I have seen some employers who figure that a down economy means they can treat employees poorly. I suppose the logic is "they should be happy to have any job at all". Since the employer figures their workers can't really leave, the employers make demands that they would never make in a normal economy. This approach is very short-sighted. First, the very top employees are always going to be in demand. I'm not talking about good, solid employees. I'm talking about the star performers--the top 5%. These types of people are always in demand, simply because they are rare. When an employer treats people poorly, the best people are the first to leave because they have other options. … [Read more...] about Treating Employees Right
TIP: Receipts Folder
If you spend any time buying stuff from the web, you are familiar with all the pages that say, "print this out for your records". So, how many people actually print out those pages? I know I don't (unless I'm buying something very expensive). Usually I'll try to keep the email receipt, but sometimes that gets blocked by spam filters. Here is how I've started saving those receipts without worrying about printing them out: I have a folder in my Documents folder called "receipts." When I buy something, I simply save the order confirmation page to the folder. In OS X, this is very simple because I can just print the page to a file as a PDF. Here is a screen shot showing you … [Read more...] about TIP: Receipts Folder
TIP: Synched Address Books
My wife and I both have cell phones and both have computers. This means there are four places where we could potentially have a phone number or address and invariably the phone number I need is on my wife's cell phone or computer. We set up each of our cell phones to sync with our laptop, but we still had two separate address books. However, after playing around a bit with the .mac synchronization, I was able to set up our address books on the computer to sync with each other. This has been a much bigger benefit than I had imagined because now we are both looking at the same version of the address book. As our mutual friends change numbers or addresses, the first one of us to … [Read more...] about TIP: Synched Address Books
Remote Control Software
Most people have a family member or a friend that they go to for technical advice. However, when someone asks a question that is difficult to answer without being present in the same room, it can become very difficult to get the problem resolved. However, there are several solutions for making this process easier. Remote Control software has made a huge difference in how technical support is conducted. Technicians can now do many of the same things that once would have required them to be in the same location as the client. In this list is a collection of remote control software that could make your life easier: Copilot Copilot is geared for both company and personal use. It's simple … [Read more...] about Remote Control Software
Doing Less
Much of the current writing about time management and productivity focuses on fitting more tasks into each day. The idea is that the more tasks we are able to complete, the more productive we are. To a certain extent, this makes sense. If we spend time procrastinating instead of working, we'll be more productive if we can cut out unproductive activities. However, taking an "assembly line" approach to productivity does have its limits. Today the biggest productivity gains come from what we'll call "leaps of imagination" rather than just doing more of the same faster. If we are so focused on doing more and more tasks, it can prevent us from really making the huge jumps in … [Read more...] about Doing Less
Tuesday’s Tip: Stop Communication You Don’t Need
Most everyone gets a barrage of emails, telephone calls, and physical mail that they don't really need. I'm not necessarily talking about spam. I'm talking about newsletters from organizations in which you are no longer active, donation requests from non-profits that you gave to years ago, etc. Most people just accept the interruption and toss these items into the trash, but a better option is to try to stop them altogether. Taking a few minutes to send a note asking to be taken off their mailing list can save you a tremendous amount of time in the future. If you get a monthly newsletter in the mail that you identify, consider opening and then toss in the trash, it can easily take … [Read more...] about Tuesday’s Tip: Stop Communication You Don’t Need
Tips for Continuing Education
You can't rely on your college education to suffice for the rest of your career. If you want to stay at the peak of your earning potential, you will need to continue your education throughout your career. This can be done in a formal or informal setting. Informal education is very important. It may never show up on your resume, but it helps you stay up-to-date. Formal education has the added benefit of letting you work toward some type of recognition (degree or certificate) that employers are likely to reward. In some jobs, you can move to a higher pay-scale by adding a degree. In this article we are going to look at some tips and methods for both formal and informal education. … [Read more...] about Tips for Continuing Education
The most important part of Mobile Email
Many people overlook the most important part of a mobile email solution. It is easy to get caught up in the idea that it is going to be so wonderful to have access to your email where every you are. The fact is, if you can't delete emails from your mobile device in a way that will delete them from your desktop computer, your mobile solution is probably going to cost you more time than it saves. If every email you read and then delete requires that you "touch" it again on your desktop, you are doing a lot of extra work. In the paper world, you get the most efficiency by minimizing the number of times you have to physically handle an item. The digital world is no different. Every … [Read more...] about The most important part of Mobile Email
10 Stages of Financial Freedom
0. You Earn Less than you Spend This is obviously a good place to avoid and represents the least amount of freedom. No one should be here, but I added it because I know many people (particularly in the US) operate regularly in this stage. 1. Your Job Covers Your Expenses This is where a lot of people are. You spend everything you make. At this stage, losing your job is a terrifying prospect because you are only a week or two away from being back in stage 0. A few more weeks, (depending on how long you can string out your credit cards) and you'd be looking at bankruptcy. At this stage, changing jobs is very risky because, if it doesn't work out, you have very little cushion to let … [Read more...] about 10 Stages of Financial Freedom
Tuesday’s Tip: Surrounded By What?
