I’m not surprised that it exists, and I imagine that it will sell very well, I’m just curious how much caffeine consumption has grown in the past ten or fifteen years. I can’t imagine it’s very healthy. As someone who drinks at least one extra strength 5-hour energy a day, It would be great to see some data on the long term effects of caffeine consumption.

The Time is Now to Invest in Your Business

It’s no secret that we are in a recession, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do if your business is slow. Now is the perfect time to ensure that your business is running efficiently, and to focus on all of those little things you’ve been putting off for months/years/decades.

The people who come out of this recession, just like any other, stronger and better will be the ones who take this time to make their business better. It could mean getting your creativity going by learning Photoshop, so you can create those amazing business cards that you drew out on paper two years ago, or mastering Excel or some other program that will benefit your business. It could be nothing computer related at all, but instead getting creative with how your employees spend their time when business is slow, or reading the four books you bought last year on marketing but never had time to read.

The point is, don’t just sit around wishing the economy would get better, but instead spend this time making your business better. You’ll be glad you did.

I just received my copy of iLife ‘09 from Amazon this morning, and I am very impressed so far with the new iPhoto’s ability to track faces. That’s not to say it isn’t a little rough around the edges, but it does do an admirable job of picking up people, animals, and even statues.

I wasn’t too surprised to find that after labeling ”Abraham Lincoln” once, it identified him flawlessly across the rest of the statues. What did surprise me though, was finding that it also labeled the wax figure of Abraham Lincoln from a trip to Las Vegas, even though the face looks vastly different from the original, marble one I had initially labeled.

After confirming and labeling a handful of pictures of Abraham Lincoln, I found this as a suggested image of him, from a book I had taken a picture of months ago. Now that is cool!

For those wondering why I would have a photo of a book on Lincoln in the first place, I occasionally take pictures of books and other items that I intend to purchase for people at a later date, and this happened to be one of them.

Now, with all of the coolness of the facial recognition, there are a few odd bits to note. For one, it does arbitrarily find faces every once and a while, such as Mickey Mouse’s elephant cousin in this picture.

And even though it caught that elephant, I found that it did have a very hard time concluding that Mickey Mouse is, in fact, Mickey Mouse. No matter how many times I labeled images as “Mickey Mouse,” it never did find a suggested image other than the ones I had labeled.

I think the big, non-face like face of Mickey prevented iPhoto from discerning it from other background objects. So, this means that you aren’t likely to be able to pinpoint say, your car and have it picked up in each photo that it appears in, but maybe that’s for the best. It is for faces, after all.

I’d love to hear your experiences, leave a comment and let me know what you’ve found!

Increasingly it seems like the former is winning out over the latter, but does ”doing it fast” actually save time over doing it right the first time? If you get a few less tasks done in a given day, but don’t have to revisit the ones you sped through again later, how does that impact your overall productivity?

Here’s a challenge. The next time you speed through a task just to “get it done,” take down how much time you spend the first time around. Then record how much time you spend in the subsequent days, weeks or months afterward for that particular task. Include the time spent refreshing your memory on what you did, and on how to fix it so it works the way it should.

Next, do the same for another task of similar size, one that you have taken the time to get right the first time. How much time after the fact do you spend fixing mistakes or revising functionality?

Usually, the conclusion will be that doing it right the first time takes a lot less time in the long run.

Of course there are times when there’s simply too much going on to get everything done “right” the first time. But if you find yourself having too many days like this, it might also be time to re-evaluate how you work, and whether some of your more time-consuming tasks can be delegated elsewhere. But that’s a topic for another day.

Stop relying on chance, and create your own luck instead. How well do you do the items below?

There is a very common misconception that a person can be successful just by being ”lucky.”

I hate that idea.

While there is something called chance that says you could win the lottery (or get hit by a bus) tomorrow, the truth of the matter is that people who are perceived as lucky, by in large create their own luck. That is, they see opportunity where others see nothing (or see risk), and they know when to take advantage and “try their luck.” I would be willing to bet that if you were to record your entire day, including all phone calls, in person meetings and conversations at Starbucks on the way to work, that you would realize dozens of potential opportunities that had completely evaded your perception when they happened. The only difference between a so-called “lucky” individual and one who isn’t, is their ability to recognize and pursue those opportunities as they happen.

What do the “lucky” do differently?

I have been following the concept of luck for several years, and spent a great deal of time monitoring the attitudes and personal behaviors of people who were perceived as lucky. Here are some of the more consistent trends I’ve found:

1. Ability to take risk.
   Probably the biggest difference between someone who’s perceived as being lucky (and one who isn’t) comes in their level of risk aversion. What’s the last project or idea that you turned down because you didn’t want to tie up your weekend, or because it could “not work?” Note that there’s a big difference between taking risks and being stupid, which is why you don’t see many YouTube rednecks running Fortune 500 companies.
2. Comfort in Questioning.
   Why can’t I get onion rings instead of french fries? Obviously an oversimplified example, but the point is that questioning rules and the status quo can be a fantastic way to create “luck.” Most people go through life accepting every rule and policy that comes their way because they are either a) used to them and never thought about it or b) don’t want to cause problems. Start noticing the people in your life you perceive as lucky. Do they question the rules that don’t make sense, or ask for the things that other people simply don’t ask for (such as the open booth near the fish tank at a restaurant – the one you notice them at later)?
3. Lack of Complacency.
   Think of the people in your life that you perceive as lucky. Do they sit on the couch all day, drinking beer and watching soap opera re-runs? I doubt it. Chances are they are at least fairly active people, both in their jobs and in their personal lives. When they do have down time, they are probably more likely to read a book than watch television. Complacency is counterproductive to success and to the concept of luck – if you’re on the couch, what opportunities are coming your way?

