entrepreneur

Relaunching Computers for the Community

- bluemonkeydev

Connecting our community one computer at a time

I am really excited to announce the re-launch of Computers for the Community — a 501(c)(3) non-profit that takes donated computers, has them refurbished by volunteers, and then sells them for a small administration fee to those in the community who need them. Computers for the Community was founded in 2007 and has served hundreds of low-income families around Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but in the past few years it has been scaled back due to the original founder’s other commitments. Read more

The Best Blogs Delivered

- bluemonkeydev

Optimizing your Blog reading with Hacker Monthly

I read a lot of books every month, but virtually no periodicals. In fact the only two publications that I read every issue of religiously are Hacker Monthly and 2600 Magazine. There is a theme here, they are both curated content from the “hacker” community. But not the negative meaning of hacker, rather the meaning that refers to those who make things work better, like “Life Hacking.” Read more

Standing Desk Experiment

- bluemonkeydev

Sitting is the new smoking

Some of my colleagues were talking about a standing desk and how nice it would be to not sit all day long. Long lists of random studies about sitting were quoted, although not corroborated, in an attempt to get a standing desk at the office. This was perpetrated by exactly two of my twelve colleagues, so the numbers were not on their side . Regardless, we had an empty cubicle station that could very easily be converted to a standing desk in about 15 minutes. Read more

Life Hacking Office Hours

- bluemonkeydev

Adding four more productive hours per week by taking Friday afternoon off

A few years ago we changed our office schedule from 8-5, Monday through Friday, to 7:30-5:30 Monday through Thursday and 7:30-11:30 on Friday, often referred to as “summer” hours by many companies. We thought we would give it a try for a few months over the summer and see how it went, expecting that we would eventually switch back to more traditional hours.

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Finish Every Task in Half the Time

- bluemonkeydev

Smart time management with Parkinson’s Law

Over the past few months I’ve been on a mission to optimize my time and efficiency of task completion. This will not be the last time you read about my pursuit of optimal time utilization – I’ve got a lot to say about the topic. I’m pretty sure I am driving my coworkers crazy, but hopefully they are at least enjoying the ride. After all, our time is so short, we owe it to ourselves to optimize everything we do. Read more

Can’t Someone Else Do That For You? Defining your sweet processes

- bluemonkeydev

Put more time into your business by assigning repetitive tasks using SweetProcess

In general, I have a rule that if you do the same task three times, it needs to be automated. This is a common guideline which I have heard from many engineers and entrepreneurs over the years. However, some tasks are not well suited for automation, especially when the work crosses different platforms, formats, or requires an additional layer of human eyes for quality assurance. Those tasks need to be defined, documented, and passed onto someone else to perform so you can focus on building your business. Read more