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News Home Archive Stepcase Lifehack</h3> <subtitle type="text">Daily digest and pointer on productivity, getting things done and lifehacks</subtitle> <updated>2008-06-19T13:42:21Z</updated> <generator uri="http://wordpress.org/" version="2.5.1">WordPress</generator> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.lifehack.org" /> <id>http://www.lifehack.org/feed/atom</id> <link rel="self" href="http://www.lifehack.org/feed/" type="application/atom+xml" /><feedburner:emailServiceId>71799</feedburner:emailServiceId><feedburner:feedburnerHostname>http://www.feedburner.com</feedburner:feedburnerHostname><feedburner:browserFriendly>This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.</feedburner:browserFriendly><entry> <author> <name>Joel Falconer</name> <uri>http://www.joelfalconer.com</uri> </author> <title type="html">4 Tech Tips to Keep Ahead of the Game for New Entrepreneurs</h3> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/LifeHack/~3/315511225/4-tech-tips-to-keep-ahead-of-the-game-for-new-entrepreneurs.html" /> <id>http://www.lifehack.org/?p=5767</id> <updated>2008-06-19T13:42:21Z</updated> <published>2008-06-19T13:30:17Z</published> <category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="Featured" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="Technology" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="business" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="entrepreneur" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="gps" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="information" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="rss" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="skype" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="u" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="virtual assistant" /> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/4-tech-tips-to-keep-ahead-of-the-game-for-new-entrepreneurs.html#comments" thr:count="3" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/4-tech-tips-to-keep-ahead-of-the-game-for-new-entrepreneurs.html/feed/atom" thr:count="3" /> <thr:total>3</thr:total> <content type="html"><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/wp-content/files/2008/06/signhere.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-5769" title="signhere" src="http://www.lifehack.org/wp-content/files/2008/06/signhere.jpg" alt="" width="380" height="285" /></a></p> <p>Thinking about starting a business or trying to make some cash out of the web? Technology can enable people and it can just as easily distract. We’ve got a few tips for you to consider to cut down on those distractions and costs and get more done, more efficiently and more effectively.</p> <p>These tips all center on one thing: technology, whether it involves a specific device or just the way you use tech, computers and the internet in general. Enjoy.</p> <h2>Save time with Skype</h2> <p>It’s becoming increasingly common advice: swap an expensive phone plan for a cheap - or free, if you do things right - Skype solution. And it’s true. You can save a whole heck of a lot of money thanks to Skype and solutions like it.</p> <p>But while most people are talking about the money you can save, I think there’s something better for entrepreneurs to get out of Skype. The combination of instant messaging and VoIP allows you to control your communication methods better than any old phone line. Can’t or don’t want to take a call? It’s certainly not worth breaking your concentration if you’re on a roll.</p> <p>With Skype you can divert incoming calls to instant messaging and deal with requests and questions at a time of your own choosing. Corresponding via text allows you to focus on a main task while you take their message. But for those who prefer to talk by voice, deferring the call is still a good idea.</p> <p>Most calls take a while to get to the point; time that, even if minute from a perspective of quantification, is taking your mind further from the tasks and issues that you need to deal with. Shifting the mental gears is a time-expensive task. Filtering calls through instant messaging means the pretext for the call has been set and you can get right to the point and back to work.</p> <p>I personally prefer to communicate via text because it’s swift and doesn’t use as much attention quota.</p> <h2>Install a GPS Unit</h2> <p>Install a GPS unit in your car or grab a PDA phone that has this handy technology built in. If you go the PDA route, make sure you get a mount for it installed in the car you’re most likely to use for business purposes. When you’re starting a business, you want - need - to deliver the best impression for potential, more established business partners. While <a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/punctuality-counts.html">being punctual</a> is just something that all people need to do no matter what their level of experience or degree of establishment is, you don’t have a reputation to precede you and need to go the extra mile to develop one.