10 Killer Job Interview questions and Answers

From http://www.bspcn.com/2007/08/24/10-killer-job-interview-questions-and-answers/

Behind every interview question there is a concern or another question. Your job is to process the question thinking about what the interviewer’s concern might be. In other words, why is the interviewer asking you this question?
Q#1 – How long have you been looking for a job? (Concern – is there something wrong with you that other employers have picked up?)
A#1 – “After I was laid off from my last job, I took the opportunity to take some time out to examine my career goals and where I was going with my life. I have just begun my search in the last few weeks. I have a definite goal in mind and have been selective about the positions I consider. Your company and this position are of great interest to me.”
Q#2 – How did you prepare for this interview? (Concern – are you interested enough to do some research, or are you going to “wing it”?)
A#2 – “When I found this position posted on the internet (monster.com) I was immediately interested. I checked out the company website and mission statement, looked at the bios of company founders and executives, and was impressed. Once I had the interview appointment, I talked with friends and acquaintances in the industry. And, I’m sure I’ll find out a lot more in today’s meetings.”
Q#3 – What is your salary expectation for this job? (Concern – Can we afford you? Can we get you for less than budgeted?)
A#3 – “I’ll need more information about the job and the responsibilities involved before we can begin to discuss salary. Can you give me an idea of the range budgeted for this position?”
Q#4 – How do you keep current and informed about your job and the industries that you have worked in? (Concern – Once you get the job do you continue to learn and grow – stay challenged and motivated?)
A#4 – “I pride myself on my ability to stay on top of what is happening in my industry. I do a lot of reading – the business section of the newspapers and magazines. I belong to a couple of professional organizations and network with colleagues at the meetings. I take classes and seminars whenever they are of interest, or offer new information or technology.”
Q#5 – Tell me about a time when you had to plan and coordinate a project from start to finish. (Concern – behavioral questions – seeking an example of specific past behavior)
A#5 – ” I headed up a project which involved customer service personnel and technicians. I organized a meeting to get everyone together to brainstorm and get his or her input. From this meeting I drew up a plan, taking the best of the ideas. I organized teams, balancing the mixture of technical and non-technical people. We had a deadline to meet, so I did periodic checks with the teams. After three weeks, we were exceeding expectations, and were able to begin implementation of the plan. It was a great team effort, and a big success. I was commended by management for my leadership, but I was most proud of the team spirit and cooperation which it took to pull it off.”
Q#6 – What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? (Concern – ability to be flexible and work in a diverse environment?)
A#6 – “In my last three jobs I have worked with men and women from very diverse backgrounds and cultures. The only time I had difficulty was with people who were dishonest about work issues. I worked with one woman who was taking credit for work that her team accomplished. I had an opportunity to talk with her one day and explained how she was affecting the morale. She became very upset that others saw her that way, and said she was unaware of her behavior or the reactions of others. Her behavior changed after our talk. What I learned from that experience is that sometimes what we perceive about others is not always the case if we check it out.”
Q#7 – We expect managers to work more than 8 hours a day. Do you have a problem with that? (Concern – are you a work-aholic or a person who requires balance?)
A#7 – “I have no problem working long hours. I have worked 12 or 14 hour days. What I have found works for me is to work smarter, not necessarily longer. My goal is to get the job done, whatever that takes, in the most efficient manner.”
Q#8 – When have you been most satisfied in your career? (Concern – what motivates you? Or demotivates you?)
A#8 – “The job before the one I am currently at, was my most rewarding experience for me. I worked in a wonderful team environment. There was a lot of camaraderie. I worked with a team of four people and we did some really original thinking. It is that kind of environment I want to be involved in again.”
Q#9 – Why do you want this job? (Concern – are you using the shot-gun approach to job search or do you really know what you want?)
A#9 – “I’ve been very careful about the companies where I have applied. When I saw the ad for this position, I knew I found what I was looking for. What I can bring to this job is my seven years of experience, and knowledge of the industry, plus my ability to communicate and build customer relationships. That, along with my flexibility and organizational skills, makes me a perfect match for this position. I see some challenges ahead of me here, and that’s what I thrive on. I have what you need, and you have what I want.”
Q#10 – We are ready to make an offer. Are you ready to accept today? (Concern – we don’t want you to go away and think about it and change your mind – we want you.)
A#10 – “Based on my research and the information I have gathered during the interview process, I feel I am in a position to consider an offer. I do, however, have a personal policy that I give myself at least 24 hours to make major life decisions. I could let you know by tomorrow.”
There is no way you can accurately predict the questions that will be asked in an interview, but you can be ready and prepared by thinking about the factors that might concern an interviewer or employer before the interview.

50 COMMON INTERVIEW Q&A

From http://bhuvans.wordpress.com/2006/08/19/50-common-interview-qa/

Review these typical interview questions and think about how you would
answer them. Read the questions listed; you will also find some
strategy suggestions with it.

(Excerpted from the book The Accelerated Job Search by Wayne D. Ford, Ph.D, published by The Management Advantage, Inc.)

