7 Not So Obvious Habits To Maximize Your Productivity I was a big fan of productivity, and, in some respects, I still am. I’ve been a very early adopter of GTD, and, for years, I did my weekly reviews with the discipline of a zen monk. But, eventually, I hit a roadblock. So, I confess I fell out from the GTD wagon. But enough with all this shameless self-promotion intro. So, instead of doing a presentation of the Assess – Decide – Do framework, I chose to isolate only 7 simple tips for today’s post. As a matter of fact, they’re even organized as such. 1. I firmly believe that the art of ignorance should be taught in schools. Especially on Mondays, when all the previous week unprocessed stuff seems to crash on us, try to apply this. Slash out Twitter, Facebook, email. 2. Each tiny task that you finish is an achievement. Tuesdays are great for this habit, because they’re the first link after the week hast started. As much as we won’t want to admit it, that Pavlov guy was right. 3. 4. This comes from a long history of programming. 5. 6. 7.
Is Starting A Business Safer Than Your Job? [Infographic] What's Better - Getting a Job or Starting a Business? With a slow economy, many people have turned to entrepreneurship as a means to pay the bills. Which begs the question, what’s better today — getting a job or starting a business? We dug deep to find out the numbers and have compared the risk of starting a business to keeping a job. If you’ve ever thought about starting your own company, take a look at our graphic below to help decide if entrepreneurship is right for you. What do you think? Small Business Loans Made Simple Create a Free Lendio Account Overview “Laid off? “True entrepreneurs reduce risk to the point that action becomes quite logical.” Unemployment Rate: 9.1% 26% of North American workers are self-employedIn 2008 on average 2,356 people went into business for themselves every day.Their ventures accounted for 78% of U.S. businesses SELF-EMPLOYMENT There are only four paths toward business ownership: Among the fastest-growing industries are: Reemployment figures: To reduce risk:
29 Ways to Collect Email Addresses for Your Business Looking for ways to grow your list of newsletter subscribers? There are a ton of ways to get people to sign up for your weekly or monthly email marketing campaigns. I’ve put together a list for you to read, so you have heaps of options for growing your list. Include a link to your newsletter sign up form in the main navigation bar of your website and/or blog. (Or better yet, include a sign up form in the main navigation bar).Create a “sign up” call to action on your Facebook business page.Create enticing visuals encouraging people to sign up for your list, and post them on social media channels (especially Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn).Attend or exhibit at a trade show or networking event and bring a newsletter email sign up clipboard or book. Bonus: Optimize your site for appropriate SEO keywords, and ensure your business is on appropriate online listings. Have any additional ideas? Need more ideas for your next email? Send your next email for free using VerticalResponse.
Thinking like a genius: overview Thinking and recall series Problem solving: creative solutions "Even if you're not a genius, you can use the same strategies as Aristotle and Einstein to harness the power of your creative mind and better manage your future." The following strategies encourage you to think productively, rather than reproductively, in order to arrive at solutions to problems. Nine approaches to creative problem solving: Rethink! Exercise #2 illustrates how famous thinkers used these approaches. Exercise #1: illustrates applications of the nine approaches. Text of exercise:Nine approaches to creative problem solving: Rethink! Thinking and recall series Concentrating | Radical thinking | Thinking aloud/private speech | Thinking critically | Thinking critically | Thinking creatively | Mapping explanation | Make your own map I | Make your own map II | Thinking like a genius: Creative solutions | Famous thinkers | Selected thoughts
The coffeeshop fallacy Lots of people think they want to start a coffeeshop. They likely don’t. That’s like buying a minimum wage job for two hundred grand. What they want is to be a customer and sit in a cafe, drink coffee, be nice to people, and possibly curate an art gallery. We’re good at recognising when we receive pleasure from consuming a certain good or service. But then we extrapolate incorrectly to the conclusion that owning said business will deliver even more pleasure. Max Levchin (paypal, slide) said something to the effect of: You you can’t be in love with a particular idea or business. It’s one of those quotes that has haunted me, in no small part because Max has been so successful in such a wide range of pursuits and because I both understand his reasoning and [somewhat] disagree with his conclusion. Here’s a working definition of the coffeeshop fallacy: The coffeeshop fallacy is a mismatch between the work one imagines to be involved in a pursuit and the actual day-to-day labour.
