The Only Way To Get Important Things Done

"At the Energy Project, we help our clients develop something we call rituals -- highly specific behaviors, done at precise times, so they eventually become automatic and no longer require conscious will or discipline.

The proper role for your pre-frontal cortex is to decide what behavior you want to change, design the ritual you'll undertake, and then get out of the way. "It is a profoundly erroneous truism that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing," the philosopher A.N. Whitehead explained back in 1911. "The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.""

http://www.fastcompany.com/1755251/the-only-way-to-get-important-things-done

How to organize a retreat

"Never (never) have people go around a circle and say their name and what they do and their favorite kind of vegetable or whatever. The problem? People spend the whole time trying to think of what to say, not listening to those in front of them (I once had to witness 600 people do this!!)

Instead, a week ahead of time, give each person an assignment for a presentation at the event. It might be the answer to a question like, "what are you working on," or "what's bothering you," or "what can you teach us." Each person gets 300 seconds, that's it."

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/12/how-to-organize-a-retreat.html

Rypple - Rypple is a real-time way to accelerate team performance.

"Rypple is a social performance platform built for teams to share goals, recognize great work, and help each other improve. With Rypple, performance management becomes painless and effective. "

http://rypple.com/

MakeSomeTime

"MakeSomeTime helps you keep track of your time & invoices like a pro."

http://www.makesometime.com/

If Buddha Was CEO: The Four Immeasurables in Business

"In the context of the four immeasurables and business, this is really about looking at everyone as being your equal, without attachment to relative position or worth. It also means inviting the possibility that every person at every position is your teacher. And that can be tough, especially for those who perceive themselves as experts, thought leaders and success-stories.

What could a janitor teach a Nobel physicist? What could a short-order cook teach a global CEO? What could a child in the playground teach a world class athlete? What value could these people be to each other?"

http://www.jonathanfields.com/blog/business-strategy-elevation

How to Be Productive: Stop Working

"Also: we need to hammer the last nail into the coffin of multi-tasking. No, you can’t safely drive and hold conference calls, nor can you text while driving. And checking emails while in meetings means you may as well not be there. What modern businesses need isn’t distracted Blackberry addicts but human beings who haven’t forgotten the gifts of focus, concentration and mindfulness."

http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-strategy/how-to-be-productive-stop-working/378

How to kill innovation, in five easy steps

"Innovation is the life blood of most organizations in the 21st century, but most of them regularly do things to snuff out innovation wherever it rears its head. Here are five of the main culprits."

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/how-to-kill-innovation-in-five-easy-steps/8348

30 Creative QR code business cards

"A quick response (QR) code is a two dimensional code that can be scanned and read by smartphone cameras to transfer information. The information can then be encoded to text, add a vCard contact, open a URL or much more.

So, by placing them on a business card, you can digitally pass on your contact details, direct people to a website, send them to a Flickr photo set or Facebook fan page or offer a special discount etc.

Hopefully the examples below will help to inspire you on how QR codes can be incorporated creatively in your designs. Or at least, provided a few interesting ways that they can be used to connect offline and online media."

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/07/30-creative-qr-code-business-cards/

Activity Logs - Finding Out How You Really Spend Your Time

"How long do you spend each day on unimportant things – things that don't really contribute to your success at work? Do you KNOW how much time you've spent reading junk mail, talking to colleagues, making coffee and eating lunch? And how often have you thought, "I could achieve so much more if I just had another half hour each day."

And are you aware of when in the day you check your e-mail, write important articles or do your long-term planning? "

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_03.htm

Why Powerful Men Let Lust Ruin Their Careers

"Ven der putz shteht, ligt der sechel in drerd, which means “When the prick stands up, the brains get buried in the ground.” "

http://www.bnet.com/article/why-powerful-men-let-lust-ruin-their-careers/478675

"1. Accept that you, as the owner of a penis, are at risk.
2. Get rid of your “yes men” and reward underlings for calling you on bad behavior.
3. If romance is in the air, let the other person make the first move."

Big Tobacco: Saving Lives is "Expropriation"

" Philip Morris is currently taking action against Uruguay’s proposed anti-smoking laws under the investor-state disputes mechanism of the trade agreement between Uruguay and Switzerland. Uruguay is proposing to introduce new measures requiring 80 percent of cigarette packaging to carry graphic warnings against smoking. The company argues such measures effectively expropriate their investments. Under the investor-state disputes mechanism a World Bank panel will decide if Uruguay must pay Philip Morris for this ‘expropriation’.