1. Tell me about yourself:
The most often asked question in interviews. You need to have a short
statement prepared in your mind. Be careful that it does not sound
rehearsed. Limit it to work-related items unless instructed otherwise.
Talk about things you have done and jobs you have held that relate to
the position you are interviewing for. Start with the item farthest
back and work up to the present.
2. Why did you leave your last job?
Stay positive regardless of the circumstances. Never refer to a major
problem with management and never speak ill of supervisors, co-workers
or the organization. If you do, you will be the one looking bad. Keep
smiling and talk about leaving for a positive reason such as an
opportunity, a chance to do something special or other forward-looking
reasons.
3. What experience do you have in this field?
Speak about specifics that relate to the position you are applying for.
If you do not have specific experience, get as close as you can.
4. Do you consider yourself successful?
You should always answer yes and briefly explain why. A good
explanation is that you have set goals, and you have met some and are
on track to achieve the others.
5. What do co-workers say about you?
Be prepared with a quote or two from co-workers. Either a specific
statement or a paraphrase will work. Jill Clark, a co-worker at Smith
Company, always said I was the hardest workers she had ever known. It
is as powerful as Jill having said it at the interview herself.
6. What do you know about this organization?
This question is one reason to do some research on the organization
before the interview. Find out where they have been and where they are
going. What are the current issues and who are the major players?
7. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
Try to include improvement activities that relate to the job. A wide
variety of activities can be mentioned as positive self-improvement.
Have some good ones handy to mention.
8. Are you applying for other jobs?
Be honest but do not spend a lot of time in this area. Keep the focus
on this job and what you can do for this organization. Anything else is
a distraction.
9. Why do you want to work for this organization?
This may take some thought and certainly, should be based on the
research you have done on the organization. Sincerity is extremely
important here and will easily be sensed. Relate it to your long-term
career goals.
10. Do you know anyone who works for us?
Be aware of the policy on relatives working for the organization. This
can affect your answer even though they asked about friends not
relatives. Be careful to mention a friend only if they are well thought
of.
11. What kind of salary do you need?
A loaded question. A nasty little game that you will probably lose if
you answer first. So, do not answer it. Instead, say something like,
That’s a tough question. Can you tell me the range for this position?
In most cases, the interviewer, taken off guard, will tell you. If not,
say that it can depend on the details of the job. Then give a wide
range.
12. Are you a team player?
You are, of course, a team player. Be sure to have examples ready.
Specifics that show you often perform for the good of the team rather
than for yourself are good evidence of your team attitude. Do not brag,
just say it in a matter-of-fact tone. This is a key point.
13. How long would you expect to work for us if hired?
Specifics here are not good. Something like this should work: I’d like
it to be a long time. Or As long as we both feel I’m doing a good job.
14. Have you ever had to fire anyone? How did you feel about that?
This is serious. Do not make light of it or in any way seem like you
like to fire people. At the same time, you will do it when it is the
right thing to do. When it comes to the organization versus the
individual who has created a harmful situation, you will protect the
organization. Remember firing is not the same as layoff or reduction in
force.
15. What is your philosophy towards work?
The interviewer is not looking for a long or flowery dissertation here.
Do you have strong feelings that the job gets done? Yes. That’s the
type of answer that works best here. Short and positive, showing a
benefit to the organization.
16. If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?
Answer yes if you would. But since you need to work, this is the type
of work you prefer. Do not say yes if you do not mean it.
17. Have you ever been asked to leave a position?
If you have not, say no. If you have, be honest, brief and avoid saying
negative things about the people or organization involved.
18. Explain how you would be an asset to this organization
You should be anxious for this question. It gives you a chance to
highlight your best points as they relate to the position being
discussed. Give a little advance thought to this relationship.
19. Why should we hire you?
Point out how your assets meet what the organization needs. Do not
mention any other candidates to make a comparison.
20. Tell me about a suggestion you have made
Have a good one ready. Be sure and use a suggestion that was accepted
and was then considered successful. One related to the type of work
applied for is a real plus.
21. What irritates you about co-workers?
This is a trap question. Think real hard but fail to come up with
anything that irritates you. A short statement that you seem to get
along with folks is great.
22. What is your greatest strength?
Numerous answers are good, just stay positive. A few good examples:
Your ability to prioritize, Your problem-solving skills, Your ability
to work under pressure, Your ability to focus on projects, Your
professional expertise, Your leadership skills, Your positive attitude
23. Tell me about your dream job.
Stay away from a specific job. You cannot win. If you say the job you
are contending for is it, you strain credibility. If you say another
job is it, you plant the suspicion that you will be dissatisfied with
this position if hired. The best is to stay genetic and say something
like: A job where I love the work, like the people, can contribute and
can’t wait to get to work.
24. Why do you think you would do well at this job?
Give several reasons and include skills, experience and interest.
25. What are you looking for in a job?
See answer # 23
26. What kind of person would you refuse to work with?
Do not be trivial. It would take disloyalty to the organization,
violence or lawbreaking to get you to object. Minor objections will
label you as a whiner.
27. What is more important to you: the money or the work?
Money is always important, but the work is the most important. There is
no better answer.
28. What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?
There are numerous good possibilities:
Loyalty, Energy, Positive attitude, Leadership, Team player, Expertise,
Initiative, Patience, Hard work, Creativity, Problem solver
29. Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor
Biggest trap of all. This is a test to see if you will speak ill of
your boss. If you fall for it and tell about a problem with a former
boss, you may well below the interview right there. Stay positive and
develop a poor memory about any trouble with a supervisor.
30. What has disappointed you about a job?
Don’t get trivial or negative. Safe areas are few but can include:
Not enough of a challenge. You were laid off in a reduction Company did
not win a contract, which would have given you more responsibility.
31. Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.
You may say that you thrive under certain types of pressure. Give an
example that relates to the type of position applied for.
32. Do your skills match this job or another job more closely?
Probably this one. Do not give fuel to the suspicion that you may want
another job more than this one.
33. What motivates you to do your best on the job?
This is a personal trait that only you can say, but good examples are:
Challenge, Achievement, Recognition
34. Are you willing to work overtime? Nights? Weekends?
This is up to you. Be totally honest.
35. How would you know you were successful on this job?
Several ways are good measures:
You set high standards for yourself and meet them. Your outcomes are a
success.Your boss tell you that you are successful
36. Would you be willing to relocate if required?
You should be clear on this with your family prior to the interview if
you think there is a chance it may come up. Do not say yes just to get
the job if the real answer is no. This can create a lot of problems
later on in your career. Be honest at this point and save yourself
future grief.
37. Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead ofyour own?
This is a straight loyalty and dedication question. Do not worry about
the deep ethical and philosophical implications. Just say yes.
38. Describe your management style.
Try to avoid labels. Some of the more common labels, like progressive,
salesman or consensus, can have several meanings or descriptions
depending on which management expert you listen to. The situational
style is safe, because it says you will manage according to the
situation, instead of one size fits all.
39. What have you learned from mistakes on the job?
Here you have to come up with something or you strain credibility. Make
it small, well intentioned mistake with a positive lesson learned. An
example would be working too far ahead of colleagues on a project and
thus throwing coordination off.
40. Do you have any blind spots?
Trick question. If you know about blind spots, they are no longer blind
spots. Do not reveal any personal areas of concern here. Let them do
their own discovery on your bad points. Do not hand it to them.
41. If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?
Be careful to mention traits that are needed and that you have.
42. Do you think you are overqualified for this position?
Regardless of your qualifications, state that you are very well
qualified for the position.
43. How do you propose to compensate for your lack of experience?
First, if you have experience that the interviewer does not know about,
bring that up: Then, point out (if true) that you are a hard working
quick learner.
44. What qualities do you look for in a boss?
Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense of
humor, fair, loyal to subordinates and holder of high standards. All
bosses think they have these traits.
45. Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.
Pick a specific incident. Concentrate on your problem solving technique
and not the dispute you settled.
46. What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?
Be honest. If you are comfortable in different roles, point that out.
47. Describe your work ethic.
Emphasize benefits to the organization. Things like, determination to
get the job done and work hard but enjoy your work are good.
48. What has been your biggest professional disappointment?
Be sure that you refer to something that was beyond your control. Show
acceptance and no negative feelings.
49. Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.
Talk about having fun by accomplishing something for the organization.
50. Do you have any questions for me?
Always have some questions prepared. Questions prepared where you will be an asset to the organization are good. How soon will I be able to be productive? and What type of projects will I be able to assist on? are
examples.