Take a few moments to look around your work area. What have you surrounded yourself with? Does your environment help you focus on your long term goals and celebrate past achievement? Does your environment make you want to stay organized and productive? Most people put too little emphasis on their surroundings. I'm not saying that you have to spend all your time trying to create the perfect office, but you shouldn't ignore the things around you. Your productivity can be greatly influenced by your outlook, and your outlook can be greatly influenced by your surroundings. For years, I never had a picture of my wife on my desk at work. It wasn't that I didn't love my wife, but it just … [Read more...] about Tuesday’s Tip: Surrounded By What?
Effective Backups
There are few things that can ruin your productivity like losing the hard drive on your computer. Here are a few tips that work well for me when it comes to backing up my computer. Take some time to imagine the worst case scenario and how you would handle it. For example, what would you do if your laptop were dropped? What would you need to do if it were stolen? Make sure you have some type of off-site backup. I put a copy of important files on a DVD and put it in a bank lockbox. I only do this once or twice a year, but it gives me something to go back to, if necessary. Use an external hard drive for backup. This is usually a lot faster than backing up to DVDs or CDs. The … [Read more...] about Effective Backups
Important Tasks
Have you ever started a day with some great ideas of everything you want to accomplish, but suddenly it is 6pm and you have nothing to show for your day? While it is probably impossible to keep this from ever happening, we can minimize it by doing something very simple: Do something important first. That isn't really an amazing idea, but it is very very powerful. If you can, early in the day, do one or two things that have lasting value, you'll be taking steps in the right direction--even if the entire rest of the day is shot. The goal of this approach is to make sure you aren't sitting still. You want to make sure you are moving forward, and the best way to do that is to make some … [Read more...] about Important Tasks
Email Receipts
Some people are going to consider this an ugly hack, so I've been hesitant to share it. However, it works very well, so here it is. When I get an email receipt, I simply leave it in my inbox. (As I've said before, I don't worry about trying to delete everything out of my inbox--I just keep everything I might need in there where I can easily search it.) So, all of my email receipts are in my inbox. When I import my credit card statement into my financial software, I like to add a note on each item saying what it was for. I've found that the most efficient way to find the receipt is to do a search in my email program for the price. Most of the time this is a unique number, and I … [Read more...] about Email Receipts
TIP: Wake Up Right
Imagine waking up to your alarm clock. Now imagine gently waking up as the sunlight fills your room with light. Which one seems like a better recipe for having a wonderful, high performance day? Alarm clocks are designed to wake you up, so they make annoying and jarring sounds to jerk you right out of your peaceful sleep. You have to wonder if this is really a good way to start your day. I mean, really, do you want the first few seconds of each day to be associated with something containing the word "alarm"? When I was a kid, my brother and a friend decided we wanted to see what the early morning cartoons were like. I constructed a device with a small fire alarm style bell, … [Read more...] about TIP: Wake Up Right
Messing with Other People’s Time Management
I write a lot about how to be more productive, but what if that really isn't your thing? What if you don't like productivity? What if your goal in life is to ruin productivity for other people? In an effort to expand our readership to people striving for unproductivity, here are six things you can do to guarantee that your co-workers get as little done as possible. Productivity501 takes no responsibility for the results of actually implementing any of these ideas. Randomly put entries on their calendar like: "1:30 meeting with John White Important!" or "Call Sally 535-321-1242". Place them far enough in the future that they won't suspect you did it. Write in fake delegated … [Read more...] about Messing with Other People’s Time Management
International Travel Tips
I've done a lot of traveling in the past, so I wanted to share some of things I've learned (many times the hard way) that make international travel easier. You should try to get as much information as possible about the country you are visiting, but this list of tips should give you some good starting points that are relevant for most any destination. A couple great sources for safety information on foreign countries are the CIA World Factbook and the US Travel Advisory site. Take Copies - Having a copy of your drivers license and the first page of your passport are very handy in getting your visa or vehicle permits. They also serve as backup if your wallet and passport are … [Read more...] about International Travel Tips
