efficiency

Conserving is a skill everyone needs as savvy buyers and responsible citizens. Conserving is about using less for economic savings, time efficiency, energy conservation and climate change reduction.

Buying What You Need

If you needed it and you didn't have it, it would suck.

If you had it and you didn't need it, it would suck.

If you bought it and it wasn't what you needed, it would suck even more.

In other words, think about what you really need and what you don't so that you get the right things. If you buy the wrong thing you may end up replacing it with something else and wasting more.

Do your research. Toolpedia is a good starting point for finding proven DOSPEC tools that will do the job.

One of the best ways to become Empowered in a general sense is to achieve success in smaller areas of one's life.  There is a certain satisfaction in accomplishing something you set out to do, which can quickly build one's self esteem.  It just feels good to get things done, and often this creates a drive to see what else you can get done--how far you can go.  This snowball effect can create an enormous amount of force in one's life.  

Do Stuff

They say that actions speak louder than words, and this is often true.  It's great to have ideas and discussions, but by actually doing something, you are manifesting your will in the real world.  

Often, we tend to have a kind of action-inertia to overcome in order to be productive.  This can be caused by a number of reasons--apathy (not caring enough to act), procrastination (I'll do it tomorrow), ignorance (not knowing what to do, or not knowing there's something to do in the first place), indecision (not knowing how you want to proceed). 

Feedback

Frequently, we don't realize something important about a situation.  Example:  You've got a piece of spinach in your teeth, and if you don't get some feedback on the matter (glancing in a mirror, being told by a friend, etc.) you'll simply be ignorant of the situation, and thus won't realize there is an action to be taken.  

This principle works at all levels of our lives.  In order to make the best decisions, and take the best actions, one needs to have proper feedback about a situation.  

In a very personal sense, feedback may be achieved by a number of externalization techniques--profiling yourself or creating a character sheet can give you an external source of feedback on yourself.  The trickiest part is in being truly honest with yourself.  By seeing a snapshot of your status as a human, you are more easily able to identify strengths and weaknesses, and thus identify areas to improve, or potential actions you're already qualified for.  

This type of feedback can sometimes be achieved with a close friend (who knows you well), though in this case you're substituting honesty with yourself for honesty from your friend (being filtered by your own perceptions of what your friend's trying to say).  

Another powerful type of feedback you can use to gauge your progress is the creation of goals, and subsequent tests for success.  

Setting Goals

If there is something you want to see done (a goal), more often than not, there are multiple actions (steps) required to achieve success.  A good practice is to clearly define the desired outcome (goal) and then break that down into the steps necessary to actualizing it (sub-goals).  If you break it down all the way, each little step along the way is a very explicit action that can be taken to further your progress toward your goals.  

It's also important to have a method for testing success.  Many people suggest a timeframe for each goal and subgoal.  This is an easy way to test for success and motivate yourself (because you know it's coming). 

Sometimes it's good to have a reward set up for yourself, when you reach the goal, but often the reward can simply be the goal itself (and the wonderful Empowering feeling you get when you succeed).  

"Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy."

—Benjamin Franklin

Man must achieve values in order to live. Productiveness is the virtue of achieving values. It is the fullest use of one's mind in seeking and achieving those values. It's primary use is in the creation of wealth. To live, men need physical wealth (meaning food, shelter, etc.) in order to survive. Wealth beyond the minimums is necessary to hedge against the uncertain future. The more wealth created and saved, the better chances one has of survival. Productiveness is the virtue of creating this wealth. It is directly responsible for the forwarding of one's life.

Productiveness in a market economy doesn't mean the direct creation of goods. It means the earning of goods through the creation of value. By trading goods or services, one enables the creation of wealth by others for one's own use. Trading is a kind of productiveness. It is another method of practicing productiveness. The result and aim is the same, though. The creation of wealth.

Productiveness is also applicable in other aspects of ones life. In social relationships, for instance, it is possible to create value. And even outside of material wealth, one can be productive by achieving values. Productiveness then isn't dependent on producing physical goods. It consists of producing values for oneself.

A last note on productivity is that it must be profitable to be called productive. This means the cost of doing something must be less than the value achieved by doing it. In this respect, many acts can be considered non-productive after the fact. Mere profitability, or the gaining from an act, is not sufficient for productivity, though. The virtue of productivity means achieving the most one can achieve. Working at a fast-food restaurant is not productive if one has the ability and opportunity to be a brain-surgeon. Spending ones resources (time and effort) on a lesser value when one could achieve a higher value is not productive.

—http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/Ethics_Productiveness.html