund raiser for someone who is trying to donate $50k to Write Girl--an organization that tries to help at risk girls find a voice through writing and communicating. Checkout the info page to see if this is something you might be interested in doing. … [Read more...] about Write Hot Truth

If you want to make applications for your android phone, but don't know how to code, checkout App Inventor. It is kind of like Apple Automator, but for Android devices. It is getting a lot of use in education, but looks like it could be useful for anyone who wants to be able to do something automatically on their phone. … [Read more...] about App Inventor

I've started playing around with Google Plus. It has some interesting potential. If you are on G+, please consider following (or should I call it circling) my profile. Be watching for some up-coming contests on G+ as I figure out how it works. … [Read more...] about Google Plus

Have you written anything that you think readers of Productivity501 would enjoy?  If so, send a link to your best article or blog post to [email protected]. We'll select some of our favorites and publish them in a community links post. … [Read more...] about What Have You Written?

Guiding Tech is a blog that focuses on technology with an emphasis on online productivity tools. It is worth checking out. Here is a sampling of some of the useful posts: Online Alternatives to Powerpoint Chrome Extensions To Block Distracting Sites Creating Screencasts with Screencast-o-matic Retro Photo Effect Webapp Email Signature Creator WiseStamp … [Read more...] about Some Great Links from Guiding Tech

Beware of the Linen Cocktail Napkin is a brilliant post by Gretchen over at the Happiness Project. It talks about how we often buy things because of who we want to be instead of who we actually are.  It is an excellent read and very worth your time. … [Read more...] about Beware of the Linen Cocktail Napkin

I am going to be doing some writing for Manilla.com.  My first post on multi-tasking is live so check it out. If you like it, don't forget to click the "Like" or "Tweet" button at the bottom of the page. … [Read more...] about Post at Manilla

I was just reviewing some stats from Amazon and it looks like the most popular book for readers of this site is The Personal MBA. If you missed it, be sure to read through our review of The Personal MBA. Statistically speaking, there is a very high probability you'll enjoy it. It is the type of book that is very relevant regardless of what industry you work in and regardless of what position you hold. … [Read more...] about Popular Book – Personal MBA

Some time back I mentioned the free book summary from Soundview. It looks like they are running a sale where you can buy one subscription and get another subscription free to give as a gift. If you have a hard to buy for person on your shopping list AND you were thinking about getting a subscription for yourself, this could be a pretty good deal. Soundview Executive Book Summaries: Buy 1 Gift Subscription and Get 1 FREE! … [Read more...] about Book Summaries Sale

I really enjoyed the book Talent is Overrated. It looks at how great achievers get and keep their high level of skill and talks about the need for specific intentional practice. If it sounds like a book  you'd be interested in, you might checkout this free summary you can get in audio or written form. … [Read more...] about Free Book Summary

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

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?

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

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

If a bus station is where a bus stops and a train station is where a train stops, what happens at a workstation? … [Read more...] about Workstations

We are going to take a break here at Productivity501 for a few days, but we'll be back on January 4th. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! … [Read more...] about Christmas Break

You can connect with Productivity501 on Facebook by becoming a fan of the Productivity501 Page. Please consider helping promote the site by becoming a fan. Thanks! … [Read more...] about Facebook

We Follow ranks twitter users by their influence by topic.  According them, Productivit501 is more influential than David Allen when it comes to productivity. I'm questioning how they calculate "influence", but it still feels good to see Productivity501 at the very top of a list like that. … [Read more...] about More Infuential than David Allen?

