Mark at Productivity501 asks three very important questions, and challenges others to provide answers.

Click on the question below and you'll see how several prominent productivity experts answered. Then see my personal answer below:

What is the single biggest way people waste time without even realizing it?

Not knowing what your top priorities are. If you established a top five and "first of five" every single day (I'm talking work days primarily, but this would work on weekends too!), then you could manage everything else accordingly. You would know that you can leave your email alone, for example, because it can't be more important than your "first of five" priority.

What change has made the most difference in making you effective in life?

Getting up early. I wake up at 5:30 a.m. every weekday morning now, and it's had an incredible impact on my energy and productivity throughout the rest of the day.

If someone were to read just one post from your site, which would you recommend the read and why?

Here's one of my favorite recent posts about Cooks in the Kitchen. It identifies a key problem that almost every professional has, with tips on how to get stuff done in spite of it. I think it's a good example of the kind of topics I like to write about, with practical advice that anyone can follow.

A few months ago I read What Clients Love by Harry Beckwith, and bookmarked several passages I intended to later think more about.

One such passage had to do with creating credibility and believability in record time.

The secret? Admit a weakness.

Tell your audience (whether it's one or many) about something you did wrong, something you're terrible at, or something that has always been a steep challenge.

By showing honesty in this way, your audience will assume the rest of what you say is the truth. Admitting a weakness will also disarm your audience, and serve as a stronger ice-breaker in a sales situation than you might think.

Choose your publicized weakness carefully, but find ways to use this to your advantage.

Get more great advice and insights from Harry here.

Aside from the occasional out-of-town trip or out-of-office meeting, I spend most of my time working in two locations - my office at HouseValues and my home office.

The majority of that work time is at the HouseValues office. I feel fortunate to have a great working space here, but sometimes it's way too familiar. The same distractions and stimuli surround me every day, people know exactly where to find me if they need something, and I typically have the exact same things to stare at (in the office, and out the window) in my constant search for inspiration.

I spend less time at my home office (thankfully), but still enough that it's a steady work environment for me. Same issues apply there - the window I stare out at, the cat that constantly wants to sit on my keyboard, etc. - all the same, almost every day.

Despite the significant time I spend at these two desks, some of my best ideas have come elsewhere. Sometimes it's something on a weekend that sparks the right brain cells. Sometimes it's forcing a lingering cup of coffee with my Molskine notebook on a weekday afternoon.

Too often, it's in the shower or during a workout, when neither the Molskine or Jott are readily available.

So if some of my most productive, creative thinking comes away from my primary work stations, why not capture more of that time for myself?

How could you plan such "out of office" work time into your schedule, specifically to think about particular challenges you have in your work or personal life? How can you use this time to spark new creativity, and actually increase your productivity?

Don't fall into the trap of thinking about this time as less productive or valuable. If you need a chance of scenery to be creative, do it. Use your primary work stations for execution, not creation.

Laura Ries does a nice job explaining the hierarchy of consumer thought, especially when it comes to choosing brands.

Yes, having a strong brand is important. But it's even more important that your brand leads in a relevant, vibrant category. You can have the clearest, most compelling brand in the world, but if it's playing in a largely irrelevant category, it just doesn't matter.

So what happens when your once-great brand is suddenly in a category that nobody cares about anymore? Figure out where your customers went, which new category they care about how, and create a new brand to dominate there. This is the challenge facing Dell right now, and many others in shifting markets.

Read more from Laura here.

Corporate blogging at its best: Patagonia launched its corporate blog just five months ago, but it's already one of the best in the business. It's a clear, engaging reflection of the company's core values.

Getting Up Early, Part II: Here are 15 more tips for how to get a better start to your day.

15 ways to become a better presenter: Guy does it again with another fantastic contributed post on practical ways to better engage your live audience.

Email Zen: Simple tips for keeping a clean inbox, no matter how much email you get.

Why testimonials do (and don't) work: Great post explaining why many testimonials backfire, plus tips for how to make your happy customer quotes work even harder.

Do you love your job?: If so, tell people! (it'll only cost you a dollar...)

A day in the life of a productivity master: Check out how efficient, how effective, and how happy this guy is.

When being predictable is a good thing: Smart advice from that guy.

Special thanks to Ron at Buzzoodle for helping to spread the buzz about the new Web marketing book from HouseValues.

Ron runs one of the Web's best marketing blogs, has written the book on buzz marketing, and has a knack for providing highly practical and applicable marketing recommendations to everyday business challenges.

I recently had an opportunity to chat with Ron about his approach to buzz marketing, and here's a quick transcript:

How and why did you decide to focus on buzz marketing?
We began by helping people with Internet Marketing. What we realized over time was that getting more people involved, including employees and the public, could get clients incredible results for a very low cost. So we decided to focus on Employee Evangelism and that morphed into Buzz Marketing with a heavy emphasis on helping organizations get a team of employee evangelists creating buzz.

