Posts Tagged ‘hacks’

Five Things to Pack for Travel

I’m on my way to Stockholm, Sweden to organize PodCamp Europe, and I’m a little anxious as I’ve never traveled outside of North America before. Within my country, I’ve put on thousands and thousands of miles over the last several months, and I’ve come to realize there’s a few things I want to take with me every time I head out for a trip. Here’s my plan: I’ll tell… » Continue

June 9 2007 | By Chris | Tagged: businesslife, hacks, lifehacks, Productivity, travel | 51 comments»

Make Voicemail a Production

This is the first in a series I’ll be posting. The goal: equip you to be a superhero.

You probably don’t think of it this way, but voicemail is a production. It’s a little radio show. It’s meant to convey information, and you must keep the audience (of one) in mind. Here are some thoughts on hacking voicemail into something useful that will improve the effectiveness of your messages.

Jot it… » Continue

May 30 2007 | By Chris | Tagged: Communication, hacks, howto, Lifehack, voicemail | 12 comments»

Fine Tune Twitter for Value

If you’ve been shunning Web 2.0 social apps for an entire year, I forgive you for not knowing about Twitter. Otherwise, where have you been? Twitter is a multi-mode message delivery system used most often to answer the question “What are you doing?” Only, the cool kids know that the answer to that question is far less useful than “What has your attention?”

But I’ve come up with something… » Continue

May 21 2007 | By Chris | Tagged: hacks, howto, search, software, twitter | 6 comments»

Smallest Presentation Hack Ever

Ready? Here you go:

Don’t. Read. Your. Dumb. Slides.

Long version:

I’m at a pitchfest of an event, and people have come up one after another doing this basic performance over and over again:

“Hello, my name is _____. I’m the CEO and founder of ShinyNewSite.tv. At ShinyNewSite.tv, we believe in maximizing your efficiency through enhancing your brand and building your… Our mission is…”

What? Hello? Where am I? Oh wait. I… » Continue

May 3 2007 | By Chris | Tagged: Communication, conversation, hacks, Lifehack, powerpoint, presentation | 24 comments»

Things to Do on the Plane After a Business Trip

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

» Continue

October 10 2006 | By Chris | Tagged: business, hacks, howto, tips, travel | 12 comments»

Micro Hack: Clean up Gmail Even 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… » Continue

September 25 2006 | By Chris | Tagged: gmail, google, hacks, mail, tips | 7 comments»

7 Lightweight Contact Management Tips

I’m using Gmail’s built-in contact application to run my contact management. (By the way, did you see that you can use Gmail and Calendar and Chat on your own site now, configured for your own domain?) Though there are some things I can’t use Google to do easily (mail merge types of things), there are lots of ways that I use the Contact portion of the application that might… » Continue

September 6 2006 | By Chris | Tagged: Communication, contact, contactmanagement, gmail, hacks, howto, tips | 6 comments»

Experience Building

The difference between Starbucks and McDonalds from a coffee perspective is what? The experience. Starbucks wants almost $4 for a cup of coffee near me, and McDonalds wants $2. Starbucks wants $6 an hour for wifi, and McDonalds wants $2. It’s far more cost effective for a road warrior to sit in a McDonalds doing their internet chores.

But would you tell a client you’re sitting in a McDonalds? Would… » Continue

August 31 2006 | By Chris | Tagged: events, experience, hacks, howto, Management, meetings, planning, social+engineering | 7 comments»

Post Conference Follow-Up Hacks

I’m coFounder and Organizer of PodCamp, which is coming up in a week or two, and I just got an email from a fellow podcaster asking me about how I’ll be planning to manage the influx of business cards, ideas, and conversations/follow-up this kind of an event will bring with it. I thought this might prove useful to anyone attending conferences or events in the coming months (as… » Continue

August 29 2006 | By Chris | Tagged: conference, conferences, hacks, howto, networking, tips | 8 comments»

Greatest Tools #5: Zip Ties

Number 5 on the Greatest Tools of All Time List is the Plastic Zip Tie.

This magnificent invention can turn a quagmire of electronics cables into a beautiful braid of streaming efficiency.

Here are 10 of its greatest uses.

Auto wiring. With a few of these beauties you can quickly tame the most unruly of sound systems. On the other hand, you should subtract $200 for every

» Continue

August 24 2006 | By Reginald | Tagged: hacks, tips | 6 comments»

Fitness from Everyday Systems

Reinhard Engels is a superhero. I first learned about him through his Shovelglove workout (which I think I first saw on Lifehacker.com). But Reinhard doesn’t just stop with a great exercise using a sledgehammer covered with a sweater (I’m not kidding). Instead, Reinhard has gone on to develop solutions to pretty much all of his problems with various health issues resulting from personal choices.

Here’s the easy to follow… » Continue

August 23 2006 | By Chris | Tagged: DIY, fitness, hacks, health, howto, nutrition, reinhard+engels, shovelglove, systems | 5 comments»

Podcasting Recording Hacks

Okay, I’m really really into podcasting. Why? Because I think they have some uses that blogs can’t cover. Portability being chief among these. Basically, it’s another way to have a conversation with an audience. If you’re a marketer, this is almost a no-brainer. If you’re a geekhead, this is a way to share knowledge and information in a group setting, without requiring even more reading.

Sometimes, you want to read… » Continue

August 10 2006 | By Chris | Tagged: hacks, howto, podcasting | 4 comments»

Assemble the Life Hacking Community

Mark and Aaron are runners who blog, or bloggers who run. Together, they built CompleteRunning.com, which is a website for runners. In an of itself, it’s a good site, but here’s what makes their work really cool.

They’ve assembled a community called the Running Blog Family, which is made up of almost 900! runners blogging about their passion, what they’re learning, and more. 900 individual voices all sharing the… » Continue

August 4 2006 | By Chris | Tagged: 43folders, hacks, Lifehack, lifehacker, listible, more | 8 comments»

Money Advice and Banking Tips

Dumb Little Man has a really well thought-out and laid-out piece about how he handles banking. He says it’s not necessarily the “best” way to bank, but it’s his way. Of note in his system:

3 Bank Accounts- one for direct deposit, one each for his and his wife’s expenses.
2 Back-up/Emergency fund vehicles - a money market and a CD.
Investments via matches.
Business Accounts.
Bill Paying via Quicken.
College Funds.

I like… » Continue

July 19 2006 | By Chris | Tagged: finance, hacks, howto, Lifestyle, Money | 13 comments»

Grocery Shopping for Smart People

David Cheong has a great hack for grocery shopping. He’s reasoned that a map of the store is the best solution to all the time and annoyance of grocery shopping. Here’s how it works: