<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Courtesy of Ramit SethiRamit Sethi.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>CEO and author Ramit Sethi works with entrepreneurs, helping them maximize their time and start their own businesses.</li><li>He's found, both among other entrepreneurs and in his own experience, that small productivity hacks and tricks often aren't enough to save people significant time - and just working harder isn't a good solution, either.</li><li>In his early 20s, he made a dramatic change to his work and life by hiring an assistant. "I know," he writes. "I thought it was crazy, too. Until I tried it." </li><li>Over 10 years later, his assistant now saves him more than 20 hours a week.</li></ul>I recently spoke to a small group of busy people - entrepreneurs, business owners, freelancers, etc. - about productivity. Before they came in, I asked them to track their time for one day.When I asked what they'd found, their heads started shaking."I spend 80% of my time on things that don't matter," one guy said.Another: "I spend hours in email every day. For what? I just do it again the next day."Then I asked what they wanted to spend time on. One entrepreneur said, "I want to spend time on things that actually <a href="https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-to-make-money-fast/">make me money.</a>"Your turn. Let me ask you these two questions:<ol><li>On an average day, where do you spend your time?</li><li>If you could spend your time any way you wanted, where would you spend your time?</li></ol>Take a look at what you spent your time on yesterday. What would you say?Be honest: If you watched three hours of Netflix (the average American watches five hours of TV every day), that's OK!Yes, that sickening feeling in your stomach means the answers to those two questions don't add up. You know it. I know it. We all know it.Now ask: Where do you WANT your time to go?Related: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-build-wealth-start-small-2018-10">I'm convinced a mistaken belief that keeps people from building wealth can be dismantled with 5 minutes of simple math</a>If we could wave a magic wand and spend our time where we wanted to, most of us would not choose to spend three hours per day in email. We'd spend it on our relationships with friends and family, exploring the city we live in or traveling, working on higher-value items or just having fun.But... how can you do it?Well, first forget about "productivity hacks." You know the kind I'm talking about: to-do apps (and journals), RescueTime, or "minimalism" (where you ONLY own three pairs of grey pants, two blue shirts, and a 4,000-dollar laptop) are the coupon-clipping of the productivity world. Doing these things might feel good and helpful, but they're ultimately useless.I tried the apps. I tried minimalism. I tried all these tactics. Some of them worked and I incorporated them into my productivity system. But I needed to save more than just a few minutes - I needed to free up 2+ hours a day. And we all know that <a href="https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-do-i-stop-being-lazy/">working harder isn't the solution</a>. Longer hours, another shot of espresso, catching up on the weekend, an unhappy spouse, stress, and a sudden moment of realization in your late 40s that something is wrong. #HustleLifeI knew that I was starting to get swamped with emails and pulled in all kinds of directions. I knew this would only get worse - and I had to figure out a solution now, because the more successful I became, the harder it would be to figure it out. So I went all in.I went a different route ... and realized that I needed help.The <a href="https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-to-be-successful/">most successful people have something in common</a>: People who can help them - a personal trainer, a business coach, a supportive spouse.I realized I had money but not time - and that, with this money, I could "buy back" my time.That's when I hired an assistant. I know, I thought it was crazy, too. Until I tried it.It's funny, because I didn't look like the kind of person who would have an assistant. I was in my early 20s. I didn't work at a fancy office or wear a fancy suit.But I was busy and I was ambitious. I worked at a startup during the day and wrote my now <a href="https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/book/">best-selling book on personal finance</a> at night. I didn't want to spend my time on mundane tasks. And I didn't care if it was weird for a guy in his early 20s to have an assistant. I wanted my time back.So I hired a part-time assistant on Craigslist. Since then - over 10 years ago - I've built an incredible system with my assistant, who helps me remove the following off my plate. My assistant:<ul><li>Schedules appointments (one-off and recurring)</li><li>Handles thank you cards</li><li>Selects, buys, and ships items</li><li>Organizes follow-ups for networking contacts</li><li>Preps documents</li><li>Coordinates speaking engagements</li><li>Screens calls (calls customer service or waits on hold)</li><li>Sends out media releases</li><li>Maintains contact details</li><li>Returns merchandise and checks on refunds</li><li>Buys event tickets</li><li>Provides customer support</li><li>Researches weekend activities</li><li>Researches questions</li><li>Organizes to-dos</li><li>Sends reminders</li><li>Checks in for flights</li><li>Tracks birthdays and sends gifts</li><li>Plans vacations</li><li>Orders and delivers food</li><li>Makes dinner reservations</li><li>Processes emails</li></ul>With just this list, she helps me save over 20 hours per week!That's time that I can invest directly into the things that I actually want to be doing for weeks, months, and years -not to shave off a few minutes here and there.Ramit Sethi is the author of the New York Times bestseller, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WL4BW6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1&amp;tag=bisafetynet2-20">I Will Teach You To Be Rich</a>," and writes for more than 1 million readers on his websites, <a href="https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/">iwillteachyoutoberich.com</a> and <a href="https://growthlab.com/">GrowthLab.com</a>. His work on <a href="https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/guides/ultimate-guide-to-personal-finance/part-0/">personal finance</a> and <a href="https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/how-to-start-your-own-business/">entrepreneurship</a> have been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Insider. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eric-barker-millionaires-bad-grades-gpa-2017-6">Valedictorians rarely become rich and famous - here's why the average millionaire's college GPA is 2.9</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