Tuesday’s Tip: Removing Superglue
Have you ever gotten superglue all over your fingers and had to live with it for two weeks as it wore off? There is a simple way to take it off, but first, let me tell you a story. When my wife worked in the ER of a large county hospital in Dallas, she saw a lot of very strange cases. One of the most interesting was the guy who came in with his eyes closed. Evidently, his wife had accused him of looking at other women and they got into a fight. Somehow, he decided that he could prove that he wasn't looking at other women by super-gluing his eyes closed. (I am not making this up.) After the glue dried, he began to think it wasn't such a great idea and got some people to drive him … [Read more...] about Tuesday’s Tip: Removing Superglue
11 Steps in Becoming Educated for Your Dream Job
I had quite a few comments about taking classes online in my post "17 Things You Should Stop Doing". When LifeHacker linked to the article, they had even more comments from their readers. Many of the comments were negative, saying that you shouldn't take classes online. So, I wanted to take some time to talk about the best way for college to fit into your career. First, here is a little background about my education to give you an idea of where I'm coming from. I have a bachelor's and master's degree in music composition (both taken at physical universities where I was sitting in class). I am currently working on my thesis for a master's focused on software engineering that I took … [Read more...] about 11 Steps in Becoming Educated for Your Dream Job
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5 Tips for an Organized Computer
1. Use Your My Documents Folder The My Documents folder is there for a reason. If you don't have a My Document's folder, create one. The idea is to keep all of your documents in this folder. This makes it easy to backup your computer and easy to find stuff instead of looking all over your hard drive. You can take this idea step further and create folders for the types of items you produce on your computer. Here is an example of how OS X sets up your home directory by default: One of the big benefits of this type of setup is that you can go to one place to start looking for anything you've previously saved. It also gives you a single place where you can tell your backup software … [Read more...] about 5 Tips for an Organized Computer
Text and Image Documents
There are two basic types of documents you can use in a paperless office. The first type of document is text based. These are formats like .TXT .RTF .DOC, etc. These store text as editable information. You can go in and change the document, fix spelling, copy sentences, etc. The second type of document is an image based document. This includes formats like .TIF, .JPG, .PNG, .GIF, etc. These documents just represent a bunch of pixels. The computer can't edit the words themselves other than by deleting pixels and putting new pixels down. You can't copy a sentence and paste it into another program if you are using this format. The advantage of the text-based formats is the … [Read more...] about Text and Image Documents
Your Employer Owes You Nothing
I see many people working a normal job with the idea that if they work hard they will be rewarded for their good service. That isn't the way it works. Your employer owes you nothing. It doesn't matter how long you've worked at the job or how loyal you've been. In the end, your years of service aren't going to turn into some valuable investment that you can cash in. Just the other day, a friend of mine was let go (along with all the other employees) at a business where he had been working for the past several years. The sad part is that, he had several offers over the past few months for jobs that he really wanted to take, but he decided to stay out of loyalty to his current … [Read more...] about Your Employer Owes You Nothing
Integration is More Important than Features
I am working with a client that has about 10 employees. They are starting to hit a wall when it comes to productivity. While each of their systems have a bunch of nice features, none of them integrate with each other. As a result, they spend most of their time moving information back and forth. The more their business grows, the slower their back office processes become. Here is an example: when someone buys something from the online store, that information has to be manually entered into the accounting software. The customer information must be manually entered into the customer relationship management system. If a customer gets a refund, the accountant handles the refund, but then … [Read more...] about Integration is More Important than Features
Where Did My Day Go Contest Winner
We have a winner in our most recent contest. Chad Harless won a copy of Where the !@#% did my day go? by Matthew Cornell. I'd encourage you to subscribe to Matt's RSS feed or newsletter for more tips on his time management method. Thank you to everyone who participated. If you'd like your own copy of Where the !@#% did my day go? or his other ebooks checkout his products page. Also … [Read more...] about Where Did My Day Go Contest Winner
