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Next they gave them a very difficult test–so difficult that many children didn’t get a single question right. They then told both groups that they hadn’t done as well on this test and asked them if they knew why. The students from group A said that it must be because they weren’t smart enough. Group B said that it must be because they didn’t try hard enough.

That in  itself is pretty amazing. Giving people praise for being smart basically backfires because it teaches them that success comes from being intelligent. Once they are faced with a situation where they fail, the logical conclusion is that they must not be very intelligent.  On the other hand, praising people for working hard helps them stay focused on something they can control–their effort.

My 4 year old is pretty advanced when it comes to reading. According to a test we recently had her take, she reads on the level of a 10 or 11 year old. I’m not sure how accurate the test is, but I do know that it isn’t normal for a kid who isn’t even kindergarten age to read chapter books. (As a side note, one of my proudest moments as a parent was when I saw her 2 year old brother bring her a book and she sat down on the floor and read it to him.)

So is my daughter a genius? No. She has simply put in a lot of hard work. Of course not nearly as much hard work as my incredible wife who taught her how to read.

So back to the experiment. The scientists went ahead and gave the kids another test. This time one that was much easier. Up to this point the kids in both groups had performed about the same on the tests. There was no significant difference between them. On this final test, there was a wide variance in the scores. Members of group A (who had been told they were smart) did about 25% worse than group B (who had been told they had worked hard).

Why did this happen? Lets try to imagine the thought process of these two groups:

Group A – told they were smart:

• Test 1 – Oh I’m pretty smart. Good for me.
• Test 2 – Hm. They say I must be really smart. Maybe I’m smarter than I realized.
• Test 3 (the hard one) – I did horrible. I guess I’m not very smart. Maybe I’m not even as smart as I originally thought.
• Test 4 – I didn’t really try that hard because this test taking isn’t really for me.

Group B – told they had worked hard:

• Test 1 – Hey they are proud of how hard I worked.
• Test 2 – I did it again. I must be working pretty hard.
• Test 3 (the hard one) – Not so good. I must not have worked as hard on this one.
• Test 4 – I tried extra hard on this one and I think I did pretty well.

That is a pretty big difference just based a small change in wording isn’t it?

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Fingerless Gloves

Fingerless Gloves ~ $3.50 

My office is in the walk-out basement of our home. It is typically 60 to 65 degrees in the winter, but when there is a strong wind on the walk out portion of the house, it can get a lot colder. This isn’t to big of deal because I can usually just put on a sweatshirt, but I have to be able to type. These gloves keep my hands warm but let me still use my fingers. I wish I had of had these when I was getting my  undergraduate degree in music because it would have made early morning piano practicing much more comfortable and productive.

GPS Unit

GPS Units – $99 to $350

If you add a navigation package to a new car it will probably cost you thousands of dollars.  I’ve never understood why this is, when a typical GPS unit can be had for $100 to $300. If you are looking to get someone a GPS, you might want to consider units that come with lifetime map updates. My first unit didn’t have this and with map updates costing $99 I put it off for awhile and eventually just bought a new GPS when it kept trying to send us to restaurants and stores that were closed or moved. In addition to the lifetime map updates, some of the newer models include free traffic updates–something that you previously had to pay $20 per month to get. This will try to route you around road closures and congestion. It is particularly helpful in a big city.

One of the best deals I’ve found is the 5 inch TomTom XXL. It isn’t the newest GPS, but it does come with lifetime map and traffic updates for just under $100.

Amazon Kindle

Amazon Kindle ~ $79 to $199

While a lot of people will be getting the $99 Kindle Touch and the $199 Kindle Fire for Christmas, I wanted to point out some of the advantages of the $139 Kindle Keyboard 3G. It has the 3G support, but allows you to browse the web from the device over the 3G network–something you can’t do with the other devices. Obviously this is a horrible way to do general web browsing, but it is a great way to read longer form web content–particularly Wikipedia articles. So if you want to carry around something that lets you read live content from the web over 3G, this is probably the only way to do it without paying a monthly fee.

The 3G connection means you can look up things on the fly on the road. While most smart phones can do this as well, it isn’t nearly as comfortable to read on your smart phone screen as it is on the e-ink display of the Kindle.

