My friend Jay White, who runs the large and well-known DumbLittleMan blog, has graciously asked me to guest post on his blog, which is a “tips for life” type of blog.

My post was put up there today, and I figured I’d pass along the link to anyone who doesn’t mind reading my work off-site:

• Keep Your Day Super Productive
  

I believe Staples made an error of omission. Their old slogan “Staples, yeah, we’ve got that” seems to be missing a crucial last part and so does their new slogan “that was easy”. Today I ran into a Staples in Manhattan to buy some RAM for a computer, and had a very odd shopping experience.

As an internet entrepreneur, it can sometimes be difficult to stay organized. A constant flood of information is at your fingertips - leading to information overload. As we enter 2008, with New Years Resolutions at the forefront, I thought I’d take time to share some great organizational tools that I’ve found to help me on a daily basis.

I recently changed my Verizon Wireless phone, and figured I would share with you the exact steps necessary to do this (while my memory is still fresh). Considering Verizon Wireless has more than 63.7 million customers, I’m sure quite a few readers here either had this question, or will have a need for this within the next few months. Don’t worry, it really isn’t hard, although I wish their toll free line would do a better job of getting me a human instead of a machine for the first 10 minutes.

You know the old saying, “being in the right place at the right time”? That is usually used as a sign of luck, rather than carefully planned action. But what if we could be at the right place at the right time more often than just by luck?

I have found over the years, that you can market anything a lot easier if you ask yourself one question:

What question does the customer have, but isn’t even consciously aware of?

Pligg, the creators of free web software that works like Digg (where users vote submitted content up to the front page), announced in their second birthday newsletter some exciting news. They plan to launch Fraxi soon, which will operate like the Ning of Pligg.

To those of you who aren’t familiar with Ning, they offer a 5 minute setup for your own branded social network. This way you don’t have to worry about installs, upgrades, maintenance, and all the other obstacles for non-techy users to build their own sites.

Surfing the last few weeks, you may have noticed Pontiac’s new ad campaign targeting women for the Torrent, a crossover utility vehicle. Titled “Crossover Confessions”, the mini-site shows you a few features the Torrent touts (safety, cargo, engine) and then encourages you to “confess” and “unload your baggage” on their site. I wasn’t terribly impressed with the mini-site, and for good reason.

I checked my mail today, and found a thick envelope with a candy cane attached.  I’m still excited by the surprise of actual mail (sometimes even junk mail), and rushed to open it, when I noticed it oddly was addressed to my apartment number - not me.  Only slightly disappointed, I pulled out a letter with illustrated Santas, reindeer, and Christmas trees.   After looking at the header, I recognized the letter was from my landlord.

Sometimes, we all need that kick in the pants to get motivated to accomplish something.  Whether it’s listening to pumped up music before the big game, exercising each morning, or rewarding ourselves with little chocolates, no single method works all the time. 

Today I stumbled across a site designed (and I use that term loosely) to show you just how lazy you are, and make you feel very underachieving.  Why would I share this with you?

Partially, because it is very entertaining (warning: productivity threat), and also in the slight chance that you might actually be motivated to do greatness as a result of it.

TomTom and Google announced a partnership today, and it is a particularly interesting one.  Tom Tom, maker of the popular portable GPS systems many people use in their cars, plans to let users send addresses from Google to their devices.

While Tom Tom already has “Points of Interest” on its devices, Google Maps will soon be able to be transferred right over with one click. This should cause a lot of moving around in the young industry, and here are some thoughts on what might happen.

Analysis