Ten Things Not To Do To Maximize Productivity

It's the age old problem. You have a lot to do but just can't get yourself to work! This is especially prevalent in the world of freelance and consulting. Here are 10 things not do do that will help you get more done in less time without stressing you out!

1. Don't keep your desk cluttered - Having a calm and clean environment helps you focus on your work. Just having a lot of things on your desk can make you feel extra stressed out.
   
   
2. Don't let there be any distractions - Close the door, turn off the cell phone, and do whatever it takes to make it difficult for others to reach you. This also means no chatting online!
   
   
3. No distracting music - Music is ok, just not something that is going to distract you. I prefer music that is rhythmic and without a lot of words. It puts me in a trance where I lose track of time.
   
   
4. No vague to-do list - "Finish Bob's Project" is not a to-do list item. Just reading this alone will make you not want to work. You need to have your to-do list items be broken down as much as possible. If possible, break it down to things that are 10-20 minutes long (the shorter the better). When you look at an item that says "10 minutes" next to it, it's much easier to start doing it.
   
   
5. Don't open a browser window unless absolutely necessary - If you start off with your browser window open, things aren't going to look so good. It's easily the biggest distraction. If your work permits, disconnect from the Internet.
   
   
6. Don't start your work session by checking a few regular websites - You think "let me just see what's on digg and I'll start working." Before you know it, 3 hours has passed by and you haven't done one thing. Fight the urge!
   
   
7. Don't schedule meetings in the middle of your work session - Ok so you'll do a few hours of work, go to that meeting, then come back and work a few more hours. Wrong! More than likely, you won't get back to working efficiently after the meeting. It's too big a change and getting back into the work mindset is incredibly difficult. This is why I try to schedule all of my meetings in one or two days of the week and try to keep at least 2 other days of the week completely open so that I can get work done.
   
   
8. Don't take long breaks - If you do everything else correctly, you won't even want to take a long break. Just in case you feel the desire, fight it! Watching TV or playing a round of Halo will ruin your workday. Instead, just stretch, walk around a bit, and get a cup of water. Your mind will relax but stay focused.
   
   
9. Don't stress out! This is a big one. Even if you have an important deadline to reach and you are down to the wire, try to remain calm. Convince yourself that you have allocated enough time to work on the project and that you have nothing else to do that day besides work. Otherwise, your mind will be preoccupied with the thought of the deadline and you will be very unproductive.
   
   
10. Don't stop! The whole point is to create an atmosphere that encourages "flow". Don't overthink anything or worry about how much time you have left. You will get a lot done regardless so just focus on work. And try to avoid looking at the clock as much as possible.
    

Happy working!

T-Mobile: Your Customer Service SUCKS!

I've been with T-Mobile for a few years now (I believe it's 3). I joined because my girlfriend was on T-Mobile and we figured it would be much cheaper if we had unlimited T-Mobile to T-Mobile.

Fast forward 3 years. The lady wants a new phone so she goes to a T-Mobile store and asks if she is eligible for a rebate on any of the phones. "Of course" they exclaim! Being the smart consumer she is, she checks with another T-Mobile store. Yet again, they tell her she is eligible for the promotional rate on the phone she wants.

So off we went to a T-Mobile authorized reseller. She picks out her phone and the store is happy to help her with the mail-in rebate. They even cut out the SKU from the box and partially fill out the mail-in rebate for her. Off in the mail it goes and the estimated 6 week wait begins.

About a month later, she receives a letter from T-Mobile saying "sorry you weren't eligible." Wait, what? This must be a misunderstanding! I recommend to her that she calls T-Mobile and clear up this simple misunderstanding.

A couple of days later she calls the Rebate department. The jerk on the line says that no store can tell her if she is eligible for a discount. Only their department can do that. WHAT?!!?! Everyone knows that you can walk into any T-Mobile store and ask them for a printout of how much the phones are for your specific account. The representative on the line is relentless. No means no, miss, and you are not getting your rebate.

Angry and confused, the lady calls T-Mobile customer support the next day. The representative is baffled by what the rebate department had told her, but also says that she is still not eligible for a rebate. She promises my girlfriend that she will call her back the next day after she talks to her manager to see if anything can be done.

