We'll we didn't make it to the 250 mark for subscribers to our email updates. We made it about half way. As I promised, we are going to slightly change the contest in order to give away the iPod Shuffle. I really want to give away an iPod. So instead of giving it away to the 250th person, we'll randomly draw a subscribers name once we hit 250. That way people who subscribed early on aren't penalized. However instead of giving everyone the same chance, we are going to weight things toward the earliest subscribers. So the 10th person to subscribe has more chances of winning than the 250th person to subscribe. This provides an incentive for people to sign up sooner than … [Read more...] about Contest – Not Quite There
Archives for November 2006
Past Favorites
Since we've nearly doubled our audience in the past few weeks, I wanted to post some links to some older content that has been popular in the past. If you enjoy reading this site, I'd encourage you to refer a friend. A great way to invite someone is to let them know about our current iPod Shuffle giveaway. Here are links to some of the more popular articles from this site over the past year: … [Read more...] about Past Favorites
Work Less, Accomplish More
In the United States, most people are paid for their time instead of for their work. In many other cultures this is unheard of. A young man from Africa was going to college in the U.S. and his land lady hired him to dig a ditch. She was going to pay him a reasonable amount per hour. He was horrified! Why would she pay him per hour? Time didn't represent the amount of work that was actually accomplished. Having a finished ditch was a much better measurement of work. If he went slow it would be easier and he'd make more money. If he worked quickly, it would be harder and he'd make less. They eventually reached an agreement, he dug the ditch and was paid a fair rate. This young … [Read more...] about Work Less, Accomplish More
Subscription Contest
Edit: Since we didn't have a winner the contest has been revised slightly because we really want to give away an iPod! Another recent feature of Productive Strategies is the ability to get new posts once a day as an email. The email list is managed by FeedBurner. To subscribe just add your email address to the form on the right hand column of the blog. See it over there? Just fill in your email address and you'll be signed up so you'll never miss a new post here. So you're still reading this? Why aren't you over on the side panel filling in your email address? Ok well maybe you need a little more incentive to type your email address into that little box. What … [Read more...] about Subscription Contest
Getting the Most out of Podcast Lectures
The list of podcast lectures has generated quite a bit of traffic to this site. I've spent quite a bit of time listing to audio lectures and taking other forms of distance education from various universities. It can be challenging to keep focused on difficult topics, when you don't have the visual input from actually being in a classroom. Personally I prefer to be in a classroom, but at some point in life, having a job and earning a living starts becoming a bigger priority. Audio lectures can be a huge advantage for those of us who can't attend school full time. Here are seven tips that help me keep my mind engaged to get the most out of audio only lectures: Decide what you want to … [Read more...] about Getting the Most out of Podcast Lectures
Free Academic Podcasts
About a year ago, I put together a listing 30 or 40 free podcasts of lectures from Universities. When I started putting together another list, I was amazed at how many more lectures are available. The lectures in this list are all free and don't require any type of authentication--you don't have to be a student to download them. The links are to the rss feed of class lectures. If you copy the URL and in iTunes click on Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast it will automatically download the lectures and new ones as they become available. I was hoping to find the Physics of Superheros in the list or a Pottery lecture. Maybe next year. Also be sure to checkout our study tips for students … [Read more...] about Free Academic Podcasts