Learning to Stay Current
Imagine that your memory was only good for two years. Anything that you learned over two years ago was forgotten. The only education you had at your disposal was the things you had learned in the past 24 months. This should be a pretty terrifying prospect for anyone. However, some people would find themselves unable to function at all, while others would find themselves merely handicapped. It all depends on how much effort each individual has put into learning new things in the last two years. Some people graduate from college with the idea that they can stop learning. They pick up some additional education in the form of on-the job-training, but the amount they learn each year … [Read more...] about Learning to Stay Current
Interview: Productivity Tool
In our interview series we asked a number of people the following: What do you feel is your most important productivity tool?(1532) The metaphorical axe - no bit of software or technology would help me if I didn't know how to constantly remove anything from my life that is getting in the way of living in a balanced and productive manner. Joel Falconer (rss) The word "No". I am getting really good at establishing boundaries and saying "No". "No" is probably THE most difficult thing for anyone, like me, who is interested in everything, loves talking with people, and has no internal time clock. I love generating ideas and options. I truly do not naturally like to say no to … [Read more...] about Interview: Productivity Tool
Tuesday’s Tip: College Records
When I was in college, I quickly learned how important it was to keep records. You can't rely on your university to keep track of everything correctly. Maybe they will, but just in case they make a mistake, you need to be prepared. One habit I formed early on in college was to get a copy of my transcript each semester. One semester, there were an extra 15 hours of credits on the transcript for classes I had not taken. After doing some checking, it became clear that they had accidentally given me credit for someone else's work. I explained it to the university and they straightened out the records. However, I imagine it was much easier to get something taken off than it would be … [Read more...] about Tuesday’s Tip: College Records
Working with Your Spouse Financially
In the book The Millionaire Mind and The Millionaire Next Door, the authors point out that millionaires tend to marry people who support them financially. One of the easiest ways to wreck your financial plan is for there to be competition between a husband and wife, financially. If you have ever heard a couple say things like, "well, you bought a new dvd player, so I can go buy a new dress" or "you spent $300 at the mall, so I decided to go buy a new television." You know what I'm talking about. If the members of a marriage feel like they are in competition with each other for spending, they are off to a bad start. Here are some simple tips to avoid this type of … [Read more...] about Working with Your Spouse Financially
More Infuential than David Allen?
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?
Doing Less
A lot of what people write about being productive is centered around doing more. GTD is based on trying to make sure you are able to do more. Most planning systems are based on trying to do more. While I can see the need for this, it is sometimes important to step back and think about what you are really accomplishing. Doing more is only valuable if you are doing things that really need to be done. A system that just enables you to always be busy isn't really valuable. Obviously there is some value in not letting anything "slip through the cracks" if you are talking about things like getting your wife a birthday present or going to your son's soccer game, but letting some things … [Read more...] about Doing Less
11 Free Word Processors
AbiWord This word processor was developed by SourceGear Corporation as an alternative to other office software. However, SourceGear stopped developing the software, and a group of open source developers took over creating the later versions of the product. AbiWord is unique in that it can be run on a myriad of different operating systems: Microsoft Windows Mac OS X (10.2 or later, Intel and PowerPC) Linux React OS BeOS Solaris etc. System requirements for AbiWord seem to be pretty reasonable, overall, and it seems to work much like its non-open source counterparts. One final, useful thing about AbiWord is that the developers offer real time support through chat and … [Read more...] about 11 Free Word Processors
Leadership Traits
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
Optimal Sleep
Sleeping is something we don't usually think much about, but if you could do something to convert just 90 minutes of each day from sleep time into productive time, that would give you an extra 10 hours each week. Steve Pavlina discovered that he could reduce the amount of sleep he required by an average of 90 minutes each day by getting up at 5 am 7 days per week. He only goes to bed when he is tired enough that he will immediately fall asleep. You can find more about his experience here and here. Polyphasic sleep is a drastic method of changing your sleeping schedule. Basically, you try to train your body to enter deep sleep immediately by taking a 20 to 30 minute nap every 4 hours. … [Read more...] about Optimal Sleep
