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  Never Hire An MBA If you are responsible for hiring people, someone with a master’s of business administration might look like an attractive hire. While, “Never Hire An MBA” might be a bit extreme, I see a lot of people who overvalue an MBA.  Here are some reasons you should be wary or at least careful in hiring them. There [...]

  ~1 month on
  
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  100 Personal Outsourcing Ideas The idea behind personal outsourcing is to free up more of your time by delegating tasks that don’t require your personal touch to complete. I’ve heard of people outsourcing reading to their kids and even arguing with their spouse, but the whole point of personal outsourcing is to free up  time from unimportant tasks to [...]

  ~1 month on
  
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  Résumé Tweaking I have critiqued several resume’s for people over the past 5 years and I wanted to take a chance to write down some of the common issues I’ve seen. Be organized Your resume needs to show a high degree of organization.  You don’t want to have a junior college degree listed under an “extra curricular” section and [...]

  ~1 month on
  Mark W. Shead
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  The Role of Lighting Lighting plays a much greater part in our productivity than most people realize. There is quite a bit of research that supports the idea that productivity increases along with the amount of light in your workspace (at least up to a certain point).

  2 months on
  
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  Five Time-savers Five things that will save you time and give you more time to spend on things that are important to you.

  2 months on
  
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  Hover Mower I just ran across a device called a hovermower. It looks like it is basically a hovercraft push lawn mower. Instead of using wheels, it forces air down into the deck and this creates a cushion for it to ride on. It is an interesting idea. The market it as being ideal [...]

  2 months on
  Mark W. Shead
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  Paperless Office Stories Did you know that a single two-second distraction can cost you 15 minutes of your day? When your concentration is interrupted, it takes up to 15 minutes to get your focus back. Our ambient sounds help reduce the amount of noise distractions in your workplace. Take advantage of the current SALE.Advertise HereWe recently interviewed [...]

  2 months on
  
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  Übernote Review Did you know that a single two-second distraction can cost you 15 minutes of your day? When your concentration is interrupted, it takes up to 15 minutes to get your focus back. Our ambient sounds help reduce the amount of noise distractions in your workplace. Take advantage of the current SALE.Advertise HereWithin the past [...]

  2 months on
  
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  Borrow from your IRA Usually I write about stuff that I recommend doing. In this post I want to look at something that is possible, but not recommended under most circumstances. With hard economic times, there are a lot of people trying to find ways to borrow from their retirement funds. Many 401k accounts allow this, but what if your money is in an IRA? Can you borrow from your IRA? Technically, no. But there is a short term loophole that you can use if you have no other option. In this post we are going to explore the loophole.

  2 months on
  
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  Continual Self-Development One of the biggest reasons people don't reach their full potential is because they don't really understand continual improvement. Skills and capabilities aren't things that you achieve and then coast on for the rest of your life. You can't exercise for three months and then decide you are set for the rest of the year. Pretty much everything you want to improve will require at least a small amount of effort on a regular, ongoing basis.

  2 months on
  
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  Portal Now on OS X I don’t do a lot of gaming, but I have enjoyed playing Portal. It is game where you run around with a gun that can shoot a blue or orange doorway. You can walk through one doorway and come out the other. The game revolves around solving puzzles by using these doorways to [...]

  2 months on
  Mark W. Shead
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  Springpad Review Bookmarks, sticky notes, grocery lists, tasks . . . I feel like I just cluttered up that sentence. (Or sentence fragment, if you want to be technical). The web has become such a powerful tool that often its abilities outrun our ability to organize the massive amounts of information that we collect from it. If you're like me, you use your browser's system to create folders under "Bookmarks." However, this really isn't the most efficient way to categorize information that you want to reference with any kind of dexterity.

  2 months on
  
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  You Are Self Employed I was recently talking with a friend who said he'd be scared to try to own his own business because it seemed so insecure. I asked, "How is that any different than what you do working for someone else?" After a moments pause he admitted that it really wasn't. When it comes down to it, you work for yourself regardless of who is the owner of the company that cuts your check. It is your responsibility to market yourself, develop your skills, identify trends and position yourself to profit. Abdicating these responsibilities doesn't somehow put you into an "employee" category where you have more job security.

  2 months on
  
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  Circles, Amex, Passwords and Public Relations I got an interesting call last week. The vice president in charge of public relations from Circles gave me a call. Circles is the company that provides concierge services for American Express. A number of their current and former employees have commented here at Productivity501 and one revealed what Circles considered to be proprietary confidential password from their client American Express. The VP of PR asked that I remove the password. Me: I vaguely remember a comment that had some type of access code in it, but it just looked like a telephone number. Is that what you are talking about. Circles Public Relations: It has the same number of digits as a telephone number, but it is a password that shouldn't be public.

  2 months on
  
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  Are You Becoming An Idiot? Pop quiz! Are you becoming an idiot? Wouldn't you hate to wake up one day and suddenly realize, "Oh my! Over the past 10 years I've become an idiot!" It would be better to know now and take corrective action before you reach the point of no return. This is a ten question quiz to determine whether or not you are becoming an idiot.

  2 months on
  
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  Using an Assistant Having an assistant can be a bit of a double edged sword.  On one hand they can save you a lot of time.  On the other you will have to invest time into building a productive working relationship before they will really be able to help you at full capacity. If you are completely and totally [...]

  2 months on
  Mark W. Shead
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  Texas Stars This conversation occurred when we went for a walk in Texas: Katy: Are we still in Texas? Haley: Yes, why do you ask? Katy: I don’t see any stars.

  2 months on
  Mark W. Shead
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  Serverance Pay and FICA If you have received severance pay since 2006, you may be able to get some taxes back from your employer.

  2 months on
  Mark W. Shead
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  If I Get Fired… On a recent Sunday afternoon I was sitting on a bench at the local park watching my daughter on the playground equipment. I overheard an interesting conversation among another family. The adults were commenting on what their 8 year old boy wanted to be when he grew up.

  2 months on
  
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  Finished Master's Degree I've been working on a master's degree through Harvard's Extension School.  I've finally wrapped everything up, graduated and now have a framed diploma looking for a spot on the wall.If you are looking for a good place to get a degree while doing a lot of the coursework online, I would definitely checkout Harvard's Extension School.  The price is reasonable, the teachers are good and Harvard is one of the most well recognized universities in the world.The cost is significantly lower...

  2 months on Chimp
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  Productive Airplane Rides Today I heard an interesting statistic: One hour of work on an airplane is equal to three hours of work in the office. Wow! Sounds incredible doesn't it. If that is true then basically you'd get just as much done if you spend three hours every day on a plane and take the rest of the time off. Offices of highly paid workers would be better off if they would stop leasing expensive floorspace and just get everyone airline tickets everyday.

  2 months on