Passwords! My God, don’t you need a frigging shitload of them these days? I have a love/hate relationship with Digg, I keep forgetting the password I have there (it’s because they don’t allow special characters like ? @ ! &), forcing me to go through the annoying process of resetting it, confirming that via email, rethinking a new password, working my way through all the errors caused by special characters, compromising me in a password that I’m bound to forget again.

I was listing the passwords I use online, and it was plain scary. The list is enormous, and I haven’t even finished it yet (scroll down for the list). Argh!

A lot of them share passwords, because my brain capacity is limited (or I’m just too lazy to have different ones for each site). Most of them I use only once in a while, but some of them I use daily. And these are where you can put your passwords to work for you. You can turn them into a fun and productive event, rather than an annoying but necessary event.

Passwords you use frequently, should change frequently as well (how annoying is that!?). And they should be strong passwords too, if you care about the content they are protecting (or to satisfy the IT guidelines). This can sometimes be a real challenge, but with these simple tips you can turn them into assets, instead of a nuisance.

List your goals

This is something I’ve used a lot. Whatever goals you have, use them for your passwords. I’ve used passwords like:

• Finish2ndFloor!
• GrowBlogNow
• Get2500RSS

They’re pretty strong passwords, and when you’re typing them you get reminded instantly of what you want to achieve.

Prevent pitfalls of bad habits

When you log into one of your biggest time wasters for instance (IM, gaming, Twitter, Facebook, whatever), remind yourself that it’s a time waster. Use a passwords like:

• OneHourIsEnough (upper and lower case, not too bad)
• RUsure? (special character added, pretty strong)
• 1h=Q2>1h=Q4 (yay, Covey in action with a very strong password)

Learn spelling

Pick a word you have trouble spelling word and use that as a password. The sheer repetition will make sure you’ll never spell it wrong again.
Examples: Definitely - Opthalmology - Massachusetts - Prolificacy

Learn (a couple of words in) a foreign language

It can be fun to add some foreign words to your vocabulary. Want to know how to say beer in 20 langauges? Just look them up and use them as passwords:

• Spanish:Cerveza
• French:Biere (okay, accents are a problem)
• Italian:Birra

Or use the real translation:

• Merde=Damn
• Giornale=Newspaper
• Freizeit=LeisureTime

Extend your vocabulary

Use a new word and it’s meaning as the password. The trick is to find synonyms here, because the dictionary meanings tend to be long.

• Prolificacy=Fruitfulness
• Defiance=Resistance
• Superfluous=Redundant

Use affirmations

Affirmations are a popular technique to get you (back) in a productive state, or a harmonious state or whatever state you want to be in. In a lot of self improvement books the use of positive affirmations is advocated, but how often are you going to sit and read them out loud to yourself?

But if you use them as your passwords, you will repeat them often. Some examples:

• I’mFinanciallyFree
• IAm@Peace
• MyBodyVibratesWithEnergy

Have fun!

Admitted, it’s only a microhack. It’s not going to massively change your world, make you more productive, increase your IQ, expand your network or whatever. But it turns passwords into fun, and you might also learn something.

The sites I need passwords for:
So far I have: StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse, Facebook, Twitter, Twitterfeed (via OpenID), Reddit, Gaia (former Zaadz), MyBlogLog, WordPress.com, How to be an Original (admin interface), WordPress DIY (admin interface), Feedburner, Joe’s Goals, Flickr, iStockPhoto, several bank accounts (4), Paypal, Neteller, Dutch State Lottery, Gmail (google, thanks for sharing passwords across ALL services!!), Lotus Notes at work, Hosting at Argeweb, Hosting at GoDaddy, Cell phone account at Orange (2), Internet Provider, alumni network of former employer, bol.com, Amazon, Text Link Ads, Linkworth, YouTube, Revver, several online poker accounts (pokerstars, partypoker, and the likes) and counting…

Photo by dyobmit

Editor’s note: This post is written by Heather Johnson, who writes for Bootstrapper blog.

If you find yourself constantly rushed to finish your day’s work, then you need to start spending your time more wisely. The harsh reality is, you probably have plenty of time to get your work finished. With the following little tips, you will soon be spending that time much more wisely:

1. Maintain a Professional Calendar – Stop scribbling things down on sticky notes and start using a professional calendar. Whether it’s an electronic planner or a bound appointment book, you need to get organized.
2. Stop Overscheduling – Be sure to leave at least a fourth of your day open and free of appointments. You never know what will arise, so give yourself a little wiggle room.
3. Don’t Surf the Net – While you may need to check your email at work or do some other online tasks, steer clear of time-wasting sites. The Internet is one of the biggest drains on work productivity in every office.
4. Socialize Less – It’s both a blessing and a curse when you work with people you enjoy. The more you want to talk with them, the more you fall behind with work. Even if it’s your boss who likes to hang out, politely excuse yourself and stay on task.
5. Learn to Delegate – Are you a control freak at work? Sometimes, it’s okay to let some work go to someone else. In fact, if you are seriously overwhelmed, you must learn to delegate.
6. Be Punctual – Do you routinely slip into work 15 minutes late? Take extended lunch breaks a few days a week? Even if you work at a place that is cool with that, your tardiness could be eating into your schedule more than you realize.
7. Relax – Anxiety causes massive brain drain, which will slow your productivity. If you’re stressed because you’ve fallen behind, then your bad mood will only compound the problem.