Review of DropBox Updated
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
Top 5 Time Wasters
Here is my top 5 list of items that can waste my time without achieving anything of real value. These aren't necessarily bad things, they are just areas where it is easy to lose precious time without realizing it. Everyone has their own top 5 list of time wasters. If you would like to share yours, please do so in the comments below. Television - It is very easy to lose a few hours mindlessly flipping through channels on the remote. For many people, a subscription in something like NetFlicks will provide a ready source of entertainment without dealing with commercials. Also, with watching a specific movie, you have a definite end point, unlike channel surfing that can go on for … [Read more...] about Top 5 Time Wasters
Where Did My Day Go Contest
Matthew Cornell has a great little PDF out called Where the !@#% did my day go? He has offered to let me give a copy away here on Productivity501. See below for information about the contest. "Where the !@#% did my day go?" is designed to help you adopt a daily planning routine. It assumes that you have some type of task management and calendar system in place, already. From that standpoint, it kind of picks up where other system leaves off--once you've captured what needs done, how do you execute? Here are some of the things I found interesting: Task selection - Matthew has some really good points about how to select tasks so that you feel good about what you've accomplished … [Read more...] about Where Did My Day Go Contest
Utah’s 4 Day Work Week
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
New House Checklist
If you are looking at moving, here is a checklist of not-so-obvious things to consider: What time does the mail come? I still prefer reading a newspaper. Most newspapers are delivered via the postal service now, so I let my last two subscriptions expire because the mail didn't come until late in the day. We just moved to a new house, and the mail comes at 9:30--much more convenient for reading financial news. How many minutes is it from the nearest grocery store? It isn't a bad idea to time how long it takes to get to the places you plan to go on a regular basis. Just because a house is physically closer, it doesn't mean that it will take less time to get there. What types of … [Read more...] about New House Checklist
Striving for Genius
Thomas Malthus ( 1766 - 1834) had a theory that continual increase in the world population would eventually cause food demand to outpace supply, and a collapse that would push the survivors back to subsistence farming conditions. Obviously, this hasn't happened and there are a number of theories why. For example: Malthus' theory is just flat out wrong. He didn't take into consideration the growth of technology and the productivity of farming over the last 200 years has increased faster than what is necessary to (temporarily) prevent worldwide famine. Population levels determine agricultural output, not the other way around. Malthus didn't understand the impact of … [Read more...] about Striving for Genius
Sunlight to Reset your Internal Clock
If you ever find yourself having trouble sleeping at night and feeling tired during the day, don't forget that your internal clock is set based on sunlight. Getting even just 15 minutes of direct sunlight every day can do a lot to help reset your internal clock if you are coming from another timezone or have just messed your schedule up by working a bunch of late nights. Sunlight can also help you when you are feeling tired. It is amazing how much you can improve a sluggish afternoon just by opening the blinds and getting some direct sunlight into the room or taking a 10 minute walk outside in the light. I'm not sure if sunlight works best because of the spectrum or if it is just … [Read more...] about Sunlight to Reset your Internal Clock
Random Thoughts on Comments
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
WikiReader – Wikipedia in your pocket
A $99 device that lets you carry all of Wikipedia around in your pocket: WikiReader … [Read more...] about WikiReader – Wikipedia in your pocket
Interview Productive Work Zone
What is your most valuable tip for getting into your productive zone for working? (190) Definitely keep a clean desk and inbox. Before I leave work for the evening, I clean off my desk. When I get to work every morning, I always have a clean desk. The only stuff that can be found on my desk are projects that require action that day. The same can be said for my inbox. Every evening I clean it out. The next morning only contains emails that I'll read/work on that day. Michael Morton from Marketing Monster (rss) Pavlovian conditioning. Here's where procrastination can really hurt you in the beginning. If you go into your home office (or cubicle or whatever) and do nothing, that's … [Read more...] about Interview Productive Work Zone
Bounce Feature in OS X Mail