Inspirational leadership quotes from Leadership501.

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The Tower

Chris Guillebeau from The Art of Non-Conformity has released a new manifesto called The Tower. You might be familiar with his previous Brief Guide To World Domination. The Tower is a beautiful PDF that is designed to be viewed on an iPad. (But in my experience looks very nice on a normal computer screen.) There is also a Kindle version available. It is free and at 23 pages it won’t take long to read. The ebook talks about what makes us happy in life and it is well worth the short time investment to read.

Cooking with Brett and Myke

Brett Kelly who blogs at Nerd Gap and wrote the excellent Evernote Essentials book. has started a Podcast where he and a friend just talk about tech stuff called Cooking with Brett and Myke. Cooking is the one topic they seem to avoid–other than mentioning that they are not talking about it. It is a very random romp through various tech and productivity topics–and I do mean random.

The best way to describe it is to imagine you are sitting in the back seat on a one hour car ride and in the front seat are two tech lovers talking about what they have learned in the past week. It is actually very entertaining, so if you hearing about tech/productivity check it out.

Clutter Free

Leo Babauta from Zen Habits and mnmlist has co-created a course and ebook called ClutterFree. I finished the ebook last night. It was a very good read and talked about everything from how to deal with Christmas gifts to cleaning your closets.

For me the greatest take away was just a reminder of all the benefits of NOT having stuff and it made me really think about what I keep and what I should get rid of.

Your Big Beautiful Book Plan

Danielle Laporte with White Hot Truth has co-created a massive 400 page ebook called Your Big Beautiful Book Plan. It is designed to show you how to create a book plan, work with agents and publishers, send query letters, etc. Particularly interesting are all the samples from successful book deals.  For example, in the section that talks about how to put together a book proposal, they print a bunch of real query letters that resulted in book deals.

Want to go paperless? Checkout the Paperless Office website.

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The winner of the $250 gift card is Jennifer Marie. She was chosen based on a random number from www.random.org.

So how did my shopping, turn out? You can read about it below.

My Dad

The local hardware store was offering a sale on “gear wrench” sets. These are wrenches with the normal open end on one side, but the closed end has a gear mechanism in it that allows it to turn the bolt in one direction, but it “slips” when you push it the other. So it lets you ratchet the wrench back and forth to turn the bolt without needing to take the wrench off and replace it.  I bought this the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so not only was it on sale, but I got the $25 credit from American Express as part of their Small Business Saturday promotion.

My Mom

My mom is a teacher and has an older MacBook that gets a lot of use. She has been saying that it seems to be slowing down. Whenever I’ve looked at it there were noticed dozens of programs open–something that its built in 1 GB of RAM just couldn’t keep up with. Crucial has a nice website for identifying what memory works in what devices. I bought her an upgrade that maxes her computer out at 2 Gigs. Now I’ve cheated just a bit here and gave her the upgrade as an early present and installed it of course. She said it has made a world of difference and she can actually use her computer again to get stuff done.

My Nephew (10 years old)

I got my nephew a small remote control helicopter. He had an AirHog, but it was nearly impossible to fly. I got him an Syma S107 because I have one and know it is very flyable. The biggest difference is that the S107 has a built in gyroscope to keep it from spinning unless you are trying to turn.  I looked at getting him the S110G which is a bit smaller, but I decided to stick with one that I know he will be able to fly.

My Brother-in-law

I got my brother-in-law a remote control helicopter as well. I think most guys wanted a remote control helicopter or airplane when they were kids, but the light batteries have just recently become available at a a low enough price point to put into toys instead of pacemakers. So while this obviously isn’t the most practical gift, I’m hoping he’ll find it very entertaining.

My Niece (13 years old)

What my niece likes to do is go shopping. I considered getting her some gift cards by redeeming some Membership Reward Points, but I’m not really a big fan of giving gift cards as Christmas gifts. My sleuthing revealed that she is really enjoying her art classes, so I got her a nice set of colored pencils, a set of pastels, a set of sketching pencils along with a case to keep everything in.