</p> <p>By using GPS you guarantee that you won’t get lost, late and end up irking the other party, or even having the meeting canceled. Any technology that enables you to <em>respect the time of others as fiercely as you defend your own</em> is a good one.</p> <h2>Get a Virtual Assistant</h2> <p>So hiring a VA isn’t really tech, but it has the word “virtual” in it, right? The topic of virtual assistants has crawled its way into this article because you can free up <em>hours</em> of your time that would’ve been spent at the computer beforehand.</p> <p>Depending on who you talk to, virtual assistants can be hired from as little as $5 an hour and you can have them take care of a whole range of things:</p> <ul> <li>Monitor your emails and only send you those that need personal attention. You should set up another email account such as assistant@yourname.com and direct correspondence there, rather than giving anyone access to your own account.</li> <li>Send standard form emails for you - fielding the same questions from customers, despite having a FAQ that covers them? You don’t need to cut and paste your standard “Have you checked our FAQ?” letter to them all when there’s a virtual assistant assigned to the task.</li> <li>Research topics you need to be informed on, write or speak about.</li> <li>Manage your calendar appointments and contacts, so that you don’t lose upwards of an hour each day just planning it.</li> </ul> <p>And there are about half a million other things you can delegate if you sit down and brainstorm the topic. This is the best investment you can make in technology - freeing up the time you have to spend with it (even if that just gives you more time to spend with it in less menial ways).</p> <h2>Create a News Filter</h2> <p>Keeping informed takes up huge chunks of time for some people. The most popular methods of dealing with information are the least efficient.</p> <p>The first thing you can do is see how much of the information you consume truly is important. For instance, let’s say that you’re the typical web-worker or online entrepreneur and you’ve subscribed to a whole bunch of feeds relevant to your field. You keep up with these feeds because if you don’t, you’ll miss something really important, but in between those occasional high-priority stories, how many are you consuming that aren’t important ‘just in case’ or ‘just because’ they’re there?</p> <p>Usually, the feeds you find necessary to subscribe to are simply those that are most popular and, via social proof, considered most important in your field. They may not be news-based at all. Or, they’re entirely news-based and thus conform to the 24-hour news cycle and deliver too much “news” that isn’t important and you don’t need to read about.</p> <p>After you come to this realization it’s easier to cut down on subscriptions to only those that are strongly relevant, don’t publish with great frequency and don’t miss important news. This may mean gathering a few that sometimes overlap, but that’s better than a total overdose.</p> <p>The more technically involved way of creating a news filter via feeds is to use <a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/">Yahoo! Pipes</a> or a similar service to craft conditional feeds that only deliver entries based on a certain set of conditions. The most basic use would be to take a popular news site that covers only the most important news in a variety of fields and filter by certain keywords to extract just one field, or even better, by author where you know that he or she specifically covers one topic’s big news.</p> <p>The way you filter news is up to, and limited by your imagination (okay, and the technology), but as long as you’ve got a system in place to weed out most of the filler, you’ve used technology to reclaim a whole bunch of time.</p> <p>And a bonus tip: make liberal use of off switches. When it’s not essential that you keep your phone or computer on, do it - keep the work-life boundaries clear. This is where so many entrepreneurs go wrong; they can’t see the forest for the trees and decimate their home and personal life in pursuit of riches.</p> <p>Good luck!</p> <hr/><em>Offering a unique perspective and insight on productivity based on his experience as a writer, musician, family man and manager, <a href="http://www.joelfalconer.com">Joel Falconer</a> has been published online and off, and brings to Lifehack's readers practical advice you can use to be more efficient and effective.