You don’t need to be a Geek to be Computer Savvy

Background

I come across two types of people it seems: Geeks, and non-Geeks. Somehow, in the past two decades, it has become to cool to be a Geek. Which is very strange. Because to define a non-Geek, I would typically say, “A cool person”. How can both be cool?

Well, not surprisingly, this has left the rest of America in the lurch, too. Here’s why this has become so damaging to middle-America.

Grocery Shopping Revisited

Several years ago, I designed a spreadsheet for grocery shopping in Microsoft Excel. The idea was that we would no longer forget certain things when we go shopping. With (now) six children, the human brain can only hold so much information. We’ve tried shopping in larger amounts and cooking in advance (known as freezer cooking), but for day-to-day life, when things get kind of hectic and we lose our ability to plan, we had to have a more consistent approach to fall back on.

Productivity Info

Here is a list of really cool resources on the net for increasing your efficiency and productivity. I refer to these resources frequently, so why hide where I’m getting some of my inspiration?

If I missed something really good, please comment below so others can find out about it, too.

These are all “high-level” productivity sources. By high level, I mean these are not just basic ideas about organization (e.g. “Make a list”). These are sources that suppose, at the outset, that you are not a clutter bug and have mastered basic organizational skills.

Productivity and Efficiency Sources

Joe’s Goals

I’ve been playing with Joe’s Goals for a few months. Joe seems like a pretty good guy who just got married on August 26. I don’t know if that was one of his goals or not, but he has definitely worked hard to make such a simple free goal tracking application. He is nearing 10,000 users. If you are needing a simple way to track some goals that you need to get done each day, I’d highly recommend considering Joe’s Goals. Unlike a lot of goal tracking software, Joe’s Goals is very simple, very Web 2.0, and very hip. A child could use it. Try it and see if it will help you to remember to get those daily chores done a bit more often.

Normal Day Productivity

Steve Pavlina has posted a very useful article on how to have a productive normal day. I’ve often thought what he expresses - that our culture is geared toward special events (i.e. graduations, holidays, birthday parties, weekends, etc). We seem to give little thought and planning to the present normal daily life.

We tend to let normal days just slip by, always looking forward to the next event. For me, it has been very difficult lately to have any sort of normal day since my son Obadiah died, so I found Steve’s article helpful.

7 Efficiency Tools for Small Businesses

If you aren’t using these seven tools, your business is run by fools. Okay, let me try that again. If you want to break some common sense rules, avoid these seven efficiency tools.

So I don’t have the poetic left-brain side up and running today. But, that isn’t why you read my articles. At least I hope you don’t. You could be in for some considerable disappointment. But, this list should be considered a must-have for a small business.

Is your Email Response Time an indication of you?

It is pretty easy to get an email address these days. Almost too easy. Yahoo, Google’s gmail service, and MSN all offer free email addresses. Almost everyone has one even if they use another one as their primary address. Recently, I’ve dealt with about a half-dozen people, both in my personal and professional lives, who seem to think email is just for receiving. They either let email pile up and respond at a later day, or more often, never respond at all.

Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Need a Website

Wrote an article for another site of mine that I thought I’d share here. Sometimes a small business owner will think, even in 2006, that he or she does not need a website - at all. Here are ten very good reasons why that is never the case - assuming the goal of the business is to prosper and succeed.

“Nowadays a company without a Web site is in loser territory-out of touch.” - John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine columnist, June 5, 2006.

Getting Things Done

I am a huge fan of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”. I’ve been an efficiency expert most of my life and highly adept at getting more done faster. Yet, until David came out with his book, most of the “organizing” books I’ve read (probably over 100) were all variations on a theme. David finally codified what I and others had been thinking for sometime but often unable to put into words.

The women’s “Recipe Exchange” halts productivity — again!

Found this email from an woman who worked at an ex-employer of mine. Exactly what I said previously, is it not?

For those who would like to participate in the recipe exchange and get some new recipes… please try to bring your recipe in tomorrow (Friday). You can bring them to me, and I will put them all together and pass out copies to everyone on Monday. If anyone forgets tomorrow, just bring it on Monday - that is OK too.

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