10 Biggest Entrepreneurs of 2011 Embed this infographic on your site! <a href=" src=" alt="10 Biggest Entrepreneurs of 2011" width="500" border="0" /></a><br />From: <a href=" Do a quick search for important entrepreneurs. Matt Mickiewicz, 99designs Co-Founder—27 Years Old Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowski, Dropbox Founders, 28 and 25 Years Old Founded 2007 Located in San Francisco 50 employees No official revenue released Lets users access and share files from nearly anywhere using a file sync cloud 3 months in, landed $7.2 million in funding from venture capitalists and individual investors The how-to video posted on Digg boosted beta waitlisting from 5,000 to 75,000 people in a few hours Available in English, Spanish, French, German and Japanese 25 million users 1 million files saved every 5 minutes Plans up to 100 GB of storage
The Dalai Lama’s 18 Rules For Living May 6, 2011 | 42 Comments » | Topics: Life, List At the start of the new millennium the Dalai Lama apparently issued eighteen rules for living. Since word travels slowly in the digital age these have only just reached me. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk. via OwenKelly Hot Stories From Around The Web Other Awesome Stories
Pricing Problems and The New York Times Digital Subscription - Peter Merholz by Peter Merholz | 10:20 AM March 28, 2011 When the The New York Times announced its digital subscription plan, which begins today, it was met with a fair bit of skepticism and confusion. If it fails to live up to expectations, it will probably be seen as yet another nail in journalism’s coffin. However, such a failure could be indicative of something much simpler — a lack of understanding of the role that pricing plays in customer experience. It’s not that The Times shouldn’t charge for its content — it has every right to earn money for its work. As in so many aspects of customer experience, it pays to look at what Apple does. Netflix won the video rental market in large part because of simplified pricing — you paid a certain amount per month, got a certain level of service, and that was it. Just as Netflix totally disrupted an existing industry with their pricing scheme, so has Southwest Airlines.
Kaizen - A Lean Manufacturing Technique Throughout this site you will find references and resource material about the kaizen strategy. Another form of lean manufacturing, kaizen endorses general overall improvement through gradual daily change and modification. What Is Kaizen? Kai is an idea of change or the action to correct — Zen means "good" "Kaizen is the means to achieve a corporate strategy, not the strategy." - Masaaki Imai Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy focused on making constant improvements. Having first been introduced in Masaaki Imai's 1986 book, Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success, the Kaizen philosophy has been adopted by countless businesses throughout the world. The Kaizen Facility The kaizen facility operates on the notion that every individual and his or her ideas are an asset to the company. An environment where mutual respect and positive recognition are fostered will prompt open communication.
Nine Things Successful People Do Differently - Heidi Grant Halvorson Learn more about the science of success with Heidi Grant Halvorson’s HBR Single, based on this blog post. Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren’t sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. 1. To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. 3. Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. The good news is, if you aren’t particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. 7. To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you’d honestly rather not do. 8. 9. If you want to change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along.
Best 101 Entrepreneurship Quotes Ever · 14 Clicks I’m a big fan of quotes. I could read them all day long. Some quotes can shift your entire mindset on something while others are just nice to bring up in conversations. I’ve spent the last two years (off and on) compiling 101 of my favorite entrepreneurship quotes around success, failure, leadership, wisdom, humor, money, practicality, motivation, and a smattering of entrepreneurial proverbs. Success Quotes Failure Quotes “Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners.” Leadership Quotes “Leaders don’t force people to follow, they invite them on a journey.” Wisdom Quotes “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” Humorous Quotes “I think it’s wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly.” Money Quotes “Formal education will make you a living. Practical Quotes
Part-time businesses Eco-friendly coffin start-up secures £50,000 Arts Council grant The Last Wish Company secures funding following participation in ‘Spark Up’ accelerator… Read more Twitter marketing start-up raises £150,000 through SETsquared pitch process Mercia Fund Management backs TorqBak following tech incubator investment showcase… Read more Public transport planner Citymapper raises $10m Balderton Capital leads Series A backing of popular app… Read more “No evidence” of RBS closing down small firms for profit, report finds Clifford Chance investigation follows allegations of fraud in November… Read more Diary of a start-up: Contracts, moving offices and a crowdfunding campaign In his latest diary instalment – the founder of Bikmo shares a month of firsts and seconds, including tips on saving cash with a DIY office fit and why crowdfunding offers more than just investment…
Was Darwin wrong about emotions? Public release date: 13-Dec-2011 [ Print | E-mail Share ] [ Close Window ] Contact: Divya Menondmenon@psychologicalscience.org 202-293-9300Association for Psychological Science Contrary to what many psychological scientists think, people do not all have the same set of biologically "basic" emotions, and those emotions are not automatically expressed on the faces of those around us, according to the author of a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. "What I decided to do in this paper is remind readers of the evidence that runs contrary to the view that certain emotions are biologically basic, so that people scowl only when they're angry or pout only when they're sad," says Lisa Feldman Barrett of Northeastern University, the author of the new paper. This debate isn't purely academic. For more information about this study, please contact: Lisa Feldman Barrett at l.barrett@neu.edu.