John was the CEO of ACME Toothpaste and he was always looking for ways to make his factory more efficient. One of the areas he was looking into was the problems caused when an empty box somehow made its way to a store without containing a tube of toothpaste. When a large box packed with individual boxes of toothpaste arrived at a store, the store would check in the big box and then unpack the individual boxes onto the shelves. If one of the individual boxes was missing a tube of toothpaste, it caused a lot of inconvenience for the store and the company because of the amount of time it took to straighten out the accounting, refunds, etc. On top of all that, empty boxes made the toothpaste … [Read more...] about The $500,000 Solution to a $12 Problem
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You Are Self Employed
I was recently talking with a friend who said he'd be scared to try to start his own business because it seemed so insecure. I asked, "How is that any different than what you do working for someone else?" After a moment's pause, he admitted that it really wasn't. When it comes down to it, you work for yourself, regardless of who is the owner of the company that cuts your check. It is your responsibility to market yourself, develop your skills, identify trends and position yourself to profit. Abdicating these responsibilities doesn't somehow put you into an "employee" category where you have more job security. Most successful people see their jobs like this. They are in a business … [Read more...] about You Are Self Employed
AT&T DSL Only Option
AT&T is offering DSL without requiring phone service. This is sometimes referred to as "dry dsl" or "naked dsl". For about $29 per month, you can get 3.0Mbps down and 512Kbps up high speed internet connection. This also gives you free internet service from AT&T's wireless access points across the US. This service would normally cost $39 per month, so if you need it, this can work out to be a very good deal. In my area of the country they also offer 6.0/768k internet service for about $34 per month. This is what I used before we bought a house that is a few hundred feet from where AT&T offers service. This "DSL without phone service" package has been around for … [Read more...] about AT&T DSL Only Option
Setting Goals and Making Them Visible
When I was in high school, I wanted to get a computer. Computers weren't nearly as inexpensive as they are now days. The one I wanted represented about 15% of my fathers yearly salary at the time. It was much more expensive than what I could reasonably expect to save during the summer--even with taking on some extra odd jobs and saving every penny possible. I really wanted to have a computer when I started the next school year, so I decided to make that my primary goal for the summer. To help me focus on my goal, I set aside a savings account specifically for the purchase. Using my parents' typewriter, I created a thermometer style graph showing how much money I had saved and taped … [Read more...] about Setting Goals and Making Them Visible
Five Time-savers
Logging into and navigating voice mail. Of course, you have to check your voice mail; but there are some things you can do to keep it from interrupting your day. Personally, I find that navigating voicemail menus is a huge waste of time. I have set my voice mail system to send me an email with the message attached as a .wav file whenever someone leaves me a message. This centralizes all my messages to the same place (my email box) and doesn't require that I navigate using the phone keypad. Reading emails. Here are several tips for streamlining your email reading: Make all your emails come to one place. If you have to log into several different accounts to read email you … [Read more...] about Five Time-savers
How to keep from Wasting Time on the Web
I saw this quote on a mailing list: For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer. (I also have not net connection much of the time.) To look at page I send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page back to me. It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time. -- Richard Stallman Basically, if he wants a page, he sends an email to a special address asking for it and the page is emailed back to him. That is definitely one way to keep from wasting time on the internet. A lot of times the internet doesn't help productivity because it wastes just as much time as it saves. Here are some tips for keeping focused. Block Ads - Ads are there to … [Read more...] about How to keep from Wasting Time on the Web
Easier to Buy Than to Use
It is much easier to buy exercise equipment than to use it to get into shape. I'm taking advantage of that right now by creating a home gym of used equipment for about 1/3rd the cost of new. Exercise equipment isn't the only thing that is easier to buy than to really use. It is very easy to become enamored with high-tech devices that promise to save hours of time when we are in the purchasing stage, but fail to execute when it comes to really implementing them. This isn't just a problem for individuals. I routinely see businesses spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on software designed to make them more efficient, only to lose most of the advantages because they don't have the … [Read more...] about Easier to Buy Than to Use