If you work in a leadership position, you'll probably appreciate this article that looks at leadership traits from the perspective of what followers desire in a leader. … [Read more...] about Leadership Traits

We've updated our review of Dropbox after using it a bit more.  If you need to sync or share data, it is worth reading. … [Read more...] about Review of DropBox Updated

Previously we mentioned that Utah was trying a 4 day work week to save energy.  The results are in and there was very little energy savings.  However, they made a lot of savings in other unexpected ways. It is still up in the air whether they will keep the program or not. … [Read more...] about Utah’s 4 Day Work Week

We have made a few changes and you can now have a picture show up next to your comments by creating a Gravatar. It is simple to do and will give you a visual presence on many websites. We have published 386,590 words since Productivity501 was launched.  Not bad, but even better is that readers have contributed 300,264 words in comments!  Thank you to everyone who is helping make Productivity501 a better place by adding comments and opinions to posts. … [Read more...] about Random Thoughts on Comments

A $99 device that lets you carry all of Wikipedia around in your pocket:  WikiReader … [Read more...] about WikiReader – Wikipedia in your pocket

Today I was getting ready to order material for a new deck.  The manufacturer was already giving me about 20% off the normal price.  I figured that the sales of high end decking materials might be down in this economy so I decided to ask for an additional $1,000 off.  The sales person said he would call me back.  Thirty minutes later I had reduced the price by $1,000 simply by asking for a discount.  Not everyone will be willing (or able) to give a discount, but it doesn't hurt to ask. … [Read more...] about Discount on Deck

Leo at www.mnmlist.com (got to love that url) has a Definitive Guide to a Minimalist Mac Setup that is an interesting read for OS X users out there.  I think he is missing out by not using Time Machine, but he links to a bunch of great apps and has a lot of ideas on how to keep your computer lean and work focused. … [Read more...] about Minimalist Guide to Mac

For the next 24 hours we are doing a sale on our Ambient Nature Sound CDs.  These CDs are designed to make it easier to concentrate by covering up distracting conversations.  You can choose from the sound of a Brook, Rain, Ocean or Rain on a Lake and if you use the code HKBHVUXS you'll get $10 off each CD. (You can also buy directly from Amazon, but there they sell for the full $21.75.) … [Read more...] about Save $10 on Ambient Nature Sounds

The other day my assistant told me, "When I proof your writing I can tell if you used Dictate. Usually you make sense." Every once in a while she will run into a sentence that she can't make heads or tails of that came from MacSpeech.  It is still a wonderful tool, but her comment underscores the importance of carefully proofing your work if a computer transcribed it for you. … [Read more...] about Making Sense and Dictation Software

If you have a Google Voice account (formerly Grand Central) you might want to check out their new application for Blackberries and Android phones.  It appears to do a lot of what the GVDialer does, but it is free.  You can send SMS messages and place calls using your Google Voice number.  If you have a plan where you can add a number to your "circle" or "friends" you can add your Google Voice number and drastically reduce the number of minutes you have to use.  Google Voice is still in a closed beta, so there doesn't appear to be a way to sign up for an account if you don't already have one. … [Read more...] about Google Voice Mobile App

In high school, I tried a month of using a Day Timer planner.  It was nice and I liked the small wirebound planners, but I ended up using a Day Runner planner even though the pages tended to rip out because it only used a three ring binder.  In college I went to a Franklin seminar and started  using the Franklin system. While the actual pieces of paper weren't too different from what I had used before, the training that went along with it was very valuable. I stuck with the Franklin for about six years, but eventually found that I was at my computer enough I could rely on a digital calendar.  My switch to digital was complete when I finally moved to a Blackberry that could sync over the … [Read more...] about My Time Management Organizer History

Erin over at Unclutterer has a nice piece about how she does everything by cutting down on the things that aren't important. … [Read more...] about Doing it All

Last week we hit something of a milestone when we reached our 10,000th Twitter follower.  Thanks to everyone who is following Productivity501. … [Read more...] about Twitter Milestone

Wise Bread is launching their book today called 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget.  They sent me a review copy and the book is really amazing.  It covers nearly every topic imaginable and is full of all kinds of ideas that I've never thought of. (Wise Bread is also having special giveaway today to help promote the book.) … [Read more...] about Live Large on a Small Budget