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  • Communications Suite: New Patches Available

    - by joesciallo
    Two new patches for the following Unified Communications Suite component products are now available: Calendar Server 6.3 patch 53 Connector for Outlook 7.3 Update 1 patch 17 Download details: Connector for Microsoft Outlook 7.3: 139162-17 Calendar Server 6.3: 121657-53 (Oracle Solaris SPARC) 121658-53 (Oracle Solaris x86 ) 121659-53 (Linux) Reminder: As a workaround to learning about new Communications Suite patches, you can use the Confluence watch feature to monitor the Communications Suite Component Patches page. When new patches are available, this page is updated with that information. You then receive an email message that this page has been updated. The watch feature is available under the Tools menu when you are logged in to wikis.oracle.com.

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  • Screen Scaling Problem

    - by Glenbot3000
    I think this is what it's called but I'm not quite sure tbf, aha. Yeah, so I updated packages last night like I do every night, and when I booted my computer this morning I had a problem whereby the display ran over the edge of the screen. This has been a problem for a while, but I rectified it by changing a setting on the nVidia program, however I think it has been updated to remove said feature as I can't find it anymore. I have no settings on my screen to adjust this either, so I'm sorta stuck without the ~20px around the contour of my screen. It is a problem at all available resolutions. Here's a lil' pic of my problem: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByPHeBI8W35GcmZYOThWZ0hGd0k/edit Edit: Probably also worth mentioning the screen was originally detected as "Laptop" in the Display setting and had many resolutions to choose from, however now it's displayed as "OEM" and only has three.

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for November 7, 2012

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Updated Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) Class | @OracleSOA Oracle SOA Team blogger Gary Barg has news for those interested in a skills upgrade. This updated Oracle University course "explains how to use Oracle BAM to monitor enterprise business activities across an enterprise in real time. You can measure your key performance indicators (KPIs), determine whether you are meeting service-level agreements (SLAs), and take corrective action in real time." Oracle Solaris 11.1 update focuses on database integration, cloud | @markfontecchio TechTarget editor Mark Fontecchio reports on the recent Oracle Solaris 11.1 release, with comments from IDC's Al Gillen. Thought for the Day "Why is composing symphonies tough? I don't know. It's just very few people in the world can do it well. And I think that's the case with upfront design. It is very hard to do well." — Martin Fowler Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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  • Aspose.Words 9.0.0 Released! A word processing component for .NET applications

    What is new in this release?  The long awaited version of Aspose.Words for .NET 9.0.0 has been released. This new release of Aspose.Words includes plenty of new and remarkable features like updated/rebuilt a table of contents, handling embedded OLE objects, ISO 29500 Transitional support,  Footnotes rendering, EPUB embedding and many more.   The list of new and improved features in this release are listed below - Table of Contents (TOC) fields are now updated/rebuilt....Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • Ubuntu frozen on boot screen; boot repair fails due to X11 and gtk

    - by anandsun
    I have a year-old HP Pavilion dv6 with Intel i7 processors and graphics card. I had Windows 7 but last week I dual booted Ubuntu. It was working fine until today. I did the following things: Updated Gnome and installed Gnome tweak tool Uninstalled Chromium browser Uninstalled Google Chrome Moved jdk and jre folders from ~/ to /bin using sudo Moved Adobe folder from ~/ to /bin using sudo Then I restarted. Ubuntu froze for half an hour on the purple boot screen. Something I did must have broken it. So, I hit Ctrl + Alt + F1 and managed to log in through the command line. From there, I ran sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade. I also updated grub. I also installed boot-repair. However, I cannot run boot-repair, because I keep getting the following errors: Autolaunch error: X11 initialization failed RuntimeError: Gtk couldn't be initialized.

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  • Laptop suspend appears broken, what must I roll back?