What strategies have been most successful in creating buzz for Buzzoodle?
My blog is the top lead generator for me. It has led to book sales, speaking opportunities, partnerships and more. Even though it is a lot of work to maintain, it is more effective and fun than most other activities I could do.

One problem people do not realize is that having a blog is not enough. You have to promote it and use it to build relationships. You have to spend time creating content and spend time building relationships. And if you need fast results, it is not the best option for you.

Why do so many products and businesses fail to generate buzz?
People, including myself, have trouble looking at their business and products with a fresh eye. Most small businesses start with an idea, then they build the idea, then they see if people will buy it. The general public will almost never care as much as you do. So they will not pass on information about your product unless it is really incredible or useful.

Saving me 5% on something probably is not worth the time it takes me to change services. You have to fundamentally enhance the quality of my life with little effort on my part to get me excited about something.

That said, Buzz Marketing has really become the new PR. It is all about crafting good stories and finding people that care and can pass that information on to other people. If you look at it as a marathon where you are going to create some buzz every day, forever, you are more likely to succeed.

If a business owner or employee reading this has 15 minutes this afternoon to create buzz, what should he/she do?
Buy my book (just kidding, no really...). Then if they have time left over, I would say email some people you have not talked to in a few months and ask them how they are doing. Let them know if there is anything new (buzzworthy) going on with you. I regularly do with and it gets good results because so many people exchange a few emails and then move on.

What are you reading right now? What's the best book you've read in the past six months?
I am reading The Dip right now by Seth Godin. I just read the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss and that one got me really excited. I am changing my business model based on some of those concepts, so that I can stop working 10-12 hour days.

I find it very funny that you can read two books like those that have very different and seemingly contradictory messages and agree with both. Like most things in life, you can make them make sense together with some mental stretching.

Aside from reading the Buzzoodle blog on a daily basis, where else can folks learn about effective buzz marketing?
I do read additional marketing blogs, but I also look at technology blogs to see what new things are coming out, and even look at HR resources to learn more about helping people be more effective. I think the best way to approach Buzz Marketing is to remember it is about empowering (technology) people (HR) to communicate more effectively and more regularly with minimal effort. For a list of good marketing blogs you can visit the power 150 and you get a list of more than you can ever read.

For many people, networking feels like hard work. But if you really step back and think about the myriad ways to build your network, it's quite simple. And it's not confined to cocktail parties, mixers and conferences.

Networking, quite simply, is the act of building relationships. With everyone.

There is no contact too small, too irrelevant, or too distant. Yes, meeting peers in your industry, your job function, and within your professional community are important network members. But so are the ad reps who cold-call you for your business. So are the random people you meet at a concert or ballgame tonight.

The barista? Your bank clerk? Your spouse's colleagues (no matter what he or she does)? All a part of your network.

Why? It's simple. We live in a small and shrinking world, a world in which everyone's connected to everyone. Your barista? She might play ultimate frisbee with your next big business deal. That ad rep who keeps cold-calling you? He might soon get a biz-dev job at a company you've been dying to do business with.

The guy at the ballgame? What if he mentions your name and/or company to someone in his network that helps you:

• Make your next sale
• Get your next great job
• Hire your next superstar employee
• Get you a great deal on the car you want to buy
• Find a better ad agency for your business

The lesson here? Always be networking. Always take the opportunity to meet a new person, introduce yourself, and make new contacts.

Then simply keep in touch. At a minimum, add them to your rolodex, or Outlook Contacts, or LinkedIn account. Get in the habit of sending quarterly e-cards to your entire network. The end-of-year holidays are the easiest excuse, but summertime well wishes aren't bad either. And your network will appreciate you being proactive about staying in touch.

Take advantage of every opportunity to meet new people, make an impression, and expand your ability to get things done - for yourself and your business.

Two of my favorite bloggers are moving from Chicago to Austin this summer, but clearly not because they disdain the Windy City. They've left on their own blog a top ten list of why they love Chicago, and challenged other bloggers to do the same for their home towns.

I'm a BIG fan of SparkPeople.com. It's an online healthy living community, focused not only on helping people lose weight, but establish long-term healthy living habits to maintain users' ideal weight.

Better productivity via multiple positives: Sounds geeky, but give this a shot. It makes a lot of sense, and we can all do far more of it. Oh yeah, avoid the multiple negatives too.

12 ways to decompress after a stressful day: Another great set of suggestions from ZenHabits. Even more great suggestions from readers in the "comments" section as well.

What does that office-talk really mean?: Here's a quick set of translations from Penelope Trunk (with a healthy layer of sarcasm added). An entertaining read.

Tired of the same old blogs?: Pick a new favorite from this list of the industry's top 150 marketing blogs.

Edit your life: Start with your commitments, and make sure they're all important. Thanks again to ZenHabits.

PR agencies of the world, unite!: Great work by Paul Holmes describing how PR agencies need to evolve to not just survive, but thrive in a consumer-driven marketing world.

The brand is everything: Doesn't matter if your marketing and executive suite are united and consistent. If your front-line staff doesn't live it, you're screwed.