I have an office in my basement. My desk is a table with a fluorescent light over it. My question: should my desk be parallel or perpendicular to the light for best lighting? Thank you for your time and attention to this question.Sincerely,Lou Sartori Louisville, KY If the light is over the table, you will probably get the most even light by having the light parallel to the table. If it is perpendicular to the table your body and objects will tend to cast more of a shadow. With the parallel arrangement you have more light hitting your workspace from different directions which will help keep shadows off your work surface. I'm assuming you are talking about a 3 or 4 foot fluorescent light … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Lighting for your office
Archives for February 2008
The Promise of Sleep — Book
Sometimes we focus on the wrong things. For example, it is easy to focus on trying to do more during the day while short changing our sleep at night. This book looks at how and why we sleep. It is based on a lot of sleep research, but the writing style is very accessible and makes for an interesting read. For example, the author explores the right balance of sleep to let you fall asleep quickly and wake up without feeling worn out. He talks about situations where people sleep too much and then suffer from insomnia until their body gets tired enough to fall asleep again. One of the more interesting concepts in the book is the idea of a "sleep debt". This theory basically says … [Read more...] about The Promise of Sleep — Book
Passive Income
Last week we talked about defining wealth in terms of long you can go without a job before running out of money. With this definition of wealth we can increase our wealth from two sides. One side is to reduce our spending the other is to increase our savings and our income that isn't tied to work. Money that you don't have to work for is usually called passive income. This includes interest and other types of income that you get more or less automatically. Here is a list of some passive income sources: Interest income - Money that the bank pays you for the use of your money. Rental income - Real estate lease or other sources of income in exchange for the use of property. Royalties … [Read more...] about Passive Income
Remote Executive Assistant – Some Lessons
Last Monday I wrote about my experience with using a remote executive assistant in the US. It didn't work out so well, but the experiment provided a lot of insight into how to work with a remote assistant. Here are some takeaways from that experience. 1. Make sure you have a good project management system in place. You need a way to track the work assigned and keep track of time spent. If you don't know how much time is being spent on each project it is going to be very difficult to understand what is working well and what isn't. Without a good time tracking system, you may not know something is wrong until you've spent a considerable amount of money. It is possible to keep track of all … [Read more...] about Remote Executive Assistant – Some Lessons
Reader Question – Uncompleted Tasks
I've been an avid enthusiast (not to say follower) of GTD and productivity blogs in general. (This one has long been chief on that list; keep up the good material without diluting it.) Currently I just started a new role at work where I have a bit more responsibility.To keep track, I've been using tasks--via Outlook 2007 and Remember the Milk. Both are great ways to quickly catalog things to be done. However, the other side of my job is that I can get "interrupted" with urgent things that legitimately take precedence over my (usually) non-urgent tasks. So days can go by without me getting any tasks completed. This feels pretty crummy. What do I do with that? Any mentality tips you can … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Uncompleted Tasks
Portable Scan Snap S300
Fujitsu has released a portable version of the ScanSnap line of scanners. It can run on its own power cable or use power from the USB connection. This is particularly useful if you are traveling or working of your laptop with a battery. When running off the USB power it is a little slower to scan. When plugged into its own power connection it can handle 8 pages per minute. The S300 is only for Windows. It is fairly new, so they may release a S300M version sometime in the future. You can buy the S300 from our online store for $291. … [Read more...] about Portable Scan Snap S300
Definition of Wealth
One of the most important things you can do in aligning your finances to be more productive is define what wealth means to you. Obviously being wealthy is something of a relative term. Someone at the poverty line in the US would be seen as extremely rich in other parts of the world. The Rich Dad Poor Dad books give an interesting definition of wealth. They say that wealth is determined by how long you can survive at your current standard of living if you quit your job today. So once you stop getting your regular paycheck, how long can you live off your savings and passive income sources before you go broke. I think this is a very healthy description of wealth because instead of … [Read more...] about Definition of Wealth
Subprime Problem Explained
Thanks to everyone who helped answer my questions in the previous subprime post I now have a much better understanding of what is going on. I thought I'd go ahead and explain it here. The first reason is to share with anyone who is interested. The second is so the financial wizards among my readers can correct me if I got anything wrong. Over the past several decades home prices have been going up. This has made them a fairly safe investment. If someone can't make their payments they can always sell the house--usually at a profit--and pay the mortgage company back. In order to create as many loans as possible, mortgage companies will take a group of mortgages and turn them into a special … [Read more...] about Subprime Problem Explained
Remote Executive Assistant – First Try
I find that I have a lot more ideas of things I'd like to do than I have time to do them. I get all the important stuff done, but there are many smaller things that I'd like to accomplish that I simply don't have enough time. I looked at a lot of the companies that provide remote executive assistants, but decided I'd rather work with someone directly. I found a paralegal from Texas who was looking for work as a virtual assistant. My thinking was that someone who grew up in the US would be easier to communicate with than someone from a foreign country. I also wanted to keep the work in the USA if I could instead of sending it out of the country. When I spoke with I called one of her … [Read more...] about Remote Executive Assistant – First Try
Reader Question – Working from Home