Starting a Business in a Down Economy
A friend of mine is starting a business selling Cupcake Towers. When I first heard what she was doing I thought, "Why would you want to start a business right now?" After further consideration, I realized that if you have a good product or service, now might be the best possible time to start a business. Here is why: There is less competition for workers right now so you can get good help for a reasonable cost. If you have a business idea that you can run on the side, it makes sense to start before you quit your day job. Technology has drastically reduced the cost of running a business. You can get a web store up for $20 to $40 per month (sometimes even less). If you want to … [Read more...] about Starting a Business in a Down Economy
Cost Savings Options
In today's economy, there aren't a whole lot of jobs that are completely safe from company cut-backs and layoffs. Though your job may be safe, saving extra money for emergencies is always a good idea. Here are some frugal ideas that might help with the saving: Food Try not to eat out. Food prepared at home is often better for your health, anyway. Turn leftover food into new dishes everyone will like. Lots of things can be made into soups or stews. Learn to make your own coffee/lattes instead of having to pay $4. Try drinking water instead of other beverages. It is much cheaper and can help prevent some health problems, helping you save on future medical bills. Angel Food … [Read more...] about Cost Savings Options
Interview: Successful Habit
What productive habit do you feel is most responsible for your success? (960) I try to only do things that make me happy. I could make more money working in an office than from cooking or writing, but it would bore me and make me frustrated and angry. So while I might not always want to get up at eight AM to slave in a hot kitchen, knowing that I'll enjoy the work and have fun with my friends there means I never resent it. And I apply that same mentality to my writing and my studies and everything else I do. It's only hard work if it's something that you don't want to do in the first place. David Robertson from The Church of Chris Martin (rss) Getting started. It's only … [Read more...] about Interview: Successful Habit
The Rat Experiment
There was an experiment where researchers were given a set of rats and told to rate their ability to learn mazes. They were told that certain rats were "smart rats" and had an abnormally high IQ. When the researchers tested the rats, their studies showed that the "smart rats" performed significantly better than the ordinary rats. The experiment, however, wasn't focused on the rats, it was testing the researchers. All of the rats were the same, but telling the researchers that some of the rats were smart caused them to rate the rats better, even though there was no difference. People will view what you do through their own set of prejudices. To a certain extent, your ability to … [Read more...] about The Rat Experiment
Language and Learning
For my freshman English class in college, I wrote a paper looking at the correlation between language and thought. My premise was that certain thought capabilities would be impossible without having a language in order to express those thoughts. There has been some recent research looking at how language can help with learning. The experiment was designed to see if people could learn information more quickly if there was a word associated with it. They were shown a series of "aliens". These were clay sculptures some had roughly shaped heads and others had smoother heads. The subjects of the experiments were told to tell if each alien was friendly or not. The smooth head aliens … [Read more...] about Language and Learning
Productive Sonic Environment
It is easy to focus on how the things we see contribute or detract from our productivity and overlook the impact of what we hear. I started experimenting with creating audio environments using ambient nature sounds when my daughter was born. Back in April, I published a short, lower quality version of what I was using. The idea is that distractions cause you to lose focus and it takes awhile to get back into what you are doing. A 30 second distraction may take 5 to 15 minutes to recover from If you can eliminate even just a two of these distractions it can easily give you an extra 30 minutes per day. The feedback I got from the low quality versions was positive, but most people … [Read more...] about Productive Sonic Environment
Productive Housing
Once upon a time we sold our house and moved into a nearby apartment complex. It was interesting adjusting to living in 1/5th the amount of space. There were some significant differences in how much free time we had available. Maintenance is handled by placing a phone call. It doesn't require any time on my part to try to fix something or to locate and hire a repair person. Snow removal is done by the apartment managers. I don't have to get up early to shovel. Less house to clean. It is a lot faster to clean 500 sq ft. than 2,500. Less paperwork. While it didn't take up too much time, there is definitely more paperwork involving a house. Of course, I still miss our house … [Read more...] about Productive Housing