My Sister-in-law

She reads a lot of business books, so I got her several of my favorites:

• Anything You Want
• E-Myth Revisited
• Four Hour Work Week 

Luggage Tags

A few weeks ago I ordered a new dog tag for our dog.  Since the shipping was more expensive than the tag, I went ahead and ordered a few “dog tag” style with my name, address and phone number on them to use as an id tag on my laptop. It turned out pretty nice so I thought I’d get some as small gifts for family members who could use them, three tags that they could use for their keys, luggage, laptops case, camera case, etc.  When I got ready to order them, I realized that it was going to take me quite a while to build the order up by adding the addresses one at a time. Instead I just copied the addresses into an email and sent it off to American Express Concierge asking them to order it for me.

Benefits of Using a Credit Card

I’ve written about some of the benefits of using credit cards before. But lets look at some of the specific benefits in this shopping experience. By using my Platinum American Express card all of my purchases are protected against theft or damage for 90 days. In addition, if a gift turns out to be the wrong thing, but the merchant won’t let me return it, I have coverage through the card for that as well. The purchases are also covered by an extended one year warranty.

Your credit card probably has at least some of these type of benefits and it is worth taking a look at some of the fine print so you know what benefits you have if you ever need them.

Thank You To American Express

A big thank you to American Express for sponsoring this giveaway.

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So here is the plan. In this post I’m going to discuss some strategies for getting the most out of your credit card benefits and rewards programs–particularly related to Christmas shopping. I’ll use American Express as an example, but most everything will relate to other cards as well. Then I’m going to try to buy 5 gifts for family and follow up with a post on what I found in a week. In that post we’ll try to announce the winner of the $250 gift card.

Rewards Programs

American Express has one of the most extensive rewards programs of any credit card company. However, you have to know how to value your points. Usually points amount to about 1% benefit from every dollar spent, however different programs have different amounts of payback. For example, if you redeem your points for a $10 bath and body works gift card right now, it will cost you 800 points (normally 1,000). This works out to $0.0125 per point. However, if you shop Amazon and use the American Express Pay with Points at checkout, your points will be worth $0.007 each.

If you decide you want to buy a Kindle E-Reader through American Express’ online Membership Rewards store, it will cost 25,200 points for a wifi model that sells for $139 from Amazon. So the value of your points there is $0.0055 each ($139/25200). So if you have 50,000 points you are working with, that means the value can range from $275 to $625. That is a pretty big range. If you can spend your points on things that have the best conversion rate and pay directly for the expenses/items that have lower conversion rates, you points will go a lot further.

Generally I try to look for things where 1 point = 1 cent.  Usually your best deals from American Express are going to come in the form of gift cards and travel where the exchange rate from points to value is usually 1 cent or higher.

So when it comes to Christmas shopping, you may find the best value in using Membership Rewards Points to pay for your Christmas travel or even buy a gift card to use to purchase a gift, than to buy a physical item directly with points. (Or you could give gift cards, but I’m not a big fan of those as gifts.) However, this isn’t a hard and fast rule and it depends a lot on what special promotions are being held. Just remember to divide the value of something by the number of points it costs to get an idea of the exchange rate. If it is too far below 1 cent you might want to save your points for something else.

So that is a bit about how to spend points, but it is worth looking at some of the ways you can earn them.

American Express has what used to be called an online Bonus Points Mall. As I mentioned previously, you typically get 1 point for every dollar you spend. In the Bonus Points Mall, AmEx has made agreements with merchants to offer significantly greater bonus points for each purchase. For example, if you buy a new computer from Apple for $1,200, you’ll usually get 1,200 points, but if you go through the bonus points mall right now, you’ll get 6x that amount or 7,200 points. If you are eventually able to redeem these points for $0.0125, that is an additional $90 in savings off the computer.

Not everything we’ve talked about in this section applies to other credit cards, but a lot of it does. The point is that you have to sit down and do the math to understand how to benefit from the rewards you are offered. If you are careful, you can often get twice or more value out of your points/rewards program.

Special Offers / Deals / Card Features

Outside of the points programs, it is worth understanding all the deals, incentives and benefits your card offers.  For example, American Express is running a program this Saturday where they will give you $25 statement credit if you buy something from a small business. You have to register your card ahead of time and I think there may be a limit on how many people they accept, but I tried it a few minutes ago and it let me register. So Saturday I’m going to be looking for some Christmas gifts from a local small business.