</em></p><p class="akst_link"><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/?p=5767&akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." id="akst_link_5767" class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><h3>Related Posts</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/go-on-a-high-information-diet.html" title="Go on a High-Information Diet">Go on a High-Information Diet</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/simplifying-your-information-intake.html" title="Simplifying Your Information Intake">Simplifying Your Information Intake</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/my-struggles-with-email-triage.html" title="My Struggles With Email Triage">My Struggles With Email Triage</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/finding-more-entrepreneurs-and-fewer-jerks.html" title="Finding More Entrepreneurs . . . and Fewer Jerks">Finding More Entrepreneurs . . . and Fewer Jerks</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/book-review-small-business-answer-book.html" title="Book Review: Small Business Answer Book">Book Review: Small Business Answer Book</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/small-business-treasure-trove.html" title="Small Business Treasure Trove">Small Business Treasure Trove</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/entrepreneurial-help-and-advice.html" title="Entrepreneurial Help and Advice">Entrepreneurial Help and Advice</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/bulletproof-startups.html" title="Bulletproof Startups">Bulletproof Startups</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/work-like-a-pirate.html" title="Work Like a Pirate">Work Like a Pirate</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-to-write-in-a-thousand-words-or-less.html" title="How to Write (in a thousand words or less)">How to Write (in a thousand words or less)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/saving-time-on-routine-tasks-reading.html" title="Saving Time on Routine Tasks: Optimized Reading">Saving Time on Routine Tasks: Optimized Reading</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/management/six-great-ways-to-ruin-a-brainstorm.html" title="Six Great Ways to Ruin a Brainstorm">Six Great Ways to Ruin a Brainstorm</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/the-other-epidemic-of-obesity.html" title="The Other Epidemic Of Obesity">The Other Epidemic Of Obesity</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/do-you-read-too-many-blogs.html" title="Do You Read Too Many Blogs?">Do You Read Too Many Blogs?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/following-email-etiquette.html" title="Following Email Etiquette">Following Email Etiquette</a></li></ul> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/LifeHack?a=JhTU8H"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/LifeHack?i=JhTU8H" border="0"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?a=fy1iMi"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?i=fy1iMi" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?a=S8TjAi"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?i=S8TjAi" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?a=GgjO9I"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?i=GgjO9I" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?a=ac9ayi"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?i=ac9ayi" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?a=7vlKYI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?i=7vlKYI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?a=i4pC6I"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?i=i4pC6I" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?a=A6W67I"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/LifeHack?i=A6W67I" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/LifeHack/~4/315511225" height="1" width="1"/></content></entry> <entry> <author> <name>Craig Harper</name> <uri>http://www.craigharper.com.au/</uri> </author> <title type="html">A Shove with Love - A Kickstart to Change.</h3> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/LifeHack/~3/315511226/a-shove-with-love-a-kickstart-to-change.html" /> <id>http://www.lifehack.org/?p=5743</id> <updated>2008-06-16T10:49:31Z</updated> <published>2008-06-19T13:00:48Z</published> <category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="Communication" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="Lifestyle" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="change" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="habit" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="personal growth" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="personal-development" /><category scheme="http://www.lifehack.org" term="self-improvement" /> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/a-shove-with-love-a-kickstart-to-change.html#comments" thr:count="7" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/a-shove-with-love-a-kickstart-to-change.html/feed/atom" thr:count="7" /> <thr:total>7</thr:total> <content type="html"><h2>Stepping into reality</h2> <p>Thought we might be a little less theoretical and philosophical, and a bit more practical today. Always nice to get out of our head and into reality. We all have behaviours and habits that we need to change and from time to time we all need a little encouragement and support, possibly a vigorous shove, to get under way. So <span class="pullquote">I’m here today to give you a shove</span>. You can relax and feel safe in the knowledge that I am a fully qualified and vastly experienced <em>shover</em>. I have shoved many over my journey, including a few statues who have made the job pretty tough. I know that some of you are career procrastinators who have been about to address certain less-than-desirable habits forever; always at the brink of something life-changing but never quite there. And that some of you have even started (four hundred times) but never actually maintained.