Have you ever been in a car with someone who is learning to drive a car with a manual transmission? For those of us who have, I'm sure you can cringe at the thought of your body being thrusted forward into your seatbelt and back into your seat.

Well, working with businesses can be the same way. You run full speed ahead to get a proposal to a client, then they sit on it for a year. Then they call you up wanting to move on that project and need updated pricing. Again, you tell them that the offer is good for 30 days. On the 45th day they give you the green light, on the condition that it can be done in half the time quoted.

On the converse, you may work with vendors or employees that are waiting for your response. When you finally get around to answering, you essentially just took them from their seatbelt to the back of their chair. All in about the time it took them to figure out which question they had asked you weeks ago that you just provided the answer to.

Here's an article I found about trying to maintain a good tempo in business while trying to avoid the driving school scenario.

A few months ago I bought a brand new laptop. This is better than Christmas morning for a computer nerd. Right away, I took it out of its box, plugged it in, and turned it on. I walked through the Windows setup wizard, uninstalled programs I didn’t want, and installed the programs I did want.

Ahh, this is the moment where most people can breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy their new laptop. Not me. Nope, instead I time how long it takes to boot up. From the time the manufacturers logo disappears to the time windows prompts me to login: 55 seconds.

I rush over to our parts cabinet, grab a new 7200rpm laptop drive (the one shipped with my laptop was only 5400rpm). I grab my new laptop, and start unscrewing…yes, it’s only a couple of hours old and I’m taking it apart. Hey, I’m a professional.

I copy the 4-hour old drive (which is a little over a day in dog-years) onto the new drive, slap it in the new computer, boot up a few times to make sure Windows likes it then grab the stopwatch: 33 Seconds. A 40% improvement on speed.

This improvement doesn’t just improve the time it takes to load windows, but all other program. As well as little tasks like replying to email, checking the weather, and balancing your checkbook in Quicken.

Oh, and btw, this upgrade helps any computer that's more than a year old just because a new drive is ALWAYS faster than an old one.

In the spirit of the season, I'm encouraging everyone to cast their vote for the November 4th election.

Also, to save time, everyone should sign up to vote absentee, recently renamed in California to "Vote-By-Mail Voting" (Can we say "redundant"?).

I've just finished filling out my ballot and will proudly deliver it to the post office in the morning. I know many disagree, but personally I can't wait until we can vote online! I also can't wait for my mailbox to not be filled with election material.

California residents can go here for a Vote-by-mail ballot application.[pdf]
If you are outside California, you can find more info here.