So let me get this straight. Philip Morris - and all the other tobacco companies - make hefty profits by selling highly addictive substances to people that the company knows will probably give them cancer and/or a host of other life-threatening and painful diseases. Their deaths will cause huge losses not just personally, but economically - to their families, and to the state.

And yet, thanks to this wonderful "investor-state disputes mechanism", an unelected World Bank panel made up of people whose interests are probably aligned with big business rather than individuals in developing countries, "will decide if Uruguay must pay Philip Morris for this ‘expropriation’.""

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2010/12/big-tobacco-saving-lives-is.html

101 Small Business Web Applications You Must Check Out

"Check out these 101 small business web applications – software in the cloud. The selections reflect the breadth of innovative ideas and new business pursuits at play in the small business technology cloud landscape."

http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/03/101-small-business-web-applications.html

"Here is the list of categories we will cover on this post:

Business Development Email Marketing Event Marketing Video Marketing Social Media Marketing Online Sales Online Payment Presentation Billing and Accounting Funding Hiring and Team Building

File Sharing Legal Building Websites Website Testing Market Research CRM Productivity Customer Service Team Management Voice Communication Online Education

"

How Small Business Can Get BIG Online with Content Marketing

"For small businesses, looking “big” online isn’t so much about appearing as a large company when they’re not. Its about being a big resource for prospects and customers. "

http://www.toprankblog.com/2011/02/small-business-content-marketing/

Unsuck It

"What terrible business jargon do you need unsucked?"

http://unsuck-it.com/

Stop chasing quick wins

"[...] pursuing the ‘quick wins’ is a mistake, for three reasons:

1. Their impact is too small to register on any performance scale. This means that the project is never at the top of anyone’s priorities and is never delivered.

2. They consume more effort than you originally estimate. The lack of progress means that you have to spend more time managing your project and communicating with and influencing your reluctant stakeholders.

3. They prevent you from getting on with more important projects. This is the biggest reason of all. As Apple boss, Steve Jobs, once said, “It’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”"

http://blogs.bnet.co.uk/sterling-performance/2010/03/30/strategy-execs-stop-chasing-quick-wins/

GTS: Get Things Started

What is GTS? Simplicity itself:

1. Plan on paper, not on a computer.
2. Visualize.
3. Brainstorm.

http://freelanceswitch.com/start/get-things-started-simpler-than-gtd/

68% of businesses say they’ll add Macs in ’09

"In a just-published survey, 68% of some 700 companies polled said they will allow their end users to deploy Macs as their work systems in the next 12 months. That's exactly double the percentage of businesses that answered the same question eight months ago, said Laura DiDio, an analyst at Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC).

"And Apple hasn't done anything to actively promote this," DiDio said. Instead, faced by users "begging to use a Mac," IT managers are reacting to the "consumerization" of technology in the enterprise, she explained. "

http://blog.collaborationmatters.com/blog/cmblog.nsf/dx/wow.-68-of-business-say-theyll-add-macs-in-09

270+ Tools for Running a Business Online

"Last August we featured a post with more than 230 online apps for running your business. Since there are hundreds of new apps coming on the market every year, we figured it was time for an update. This year we came up with more than 270 additional apps. Some are completely new since last year, others might have been overlooked, and still others made significant improvements that gained them a spot on the list."

http://mashable.com/2008/09/21/270-online-business-tools/

Telecommuting is Green and Saves Money, but Most Employers still Resist it

"In these days of increasing environmental awareness and rising oil prices, telecommuting is gaining mindshare. Yet employers are still reluctant. According to CIO Insight Research's Mobility Survey: "51 percent of CIOs and other senior IT leaders surveyed said their companies discourage fulltime telecommuting. An equal number of the 237 respondents—24 percent each—said their firms encourage fulltime telecommuting or remain neutral.""

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/telecommuting-statistics-information-surveys.php

Fed-up Employees Can Be Fierce Innovation Force

"Rogow advises collecting the most hacked-off and vocal-about-it workers and spinning them out as a company competitor."

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/tve/?p=354&nr=ABG