Posted inMethodologies Quick Tips and Tricks

Productivity Tips For Avid Blog Readers

Information overload is one of the biggest hurdles you’ll have to deal with on the road to being more productive. There is so much out there and it’s so damn easy to spend hours sorting through your favorite blogs and Web sites. I’ve always been pretty good in keeping my reading time under control, that is until I started really using NetNewsWire to subscribe to feeds. I went through a phase where I really felt overwhelmed by the amount of news coming in and amazingly huge number of unread items I’d have.

I decided shortly thereafter to put into place some kind of rules, and a process, to keep control of all the information. I needed to do this so that I could stay sane and keep focused on my work.

I imagine many of you feel the same way. I’ve been asked by readers about this and I think it’s something anyone who reads blogs could benefit from taking some time to look at and reevaluate.

If you’re interested, I’ve got a few tips that have helped me keep control of the information, stay focused and actually get more out of the blogs I do read. After all, how much can you really take in if you are flying through hundreds of posts a day?

Posted inQuick Tips and Tricks

How To Ask For Help

I’m usually the kind of person who doesn’t need a whole bunch of help with things. Or at least that’s how I see myself. I’m a self-starter and a self-motivator who can learn and do anything. Or so I like to think…

The truth is that there are many times when I need help and because I’m the way I am I often don’t know when, or how, to ask. I bet there are all kinds of people out there who feel the same way. We’ve all been in over our heads at one time or another and it’s no big deal to call out for a little help now and again. In fact, by asking for help when it’s needed, we can make our lives easier and help out those around us.

This last weekend I did a bit of research and found quite a bit (ok a ton) of information on the topic. Turns out that asking for help is harder than I thought!

Posted inQuick Tips and Tricks

How To Give A Great Presentation

Public speaking can be very stressful. I know that whenever I get up in front of a crowd I go through a panic moment. It takes a lot of discipline, practice and preparation to put on a good presentation and even knowing what you need to know can be hard.

A year or so ago I wrote on the subject of first time speaking. Since that time I’ve been able to use many of those tips as well as some new tricks to help get myself ready for speaking engagements. I also had a chance to spend time with a speaking coach which helped more than I’d have ever guessed.

Now when I’m speaking, while not 100% comfortable, I do feel much better and I’m able to not only make it more fun for me, I think I pass along that good feeling a bit more to my audience. I’ve got several good tips, tricks and resources that will hopefully help some of you. These things should help whether you’re speaking at a large conference, giving a small internal presentation to you coworkers or classmates or giving a sales pitch. They’re pretty universal.

Posted inPhilosophy

Take Time Off!

Life and the Web are funny at times.

At any given moment I’ve got from 5 to 20 posts in some kind of draft form. Usually that form is notes with a title. I keep these around for times when I’m at a creative low and have nothing to talk or write about. This post was one of those that had been lingering in my drafts for a few weeks.

But then I came across this article via Lifehacker and I knew I had to come back to this issue and get this post out to y’all.

It’s all about the work/life balance and how time spent away from work can make you a better worker.

Posted inQuick Tips and Tricks

Back Your Files Up

Just a quick reminder to make sure you regularly back your essential files up. This goes double for those of you who are highly organized.

You can also file this under: “Learning From My Mistakes.”

I recently lost (beyond recovery) a whole bunch of important personal project files. See, since I’ve been into GTD I’ve been really organized, which is great — except when you accidently delete your “current-projects” folder which contains all those neatly organized files. I had thought it was backed up, but I was wrong. Well, not 100% wrong, but it hadn’t been backed up for quite awhile and I lost some important files and hours of work.