This advice seems so simple, but it bears repeating. It’s easy to get caught up in obsessing about little tasks and trivialities that aren’t really important. The best way to overcome this habit is to start thinking in terms of long term impact. Every time you start obsessing over the little details, ask yourself how long the results of those tasks will last.

If you’re always spending the majority of your time doing tasks that will have little impact after a week or month, you’re always going to be stuck in the same position. Be ruthless about not caring about all the stuff that’s not important. Your life depends on it.

Positive Productivity – Focus

1. Start small. You only need to focus for one minute at first. Clear everything away, pick your one important task, and just do it for one minute without switching. This is hard to do in the beginning but if you consciously focus on focusing, you can do it. It’s just a minute.
2. Reward yourself. The reward for focusing for one minute can be one minute (or 30 seconds) of checking whatever you want. Email, Facebook, whatever. Or get up and take a one-minute walk. Stretch, drink some water, massage your neck, and enjoy your small victory. Empires are created with small victories.
3. Repeat. Keep doing one minute focus, one minute reward (or 1 minute to 30 seconds if you like) for about half an hour (15 of each). You’re done. Repeat that later in the day. Rejoice in how much work you got done! And notice how you’ve set up a positive feedback cycle for focusing.
4. Increase in small steps. Tomorrow, make it two minutes on, one minute off. Repeat that for 30 minutes, do it later in the day too. Feel free to go wild and do three focus sessions in a day if you like, but it’s not necessary.
5. Keep taking baby steps. I think you can see the pattern by now. Make it three minutes on, one minute off on the third day, then 4:1, then 5:1. When you get to 10 minutes, be crazy and take a 2 minute break. When you get to 20 minutes, take a 3 minute break. At 30 minutes of focus, you’ve earned a 5 minute break. And once you’re at 30 minutes, you can stay there. No need to become a monk.

Set up a positive feedback cycle for single-tasking focus and you’ll reverse the years of training your mind has gotten to switch tasks. You’ll get more important work done, and it won’t seem hard. You’ll find that focus becomes a form of meditation. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

So get to it now … FOCUS

1. Start Your Day Early

Getting an earlier start to your day can be helpful for numerous reasons. If you work in an office, chances are the atmosphere will be quieter and calm before all of your co-workers arrive. Just having an extra 30 – 60 minutes without interruptions can make a big difference and can help you to get through your work quicker.

If you work from home you may be able to avoid some of the classic distractions by getting up and starting your work before others in your house are around. You may find that starting your workday earlier will have some benefits in terms of your stress level and how you observe your day. When you start work later you may face the stress of feeling like you should have more done by a specific time in the day, but starting early can help to feel like you’re ahead of the game.

2. Making a Short To-Do List

A to-do list is a serious aspect of time management for most of us. However, one of the downfalls of having a to-do list is that it can get quite full and overwhelming. When this happens, the to-do list can actually become more of a interruption than a help because you may find yourself focusing on how you will never be able to accomplish everything instead of concentrating on the tasks at hand.

To simplify things keep your to-do list as short as possible. For example, focus on just completing two or three specific things in a given day instead of working off of a to-do list with 15 or 20 items. You’ll find that with fewer things on your list you’re able to do a better job with each, and you should still be able to accomplish them efficiently as well.

Having just two or three things on your to-do list isn’t always practical, and in that case you can divide your list into major and minor tasks, and keep the major tasks as limited as possible. This will help to keep your focus on a small number of important tasks, and you’ll probably find that you do a better job with them.

3. Set Aside Chunks of Time

Most of us struggle to focus on one thing at a time, and we live and work in a society where multi-tasking is a constant. However, you’ll find that you’re most productive when you’re able to concentrate on one thing for an extended period of time without interruptions. Pay attention to what you are working on throughout the day and you’ll likely find that you’re switching back and forth between tasks constantly.

Try setting up your day so that you have blocks like 1 – 4 hours of time to focus on getting your most important work done. Don’t get distracted or off-topic during these blocks; focus just on your main priority. This will lead to a more efficient use of your time. You’ll simplify things by avoid unneeded complications, and you’ll finish with your most important work earlier in the day.

4. Keep a Clean and Uncluttered Workspace

Working in a cluttered environment can add unnecessary stress. Take a few moments to clear of your desk or to straighten up your work area and you’ll probably notice a difference in how you feel and your mindset about your work. This is a simple thing that can take just a couple of minutes, but it can have a big impact by reducing stress and tension.

5. Avoid Needless Distractions

Every time the subject of productivity and simplicity comes up, distractions are always mentioned. For freelancers and designers being online a majority of the day brings a number of potential distractions into the picture. Things like email, Twitter, and Facebook are necessary for most of us, but they can also take up a lot of time and break up the workday constantly if they’re not managed properly.

