42 Shares It’s astounding to me how many opportunities we miss to make communication easier. And by communication, in this case, I’m talkin g about applications ranging from simple hi-how-do-you-do interactions to business deals getting done, or NOT getting done as it relates to communication. I’ve found that lots of times, it’s a problem of omissions and assumptions. Here are some situations, a common way people handle them, and then a way or ways to hack them into better interactions. —- Situation: Meeting someone for the second time. Common Interaction: “Hi, how are you... More »
Here are some things I’ve learned while traveling. They’re just little tidbits that might make your days go smoother: On your cell phone, rename your significant other’s contact listing to read – Firstname, Lastname-CallForEmergency (so that they know who to call if someone finds you injured). Take 10 or so feet of duct tape with you in your travel kit, wrapped upon itself in a nice, compact fold that looks like a wallet. Use it for lots of things (closing pesky hotel curtains, lint brush, cup holders for airplane seatbacks). While on... More »
Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee. They create an experience with an environment, complete with accessories, lifestyle choices, and culture. Home Depot isn’t a hardware store. It’s a solution to your improvement projects, a trusted resource for your redecorating needs, and a supplier for your new home. There are dozens more cases that come right to mind. If you twist my arm, I’ll list many more. But the point I’m illustrating is this: if you look beyond the basic element of what it is you do, you’ll find a larger playing field, with more... More »
So I’m traveling a lot, and I realize that I’m carrying with me a million cords and cables. I have power cords for my cell phone, my video camera, my digital camera, my laptop. I have data cables for my microphone, my camera, my camcorder, my iPod, and I’m sure I’m missing something. Oh… two more power cords, and 1 more data cord. Grand total: 11 cables or cords are traveling in my little EMS backpack (I forget the model, but it’s smallish, black, and has lots of great pouches). How do... More »
I’ve been mental busy lately (sorry for not writing so often on Lifehack. I’m working on that). My inbox has shot from around 50 new mails a day to 250. Of these, about 200 require that I read fully, and/or take action. The others might be groups I’m not fully giving my attention, alerts and reminders from Google Calendar that I ignore at my peril. In those 200 emails, I’ve learned something very important: I respond well when the information is “shaped” to be easy for me to read and use. Press... More »
I’ve been traveling a bunch more with the new job, and I’ve realized that a plane ride is quite a chunk of time where you can’t conduct NEW business. Instead, you get an opportunity to catch up on things that need doing. Here are a few things I did and felt could get done on a plane: Enter in business cards to my contact manager- I like doing it by hand for tactile memory, and so I can enter notes. (Besides, podcasters use really colorful cards). Fill out expense reports- You’ve got... More »
Gretchen Rubin brings us a necessary list of tips to help us deal with those moments in life when our children decide they’ve had all they can stand, and they can’t stand any more. The secret is to acknowledge the reality of children’s wishes. This sounds obvious, but think about how easy it is to deny their feelings: “You can’t possibly want another Lego set, you never play with the ones you have.” “That toy is just junk.” “You can’t be hungry, you just had dinner.” “Of course you want to go,... More »
In my new role, I’ll be attending and hosting lots of conferences and meetups. This means traveling probably as much as twice a month to other places, and that means lugging all the stuff a technological nomad needs to take along to stay viable. Here’s a list that I’m compiling that contains some obvious and maybe not-so-obvious pre-plans. Pre-Conference Travel Checklist Clothes. This is a given to TAKE clothes, but be sure to have a mix of multi-use, casual-to-faux-formal clothes. Take fitness clothes, if you can, too. Toiletries. The US has just... More »
I never realized this little trick about Google’s Gmail, so I thought I’d pass it on to you, just in case. If you want to keep something in Gmail, but don’t need it right away, use the ARCHIVE button. This pulls it out of the inbox view, and keeps your inbox cleaner. I have lots of email that I have to keep for reference at this point, mostly about conversations covering this, that, or the other. But this was making my inbox a total mess, and I couldn’t manage quick responses to... More »
Gretchen Rubin is back with her Wednesday helpful idea. This time, it’s a quiz to see if your workspace is driving you nuts. Based on her readings from within the book, A PATTERN LANGUAGE, Gretchen identifies a bunch of things that will ensure you have a workspace that you consider peaceful. Here are a few: there’s a wall behind you (so no one can sneak up behind you). there’s a wall to one side (too much openness makes you feel exposed). there’s no blank wall within 8 feet in front of you... More »
Over the past several days, I’ve had the opportunity to meet several people, from presidents of corporations, to really important people like teachers of children with learning disabilities. I’ve had the opportunity to hear about a lot of businesses, and have received a lot of interesting offers in the mix. But what was really fun was helping people connect with other people. I got the chance to do that a lot. For instance, my friend Brian Conley runs a show called Alive in Baghdad, a video production where he took his own... More »
I’ve been away from Lifehack for a while, first running an unconference, then attending a conference, and I’ll be away a few days more to attend a funeral. Over these past several days, I’ve needed a way to stay organized, a simple, flexible way to get everything that needed doing handled without much effort, and with as much effectiveness as I could muster. This is all very related to David Allen’s Getting Things Done, but just my lightweight spin. Here’s what I did. Carry 3×5 cards and a pen- At all times,... More »
I left my house for work this morning, knowing that I’m going to go from the office into a whole other world: PodCamp. So, I had to have everything read, because I wasn’t coming home. I said to myself, fleetingly, I should write a checklist. I didn’t. So far, here’s what I forgot: Videocamera recharger – cost for batteries $20 minimum. USB for iPod (recharger)- cost for recharger at Apple store $30. I’m already down $50 and I haven’t bought anyone a beer yet. Checklists Have Value So, I’ve been writing about... More »
I don’t know. I’m staring at Gretchen Rubin’s picture, and I swear, she doesn’t look to be much over 26 years old. So how, then, do you explain this? Gretchen has tips on how to be happy that were written — wait for it — in 1625. So either: a.) Gretchen uses some VERY powerful health remedies, or b.) she dug up something really great to share with us from her Happiness Project. I’m leaning towards A, but I’ve been wrong before. Here’s a couple of quotes from a manuscript written by... More »
I’m writing this using Performancing for Firefox. When I remember to use it, I like the app a great deal. It sits down at the bottom of my browser (I use it fairly crunched up), and I can write posts to various blogs with it. But here’s something I use it for that you might not: Thought Parking Lot I’ve got a few things stored in here using the NOTES functionality tucked over in the upper right hand corner. For one, I just imported the Gmail commands. Because I couldn’t remember them,... More »