I spent years testing every productivity hack in the book, but nothing worked until I made a dramatic change I thought was crazy - until I tried it

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Benjamin Zhang/Business InsiderGet your hands back on the wheel.</div></div></div>Following the news that a driver was killed in a Tesla Model S crash in Florida in May when the vehicle had its "Autopilot" semi-autonomous driving mode engaged, another report of an non-fatal Autopilot incident emerged in Pennsylvania.Tesla reported the Florida crash to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and all the detail we have on the Pennsylvania accident comes from <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2016/07/05/southfield-art-gallery-owner-survives-tesla-crash/86712884/">this report in the Detroit Free Press.</a>However, given how widely touted and enthusiastically received Autopilot was when it arrived last year, and given the the technology is available on new Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles, it might be time for Tesla to consider intensifying the amount of instruction it provides owners on the limits of Autopilot.Currently, drivers have to accept responsibility for activating Autopilot in the cars; the technology is still in beta-testing, according to Tesla.But going that route doesn't seem to be enough. Other major car makers that have been working on similar semi-self-driving tech have been much more circumspect about a public rollout. Tesla has a head start, but with the recent Autopilot tragedy and mishaps, CEO Elon Musk's startup electric car company may be questioning whether its was worth it.There is sn easy, though relatively time-consuming fix.There's also a drastic fix, but no one is talking about that one yet: deactivating Autopilot via an over-the-air software adjustment.It could be in Tesla's best long-term interest to undertake the time-consuming fix: Autopilot 101.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">TeslaTesla Autopilot in action.</div></div></div>Driving a Tesla is like driving a "normal" car, but it's also like getting used to a new computer or smartphone. And with consumer electronics devices, people don't tend to read the owner's manual - rather, they figure out the gadget as they go along.But an iPhone 6 can't drive itself on a freeway at 65 miles per hour. So a higher level of instruction could be required.This could constitute a visit to a Tesla store for 30 minutes of Autopilot dos and don'ts. It could also be a protocol that Tesla adds for all new vehicle purchases, as a requirement for Autopilot activation.And I think that Tesla could temporarily deactivate Autopilot across its fleets and require owners to run through a training process, possibly even in their cars using the central touchscreen interface and a pre-loaded, voice-oriented guide, before they "qualify" to have the tech turned back on.The key issue with Autopilot is twofold. First, Tesla says that the driver should keep his or her hands on the wheel at all times while Autopilot is active. The steering wheel periodically vibrates, warning of an Autopilot disconnect, if the driver goes hands-off for too long.But the temptation to let your hands do something else while the car is Autopiloting is too great.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Benjamin Zhang/Business InsiderWhere your hands should be.</div></div></div>Second, drivers don't seem to get that they're participating in an experiment in partial self-driving - really just very sophisticated highway cruise control - not sitting in a vehicle that can truly drive itself. Tesla might want to dial the tech back a notch to dispel that illusion and force drivers to be more engaged.It's not clear that Tesla will do any of this, but if Autopilot incidents become more numerous, it may not have a choice. The government may step in and decide that beta-testing a technology than can be deadly if misused isn't something that it will tolerate. Tesla has a chance to get ahead of that. It should take it. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-plan-model-3-auto-factory-elon-musk-2016-5">Here's Tesla's massive plan to meet the demand for 375,000 Model 3 preorders</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="J3YmpsMzE67K1kgo7FA8Cz_9jszXdgE0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Tesla should consider Autopilot 101 for owners

<keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword>, the richest man in the country, can teach a lesson or two to everyone, especially budding entrepreneurs. But since, he is busy raking in the moolah, BI India decided to pick up five lessons that he can teach all. 