TOP10 chemically competent cells

From http://openwetware.org/wiki/TOP10_chemically_competent_cells

Overview

This protocol is a variant of the Hanahan protocol [1] using CCMB80 buffer for DH10B, TOP10 and MachI strains. It builds on Example 2 of the Bloom05 patent as well. This protocol has been tested on TOP10, MachI and BL21(DE3) cells. See Bacterial Transformation for a more general discussion of other techniques. The Jesse '464 patent describes using this buffer for DH5α cells. The Bloom04 patent describes the use of essentially the same protocol for the Invitrogen Mach 1 cells.
This is the chemical transformation protocol used by Tom Knight and the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.

Materials

• Detergent-free, sterile glassware and plasticware (see procedure)
• Table-top OD600nm spectrophotometer
• SOB

CCMB80 buffer

• 10 mM KOAc pH 7.0 (10 ml of a 1M stock/L, 0.98 g KOAc 10 mM)
• 80 mM CaCl₂.2H₂O (11.8 g/L or 8.8 g/L CaCl₂)
• 20 mM MnCl₂.4H₂O (4.0 g/L)
• 10 mM MgCl₂.6H₂O (2.0 g/L)
• 10% glycerol (100 ml/L)
• adjust pH DOWN to 6.4 with 0.1N HCl if necessary
  • Do not adjust if < 6.4. Adjusting pH up will precipitate manganese dioxide from Mn containing solutions.
• sterile filter and store at 4°C
• slight dark precipitate appears not to affect its function
• Note: you can buy pre-made CCMB80 buffer from Teknova

Procedure

Preparing glassware and media

Eliminating detergent

Detergent is a major inhibitor of competent cell growth and transformation. Glass and plastic must be detergent free for these protocols. The easiest way to do this is to avoid washing glassware, and simply rinse it out. Autoclaving glassware filled 3/4 with DI water is an effective way to remove most detergent residue. Media and buffers should be prepared in detergent free glassware and cultures grown up in detergent free glassware.

Prechill plasticware and glassware

Prechill 250mL centrifuge tubes and screw cap tubes before use.

Preparing seed stocks

• Streak TOP10 cells on an SOB plate and grow for single colonies at 23°C
  • room temperature works well
• Pick single colonies into 2 ml of SOB medium and shake overnight at 23°C
  • room temperature works well
• Add glycerol to 15%
• Aliquot 1 ml samples to Nunc cryotubes
• Place tubes into a zip lock bag, immerse bag into a dry ice/ethanol bath for 5 minutes
  • This step may not be necessary
• Place in -80°C freezer indefinitely.

Preparing competent cells

• Inoculate 250 ml of SOB medium with 1 ml vial of seed stock and grow at 20°C to an OD600nm of 0.3
  • This takes approximately 16 hours.
  • Controlling the temperature makes this a more reproducible process, but is not essential.
  • Room temperature will work. You can adjust this temperature somewhat to fit your schedule
  • Aim for lower, not higher OD if you can't hit this mark
• Centrifuge at 3000rpm at 4°C for 10 minutes in a flat bottom centrifuge bottle.
  • Flat bottom centrifuge tubes make the fragile cells much easier to resuspend
  • It is often easier to resuspend pellets by mixing before adding large amounts of buffer
• Discard supernatant by pouring out slowly and pipeting remaining supernatent
• Gently resuspend in 80 ml of ice cold CCMB80 buffer
  • sometimes this is less than completely gentle. It still works.
• Incubate on ice 20 minutes
• Centrifuge again at 4°C and discard supernatant as described above.
• Resuspend in 10 ml of ice cold CCMB80 buffer.
• Test OD of a mixture of 200 μl SOC and 50 μl of the resuspended cells.
• Add chilled CCMB80 to yield a final OD of 1.0-1.5 in this test.
• Aliquot to chilled screw top 2 ml vials or 50 μl into chilled microtiter plates
• Store at -80°C indefinitely.
  • Flash freezing does not appear to be necessary
• Test competence (see below)
• Thawing and refreezing partially used cell aliquots dramatically reduces transformation efficiency by about 3x the first time, and about 6x total after several freeze/thaw cycles.

Measurement of competence

• Transform 50 μl of cells with 1 μl of standard pUC19 plasmid (Invitrogen)
  • This is at 10 pg/μl or 10^-5 μg/μl
  • This can be made by diluting 1 μl of NEB pUC19 plasmid (1 μg/μl, NEB part number N3401S) into 100 ml of TE
• Hold on ice 0.5 hours
• Heat shock 60 sec at 42C
• Add 250 μl SOC
• Incubate at 37 C for 1 hour in 2 ml centrifuge tubes rotated
  • using 2ml centrifuge tubes for transformation and regrowth works well because the small volumes flow well when rotated, increasing aeration.
  • For our plasmids (pSB1AC3, pSB1AT3) which are chloramphenicol and tetracycline resistant, we find growing for 2 hours yields many more colonies
  • Ampicillin and kanamycin appear to do fine with 1 hour growth
• Plate 20 μl on AMP plates using sterile 3.5 mm glass beads
  • Good cells should yield around 100 - 400 colonies
  • Transformation efficiency is (dilution factor=15) x colony count x 10⁵/µgDNA
  • We expect that the transformation efficiency should be between 5x10⁸ and 5x10⁹ cfu/µgDNA