    - by M. Tibbits
    Question: What package contains the subprogram responsible for the KMenu option "sleep"? Background: I've been running KUbuntu 10.04.1 and I am completely updated. Recently (within the past month), the "sleep" menu item has stopped working. It just sits there waiting like I clicked nothing. I've check all of the logs in /var/log and nothing is added when I click sleep. I'm guessing that something I updated has bollux'ed things up, but I don't know which package contains the component that I need to roll back. In the meantime, I've installed uswsusp, but s2ram & s2both don't ask my password when the laptop resumes -- which really bothers me. So now that I've got a little time to track this down, I had to post -- any ideas??

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  • Is there a way to sync my laptop's Ubuntu install with a jumpdrive Ubuntu install?

    - by trezy
    So I'm doing a fresh install of Ubuntu on my laptop right now. I also have a jumpdrive with Ubuntu installed on it with a persistent setup. What I would like is to be able to plug the jumpdrive into my laptop and have the installs sync certain data. I don't want docs and such to sync of course, but I would like some software to sync with installs and updates, mostly security and recovery stuff. Here's an example of what I would like to happen: I already have TestDisk installed on my jumpdrive but I haven't booted the drive in a while. I plug it in to my laptop where TestDisk has been updated and Wireshark has been installed. I would like the jumpdrive to check to see what has changed on the laptop install (in this case TestDisk has updated and Wireshark has been installed) and make those changes to the jumpdrive. Is there any kind of software to do that?

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  • Silverlight 4 What Devs Need to Know

    Tim Heuer has done a great post on the Silverlight 4 released. Availability of tools announcement. BEFORE you run off to Tims blog please READ THIS If you need to continue doing Windows Phone 7 development, stick with the Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate for now!  The updated CTP of the Windows Phone developer tools is not quite done yet.  Information about updated tools availability will be forthcoming on these tools.  Stay tuned. When you visit Tims blog you will be prompted...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • Upgrade to 13.04 was not successful. Gstreamer not working. What do?

    - by user172214
    I finally decided to upgrade to 13.04. In the middle of the installation my computer froze completely, and so I decided to force quit. I log back on, and notice that the login says 13.04, but not everything was updated. So I run the software updater. Some of the stuff gets updated, but not everything, I suppose. I try to run Rhythmbox, but it says that it's not able to form playback, and that the Gstreamer was messed up, and to please check installation. I don't know what other bugs maybe running. That's just the first I've encountered. The software updater won't let me update anymore because it says the updates need authentication.

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  • Compiz plugin (Grid) does not update in CCSM

    - by pileofrocks
    I upgraded to 13.10. Compiz itself has been updated properly to 0.9.10.2, but in CCSM, one* plugin (Grid) shows up as the old version. I know it has been changed and I can actually see the updated version when I log in with another user. This hints of some kind of a problem with per-user settings? (* Actually I'd expect this to involve other if not all other plugins too, but I have simply not yet noticed others.) So far I have tried: resetting Compiz settings to defaults (GUI-way) does not help completely removing & reinstalling compizconfig-settings-manager and compiz-plugins packages does not help In 13.04, I had a patched/old version of the plugin, but I doubt it is about that since everything is fine with the other user (that user account existed already in 13.04). What configuration files I should try deleting?

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  • Bookmark these Useful Support Notes

    - by DebaChatterjee-Oracle
    I am often asked by customers whether we have a document or paper on frequently asked Multitenant questions ? Since a FAQ type page needs to be frequently updated we have created a note in My Oracle Support. This note is maintained by Oracle Support and is continuously updated as we find new questions from our customers.  You can access the FAQ page here (1511619.1).  In addition to this page we have also created a master note for the Multitenant Option. This note is a good starting point for learning the basics of Oracle Multitenant. The master note can be accessed here (1519699.1).

