No this is not about bonuses or pay raises.

Its about an idea I read about recently to help overcome procrastination. We all know procrastination is evil. It robs us of the benefits of proper prioritization, wastes time and since time is money, procrastination wastes money.

Here’s the idea:

Write down your specific goal with a clear deadline on it on a cue card. Paper clip a $2 bill (or $5 is you are really adventurous). If you complete the task by or before the deadline, you get to take that money and spend it on yourself for a treat. But here’s the kicker… if you don’t complete it by the deadline – tear up the $2 bill and throw it out. Its a token of your wasted time (time=money). The book reports that even the worst procrastinator won’t miss more than 2 deadlines after this.

I suppose the real trick would be actually following through with the self-threat. But if you really do – I’m sure you’d be meeting all sorts of deadlines, increase your productivity, and likely increase your overall net-worth as you accomplish more.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

On April 28th I attended Finovate Startup 09 as a Startup presenter. We presented on Moday the 27th as a pre-recorded demo, while other presented on the 28th. The demo video is being professionally edited and will be available in about a week. I`ll post it when its available.

The event was a lot of fun, we met a lot of great people, saw what the competition is doing and what our real strengths are. Surprisingly, there are only a few companies who allow for planning future finances. Most only focus on reporting on whats happened in the past. Planning for the future is clearly one of CalendarBudget`s strengths. Also, our calendar format is a clear winner when compared to the other interfaces, most of which just show transactions and planned events in a list. We did glean some ideas for future development, however, we`ll have you the users vote on what we should be doing next.

We have a little bit of clean up surrounding our subcription code to complete this week, then we`ll start posting more `whats next` ideas for you to vote on.

There are 2 camps of personal finance products.

1. Those that connect directly to your online bank account and pull your financial information for you and attempt to automatically categorize your purchases.
2. Those that require manual input but are much more secure since they don’t touch your actual bank account.

CalendarBudget falls under camp #2. We feel that security these days is one of the most important aspects of online personal finance management. Since this model does not connect directly to your bank, there is some manual input required to get your data into CalendarBudget. Until now, that has meant checking what actually happened with your bank account and manually entering each transaction into CalendarBudget one at a time (reconciling). Admittedly, this was a tedious process. However, the act of seeing each transaction has a benefit – that is, you get to know your money habits much better than if everything is automated.

Recently, CalendarBudget introduced a Bank Reconciliation Assistant, which keeps this important benefit of understanding your spending habits while reducing the tediousness of reconciling between your online bank transaction history and CalendarBudget.

For ongoing reconciling, you can now export your account history to an OFX file (these are sometimes called MS Money or Quicken export files – depends on your bank/credit union) and then import this file into CalendarBudget. CalendarBudget then automatically picks out the transactions that are already in your budget and correct and marks the transactions that need to be added or merged, making the reconciling process MUCH easier and faster.

Here’s how it works.

1) Export your data to an OFX file. (This sample screenshot is taken from ScotiaBank’s online banking interface)
2) Login to CalendarBudget and select the Bank Import tab in the sidebar (its the new 3rd tab). Click the browser and select your OFX file from step 1. Then click the Load Transactions button.
3) You’ll now see the transactions that need to be added/merged in this list. If the date has a red X beside it, the balance for that day is not correct. This either means that the transactions below that are red need to be created or merged, or that there are entries in your budget plan on the calendar that did not actually happen on that day that should be deleted or moved into the future.
If the red transaction already exists in the calendar but just has the wrong amount, or is on the wrong date, simply drag this red transaction from the list onto the corresponding calendar entry. You’ll then be prompted to confirm the update of that calendar entry to move to the correct date and update the amount. The original transaction name and category will be preserved.
If the red transaction needs to be created (it doesn’t already exist in the calendar), simply drag it to any blank spot or day header on the calendar and you’ll be prompted to create that entry and optionally give it a more descriptive name and category.

After a few minutes of reconciling using this new Bank Reconciliation Assistant, even a budget that has been neglected for a few weeks is easily updated with no frustrating addition, subtraction and flipping between screens trying to compare balances on your budget and online banking transaction history.

This feature has been a long time coming for CalendarBudget. Already I’ve been using this and its a HUGE relief compared to the old way. I hope you find the same.

The most time consuming and dreaded part I face when cooking is chopping/grating the ingredients like cheese, carrots, peppers, or onions (ingredients I use quite often). With a family of seven it requires much more time to do the chopping/grating because I need to make larger batches of a recipe, usually 2 or 3 times what a recipe calls for. The trick was to make that process go faster and not so dreaded.

I’ve recently RE-discovered one of my kitchen tools, my food processor. At least 4 of my 5 girls don’t like onions or peppers so I need to chop them fine enough to not be seen (what a tedious job), but can still add flavor. My food processor chops it much smaller and much faster than I can do so it’s perfect. Now I can hide any undesired ingredients in whatever I’m making and can still ensure the girls get the needed vitamins. Plus if I’m going to be adding the ingredients at the same time, I can chop them in the food processor at the same time (so long as I need them chopped to the same size). One things I’ve used it for lately is grating carrots and zucchini for a huge pot of chili (wonderfully cuts chopping time in third). Then I like to freeze leftovers for another time saver… a quick dinner when I don’t feel like cooking. I add pasta to bulk it up and make it stretch farther.