5x Ligation Adjustment Buffer

• Intended to be mixed with ligation reactions to adjust buffer composition to be near the CCMB80 buffer
• KOAc 40 mM (40 ml/liter of 1 M KOAc solution, pH 7.0)
• CaCl₂ 400 mM (200 ml/l of a 2 M solution)
• MnCl₂ 100 mM (100 ml/l of a 1 M solution)
• Glycerol 46.8% (468 ml/liter)
• pH adjustment with 2.3% of a 10% acetic acid solution (12.8ml/liter)
  • Previous protocol indicated amount of acetic acid added should be 23 ml/liter but that amount was found to be 2X too much per tests on 1.23.07 --Meaganl 15:50, 25 January 2007 (EST)
• water to 1 liter
• autoclave or sterile filter
• Test pH adjustment by mixing 4 parts ligation buffer + 1 part 5x ligation adjustment buffer and checking pH to be 6.3 - 6.5

• Reshma 10:49, 11 February 2008 (CST): Use of the ligation adjustment buffer is optional.

References

1. Hanahan D, Jessee J, and Bloom FR. . pmid:1943786. PubMed HubMed [Hanahan91]
2. Reusch RN, Hiske TW, and Sadoff HL. . pmid:3536850. PubMed HubMed [Reusch86]
3. Addison CJ, Chu SH, and Reusch RN. . pmid:15470891. PubMed HubMed [Addison04]
4. US Patent 6,709,852 Media:pat6709852.pdf [Bloom04]
5. US Patent 6,855,494 Media:pat6855494.pdf [Bloom05]
6. US Patent 6,960,464 Media:pat6960464.pdf [Jesse05]

All Medline abstracts: PubMed HubMed

Intermittent wireless connection issues in Windows 7 Ultimate

I was able to find the main cause of intermittent disconnections on wireless interface. Based on the information I gathered over internet forums and my research, I made following configuration changes which stabilized the connection. These settings are working when you have N Wireless adapter and a B/G Router:

Wireless Adapter Settings:

Update the driver to the latest driver.
Access the properties of your wireless adapter from Network and Sharing Center.
Click on "Configure" and select the "Advanced" tab. Make sure following configuration is in place:
(* I didn't find the configure, so I just go to Computer and right click select "Manage", then choose "Device Manager",

1. 802.11n Channel Width for bands 2.4 and 5.2 are set to "Auto".
2. Disable 802.11n Mode
3. Ad Hoc Channel 802.11b/g should be 1 or same as you have setup on your router.
4. Ad hoc QoS Mode, keep WMM Disabled - Disable it on router too. My wireless connection was stable once I made this change.
5. Fat Channel Intolerant - Disabled
6. Mixed mode protection - RTS/CTS Enabled
7. Roaming agressiveness - Lowest
8. Throughput Enhancement - Enabled
9. Transmit Power - Lowest
10. Wireless Mode - 802.11g

Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" on "Power Management" tab.

Other Configurations:

1. Disable IPv6 completely. Uncheck "Internet Protocol IPv6" in Wireless Connection Properties window. Repeat this for every other network connection you have.
2. Make sure that you have latest firmware installed on your wireless router.
3. CTS Mode should be auto and WMM function disabled in your "Advanced Wireless" router configuration.
4. Use WEP or WPA Wireless Security only. Other methods have issues with 802.11n adapters.
5. Do not disable SSID Broadcast on your router. You don't need it when your network is secured.

Hope this helps.

From:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/intermittent-wireless-connection-issues-in-windows/18656fdc-5d5b-4a2d-bee8-09948bb364b9

如何换算蛋白的摩尔浓度

Q:蛋白分子量都是由Da来计算的,这和我们平时化合物的分子量有什么不同,他们之间怎么换算,比如我有个蛋白是14KDa,浓度是5mg/L,体积是5ML,怎么换算成摩尔浓度?

A:14kD=14000g/mol=14000000mg/mol
(5mg/L)/(14000000mg/mol)=0.357umol/L

摘自
http://www.dxy.cn/bbs/topic/9541117

HOWTO: Be more productive

by Aaron Swartz

“With all the time you spend watching TV,” he tells me, “you could have written a novel by now.” It’s hard to disagree with the sentiment — writing a novel is undoubtedly a better use of time than watching TV — but what about the hidden assumption? Such comments imply that time is “fungible” — that time spent watching TV can just as easily be spent writing a novel. And sadly, that’s just not the case.
Time has various levels of quality. If I’m walking to the subway station and I’ve forgotten my notebook, then it’s pretty hard for me to write more than a couple paragraphs. And it’s tough to focus when you keep getting interrupted. There’s also a mental component: sometimes I feel happy and motivated and ready to work on something, but other times I feel so sad and tired I can only watch TV.
If you want to be more productive then, you have to recognize this fact and deal with it. First, you have to make the best of each kind of time. And second, you have to try to make your time higher-quality.

Spend time efficiently

Choose good problems

Life is short (or so I’m told) so why waste it doing something dumb? It’s easy to start working on something because it’s convenient, but you should always be questioning yourself about it. Is there something more important you can work on? Why don’t you do that instead? Such questions are hard to face up to (eventually, if you follow this rule, you’ll have to ask yourself why you’re not working on the most important problem in the world) but each little step makes you more productive.
This isn’t to say that all your time should be spent on the most important problem in the world. Mine certainly isn’t (after all, I’m writing this essay). But it’s definitely the standard against which I measure my life.

Have a bunch of them

Another common myth is that you’ll get more done if you pick one problem and focus on it exclusively. I find this is hardly ever true. Just this moment for example, I’m trying to fix my posture, exercise some muscles, drink some fluids, clean off my desk, IM with my brother, and write this essay. Over the course the day, I’ve worked on this essay, read a book, had some food, answered some email, chatted with friends, done some shopping, worked on a couple other essays, backed up my hard drive, and organized my book list. In the past week I’ve worked on several different software projects, read several different books, studied a couple different programming languages, moved some of my stuff, and so on.
Having a lot of different projects gives you work for different qualities of time. Plus, you’ll have other things to work on if you get stuck or bored (and that can give your mind time to unstick yourself).
It also makes you more creative. Creativity comes from applying things you learn in other fields to the field you work in. If you have a bunch of different projects going in different fields, then you have many more ideas you can apply.

