saving time

10 Simple Tools for Increased Productivity

August 21, 2015 By Will Lipovsky 4 Comments

1. RescueTime.com

RescueTime.com is a web tool that tracks what websites you visit during the day and measures how long you spend on them. Are you one of those people who spend all day refreshing your email or social media sites instead of working? If so, RescueTime might be something you should consider using. In addition to tracking how long you spend on the website, it allows you to block any distracting websites for a certain amount of time. So next time you need to finish a project, have RescueTime block those distracting websites until you’re finished.

2. Post-It Notes

Post-it notes are a wonderful tool because for something so simple, they’re incredible useful. If you keep a stack of post-its around, you already know how easy it is to jot down a simple note for yourself. It’s a great way to keep track of thoughts or activities you need to followup on during future projects. Another great thing is that if you stick them somewhere you’ll definitely see – such as a mirror or a door – you’ll remember to follow through with that activity. Physical reminders are powerful. They are getting more and more rare in our increasingly digitized world.

3. Evernote

If you’re not fond of using post-it notes and prefer something digital, try Evernote. Evernote is an online tool that allows you to organize your projects and allows you to take notes and store them in a database. Do you have a website you want to take notes on? Evernote allows you to add notes to the page. Best of all, you can access Evernote from any device, thanks to its cloud-based storage.

4. Project Management System

There are plenty of free websites or online programs that are centered on project management. Trello, for instance, is an online program that allows you to create multiple projects and manage them as you see fit. Project management systems are a great way to keep all your projects organized. When you’re organized, you’re able to work more efficiently.

5. Dropbox

Do you need to access one document on three different computers? Dropbox allows that to happen. Dropbox is an excellent online program that allows you to stay organized and reach your files easily. It’s a free online database that allows you to upload files to your specified folders and share them with anyone or any device. This saves you the hassle of having to save files to a USB or having to email them to multiple people. What a headache that used to be. Instead, share a certain folder or log onto Dropbox on a different computer to reach everything.

6. Read It Later

Read It Later is another free online program that helps keep you organized. It’s easy to become distracted when you’re trying to do work that happens to be online. Are you researching something for a project or job? Do you become distracted by sites and articles that have nothing to do with what you’re working on? Well, with Read It Later installed on your tablet, laptop, or phone, all you have to do is click an icon in your browser and that link will be saved for later. This provides a great way to save sites you might want to revisit and let you concentrate on the task at hand.

7. Timer

Do you have trouble concentrating? Do you start one task and then get distracted by another? Well, a timer can change all that. A timer is a great, easy way to boost your productivity. Set it for whatever amount of time you think is necessary and get to work! Sometimes working with a time deadline is the easiest way to finish a project. Use a physical timer or an online timer. Simply Google ‘online timer’ to pull up plenty of options worthy of your time.

8. Notepad for To-Do Lists

Paper and pencils or pens might seem like obvious choices, but you might be surprised by how useful they can be. To-do lists can greatly improve your productivity. Get into the habit of writing a to-do list each morning. Writing everything down will help you remember what you need to do. Not to mention, being able to cross multiple things off a list is a very satisfying feeling.

9. Online Calendars with Pop-up Notifications

Online calendars such as Google Calendar are a great way to keep you organized and increase your productivity. You can input all your projects and their due date and set reminders before they’re due. Reminders can range from weeks to days to hours. Having deadlines and reminders will help keep you on schedule.

10. Collabtive

Collabtive (yes, I’m spelling that correctly) is an open source program that allows you to collaborate with other people by sharing files and delegating jobs. It’s a quick, easy-to-use program that will save you time and allows you to track the progress of all your projects. This platform is a great way to keep updated on all your projects. Since they’re all in the same place, you save yourself a ton of time that can be used to focus on other things.

Things Worth Paying Someone Else To Do

August 23, 2012 By Dana O. Crandell Leave a Comment

I’m a cheapskate at heart. I do my own mechanic work, maintain my own computer, do my own home repairs and will do just about anything I can manage on my own, to save money. So, it might seem strange that I’m writing this article about paying for services. Well, I’m a cheapskate who’s learned that there are times when it’s actually more cost-effective to hire someone else. So, because I’m also a person that likes to share ideas, here are some on jobs you might want to pay someone else to perform, and why:

Changing Oil

Do it yourself oil changes is an activity that people sometimes suggest as a way to save money, but it doesn’t make sense to me. I have found that with a coupon (search online or in flyers or mailers that come to your house) you can get your oil changed for around $20 – $25 at most of the quick oil change shops. This is close to what you would pay for oil and filter at a retail outlet without spending the time (or getting dirty) to do it yourself. They key, of course, is that the oil change shops will try to up-sell you on other stuff, so you need to remember not to get hooked into these other services as they will be overpriced to make up for the cheap oil change.

Writing Ad Copy or Other Content

There are dozens of writing tasks you can probably handle on your own, but when the purpose of the writing is to put money in your pocket, there are good reasons to hire a professional. Writing compelling text takes more than just talent and grammar skills and by the time you learn how, your competitors will have your prospective clients. Fortunately, finding good writers is easy these days, thanks to sites like Elance and Textbroker.