	Dream big!
 The man inherited his father and India’s iconic business leader <keyword id="6418409" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dhirubhai-Ambani">Dhirubhai Ambani</keyword>’s genes when it comes to dreaming big. In 90s, Ambani, then in his 30s, had dreamt of becoming the largest producer of polyester fibre and yarn in the world and he actually did it. Today, RIL is the largest producer of polyester fibre and yarn in the world, with a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum, beating the traditional producers from South Korea and Taiwan, who had dominated the business since 1970s. 

	Do more, say less!
 The quote by Israelmore Ayivor is apt for Mukesh Ambani. The 57 year old likes to keep a low profile. He isn’t keen on social dos and neither is he voicing opinions on important economic issues at events such as the World Economic Forum. But still, he is one of the most talked about personalities in the country. Ambani’s focus has always been his business and this entrepreneur is credited for the creation of the world’s largest <keyword id="84980" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="petroleum">petroleum</keyword> refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat besides other successful ventures. Need we say more? 

	Depend on no one!
 

	A feudal style of management is not the mantra today. And Mukesh Ambani realised it even before feudalism was out of the system. Ambani in an interview had said that he did not want “people carrying their wisdom in notebooks as if it some kind of secretive operations”. While he has a trusted team of a few people, who have played a pivotal role in the growth of his empire , Ambani has always emphasized on the importance of being involved in one’s own business. Well, no wonder he managed to create an empire with net worth of Rs1,76,766 crore in 2012-13.
 

	Don’t panic, stay strong!
 

	Mukesh Ambani joined his father’s business at a very young age. While he was still learning the nuances of the business, he lost his uncle and his father’s business partner Rasikbhai in 1986. This was followed by Dhirubhai Ambani’s stroke within five months of his uncle’s death. Ambani then had to take his father’s place and steered the company forward at a time when India still had Licence Raj.
 

	Keep your eyes open
 

	Mukesh Ambani keeps his eyes wide open when it comes to hunting for new ventures. During the announcement of Reliance Jio initiative, Ambani had clearly said, “Today I see a billion people as a billion potential consumers, an opportunity to generate value for them and to make a return for myself”. With start-ups mushrooming in the country, Ambani has now turned his eye at it and will soon be seen mentoring technology start-ups that spawn billion-dollar businesses in the country.

5 Lessons Entrepreneurs Should Learn From Mukesh Ambani

<div class="KonaFilter image-container center"><div class="image">HBO, Kevin Winter/Getty, Wikimedia Commons</div></div>If you're <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/game-of-thrones-george-rr-martin-on-his-creative-process-2014-4">one of the 6.6 million people who watch "Game Of Thrones" or have bought any of the 24 million copies of "A Song Of Ice and Fire" that are in print</a>, you've spent hours inside the mind of George R.R. Martin, the wordsmith who composes the thousand-page tomes of swords, sex, and sorcery. 
The author has his own productivity magic: a vintage word processor. 
"I have a secret weapon," he told late-night host Conan O'Brien. "I use WordStar 4.0 as my word processor." 
It's part of a two-machine setup. He has a modern computer to browse the Internet, get his email, and do his taxes. Then he has a DOS machine running WordStar, which was the top of the word-processing world when it debuted back in 1983. 
On his show, O'Brien asked his guest why he still uses the 31-year-old program. 
"I actually like it," Martin replied. "It does everything I want a word-processing program to do, and it doesn't do anything else."
The studio audience, of course, howled. 
But the joke's on them. 