Make a list

Coming up with a bunch of different things to work on shouldn’t be hard — most people have tons of stuff they want to get done. But if you try to keep it all in your head it quickly gets overwhelming. The psychic pressure of having to remember all of it can make you crazy. The solution is again simple: write it down.
Once you have a list of all the things you want to do, you can organize it by kind. For example, my list is programming, writing, thinking, errands, reading, listening, and watching (in that order).
Most major projects involve a bunch of these different tasks. Writing this, for example, involves reading about other procrastination systems, thinking up new sections of the article, cleaning up sentences, emailing people with questions, and so on, all in addition to the actual work of writing the text. Each task can go under the appropriate section, so that you can do it when you have the right kind of time.

Integrate the list with your life

Once you have this list, the problem becomes remembering to look at it. And the best way to remember to look at it is to make looking at it what you would do anyway. For example, I keep a stack of books on my desk, with the ones I’m currently reading on top. When I need a book to read, I just grab the top one off the stack.
I do the same thing with TV/movies. Whenever I hear about a movie I should watch, I put it in a special folder on my computer. Now whenever I feel like watching TV, I just open up that folder.
I’ve also thought about some more intrusive ways of doing this. For example, a web page that pops up with a list of articles in my “to read” folder whenever I try to check some weblogs. Or maybe even a window that pops up with work suggestions occasionally for me to see when I’m goofing off.

Make your time higher quality

Making the best use of the time you have can only get you so far. The much more important problem is making more higher quality time for yourself. Most people’s time is eaten up by things like school and work. Obviously if you attend one of these, you should stop. But what else can you do?

Ease physical constraints

Carry pen and paper

Pretty much everyone interesting I know has some sort of pocket notebook they carry at all times. Pen and paper is immediately useful in all kinds of circumstances — if you need to write something down for somebody, take notes on something, scratch down an idea, and so on. I’ve even written whole articles in the subway.¹
(I used to do this, but now I just carry my computerphone everywhere. It doesn’t let me give people information physically, but it makes up for it by giving me something to read all the time (email) and pushing my notes straight into my email inbox, where I’m forced to deal with them right away.)

Avoid being interrupted

For tasks that require serious focus, you should avoid getting interrupted. One simple way is to go somewhere interrupters can’t find you. Another is to set up an agreement with the people around you: “don’t bother me when the door is closed” or “IM me if I have headphones on” (and then you can ignore the IMs until you’re free).
You don’t want to overdo it. Sometimes if you’re really wasting time you should be distracted. It’s a much better use of time to help someone else with their problem than it is to sit and read the news. That’s why setting up specific agreements is a good idea: you can be interrupted when you’re not really focusing.

Ease mental constraints

Eat, sleep, exercise

Time when you’re hungry or tired or twitchy is low-quality time. Improving it is simple: eat, sleep, and exercise. Yet I somehow manage to screw up even this. I don’t like going to get food, so I’ll often work right through being hungry and end up so tired out that I can’t bring myself to go get food.²
It’s tempting to say to yourself, “I know I’m tired but I can’t take a nap — I have work to do”. In fact, you’ll be much more productive if you do take that nap, since you’ll improve the quality of the day’s remaining time and you were going to have to sleep sometime anyway.
I don’t really exercise much so I’m probably not the best person to give advice on that bit, but I do try to work it in where I can. While I’m lying down reading, I do situps. And when I need to go somewhere on foot, I run.

Talk to cheerful people

Easing mental constraints is much harder. One thing that helps is having friends who are cheerful. For example, I always find myself much more inclined to work after talking to Paul Graham or Dan Connolly — they just radiate energy. It’s tempting to think that you need to get away from people and shut yourself off in your room to do any real work, but this can be so demoralizing that it’s actually less efficient.

Share the load

Even if your friends aren’t cheerful, just working on a hard problem with someone else makes it much easier. For one thing, the mental weight gets spread across both people. For another, having someone else there forces you to work instead of getting distracted.

Procrastination and the mental force field

But all of this is sort of dodging the issue. The real productivity problem people have is procrastination. It’s something of a dirty little secret, but everyone procrastinates — severely. It’s not just you. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to stop it.
What is procrastination? To the outside observer, it looks like you’re just doing something “fun” (like playing a game or reading the news) instead of doing your actual work. (This usually causes the outside observer to think you’re lazy and bad.) But the real question is: what’s going on inside your head?
I’ve spent a bunch of time trying to explore this and the best way I can describe it is that your brain puts up a sort of mental force field around a task. Ever play with two magnets? If you orient the magnets properly and try to push them towards each other, they’ll repel fiercely. As you move them around, you can sort of feel out the edges of the magnetic field. And as you try to bring the magnets together, the field will push you back or off in another direction.
The mental block seems to work in the same way. It’s not particularly solid or visible, but you can sort of feel it around the edges. And the more you try to go towards it the more it pushes you away. And so, not surprisingly, you end up going in another direction.³
And just as you can’t get two repelling magnets to sit together just by pushing real hard — they’ll fling back as soon as you stop pushing — I’ve never been able to overcome this mental force field through sheer willpower. Instead, you have to be sneaky about it — you have to rotate a magnet.
So what causes the mental force field? There appear to be two major factors: whether the task is hard and whether it’s assigned.

Hard problems

Break it down

The first kind of hard problem is the problem that’s too big. Say you want to build a recipe organizing program. Nobody can really just sit down and build a recipe organizer. That’s a goal, not a task. A task is a specific concrete step you can take towards your goal. A good first task might be something like “draw a mockup of the screen that displays a recipe”. Now that’s something you can do.⁴
And when you do that, the next steps become clearer. You have to decide what a recipe consists of, what kind of search features are needed, how to structure the recipe database, and so on. You build up a momentum, each task leading to the next. And as your brain gets crunching on the subject, it becomes easier to solve that subject’s problems.
For each of my big projects, I think of all the tasks I can do next for them and add them to my categorized todo list (see above). And when I stop working on something, I add its next possible tasks to the todo list.