Proofreading

There’s a very good reason that professional authors regularly hire proofreaders. Our minds have a way of tricking us into “reading” what we intended to write, instead of what’s actually on the page. For most, it takes days or weeks to “detach” from something we’ve written enough to proofread our own work accurately. Paying a proofreader may save you embarrassment, increase your profits and might even make the difference in having your writing accepted or rejected. Proofreaders work on a reasonable, per-word basis and are often a good investment.

Preparing Your Resume or CV

When it comes to landing a professional job or competing as a freelance professional, first impressions are everything. More often than not, that impression is going to come from the resume you submit, since prospective employers see it before they see you. While it’s true that anyone can create documents like these quite easily with modern technology, creating a resume that stands out from the rest isn’t quite so easy. Hiring a service or individual to at least “tweak” your resume may determine whether you land that dream career.

Transcription

Converting audio to printed text is tedious work and requires focus. It’s also a little like proofreading, in that your mind can often hear something your ears didn’t, so accuracy can suffer. Professional transcribers can be hired online for about $15 – $60 per audio hour, so it’s worth considering how much of your own time would be required to produce an accurate document from audio content, especially with any distractions you may have.

Research

The internet has placed almost any information you could want to have literally at your fingertips. If you know how to find and verify it, that is. Sure, you can Google just about anything and get thousands of hits. That’s part of the problem. Do you really have the time to go through all those links and determine which ones are from good sources? If you need lots of accurate information quickly, paying a professional researcher may save you a lot of time that you can use to make money. You can hire one through the freelancing sites or an independent agency.

Business Accounting

If you operate a business or invest, managing finances isn’t just important; it’s critical. It’s also enough work to take entirely too much time away from the other aspects of the business. Hiring an accountant not only lets you put the time saved back into your business, it can help you maintain a better picture of where you stand financially. That can mean solving problems before they cost you too much.

Business Website Development

No doubt you’ve seen hundreds of ads online and in the media promoting designing your own website with someone’s software. There are also dozens of great content management packages out there, like WordPress and Drupal, that may make the process of creating and managing a site easier and there’s a veritable plethora of themes available for any business. So, why pay someone else? There are several very good reasons, but here are just a few:

1. Eventually, you’re going to run into a problem you don’t know how to fix.
2. The developing process will take time away from running your business.
3. Downtime equals loss of profits.

If an online presence is important to your business, you’ll save yourself money and grief by hiring a professional.

Business Website Promotion

Even professional developers hire someone else to market their websites. There may be no more competitive business than website promotion and the stakes can be very high if you depend on leads or sales generated from a website. Think about the staggering number of sites you’re going to be competing with and check out how many already have a good foothold. If you’re going to compete on the World Wide Web, you need people to find your website. You may be surprised at how reasonably you can hire a professional promoter.

Ebay Listings

If you don’t spend a lot of time on the online auction sites, but have a lot of items to sell, you might want to consider hiring a Trading Assistant. It takes a lot of sales to build a reputation on sites like Ebay, and there are a lot of things to know about posting auctions, not to mention many pitfalls to avoid. For many people, it’s worth paying a small fee to a “Power Seller” to save time and use the leverage of the seller’s reputation. To find a seller in your area, start here.

Recycling

Getting rid of recyclables can be time-consuming, not to mention messy, even if you have curbside recycling available. If you live in an area where you pay a deposit for cans, plastic bottles, or other recyclables, you may have a big chunk of space reserved for saving those items until you return them for a refund. You may be surprised to find that there are a few enterprising individuals that will take those cans and bottles, along with your other recyclable materials off your hands for a small fee, or in exchange for the redemption value alone. Either way, before you discount this as a silly notion, think about the time you invest in sorting, hauling, etc. and see if it might not be better to use that time doing something profitable.

Semi-Complicated DIY Home Projects

Simple do-it-yourself home projects are a great way to save money, but I have found that anything that gets even a little bit complicated is better left to someone who knows what he’s doing. I think this one depends a lot on your DIY capabilities, but for many the time and possible damage that can be done trying to do it yourself can often make it a better choice to let a professional do it.

Anything You Hate Doing

This isn’t a free-pass excuse to say that you should pay others to do anything and everything, but if there is something that is important to be done on a regular basis that you absolutely hate doing, it is worthwhile considering paying someone else to do it. While you may be able to save money doing it yourself, the stress it causes you (usually for a prolonged period because you procrastinate doing things you hate doing) plus it not getting done as thoroughly or as well as it should be done can make it worthwhile to pay someone else to do it. While monetary costs are important to remember, how doing things yourself affects other areas of your life are also important to consider.

There are undoubtedly many other tasks I’ve neglected to include in this list. The point is, though, sometimes it’s not cost-effective to do everything on your own.

(Photo courtesy of quaziefoto)

7 Reasons Not to Shop at Costco

November 16, 2011 By Jeffrey Strain 48 Comments

I really have nothing against Costco. I think that they are a quality company and they treat their employees well, especially when compared to other retailers. I used to be a huge advocate of shopping at Costco and the great deals that one could get when buying in bulk to reduce costs. I know a lot of people still feel that way.

