How to Make a Decision

If you are any­thing like me, and those that I have worked with, then you know that a lot of time can be spent on try­ing to make a deci­sion. Eth­i­cal deci­sions and team/committee deci­sions can be the slow­est and hard­est that we have to make. Try­ing to decide what fea­ture should or should not be included, or try­ing to decide if some­one if guilty or inno­cent are tough – they lead to pro­cras­ti­na­tion and stress. Deci­sions don’t have to be stress... Read More

iPad Review – Part IV, the Conclusion

In part one I gave a gen­eral overview of my iPad thoughts, then in part two I dove into the won­der­ful world of iPad apps. Part three took us back to using the device, and looked at the hard­ware of the iPad. Here in part four, rather then give a sum­ma­tion I thought that instead I would take you through a typ­i­cal work­week with the iPad (note I have only had it a week so this is the usage so far). Mon­day Thru Fri­day Usage Let’s start with the Mon­day... Read More

iPad Review — Part III, Device Usage

Wel­come to part III of my never end­ing love fest with Apple’s new iPad, in this third install­ment I am going to focus on using the device itself, mov­ing away from the apps that I talked about in the last part. First Impres­sions The first thing that you will notice when you pick up an iPad is the size, this thing really is large. I don’t know if it looks so large because I am used to an iPhone, but every­one that I have shown it to thinks it is big. Not big in... Read More

iPad Review — Part II, the Apps

I was very skep­ti­cal about the iPad when it was launched — after a cou­ple of days to think about it I went ahead and pre-ordered one. I picked it up Mon­day and have barely put it down since then. This is a great device, but it is also an incred­i­ble use­ful tool for me. This is Part II of my iPad review, Part I was a con­cise list of my over­all thoughts on the device, this time I am going to look at some of the great pro­duc­tiv­ity apps I have been using.... Read More

iPad Review: Part I, an Overview

Due to my vaca­tion I have only had the iPad since 4/5/10, a cou­ple of days after the ini­tial launch. Since this is a pro­duc­tiv­ity site I will spare you hav­ing to read all my posts about it and will say right here that I highly rec­om­mend this device more than any other device I have ever owned. A week into using it here are my thoughts thus far: The on screen key­board is about ten times more usable than I thought that it would be, I can mostly touch type... Read More

∞ 4 Web-Based Meeting Schedulers Reviewed

There are some great offer­ings out there, how­ever I have never found one that I thought would be usable in a ‘real world’ sce­nario. I am post­ing this not so that you can waste time try­ing these ser­vices but to urge you to stay away for now, they have a long way to go. 4 Web-Based Meet­ing Sched­ulers Reviewed.  Read More

∞ Headquarters a Basecamp App for iPhone

Head­quar­ters bills itself as: The Base­camp® App For Peo­ple Who Get Things Done. I have been using it for a week now, it is not Base­camp on the iPhone. It is a great way to see and inter­act with your Base­camp To-Dos and I think it does that really well.  Read More

Productivity, Knowledge and Skill

This past week – on more than one occa­sion – peo­ple have told me that they are amazed at how much the youth can get done in a week in com­par­i­son to them. I usu­ally laugh it off, not really giv­ing it much thought until today. Sit­ting here con­tem­plat­ing why older peo­ple feel this way about youth­ful indi­vid­u­als I had a real­iza­tion that it has to do with knowl­edge and skill sets. I am not about to make the arro­gant procla­ma­tion that... Read More

Write Off Unproductive Days

There are days when it seems that I can’t get any­thing done, I lack the focus I des­per­ately need. When an unpro­duc­tive day comes along, I choose to write it off. I accept that noth­ing is get­ting done and go do some­thing else. Typ­i­cally I go to the store, run errands, shop online, play games, read news, any­thing that I want — just so long as I am doing some­thing. The still­ness of star­ing at a mon­i­tor, or a blank page is makes me not want to... Read More

Keeping Your Inbox Empty

Inbox Zero is a con­cept by Mer­lin Mann that I embrace fully (he is writ­ing a book on it due to be out soon), and most email hogs have a love hate rela­tion­ship with Inbox Zero. The thing is, most peo­ple have Inbox Zero wrong. Not being the inven­tor of the con­cept, I should say that most peo­ple approach keep­ing noth­ing in their inbox the wrong way. Keep­ing your inbox empty is not about react­ing to email quickly and effi­ciently – keep­ing your inbox... Read More