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  • Unity does not load after update

    - by Kenpachi
    There is no unity dash or nothing after I updated my system last night. System Information : Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Release: 14.04 Codename: trusty Kernel Version : 3.13.0-27-generic And I have NVIDIA drivers 331.67 installed. I have also tried to fix this by following the advice from this post : Unity doesn't load, no Launcher, no Dash appears But no luck. In the CompizConfig Settings Manager, Ubuntu Unity Plugins is enabled, but no unity, even after a reboot. If there is a way to retrieve the list of packages which got updated the last time, please tell me so that I can post them here.

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  • Ubuntu 14.10 no GUI or term login

    - by Lito
    I have updated yesterday my Ubuntu 14.10 installation with apt-get dist-upgrade. I was working all afternoon and after that I have rebooted computer. Once done it, lightdm doesn't starts (only gnome logo) and I can not view any of Ctrl + Shift + [1-6] terminals (cursor is blinking). I have read a lot of posts with no success: nividia/intel conflicts (I have a laptop with an Intel graphic card) I have enabled nomodeset and tried all this options My computer boots to a black screen, what options do I have to fix it? I have repaired grub I can load recovery/livecd/windows and mount partitions and network without problem I have all packages and system updated Here my logs. X11 not shows any error or problem, is loading all needed drivers without problem. How can I raise the level of debug? Best regards.

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  • Ubuntu 12.10, mouse double click by itself

    - by Ribi
    I updated ubuntu 11.10 some time ago and I had a problem with my mouse. When I click somewhere it would double click by itself. It was pretty anoying as I would start 2x my application almost each time. Then, some update came and the mouse was better. But now, I updated to 12.10 and it does the same thing again. I'm using an Logitech MX Revolution. I don't know what I can do to resolve this problem? Thanks

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  • BeansBinding Across Modules in a NetBeans Platform Application

