Queercents

As few as 3-4 years ago the question would have been “what makes a productive voice mail?” (Seriously check the date on that one). Today’s question does not pre-suppose the premise that voice mail is productive.

Email’s productivity has also long been questioned for its productivity. In my work life and in the lives of others I’ve noticed that many career minded folks tend to loath the prospect of checking email because it can take a very long time. Only recently have I become aware of the twenty-something’ habit of not checking or leaving voice mail; some go so far as to suggest voice mail should be abandoned.

For professionals who bill by the hour the aggregate time it takes to check email or voice mail is a pressing issue. Especially frustrating can the be the transaction cost associated with logging how much time is spent on each client’s or email or voice mail and then billing for it. This could be why the Wisconsin State Bar Association reported that merely two-thirds of respondents on a 2006 state wide practitioner survey indicated they always track their time. Read the rest of this entry »

“It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” – Adlai Stevenson

You would think since I write about money and work in technology that I’d be at forefront of all the Web 2.0 tools available for personal finance. But I’m a surprisingly late adopter and admit that I just started paying my bills online in 2006.

My mother used to say, “Do as I say, not as I do.” This was usually after we caught and called her on some bad habit… like standing in front of the refrigerator eating cold pizza for breakfast while we were told to finish our sodden cornflakes. So here’s my bad when it comes to personal finance… I don’t track my expenses even though all the experts suggest that we should do this exercise. Read the rest of this entry »

Last weekend Zac and I were enjoying a leisurely Saturday morning at a coffee shop. I started flipping through one of the gay weeklies, and I came across an incredibly helpful productivity article by a local psychotherapist, Tom Moon. He talked about David Burns’ book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, and something called the Anti-Procrastination Sheet.

Moon explains, “procedures like this one help people stop ruminating about their supposed internal deficiencies and start focusing instead on what specific actions they can do to address the problem at hand. When people stop asking ‘What’s wrong with me?’ and start asking ‘What can I do differently?’ they’re already well on their way to overcoming procrastination.”

I tried the technique myself, and I was amazed by how distorted my perception was about the simple task of re-working my resume for the purpose of getting more responses to my job applications. The Anti-Procrastination Sheet showed me that I wasted a whole lot of time and energy avoiding a task that was a lot easier than I imagined. Here’s how it works. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently spoke with Michelle Anton, co-author of Weekend Entrepreneur: 101 Great Ways to Earn Extra Cash, who shared with me her ideas about what some call achieving “balance” for a quality lifestyle. Some fear the decadence of too much work or too much play. The theory is pragmatic: too much productivity is meaningless with no time or energy to enjoy, while too much leisure is meaningless with no resources to spend.

Balance is an important issue for weekend entrepreneurs because finding ways to earn money outside of a day job requires a reduction in personal time. Most of the folks I meet while researching for this article speak about having less free-time as a consequence of being weekend entrepreneurs.

Michelle spoke to me about the importance of choice in determining the content and quality of life. I’ve always struggled with understanding the importance of balance; it didn’t always seem to make sense to me. Michelle’s emphasis on the importance of choices helped me gain a better understanding of why I struggle with the so-called importance of balance. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve probably heard the saying “time is money.” The key to that phrase is in understanding that being organized saves time, thus being organized saves money. Being organized with your finances is no different. It can save you money too!

Here’s a little Cosmo-esque quiz to determine how organized you are! Instructions at the end will help you tally your score!

1. Turn on your favorite CD and see how long it takes you to gather your bank, credit card, investment, and other financial statements. TIP: Just pull out the paper documents for this year-to-date. How long did it take you?

• a. 1 song
• b. ½ a CD
• c. The entire CD
• d. You’ve played every song on your iPod and you’re still searching! Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most important aspects of polishing my credit into a worthy rating over the past couple of years has been the conversion to mostly online banking and the complete transfer of all of my bill payment into electronic form. For some, especially those born after 1982 — known as Generation Y, never having lived in a world without remote controls and developing immersed in digital technology and the Internet — this is a given. A nineteen year-old co-worker of mine recently admitted he’d never in his life sent a piece of snail mail. For younger people and some tech-savvy older ones, paying bills online has always made more sense.

I was born in the late ’70s, however, and was indoctrinated in the old-world, luddite ways of postage stamps and paying attention to due dates in accordance with the geographical locations of creditors. When, in my early twenties, I lost focus on such labors, my credit score suffered terribly; and it has been through the conversion to online banking that I’ve made a sound recovery.

Banking away from the bank has always held counter-weight in individual financial fitness. A physical deposit or withdrawal can be a dangerous weapon without a kept record of it somewhere. Likewise, a budget stoppers up the constant flow in and out of the account. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s amazing how many strategies exist for killing procrastination. Lifehacker has perhaps the best self-help compilation because they link to everything that helps you understand, combat or even make procrastination your friend. I haven’t gotten around to implementing the handy techniques though, mostly because I’m enjoying doing other things. OK, you can say that I’m procrastinating.

One thing I find missing from discussions of procrastination is how much fun it can be to procrastinate. Trust me, I hate how procrastination creates unnecessary worry, but I don’t hate it enough to change my behavior. If it weren’t for procrastination, I wouldn’t be as informed about current events; the latest Lindsay Lohan drama; or seriously funny movies about gay unicorns. Time and again, I’ll drift off task, make a playlist for my iPod, chat on gmail, doodle intricate scenes, and I will still get stuff done at the last minute. Talk about reinforcement of a behavior!

So I ask myself and anyone else who has fun procrastinating: why change what’s working? Read the rest of this entry »