It’s been a busy week for me, though most of the work has been behind the scenes. I’m gradually finding my way into life of a full-time writer. Mostly, I’m catching up on old e-mail and preparing my workspace for maximum productivity. And, of course, I’ve been editing guest entries.

Here are some recent articles I’ve enjoyed on productivity and personal finance:

First off, master-marketer Guy Kawasaki dropped a line to let me know about Alltop, his new aggregation site. “A good metaphor is that Alltop is an online magazine rack that displays the news from the top publications and blogs,” Kawasaki writes. “Our goal is to satisfy the information needs of the 99% of Internet users who will never use an RSS feed reader or create a custom page.” Get Rich Slowly is honored to be included in the Alltop personal finance section.

Leo from Zen Habits posted his guide to creating a minimalist workspace at Unclutterer, the blog about getting and staying organized. I actually find Leo’s solution amusing because it’s the direction I’ve gone, too: a single iMac and as empty a desk surface as possible. (I use a wireless keyboard and mouse, though. I wish Apple would make the new slim wireless keyboard with a numeric keypad.) Streamlining my workspace has done wonders for my productivity.

Trent at The Simple Dollar has a brilliant analogy for credit cards: they’re like a “very dangerous power tool. If you’re careful and take proper precautions, they can save you time.” But if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can really do some damage.

I sometimes get e-mail asking, “What do you think of Super Deluxe Financial Seminar?” The truth is, I don’t know much about financial seminars, and am mostly wary of them. The Mighty Bargain Hunter writes that it’s good to be skeptical of high-priced seminars. MBH writes:

Success doesn’t happen by itself, and it doesn’t happen just because you’ve read a book or attended a seminar.  Books and seminars can point you in the right direction perhaps, but they can’t make you successful.  Success comes from investing time based on what you’ve learned, so try that before plunking down a lot of money for a seminar.

That Mighty Bargain Hunter is a wise man.