If possible, have specific times for reading and responding to email and for social networking. If you limit it to certain times during the day you won’t be distracted as you’re working on other tasks and you’ll be able to get things done with more efficiency.

“If only I had more time”/ “There aren’t enough hours in the day”/ “Where does time go?” Complaints about lack of time are common in the workplace. Do you suffer from lack of time? Answer honestly the following questions “yes” or “no” to find out:

• Do you feel generally in control of your time at work?
• Do you know what you want to achieve in the next five years?
• Do you have clear goals at work? Can you describe them?
• Do you know what tasks are necessary to achieve your goals?
• Do you know how to prioritize your activities at work without being told?
• Can you describe at least three time-wasting activities at work?
• Do you have enough time in the day to focus on important tasks?
• Are you able to say “no” to requests at work
• Do you finish one task before taking on another?
• Do you ever plan your day with a to-do list?
• Do you hand in work on time?
• Do you commit to tasks without knowing whether you can achieve them?
• Are you on time for meetings?
• Do you stay late in the office?
• Do you take work home with you?
• Do you take all your allotted number of holidays?
• Can you say you have enough time for a personal life?
• Do you have clear personal goals?
• Are the personal goals compatible with your working goals?

If you can answer “yes” to most of these questions, well done: you have a good understanding of time management principles.

If you answer “no” to at least half of the questions, you would benefit from finding out more about controlling time. – Coming Soon – Watch this Space for Time Management Techniques.

Getting Things Started is more important than Getting Things Done, if you do not start you cannot get it done.

If you’re not getting something done, it’s probably due to one or more of the following reasons:

1. Wanting to over-deliver and give clients a 210% effort and not knowing where to start.
2. Feeling constrained from too much structured planning.
3. Feeling dazed from lack of any planning.
4. Overstretching on client projects.
5. Not really wanting to do it.
6. Poor health or personal/family disruptions.

Out of these reasons, number 6 is something that you’ll have to solve separately, and numbers 4 and 5 are solved by saying “NO”. Reasons 1,2 and 3 are the ones to watch for: these probably cause most procrastination because you don’t know how to start. These are resolved by taking a simpler starting approach:  Getting Things Started

Identify the most important thing you have to do today.

Decide to do just the first little part of it — just the first minute, or even 30 seconds of it. Getting started is the only thing in the world that matters.

Clear away distractions. Turn everything off. Close all programs. There should just be you, and your task.

Sit there, and focus on getting started. Not doing the whole task, just starting.

Pay attention to your mind, as it starts to have urges to switch to another task. You will have urges to check email or Facebook or Twitter or your favorite website. You will want to play a game or make a call or do another task. Notice these urges.

But don’t move. Notice the urges, but sit still, and let them pass. Urges build up in intensity, then pass, like a wave. Let each one pass.

Notice also your mind trying to justify not doing the task. Also let these self-rationalizing thoughts pass.

Now just take one small action to get started. As tiny a step as possible.

Get started, and the rest will flow.

1. Formulate everything on your desk before you leave work the previous night so your desk is ready for your work first thing the next morning. Have all the materials you need set and ready to go.

2. Avoid the break room. This might mean you need to bring your coffee with you in a thermos, but sitting down and getting started working right away will set the whole tone for the day. You can be collegial at lunch or in the afternoon when your energy levels are naturally waning.

3. Have a clear plan for the day. The clearer your action items and schedule, the easier it is to successfully manage your day. Even if your day doesn’t go exactly as planned, you’ll still get more done than not having any direction at all.

src : erin

We will Rise and we will Rise above everything else.

Meetings aren’t action.

This is a common mistake in management. They hold meetings to get things done. Meetings, unfortunately, almost always get in the way of actual doing. Stop holding those meetings!

Talking (usually) isn’t action.

Well, unless the action you need to take is a presentation or speech or something. Or you’re a television broadcaster. But usually, talking is just talking. Communication is necessary, but don’t mistake it for actual action.

Planning isn’t action.

Sure, you need to plan. Do it, so you’re clear about what you’re doing. Just do it quickly, and get to the actual action as quickly as you can.

Reading about it isn’t action.

You’re reading an article about action. Ironic, I know. But let this be the last one. Now get to work!

Sometimes, inaction is better.

This might be the most ironic thing on the list, but really, if you find yourself spinning your wheels, or you find you’re doing more harm than good, rethink whether the action is even necessary. Or better yet, do this from the beginning — is it necessary? Only do the action if it is.

1. Don’t overthink. Too much thinking often results in getting stuck, in going in circles. Some thinking is good — it’s good to have a clear picture of where you’re going or why you’re doing this — but don’t get stuck thinking. Just do.

2. Just start. All the planning in the world will get you nowhere. You need to take that first step, no matter how small or how shaky. My rule for motivating myself to run is: Just lace up your shoes and get out the door. The rest takes care of itself.

