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Monthly Archives: April 2013

4 Gmail Hacks to Dominate your Inbox and Cure Email Addiction

Gmail-Cure Email Addiction

Update: Revised on 2/7/15 from 3 hacksĀ to 4 hacks!

If you check your email every 5 minutes, I’ve got news for you: this not the best way to get things done, and it may be adding a lot of needless working hours to your day.

Unless your primary responsibility is “respond to any and all email,” or there’s a mission critical contract out that needs to get signed, or your project management solution has completely failed and there is absolutely no other way to get a hold of you, I would suggest another approach.

Email is, after all, asynchronous communication. It’s not a chatroom, it’s not a project management tool, and it won’t substitute for talking to someone on the phone or in person. It can also wreak havoc on brain-intensive tasks (28% of your time could be wasted by interruption).

Like any tool, there are efficient and not so efficient ways to use email. Here are a few game-changing productivity hacks, some I’ve been doing for years and a couple game-changers I’ve implemented just recently:

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The No ATM-Fee, Bulletproof Travel Financial System

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Don’t let your checking account get cleaned out by ATM fraud, and don’t get robbed by the banks while traveling.

Note: This post was partially inspired by reading my new #1 favorite book on money: I will teach you to be rich by Ramit Sethi. It’s the 4-Hour Workweek for your personal finances and highly recommended!

A friend of mine once used an ATM in Honduras, and 24 hours later found her entire travel savings had evaporated. That’s right, $15,000 disappeared from her checking account. She was stranded with a credit card, $200 cash, and a promise from her bank that they would ‘look into it in the next 45 days’.*

This post outlines a simple way to make sure that never happens to you.

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Why I Stopped Booking Airline Tickets in Advance

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Or how I nearly blew $1500 booking tickets I didn’t need last year.

Back in the day, airline tickets were really expensive and inflexible. Not anymore.

Welcome to the world of low-cost, flexible world travel.

While visiting family in February I decided not to get on my flight home. I wanted to spend some additional quality time there so I just didn’t show up for my flight.

Mom was flabbergasted: “You can do that?!”

Yep. You’d be amazed by what airlines let me get away with last year.

This conversation led me to the realization that in the last 19 months, every single flight I pre-booked more than a few weeks in advance I either didn’t get on or had to change for a lot of $$$.

If I no longer have pre-defined location constraints, and if pre-booking flights is both “a major turnoff” and expensive, why would I still do it?Continue reading >>