Being a very unproductive person at times…mainly because I enjoy procrastination so much. However, I have noticed that this is cutting into being, well, productive. So I set out on a search Google search for some personal productivity tips and immediately found why I can (sadly) never be productive.

Then, I happened to find Productivity501. Productivity501 is run by Mark Shead and is dedicated (and does by the way) to giving you tips and tricks to help increase your personal productivity. After reading only a few articles, I got hooked and even added his feed to my Google homepage.
The first article that caught my attention was obviously the iPod Contest for reviewing the site..yea, I’m a sucker for the chance at a free iPod…either way there are some really great tips here. Some articles hit really close to home ( Internet–Friend or Foe for Productivity? and The Habit of Lateness). Even though it hurt my feeling to see that someone had been watching my habits, Mark had some very solid advice on breaking my “issues.”
I also found an article called Effective Web Browsing that had some very simple but effective advice on making the most of your browsing time, something I do very poorly. For example I do love bookmarking sites (since I use multiple computers) and a tabbed browser (Firefox) is a must, but a simple thing like a time limit?

“Set a time limit for browsing. By giving yourself a resonable time limit, you’ll keep yourself focused on things that are really important to you instead of following every random tangent hyperlink.”

Simple, common sense advice, but yet very effective.
Some other articles worth your time (be productive!):
Top 5 Time Savers
Top 5 Time Wasters
The Most of Your Minute (lots of these, great quick tips)

As far as the site goes here are some PROs & CONs:
PROS
- clean and simple site layout.
- Found in Google, Yahoo & MSN search engines (I searched for “personal productivity.”)
- great advice; simple, effective and easy to apply tips.
- The iPod give away is a great idea for boosting visitors & getting linked from other sites.
- RSS feed and the simplicity of adding to Google homepage(a big plus for me anyways.)
- add were there (Google) but done tastefully and not too overbearing.

CONS (not that I have any room to brag being a new blogger and all)
- even though I found the site on some major search engines it was normally on the 4th page of results for terms I would highly associate with the site. (I originally found Productivity501 using Google Blog Search.
- graphics included with the posts are kind of dull ( overall the advice makes it worth it though.)
- clicking the “read more” link to read the entire blog is kind of annoying for someone trying to save time but I suppose it also lets you browse more articles on the main page to see if they are applicable.
- even though I love and use Google you might want to add more RSS feed options that are easily available at the top of the page.

It will be definitely be interesting to see how the give away works for his stats. For both of you reading my blog take the time to check out Productivity501 and enter the contest. I would only ask a to share the iPod for a day a week if you win.
Cheers.