In a post on his LiveJournal blog from 2011, <a href="http://grrm.livejournal.com/197075.html" target="_blank">Martin unpacked why he swears by the WordStar</a>: 
"So here's the thing. I am a dinosaur, as all my friends will tell you. A man of the 20th century, not the 21st. Yes, I have been using a computer for twenty years now, but while I cruise this interwebby thing with a PC and Windows, I still do all my writing on an old DOS machine running WordStar 4.0, the Duesenberg of word processing software (very old, but unsurpassed)."
A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duesenberg" target="_blank">Duesenberg</a>, if you don't know, is a swank luxury car that started rolling out in 1913. When your buddy says that Saturday night was a doozy, she's unknowingly referencing the best-in-class automobile. If you were to drive a Duesenberg today, you'd be wowed by how it combines the "<a href="http://classiccars.about.com/od/classiccarsaz/a/Duesenberg.htm" target="_blank">mechanical precision of a Rolls-Royce and the amazing acceleration and blinding speed of a Bugatti</a>," a few of the reasons <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8bsofHjl8o" target="_blank">a 1935 model sold for $4.5 million last year</a>. 
The doozy isn't obsolete; it's amazing.
That's the thing about technology. 
<a href="http://www.uminnpressblog.com/2014/05/case-study-4-it-is-known-george-r-r.html" target="_blank">As University of Maryland media archeology scholar Matthew Kirschenbaum argues</a>, we've been conditioned to think that any piece of tech that hasn't been released in the last six hours is defunct, passe, and obsolete. So anyone who uses WordStar in 2014 has to be a Luddite or, he says, "a curmudgeonly author of high fantasy whose success allows you to indulge your eccentricities," as you might take Martin to be.
But the WordStar might be a better word-processing product than whatever version of Microsoft Word you grapple with every day, with its templates and crashes and <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/clippy" target="_blank">animated paperclips</a>. After all, writers like Michael Chabon, Ralph Ellison, William F. Buckley, and Anne Rice all started their scribing on the WordStar. 
As <a href="http://www.uminnpressblog.com/2014/05/case-study-4-it-is-known-george-r-r.html" target="_blank">Kirschenbaum</a> wrote in a blog post, WordStar is both an oldie and a goodie: 
"WordStar is no toy or half-baked bit of code: on the contrary, it was a triumph of both software engineering and what we would nowadays call user-centered design. With features ranging from automatic word-wrap and full margin justification to mail merge and context-sensitive help, it was justifiably advertised as early as 1978 as a What You See Is What You Get word processor, a marketing claim that would be echoed by Microsoft when Word was launched in 1983.
"WordStar's real virtues, though, are not captured by its feature list alone. As Ralph Ellison scholar Adam Bradley observes in <a href="http://adamfbradley.com/ellison.php">his work</a> on Ellison's use of the program, 'WordStar's interface is modelled on the longhand method of composition rather than on the typewriter.' ...
"The upshot is that users need never lift hands from keyboard to navigate their document, thus permitting a freedom and facility of movement that is an order of magnitude more efficient than the pointing and clicking and scrolling and dragging we associate with running a mouse around a (graphic user interface)." 
Startups have tried to recapture the writerly simplicity of an interface like WordStar. Like Slate <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/05/14/george_r_r_martin_writes_on_dos_based_wordstar_4_0_software_from_the_1980s.html" target="_blank">says</a>, lots of writers rely on minimalist word processors like <a href="http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom" target="_blank">WriteRoom</a> and <a href="http://bywordapp.com/" target="_blank">Byword</a> to type without the Internet's distraction or use an app like <a href="https://macfreedom.com/" target="_blank">Freedom</a> or <a href="https://www.rescuetime.com/" target="_blank">RescueTime</a> to prevent from getting lost in multi-tabbed tangents. 
So while Word is a case study in bloated software, WordStar - <a href="https://archive.org/details/wordstar_2.26_osborne1_1981_micropro" target="_blank">which you can use a web version of here </a> - is a study in computing efficiency. 
Martin, for one, doesn't need all the "features" that crowd into Microsoft Word. "I don't want any help," the author says. "I hate some of these modern systems where you type a lower-case letter and it becomes a capital. I don't want a capital; if I wanted a capital, I would have typed a capital. I know how to work the shift key."

'Game Of Thrones' Creator George R.R. Martin's 'Secret Weapon' For Productivity Is A 31-Year-Old Word Processor 