    - by Geertjan
    Here's two TopComponents, each in a different NetBeans module. Let's use BeansBinding to synchronize the JTextField in TC2TopComponent with the data published by TC1TopComponent and received in TC2TopComponent by listening to the Lookup. The key to getting to the solution is to have the following in TC2TopComponent, which implements LookupListener: private BindingGroup bindingGroup = null; private AutoBinding binding = null; @Override public void resultChanged(LookupEvent le) { if (bindingGroup != null && binding != null) { bindingGroup.getBinding("customerNameBinding").unbind(); } if (!result.allInstances().isEmpty()){ Customer c = result.allInstances().iterator().next(); // put the customer into the lookup of this topcomponent, // so that it will remain in the lookup when focus changes // to this topcomponent: ic.set(Collections.singleton(c), null); bindingGroup = new BindingGroup(); binding = Bindings.createAutoBinding( // a two-way binding, i.e., a change in // one will cause a change in the other: AutoBinding.UpdateStrategy.READ_WRITE, // source: c, BeanProperty.create("name"), // target: jTextField1, BeanProperty.create("text"), // binding name: "customerNameBinding"); bindingGroup.addBinding(binding); bindingGroup.bind(); } } I must say that this solution is preferable over what I've been doing prior to getting to this solution: I would get the customer from the resultChanged, set a class-level field to that customer, add a document listener (or action listener, which is invoked when Enter is pressed) on the text field and, when a change is detected, set the new value on the customer. All that is not needed with the above bit of code. Then, in the node, make sure to use canRename, setName, and getDisplayName, so that when the user presses F2 on a node, the display name can be changed. In other words, when the user types something different in the node display name after pressing F2, the underlying customer name is changed, which happens, in the first place, because the customer name is bound to the text field's value, so that the text field's value will also change once enter is pressed on the changed node display name. Also set a PropertyChangeListener on the node (which implies you need to add property change support to the customer object), so that when the customer object changes (which happens, in the second place, via a change in the value of the text field, as defined in the binding defined above), the node display name is updated. In other words, there's still a bit of plumbing you need to include. But less than before and the nasty class-level field for storing the customer in the TC2TopComponent is no longer needed. And a listener on the text field, with a property change listener implented on the TC2TopComponent, isn't needed either. On the other hand, it's more code than I was using before and I've had to include the BeansBinding JAR, which adds a bit of overhead to my application, without much additional functionality over what I was doing originally. I'd lean towards not doing things this way. Seems quite expensive for essentially replacing a listener on a text field and a property change listener implemented on the TC2TopComponent for being notified of changes to the customer so that the text field can be updated. On the other other hand, it's kind of nice that all this listening-related code is centralized in one place now. So, here's a nice improvement over the above. Instead of listening for a customer, listen for a node, from which the customer can be obtained. Then, bind the node display name to the text field's value, so that when the user types in the text field, the node display name is updated. That saves you from having to listen in the node for changes to the customer's name. In addition to that binding, keep the previous binding, because the previous binding connects the customer name to the text field, so that when the customer display name is changed via F2 on the node, the text field will be updated. private BindingGroup bindingGroup = null; private AutoBinding nodeUpdateBinding; private AutoBinding textFieldUpdateBinding; @Override public void resultChanged(LookupEvent le) { if (bindingGroup != null && textFieldUpdateBinding != null) { bindingGroup.getBinding("textFieldUpdateBinding").unbind(); } if (bindingGroup != null && nodeUpdateBinding != null) { bindingGroup.getBinding("nodeUpdateBinding").unbind(); } if (!result.allInstances().isEmpty()) { Node n = result.allInstances().iterator().next(); Customer c = n.getLookup().lookup(Customer.class); ic.set(Collections.singleton(n), null); bindingGroup = new BindingGroup(); nodeUpdateBinding = Bindings.createAutoBinding( AutoBinding.UpdateStrategy.READ_WRITE, n, BeanProperty.create("name"), jTextField1, BeanProperty.create("text"), "nodeUpdateBinding"); bindingGroup.addBinding(nodeUpdateBinding); textFieldUpdateBinding = Bindings.createAutoBinding( AutoBinding.UpdateStrategy.READ_WRITE, c, BeanProperty.create("name"), jTextField1, BeanProperty.create("text"), "textFieldUpdateBinding"); bindingGroup.addBinding(textFieldUpdateBinding); bindingGroup.bind(); } } Now my node has no property change listener, while the customer has no property change support. As in the first bit of code, the text field doesn't have a listener either. All that listening is taken care of by the BeansBinding code.  Thanks to Toni for help with this, though he can't be blamed for anything that is wrong with it, only thanked for anything that is right with it. 

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  • Recommendations for taskbar

    - by user210551
    I recently updated to Ubuntu 13.10 and now tint2 stopped working. Better yet: it works, I just can not see it as the all bar is now transparent. Since Tint2 is no longer maintained I doubt it will be updated hence I'm now looking into alternative is there are any. In short: looking for a simple taskbar that sits at the bottom of the screen and that lists applications per window (no groupping!). Don't need fancy animations or widgets/features. Any ideas?

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  • MMORPG Server architecture: How to handle player input (messages/packets) while the server has to update many other things at the same time?

    - by Renann
    Yes, the question is is very difficult. This is more or less like what I'm thinking up to now: while(true) { if (hasMessage) { handleTheMessage(); } } But while I'm receiving the player's input, I also have objects that need to be updated or, of course, monsters walking (which need to have their locations updated on the game client everytime), among other things. What should I do? Make a thread to handle things that can't be stopped no matter what? Code an "else" in the infinity loop where I update the other things when I don't have player's input to handle? Or even: should I only update the things that at least one player can see? These are just suggestions... I'm really confused about it. If there's a book that covers these things, I'd like to know. It's not that important, but I'm using the Lidgren lib, C# and XNA to code both server and client. Thanks in advance.