Some other features that are worth looking at:

• Amex offers a credit for extra airline fees (including extra bags) on their Platinum Card. (You have to select your airline once per year and there is a $200 yearly limit, so it isn’t completely open ended.) If you are looking into traveling this Christmas season, definitely look into this if you have a Platinum Card.
• We’ve talked about some of the Concierge Services in the past. I’ve actually been pretty impressed with them recently. I think it just takes awhile to learn what they are good at and what can be done better on your own. This can be a great way to try to find gifts that you might not think of or when you are trying to do something for someone who is a long ways away  and don’t have time to call a bunch of stores near them.
• Purchase protection – Many cards like the Platinum offer some type of purchase protection if you buy something and it gets stolen lost or damaged.
• Some cards offer a price increase protection. If you buy something and the price goes down, you get a credit for the difference. As far as I can tell AmEx doesn’t have this anymore, but they have a 90 day return protection that looks like it will do essentially the same thing.

Some tips for shopping with a credit card

Credit card companies watch your spending patterns pretty closely. If someone steals your card, they want to shut it off as quickly as possible so they aren’t out thousands of dollars. This means if your spending goes up rapidly, they may cut off your card until you call in and confirm that you have it. Now I’m sure most companies expect to see a jump around Christmas, but if you are doing something like shopping in a different city, you might want to call your credit card company and just tell them what is going on ahead of time.

Watch the register when you checkout. One downside of using a credit card is that it is easy to not watch things as carefully when you check out. With cash, we tend to be a bit more careful because we don’t want to run out of money at the register. You want to make sure things are ringing up for their expected price–particularly when buying items that are on sale.

Christmas Gift Buying Tips

Now that we’ve spent over 1,000 words discussing the way to get the most benefit from using a credit card, lets look at the fun part–actually buying gifts. Here are some thoughts for your consideration.

• Don’t let Christmas turn into a gift card exchange. If you just want to give each other gift cards, you are better off setting a bowl on the table and have everyone throw in $50 and then take it back out again.
• Go in with other family members. By combining your funds you may be able to get someone something that they really want but would never go out and buy for themselves.
• Invest some thought. When buying gifts for people who are close, you goal should be to show that you know them well enough to buy something they will really like.
• Buy used. It may not work for every family, but there are some great deals out there on used items.
• Swaps. I’ve heard of communities getting together and having a big swap where they exchange gently used children’s toys. You give something that your kids no longer play with and get something fresh and exciting.
• Do something. When you have well established families, you may not really need more stuff. What if you were all to pool your money and go on a family vacation over the holidays?
• Gift exchange. If you have a large family, it can make sense to draw names and have everyone get one gift for one person. If done correctly, this can make shopping a lot easier because you can focus more time and money on making a single gift perfect instead of buying 30 presents for different people.
• Start early. If you have the storage space, you can probably find the best deals by doing your Christmas shopping throughout the year. When you find the perfect gift for Uncle Bob for 50% off, get it and put it somewhere you will remember it.
• Set a budget. Christmas can turn into a free for all. Set some type of budget for the season so your spending doesn’t get out of control. While it is nice to be generous, you should be responsible with your money.
• Be careful what you teach your kids. Growing up, we’d open stockings, eat breakfast and then take cookies to the local nursing home for a few hours before coming home and opening presents. As children this helped us learn to focus on others first.
• Don’t over do it with kids. I’ve seen parents wear their kids out at Christmas. Giving your kid 20 toys that they isn’t going to make 10 times happier than giving them 2 toys. It might even do the opposite because it is impossible for a kid to focus on 20 new toys at the same time.
• Plan for others. I have seen some situations where family members don’t come to Christmas because they can reciprocate with similar gifts. Don’t let a focus on gifts get in the way of spending time with family.

$250 American Express Gift Card Giveaway

• Add a comment to this post with a Christmas shopping tip to enter.
• Tweet a shopping tip with a link to this post for another entry.
• Winner will be chosen randomly, but we reserve the right to moderate comments.
• You have to be in the US to win.
• The winner will have 24 hours to respond before we select another winner.
• Winner will be chosen in one week.