OS X Mail has a neat little feature that lets you "bounce" an email back to the sender, making it look like your email address doesn't exist. This isn't particularly useful for dealing with automated spam because most spam is sent from fake addresses anyway. However, it can be very useful to deal with emails from people who you don't want to have contacting you or who insist on sending you jokes and hoax warnings all the time. To use this feature, simply control click on the offending email and click "bounce" on the popup menu. They will get a message back that looks as if it came from your server saying that your email address doesn't exist, like the image you see below. … [Read more...] about Bounce Feature in OS X Mail
Understanding Other’s Perceptions
The other day I overheard some young people talking. A fresh graduate from high school was posing this question to his peers. Is it illegal to wear a ski mask into a bank to conduct business? Obviously, I would not suggest trying this to find out. The brief snippet of this conversation I overheard started me thinking about how important it is to understand others' perception. If you walk into a bank wearing a ski mask, your intentions are far less important than others' perceptions of your intentions. When I'm on a bus or subway, I like looking around and trying to see how much I can tell about the fellow passengers just by looking at them. It is a simple way I try to keep … [Read more...] about Understanding Other’s Perceptions
Dealing with Signatures and Email
Today an insurance company needed my signature, and they sent me a TIFF of the file. I used my scanned signature, added it to the TIFF and sent it back. They said they couldn't accept that because it came over email. Since the document they sent me had their signature, I asked if I should reject it because it came to me over email. The agents said I was "too funny". I sent them the same TIFF via fax and they seemed happy with that. This is why we need to get everyone using true digital signatures and encryption on email. … [Read more...] about Dealing with Signatures and Email
Overcompensating to Change Habits
The strobe light in the device flashed and made the wheels look like they were spinning one way or another. Fred adjusted his pressure on the lever and watched the wheels closely while plucking the last string. "I think that does it" he announced as he shut off the power to his tuner and started to pack up. I was eleven, and completely fascinated watching the piano tuner work his magic on our family instrument. I learned a number of things that day. One of the more interesting facts was the way that the pegs in the piano hold a tune. I noticed that Fred would never tune directly to a note, he would always over-tune and then come back to the desired pitch. He explained that if he … [Read more...] about Overcompensating to Change Habits
Making Bad Things Hard
In high school I had braces. During college, my retainers broke and I didn't get them replaced. Over time, my teeth shifted and became crooked again. About a year ago, I decided to do something about it and went with Invisalign braces. They are a type of clear plastic mold that fits over all of your teeth. Every two weeks, you switch them out with a set that is slightly closer to the final position for your teeth. One of the side effects of having your teeth encased in plastic is that you have to plan out your eating a bit more. You have to take them out before you eat. When you are finished, you have to wash them and then brush your teeth really well before putting them back. … [Read more...] about Making Bad Things Hard
The Right Space for the Job
My work area has a comfortable chair, a nice desk, a computer, a large monitor, a phone, etc. It is easy for me to get stuck at my desk and not want to go to other parts of the house because everything I need is right there. However, when I just stay in my office, I miss out on some of advantages of the other parts of the house. In fact, sometimes the tools that make me feel so productive actually get in the way of what I'm trying to do because they are distractions. Trying to sit and think while I'm sitting right next to my computer is kind of like the teenager trying to do Algebra in front of the T.V. My email is right there along with all of my other online tools. Reading is the … [Read more...] about The Right Space for the Job
Managing Electricity (and everything else)
You can't manage what you can't measure. A lot of my consulting work centers around helping people deal with the business consequences of that sentence. Giving businesses real-time data about what is going on can solve a lot of problems, just because it gets things out in the open where they can be seen and discussed. A good example of personal data that ignores this little truth is your electric bill. Electric bills aren't real time--you get them once each month. By the time you see how much you owe, you only have a vague idea about what might have produced those dollar figures. You might see a low bill and think "Oh yeah, we were gone most of the month." You might see a high … [Read more...] about Managing Electricity (and everything else)