Obviously, this is not an all-inclusive list. But, it can help to provide some insight into your current state. Do you take measured risks and pursue opportunities, or do you prefer to live on the sidelines? Do you question why you have to do things the way they are always done, and pursue your own path to reach your destination?

Leave a comment below, I’d love to know.

Cut down on needless information and filtering time with RSS Feeds.

Regardless of who you are or what you do, you likely find yourself the victim of information overload virtually every time you turn on the computer. Be it by choice or by necessity, the amount of information our brains are forced to process on a given day is just incredible. Luckily, there’s a solution that can help you get your fill of the information you want to have, without sifting through the piles of information that you don’t want.

It’s called RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and it’s been around for a long time now. Unfortunately, many people still aren’t familiar with what RSS actually is, or how to make use of it in daily life. Let’s start with how to best make use of the technology – depending on what your needs are.

1. For News.
   Don’t want to hear about Lindsey Lohan’s latest escapades, but want to keep up with the business trends as they are updated? Have no fear, simply select the “Business” RSS feed, and leave the “Entertainment” one by the wayside. Most major news outlets break their feeds into well segmented groups, allowing you to get very specific in the type of information you see. For an example, here’s the Fox News RSS page. Typically, you will find the RSS link page at the bottom of your news site of choice. If in doubt, do a search for “RSS” (control + F on a PC, command + F on a mac) on their web site.
2. For Work.
   RSS is great for getting the news you want quickly, but it can also save you time in the work environment. Why spend an hour (or three) a week checking your competitor’s blogs, press releases and web site every week when almost all of this is automatically published – and handed to you, from their web site? Get it all as it comes in, direct to your browser or RSS feeder of choice, without having to go searching for new information.
3. For Business.
   Notice the distinction here. That’s because not all business is work (reading an Entrepreneur magazine article may be business, but rarely is it immediatey relevant to your work), but both are important. Even if you love reading, you probably still have a stack of new and almost new magazines that you have yet to read through sitting on your “to do” pile. Prevent them from becoming a chore by choosing only the articles and information that you typically want to read from each magazine, and have those delivered to you with an RSS feed. For example, if you don’t want to read every article in Fast Company, you can simply sign up for their “Big Idea of the day” feed. Ditto Inc, Entrepreneur, and so on.
4. For Fun.
   Want to keep up with your football or baseball team of choice, but don’t want to waste time sifting through news about the other teams? Have no fear, almost all major sports teams offer an RSS feed directly from their web site. Even better, many teams also offer podcast video and/or audio downloads of the latest practices, updates on players and pre-game action. Don’t like sports? Keep up with your favorite blogs in a heartbeat by subscribing to their RSS feed (here’s mine). Ditto sites like Macrumors and PC World for the computer people. To satiate the scientist in you, check out Scientific American, which does an excellent job of segmenting articles into categories from Physics to Technology to Space. Ditto Popular Mechanics and Popular Science.

Now you know how RSS will help to reduce the amount of needless information you see, and that’s great. But, you likely have no idea how to execute it. That’s okay. It wouldn’t be called “really simple” if it was terribly difficult for the end user to keep track of, now would it?

There are several options, but the best is probably Google’s Reader. It’s simple to set up, and you can keep up with your feeds no matter where you are, just by logging in. Even better, with an optional plug-in (click “offline” in the top-right hand menu once you’ve created your Google ID and logged in), you can download up to 2,000 of the latest articles to come in to your feed. Talk about something to do on your next plane ride.

Update:

Being an avid iPhone user, I experimented with several of the RSS feed readers out for the phone. This let me to NetNewsWire, a great (free) little program that allows you to follow up on RSS feeds on your computer (called FeedDemon on Windows) and your phone. If you read an article on one, it is immediately marked as read on both, saving time on needless overlap. Give it a try for the iPhone, for your Mac, or for your PC.

Making the most of your feeds.

Having only the information you want to read filtered for you is great, but it’s all but useless if you spend half of your day reading them. Instead, plan a time every day, week, or whatever time period suits your schedule and desires to read through these articles. If you find one feed to be of little use, REMOVE IT. There’s nothing worse than creating more time by keeping items that you don’t want or need on there.

Conversely, if you find one feed to be particularly helpful, move it to the top of the list for the times that you only have a few spare minutes to read. If you’ve done your feed setup well, you’re already eliminating the 80% of information you don’t want for the 20% that you do, and this will help you to again place the 20% of the already important information at the top of your reading list.

If you happen to miss a week of feed data, don’t waste hours reading through it all. If you must, browse through the top one or two feeds, then mark the rest as “read.” Remember, the whole point of this is to remove clutter and needless time spent reading, and if you’re faced with a long list of lingering items, you’ll find nothing but headaches (and isn’t that what you’re trying to avoid?) by going through them.

In the information-overload world we live in, it’s not the sheer amount – but the quality of the information we have access to that gives us an edge.