While I was a true fan in the past, I no longer subscribe to this line of thought. In fact, I realized that shopping at Costco actually costs me far more money than it saves. I realize that each of the reasons I no longer shop at Costco may not apply to everyone, but I have a feeling that more than a few are doing the same things I did for years and may not have even noticed. Here are 7 reasons that I no longer shop at Costco and why you may not want to shop at Costco either.

You may be buying more than you need

When I used to shop at Costco, I would come back with huge containers and boxes instead of the smaller sized products found at regular grocery stores. If you have ever been in a Costco store, you know what I mean. There are peanut butter jars and then there are giant industrial sized tubs of peanut butter sold at Costco.

When you shop at Costco, it’s extremely difficult not to buy more than you really need. Everything comes jumbo sizes, and even though the jumbo size may be inexpensive when one considers the price per unit cost, is it really a good deal if you purchase more than you need? More often than not, I’d end up throwing out a portion of what I purchased because I just wasn’t able to consume it all before it went bad. I finally figured out that I wasn’t saving money when I ended up throwing out a good portion of what I was buying.

You consume more than you need

I tried to rectify the first issue by making a conscientious effort to make sure I consumed everything I bought at Costco. The problem was that I simply started to eat more than I would have regularly eat which had two detrimental effects — I spent more money and I started gaining weight.

I soon realised that just because I was eating all the food and wasn’t wasting it anymore, that didn’t necessarily mean that i was saving money. If I went to the grocery store, I would buy a couple of Cliff Bars which would last me to the next week’s shopping trip. When I purchased the box of 24 at Costco, it would last me a month and the bars were less expensive on an individual basis, but I was eating 6 a week instead of 2 which actually made them more expensive overall.

You are getting a good price, not a great price

The great thing about shopping at Costco is the prices. If you are looking for a good price without doing any additional work, Costco is a good place to buy stuff you need. You know when you buy something at Costco, you likely got yourself a decent deal.

This all came crashing down when I realized it was possible to eat on $1 a day and create a Thanksgiving meal for six for $1. Even without going to the extremes I did in those challenges, and even without ever clipping a coupon, if you are willing to look at grocery store weekly deals, it’s much less expensive to buy food at the grocery store than it is at Costco. If you add coupons into the equation, the comparisons are not even close.

There is increased impulse buying

I have more things lying around my house than I can count on both hands which were purchased from Costco that I had absolutely no idea I needed until I saw them there. Whenever I was walking around Costco, I would see all these amazing things that I never knew that I needed, but all of a sudden I felt that I could not live without them, especially at that price. By the time I made it to the cash register, my shopping cart was filled with more things that I never planned on purchasing than the ones on my shopping list. While I have always been pretty good at resisting impulse buying at regular stores, I don’t think I ever walked out of Costco without at least one item that I had not planned to purchase.

Travel costs more than you think

This one depends a lot where the nearest Costco is relative to where you live, but mine happened to be a fair distance away. Driving 20 miles to the nearest Costco may not seem like much when you think of all the deals at Costco, but those 20 miles ends up costing over $20 round trip if you consider the IRS business allowable mileage deductible figure. Compared to a $1 round trip cost to the local grocery store a mile away using the same figures and the travel costs end up negating some of those perceived savings.

Shopping at Costco takes a lot of time

Being inside a Costco on a weekend is not an activity for the faint of heart. It might be different if you are able to go during off hours when there are less crowds, but that wasn’t the case for me. Fighting the crowds and the check out lines meant devoting a few hours for a shopping trip. Add in the extra time that always seemed to be spent wandering around the store looking for all those things that I didn’t realize that I really needed, and the time it took to shop at Costco meant that I was missing out doing a lot of other things on the weekends.

You have to pay a yearly membership fee

In order to shop at Costco you need to pay $50 yearly membership fee. Most people are able to justify this cost because of all the savings they get from shopping at Costco. That is why I never had a problem paying for it. It becomes difficult, however, to justify paying $50 a year when you realize that the membership is causing you to spend more than you would have without it.

As with most personal finance questions, what works and doesn’t work depends a lot on your individual habits. The key is that you have to be willing to sometimes look beyond the conventional wisdom to truly see what is happening. I shopped for years at Costco assuming that I was saving money because it has good deals, but when I really started to look at what was going on, it became apparent that shopping at Costco wasn’t really in my best financial interest.

Finally, if you are looking for good alternative, consider looking into getting an Amazon prime membership. Amazon’s prices are competitive and they’ve developed their retail system to the point that their prices are competitive compared to major retailers like Costco or Wal-Mart. They are also offering a standing 30 day free trial, so check it out if you are looking for a good Costco alternative.

For more info on Costco check out these articles.

Is the Costco Membership Fee Worth it?

Is a Costco Executive Membership Worth the Price?
Costco Gas Calculator: Will I Save Money Buying a Membership if All I Buy is Fuel?

Costco Return Policy

Costco Holiday Schedule

Costco Tires

You can check out our articles for Target as well.

Target Christmas Store Hours

Target Holiday Schedule and Store Hours

(Image courtesy of Portal Abras)