The next day comes and goes. The "not eligible for a rebate" phone remains ringless. The day after, my super-annoyed girlfriend calls T-Mobile back and complains about the horrific experience she had. They don't care. They don't even pause when she says she is going to complain about all the reps she has had to deal with. Their response, paraphrased, was something like "go screw yourself and your rebate."


Well, T-Mobile, GO F**K YOURSELF! Guess who's not going to renew his contract after THAT experience. I had always been happy with T-Mobile, for them to not realize that a $50 rebate is not worth losing 6 customers over, well that's plain moronic.

YOU HAVE BEEN BLACKLISTED!

Response to "Programming Can Ruin Your Life" or The Benefits of Being A Programmer

First, in order to understand my post, you have to be a programmer and have read Programming Can Ruin Your Life on devizen.

Finished reading? Good. Quick summary: Being a programmer makes you socially handicapped.

What about the benefits? Surely there are many, and I think they far outweigh the drawbacks. I'm not a big fan of long, paragraph style posts so I'm going to make a list. Besides, programmers prefer lists.

1. We scratch our OCD itch. Nearly all programmers seem to have some form of OCD. We are obsessed with our work, oftentimes choosing to finish a database wrapper instead of sleeping. In the real world, nothing is perfect. This pisses us off! In the wonderful world of 0's and 1's, we can write specific code to do specific tasks. Insert data into a database? Done! Email customers after they sign up? Easy! We are very task oriented and our OCD requires us to know 100% that we can cross off this item on our to-do list. Try doing that in political science or psychology.
   
   
2. We see details others don't. Minor features on clothing, slight color differences, different scents. Everything is unique to us because we are trained to see everything in black and white, 0's and 1's. A picture frame isn't "almost" straight. There is no such thing. What's the benefit of this? We can admire nature and enjoy the smallest things in life.
   
   
3. We see beauty in structure. No one can argue this one. Programmers reverse engineer everything in their heads. We look at a building and immediately think of all the components (as well as wonder what kind of network they have set up and if their security policies are any good). This is especially when we look at software, which also goes back to number 2. Everything has a system and we spend more time thinking about how something came to be rather than just taking it for granted.
   
   
4. We can take a huge project and cut it down into bite-sized tasks. We face this every day. Someone wants an application to manage a multi-national corporation with 2,000 employees. Of course, that someone also has no idea about the details of the system or what it exactly has to do. That's our job and we are damn good at it! Before you know it we'll have a giant to-do list with a feature by feature breakdown. Let's see you philosophy majors do that.
   
   
5. We are better at managing things. Checkbooks, to-do lists, shopping lists, home improvement projects, bills. You name it and we'll name a website that we use to track, analyze, and complete it. We are organization freaks when it comes to data (most of us, however, are not so good at keeping our desks clean).
   
   
6. We see life as one giant application. Present us with a problem and you'll usually get a straightforward answer with detailed steps to take. Now, if you are a guy, you realize this can sometimes be a bad thing, since most women aren't asking you a question to find a solution, they just want to talk (We of course, will never understand this - just stop trying.)
   
   
7. We are not afraid of failure. Why? Because we fail daily. In fact, usually dozens of times per day. Half our day is spent trying something, and the other half is spend fixing the mistakes we made. We know they happen and focus more on solving the problem than getting it right the first time. Iterate, iterate, iterate!
   
   
8. We can type without looking down. And we won't hesitate to laugh if you can't. But seriously, we take pride in our intimate knowledge of the tools we use, and spent a lot of time finding ways to be more productive. This spills into other sectors of our lives, which is a very good thing. As programmers we are trained to look at something and try to figure out a better way of doing it (which is why there are a billion social networking sites, and a quarter million of any other type of website out there).
   
   
9. We aren't afraid of trying something new. We do this every day. Being involved with technology requires us to learn a new tool, programming language, or standard practically every week. While some of us cherish our programming language more than our ability to walk, we are generally open to learning something new to improve our lives. This is also why we are so fascinated with new gadgets. Programmers get tired of things very quickly, so anything new and exciting is going to make our hearts race. Marry a programmer and everything in your house will always be cutting-edge (WiFi refrigerator with email notifications, anyone?)
   
   
10. We can make anyone seem stupid when it comes to computer. Oh you want to do that with your computer? *click* *click* *enter*. There you go! To people who aren't that familiar with computers, that's Merlin style magic! Ok we are actually seen as geeks but this list had to have 10 items (there's the OCD again)