I am a small business consultant and public speaker that uses the power of the internet to leverage your success. Productivity in Context is a web magazine focused on Productivity and tools for organizing. Make this your headquarters for improving your life and work through increased mindfulness, education, and workflow practices.
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My friend Patricia Mayo, who writes the excellent blog ComHacker, has just published an e-book (the Crystal Edict E-book) on how to find, train, and get the most out of a Virtual Assistant. I’ll let her tell you a little about it:
Here’s a short list of a few things my virtual assistant is doing for me, just to give you an idea:
Research on blog topics - I give him a little nudge in the right direction, maybe even with a few trusted sources, and I get what I want in about 24 hours. If I want pictures and links like a blog post and additional references, he takes care of that too (and like a pro!).This gives me time to just write. I don’t have to waste any time finding the information, and instead get to spend every second coming up with more great ideas, and turning the research provided into provocative eye and brain candy.
Organizes my online files - As most marketer netizen types these days, I have an absolutely massive collection of ebooks, audio books, programs, PLR packs and articles. One of these days I’m going to compile all that information plus everything I have learned into a few ecourses - but I have to know what I have first!
Handles almost all my email - I probably read more in a day than a professional editor does in a lifetime… or at least it would seem that way with all the newsletters I get every single day, all with great tips, free (or practically free) downloads, invites to conferences, or the typical “buy me” questionable could-be-spam stuff.
How does that sound? Pretty good, eh? If you would like to find out more about this amazing resource and how it can work for you all you have to do is get your hands on some crayons (yes, crayons) and then click the Crystal Edict E-book link and download your very own copy of Patricia’s free e-book.
Yes I said free! Why is it free? Well:
If I, quite possibly the most over-ambitious person in the world, can bring to you this e-book for absolutely free because I not only have the time available to do it, but also don’t need money so bad I have to nickel and dime you to death - anyone can conquer their overwhelming pile.
4. Secrets to a Healthy Life - Tips and advice for people that want to jump-start a healthy lifestyle.
This is just the beginning of what is going to be an extensive library of e-books. The e-books are inexpensive ($9 or less), they’ve been well-designed and are written by experienced bloggers. There is even a preview of them right on the site to get a feel for them before you buy them.
Leo and Glen are on the cutting edge of Web 2.0 with Web Warrior Tools. I believe that joining together to create this resource is going to be the first in a series of new business ideas that hit the internet this year. You can even get involved as a Web Warrior Tools affiliate.
Leo has an interview posted at ZenHabits with none other than the remarkable Stephen Covey, whose work The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People we have been delving into for three weeks. I recommend that you read the comment thread, too, as it is quite animated.
Leo has also released his new e-book:
…the Zen Habits Handbook for Life — it’s a series of my best articles on making your life simpler, on becoming happier, and on getting more productive.
I put this e-book together at the request of a number of readers, who wanted the essential Zen Habits articles gathered in an e-book format. I’m certain you’ll enjoy it!
This book looks to be just as informative as the Zen to Done productivity method that he wrote last year. Click this link to order the book for immediate download, for only $6.95!
As a bonus, if you go to this post on Personal Mission Statements, one of you can win a free copy simply by leaving your own Mission Statement as a Comment. What’s in this e-book, you ask? Well, how about:
Section 1: Simplicity
Decluttering
Single-tasking
Edit Your Commitments
Eiminate All But the Essentials
Don’t Do Everything on Your To-do List
The Art of Doing Nothing
Declutter Your Mind
72 Simplicity Tips
Eat Slower
Section 2: Productivity
Purpose Your Day: Most Important Tasks
Focus on the Big Rocks
Clear Out Your Inbox
Clear Your Desk
Become an Early Riser
Become Motivated When You’re in a Slump
Make the Most of Your Laziest Days
Decompress After High Stress
And more, including an entire section on Happiness. And who couldn’t use a little more happiness in their life.
Thanks, Leo, for sharing.
Following links around the Internet is always fun, maybe not very productive, but it can be educational. I was reading about the Kindle from Amazon, and came across a terrific piece written over a decade ago:
This article appeared in the February 1997 issue of Communications of the ACM (Volume 40, Number 2).
(from “The Road To Tycho”, a collection of articles about the antecedents of the Lunarian Revolution, published in Luna City in 2096)
For Dan Halbert, the road to Tycho began in college—when Lissa Lenz asked to borrow his computer. Hers had broken down, and unless she could borrow another, she would fail her midterm project. There was no one she dared ask, except Dan.
This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her—but if he lent her his computer, she might read his books. Aside from the fact that you could go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books, the very idea shocked him at first. Like everyone, he had been taught since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong—something that only pirates would do.
Well, Dive Into Mark spotted this too, and tied it together with a few other pieces and came up with this:
When someone buys a book, they are also buying the right to resell that book, to loan it out, or to even give it away if they want. Everyone understands this.
You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content. In addition, you may not, and you will not encourage, assist or authorize any other person to, bypass, modify, defeat or circumvent security features that protect the Digital Content.
There are five more sets of quotes that are a must read.
And after reading this, I started to get a vision in my head of what they must have been thinking over at Amazon when they were brainstorming the name “Kindle“.
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June 5th, 2008 by Stephen
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…the Zen Habits Handbook for Life — it’s a series of my best articles on making your life simpler, on becoming happier, and on getting more productive.
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