The co-founder, Gaetano Caruana, of FruitfulTime, publishers of a task/list manager software for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, wrote to me and asked me to review his product.

Disclosure: I received a software license in return for my review and Gaetano assured me he wants my unbiased and impartial review only because anything less would insult my readers’ intelligence.

You’re smart, folks. So here it is.

Part 1 — Stop Procastination Now eBook

FruitfulTime comes in a .zip compressed download package bundled with a free Adobe .pdf eBook.

I found this book very valuable personally. Your mileage will vary.

It arrived at the right time for me, when I was at last begining to see personal results from my new commitment to self-management, often misnamed “time” management.

You may delay, but time will not.
— Benjamin Franklin

Read the rest of this entry »

The blog marks growth and not just sales and productivity.

One challenge was lifestyle. Until recently, I wasn’t exercising and eating healthy.

This fellow, Jack Lalanne, is a nutrition and physical culture pioneer. Well respected, drug free, and still going strong at 93, his words and the energy and passion he delivers them with are as relevant today as ever before, only more so.
Read the rest of this entry »

Appreciate the power of goals and determination… must watch. If this clip doesn’t get to you, you’ve something other than blood running through your veins.
Read the rest of this entry »

Gaetano Caruana, Co-Founder of FruitfulTime, wrote to me.

He read this blog and asked me to review TaskManager v1.0.
Read the rest of this entry »

I came across an interesting article about writing “affirmations” to help you achieve by Scott Adams.

You know, the guy who writes the Dilbert comic strip:

“But some of my goals involved neither hard work nor skill of any kind. I succeeded with those too, against all odds.”

— Scott Adams

It reminds me a lot of the “Autosuggestion” concept in this “Think and Grow Rich” audio by Napoleon Hill I’ve been listening to recently.

I’m going to do it, or something close to it.

Hey, I think the tech people deserve to be paid well.

But as Greek programmer Nick Georgakis reminds me…

Dilbert’s “Salary Theorem” states that “Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives, sales people, accountants and especially liberal arts majors.”

This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following two well known postulates:

Postulate 1: Knowledge is Power.   Postulate 2: Time is Money.

As every engineer knows:
        Power = Work / Time

Since Knowledge = Power, then:
        Knowledge = Work / Time

And since Time = Money, then:
        Knowledge = Work / Money

Solving for Money, we get:
        Money = Work / Knowledge

Therefore, as knowledge approaches zero, money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done.

I just received some memorable customer support from host-tracker.com, a well-known website “uptime” monitoring service based in the Ukraine.

I was near the end of my full feature free trial when I was contacted by “Artem” (I won’t reveal his last name for privacy reasons) by email.

I wrote back to say it wasn’t monitoring my sites properly. It said I had zero uptime, when clearly this isn’t true.

He said he’d work with me to fix that. I wrote back and said he doesn’t have to because I’ve looked at my needs and the free plan is the only thing I need right now anyway. I didn’t really think we could resolve the problem without a great deal of effort.

And in a way, I was right. Without mentioning money or a full service plan, Artem wrote back and immediately began helping me solve it with clear and insightful instructions and QUESTIONS. I am a big believer in asking questions to solve a problem.
Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATED: February 26th, 2008 with a Great Endorsement

Common wisdom has it that Apple is prettier.

Not just the computer, the operating system with scrolling images to browse, that sort of thing.

I found a nice add-on to Mozilla Firefox. It can liven up a Windows user’s visual browsing experience. Or a Mac’s too since it’s fully compatible.

The meat is coming up in just a moment after the intro… ever lose that great website you were looking at before which had the answer to your problem? Or a better way of doing something? And of the six different ones your reviewed, this is the one you’re going with? And now you’re looking through your browser’s history log trying to find the right site mixed in with dozens of similar sounding names? Well stay tuned because a major NASDAQ traded software company may be introducing the answer…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m really into efficiency TACTICS as opposed to “strategies”.

They each have their place.

Yes, when you cut out things you don’t need to do this is a good thing. However, if you’re over your teenage years you might have actually figured out what you like to do. So rather than have someone tell you you should shut off your high-def TV and wake up an hour earlier, wouldn’t it be nice to get some of the things done you have to do anyway in a fun stress-free way so you can turn on the game or pick up your favourite magazine?

So that’s why these past few months I’ve gotten into learning about personal productivity.

Here’s a terrible secret…
Read the rest of this entry »

It is with sadness I note the passing of a man I never met in real life nor even corresponded with, who nonetheless communicated in a friendly and informative way which helped me personally.

Marc’s site, Office Zealot, and specifically the GTD Zone was one of the first Getting Things Done® sites I added to the Productivity category of my “blue ribbon Favourites” in the right-hand sidebar. Only yesterday I decided to get as many feeds delivered to me as possible rather than visiting all these great sites so I signed up for his site’s XML feed… and learned a few minutes ago of his untimely death due to a heart attack.

I wish the best and most peaceful future possible for Marc’s soul and I also wish his friends and family strength during this difficult time. Please realize Marc lived his life in such a way he helped people whom he didn’t even know existed like myself.

That says something about the man.