Simplify it

Another kind of hard problem is the one that’s too complicated or audacious. Writing a book seems daunting, so start by doing an essay. If an essay is too much, start by writing a paragraph summary. The important thing is to have something done right away.
Once you have something, you can judge it more accurately and understand the problem better. It’s also much easier to improve something that already exists than to work at a blank page. If your paragraph goes well, then maybe it can grow into an essay and then into a book, little by little, a perfectly reasonable piece of writing all the way through..

Think about it

Often the key to solving a hard problem will be getting some piece of inspiration. If you don’t know much about the field, you should obviously start by researching it — see how other people did things, get a sense of the terrain. Sit and try and understand the field fully. Do some smaller problems to see if you have a handle on it.

Assigned problems

Assigned problems are problems you’re told to work on. Numerous psychology experiments have found that when you try to “incentivize” people to do something, they’re less likely to do it and do a worse job. External incentives, like rewards and punishments, kills what psychologists call your “intrinsic motivation” — your natural interest in the problem. (This is one of the most thoroughly replicated findings of social psychology — over 70 studies have found that rewards undermine interest in the task.)⁵ People’s heads seem to have a deep avoidance of being told what to do.⁶
The weird thing is that this phenomenon isn’t just limited to other people — it even happens when you try to tell yourself what to do! If you say to yourself, “I should really work on X, that’s the most important thing to do right now” then all of the sudden X becomes the toughest thing in the world to make yourself work on. But as soon as Y becomes the most important thing, the exact same X becomes much easier.

Create a false assignment

This presents a rather obvious solution: if you want to work on X, tell yourself to do Y. Unfortunately, it’s sort of difficult to trick yourself intentionally, because you know you’re doing it.⁷ So you’ve got to be sneaky about it.
One way is to get someone else to assign something to you. The most famous instance of this is grad students who are required to write a dissertation, a monumentally difficult task that they need to do to graduate. And so, to avoid doing this, grad students end up doing all sorts of other hard stuff.
The task has to both seem important (you have to do this to graduate!) and big (hundreds of pages of your best work!) but not actually be so important that putting it off is going to be a disaster.

Don’t assign problems to yourself

It’s very tempting to say “alright, I need to put all this aside, hunker down and finish this essay”. Even worse is to try to bribe yourself into doing something, like saying “alright, if I just finish this essay then I’ll go and eat some candy”. But the absolute worst of all is to get someone else to try to force you to do something.
All of these are very tempting — I’ve done them all myself — but they’re completely counterproductive. In all three cases, you’ve basically assigned yourself a task. Now your brain is going to do everything it can to escape it.

Make things fun

Hard work isn’t supposed to be pleasant, we’re told. But in fact it’s probably the most enjoyable thing I do. Not only does a tough problem completely absorb you while you’re trying to solve it, but afterwards you feel wonderful having accomplished something so serious.
So the secret to getting yourself to do something is not to convince yourself you have to do it, but to convince yourself that it’s fun. And if it isn’t, then you need to make it fun.
I first got serious about this when I had to write essays for college. Writing essays isn’t a particularly hard task, but it sure is assigned. Who would voluntarily write a couple pages connecting the observations of two random books? So I started making the essays into my own little jokes. For one, I decided to write each paragraph in its own little style, trying my best to imitate various forms of speech. (This had the added benefit of padding things out.)⁸
Another way to make things more fun is to solve the meta-problem. Instead of building a web application, try building a web application framework with this as the example app. Not only will the task be more enjoyable, but the result will probably be more useful.

Conclusion

There are a lot of myths about productivity — that time is fungible, that focusing is good, that bribing yourself is effective, that hard work is unpleasant, that procrastinating is unnatural — but they all have a common theme: a conception of real work as something that goes against your natural inclinations.
And for most people, in most jobs, this may be the case. There’s no reason you should be inclined to write boring essays or file pointless memos. And if society is going to force you to do so anyway, then you need to learn to shut out the voices in your head telling you to stop.
But if you’re trying to do something worthwhile and creative, then shutting down your brain is entirely the wrong way to go. The real secret to productivity is the reverse: to listen to your body. To eat when you’re hungry, to sleep when you’re tired, to take a break when you’re bored, to work on projects that seem fun and interesting.
It seems all too simple. It doesn’t involve any fancy acronyms or self-determination or personal testimonials from successful businessmen. It almost seems like common sense. But society’s conception of work has pushed us in the opposite direction. If we want to be more productive, all we need to do is turn around.

Further reading

If you want to learn more about the pscyhology of motivation, there is nothing better than Alfie Kohn. He’s written many articles on the subject and an entire book, Punished by Rewards, which I highly recommend.
I hope to address how to quit school in a future essay, but you should really just go out and pick up The Teenage Liberation Handbook. If you’re a computer person, one way to quit your job is by applying for funding from Y Combinator. Meanwhile, Mickey Z’s book The Murdering of My Years features artists and activists describing how they manage to make ends meet while still doing what they want.

Notes

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1. Believe it or not, I actually have written in subways. It’s easy to come up with excuses as to why you’re not actually working — you don’t have enough time before your next appointment, people are making noise downstairs, etc. — but I find that when the inspiration strikes me, I can actually write stuff down on a subway car, where it’s absurdly loud and I only have a couple minutes before I have to get out and start walking. ↩
   
2. The same problem exists for sleep. There’s nothing worse than being too tired to go to bed — you just feel like a zombie. ↩
   
3. Now it turns out I experience this same phenomenon in another area: shyness. I often don’t want to call a stranger up on the phone or go talk to someone at a party and I have the exact same mental field pushing me off in some other direction. I suspect this might be because shyness is also a trait that results from a problematic childhood. (See “Assigned problems”.) Of course, this is all very speculative. ↩
   
4. While the terminology I use here (“next concrete step”) is derived from David Allen’s Getting Things Done, a lot of the principles here are (perhaps even unconsciously) applied in Extreme Programming (XP). Extreme Programming is presented as this system for keeping programs organized, but I find that a lot of it is actually good advice for avoid procrastination.
   For example, pair programming automatically spreads the mental weight of the task across two people as well as giving people something useful to do during lower-quality time. Breaking a project down into concrete steps is another key part of XP, as is getting something that works done right away and improving on it (“Simplify it” infra). And these are just the things that aren’t programming-specific. ↩
   
