Category Archives: productivity

My Three Words for 2012

Written on January 4, 2012 by in Asides, business web, productivity

Chris Brogan pro­poses three words to define your out­look for a year. Instead of a res­o­lu­tion, these three words can frame the inten­tion for a year and not pro­vid­ing a pre­scrip­tive goal.

Keeping with the alpha­bet theme of the moment, I’ve found three words that describe the year that I would like to have.

Attend–This year I will be present and pay atten­tion to the things that mat­ter. It means that I will tend to the things that need doing every­day to work towards that goals I’ve set for myself. It also means I’ll show up at the gym, at net­work­ing events, and for social functions.

Breakthrough–I’ve spent the last few years untan­gling, learn­ing things, and learn­ing about myself. This is the year I’ll fig­ure out how to be in busi­ness for myself finally. The prepa­ra­tions are nearly com­plete and it is time to get going already. It’s time for the train­ing wheels to come off.

Cavort–This silly word means to frolic and dance. It comes from a lucky coin given to me by a friend. This year is about lively, bois­ter­ous fun…with oth­ers. This year I won’t be doing it alone. Perhaps I’ll wear more pink. Join me in the play.

Attend * Breakthrough * Cavort

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10 Things You Can Do with a Paypal Account

Written on June 29, 2011 by in business web, productivity

I’ve fallen in and out of love with Paypal over the last five years. Sometimes I’ve accepted it, and some­times I haven’t. I’m back in the fold because I’ve dis­cov­ered tools that I can use with Paypal that save me seri­ous time and money.

1. Accept Credit Cards with­out a mer­chant account on your web­site. I liked the idea of hav­ing my mer­chant account, but the flood of monthly fees: gate­way fees (Authorize​.net), state­ment fees (seri­ously?), and vari­able fees for each kind of credit or debit card out there. Ugh. I really don’t want to think about that. To find out more Paypal offers a bunch of dif­fer­ent plans.

2. Send invoices to your cus­tomers, or inte­grate with solu­tions like Freshbooks. You can even cus­tomize the invoice with your logo and colors.

3. Collect business-​to-​business pay­ments for only .50, and no per­cent­age of sales. You can’t use credit cards, but what a great way to pay your ven­dors. This is so sweet! It works with Freshbooks too!

4. Buy postage from USPS and print mail­ing labels on the spot. This even works with my desk­top label printer.Print pack­ing lists and sim­ple labels too.

5. Pay your vendors/​your author’s royalties/​your fam­ily members/​your affil­i­ate part­ners all at once using MassPay. Just upload a spread­sheet with everyone’s email address and the amount to pay them, and they get money! The fee is capped at $1/​payment, so it’s not much more than a stamp and envelope.

6. You can also just send money to a friend that you owe for din­ner, and you can do it via your mobile phone.

7. Integrate Paypal quickly and eas­ily with just about any shop­ping cart soft­ware. Or just use Paypal by itself as a sim­ple cart.

8. Accept for­eign cur­rency and pay for goods overseas.

9. Pay bills with your credit cards or directly from your bank account.

10. It’s really, really easy to buy stuff and not worry about expos­ing your credit card or other account info on sites you don’t know so well.

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Pomodoro Time Management

Written on June 20, 2011 by in apps, productivity, stress-relief

I’ve tried dozens of time man­age­ment tech­niques over the years, but the one that’s stuck with me is the Pomodoro Technique. If you speak (or eat) at least a lit­tle ital­ian, you know that pomodoro stands for tomato — in this case, a tomato-​shaped kitchen timer.

Learn the details at the offi­cial site (or down­load the Pomodoro iPad app), but the premise is super-​simple:

  • Make a list of the tasks you want to carry out that day.
  • Set a timer and work with no inter­rup­tions for 25 min­utes. This is “one pomodoro.” If you’re inter­rupted it doesn’t count!
  • Take a 5 minute break.
  • Set the timer again. This is your chance to decide if what you’re work­ing on deserves your con­tin­ued atten­tion, or if you should do some­thing else.
  • After 4 pomodoros take a longer break.
  • Overtime, you’ll get a sense of how many pomodoros any task really takes, and you’ll find a new sense of focus.

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Desktop Trainer to Prevent Repetitive-​Stress Injuries

Written on June 17, 2011 by in apps, business web, productivity, stress-relief

In the past week, three peo­ple have told me that they are suf­fer­ing from wrist, back or shoul­der pain … from doing noth­ing more than just sit­ting at their desks.

If you for­get to take a break or move around, Desk-​trainer pro­vides an adorable cartoon-​based series of ergonomic exer­cises by Anat Baniel based on the Feldenkrais method. The site pro­vides a series of short do-​at-​your desk exer­cises that help relieve imme­di­ate pain and increase your mobil­ity over time.

Desk TrainerThe site pro­vides use­ful infor­ma­tion about how to set up your work­sta­tion, treat com­mon repet­i­tive stress injuries, and a series of newslet­ters, online work­shops and DVDs.

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