12 Days of Productivity: Day 12 – Avoiding Distractions

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November 30, 2012

It’s the final day of our 12 Days of Productivity. We’ve spent the month sharing tips and products to help make your life simpler—everything from going paperless to improving task management to boosting productivity. Our final day focuses on avoiding distractions, something we all fall victim to.

Book Recommendation: The One-Minute Organizer Plain & Simple: 500 Tips for Getting Your Life in Order
This book is full of quick tips to help you save time. Try implementing a couple tips each week and you’ll be saving time before you know it!

Product Recommendation: Noise Cancelling Headphones
Are you easily distracted by noises around you? Noise cancelling headphones may be the solution to help you maintain focus.

Quick Tip: Avoid distractions at work
There are so many ways to get distracted at work! Here are 5 tips to avoid distractions at work to help you keep focused throughout the day.

12 Days of Productivity: Day 11 – Master Your Mobile Devices

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November 28, 2012

Book Recommendation: The Personal Efficiency Program: How to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed and Win Back Control of Your Work
This is a wonderful option for anyone who wants a good overview of how to become more efficient. This 4th edition book includes everything from email management tips to meeting management tips, and much more.

Product Recommendation: BoxWave Stylus
Are your fingers growing weary from all that touchscreen action? The BoxWave Stylus is a great tool to use with your iPad or tablet – the tip of the stylus mimics your fingertips, making it very effective when using on your touchscreen. And don’t worry about losing it - use either the included 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter or built-in metal clip to attach the stylus directly to your device, your shirt, or your case. Our team of productivity consultants has tested other similar stylus options, but this is by far the best we’ve found.

Quick Tip: Make sure your mobile devices are syncing properly
We are fortunate to have so many tablets, laptops, and mobile phones to choose from, but you won’t experience their full benefit if they aren’t syncing properly. Check out our list of 5 reasons why it’s important to sync your mobile devices. If you still have questions, please give us a call and we can help you get all of your devices talking to each other.

12 Days of Productivity: Day 10 – Control the Cord Chaos

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November 27, 2012

Book Recommendation: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
This book takes a look at how habits work. By understanding how patterns work, we are more likely to transform our habits. It profiles a variety of companies whose success is closely linked with developing good habits.

Product Recommendation: Cord Catch
How many times have you had to crawl underneath your desk to fetch a cord that fell off the back of your desk? Never fear, the cord catch is here! It’s perfect for chargers, USB cords, and other cables that you want to keep within arms reach.

Quick Tip: Label cords at your desk
Stop tugging at cords to see which one you should unplug. Instead, take a few minutes and label cords with the name of the device it is connected to. Try using a label maker or use recycled bread tags. While you’re at it, don’t forget to wrap the extra length of cords with a simple cable wrap.

12 Days of Productivity: Day 9 – Staying Productive On-The-Go

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November 26, 2012

Book Recommendation: The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
This book is great for the entrepreneur in your life. The author provides detailed examples of how he utilized lean principles to build his company, while gaining feedback from customers in the process to ensure he was building what people wanted to buy.

Product Recommendation: Portable Travel Outlet
This is the perfect gift for mobile professionals that are constantly on-the-go and traveling. With four outlets, you won’t have to worry about finding multiple outlets to charge your portable devices.

Quick Tip: Keep a “While You’re Waiting” List
At some point in time, you will likely end up waiting somewhere without WiFi. Keep an ongoing list of tasks that can be completed without connecting to the Internet so you can stay productive in between appointment or while you are waiting.

12 Days of Productivity: Day 8 – Going As Paperless As Possible

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November 23, 2012

Book Recommendation: Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
In this quick read, Brian Tracy provides 21 powerful techniques to overcome procrastination and achieve success.

Product Recommendation: ScanSnap Scanners
One of our favorite product lines is the portable scanners from ScanSnap. If you want to operate with less paper and piles, ScanSnap allows you to easily scan all paper documents into your electronic files.

Quick Tip: Use virtual notebooks
Virtual notebooks are great tools for getting things out of your head while still being paperless. They have every use that traditional paper notebooks have, as well as more functionality since they can be synced and accessed everywhere.

12 Days of Productivity: Day 7 – A Little Extra Security

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November 21, 2012

Book Recommendation: What To Do When There’s Too Much To Do
We all wish we had more time. Author Laura Stack offers useful advice for making the most of your time and accomplishing priority tasks.

Product Recommendation: Screen Protector
Adding a screen protector for your portable devices also acts as a privacy screen so you can work on your devices without others seeing your data. Unless you are facing the screen head on, you cannot see any information on your device.

Quick Tip: Password strength
Make sure you are choosing secure passwords and storing them in a place where you can easily retrieve them. A couple minutes trying to remember passwords adds up very quickly over time.

12 Days of Productivity: Day 6 – Mobile Devices

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November 16, 2012

Book Recommendation: The 80/20 Principle
We’ve all heard of the 80/20 Rule or Pareto Principle. But when applied to business, this rule can help you become more efficient and prioritize your day.

Product Recommendation: iPhone case
This iPhone case allows you to store your ID and credit card, for easy access throughout the day.

Quick Tip: Clear your apps
Spend some time clearing out old apps on your phone that you no longer use. While you are at it, make sure your contacts and important data is backed up. It’s an easy task to put off, but worth the effort in the long run.

Five Ways to be More Productive In Five Minutes

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November 15, 2012

Looking to improve productivity throughout the day? Thinkspace provides Five Ways to be More Productive in Five Minutes that you can implement right away. Their tips include strategic time management changes that you can make to your daily routine. Thinkspace offers co-working space in Redmond, WA, which is a great way to stay productive and collaborate with other virtual workers. Learn more about Thinkspace if you are interested in the benefits of co-working space.

12 Days of Productivity: Day 5 – Quick Tips to Boost Productivity

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November 14, 2012

Book Recommendation: Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster and Better
This book isn’t a manual that you have to read all at once, but more a collection of helpful tips from which you can pick and choose. This book compiles all the best tips from Lifehacker into one place.

Product Recommendation: myBall Stability Ball Covers
Do you use an exercise ball as your desk chair to help improve posture and productivity? We love these new stability ball covers for adding a touch of style to your workplace! They are washable and include a handle for carrying on-the-go.

Quick Tip: Binder clips for everyday problems
We love how versatile binder clips are. Not only can they gather piles of paper, they can be used for file labeling and cord management around the office.

12 Days of Productivity: Day 4 – Add Time Estimates to Your Tasks

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November 12, 2012

Book Recommendation: 168 Hours
The concept in this book is one we have followed for quite a while. Laura Vanderkam explains that instead of planning your tasks to fit each day equally, think of your tasks as fitting evenly into a week or month bucket.

Product Recommendation: Clock with date and time
Having a clock with more information only allows you to stay more productive. It allows you to set a timer to keep yourself on track while completing tasks.

Quick Tip: Add timing estimates
Be sure to add time estimates to your tasks when writing your to-do list or scheduling your day. Take it a step further and enter tasks as blocks of time in your calendar; think of them as appointments with yourself.