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Simplify instead of organize. Have as few things as possible, and you don’t need to organize.
Leo – Zen Habits

Try to keep the desk clean, leaving only the essentials on its top. The rest goes into the drawer, boxes, the archive, or the bin. Your computer, the phone, and the paper you are currently work on is enough.
Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann – DEVONtechnologies LLC

Buy the smallest desk you can possibly find – then you’re forced to be organized!
Joe Bennett – Tweddle Group

Clean desk is key.

Have the following folders available on one of those accordion style organizers. As you get things put them in each of the folders, for example, the folders can be:

• Things to do – Urgent
• Update in Computer
• Future Project or Future Review
• Separate folder for each project that you are working on
• Read

Rita

Use a phone log to document phone calls and messages in one place. This eliminates scrap paper and sticky notes that can clutter your desk, helps you remember information and stay focused while on the phone.
Lisa DeVeau – Completely Organized, Inc.

Keep everything in its own place so you don’t have to look for anything, it is immediately to hand.
Chris Ramsey

I make sure I organize & clean my desk every evening as I’m done, gives me a nice fresh start every morning.
Ann Brampton – Ann Brampton

Keep a notepad beside your phone. Have an tray for stuff that you have yet to deal with. Remove all else except what you’re working on right now.
Masariko Yokosuka

An exercise in minimalism: Remove everything from your desk…Everything! Retrieve items you need as you need them for one week. Anything not retrieved w/in the week need not be on or in your desk.
Rachel Z. Cornell – ProNagger, Because I Know You Can!

Remove all items from your desk. Uncluttered clean desk, keeps the focus on the work, rather than the stuff.
Steve Bell – SteveBellNow

1. Clear everything off your desk. As you need items, put them back. You’ll be amazed at all of the stuff that you don’t actually use frequently.
2. If you need to remember something write it down and all in one place. Avoid using Post-it notes as they can quite easily take over your entire workstation.
3. Keep all supplies in one place. If you don’t know how much you have of something, chances are you will buy more than you need.
4. For frequently used files use vertical file sorters. Using trays and inboxes allow piles to easily form.

Allison Perkins – Reclaim

At the end of the work day clear off your desk. Have one
or two great frames with photos of your family –but that is all…this is an office… Have one plant either in the corner of the office or on your desk. One “”very cool”" item or “”very kooky”" item that can make you laugh when you need one. Nothing offensive, please.
Leslie Jacobs – Les Is More

Develop a plan for how you plan on getting organized, and then break the plan down into manageable chunks. Going paperless, with a product like the NeatDesk, can be great for many people. It can save time, space, and effort – and make you more productive overall!
Joshua Zerkel – Custom Living Solutions

Think of your desk and chair as command central. Things you use daily or often should be within arms reach from your chair. The less often you use it, the further away it should be.
Melinda Massie – Organizing with a Side of Fabulous

• If you don’t LOVE it, USE it or NEED it…it’s got to GO!
• Only have projects that you are CURRENTLY working on on your desk
• Organize your desk for how YOU work, not because that’s how a co-worker has theirs or that’s how it’s always been done

DeAnna Radaj – Bante Design LLC

My friends and colleagues say I’m the most organized person they know, but for me, it isn’t something I do consciously anymore. I keep my desk organized by having a place for everything, and making sure I put things back when they’re done. Office supplies go in one drawer, files in another one, and lesser-used items in a third. Nothing sits on top of my desk except my computer: things on top of the desk end up breeding clutter. Once you get in the habit of always putting things where they belong, it’s easy to stay organized!
Michael Kaiser-Nyman – Impact Dialing

1. Move to a paperless office platform – Scan and store important documents on a server, thus allowing you to remove basic paper clutter from your desk.

2. Shy away from using a basic ‘inbox’ tray, as items can easily pile up while important dates fly by.

3. Our last bit of advice? Purchase 1 picture frame and fill it. The easiest way to stay organized is to stay motivated, and the best form of motivation is to remember what’s important. A daily glimpse of your friends, family, pet, etc. will bring an instant smile to your face.

