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Rebooting the workforce

Debunking Productivity MythsOctober 7

There are so many available tools and resources on productivity that it’s bound to make one crazy. I confess that I was one of those productivity addicts who subscribed to all the GTD and lifehacking blogs out there, downloaded all the tools I could find, and signed up for every new Web 2.0 service. I lived almost a year of my life doing that, and it’s a wonder that I didn’t get a heart attack.

If you haven’t found satisfaction with any of the productivity tricks you’ve tried, it’s possible that you’re mistaking some of the myths for facts. These myths could come from something you’ve read, or they could be your own preconceived notions. To get productive, you need to get rid of these myths.

What are they and how do you debunk them?

There is one system to rule them all.

Once you get into David Allen’s Getting Things Done, or other similar productivity systems, it doesn’t mean you have to stick to its rules permanently. There is no perfect system that’s already pre-made for you. You need a bit of time, as well as trial and error, to find something that works.

Organized = Neat

If your office is neat, does it mean that it’s organized? If your office looks messy, should you clean it up? Before we start criticizing ourselves for not being neat enough, we need to get our semantics straight.

Neatness or c

The Co-Working Revolution: Your Office Away From HomeOctober 6

There’s nothing like being able to work from home. But even what so many people strive for can end up being less than ideal. I enjoy the freedom I have to work on my own schedule, however, working from home doesn’t mean you always get more time to do your work. I also find that working from home instead of in an office setting can be isolating. I am not within earshot of peers who I can bounce ideas off of or hear the latest industry developments firsthand.

I’ve been fascinated by businesses popping up around major metropolitan areas that create a shared workspace for independent workers. Imran Ali wrote about the trend of co-working spaces back in April, and I’ll be exploring the trend further as I look to set up a co-working space in my town.

Office Nomads in the Seattle area, for example, is a co-working space where workers can leave their homes to work in a shared environment. The company provides:

Spacious desks
High-speed internet access, both wifi and ethernet
Conference rooms
A kitchen
Unlimited network printing and faxing
Couches and lounging area
The requisite water cooler

They are also dog-friendly.

They target everyone from web designers, writers, consultants and anyone else who has portable work. Pricing ranges from $25 per day

How to Use IM Without Ruining Your ProductivityOctober 6

In a previous post about communication tools, WWD reader Melanie made an accurate observation that having an instant messaging client open while you’re working is like having the phone ring constantly. Despite this, IM is useful for instantaneous back-and-forth exchanges with clients.

How can we reconcile its usefulness as a communication tool with the fact that it can be downright annoying?

Using one interface

Having MSN messenger, Yahoo!Messenger, and GTalk open all at the same time can be a bit confusing, or even a complete eyesore (as you can see from the image below). If you don’t like having too many windows open, you’ll benefit from having just one interface for all your IM accounts. Programs such as Trillian, Pidgin, and Miranda accomplish this simply. The one-interface approach can also make archiving conversations much easier.

Tweak

1Password + Dropbox = Password SyncSeptember 29

We always like a good utility here at WWD. But we like it even better when two of our favorite utilities start working well together. That’s the case with 1Password and Dropbox: if you’re storing your passwords (and other confidential information) in 1Password, you can now use Dropbox to keep those passwords synchronized across multiple computers. Here’s how.

The first thing you need to do is install 1Password on all the computers where you want to keep the same passwords. (Yes, this only applies to OS X users at the moment - though it seems that you can at least view the password file contents on a Windows box

10 Everyday Ways to Use Twitter for WorkSeptember 29

I said it once, and I’ll say it again. I love Twitter. WWD has been talking about using Twitter as a professional tool for quite some now.

I use Twitter daily and often, almost always from my laptop on the Web, occasionally from Twhirl if I want to post to one of my 5 accounts other than my main one, sometimes from my mobile phone and once in a while from my iPod.

Twitter is my watercooler as I work solo from home (or a local cafe) in Alaska. It is my finger on the pulse of social media and things happening in the Lower 48. It is my way of touching base with friends, acquaintances and people who I’d like to get to know better.

Looking at my Twitter account over the last few weeks, I also saw distinct ways I used Twitter in my work proving once and for all that Twitter is not just chatter but a useful business tool.

Here are some ways I recently used Twitter for my work:

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