</p> <h2>The caring sledgehammer</h2> <img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5744" title="hardhat" src="http://www.lifehack.org/wp-content/files/2008/06/hardhat-262x380.jpg" alt="" width="262" height="380" />Knowing that many of you are perpetually waiting for the magical and mythical ‘right time’ (it doesn’t exist) and knowing that many of you struggle to create and maintain momentum, I thought that today I might give some of you a shove with love. You may even like it. I’ll be gentle. Gentle like a sledgehammer. A caring sledgehammer.</p> <p>Yep, I want you to identify one habit which you really need to change right now. Not soon, now. Not when it suits you, now. Not when you’re comfortable to do so, <em>now</em>. It can be <span style="text-decoration: underline;">any</span> behaviour which is impacting negatively in some area of your life. It might be about food or exercise, it could be alcohol or drug related, it could have something to do with how you treat yourself or others, it might pertain to work, home or somewhere else. It may have something to do with how you deal with or react to certain situations, circumstances, events or people. It might be about your lifestyle, your finances, your long-term goals or perhaps some other kind of destructive habit (lying, stealing, violence, self-abuse, obsessive behaviours). <strong>You know what you need to change.</strong></p> <p>We all want to move from the negative to the positive in our life, that’s why we come to this site. But there needs to come a time when we stop planning, talking and thinking and start doing. Thinking doesn’t create change, doing does. Some of you think too much and do too little. You know it.</p> <h2>One habit at a time</h2> <p>The reason I want you to identify one habit (only) for this 28-day project is because the more things we try to change in a short time, the less likely we are to maintain those behaviours (what we want) and create life-long results. <strong>By identifying our single most destructive habit and addressing that in a strategic, practical and un-emotional manner, we greatly increase our chances of success.</strong> People who try to undo years of bad behaviours and change fifty habits in a short amount of time invariably fail. So let’s do what works.</p> <img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5745" title="cigarette" src="http://www.lifehack.org/wp-content/files/2008/06/cigarette.jpg" alt="" width="347" height="346" />Of course 28 days isn’t a lifetime but it’s enough time for me (and the other readers) to help you generate some momentum, build some enthusiasm and hopefully start to create some new habits, behaviours and attitudes to get you where you want to go over the long term. Of course I can only get you started, and of course, ultimately it all comes back to you. But for some of you, this little project might just be a life-changing process - if YOU make it so.</p> <h2>How to get involved.</h2> <p>Click on the comment thingy and tell me (us) the following.</p> <ol> <li>The habit you’re going to address over the 28 days.</li> <li>Why it’s necessary for you to change that habit.</li> <li>Why it will be different this time.</li> </ol> <p>Keep it short(ish), we don’t need an essay - just the facts, Jack (or Jaclyn). If you are uncomfortable leaving your name then do it anonymously but keep in mind that public declarations can often be an effective way to create and maintain momentum. Name or not - it’s not crucial.</p> <p>Okay, stop over-thinking, get off the fence, click on the comment thingy and tell us what amazing things you’re gonna do over the next 28 days.</p> <p>Ciao Kids.</p> <hr/><em>Craig Harper (B.Ex.Sci.) is a qualified exercise scientist, author, columnist, radio presenter, television host, motivational speaker and university lecturer. For the past 25 years he has been a leading presenter, educator, motivator and commentator in the areas of personal and professional development. You can visit Craig's blog at <a href="http://www.craigharper.com.au/">Motivational Speaker</a>.</em></p><p class="akst_link"><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/?p=5743&akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." id="akst_link_5743" class="akst_share_link" rel="nofollow">Share This</a> </p><h3>Related Posts</h3><ul class="related_post"><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/fifty-habits-of-highly-successful-people.html" title="Fifty Habits of Highly Successful People">Fifty Habits of Highly Successful People</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/stop-trying-to-be-liked-and-start-being-you.html" title="Stop Trying to Be Liked and Start Being You">Stop Trying to Be Liked and Start Being You</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/are-you-a-comfort-junkie.html" title="Are You a Comfort Junkie?">Are You a Comfort Junkie?