Lacey Stenson – reThink Consulting, Inc.

Try regularly rearrange all the things found at ur desk so that you can refresh the memory of the things where you first put them.
Max Lee

Keep paperwork contained by project. Keep tasks contained in the same way, as one project, to be worked on daily. Keep only one project out at a time and put it away before starting another whenever possible. Put your projects to bed every night.
Fran Piekarski – www.remedease.com

The beginning and end of day routines matters! The night before, clean off your desk – tidy the folders, bins, or projects. Put away anything you’re finished with. Make a short list (1-3 items) of the MOST important things to do the following day. Lay out the materials you’ll need. First thing the next morning, do the ONE most important thing.
Angela Mattson - Your Organized Guide

Design your workspace using desktop file sorters or baskets to organize your daily “to do” list, tasks, “action” files and even your piles. Avoid picking up, putting down, picking up. Create a paper flow system for incoming documents.
Susie Hayman - In Your Business

Whenever possible delegate things that are not the best use of your talents to others with applicable strengths.
Fran Piekarski – www.remedease.com

• Have ONE inbox
• Use a napkin holder on top of your desk to hold documents and files
• Keep two hanging file drawers: One for archived/reference material. The other for “active” files
• Use a muffin tray inside the drawers to organize small items and office supplies

Amy Volk – Simplified Living. LLC

Arrange your office based on your own needs and individual style of working. Your office should reflect you, your personality and how you work. Position your furniture and equipment so that they work for you.
Susie Hayman – In Your Business

Your desktop can mirror the desktop on your computer. In other words, current files and projects laterally organized on the desktop. Reference files and projects in drawers or archived.
Fran Piekarski - www.remedease.com

Assign a home for what’s on your desk. This includes things you don’t know what to do with or need to review later, and office supplies. If you don’t use it on a regular basis, get it off your desk – a file cabinet, a shelf, a bookcase or the trashcan.
Susie Hayman – In Your Business

Keep it simple! The only items you should have on your desk are those that you need daily, the rest should have designated homes. A cluttered desk will cause you stress. Your desk should be a place where you can be productive.
Michelle Monroe Morton – Michelle Morton

Choose furniture and supplies that fit in workspaces. Don’t crowd desks with large items if your desk is too small for them. Plan ahead by researching the dimensions of your work space and supplies
Tony Ellison – Shoplet.com

Having an organized desk is a fundamental skill that exhibits good focus. Without it, success is hard to achieve.
Acharya Sri Khadi Madama – www.yourstrulyyogatv.com

Mount all cables and wires to the underside of your desk. Fix a pegboard to the underside and suspend your gadgets with wires. See more at this link.
Jules – IKEAHackers

I have an enormous pin board above my desk (more than two meters long). Instead of putting vouchers,receipts, letters, and everything else on my desk, I pin it to my pin board. This is excellent for me as I’m very visual, and it’s so much more fun doing paperwork when it means “one less pin”.
Kristine

Every day, take 15-30 minutes before you’re scheduled to leave work to put away anything that should not be laying about on your desk, like pens, files, Post-It notes, paper clips, personal items, etc.
Deb Lee - D. Allison Lee LLC

Minimize storage. More storage attracts more junk. Keep only what cannot be replaced. Be ruthless.
Cryptoglot

Keep only supplies that you use daily on your desk-top or in your top drawer. If you don’t use tape or need hundreds of different sized paperclips then put them back in the supply cabinet.
Holly Bohn – See Jane Work

I sold my desk and use my dining table. When I am finished I put what I need into my portable inbox, including my laptop and pen. Everything else gets filed, trashed; my inbox goes onto a shelf in the nearby buffet and I close the door on it. A big change in my life! Goodbye desk anxiety.
Barbara K.