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>In the hills above Hollywood, Aresenic's team of 12&#xa0;-&#xa0;10 women and 2 men&#xa0;-&#xa0;are building a media powerhouse based on&#xa0;being real, raw, and edgy.&#xa0;<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>In the last two years, Arsenic has transformed from being one woman's hobby to a social media movement where women of any shape, size, skin color, or location are submitting their own photos and videos for free just because they want to be a part of it.The startup, which officially launched in June 2015,&#xa0;currently has over&#xa0;960,000 followers on Instagram, more than Maxim and Esquire&#xa0;combined. Arsenic's Snapchat channel has around&#xa0;500,000&#xa0;people clicking on every photo and video its&#xa0;models post.Arsenic's meteoric rise comes at a time when social media can make anyone a star and women&#xa0;are being empowered to take control&#xa0;of their bodies.&#xa0;The tone was set from the&#xa0;second-ever Aresnic shoot when cofounder Amanda Micallef threw the photographer off the set.He had come in with the typical attitude of "This is my set, you do what I say" and dictated how the girls looked, she explains to Business Insider.&#xa0;That was not going to fly."These women wanted to push the envelope.&#xa0;They liked the idea of owning their sexuality," Micallef says. "They liked being provocative, but they didn't want somebody to tell them how to do that."The girls traded places and took photos of themselves, posing however they wanted.&#xa0;"That was the mantra right off the bat: If you don't like what you're doing, don't do it," Micallef says.Arsenic doesn't pay for&#xa0;any of&#xa0;its Snapchat content. The entire platform is crowd-sourced, with people volunteering to takeover the account and showcase their lives. The up-and-coming models want attention and to be discovered. Brands are clamoring to have their products, like cars, show up as photo shoot props.&#xa0;All of the art on display in the Arsenic House is on loan from artists wanting it to be showcased in the background.Now&#xa0;a generation of men and women who love "the new sexy" have started following Arsenic&#xa0;in droves.&#xa0;&#xa0;<h2>Evening the playing field on Instagram</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>In 2014, Micallef&#xa0;wanted&#xa0;to start&#xa0;a&#xa0;print magazine."I said, Amanda, print is dead," her now-cofounder Billy Hawkins&#xa0;laughs.Micallef had started Arsenic as a side project, a hobby to escape the "Hollywood bulls---" that had become increasingly pervasive in her day job as an independent filmmaker.&#xa0;For the&#xa0;first shoot, she didn't have any money to&#xa0;provide&#xa0;props or secure a location.&#xa0;The models, the photographer, and the makeup artists showed up for free. Hawkins lent Micallef&#xa0;his house. The resulting images were&#xa0;a byproduct of not having the money to do something more elaborate.&#xa0;Then came the next shoot,&#xa0;where the photographer was kicked out. The photos were different, and Micallef could tell she had hit on something."In a commercial way, there was just this idea of what sexy, beautiful was that was somewhat limiting," Micallef says. "But more than that, there's a nuance when you look at a picture of a girl when she's feeling empowered and beautiful - her hair is the way she wants, she's wearing what she wants, she's standing the way she wants - that's very different than when a guy is like stand there, turn your cheek that way, and projecting what he thinks is sexy."Hearing her idea of doing a print magazine, Hawkins turned her down, but Micallef is stubborn. She told him she was going to do&#xa0;it with or without his help.One&#xa0;week later, he came back with an email outlining the pillars of what Arsenic would become.<h2 class="p1">The&#xa0;most interesting woman in the world and an opportunity</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Hawkins and Micallef met years ago, when Hawkins left a career in investment banking to become a mail room clerk at Creative Arts Agency (CAA). His boss told him about Micallef, a woman who raced Formula 1 Cars and drove the Gumball 3000 race across the country. She didn't just participate - she got thrown in jail for driving too fast. After&#xa0;her dad bailed her out, she finished in the top 10% of the race. And this was in between her sitting on the boards of several companies.&#xa0;"This is before the Dos Equis dude, the most interesting man in the world, but that's kind of how I pictured this woman," Hawkins says about first meeting Micallef.&#xa0;He knew her&#xa0;side project had struck a nerve, and it seemed like there was a giant&#xa0;opportunity&#xa0;ahead.<div></div>Looking at Playboy and Maxim in 2014, they hadn't stayed on top of the digital age, Hawkins thought. MTV had slipped as the taste-maker. Instead, it's Snapchat and&#xa0;YouTube stars dictating pop culture."It seemed like there was this unoccupied throne, and there didn't seem to be a viable contender," Hawkins said. "And I said, 'Amanda, you're getting these models to shoot for free because you're hitting on something. There's something to this.'"<h2>Turning a hobby into a business</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>The free photo shoots&#xa0;were still just a "hobby accelerated" to Micallef, but&#xa0;more women started approaching her wanting to work for Arsenic. They didn't want to be paid, they just wanted to be a part of it.&#xa0;Micallef tried to make a WordPress site, but says it was an "utter and total disaster." Then she turned to Instagram."Our first hundred followers came from what can only be called extortion," Micallef said with a laugh. "Billy would take someone's phone from them, go to their Instagram and follow Arsenic and hand the phone back.""It wasn't a hits business. It was always this slowly accelerating snowball.