3. Forget perfection. Perfectionism is the enemy of action. Kill it, immediately. You can’t let perfect stop you from doing. You can turn a bad draft into a good one, but you can’t turn no draft into a good draft. So get going.

4. Don’t mistake motion for action. A common mistake. A fury of activity doesn’t mean you’re doing anything. When you find yourself moving too quickly, doing too many things at once, this is a good reminder to stop. Slow down. Focus.

5. Focus on the important actions. Clear the distractions. Pick the one most important thing you must do today, and focus on that. Exclusively. When you’re done with that, repeat the process.

6. Move slowly, consciously. Be deliberate. Action doesn’t need to be done fast. In fact, that often leads to mistakes, and while perfection isn’t at all necessary, neither is making a ridiculous amount of mistakes that could be avoided with a bit of consciousness.

7. Take small steps. Biting off more than you can chew will kill the action. Maybe because of choking, I don’t know. But small steps always works. Little tiny blows that will eventually break down that mountain. And each step is a victory, that will compel you to further victories.

It’s really that simple. Narrow down what you do, and do it repeatedly. Learn, grow, improve, read, watch, do it some more. When you’re really good at that one thing, people will want to pay you for it, or to learn how you do it.

It takes a lot of focus and practice to get good at doing one thing, but I’ve found that if you truly love it, it’s not really work. It’s play. And I never complain about playing at something I love.

-Leo Babuta

To make it as a freelancer, you need to be able to sell your work. That’s why making a great pitch to a prospective client is one of the key skills you can develop to be more successful.

Follow the steps below to make the perfect pitch.

1. Know the client. If you know the client well, you’re in a great position to make a great pitch. If not, you need to take the time to do a little research. Get to know their product, company, or publication. Google them, find out more via LinkedIn, contact others in your network who know the client. The more you know, the better your pitch.

2. Know their goals. Specifically, you want to know what the client hopes to achieve. Sure, they hope to sell a product or service. But how? What message are they trying to sell to the public? Who are they reaching out to? This is key. Talk to others, read their website, learn their message from promotions and marketing and advertising.

3. How will you help them meet those goals? Here’s why the client’s goals are key: because to make the perfect pitch, all you have to do is show how you will help them meet those goals. What service will you provide that they don’t already have that will move them closer to those goals? How will you be valuable to them? Why are you the perfect person to provide that value? If you want them to hire you, don’t show why hiring you would be good for you — show how it will be great for them.

4. Keep it short. Email your pitch to the client — don’t try to get a meeting or phone call. Those take too much time, and your client is busy. Think less business proposal and more elevator pitch. A few lines, and that’s it. Make it easy for them to read your pitch and respond in a minute. How do you keep it short? Get to the point: what do you want to do for them, how will it help them meet their goals, and why are you the perfect person to do that? Those three things, in three sentences (five at the most). If it’s that short, you will guarantee yourself a response.

5. Be professional, but enthusiastic. Don’t be casual. Your email communicates how much of a professional you are. However, being too conservative is also a mistake. You want to be enthusiastic about working for them, and that enthusiasm will catch on.

6. Don’t talk price, length, or details. Again, you want to keep it short. If you talk price, length, or details, you will get in the way of your main message: what you want to do and how it will help them.

7. Say who you are, but don’t brag. All you need to express is why you’re perfect, in a sentence or two. You need to show that you’ve done this successfully before, but you don’t want to sound like you’re overselling yourself.

8. Provide a link to your work. The best way to do this is to make a brief mention of one or two past successes, and provide a link for them to read more. A website with a portfolio, or a link to your best published work, are great for this.

9. Follow-up. If you don’t hear back in a few day, send a polite follow-up email. They will respect your following up. However, if you still don’t get a response, wait a week to send another follow-up email. Then drop it if they don’t respond, as they either 1) are not interested or 2) are too flaky to work with, if they can’t respond in a week.

10. Make multiple pitches. The perfect pitch is one that is part of a series of pitches to multiple prospective clients. You can’t rely on one pitch to be successful. Send several (3-10) to the clients who would work best for what you want, and tailor each pitch to each client.

src : leo

Exercises shake up your job performance to a great extent. They make you feel more energetic, alert and help manage stress. People often complain that they do not have enough time for exercises because of their jobs. There are a lot of exercises that people can do to be more active in and around the workplace

• Use the stairs at work rather than using the lift.
• If you drive to work, park your car at the far end of the parking lot so that you need to walk further.
• Stand in front of your chair with your feet and shoulder apart. Bend your knees as though you are sitting on the chair, keeping your weight on your heels. When your legs are parallel with the seat of the chair, slowly get back to your original standing position.
• Point your toe in a forward direction as in a position to kick a ball. Standing upright, slowly bend your knees in the direction of your toes until you can no longer see your toes. Slowly return to your starting position.
• With your back touching the wall, move your feet away from the wall so that the wall is supporting the weight of your back. Bend your knees so that your legs form a 90-degree angle. Hold as long as you can.
• During a coffee break, try calf raises by holding onto your desk or a file cabinet for balance, raise your heels off the floor, and then lower them back to the original position.
• Raise your shoulders up to your ears, hold, and relax slowly. This helps in releasing tension from the shoulder muscles.
• Stand in front of your chair with your feet apart and shoulders level. Get your shoulders in a round position, lifting alternate shoulders to your ear, push shoulders back and forwards.