5. For a fantastic overview of the literature, see Alfie Kohn, Punished By Rewards. This specific claim is drawn from his article Challenging Behaviorist Dogma: Myths About Money and Motivation. ↩
   
6. I originally simply assumed this was somehow biological, but Paul Graham pointed out it’s more likely learned. When you’re little, your parents try their best to manipulate you. They say do your homework and your mind tries to wriggle free and think about something else. Soon enough the wriggling becomes habit. Either way, it’s going to be a tough problem to fix. I’ve given up trying to change this; now I try to work around it. ↩
   
7. Richard Feynman tells a story about how he was trying to explore his own dreams, much the way I’ve tried to explore my own procrastination. Each night, he’d try to observe what happened to himself as he fell asleep:
   

   I’m dreaming one night as usual, making observations, … and then I realize I’ve been sleeping with the back of my head against a brass rod. I put my hand behind my head and I feel that the back of my head is soft. I think, “Aha! That’s why I’ve been able to make all these observations in my dreams: the brass rod has disturbed my visual cortex. All I have to do is sleep with a brass rod under my head and I can make these observations any time I want. So I think I’ll stop making observations on this one and go into deeper sleep.”
   When I woke up later, there was no brass rod, nor was the back of my head soft. Somehow … my brain had invented false reasons as to why I shouldn’t [observe my dreams] any more. (Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, 50)

   Your brain is a lot more powerful than you are. ↩
   
8. So, for example, instead of writing “By contrast, Riis doesn’t quote many people.”, I wrote: “Riis, however, whether because of a personal deficit in the skill-based capacity required for collecting aurally-transmitted person-centered contemporaneous ethnographies into published paper-based informative accounts or simply a lack of preference for the reportage of community-located informational correspondents, demonstrates a total failure in producing a comparable result.”
   The professor, apparently seriously desensitized to bad writing, never seemed to realize I was joking (despite going over the paper with me one-on-one!).
   
   from:http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity 

如何提高效率
肯定有人跟你说过这样的话“你有看电视的那么长时间，都可以用来写一本书了”，不可否认写书肯定比看电视更好的利用了时间，但是这个结论的成立需要一个假设：“时间是可互换的”，也就是说看电视的时间可以轻松的用来写书。但是很遗憾，事实并非如此。
不同的时间有不同的质量等级。如果我在走向地铁站的路上发现自己的笔记本忘带了，我就很难集中注意力写文章。同样，当你不停的被打断的时候，你也很 难集中注意力。这里还有一些心理和情感上的因素，有的时候我心情很好，愿意主动去做一些事，但还有一些时候我感到很抑郁和疲惫，就只能看看电视了。
如果你想变的更加有效率，你必须意识到这个事实，并且很好的处理它。首先，你必须很好的利用不同种类的时间。其次，你必须让你的时间更有效率。
一、更有效的利用你的时间
1、选择合适的问题
生命是如此的短暂，为什么浪费时间做一些没意义的事呢？做一些让你感到舒适的事很容易，但是你应该问问自己为什么要做这些事呢？有没有一些更重要的事等着你去做？为什么你不去做那些事呢？这些问题很难回答，但是每解决一个都会让你更有效率。
这不是说你所有的时间都应该用来做那些最重要的事。我的时间就肯定不是这样（否则，我现在就不会在写这篇文章了）。但是，这是我衡量自己的生活是否充实的重要标准。
2、收集很多问题
另一个很多人都知道的秘密是：如果你认准一个问题，投入全部精力去解决它，这样你的效率是最高的。我发现这却是很难实现的。以现在为例，我正在锻炼 身体，喝橙汁，整理桌面，和我弟弟聊天，同时在写现在这篇文章。今天一整天，我写了现在这篇文章，读了一本书，吃了点东西，回复了几封邮件，和一些朋友聊 了聊天，买了点东西，改了改其他几篇文章，备份了硬盘，还整理了一下图书列表。
有很多不同的项目让我能够在不同质量的时间下做不同的工作。更重要的是，在你卡壳或是厌烦的时候有其他的一些事可以做。
这同时会让你变得更加有创造力。创造力就是你把自己从其他地方学到的东西能够用到你的工作中。如果你同时做许多不同方向的工作，那你就会得到更多的想法和创意。
3、列一个清单
找一些不同的事同时做并不困难，大部分人都有很多很多的待办事项。但是如果你想把它们全记在脑袋里的话，它们就会慢慢消失。要记住所有这些事所给你带来的心智上的压力会把你压垮。解决办法仍然是很简单：把它们写下来。
一旦你把要做的事列成了一个清单，你就可以更好的分类组织它们了。比如说，我的清单包括：编程，思考，差事，读书，娱乐休息。
大部分项目都包括很多不同的任务。以写这篇文章为例，除了真正的写作过程，还包括了阅读其他关于拖沓的文章，考虑文章的各个部分，整理语句，向别人请教问题等等。每一项任务都属于清单的不同部分，所以你可以在合适的时间才去做某一部分。
4、把任务清单和你的生活结合起来
一旦你有了这样一个任务清单，你需要做的事就是时常记得它，而记住它的最好方法是把它放在你能看到的地方。比如说，我总在我桌子上放一摞书，最上面的那一本就是我最近在读的。当我想要读书的时候，我就直接从上面拿一本书来读。
对于看电视/电影我也这么做。当我对某一个电影感兴趣的时候，我会把它放在电脑中一个特殊的文件夹内。每当我想休息一下，看看电影的时候，我就会打开那个文件夹。
我也想过一些更深入的方式，比如说我把一些想看的文章标记为“待读”，当我想要上网的时候就看看那些从前积累下来的未读文章。
二、提高你时间的质量
像上面那样最大限度的利用时间还远远不够，更重要的是提高你自己的时间的质量。那你究竟该怎样做呢？
1、减轻身体上的约束

