productivity — GigaOM

productivity

We should be more attentive in setting our goals, determining what works in practice, and what only seems effective in theory. By looking at our goal-setting behavior together with the goals themselves, we’ll be more likely to accomplish more this year. Read More »

More our activities are making their way to the cloud, but what effect will that have on productivity? To anticipate the impact of a cloud-based remote workforce, look at the last time there was a revolution in the way workers connected: the rise of the Internet. Read More »

 
 

In my 6 month check-in documenting my move to Mac, I mentioned some of the general usability issues that I was still experiencing. My last post garnered a lot of comments in response, with some great tips from readers I thought I would share with you. Read More »

I’ve been working on site one day a week, and I’ve noticed something that differentiates the way I operate compared to my “in-office” colleagues: I see my time differently than they do. And, to be honest, I think it makes me more productive than they are. Read More »

Start Now to Reduce Holiday Stress

We’re right in the middle of the holiday season, when the stress starts to accumulate until it reaches a breaking point. Start taking steps today to make some positive changes that will help you manage our stress over the next two or three weeks. Read More »

The New World of Enterprise Collaboration

The convergence of cloud computing, more empowered employees and on-demand infrastructure is driving adoption of technologies — from workspaces like Box.net, Huddle and Cetnral Desktop to customer-powered support communities like Get Satisfaction — that foster high-impact collaboration and with that, innovation. Read More »

My favorite Mac clipboard management tool is Jumpcut, an open-source app that makes it easy to rapidly select previously copied items via the keyboard, but if you prefer a more visual, drag ‘n’ drop approach, you should check out Ayluro’s Corkboard. Read More »

I’ve been using a smartphone for around four years now, and I have a confession to make: I’m fairly sure that during that time, my cellphone usage has, if anything, become far less productive. But with apps, email and Internet access, how could that possibly be? Read More »

As things get busier and busier, it’s important to work on what counts within your business. If we’re smart, we do this early on, even before things get busy, but if you’re like me, you prefer learning things the hard way. Read More »

Looking to plan your budget for next year? Deciding where to spend is a tricky decision. If you’re a remote worker, or managing a remote team, then it could be even harder. What kind of investment will pay back the most in terms of productivity? Read More »

37signals co-founder Jason Fried recently published REWORK, a collection of essays on topics as diverse as progress, productivity, culture, evolution and hiring in modern business. Last month, Fried spoke at TEDxMidwest in Chicago, exploring some of the themes of REWORK in an intriguing fifteen minute talk: Read More »

“Action days” — days where you and some friends agree to check in with one another hourly to keep tabs on each others’ progress — are a great way to motivate yourself and keep yourself accountable. Here are some suggestions as to how you could use … Read More »

More Must Reads

Flu season is here, but web workers have an advantage: if you’re not meeting face-to-face, you’re a lot less likely to catch any viruses. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be infectious; passing along useful productivity practices is a great way to spread around greater efficiency. Read More »

The web-based presentation application SlideRocket has enhanced its tools for interactivity and collaboration. Users can now incorporate interactive elements — like real-time Twitter streams, widgets, commenting tools, polls and audio narration — into their presentations, in addition to traditional graphics and text. Read More »

ClearContext Personal, an add-in for for Outlook, wants to help make your inbox time more productive. It automatically files unimportant emails into categorized groups, taking it out of your inbox. It’s all done completely automatically, with no need to set up complex inbox rules. Read More »

A Harvard study reveals what you probably already suspected: a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The trouble is, our minds are very likely to stray from the task at hand unless we’re doing things that tend to require our undivided attention. Read More »

I hate spending time on email. But for those of us who do most of our work online, we can’t escape it. When was the last time you took a hard look at the emails you send to other people? Are your emails helping or hindering? … Read More »

The folks at Evernote have rolled out version 2.0 of the Android mobile client, a major update that lets premium users keep notebooks on the phone for access without network connectivity. Premium account holders can now download notebooks to the phone for access without the web. Read More »

The past few months have been filled with dilemmas; I’ve found myself struggling to find solutions to them on occasion. While figuring out how to move forward with something can be frustrating, there are a few strategies I’ve stumbled on to help me get unstuck. Read More »

After archiving a message in Gmail, you’re taken back to the inbox view. A new Labs feature, Auto-advance, modifies that behavior; it takes you straight to the next message. It should save some time when you’ve got a full inbox that you want to power through. Read More »

Smartphones are the perfect tool to use for both keeping on top of schedules and tracking things that must get done on time. Pocket Informant for Android is available in a public beta, and from a first look it might be the best PIM app. Read More »

If you’d like to work from home but your company doesn’t allow it, why not become the prime mover in a program to see if working from home can’t help boost productivity? It’s easier than ever to make the argument to the decision-makers in your organization. Read More »

