This week, I met someone I've been corresponding with because he is a reader of this blog. We both happened to be at the same trade show in San Francisco, and got the chance to sit down and chat for a while. I really enjoyed the discussion and we talked about a wide variety of topics. One of the things we discussed is blogging. You see, he has been considering blogging for a quite a while, and I encouraged him to go for it. I'm happy to see that he's done that, and is off to a great start.
Check out Derek, now sharing his thoughts at "Business Based Parenting." Today's post is on Perseverance, Persistence and Determination - which I'm taking as a sign his voice will be around for a long time. Way to go, Derek!
Read MoreLeaving town for the holidays? Make a list. Actually, many people have some of the more common lists covered (who's naughty and nice, who to send cards to, etc.) A list that is particularly valuable for me is my "don't forget to do this stuff."
Some things on my list include the following:
| Arrange for pet sitter |
Adjust thermostat (lower in the winter, higher in the summer) |
| Leave check for pet sitter |
Turn on "out of office" reply on email |
| Stop newspaper delivery |
Change voicemail greeting to let people know you're gone |
| Hold mail delivery (you can do this online in the US at www.usps.com) |
Pay all bills (or schedule them in online banking) |
| Bring garbage from kitchen garbage can to outside can |
Print out itinerary and confirmation numbers |
| Check weather forecast for where you're going and pack appropriately |
If you're traveling internationally, ensure you have:
current passports, valid visas, etc. (allow at 6 weeks for US passport processing) |
This is just a sample of the things on my list, and we end up adding things to it every time. For example, 2 trips ago, we forgot my 7-year old's suitcase in her room; now, everyone must put their luggage by the front door and we double check that everyone has their bag before we leave the driveway. Last trip, I forgot my Blackberry and we almost missed our flight because I needed to go back and get it (it's also my phone).
Don't have a list? Here is a great online travel checklist, organized as a timeline - this provides a really good place to start.
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Read MoreA few weeks ago, I wrote about a free service called Yapta, which stands for "Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant" (get Yapta now, or read my previous post about Yapta). Shortly after I started using Yapta, I bought a couple of plane tickets for a family trip and used it to watch the fares to see if they dropped. My tickets were about $760 each when I paid for them (yep, I know - pricey).
What does Yapta do?
The way Yapta works is that you can tell it what trips you're shopping for, or which tickets you've already bought. From there, Yapta starts monitoring the prices and lets you know when they drop (you can set how far they need to drop before you're notified). If the price drops, most airlines will either give you a refund or issue a travel voucher (depending on their policy) if you contact them before the price goes back up again (you've gotta act fast - those fares change quickly).
Yapta can track fares from the following airlines (currently US-heavy), but they have been adding more to the list:
AirTran Airways
- Alaska Airlines
- American Airlines
- ATA Airlines
- Continental
- Delta Airlines
- Frontier Airlines
- JetBlue
- Midwest Airlines
- Ted Airlines
- United Airlines
- US Airways
Well, did Yapta work?
About a week ago, I got an email from Yapta on my Blackberry saying the fare had dropped, and I was elegible for a voucher from United Airlines for the difference. They even told me where to call and what to say to get my voucher (pretty cool). I called United, and the price had dropped to $601 per ticket so I got vouchers in the amount of $308.
Now that is what I call an amazing personal travel assistant. It's free - what are you waiting for?
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Read MoreIf you're a student of David Allen's Getting Things Done, you may know that he encourages you to do a couple of things to improve your productivity in front of the keyboard:
Improve your typing skills (see my previous post on learning to type)- Learn and use speed keys (for example, <Ctrl>+C to copy, <Ctrl>+V to paste) so you don't have to move your hands over to your mouse as much.
On point #2, I've just discovered a great (free) add-on for Firefox that lets you create speed key shortcuts for any web site or web application you wish. It's called "Splinkd" and it's really cool.
You can use it to automate things like web-based applications (Salesforce.com, for example), web-based email (Google has its own hotkeys, but this allows you to add hotkeys to Hotmail and other services), and more.
Check it out - it's a great productivity tool for Firefox (no other browsers are supported at this time).
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Read MoreAll right - so you already know I am a fan of wikis. But I never thought I'd actually be thankful for them (and just in time for Thanksgiving here in the US). What happened?
After a long time trying to get my daughter to thoroughly clean up her room, the best we got was a room that had most of the clutter hidden. So you can imagin how surprised I was to find that she'd done an awesome job cleaning it last weekend. Not only was it clean, it was sparkling clean.
"Wow - what brought this on?" we asked.
"Oh, I learned how to clean my room on WikiHow," she replied. We went upstairs and she showed me the printout of the article she'd found on WikiHow on "How to clean your room." The article is very good (and I've seen its results).
She methodically followed the approach in the article, and by the end of the day her room looked great. They say people are often more willing to believe things just because they're on the internet - looks like that includes taking advice on cleaning your room.
She's been trying to get her younger sister to use the directions, too. It's not working - the internet may have magical powers, but they don't appear to work as well on 7 year olds.
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