Archives for 2007

When we were moving down to Mexico in October, I had several miles worth of various cables that I needed to take with me.  Network cables, audio cables, USB cables, adapters for various devices, etc.  At that point I just had them all thrown into a box and it looked like a huge rats nest.  I got to thinking about how it might look to a custom's officer and decided I needed something that looked a little less disorganized. My first idea was to wrap everything up with twist ties, but we didn't have any.  So I eventually settled on using Ziplock sandwich bags.  It turned out that this worked even better than the ties because it keeps the cables separate so they can't … [Read more...] about Tuesday’s Tip: Ziplock Bags for Wires

Back in June I contacted a number of individuals who run blogs about time management, personal productivity, and organization. I asked them all three questions and posted their answers along with my commentary.  If you haven't read through these posts, I encourage you to check them out.  The different perspectives and opinions give a lot of insight into common problems and solutions with the way we all approach personal productivity. What is the single biggest way people waste time without even realizing it? What change has made the most difference in making you effective in life? If someone were to read just one post from your site, which would you recommend they read and why? … [Read more...] about Productivity Expert Interviews Recap

A while back I wrote a post about how to measure cost vs. benefit and talked about how we often make poor choices because we don't consider all the facts. The example I used was the idea of buying a hybrid car to save money on gas. I was simply pointing out that every person I had talked to who said they were saving money by purchasing a hybrid hadn't actually done the math. They were actually spending a lot more. Several readers commented that they had purchased a hybrid vehicle because of the pollution impact and were perfectly content to pay more in order to have smaller environmental footprint. For the past few weeks these comments have bothered me. How could a hybrid vehicle … [Read more...] about Cost vs. Benefit Revisited

I have two tool boxes.  On is a large box with a bunch of tools thrown in it.  It has a wide selection, but they are all just stored in the main compartment.  My other toolbox is much smaller.  It has an individual place to hold each tool.  For some reason I hate using the large toolbox and love  using the smaller one. I think this is a function of organization.  Since each tool has an exact location, it just feels better to use the organized toolkit.  Also I find that with the smaller toolbox, I am much more likely to put everything back, because it has a specific place for each tool.  With the larger box, I'll leave a tool sitting out or in … [Read more...] about Tuesday’s Tip: Organized for Happiness

I've had some readers asking what I considered my best past posts, so I took some time and went through the archives for 2005 and compiled a short list of what I consider to be the best content. Some are long, some are short, but these are the posts that challenged me the most in my personal productivity. Two Types of Technology User Paradox of Powerful Tools Social Glass Ceiling The Rat Experiment Making Decisions in Advance Define and Conquer … [Read more...] about Best Posts from 2005

This is the third and final post where we interviewed a number of experts in personal productivity, time management and organization. I wanted to thank everyone who participated and also thank Leo at ZenHabits for putting together the list of 50 Productivity Blogs back in April which gave me a great starting point for these interviews. The first question we asked had to do with identifying the biggest way people waste time without realizing it. The second gave the experts a chance to share the single change that has had the biggest results in terms of being effective. The third and final question was: If someone were to read just one post from your site, which would you recommend … [Read more...] about Interview: Best Post

What change has made the most difference in making you effective? Mmmm...tough question. Ironically, I think having less time available for discretionary projects has made me more effective in the areas of my life that I choose to spend time in. So get married, have kids and take a job that keeps you busy all the time: it'll make you more effective! Brendon Connelly from Slacker Manager (rss) This seems counterintuitive, but I guess it makes sense. Having more stuff to do should help force you to be more efficient. … [Read more...] about Interview: Becoming Effective

Welcome Stumblers.  If you like this post, please consider subscribing to the RSS feed. This is the first of a three part post where we asked a bunch of productivity experts three questions. Read after the jump to see their answers along with my commentary about each one. Thanks to everyone who participated. What is the single biggest way people waste time without even realizing it? … [Read more...] about Interview: Biggest Time Waster

I have contacted a number of individuals who run blogs about time management, personal productivity, and organization. I asked them all three questions: What is the single biggest way people waste time without even realizing it? What change has made the most difference in making you effective in life? If someone were to read just one post from your site, which would you recommend they read and why? The response has been spectacular and I've thoroughly enjoyed reading all the different perspectives. One of the participants said this project was "ambitious". I didn't really understand what they meant until I started trying to organize all the information into a … [Read more...] about Interviews With Productivity Experts