&#xa0;When it did take off, it had a&#xa0;hockey stick growth curve."&#xa0;<h2>Moving onto Snapchat</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Although Snapchat was a&#xa0;cool new social platform, Micallef and Hawkins weren't sure how to use it at first.&#xa0;The disappearing photo network initially had a reputation for sexting, with users sending racy anatomy photos back and forth.&#xa0;Arsenic's&#xa0;community of models and photographers hadn't found a safe spot on&#xa0;the social network yet.But the launch of Snapchat Stories changed&#xa0;that.&#xa0;Originally, Snapchat only let users send a single image or video to a list of friends, one by one. With Stories, users could publicly share a collection of photos taken during the course of a day. All of their followers could watch the stories over and over, and the experience&#xa0;felt more like broadcasting to the masses than text messaging.&#xa0;A 19-year-old film student who was volunteering for Arsenic offered to start the company's Snapchat channel. She began broadcasting her day, but having the account run by one model wasn't interesting enough. Arsenic began to implement "Snapchat takeovers." They would put a call out on Instagram for someone to run the account for a day and then pick a model from the comments section.&#xa0;Anyone in Arsenic's community could be eligible to run the Snapchat channel, because Micallef and Hawkins didn't want an "Arsenic Girl" to be a definition, like a Victoria's Secret model or Playboy bunny."We embrace lots of types of women. It's part of the reason that women engage with it," Micallef said. "You don't have to be blonde or six feet tall. 'Our models could be my next door neighbor. They&#xa0;could be my best friend."Soon, the channel began to take on the lives of a variety of women. One day it might be a&#xa0;dancer shaking it at class. The next, a model preparing for a photoshoot on her bed. Or a&#xa0;walk through of the celebrity's house. A behind-the-scenes look at a concert.&#xa0;<div></div>These weren't glossy, re-touched models and images. It was real, shaky camera hands and all. And soon, hundreds of thousands people were watching."From the early days, we were about pushing the envelope, making noise, not being meek," Hawkins said, pounding his fist to his hand to proclaim each point, as we sit in the living room of the Arsenic House. "We didn't care if someone unfollowed us on Instagram. Our theory is that these are the real people, and we don't want to water it down to make it appealing to everyone."In January 2015, six weeks after launching on Snapchat, the videos were already garnering 60,000 views.&#xa0;Now, each&#xa0;Arsenic Snapchat video starts with a hand-drawn logo followed by&#xa0;a clip of an old TV show. Whatever comes next is a surprise.&#xa0;"You tune in because you don't&#xa0;know what you will miss," Micallef said.&#xa0;<h2>Building it into a business</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Despite the early Snapchat and Instagram success, Hawkins and Micallef&#xa0;didn't quit&#xa0;their day jobs until June 1, 2015."At a certain point, when you're reaching a certain amount of people, it becomes pretty f---ing hard to ignore," Hawkins said.&#xa0;They incorporated Arsenic and started paying some of the women who had been happily volunteering.&#xa0;Now they've raised a round of capital from LA-based Arena Ventures and have found ways to grow sponsorships and view counts on Snapchat simultaneously.Arsenic&#xa0;recently did a takeover of 40 people's accounts, all showing a car wash photo shoot from different points of view, sponsored by a car company.&#xa0;The startup has also hired its first developer, an ex-Zynga engineer, to build the crowd-sourced platform they are betting their future on. They key to Arsenic thus far has been its inclusivity, but having volunteers pick over the comments section has been labor intensive. Arsenic wants to build a home for people looking to exhibit creativity to a community - like a Reddit for up-and-coming models and photographers - no matter where they are or the connections they have."It's really just an outgrowth of a macro change in the world. People spend more time on their phones than they do watching TV - that has nothing to do with us," Hawkins said. "We believe there is an 18-year-old in a third world country that is just as valuable as Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams. What we need to do is figure out a way to sort through it."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>To Hawkins, unlocking the potential of ordinary people goes back to his childhood.&#xa0;His mother had always talked about a "them".Why did&#xa0;they make the remote this way? Why did&#xa0;they do this?&#xa0;"I've always rejected it because it is a construct of language that then has this idea that the power resides outside of yourself. They have the power, not you," Hawkins said.&#xa0;It wasn't until he gained influence himself in Hollywood that he realized the six major studios are a&#xa0;they.&#xa0;They&#xa0;dictate who gets cast and what stories get made.&#xa0;They control pop culture.&#xa0;The way women look has also long been in the hands of another&#xa0;they. They, the photographers.&#xa0;They, the men.&#xa0;They,&#xa0;the brands.That's changing, and Arsenic is on&#xa0;the cusp of it."If we had a version of&#xa0;Maxim's&#xa0;top 100 sexiest women, we would ask our audience who they think [should win]" Hawkins says."And by the way, it could&#xa0;be&#xa0;you." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-snapchat-selfie-filters-2015-9">Snapchat's new selfie filters are super trippy</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="V2czBrdzrc_HRfIAaBQ5gKkt2UyOPc6c" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