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/how-to-create-a-non-optional-mindset.html" title="How to Create a Non-Optional Mindset">How to Create a Non-Optional Mindset</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/the-day-i-met-lance-armstrong.html" title="The Day I Met Lance Armstrong">The Day I Met Lance Armstrong</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/big-blokes-in-skirts.html" title="Learning from Big Blokes in Skirts">Learning from Big Blokes in Skirts</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/personal-development-dog-style.html" title="Personal Development, Canine-Style">Personal Development, Canine-Style</a></li><li><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/show-me-the-money-or-maybe-not.html" title="Show Me the Money - 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Those who suffer from it crave the constant ‘highs’ they get from throwing themselves into work’s deadlines, problems and constant hustle and bustle. Even those near-impossible targets and deadlines can provide an adrenaline rush. Staring into the abyss of an empty order-book or hurling yourself headlong into the race to chalk up still more quarterly profits has something about it akin to extreme sports like bungee-jumping or free-fall parachuting.</b></p> <p>To many people, work seems so much more exciting than the rest of their life. Once hooked on the ceaseless crises and challenges, they can’t let go.</p> <h2>Going ‘cold turkey’</h2> <p>Nearly all addicts face withdrawal symptoms when they try to break free and workaholism is no exception. Recovering addicts are likely to feel unfocused, aimless, tense and irritable. They suffer anxiety (”I ought to be doing <b>something</b>“) and fear (”What’s going on that I don’t know about? Who’s plotting to mess me about some way?”). If they’re in the office, the temptation to fall ‘off the wagon’ and get back into their old ways can be overwhelming.</p> <p>That’s why a vacation is a good time to cope with post-workaholic stress disorder (PWSD). Aside from the initial period of cold turkey, the state of nervousness that hangs around is easier to deal with if you aren’t in a place where you can start checking up again. That’s why some high-end resorts now offer to lock away guests’ computers, CrackBerry’s, cellphones and PDAs so it’s almost impossible to slip back into staying in 24-hour contact “just in case.”</p> <h2>Designing a vacation to deal with PWSD</h2> <p>Taking the kind of vacation you’ve always taken — assuming you’re not such a hopeless workaholic that you can’t remember what that’s like — won’t do for this purpose. A PWSD cure needs careful planning in advance and some tough decisions to take your medicine and stick with it long enough to see results. You may need to enlist the help of your nearest and dearest along the way. They’ll probably be willing to assist since, in my experience, they are usually the ones whom you have made to suffer worst during your years as a workaholic.</p> <p>Here are the steps you will need: <ul> <li>Take a long enough vacation to allow the cure to work. Three weeks is ideal, two weeks is reasonable, 10 days is the minimum useful period.</li> <li>Go right away — a long way away — so you can’t be called back in anything but the most dire emergency.</li> <li>Contract with someone else (that nearest and dearest person would be ideal) to take charge of all means of contact with your office and deny you access. Tell them also to keep you away from telephones, Internet cafés, and any other ways of getting in touch with your place of work.</li> <li>Before you leave, tell everyone at work that you are going to a place so remote that contact will be impossible. Give an emergency contact number to only one person and threaten to erase all their hard drives and backups when you return if they give it to anyone else.</li> <li>During your vacation impose a total media blackout. No news, no papers, nothing. </li> <li> Select a vacation that includes plenty of activities. It’s best if these are either compulsory or you have paid for them in advance, so you’ll be unwilling to waste your money by not taking part. A beach holiday should be avoided at all costs. The abrupt transition between the continual, hectic activity at work and hours with nothing particular to do will be too much. I used to take group birding tours. You had to go along, because everyone expected it (and you rarely stayed two consecutive nights anywhere, so they couldn’t leave you behind) and you were out looking for birds from before dawn until the sun went down, every day.</li> <li>Act like a recovering alcoholic, for whom a single drink will start it all over again. Don’t check in with your workplace even once. That will send you right back to being addicted. The rule is not a single call, e-mail, or internet connection. <b>Not one</b>.</li> </ul> <p>Just in case you think this all sounds too extreme and “one little drink — I mean phone call — can’t hurt,” Air New Zealand found that staff who took a total-break vacation showed an 82% improvement in performance on their return. 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