Freelance Switch has a nice article called 10 Ways to Eliminate Distractions. Below is their list of 10 items along with my commentary. See the original post for their detailed discussion about each item. Turn of email notifications -- This goes along with the idea that humans can't really multi-task so you are better off only focusing on one thing at a time.  I understand that in Switzerland some companies have policies only allowing employees to check their emails once each day to help minimize the interruptions from email.  Your job may require to to check it more often, but each incoming email shouldn't jar you away from your current task.  Remember, email is there to work for you … [Read more...] about 10 Ways to Eliminate Distractions from FreelanceSwitch

I'm moving some things around and switching from Typepad to Wordpress, so pardon the mess while I get everything sorted out. I'm afraid that FeedBurner may have reset the last 10 feeds, so I apologize in advance if a bunch of old posts show up as new again. There is still a lot of work to do in tweaking the site, but I think all of the links should work. If you come across something that seems to be broken, please let me know in a comment or email me at mwshead (at) gmail (dot) com. … [Read more...] about New Changes at Productivity501

As a follow up to this mornings post, I wanted to show you a video of a new alarm clock called Clocky.  It was developed by some students at MIT.  The video will give you a good idea of how it works, but basically when the time comes, it shrieks, jumps off your night stand and starts running around the room making R2D2 noises. The idea is that you have to get up to turn it off.  On the positive side of things, it will make you get up and move around a bit so you'll be awake.  On the negative side, it may put you in a very bad mood.  I heard that someone was designing something similar that would fly above your bed until you swat it down.  Waking up to a giant electronic insect isn't my … [Read more...] about How NOT to Wake Up

Congratulations to Desi and John--the two winners of the Behance Action Pad giveaway. I'll be shipping them out be the end of the week. Thanks to everyone who entered by suggesting different ways to manage todo lists.  You can read all the comments here. Here are a few random suggestions that I found interesting along with my comments: … [Read more...] about Behance’s Action Pad Giveaway

Yesterday we looked at Behance's Action Pads.  Today we are going to give a few away to random commentors on this post.   Specifically we are looking for comments, ideas, suggestions, or random thoughts about how to make a better todo list.  So anything you've done to let you better manage, capture, or execute your list of actions is fair game. So to get things rolling, here are a few suggestions for todo lists based on my experience: Braindump list -- keep a list of all the random "todo someday" items that you think of.  This gives you a place to capture them without cluttering up your daily list. Use objects -- sometimes using objects to represent your … [Read more...] about A Better ToDo List – Behance Giveaway

Awhile back we looked at Behance's Action Method Process. They have a line of products to help support this process.  They offered to send me a few to see what I thought and to give away to readers of Productivity501. At first I must say that I was skeptical. When it really comes down to it, the Action Pads are places to record a list of your actions--so how is that any different than the to-do list I normally keep on the index cards I carry with me?  I mean can't you capture the same information using whatever paper you have available?  Yes, you can. But I found that the design of the products helped change the way I approach creating a task list in positive ways. … [Read more...] about Behance’s Action Pads

One of my clients is a Fortune 500 company.  They need some help setting up some software for their developer teams.  According to their contractor policy, no consultant can come on the premises unless they have a signed PO.  That seems to make sense, but here is the problem:  They recently upgraded their PO system and it didn't quite go according to plan.  No one in the entire company can create a PO.  So I can't come on their property until the system is fixed. What would be really ironic is if I was the person they needed to fix their purchase order system. I wouldn't be able to fix it until it was working. :) … [Read more...] about Bureaucracy in Action

When my wife and I first got married, she moved into my apartment with me.  I had a large L shaped work area made from joining two desks that we shared.  When we bought our house and she started on a Master's degree, I separated them in our office so she had her own and I had mine.  I also went out and bought her a good leather office chair. It turns out this was one of the best things I ever did as far as our productivity. It was amazing how much easier it was for us both to work when we had our own work area--even though the large combined work area was more than big enough for both of us. Every person in a household needs to have their own dedicated work area and storage space.  … [Read more...] about TIP: Two Desks