I truly believe that less is more, containment is key, and labeling certainly can’t hurt! When I work with clients, I recommend they keep their active desktop area reserved for the project they are currently working on. It can be as messy as they want while they are working, but as soon as they are finished or reach a stopping point, the piles get cleaned up, contained in a file folder, bin, or project sleeve, and it gets put in a holding area
Angela Mattson – Your Organized Guide

Divide and conquer the types of paper that can comingle and make a mess on your desk. Keep your mail separate (in a basket) from documents (in a paper tray or sorter) and use file folders for projects (in a tiered file holder).
Deb Lee - D. Allison Lee LLC

Straighten desk at the end of the day and especially at the end of the week so that you can start each morning with a clear desk.
Janet Taylor – JanetMTaylor.com

Desktop organizers and/or trays will help you organize papers that come across your desk.
Janet M Taylor – JanetMTaylor.com

A laptop with a second monitor, and all my IMs(use a company standard IM, GTalk, with Outlook, OneNote sharing(is on the second monitor) and use the first screen to do most of the work.

Things which take longer, or to be sent to someone to be done and follow-up – typically go into tasks on a writing pad.
Ravi V

Don’t follow the rules. Every job is different and the tools you need to get the job done will also be different. Sure there are some things that most everyone will use, paper and pen for example, but other than that it’s job specific.
Holly Bohn - See Jane Work

Limit your memorabilia to one or two items. Put everything else on the wall or shelves.
Mark Shead

Keep your office essentials close to your desk, like your garbage bin, file cabinet, and shredder. If you have to get up to reach them, you’re more likely to keep the trash, files, and paper all piled on your desk.
Deb Lee – D. Allison Lee LLC

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Manvotionals

The Art of Manliness has launched their second book, this one is called Manvotionals. Christmas is coming and it might be the perfect gift for a man in your life.

Executive MBA Online Fair

The Economist is holding an Executive MBA online fair.  Executive MBAs are generally aimed at people who are mid career and follow a schedule that allows busy professionals to complete their MBA degree while working full time. They are also doing on for Traditional MBA programs as well. The fair allows you to visit virtual booths and talk with staff and alumni from each college.

Even if you aren’t interested in pursuing an MBA, it might be worth checking out just to see how people are using the internet to hold events that have been traditionally held as physical events.

Write On Glass

Write on Glass is a webservice / browser extension that lets you add notes to a virtual glass surface on any web page so people in your “group” can view them. It could be very useful for communicating with a team if you are doing a website design or something similar. You can share with a team or participate in public discussions and the “glass surface” lets you add videos and other rich media elements in addition to text.

Asana

Asana is a web based task manager that recently launched. It is free for up to 30 users on your team. Their goal was to make it as fast to enter tasks as it would be with a text editor while minimizing the number of clicks and offering collaboration features. It looks nice, fast and clean.

Mail Slayer

Mail Slayer gives you some add ons for Gmail that let you take notes on individuals and conversations. It also gives you “snippets” which let you inject prewritten text with a click of a button. The snippets look like they could be very helpful if you find yourself writing the same thing over and over again.

LifeTopix 3.0

Light Arrow is announcing their 3.0 version of LifeTopix–an IOS app that is basically a “life database”. It has some interesting features and I thought the health metrics was a particularly interesting idea.

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I ran across and interesting quote by Albert Einstein the other day.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
~ Albert Einstein

This isn’t exactly the best known quote by Einstein and I doubt many teachers quote this to their students. Reading is generally a good thing, but if it starts becoming a substitute for thinking on your own it can hold you back from reaching your potential.

This quote touches on a problem that holds many people back from actually accomplishing things. It is easy to spend so much time researching that you never actually execute.  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read, do research and try to learn from others, but at some point you have to decide that you’ve gathered enough data and the time has come to do something. That may be starting your own business, writing a book or even repainting your living room.  You have a very finite lifespan. Some people spend their life preparing for what they want to do without ever actually doing what they want to do.

Sometimes the most helpful situations are the ones that force you to go ahead and do something by removing the option to try to collect more information.

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The contents are short essays by many famous business authors. There are three sections: Focus, Courage, Resilience. The contents of the book are great. They are all short and you can pick it up and randomly read any page to get something out of it.

What most impressed me though was just the idea for the project. It is a great example of how creative thinking and a little organization (ok maybe a LOT of organization) can bring people together to make the world a better place. The proceeds (at least $20 from each book) wil go to Malaria No More which has a mission to eliminate death from malaria in Africa by 2015. It is a big goal, but with projects like this to fund it, they just might do it.