I also like to buy a large amount of cheese when I see an awesome sale, grate the cheese in the food processor and freeze it in 1 cup portions. This allows me to save time AND money. I save time in two ways, by grating ahead of time in big portions while I’m already using the food processor and the food processor is much faster than doing it by hand. I use this cheese only in recipes where the cheese will be cooked because it’s not noticible then if the cheese has a fresh taste or not. You want that fresh taste for sandwiches, crackers and cheese platters, or other things like that. Having the cheese frozen in small quanities makes it quickly and easily used because I already know the portion of cheese in the bag.

What are your favorite kitchen tools that help save you time and possibly even actual dollars?

My friend told me something recently that he witnessed and it left him puzzled. He was building a house on a construction site building and the house next door was also being constructed by professional contractors. Each day at noon, they would stop work and pile into their work trailer for 15 minutes and then come out and resume their work. At the end of the day they would pile into the trailer again for 30 minutes and then all leave and go home. As I watched and saw them repeat this each day I became even more curious and wanted to know what they were doing, so I asked. The lead guy said that each day at noon they would all go into the back of the trailer and sharpen their tools. Then, at the end of the day they would shapren them again and change the blades with fresh ones for the next day. He went on to say that their work went faster and was of better/higher quality of workmanship because they were working with freshly sharpened tools. Also he said that it made their work a pleasure – working with a sharp blade is a joy.

I recently discovered for myself what difference it makes to use tools that are wearing down or to use tools that are in good repair. I have a cordless drill that I thought would be the best thing to have in order to not be limited by where the cord can reach. It has not lived up to what I expected though. The charger for my cordless drill has broken down and even after buying a new battery (which I figured was the problem in the first place – battery worn down and not taking a charge anymore) my drill has little power and so it goes slow and doesn’t last long. Also the blade for my circular saw is getting dull and so it was taking longer to cut through the wood (not to mention the smoke and black edge it left on the wood) I bought to build some shelves in my basement. I asked my Dad if I could borrow his drill and borrowed his circular saw at the same time. It made an amazing difference to use his sharp blade compared to my dull blade. It went faster, smoother and straighter. Plus I didn’t have the wood starting to show signs of overheating and burning from too much friction. I could see immediately that I was going to get the job done much faster and with better workmanship; and I was not frustrated – it was a joy!

One tool I use constantly is my brain in my profession of software and web development. I remind myself every now-and-then of things that I need to do in order to keep that tool in top shape as well (enough sleep, proper food, some exercise). I find that when I am not taking proper care for my physical body, my mind starts to work slower, I end up missing some steps, or I’m slower to respond and sometimes just can’t find an answer but stare blankly at the screen. Then I have to take a break and do what’s necessary to help my brain go faster, more efficietly, and be able produce a higher quality of work.

Keeping my tools in good repair has proven that, in the long run, it is of greater worth on my time and other means. If you want to save time, make sure your tools are sharp also.

A second opinion may have helped

Have you ever started a project and realized half way through (or worse, once its “completed”) that a better design would have either saved you time or done a better job?? This has happened to me countless times.? Now, I try to get a second opinion, preferably from an expert, but even from a non-expert person, to validate my plans *before* starting the implementation.? Often, my plans will change with someones opinion – and on occasion I’ll change the entire concept, or even not do the project, due to someone’s opinion.

A single opinion is never superior to that of several.? Now… often I’ll discard others opinions if I’ve already thought through their objections, but often they think in angles I haven’t, which can make the design of my [computer software, woodworking project, gift idea, paper airplane, etc...] idea better because I can adjust for the angles I didn’t consider. If you try to amend a design after implementation, it can be impossible or very difficult to change – often resulting in expensive and time-consuming workarounds, rather than a better design.? Sometimes additional ideas can be easily integrated even after implementation has started – but don’t count on it!? Also – its still a good idea to get more opinions even after starting – because maybe you CAN easily change things for the better, but its always best to get opinions from the start.

I have a wall clock hanging in the main room of my house. The clock was custom made as given as a gift for my graduation from college. Its an elegantly framed computer keyboard (on the bottom, and on the top is a centered clock fixture, on the right side is a small brass abacus, and on the right is a small printed circuit board. Behind the clock fixture is inscribed on a brass plate, “Time is Money”. It fetches lots of great reactions, but its message is singluar.

We’re all familiar with this saying, and I think we intrinsically understand it without a detailed explanation. However, I think we often fail to apply logic in correlation with this understanding (me included). Here are a few things that we commonly waste time with, that if changed, will win back precious time, reduce frustration, increase focus and ultimately increase the amount of money we can earn. More…

In the spirit of Time = Money, I’ll post some time saving tips on Mondays to hopefully give you back some time to spend either managing your money, or perhaps something even more important, like spending time with your family.

Watching my wife work on a computer drives me absolutely crazy. I know lots of shortcuts and time savers and my mind is usually way ahead of the computer interface. When I watch her use the computer, and see her not using the shortcuts I’ve become accustomed to, or worse, see her dwell on a screen when the next step is (to me anyway) obvious, frustrates me to no end. I’m still learning patience on this one… try to teach rather than always do… but for the rest of the world, here are just a few of the time saving tips that will give you minutes and possible hours of your day/week back. Some of the following tips apply to windows machines only (sorry Mac friends – please post your tips as a reply):

• When word processing and moving from one word to another, don’t scroll with just the arrow keys, 1 character at a time. Hold down the CTRL button while hitting the arrow buttons on the keyboard. Now the cursor moves a whole word at a time, not just 1 character at a time.
• Similarly, don’t delete 1 character at a time. Hold down the CTRL button and delete to delete a whole word at once. More…