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  • sound cuts out at random times

    - by jayb151
    Since I updated to 14.04, I have been having a problem with my sound. Every once in a while it "skips a beat." and when I say every once in a while, I mean 2-4 times a minute. It's literally that the sounds goes a way for about half a second. It doesn't pick up where it left off, but rather continues from where it should be...if that makes sense. So, if it cut in mid word, I wouldn't hear the end of the word. I didn't have this problem before I updated from 12.04. There is no popping or static, it just cuts for a fraction of a second. Any thoughts? Thanks!

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  • Synchronizing (updating) published files

    - by MucMug
    How can I update a published file and maintain the same URL? After saving an update of a published file on my desktop, it will automatically "synchronise" with the corresponding files at UbuntuOne (and it does). Problem is that the "new file", actually the updated file with the same name, is no longer published. Pressing the publish button results is a new URL. I now have to mail new URL's and change embedded links, as old URL will result in a failure to find the updated file (or indeed any file). I am not sure if it is a bug or a design flaw (maybe intentional?), but it seems strange to me.

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  • jQuery line 67 saying "TypeError: 'undefined' is not a function."

    - by dfdf
    var dbShell; function doLog(s){ /* setTimeout(function(){ console.log(s); }, 3000); */ } function dbErrorHandler(err){ alert("DB Error: "+err.message + "\nCode="+err.code); } function phoneReady(){ doLog("phoneReady"); //First, open our db dbShell = window.openDatabase("SimpleNotes", 2, "SimpleNotes", 1000000); doLog("db was opened"); //run transaction to create initial tables dbShell.transaction(setupTable,dbErrorHandler,getEntries); doLog("ran setup"); } //I just create our initial table - all one of em function setupTable(tx){ doLog("before execute sql..."); tx.executeSql("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS notes(id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,title,body,updated)"); doLog("after execute sql..."); } //I handle getting entries from the db function getEntries() { //doLog("get entries"); dbShell.transaction(function(tx) { tx.executeSql("select id, title, body, updated from notes order by updated desc",[],renderEntries,dbErrorHandler); }, dbErrorHandler); } function renderEntries(tx,results){ doLog("render entries"); if (results.rows.length == 0) { $("#mainContent").html("<p>You currently do not have any notes.</p>"); } else { var s = ""; for(var i=0; i<results.rows.length; i++) { s += "<li><a href='edit.html?id="+results.rows.item(i).id + "'>" + results.rows.item(i).title + "</a></li>"; } $("#noteTitleList").html(s); $("#noteTitleList").listview("refresh"); } } function saveNote(note, cb) { //Sometimes you may want to jot down something quickly.... if(note.title == "") note.title = "[No Title]"; dbShell.transaction(function(tx) { if(note.id == "") tx.executeSql("insert into notes(title,body,updated) values(?,?,?)",[note.title,note.body, new Date()]); else tx.executeSql("update notes set title=?, body=?, updated=? where id=?",[note.title,note.body, new Date(), note.id]); }, dbErrorHandler,cb); } function init(){ document.addEventListener("deviceready", phoneReady, false); //handle form submission of a new/old note $("#editNoteForm").live("submit",function(e) { var data = {title:$("#noteTitle").val(), body:$("#noteBody").val(), id:$("#noteId").val() }; saveNote(data,function() { $.mobile.changePage("index.html",{reverse:true}); }); e.preventDefault(); }); //will run after initial show - handles regetting the list $("#homePage").live("pageshow", function() { getEntries(); }); //edit page logic needs to know to get old record (possible) $("#editPage").live("pageshow", function() { var loc = $(this).data("url"); if(loc.indexOf("?") >= 0) { var qs = loc.substr(loc.indexOf("?")+1,loc.length); var noteId = qs.split("=")[1]; //load the values $("#editFormSubmitButton").attr("disabled","disabled"); dbShell.transaction( function(tx) { tx.executeSql("select id,title,body from notes where id=?",[noteId],function(tx,results) { $("#noteId").val(results.rows.item(0).id); $("#noteTitle").val(results.rows.item(0).title); $("#noteBody").val(results.rows.item(0).body); $("#editFormSubmitButton").removeAttr("disabled"); }); }, dbErrorHandler); } else { $("#editFormSubmitButton").removeAttr("disabled"); } }); } Dats my code, awfully long, huh? Well anyways I got most of it from here, however I get an error on line 67 saying "TypeError: 'undefined' is not a function.". I'm using Steroids (phonegap-like) and testing dis on an iPhone simulator. I'm sure it uses some cordova for the database work. Thank you for your help :-)

