Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category

10 More Tips for International Travelers

A couple of days ago I listed 10 of the tools I find essential whenever I travel, along with a bunch of related tips. Today, I have more tips, this time disconnected from any particular tool or gadget.

Because most of the traveling I’ve done as an adult has consisted of longish trips overseas, these tips are going to tend to be more useful for Americans traveling abroad… » Continue

May 9 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: connecting, culture, currency, custom, tip, transportation, travel | 24 comments»

6 Mother’s Day Gift Tips for the Productive Lady in Your Life

The problem with picking a gift based purely on productivity is that most people like gifts that they won’t buy for themselves: people want something fun, something special — and your mother is no exception. And Mother’s Day is almost here: it falls on the on the second Sunday of May, which just happens to be this weekend. We each have only a few days to make sure that… » Continue

May 8 2008 | By Thursday | Tagged: family, gift, mother, mother's day, present | 3 comments»

10 Essential Tools for Practical Travelers

I grew up traveling. My dad was a manufacturer’s representative in home furnishings, which meant he did a tour of all the furniture stores in the Midwest every few months. In the summers, we went with him, exploring the tiniest of Midwestern towns while he showed the fall line in some Main Street furniture store.

After college, I headed to London. When my 6-month work visa expired, I traveled Europe… » Continue

May 7 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: backpack, cheap, clothing, gear, tip, tool, travel | 29 comments»

Find & Replace Limiting Beliefs, Part 2: Replace Old Ideas

It’s time to weed out the limiting beliefs that you discovered in part one. This is a hell of a lot harder to do than simply discovering them, but on the bright side, the instructions are simpler—this one really just requires willpower and discipline. So, it’s technically easier, but practically harder.

When you ask yourself why you’re putting so much time and energy and discipline into this, remember the benefit… » Continue

May 7 2008 | By Joel | Tagged: beliefs, introspection, personal-development | 2 comments»

Helping the Family to Get Things Done

Ever had a conversation with your brother about how he feels like he never seems to get anything done beyond checking his email? Or talked to your mother about her difficulties finishing a project?

Have you ever tried to help them set up a system — make their lives a little simpler or a little more productive? And had that attempt blow up in your face?

My experiences with helping my family… » Continue

May 6 2008 | By Thursday | Tagged: family, help, Productivity | 11 comments»

The Tao of Travel

Against all odds, I became a world traveler in my 25th year.

It began, as all things inevitably do, with a girl. I thought it was ever-lasting love. She was setting out for a year abroad — a summer in Germany, then an academic year in England. I decided, halfway through our summer apart, that I’d join her in England.

Ah, youth.

The relationship didn’t even last until… » Continue

May 5 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: adventure, experience, travel | 14 comments»

Find & Replace Limiting Beliefs, Part 1: Search Techniques

Are you guilty of failing at your goals time and time again, only to ask “what’s wrong with the world?” and keep on trying to succeed with the same strategies and tactics?

It may be time for an introspective examination of yourself. When success is hard to find, it’s not always the world that’s playing hide and seek. Sometimes, the problem is within our noggins, and we’re preventing ourselves from getting… » Continue

May 5 2008 | By Joel | Tagged: beliefs, observation, reality, worldview | 7 comments»

Tracking My Mileage Without Losing My Mind

I learned to track mileage from my mother, who, to this day, writes down her mileage and location every time she parks the car on the back of her most recent gas receipt. It gets the job done, but it seems like she has to devote a lot of time to the process, from the actual time spent writing down information to processing it later on. » Continue

May 1 2008 | By Thursday | Tagged: expense, mileage, tax deduction, travel | 6 comments»

Read This Now! Stop Procrastinating and Get Stuff Done — or Else!

OK, I’m done with procrastinating. I’m done with the guilt, anxiety, stress — and, of course, the not getting stuff done. I’m tired of answering “what’d you do today” with “nothing…”. Of course, it’s a lie — I did do something, just not anything important. Not anything that made me feel happier, more complete, or more relaxed. What I did today was spend 8 hours kicking myself, putting myself down… » Continue

April 30 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: getting_started, motivation, procrastination, reward, timer | 17 comments»

Invoicing Web 2.0 Style: A Quick Guide to Your Options

Invoicing is a part of every self-employed or freelancing individual’s life. Many of us are still using clunky old Word templates and those strange antiques known as printers—but why go to all the hassle, when there are so many web applications that offer reliable and efficient alternatives?

Digital invoices eliminate so much time and hassle that it’s unbelievable. Eliminating the need to go to the post box and send off an… » Continue

April 30 2008 | By Joel | Tagged: freelancing, invoicing, Money, organization, Productivity | 15 comments»

7 Reasons to Borrow Grandma’s Egg Timer

If you’ve been looking for the edge in getting your task list done, you should consider investing in a timer. Picking up a timer stands out as the one thing I’ve done that significantly increased my productivity.
What’s so great about a piece of plastic with a couple of wires on the inside? After all, something that you can pick up at the dollar store can’t be a huge influence on… » Continue

April 29 2008 | By Thursday | Tagged: Productivity, scheduling, task, timer | 12 comments»

How to Ruthlessly Reclaim Work Day Time

When you’re starting a small business or working from home as a freelancer, you need to make every minute of time count; it’s a race against the clock to break even before your new endeavor uses up your savings and breaks you.

But there are always a million and one things that interfere with and take over your day. Your to-do list of twenty items that you intended to tackle by… » Continue

April 28 2008 | By Joel | Tagged: email, feedreader, freelancing, home office, housework, phone, Technology | 20 comments»

Fight Downhill Battles: Let Laziness and Inertia Make You More Productive

Did you know that you can cancel a magazine subscription at any time? Return unwanted Book-of-the-Month Club selections? Cancel unused credit cards? Put an end to unwanted junk mail?

You probably did know that, and yet you still receive magazines you don’t read anymore, have a stack of books or CDs from membership clubs that you’ve never even opened, pay yearly fees on credit cards you neither use nor want, and… » Continue

April 28 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: habit, inertia, laziness, Productivity | 8 comments»

Stepcase Lifehack - Rebranding with New Design

I founded Lifehack.org in May, 2005, as a place to share the little tips and tricks, or “hacks” — that I and others had discovered to make their work flow a little more smoothly, a little more quickly, and little higher quality.

By 2007, Lifehack.org had grown far beyond my original vision with just sharing what I learned. I began expanding the scope of the site by adding new contributors. Lifehack.org… » Continue

April 28 2008 | By Leon | Tagged: branding, design, Lifehack, news, stepcase | 24 comments»

10 Tips for Would-Be Podcasters

I started podcasting four months ago when I launched the first episode of Lifehack Live as part of Lifehack.org’s podcast series. Although I’d been listening to podcasts for a couple of years already, and had some experience behind the deck in a recording studio (granted, it was 14 years ago), I really had no idea how to produce a podcast that people would want to listen to. (Some… » Continue

April 25 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: podcasting, recording, scheduling, tip | 11 comments»

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