• 携带纸和笔：我认识的很多人的口袋里都有记事簿之类的东西。纸和笔在很多时候都是非常有用的，你可以随时随刻的记录自己的想法，我甚至通过这种方法在地铁上写过整篇文章。
• 避免被打扰：对于那些需要集中注意力的任务，你应该尽量避免被打扰。一个很简单的方法是去一个没人能打扰你的地方，另一个方法是告诉周围的人未来 一段时间不要打扰你。关于这点不要过犹不及。当你在浪费时间的时候你反倒应该被打扰一下，帮助别人解决问题肯定比坐在那里看新闻更好的利用了时间。

2、减轻心理上的约束

1. 吃，睡，运动：当你感到很饿，很累，很焦躁的时候，你的时间的质量会很低。解决这个问题很简单，就是：去吃，去睡，去运动。对自己说“虽然我很累 了，但我不能休息，因为我必须要工作”会让你感到自己很努力，但事实上休息之后你的效率会更高。既然你迟早都要睡觉，还不如先休息好，来提高剩余时间内的 效率。
2. 与快乐的人相处：跟快乐的人相处会也会让你变得快乐，也会让你心态更放松。也许很多人愿意躲在屋子里，不与其他人接触，埋头干活，他们觉得这样的话时间才没有被“浪费”，但事实上这会让他们变得情绪低落，工作效率也会大大下降。
3. 与朋友分担你的压力：即使你的朋友并不是能够感染他人，给你带来快乐的那种人，和其他的人一起解决复杂的问题也会让问题变得简单。一方面，精神上的压力大家可以互相分担，另一方面，和其他人在一起可以让你专注于工作而不是时常分心。

三、拖沓
上面所说的那些并不是问题的重点，关于效率大家最大的问题还是“拖沓”。虽然很多人不承认，但是几乎所有人都或多或少的会拖沓。那又该如何避免呢？
拖沓是什么？从旁观者来看，你在做好玩的事（如玩游戏，看新闻）而不是做真正的工作。但问题的关键是：你究竟为什么会这样？你的脑子里究竟是怎么想的？
我花了很多时间来研究这件事，我能给出的最好解释是在大脑会给每一项任务赋予一个“脑力场”。你玩过两块磁铁相互作用吗？如果你让它们异极相对，他们就会相互排斥，你会感到他们之间的磁场力。你越是想要把它们和在一起，越会感到它们之间的排斥力。
心智和精神上也是类似的。它是看不见摸不着的，但你却可以感受到它的存在。并且你越是想要接近它，它会离你越远。
你不可能通过蛮力来克服两个场之间的排斥力，相反，你应该做的是调转方向。
那又是什么产生了“精神力场”呢？似乎有两个主要原因：任务是否艰巨，任务是否是被指派的。
四、艰巨的任务
1、把任务细分
一个任务很艰巨的原因之一是这个任务很宏大。比如说你想要做一个菜谱构造程序，没有人能一下子完成它，这是一个目标而不是一项任务。一项任务是使你能够朝向目标更进一步的具体概念。一个好的任务是你能够立即拿来实施的，比如“画一个展示菜谱的草图”。
当你完成了上一个任务后，下一步就会变得更加清晰。你将会考虑一个菜谱有什么构成，你需要什么样的搜索机制，如何构建菜谱的数据库，等等。这样你就构建了一个引擎，每一个任务都会通向下一个任务。
对于每一个比较大的项目，我都会考虑我需要完成一连串什么样的任务，并且将这些任务加入到我的待办事项列表中去。同样，当我做完一些任务之后我会把接下来需要完成的任务再加入任务列表中去。
2、简化任务
另一个让任务变得艰巨的原因就是它太复杂了。“写一本书”这个任务会放你感到无从下手，那么就先从写一篇文章开始吧。如果一篇文章也觉得太多了，那么就先写一个段落的概要吧。最重要的是真正做了一些工作，真正的有进展。
一旦你明确了你的任务之后，你就可以更清楚的判断它，更容易的理解它。提高完善一些已有的东西比从头创建东西更容易。如果你的一个段落写好了，那么一点一点积累，它会变成一篇文章，最终变成一本书。
3、认真考虑它
通常来说解决一个困难问题需要一些灵感。如果你对那个领域并不熟悉，你应该从研究这个领域开始，借鉴一下其他人的经验，慢慢的研究理解这个领域，并且做一些小的尝试看看你能否搞定这个领域。
五、被指派的任务
被指派的任务是那些你被要求完成的任务。很多心理学实验都表明:当你”刺激”其他人做什么事的时候，他们反倒不容易做好那个事。奖励，惩罚等外部刺激会扼杀”内在动机”–你对于某个问题发自内心的兴趣。人类的大脑对于被要求做的事有先天的抗拒力。
这种现象不仅局限于其他人要求你做的事，当你向自己分配任务时仍然会出现这种现象。如果你对自己说”我应该好好做X工作了，这是我现在最重要的事”，之后你就会感到X突然变成了世界上最困难的事情了。然而一旦当Y变成了”最重要的事”，原来的那个X又变得简单了。
1、虚构一个任务
如果你要完成X，那就告诉自己做Y。然而不幸的是，这样欺骗自己却很难，因为你清楚你究竟要做什么。
2、不要自己给自己布置任务
给自己布置任务看起来很诱人，比如对自己说“我要写完这篇文章才去吃饭”，更糟糕的是让别人假装布置给你一些任务。但是这两种方式都会让你变得更没有效率，事实上你还是在给自己布置任务，你的大脑只会去逃避它。
3、把事情变得有趣
困难的工作听起来不会令人感到愉悦，但事实上这可能就是最能让我感到高兴的事。一个困难的问题不但能让你集中全部注意力，而且当你完成它的时候你会感到非常棒，非常有成就感。
所以帮助自己完成一件事的秘密不是说服自己必须完成它，而是说服自己这件事确实非常有意思。如果一件事没有意思的话，你需要做的就是让它变得有意思
六、总结
效率的真正秘密在于“聆听自己”，在你饿的时候吃饭，在你疲惫的时候睡觉，当你厌烦的时候休息一下，做那些有趣好玩的项目。
这看起来很容易，但是社会上的一些观念正在把我们向相反的方向引导。要想变得更加有效率，我们需要做的就是转过头来“聆听自己”。