Why would it be valuable to work from home? Lets say you commute 30 minutes to work each day. Working from home will save you at least 5 hours per week of drive time. If you apply this time to your job, you should be able to pull ahead of people who have to invest those 5 hours in driving to work. You can also choose to invest those extra 5 hours in sleep, your family, a hobby or whatever you like. Sometimes working from home can help you focus. Being out of the office means it is more difficult for people to distract you--they can't just pop into your office or cubicle. Of course if your home work environment is distracting, you may not see much benefit. If you want to know more … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Working from Home
Another Scanner
A reader pointed me to the Fujitsu 6140. It is faster than the Scan Snap at 80 to 120 ppm (each side counts as one page) and seems to be a little more heavy duty in its construction. It looks like it uses dual rollers where the Scan Snap 510 and 510M only use one. This might help guard against misfeeds and paper jams. The 6140 comes with Kofax workgroup software that will handle some scanning tasks including processing bar codes scanned on documents. The scanner appears to only support the Windows platform. The 6140 is quite a bit more expensive with a list price of $1999. You can get it in the Productivity501 Store for $1,660. … [Read more...] about Another Scanner
10 Signs You Will Be Poor
Here is a list of signs that indicate someone is likely to be poor in the future. If any of these apply to you, it might want to consider making some changes. 10. The only type of CDs you know about play music. Not understanding basic investment tools is one sure sign that you will mismanage your finances. This is especially true because a basic financial education is so readily accessible on websites, through library books, etc. 9. Your bank account balance goes down each month. You don't need any fancy charts to see if your net worth is improving or decaying. If you usually have less money in your accounts each month then your lifestyle is not sustainable on your current income. You'll … [Read more...] about 10 Signs You Will Be Poor
6 Ways to Look Smarter
In life, many opportunities are tied to what other people think of you. If the people around you think you are smart, you are more likely to get asked to participate in projects that will enhance your career. If people think you are dumb, you'll probably be passed over. Looking smart is just as important as being smart. Assuming that you are actually smart you don't have to fake anything. Your goal is to make people think of you as a smart person. Humans aren't particularly good at judging the intelligence of other humans. Here are six things you can do that will help enhance people's perception of your intelligence. 1. Look Smarter by Asking More Questions Most people try to show … [Read more...] about 6 Ways to Look Smarter
Reader Question – Memorization
How should I memorize a speech? I don't generally memorize any of my presentations. If you create a detailed outline and then practice giving your speech to a few friends, you'll probably do fine unless you have really bad stage fright. If you do have stage fright, simply memorizing your speech word for word is likely to cause you problems because it will be difficult to remember while under pressure. If you want to give your speech word for word, you can memorize it, but keep the speech with you just in case you have to revert to reading the speech. If you do this, make sure you use some type of method to keep track of where you are in the speech. You don't want to stumble around for 2 … [Read more...] about Reader Question – Memorization
Productive Home Office
Earlier I asked readers to share their favorite home office tip as a follow up to the previous interview. Here are the responses: Many of my clients struggle with organizing their offices (home or otherwise) because they try to fit a "square peg into a round hole." Meaning, they try to use systems and setup that works for others, but does not match the way that they think and function. Recognize are you an "innie" or an "outtie"? Innies are people that function better (are more creative, get more done, etc.) when their space is clear. They can frequently get distracted to other tasks if there are piles laying around. Tools good for innies are systems with drawers and cabinet doors. … [Read more...] about Productive Home Office
Productivity and Finances
A lot of people tend to think of productivity in a vacuum. They want to get more done. However at the end of the day your work translates into money which translates into purchasing power. Sometimes instead of just concentrating on how to do more work, it is more efficient to concentrate on the conversion process--how the work turns into money and then turns into things you need. For example, if you currently work for $50 per hour and you are able to make a change that allows you to turn your work into money at a rate of $75 per hour, you've increased your productivity by 50%. On the other hand, if you can make your money go further you can also increase your productivity. For … [Read more...] about Productivity and Finances
Productivity501 Store
Productivity501 is launching a webstore with products specially selected to help make you more productive. In particular be sure to check out the paperless category. Here are some other items that might be of interest: Mozarts Brain and the Fighter Pilot - A great book about how the inner workings of the human mind. Hon Leather Chair - My personal favorite work chair that I've been using for over 5 years now. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - The biography of an incredibly gifted scientist. It is sure to challenge the way you see the world around you. Mindmapping - This is the book I purchased years ago before taking an intense college history course that had been condensed … [Read more...] about Productivity501 Store
Share Your Answer – Tips for a Home Office
Recently we did a group interview with a bunch of bloggers. Each one was asked for the single most important tip they could share for setting up a home office. The answers were great and I know I learned quite a bit by reading through them. Now is your chance to participate. If you have a tip on setting up a home office you'd like to share, please submit it here. If you have a blog or website be sure to fill in the appropriate blanks--if people like your answer they may want to checkout the other things you've written. We will only keep things open until Tuesday afternoon, so if you have something to share, please do it right away. I'm experimenting with some new technology for … [Read more...] about Share Your Answer – Tips for a Home Office
Reader Questions – Being Absent
I went through my site statistics and found some interesting questions that were typed into Google and led people to Productivity501. Over the next few fridays I'm going to attempt to answer some of these questions. Should you call your boss if you are going to be absent? Yes. I can't think of any reason you shouldn't call and let your boss know that you are going to be absent. It doesn't matter if you are sick or have some type of personal issue you need to tend to. Simply not showing up is one of the worst things you can do. Even if you don't feel your current job is where you want to work, you should still approach it professionally. Treat your boss with the same courtesy that you … [Read more...] about Reader Questions – Being Absent