Productivity @ Home

Dictionary for Dads

On Tuesdays,I share my thoughts on Family Life.  Today's guest article was submitted by Robert Livingstone, Co-Founder and Vice President of Dictionary for Dads.  His website looks to be a comprehensive resources, filled with resources for not only dads, but anyone interested in family life issues.

Dictionary for Dads arose amid concerns of every day fathers who sought to promote their knowledge, education, experience and resources as it pertains to becoming an excellent father. As an organization, our goal is to assist fathers in raising healthy and happy children and nurturing a great relationship with them.

Having experienced many dilemmas as a father of three I made a very clear assessment that there is very little quality literature available for dads today. The role of a  fathers at times becomes so complex and I personally could have used some direction like a Dictionary For Dads

Dictionary for Dad’s provides resources and information which  are fundamental in assisting men in making informed decisions based on education, research and practical experience all provided by Dictionary for Dad’s. In doing so, we strive to reinforce the positive male role model in our society while increasing the social welfare of children throughout our world.

We understand that parenting is often complex and confusing with many variables including but not limited to nutrition, medical, psychological, developmental, environmental, marital, social and academic. It is our aim to provide every dad with education, information and resources for all dilemmas when they occur.

Dictionary for Dad’s believes that the label of a “dad” is one which is earned not one that is provided through birth.

For additional information visit http://www.dictionaryfordads.com/

The Price of Productivity

On Thursdays, I share my thoughts on Finances.

Yesterday's USA Today article entitled AirTran's in-flight Wi-Fi service takes off with test flight caught my eye.  Who among us hasn't bemoaned the hours stuck on an airplane without a wireless connection as a complete "waste" of three, four, or even a dozen hours? 

I don't know why I would have expected airlines to be giving wireless connnectivity away, but for some reason the $12.95 price ($9.95 for flights less than 3 hours in duration) shocked me.  Is it worth $13 to be able to get online during a flight, check email, and perhaps get caught up on a few blog posts? 

I suspect it depends upon whose paying the bill.  For those corporate employees with expense accounts, it seems like a no brainer - get online, remain connected, and don't lose half of your workday.  But for those of us who work @ home, we need to ask ourselves the cost benefit ratio of plunking down that money and how productive we plan to be with that time. 

I have used recent flights to review books submitted to me, to edit my own manuscript, or even to watch a movie onboard and write a review of it for one of my websites.  The time offline doesn't have to be a time dump if you plan ahead and bring work with you that can be done without an internet connection.  I also wonder if Air Tran's pricetag includes wifi while at the gate, where one could frequently spend multiple hours waiting for take off.  In certain instances, if that were included in the price, I might -- on occasion -- invest in the price of on-board wifi.

Will you pay the price airlines are asking for a few added hours of productivity?  I'm not sold...yet.

Learn and Do Everything in Less Time

On Wednesdays, I share my thoughts on Learning and Professional Development.

A big thanks to Kelly from ClearViewEducation.com for calling to my attention their recent post entitled 100 Awesome Cheat Sheets to Learn and Do Everything in Less Time.  Since personal productivity is all about "Getting Things Done", this is the type of cheating that works for me!

The Cheat Sheet list includes a broad cross section of topics including hobbies, productivity and organizing, finances and home and garden.  The "Laundry 101" Cheat Sheet is going to get printed and posted in my laundry room alongside the "Cleaning Cheat Sheet" so that I can spend more time enjoying the "Wine and Food Pairings" Cheat Sheet!

Is compiling lists of things that will make life less complicated cheating?  I call it good time management and recommend you head over and check out 100 Awesome Cheat Sheets to Learn and Do Everything in Less Time today.

Have a post to share?  Email me any time at lisahendey@gmail.com if you have a tip on personal productivity that will help our readers!

Putting Your Best Face Forward on Google

Have you “googled yourself” lately?  Some may think taking time to look up your own name on any major search engine is vanity. But for many who use the web as a business and networking tool, checking up on your online presence is as important as making certain the information on your business card is current and correct.

Last month, on its official blog, Google announced an enhancement to its user-created “Google Profile” feature that gives you increased control over the search results yielded in a Google search of your name:

To give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name, we've begun to show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. name-query search pages. These results offer abbreviated information from user-created Google profiles and a link to the full profiles. We've also added links so it's easy to search for the same name on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn.

If you are concerned with your online presence on the web, now is a good time to spend some time refining your personal Google profile.  Chances are, if you are a preexisting Google user with an account, you may already have the beginnings of a profile created.  To create or add information to your Google profile, simply go to http://www.google.com/profiles and either create a new account or edit your profile with the information you would like included.  My profile, located at http://www.google.com/profiles/lisahendey includes my personal bio, links to all of my websites, and contact information that is visible only to my pre-approved contacts.  You may edit your contact preferences to provide this information to a more broad or very limited audience, or keep it entirely private.  Additionally, if you use Picasa, Flickr or other online photo services, you may choose to include photos on your Google profile.

Some in the blogosphere have already begun speculating about the detrimental effect of this move by Google as yet another power grab:

But someday, when Google needs more ad revenues, the walls within Google will fall.  Its spiders follow the links you gave it — it will classify your Flickr photos, root around in your blog posts and Twitter feeds, check out your friends and then it will be able to build a very complex profile of you in order to sell you to advertisers.

I’ve chosen to disregard these dire warnings and to update and refresh my personal Google profile with the information I want “out there” on the web.  Additionally, I use the Google Alerts feature to receive a daily email update on the latest Google results for my name.  Very frequently, these alerts have brought to my attention reprints of my articles, my name mentioned on blogs, and other circumstances where someone has written about me.  If you own a business or have your own website, you may also want to set up alerts for your website or business name to keep on top of this flow of information.

What do you think about the prospect of Google holding so much information about your personal data? If you’ve set up a Google Profile, what do you think about this service?  Does it concern you as it does the blog writer for Wired, or do you consider it a “fact of life” in today’s information age?