Last week, I posted some tips for automating boring everyday tasks. However, I feel I should point out that automation’s like a nice wine: you can have too much of a good thing. Here’s a look at some of the things that I don’t automate. Read More »

It sounds great, right? Cut your email replies down to a couple of sentences and everything’s peachy: you’ll plow through that inbox super-fast and be able to get onto the work that you have to do a whole lot sooner. Productivity will soar! Or will it? Read More »

You probably find it hard to motivate yourself when you’re feeling under the weather. But even if you’re not sick, low levels of motivation may still be related to health. It turns out that how fit you are can have an effect on your productivity levels. Read More »

Lately, I’ve been taking a look at many of the tasks that I do on a regular basis and thinking about ways that I can automate them. There are many things that you can do to eliminate routine tasks that don’t require specialist knowledge. Read More »

It’s been about six months since I took the plunge and moved from PC to Mac. I thought it would be interesting to check in and see where I am now, how I am faring and what software I’m using. Read More »

Even if you’re good at getting things on track to stay productive and focused, that doesn’t keep distractions from sneaking their way into your days and wreaking havoc on your plans and intentions. Here are a few ways to help you safeguard your attention. Read More »

TinEye Reverse Image Search is a service that can search for similar images on the web. Give it a source URL and it’ll return where that image came from, if modified versions of the image exist or (usefully) if there is a higher resolution version available. Read More »

This week is World Space Week. While I’m not sure an article aimed at web working astronauts would have that big an audience, taking a look at an alternate meaning of the word “space” might. Your workspace isn’t the final frontier, but it’s important for productivity. Read More »

At the end of the day, we look at our to-do list list, but there’s one item that didn’t get completed, so we move it to tomorrow’s list, but tomorrow, the same thing happens, and it keeps happening. I call these items a “moving to-do list” Read More »

A good program launching application is something I’ll use constantly so having it available with a keystroke is critical. When I made the move to Mac, I immediately started looking for a good launcher, and eventually stumbled across Alfred, a free launcher that’s simple yet powerful. Read More »

If you leave a lot of comments on other people’s blogs, having to fill out your details each time can feel like a chore. easyComment is a Firefox extension that can save time by automatically filling out the required fields in the click of a button. Read More »

Multitasking is a bit of a misnomer, since our brains really aren’t capable of doing more than one thing at a time. We think we’re doing multiple things at once, but we are really just switching between several activities quickly. Read More »

Recently, I was talking with a client about how to manage multiple, large-scale projects simultaneously, and still make progress on each of them. While it’s not an easy task, I’ve stumbled on a compartmentalization strategy strategy that is helping me do just that. Read More »

For many of us, “inbox zero” is the unattainable holy grail of email organization and productivity. While getting to inbox zero through a period of concerted effort just takes a little time and feels quite rewarding, maintaining that empty inbox is difficult. Read More »

I would like to get the opinions of the corporate web workers in the WWD readership about the tools that you use. How do you find the equipment and software that are issued to you by your employer? Are they hindering your productivity? Read More »

In the past, I’d largely avoided the school of thought that sees the remote freelancer download every new task management/productivity/invoicing app that’s launched. However, my decision this year to leave my Luddite inclinations behind and embrace helpful tools really paid off. Read More »

How do you police your time online without using automated systems if you are your own supervisor? Even the most disciplined worker, faced with years of a relaxed work environment, will begin to waver. Here’s how to get back on track without sacrificing your soul. Read More »

Firefox-using “taboholics” may have been enjoying Tab Panorama, a feature introduced in Firefox 4b4 that enables users to arrange their tabs into groups. Chrome-using tab addicts may have been a little envious, but they now have Tab Sugar, an extension that replicates Tab Panorama in Chrome. Read More »

More efficient use of our RSS readers can have a big impact on our overall productivity. As Google Reader is one of the more widely-used RSS readers, I thought it would be a good idea to share some tips for getting the most out of it. Read More »

If your primary goal at conferences is to learn, then note-taking is essential. But how can you focus on note taking when you have other things on your mind such as networking and the other sessions you have to attend? Read More »

FilerFrog is a Windows utility that adds some useful tools to your context menu, handling tasks like moving files and image resizing. As it only adds one top-level item, it won’t clutter your context menu, but the tools are just a couple of clicks away. Read More »

Think about how many times you’ve answered a similar question over the past year. Those 15 minutes minutes start to add up really quickly when you multiply them out across dozens of requests. That’s where reducing, reusing and recycling your work can have huge productivity benefits. Read More »

Whether it’s establishing new rules or using employee monitoring software, businesses are always looking for new ways to get more “productive time” from their employees. Some companies ban access to Facebook or grab random screenshots of employee workstations. But do any of these measures actually work? Read More »

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