I've finally completed my move to the great city of Stockholm. The first two nights were spent on a matrass on the floor. No lights, no chairs and no tables. Pretty sad. Today my mom(!) came over from Oslo. I picked her up at the airport and we went to IKEA to shop. I really hate shopping....

IKEA has an interesting business model. They're very successful with it and they haven't focused to much on internet sales. I do, however, believe that an interesting model is emerging. My real estate agent actually told me about.

There's been a lot of talk about ordering online and getting everything delivered at home. There's also been alot of writing about ordering online and picking stuff up at the store. IKEA's model may turn out to be a different model.

The annoying thing about IKEA is that you go out there, find the stuff you want, you have to pick down everything on your own, you have to make sure that you get everything. Then you have to, if you're getting large stuff, arrange with home delivery. My real estate agent told me that it was a hazzle to make sure everything was there. He told me to go out there, write down everything I wanted and then order it online from home. IKEA would then pack all the stuff and ship it to my home. May IKEA should re-engineer how they do stuff and actually promote this way of doing business. It would be much more effective in the store and it would generate more money on shipping.

Managing time is important. Here are som interesting suggestions:

Each of the following will help you to get at least one more hour out of your day for additional productive time to do the things you really want to do. Try it.

1. Systematize. Stop reinventing the wheel and recreating the same things over and again. Create systems to handle repetitive tasks. For example, I have standard letters created and saved in my computer along with standard documents such as directions to my office and various articles I share with others. Be sure to have adequate supplies you can readily access. Use one calendar to keep track of appointments. Work with a clean desk and have most frequently used items within arm’s reach. Schedule maintenance for your equipment and yourself.


2. Plan Adequate Sleep. You can have a great to-do list for the next day, but if you are tired, your productivity will be adversely impacted. Schedule a sufficient amount of sleep, which is different for each of us. Some need eight hours, some more and some less. Your body knows the answer.


3. Take a Speed-Reading Class. The average person reads at about 200 words per minute and spends a couple of hours each day reading. What if you could double your reading speed? What takes two hours could be done in one hour. Or you could continue to spend the same amount of time reading, but read twice as much. Sign up for a speed-reading class.


4. Develop Your Communication Skills. A lot of your personal success will be in direct relationship to your ability to competently and confidently communicate what you know both orally and in writing. Make it an ongoing commitment to continue to improve your speaking and writing skills. You’ll save time and have a more successful career.


5. Develop Your People Network. High personal productivity has a lot to do with the good cooperation of other people. On an ongoing basis, develop your list of personal contacts, your networking list. Always offer to help everyone on your list whenever you can. ("To have a friend, first be a friend.") Do it right and your network will be there for you when you need it.

I found this at http://www2.darwinmag.com/read/feature/aug05_time.cfm. Pretty good reading.

Oops. Pretty bad day today. I drove my car off the road and into a tree. It was raining and it the road was slippery. The car was in pretty bad shape after the accident, but I was OK. Right before I drove off the road I heard on the radio that Sweden's King, Carl Gustav, had just had a traffic accident. His car looked better than mine:)

On another note, here's a great quote from Perry Marshall about Google Adwords:

This is about getting in front of people who are looking for what you sell right this moment and getting them to respond. It's about understanding your audience, refining your sales message, perfecting your sales process and determining your Return on Investment, faster than ever before in the history of marketing - and doing all of this for a very modest sum of money.

As you probably know, my girlfriend is on an interesting expedition to the Arctis. She's doing research on what has actually happen up there. A journalist from Aftonbladet is part of the expedition. She has her own blog: http://www.nordpolen.blogspot.com/ .

On Monday, August 15th, we're launching the next version of www.studentrabatt.no! You can check out the next version at www.studentrabatt.no/str2 . The new version has a cleaner design and more intuitive navigation. The new version will also launch in Sweden in a few weeks. It's fun to see that our hobby project from 2000 is still going strong. Data-entry is not very exciting, but the site is now more or less updated:)