By following the above advice, you will quickly start to feel more relaxed and productive at work. This will not only make your life less stressful, it will get you out of the office on time and with a clear conscience.

Heather Johnson is a freelance business, finance and economics writer, as well as a regular contributor at Business Credit Cards, a site for business credit cards offers. Heather welcomes comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

In my last weekly review I promised that I would post about how working with the daily planning sheets turned out for me. But this post is going to be a really short one, because I’m about to leave on a ski trip.

• I learned that they’re useful when I use them
• I learned that they’re useful when I don’t use them (and wish I did)
• I learned that there’s a discrepancy between planned available time and reality
• I learned that some occurrences disrupt you’re planning to such an extent that you have to start all over
• I learned that most of those occurrences are out of your control
• I learned that the way you deal with those occurrences determines the extent of their effect
• And I learned to leave room for the eventuality of such an occurrence in case of activities with deadlines

Rocket science? Hardly, but obviously something I had to go through before understanding. Next step is to master this skill.

But first holidays! I’ve got one post for scheduled for next week for you guys. I’ll be back with a regular weekly review on March 9.

The last two days something really interesting is unfolding on some blogs I follow (and some I didn’t follow yet). It’s something like a pub crawl between blogs, with online entrepreneurs and freelancers challenging eachother to put each other’s lessons in practice.

Christine O’Kelly (Self Made Chick) was put “On Notice” by Dave Navarro (Freelance Folder / Million Dollar Leverage), when he decided to start a 30 trial by putting the lessons of Christine’s e-book into practice. Christine in return shouted out to Dave to “Show her the money“, taking up a similar trial with the time management lessons of Dave.

Both of them are pushing themselves to improve, and openly challenging, praising, questioning and discussing what they experience. It’s a lot of fun to follow and read and discuss along. More great people are following and discussing, like James Chartrand (Men with Pens), Monika Mundell (The Writers Manifesto), Michael Martine (Remarkablogger) and Naomi Dunford (Ittybiz).

E-books

I somehow missed the fact that Christine published a 26-page e-book “How I Built A Profitable Freelance Business for Under $50 (And How You Can Too!)”. I got my copy, but have yet to read it (probably tonight).

I did download and read Dave Navarro’s e-book “How To Turn Your 24 Hour Day Into a 30 Hour Day”. Sign-up for his newsletter to get your copy. It’s a small e-book as well, but it really rung a bell with me. Dave touches on some points that I had discovered in recent months as well. He talks about not getting started, about keeping focus and eliminating distractions, about keeping yourself accountable for your goals and about having too many goals. So he got my attention!

Now where’s the cash?

Well the C.A.S.H. is a four-step program Dave discusses in his book:

• Clarity - identify your top priority using a checklist
• Accountability - review progress on a regular basis
• Strategy - adjust your strategy until your done!
• Honor - honor the process, by starting over

That’s in a nutshell where the cash is, and how you can find your 6 hours. If you want to know more about it, download the book.

My top priority? Plan my days!

Well, it’s been staring me in the face for a while now. When I used the simple checklists of Dave, they pointed out to me that I’m doing pretty good at my time results management already. My single top priority is to plan my days though. Planning my days is something that I have not been doing, but with a tendency to overcommit and a tendency to underestimate the time needed to complete a task, it’s quite essential.

So I created my own daily sheet to plan my day. Basically it’s a sheet of paper with a timetable divided into 30 minutes segments, with a column for my planning, a column for my actuals and a column for remarks. I’ll put it up for download soon. Update: download the daily planning sheet (pdf) here.

I’ve only been working with it for a day and a half now, so it’s hard to say that I have achieved results with it. I have noticed some thing already:

• It has made me more aware of how I spend my time and on what.
• It works as a focus tool, reminding me when I’m not working on the stuff I planned.
• It’s going to be a great reference to learn about how much time certain activities actually require.

And Dave’s convinced that most people who feel that they overcommit, are actually underplanning. So if I get this down, maybe I don’t feel overcommitted anymore.

I’ll keep you posted!

If you don’t crack the shell, you can’t eat the nut. - Persian Proverb

Cracking the shell is a necessary activity to find the nut and eat it. The same goes for theories and concepts. Applying it to a real life situation is like cracking the shell of that theory. And the lessons you learn are the golden nut of insight you find inside that shell.

Cracking the shell is exactly what this post is about, and the nut we’re cracking is the theory of the Time Leadership matrix (or Eisenhower matrix). In this article, I’m going to present a case study on how to use this technique. I took my own blogging activities as the subject.

Time Leadership - a short recap

Time Leadership is a term coined by Stephen Covey and it’s about taking control of your activities by determining their relative importance and urgency. I’ve written about this concept before when I discussed Covey’s habits and I even made a sketchcast about it.

For a quick recap: The Eisenhower Matrix has two axes:

• Importance
  Do you regard the activities as important? This is defined by you: What’s important with respect to your values, ambitions and goals?
• Urgency
  Is there time pressure to do the activities? Time pressure is often applied by others, or by circumstances.

Combined, these two axes create a matrix with four quadrants:

• I: Quadrant of Stress
  Activities are both important and urgent.
• II: Quadrant of Value
  Activities are important but not urgent.
• III: Quadrant of Deception
  Activities are not important, yet they are urgent.
• IV: Quadrant of Regret
  Activities are neither important nor urgent.

The Time Leadership Matrix for my Blogging Activities 

I’m going to discuss all the topics in the matrix briefly, but for your overview I present the entire matrix beforehand (click for a larger version).

Click to continue »