Everything you wanted to know about money from the Debt Free Dude.

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If you see something that you like, be sure to let the author know in their comments or in the comments here. As someone who does a lot of writing, I know first hand how encouraging it is to hear from a reader.

• Managing Expectations Begins with your Members and Clients – William Biggs works as a communications consultant and has been a long time reader of Productivity501. This is an article he wrote about working with donors for non-profits. Much of it is relevant to the for profit sector as well.
• Don’t Focus on Customer Spending – Saj Karsan’s article takes issue with how much we focus on customer spending as an economic indicator and suggests that productivity may be a better measure of long term economic health.
• Top 10 Android Apps for College Students – Cody Jacob listed his favorite Android Apps for students. Interestingly I use quite a few of them, so the list is definitely not limited to college students.
• How To Use Evernote – Cameron Plommer has done a series of screencast video tutorials on how to use Evernote.
• 6 Ways to get in the Zone – Jon Giganti talks about his methods for getting into the “zone” — that place where you do your optimal work.
• How to be Lazy, Productive and Successful – Matt Heinz looks at how being lazy can help make you highly productive–if you do it right.
• Eliminate your Department’s TPS Report! (pdf)  - Joseph Kern calls on businesses to eliminate work that adds no value from departmental procedures.
• Turn your Adversities into your Greatest Strength - Subhorup Dasgupta’s blog post describes his process of turning a weakness in writing into a strength.
• 13 Questions to ask Before Hiring a Web Designer – Wayne Mullins created this info graphic to get some tips on selecting a web designer.
• Rationally Selfish Q&A: Learning to Concentrate - Diana Hsieh talks about how she learned to concentrate on audio lectures in the car and how to concentrate in other areas of life.
• A Superior Goal Setting Model: Moving Beyond SMART - Loren Pinilis’ blog post details an advanced goal setting method.
• 10 Secret Killers that Destroy Your Personal Productivity - Dries Cronje writes about some of the hidden traps that can steal your productivity.

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 A MULETEER set forth on a journey, driving before him an Donkey and a Mule, both well laden.  The Donkey, as long as he traveled along the plain, carried his load with ease, but when he began to ascend the steep path of the mountain, felt his load to be more than he could bear.  He entreated his companion to relieve him of a small portion, that he might carry home the rest; but the Mule paid no attention to the request.  The Donkey shortly afterwards fell down dead under his burden.  Not knowing what else to do in so wild a region, the Muleteer placed upon the Mule the load carried by the Donkey in addition to his own, and at the top of all placed the hide of the Donkey, after he had skinned him.  The Mule, groaning beneath his heavy burden, said to himself:  ”I am treated according to my deserts.  If I had only been willing to assist the Donkey a little in his need, I should not now be bearing, together with his burden, himself as well.” ~Aesop

Have you ever had a small problem that you didn’t feel like dealing with? Something that was easy enough to ignore where there didn’t seem to be any harm in just putting it off? Enough about donkeys and mules. Let me tell you how I ruined two perfectly good garden hoses.

Last week we went to Florida. (You know there is something wrong when you head to Florida to beat the heat in Kansas.) Anyway right before we left we got a lot of rain so when we came back the yard was well past the point where it needed to be mowed. We have about 2.5 acres and even with a 54 inch riding mower, it takes a while. I didn’t get started until late and was racing the encroaching darkness. I had a few hoses set up to water some trees and an area of the yard on a timer. I didn’t want to take the time to wrap them all up so I decided to just mow over them. Even with the blade on the highest setting I managed to nick the 100 footer that ran to the trees. It was small enough that I thought I could probably repair it, but I didn’t learn my lesson and 5 minutes later managed to completely mangle a shorter hose cutting it into a bunch of foot long pieces and getting it wrapped tightly around the left blade of the lawn mower.

By the time I got the hose off the blade, picked up my mess, threw the trashed hose away, and then patched the nicked hose I spent way more time than it would have taken to simply move the hoses and that doesn’t even include the time  I’m going to have to spend to go get a replacement for the hose I destroyed.

Shortcuts are often the longest way of doing something. I’d write more, but I need to go to the store to get another hose.

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