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Simple Productivity

The Dirty Little Secrets of Productivity BloggersAugust 24

“I trust so few that it is much easier to simply keep no secrets.” - Nathaniel Summers

Psst … hey, over here … I have a secret to tell you. Don’t tell anyone!

What I’m about to tell you is top secret. Please don’t let on that I told you, or I’ll be ostracized in the productivity blogging world. Promise?

I’ve been a productivity blogger for more than a year and a half now (related secret: I’m more of a simplicity blogger than productivity blogger, but don’t tell), and I’ve been keeping some secrets inside of me. But about six months ago, I began to realize that these secrets aren’t unique to me. In fact, I’ve been learning that every blogger in this field that I’ve talked to has the same secrets.

This is a generalization, of course, and there may be exceptions but: I think every blogger in my field has these secrets. Or at least some of them.

I’ll tell you what they are. Don’t judge us too harshly. We’re humans, like everyone else, with secret desires and fears and hopes and flaws. The same as you, in fact. And again, don’t tell I told.

1. We’re making it up. Yes, you heard that right. Some of what we write about we read other places, and tested it out, and found it worthy of passing on. Other stuff we just make up as we go along, and see if it works. Sometimes it doesn’t work, and we move on to something else. But here’s the thing: no one in the world has it al

Is Our Addiction to Saving Money Destroying the Real America?August 22

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Paul Michael, Senior Writer for Wise Bread.

As a young boy growing up in a gray, rainy seaside town in England, I had a fascination for America; maybe even a love affair. America was the land of opportunity, sure. But it was also vastly different and eccentric (in a good way) from state to state. So when I came to the U.S. around seven years ago, I was somewhat disappointed. The roads were lined as far as the eye could see with signs for fast food chains, corporate-ran hotels and big, bad gas companies. Where was the other America? Had she disappeared?

Clearly I’m not the only weird Brit who feels this way, because a documentary called “America Unchained,” based on the book of the same name, explores that very theme. It stars Dave Gorman, a fellow Englishman and a guy on a mission; to cross America, coast to coast, without giving one cent of his hard-earned money to “the man.” No stays in hotel chains. No money to the chain gas stations. It had to be independent, family-owned mom & pop shops all the way. So, how did he do?

At first, I thought the premise of the movie was simplistic and perhaps a little too easy. Surely it was possible to cross America without spending any cash at a corporate-owned store or establishment. About 30 minutes into the movie, I realized it wasn�

12 New Rules of Working You Should Embrace TodayAugust 20

The workplace, more and more, is changing, and with this change comes a whole new set of rules.

The traditional office work environment and tools are still around, but at a very rapid pace, they’re being supplanted by newer and better tools, newer and better ways of working. The old rules are being broken, and new ones are emerging.

You could call this the Workplace of the Future, as not all businesses have adopted these models, and it will be a few years before these new rules are the norm. But for many people (myself included), this is the Workplace of Today — there’s no need to wait for new technologies or tools, because they’re already here.

So you could wait a few years, resist the new trends, talk about how great things were back in your day … or you could embrace the new rules, and be a part of the change.

Transitioning from Electric Typewriters

I love my grandfather, a journalist of more than 50 years, but I always remember when the local newspaper (he’s the former managing editor) changed from typewriters to computer terminals and a mainframe. Instead of typing his columns with an electric typewriter, which he’d done for 25 years, my grandfather had to learn to type on a computer … and save it, and pull it up from a directory.

It proved to be a pretty difficult change for him, and while he can still crank out an amazing column with the best of them, the technology of newspapers passed him by.

It can

50 Amazing and Essential Novels to Enrich Your LibraryAugust 19

I recently ran into a couple of reading lists (I’ll share them at the end) and realized that I LOVE reading book recommendations. I can’t get enough of them.

So I decided to compile my own (somewhat eclectic) list of novels I think are amazing and essential to every library. I hope you enjoy it.

I should make some notes before diving in. First, this isn’t a comprehensive list of classics. It’s not a comprehensive list of anything. It’s one man’s reading list — a writer, a book lover, a lover and a dad, but one man nonetheless. There are a lot of great books left off the list.

Another note: there are actually many more books listed here than 50 — a number of those listed are actually series of books, in a couple cases series that include 20 or more books. I also recommend must-read books by an author if I really love them, so the total will be well over 100.

There are classics here, but there are cheap thrillers and popular fiction and even a few “kids” books. All I know is that I loved these books — no, I still love them — and I hope you will too.

If you could fill your library with only 50 books, you could do much worse than choose these 50. So what is this list? A list of some great reads.

Not in any order but just in the order they came to me:

25 Painless Ways to Free Up an Hour a Day for Your GoalsAugust 18

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” - Henry David Thoreau

What would you do if you had an extra hour a day?

This is a common barrier I run into when I write about making positive life changes: people don’t have time to pursue their dreams. People don’t have time to exercise. People don’t have time to get organized.

Well, it’s time to make time.

By using some combination of the following, you can free up an hour or more a day. Find the ones that work for you (not all will work for everyone), and then carve out that hour a day.

Then make sure you use that extra hour a day in the best way possible — book that hour on your calendar for something you really, really want to do, whether that’s work on a goal, write a book, start a business, exercise, read more, or whatever. Don’t squander this gift of time!

1. Make an appointment right after work. Whether it’s exercise or working on some other goal, make an appointment to do it right when you get out of work (at 5 p.m., for example). This works especially well if you have to meet someone else, such as a workout partner or other group or team or coach or partner. You’ll be sure to meet the appointment, which means you won’t stick around work too long, and you’ll be sure to finish all your tasks on time so you can leave on time. This makes you more efficient in the afternoon especially.
2. Wake up earlier. I