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  • The Art of Productivity

    - by dwahlin
    Getting things done has always been a challenge regardless of gender, age, race, skill, or job position. No matter how hard some people try, they end up procrastinating tasks until the last minute. Some people simply focus better when they know they’re out of time and can’t procrastinate any longer. How many times have you put off working on a term paper in school until the very last minute? With only a few hours left your mental energy and focus seem to kick in to high gear especially as you realize that you either get the paper done now or risk failing. It’s amazing how a little pressure can turn into a motivator and allow our minds to focus on a given task. Some people seem to specialize in procrastinating just about everything they do while others tend to be the “doers” who get a lot done and ultimately rise up the ladder at work. What’s the difference between these types of people? Is it pure laziness or are other factors at play? I think that some people are certainly more motivated than others, but I also think a lot of it is based on the process that “doers” tend to follow - whether knowingly or unknowingly. While I’ve certainly fought battles with procrastination, I’ve always had a knack for being able to get a lot done in a relatively short amount of time. I think a lot of my “get it done” attitude goes back to the the strong work ethic my parents instilled in me at a young age. I remember my dad saying, “You need to learn to work hard!” when I was around 5 years old. I remember that moment specifically because I was on a tractor with him the first time I heard it while he was trying to move some large rocks into a pile. The tractor was big but so were the rocks and my dad had to balance the tractor perfectly so that it didn’t tip forward too far. It was challenging work and somewhat tedious but my dad finished the task and taught me a few important lessons along the way including persistence, the importance of having a skill, and getting the job done right without skimping along the way. In this post I’m going to list a few of the techniques and processes I follow that I hope may be beneficial to others. I blogged about the general concept back in 2009 but thought I’d share some updated information and lessons learned since then. Most of the ideas that follow came from learning and refining my daily work process over the years. However, since most of the ideas are common sense (at least in my opinion), I suspect they can be found in other productivity processes that are out there. Let’s start off with one of the most important yet simple tips: Start Each Day with a List. Start Each Day with a List What are you planning to get done today? Do you keep track of everything in your head or rely on your calendar? While most of us think that we’re pretty good at managing “to do” lists strictly in our head you might be surprised at how affective writing out lists can be. By writing out tasks you’re forced to focus on the most important tasks to accomplish that day, commit yourself to those tasks, and have an easy way to track what was supposed to get done and what actually got done. Start every morning by making a list of specific tasks that you want to accomplish throughout the day. I’ll even go so far as to fill in times when I’d like to work on tasks if I have a lot of meetings or other events tying up my calendar on a given day. I’m not a big fan of using paper since I type a lot faster than I write (plus I write like a 3rd grader according to my wife), so I use the Sticky Notes feature available in Windows. Here’s an example of yesterday’s sticky note: What do you add to your list? That’s the subject of the next tip. Focus on Small Tasks It’s no secret that focusing on small, manageable tasks is more effective than trying to focus on large and more vague tasks. When you make your list each morning only add tasks that you can accomplish within a given time period. For example, if I only have 30 minutes blocked out to work on an article I don’t list “Write Article”. If I do that I’ll end up wasting 30 minutes stressing about how I’m going to get the article done in 30 minutes and ultimately get nothing done. Instead, I’ll list something like “Write Introductory Paragraphs for Article”. The next day I may add, “Write first section of article” or something that’s small and manageable – something I’m confident that I can get done. You’ll find that once you’ve knocked out several smaller tasks it’s easy to continue completing others since you want to keep the momentum going. In addition to keeping my tasks focused and small, I also make a conscious effort to limit my list to 4 or 5 tasks initially. I’ve found that if I list more than 5 tasks I feel a bit overwhelmed which hurts my productivity. It’s easy to add additional tasks as you complete others and you get the added benefit of that confidence boost of knowing that you’re being