I wanted to take a post and thank the people who have taken the time to comment here over the past week or so.  I've really appreciated all the feedback we've been getting and I've learned a lot from the many insightful comments. Below is a list of blogs from people who comment here.  I actually made the list several days ago, so I apologize if you are a recent commenter and your blog is missing. Thanks again to everyone who participates here. … [Read more...] about Productivity501 Community

My talk to the high school students went very well.  Thank you to everyone who made suggestions. I worked a lot of your comments into my talk. Talking to a high school seniors made me remember my first year as a freshman working on my bachelors degree. When I went to college, the internet was just becoming something you could get access to outside of the academic world.  Netscape was the hub for finding anything else on the web and the only way to check your email in your dorm was to signup with AOL or a local BBS system. Out of a campus of 5000 students in 1995, I was the only student with a cellphone (I did a lot of work for a health care system and they needed to be able to get a … [Read more...] about Thanks for Your Help & Thoughts on Technology at College

I am giving a talk to a bunch of high school seniors about personal productivity and life skills as they prepare to enter college next semester.  I wanted to ask for some help. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself a few months before high school graduation? Specifically I'm looking for productivity advice related to college and entering the work force. Here are a few things I wish I had known: Don't expect other people to keep records for you. Keep copies of your transcripts, employment agreements, paycheck stubs, homework grades, etc.  It doesn't matter if other people are supposed to keep those records or not, take responsibility for your own paper … [Read more...] about What Would You Tell Yourself in High School

Narek posted the following comment that made me realize that the focus of this blog might encourage people to shift the work life balance to the extreme side of work: It's sad that you consider everything in life must be done productively. "Wasting Time in the Car -- Subscribe to podcasts and get a connector for your MP3 player in your car. Spend your time learning instead of just sitting there driving." That's what pushed me over the [edge].. dude you just got to relax, just because something you are doing isn't making your life more productive doesn't mean it's a waste of time. Sometimes it is nice to just drive around to get out of the house or relieve stress. Listening to music … [Read more...] about Get a life, buddy.–Is it crazy to spend your drive listening to Podcasts.

It is easy to get so involved in our activities and tasks, that we stop taking time to just sit and think.  Taking the time to think and plan for the future is rarely urgent, so it often gets bumped by all the little emergencies of daily life. But taking the time to think is vitally important for your productivity. Thinking can lead to more efficiency.  Thinking can lead to new ideas.  Thinking can help make sure you are focused on the things that are really important to you. If you aren't taking the time to sit and think, I can guarantee that you are not reaching your full potential. Your ability to improve is going to be tied to your ability to be creative and creativity … [Read more...] about Time to Think

In the US, April 15th is tax day.  Hopefully you have your return filed already and everything is taken care of.  I'd like to make a quick suggestion: Take some time today to prepare for tax season next year.  There really isn't any better time because right now you probably know exactly what would have made your life easier for tax season had you done it 1 year ago. So at a very minimum, get some folders out and label them with whatever groupings you wished you had of had this year.  If you have a place to put the information ahead of time, the chances of it ending up in the right place is much higher. … [Read more...] about Prepare Ahead for Tax Season

Berkeley has an interesting study from 2003 that looks at how much information is being produced in the world. The results are pretty amazing.  Here are some of the highlights: … [Read more...] about How Much Information Is There?

Happy April Fools Day.  Here is a tip for playing an April Fools joke on a coworker, spouse or friend. Make a screen shot of their desktop. (On windows, this is done by pushing "print screen" and then pasting the clipboard into Paint and saving the image.  On a Mac this is done by hitting Apple+Shift+4 and then selecting from corner to corner.) Set the screen shot as the computer's wall paper. You will have two icons for each desktop icon.  The real one on top and the fake one underneath. Move all the real icons to the other side of the screen, but leave the trash can in the original location. When they see the duplicate icons, they will most likely move them to … [Read more...] about April Fools Day

Most office supply stores sell high-lighters.   The idea is pretty good.  You high-light important text in yellow or pink to make it easy to find again.  So if you are reading a book or report, you simply high-light the important parts of the text. Obviously this can help you find information more quickly in the future, but it isn't really the most productive method.  Instead of using a high-lighter use a black magic marker and simply cover up all the text that isn't important.  That way it won't be around to distract you when you come back looking for the important stuff. This is particularly helpful if you are working with legal contracts.  … [Read more...] about Blacklighter