There's a Playboy competitor for a new generation that's killing it on Snapchat - and it's run mostly by women

The most productive people are masters of efficiency - tuning their calendars, arranging their tasks, and otherwise making the most of their time.&#xa0;
To aid your quest for efficiency, here are 25 of the most useful web productivity resources we've found.
They'll save you a lot of time in the long run:&#xa0;
<a href="https://bufferapp.com/" target="_blank">Buffer</a> - You share things all day on the internet, but you don't want to share them right away. Enter Buffer, a simple, robust utility for scheduling your social media.&#xa0;
<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=personal.andreabasso.clearfocus">Clear Focus</a> - This timer uses the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-be-more-productive-pomodoro-technique-2014-5">Pomodoro Technique</a>&#xa0;to prevent you from wasting time on distractions. It helps you focus on what really matters, by alternating work sessions with small breaks. You'll be able to concentrate more easily and get things done. Just tap once and get working.
<a href="http://coffitivity.com/">Coffitivity</a>&#xa0;- Researchers <a href="http://www.fastcolabs.com/3015970/why-ambient-noise-makes-you-more-productive-and-three-apps-that-do-it-right" target="_blank">have found</a> that people work better with white noise in the background. This site replicates the sound of a coffee shop to achieve the perfect combination of calm and commotion. It'll help you get your creative juices flowing so you won't feel stuck. Other websites that provide great background noise for focusing are <a href="http://www.rainymood.com/">Rainymood</a> and <a href="https://www.focusatwill.com/music/#player">Focus At Will</a>.
<a href="http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com/">Do Nothing For 2 Minutes</a>&#xa0;- Although it seems counterintuitive, this website is the perfect way to refocus your mind after a hard meeting or stressful call, in just under 120 seconds.
<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CB8QFjAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fdoodle.com%2F&amp;ei=BompU-rzINSqsQTTvYGIBg&amp;usg=AFQjCNHqdVCsqOBxm9m1WuN3U0BBDIbKJw&amp;bvm=bv.69620078,d.cWc">Doodle</a> -&#xa0;Trying to schedule a meeting? You never need to endure tedious email threads about everyone's available times again. Instead, use Doodle to identify a few potential windows of time for the meeting, and ask everyone else to identify when works for them within those times. It'll be much easier to find the time slot that works for everyone.
<a href="http://evernote.com/">Evernote</a>&#xa0;- This simple yet sophisticated note-taking app is legendary for productivity. It organizes your notes in an elegant way, allows you to search for text within an image, captures everything from PDF to web pages, and even has a Webclipper so you can save anything you see online with a single click.&#xa0;

<a href="http://feedly.com/">Feedly</a>&#xa0;-&#xa0;This useful site organizes the content of your favorite news websites or blogs into one place, so you can easily read and share what matters to you. For an alternative, try the <a href="http://digg.com/reader" target="_blank">Digg Reader.</a>
<a href="http://gottcode.org/focuswriter/">FocusWriter</a> -&#xa0;This tool provides a simple, distraction-free writing environment for anyone who needs to get things done. You get a nice, full-screen blank canvas to focus on your next writing project. It also includes timers, alarms, goal setting, themes, typewriter sound effects, statistics, and spell checking.&#xa0;
<a href="http://docs.google.com" target="_blank">Google Docs</a> - Don't sleep on Google Docs. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-snaps-up-the-company-that-made-microsoft-office-files-work-on-android-iphone-2012-6">After acquiring the mobile word-processing startup Quickoffice</a>, Google Docs has become a robust platform for editing documents between your computer, your tablet, and your smartphone.&#xa0;
<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grammarly-spell-checker-g/kbfnbcaeplbcioakkpcpgfkobkghlhen" target="_blank">Grammarly Spell Checker and Grammar Checker</a> - Few things are more embarrassing than realizing that you've made grammar mistakes or spelling errors in work that's being read by other people. This Chrome extension adds a layer of security, checking over your prose before you hit "send" or "publish."&#xa0;
<a href="https://hootsuite.com/">Hootsuite</a>&#xa0;- If you need to manage multiple social media accounts, this is the site for you. Hootsuite is a social media dashboard that helps you reduce the amount of time you spend on Twitter and Facebook by scheduling posts for the upcoming weeks. Get your social media work out of the way in one block of time, instead of checking in throughout the day.
<a href="https://idonethis.com/">iDoneThis</a> - At the end of every workday, iDoneThis sends its users a simple email - what did you accomplish today? Answering this question has profound effects: not only do you get an ever-growing log of what you've done, but you're able to see your progress over time, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-incentives-dont-actually-make-people-do-better-work-2014-3">which is crucial for workplace well-being</a>.&#xa0;
<a href="https://ifttt.com/">IFTTT</a> -&#xa0;Create productivity chains with this simple app. It uses the idea of "If this, then that" so you can make recipes of Triggers and Actions to prompt you to stay productive. For example, you can make a recipe to unmute your phone when you get home, mute your ringer at bedtime, or text your wife when you leave work.
<a href="https://lift.do/">Lift</a>&#xa0;- Do you want to run every day? Drink more water? Spend 15 minutes reading before bed? Lift helps you develop better habits by keeping track of your daily progress and sending you push notifications to remind you to stay on track. Another great site for building good habits is&#xa0;<a href="http://habitforge.com/">HabitForge</a>, a program that will send you a daily reminder of your goals.
<a href="https://getpocket.com/">Pocket</a>&#xa0;- Use pocket to help you store information, links, and images so you can search through them later. It's also great for bookmarking things to read for later.&#xa0;Another great resource to save articles is&#xa0;<a href="https://www.instapaper.com/">Instapaper</a>, which also allows you to highlight important information.
 