productive and getting things done as you remove tasks and add others. Getting Started is the Hardest (Yet Easiest) Part I’ve always found that getting started is the hardest part and one of the biggest contributors to procrastination. Getting started working on tasks is a lot like getting a large rock pushed to the bottom of a hill. It’s difficult to get the rock rolling at first, but once you manage to get it rocking some it’s really easy to get it rolling on its way to the bottom. As an example, I’ve written 100s of articles for technical magazines over the years and have really struggled with the initial introductory paragraphs. Keep in mind that these are the paragraphs that don’t really add that much value (in my opinion anyway). They introduce the reader to the subject matter and nothing more. What a waste of time for me to sit there stressing about how to start the article. On more than one occasion I’ve spent more than an hour trying to come up with 2-3 paragraphs of text.  Talk about a productivity killer! Whether you’re struggling with a writing task, some code for a project, an email, or other tasks, jumping in without thinking too much is the best way to get started I’ve found. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have an overall plan when jumping into a task, but on some occasions you’ll find that if you simply jump into the task and stop worrying about doing everything perfectly that things will flow more smoothly. For my introductory paragraph problem I give myself 5 minutes to write out some general concepts about what I know the article will cover and then spend another 10-15 minutes going back and refining that information. That way I actually have some ideas to work with rather than a blank sheet of paper. If I still find myself struggling I’ll write the rest of the article first and then circle back to the introductory paragraphs once I’m done. To sum this tip up: Jump into a task without thinking too hard about it. It’s better to to get the rock at the top of the hill rocking some than doing nothing at all. You can always go back and refine your work.   Learn a Productivity Technique and Stick to It There are a lot of different productivity programs and seminars out there being sold by companies. I’ve always laughed at how much money people spend on some of these motivational programs/seminars because I think that being productive isn’t that hard if you create a re-useable set of steps and processes to follow. That’s not to say that some of these programs/seminars aren’t worth the money of course because I know they’ve definitely benefited some people that have a hard time getting things done and staying focused. One of the best productivity techniques I’ve ever learned is called the “Pomodoro Technique” and it’s completely free. This technique is an extremely simple way to manage your time without having to remember a bunch of steps, color coding mechanisms, or other processes. The technique was originally developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 80s and can be implemented with a simple timer. In a nutshell here’s how the technique works: Pick a task to work on Set the timer to 25 minutes and work on the task Once the timer rings record your time Take a 5 minute break Repeat the process Here’s why the technique works well for me: It forces me to focus on a single task for 25 minutes. In the past I had no time goal in mind and just worked aimlessly on a task until I got interrupted or bored. 25 minutes is a small enough chunk of time for me to stay focused. Any distractions that may come up have to wait until after the timer goes off. If the distraction is really important then I stop the timer and record my time up to that point. When the timer is running I act as if I only have 25 minutes total for the task (like you’re down to the last 25 minutes before turning in your term paper….frantically working to get it done) which helps me stay focused and turns into a “beat the clock” type of game. It’s actually kind of fun if you treat it that way and really helps me focus on a the task at hand. I automatically know how much time I’m spending on a given task (more on this later) by using this technique. I know that I have 5 minutes after each pomodoro (the 25 minute sprint) to waste on anything I’d like including visiting a website, stepping away from the computer, etc. which also helps me stay focused when the 25 minute timer is counting down. I use this technique so much that I decided to build a program for Windows 8 called Pomodoro Focus (I plan to blog about how it was built in a later post). It’s a Windows Store application that allows people to track tasks, productive time spent on tasks, interruption time experienced while working on a given task, and the number of pomodoros completed. If a time estimate is given when the task is initially created, Pomodoro Focus will also show the task completion percentage. I like it because it allows me to track my tasks, time spent on tasks (very useful in the consulting world), and even how much time I wasted on tasks (pressing the pause button while working on a task starts the interruption timer). I recently added a new feature that charts productive and interruption time for tasks since I wanted to see how productive I was from week to week and month to month. A few screenshots from the Pomodoro Focus app are shown next, I had a lot of fun building it and use it myself to as I work on tasks.   