In case your boss is an ex-Marine and you're trying to convince him to approve your social networking budget, here's a story that might help: the Marines have launched their own social networking site at Our.Marines.com. The site is not exactly Facebook (it's more of an advertorial...
Think the time you spend answering e-mail, composing IMs, and trolling Twitter doesn't have an impact? Think again. A recent study by research firm Basex puts the "cost of unnecessary interruptions" in terms of lost productivity and innovation at a shocking $650 billion. Merlin Mann blogged about the cost of...
The Internet might be a wonderful thing, but it's also a productivity killer. Why? U.S. office workers waste about 20 percent of each day, and surfing the Web tops the list of time-wasting activities. Even valid, work-related Internet usage, such as answering e-mail, reading news, and using...
Rick has mentioned it before, but here's another reminder that if you're looking for an online collaboration tool, Basecamp is the way to go. I use Basecamp wikis to collaborate on story ideas for the magazine I run, collect tips for Business Hacks, and manage several different small software projects....
Business cards: How 20th-century. Dropcard lets you exchange your contact information -- and then some -- with others using only your cell phone. It's a free service, and it's pretty cool. Let's say you meet someone at a trade show. Instead of handing over a business card...
Sure, it's already a great phone, Web browser, e-mail client, and so on, but your iPhone can be used for so much more. Internet Service Deals lists 100 ways to turn an iPhone into the ultimate productivity tool. A few of my favorites: Find out where people...
Looking for a good Web-based task-management app ? You might want to check out Remember the Milk RTM. The folks at Black Belt Productivity rave: "Remember the Milk is an excellent task management app that excels with its use of tagging and smart lists through the use of its...
After lurking on the site as one of the new product managers for BNET, I wanted to use my first post to let you know about a new site feature that will be debuting shortly. Our comments will soon be displayed in a...
Do you find Facebook a helpful tool for maintaining and growing business contacts, or are you contemplating what Harvard Online editor Paul Michelman is about to do: "Defriend" all his business contacts. As a business tool, says Michelman, Facebook is not working, and it's...
Think email is controlling your work life? Check out the in-box of John Halamka, the chief information officer for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. According to a recent Boston Globe story, Halamka "leaves 50 percent of his day's schedule open for responding to...
If your iPhone service plan doesn't include text messages or you routinely burn through your monthly allotment, here's a trick for getting unlimited SMS without spending a penny. In a nutshell, you install the iPhone AIM client iTunes link, then add new AIM contacts in your desktop instant-messaging program (iChat, AIM,...
In honor of today's iPhone 3G launch, here's a clever new app that taps the new model's GPS capabilities: G-Park, which helps you navigate back to where you parked your car. All you do is tap the Park Me button optionally adding details about where you parked. Later, when you...
What do Tyco Services, Huatai Group, Ford Malaysia, L'Oreal Argentina, Barclay's Bank of Ghana and The Ethical Investment Company of Australia all have in common? Each is among the 630 companies the United Nations Global Compact has booted off of its worldwide list of participants for failure to submit a...
Maggie Jackson's book Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age," is getting real buzz. I got this subject line in my email yesterday: Are You Feeling Distracted? (My first thought: just about every minute of the day.) Are you feeling saturated...
As someone who flies frequently but whose only loyalty is to the airliner that can get me the cheapest seat to where I'm going, I almost always find myself with a bunch of miles spread out over a bunch of frequent flier programs. Which is why I have subscriptions to...
Last week, online auction giant, eBay, said it would appeal a $63 million ruling against it by a French court, which found the company liable for facilitating the sale of counterfeit luxury goods, including the famed Louis Vuitton signature handbags. The suit was brought by LVMH Group, which owns the...
A while back I posted on "Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything," a new book written by three experts from the Boston Consulting Group, Harold L. Sirkin, James W. Hemerling and Arindam K. Bhattacharya. A smart discourse on how local companies in developing economies, such...
If you don't delegate, you won't actually kick the bucket. But there are times when doing it all by yourself makes you feel like you're ready for an early grave, right? It that sounds like you, executive coach Leila Bulling Towne has some advice on how to hand off and...
Going in vacation this summer? With the high price of fuel, increasing the costs of plane trips, road trips and even train trips, you might be better off staying home with a good book. But for how long? That depends on where you live. As BNET1's Jessica...
As people continue to pinch pennies in a slowing economy, how does the seller of upscale products and services convince them to buy items that are impractical Hummer, unnecessary Amazon rain forest excursion, or expensively luxurious Lobster of the Month Club? The answer is simple. Lay...