<a href="http://www.productivityowl.com/">Productivity Owl</a>&#xa0;- This Google Chrome extension will force you to be more productive. An owl follows you to every website you visit and swoops across the page when you're not being productive.
<a href="https://www.rescuetime.com/" target="_blank">RescueTime</a>&#xa0;-&#xa0;This app tracks your activity in applications and on web pages, and then slices that data up for you. The result: a better understanding of how you're actually spending your time.&#xa0;
<a href="http://selfcontrolapp.com/">Selfcontrol</a>&#xa0;-&#xa0;This incredibly useful app temporarily blocks you from any distractions or addicting sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Youtube. It's only for Mac users, but don't worry -&#xa0;<a href="http://getcoldturkey.com/">Cold Turkey</a>&#xa0;has the same functions, specifically made for Windows users.
<a href="https://slack.com/" target="_blank">Slack</a>&#xa0;-&#xa0;Slack is a fun, elegant way to coordinate with your team. Enabling group conversations, private discussions, and direct messaging, Slack takes old-school chat rooms to the next level.&#xa0;
<a href="http://skimfeed.com/" target="_blank">Skimfeed</a> - If you want to know what's happening in the tech world in a glance, use Skimfeed, a news aggregator that gathers headlines from top publishers in a readily readable format, preventing the need to wander through your bookmarks and social feeds.&#xa0;

<a href="https://calendar.sunrise.am/" target="_blank">Sunrise</a>&#xa0;- Sunrise is the calendar app that you've been dreaming of. It pulls together calendars that were previously separate, hidden in Google Calendar, Facebook, and a million other places.
<a href="https://unroll.me/">Unroll Me</a>&#xa0;-<a href="https://unroll.me/"></a>&#xa0;When you sign up, you'll find a list of all your subscription emails. Unsubscribe instantly from whatever you don't want. For the subscriptions you want to keep, Unroll Me will "roll" them into one message so you can see them at a glance instead of reading through dozens of emails. More great resources for email productivity are <a href="http://www.mailboxapp.com/">Mailbox </a>and&#xa0;<a href="http://www.sanebox.com/">Sanebox</a>.
<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CB0QFjAA&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwakerupper.com%2F&amp;ei=uoaoU7PhE-7LsATZuYLICQ&amp;usg=AFQjCNEQmmqUz2ELnYnZZED_qK6M02sh6Q&amp;bvm=bv.69411363,d.cWc">Wakerupper</a>&#xa0;- This site provides you simple telephone reminders, so you can set a wake-up call at a specific time, remind yourself of important events, remember to take your medication on time, escape from a boring date or meeting, or simply set follow-ups for tasks you meant to do. A similar iPhone app is <a href="http://www.dueapp.com/">Due</a>, which repeatedly alerts you about your tasks until you complete them.
<a href="https://workflowy.com/">Workflowy</a> - With this organizational tool, you'll be able to free your mind of clutter and make your life much, much easier. It'll help you organize your personal to-dos, collaborate on team projects, take notes, write research papers, keep a journal, plan a huge event, and much more.&#xa0;
<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CB8QFjAA&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wunderlist.com%2F&amp;ei=xIaoU5HrJOapsQTutoHgDw&amp;usg=AFQjCNFwy1qRZEmWxJGj9LgBY0XrzcrzWg&amp;bvm=bv.69411363,d.cWc">Wunderlist</a>&#xa0;- This is the easiest way to manage and share your to-do lists. It is applicable for everything from trip planning to shopping lists to even running your own business. Other great resources to help you with task management are <a href="http://www.any.do/">Any.do</a>,&#xa0;<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CB0QFjAA&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rememberthemilk.com%2F&amp;ei=z4aoU9ChDYmosAS3sYDoDw&amp;usg=AFQjCNFQOSngVvFwpn2SkYFv470kPnsGpQ&amp;bvm=bv.69411363,d.cWc">Remember The Milk</a>, and <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CB8QFjAA&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.todoist.com%2F&amp;ei=CYupU_LSNIzgsAS40oLoAQ&amp;usg=AFQjCNHhPFW3_BKW94zCYciaThjatZLT7w&amp;bvm=bv.69620078,d.cWc">Todoist</a>.
This is an update of an article originally written by Maggie Zhang.

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