…or 49 pages.

Came across this excellent guide written by Trent Hamm at his website simpledollar.com.  If you like what you see in this guide, it represents just a small portion of this great stuff he has on there.

What it all comes down to is:

1) Spend less than you earn

2) Live Frugal

3) Earn More

4) Manage Your Money

5) Control Your Own Destiny

Whether you are a blogger or someone who forwards YouTube videos to all your friends on your distribution list the following website gives some great tips on how to make YouTube more useful for you.

By adding the following extentions listed in the link to YouTube URL’s you can do such things as have a video start at a specific spot in a video, disable the related video feature, autoloop or autoplay an embedded video.  Great hacks to know

LINK: 10 YouTube URL Tricks You Should Know About

Lifehack.org describes it as “any hacks, tips and tricks that get things done quickly by automating, increase productivity and organizing.”

Lifehacker.com explains that its website, which is dedicated to publishing life hacks, as “tips, shortcuts, and downloads that help you get things done smarter and more efficiently.”

The term originated from a man by the name of Danny O’Brien who studied and polled a group of highly productive computer programmers versus their less fruitful piers.  O’Brien summarized his research in a 2004 presentation called Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks. Sounds like a fun read!  From this point websites and blogs such as the two listed above as well as 43Folders.com and ZenHabits.net emerged – among others – as places to go to learn about such tricks and hacks.

In future posts I am going to focus more on some of these simple ideas I have picked up on.  In the meantime I thought I would provide some links to some of the better posts I have found online.

Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks lifehacker.com

Top 42 Exercise Hacks zenhabits.net

Peter Walsh’s Clever Hanger Trick 43folders.com

50 Ways to Make Your Home more Organized, More Attractive, and More Efficient lifehack.org

Do you set New Years Resolutions?  I have seen plenty of articles online over the past few days that argue the resons for and against the idea.  Regardless, I don’t think anyone can argue with the fact that people who not only set goals but also track them are much more productive than those who do not.

Yesterday lifehacker.com posted some links to sites that provide free online goal tracking apps.  Of all those listed my favorite is a site I have been using called JoesGoals.com .  As you can see from the screenshots the idea behind this site is very simple: list your goals, assign them a weighting with a point system and most importantly don’t break the chain.  One of the reasons why I think this site offers one of the best free apps online is that it is very customizable to be what you want it to be.  So once again check it out whether you’ve just put pen to paper or if you are looking for a better way to hold yourself accountable.

Thoughts come at the most random times.  For me it is almost always while I am in the shower and while I am driving.  I still have yet to come up with the idea for the shower but I do have a solution for the car or in any other situation where you need to make a hands-free note: Jott.com.

My cell phone is programmed to dial up (866) JOTT-123 anytime I need to make a 15-30 second note to myself or even someone else.  Pulling out of work I will all of the sudden remember that I forgot to get Mr. Portwood the TPS report with the new coversheet on it.  Thats ok – I just dial Jott and say, “First thing in the morning make sure to get Portwood the TPS report.” Jott will then convert my voice into an email that goes straight to my inbox within about 10 minutes.

Until about 3 months ago Jott was completely free, however, most of the services still today come at no cost.  Additional things that I use Jott for are:

Updating my status on Facebook and Twitter

Sending myself a task on Remember the Milk (more on this cool web app later)

Sending someone an email or text message (now part of premium service)

Posting to my blog (tried and tested on Blogger and WordPress)

Give it a test.  Its not always 100% accurate, but I would say that about 90% of my words now are right on.  Do not expect Jott to serve as your personal secretary – the woman on the other line cuts you off at about the 30 second mark so dont expect it to transcribe your entire days notes at that incredibly captivating continuing education course you just sat through.

If you have an iPhone Jott has released a FREE app that will do all the dirty work minus a phone call.

I have been off-line for a while and as you can see I have also taken down the previous content on the site.  To be honest writing about politics and the economy was just to depressing and I think there are others who do it a whole lot better with a voice that reaches far more people.  Do not misunderstand me, I will continue my punditry, however with the sea of like themed blogs on the political and economic front I do not think another website about those subjects are the best format for my message.  A few weeks back I saw the following from a favorite website despair.com :

I have no desire to be one of those people.  If I am going to contribute to an online community of bloggers I want it to be meaningful and reaching.  With that in mind I am going to venture into something that I share an equal enthusiasm for but that I do not see enough good content online of: personal productivity.  From Stephen Covey to most recently David Allen I have always had an intense interest in not only how to get more out of my time but how to actually get things done.  Going forward this website will be dedicated to the pursuit of all the “life-hacks” I have learned in the pursuit of getting things done.  I hope you will send feedback and share ideas – Lord knows no one has the corner on all the good ideas and secrets out there.  My initial project will be to talk about the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology as taught by David Allen.  There has been a growing online community out there that has really embraced the practice and theory behind this method and yet no one I know personally has ever heard of David Allen or GTD.

Other areas of getting things done and life-hacks that I want to explore include:

Tips and tricks to becoming a better consumer

How to process email and get your inbox to zero

How to plan

How to set and reach goals

How to get the most out of your money

The best tech devices and software to help you get things done (especially how it relates to my latest addiction: the iPhone)

So, if you have kept me on your blogroll or RSS Feed in this past month, thank you.  I am back.  You may need to recatagorize me but I hope in the end you will like what you see.