There are certainly many other productivity techniques and processes out there (and a slew of books describing them), but the Pomodoro Technique has been the simplest and most effective technique I’ve ever come across for staying focused and getting things done.   Persistence is Key Getting things done is great but one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in life is that persistence is key especially when you’re trying to get something done that at times seems insurmountable. Small tasks ultimately lead to larger tasks getting accomplished, however, it’s not all roses along the way as some of the smaller tasks may come with their own share of bumps and bruises that lead to discouragement about the end goal and whether or not it is worth achieving at all. I’ve been on several long-term projects over my career as a software developer (I have one personal project going right now that fits well here) and found that repeating, “Persistence is the key!” over and over to myself really helps. Not every project turns out to be successful, but if you don’t show persistence through the hard times you’ll never know if you succeeded or not. Likewise, if you don’t persistently stick to the process of creating a daily list, follow a productivity process, etc. then the odds of consistently staying productive aren’t good.   Track Your Time How much time do you actually spend working on various tasks? If you don’t currently track time spent answering emails, on phone calls, and working on various tasks then you might be surprised to find out that a task that you thought was going to take you 30 minutes ultimately ended up taking 2 hours. If you don’t track the time you spend working on tasks how can you expect to learn from your mistakes, optimize your time better, and become more productive? That’s another reason why I like the Pomodoro Technique – it makes it easy to stay focused on tasks while also tracking how much time I’m working on a given task.   Eliminate Distractions I blogged about this final tip several years ago but wanted to bring it up again. If you want to be productive (and ultimately successful at whatever you’re doing) then you can’t waste a lot of time playing games or on Twitter, Facebook, or other time sucking websites. If you see an article you’re interested in that has no relation at all to the tasks you’re trying to accomplish then bookmark it and read it when you have some spare time (such as during a pomodoro break). Fighting the temptation to check your friends’ status updates on Facebook? Resist the urge and realize how much those types of activities are hurting your productivity and taking away from your focus. I’ll admit that eliminating distractions is still tough for me personally and something I have to constantly battle. But, I’ve made a conscious decision to cut back on my visits and updates to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other sites. Sure, my Klout score has suffered as a result lately, but does anyone actually care about those types of scores aside from your online “friends” (few of whom you’ve actually met in person)? :-) Ultimately it comes down to self-discipline and how badly you want to be productive and successful in your career, life goals, hobbies, or whatever you’re working on. Rather than having your homepage take you to a time wasting news site, game site, social site, picture site, or others, how about adding something like the following as your homepage? Every time your browser opens you’ll see a personal message which helps keep you on the right track. You can download my ubber-sophisticated homepage here if interested. Summary Is there a single set of steps that if followed can ultimately lead to productivity? I don’t think so since one size has never fit all. Every person is different, works in their own unique way, and has their own set of motivators, distractions, and more. While I certainly don’t consider myself to be an expert on the subject of productivity, I do think that if you learn what steps work best for you and gradually refine them over time that you can come up with a personal productivity process that can serve you well. Productivity is definitely an “art” that anyone can learn with a little practice and persistence. You’ve seen some of the steps that I personally like to follow and I hope you find some of them useful in boosting your productivity. If you have others you use please leave a comment. I’m always looking for ways to improve.

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