Also, Try These 3 Simple Exercises

• Sitting Jog: Sit on a straight back chair. Inhale as you begin to lift your right foot. Exhale as you begin to lower your right foot and raise your left leg. Jog 10 steps. Increase to 50.
• Wrist Stretch: Extend your right arm. Place your left hand under the right forearm. Spread the fingers of your right hand comfortably. Next, you can stretch your wrist up and down and in a clockwise and anticlockwise direction.
• Ankle Stretch: Sit comfortably with both feet touching the floor. Extend your right leg so that toes are pointing down and inhale. Exhale as you flex your foot up. Repeat 5 times.

“ The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.“

Limit your hours. It’s ironic, because so many people work long hours and think they’re getting more done and being more productive. But they’re throwing brute hours at the problem. Instead, cut back on your hours and set a limit — say 6 or 7 hours a day — and get your most essential work done within that limit. If you know you’re only working 6 hours today, you’ll be sure to get the important tasks done first and waste less time. Limits force you to be effective.

Make a short list. Make a long list of all the tasks you need to do … then make a short list of 1-3 things you really want to get done. Choose so that, if you got only these tasks done, you’d be proud of what you did today. Start with the most important task, before checking email or reading online

Write shorter emails. If email takes up a lot of your day, the simple change of limiting yourself to 3-4 sentences per email will make a big difference. First, it’ll drastically shorten the time it takes to write or respond to emails. And second, it’ll shorten responses to your emails, which means you’ll spend less time reading email.

Clear your desk. This can be done in a few minutes. Clear everything off the top of your desk. Only put back a few essential items. Everything else should be: filed, given to the appropriate person, given a permanent spot in a drawer, or trashed/recycled. Make quick decisions and then get back to work.

Limit meetings. The fewer the better. Some top Google executives just do 5-minute meetings — anyone who attends these meetings had better be prepared, and concise. If you can get out of meetings and just get the notes, or find an alternative way to communicate, it could save you hours per week.

src : Leo Babuta

When it comes time to putting your email together, here are few things to keep in mind:

• Subject lines are important

Some email marketers spend as much time on the subject line as they do on the message content. Email marketing service, MailerMe, did a study and found the best length is 35 characters or less. In fact, that length resulted in an average of 5.1% higher open rates.

• Avoid using all caps in the subject line. They’re perceived as shouting.
• Avoid common spam word such as “free,” “discount” and “save.” Also avoid multiple dollar signs ($$$), especially with exclamation points ($$$!!!!!!).
• Test various subject lines and test some more.
• Test sending on different days.

Finally, check your email tracking statistics. Over the course of time, you’ll learn what’s important to your readers by seeing what links they click on. Checking your open rates will aid you in drafting better subject lines. Don’t forget to check the days and times subscribers open your emails to learn the best day and time for delivering your news.

That may sound obvious, but not many people put this to optimal use. Too often they procrastinate because they’re stuck with a daunting task on their to-do list.

10 productive tips

If that’s you, try these 10 productive tips:

Granularise: Got a project? Just put the very next physical action on your to-do list, not everything on the list. Is that task still too intimidating? Break it down even further. For example, instead of writing a whole article, write the intro. Or do an outline. Instead of doing a whole graphic design, just do a sketch. Or start by brainstorming. Or searching the web for ideas (don’t get lost on the web).

Granularise further: If that’s still too big, just do 10 minutes of the task. You don’t need to finish it. Do 10 minutes, and at least you’ve gotten off to a good start. After 10 minutes, you can stop — or just as often, you may just keep going. Even if you stop, doing something in 10-minute bursts is a bit more likely to get it done than putting it off forever. Just a tad more likely.

Set a timer: OK, you’re going to do this in a 10-minute burst — now set a timer and do it. When the timer goes off, you can stop. Timers are great tools for working in bursts.

Clear distractions: Turn off email notifications, clear your desk, turn off the phone. If you’re going to do this in bursts, you can’t be distracted every 10 seconds. You’ve got to really work during that burst, or your burst will never happen.

Really focus: You’re doing your burst, and you cleared away distractions … and yet you still feel the pull of email, or other distractions. Resist. Pull yourself back. Now really focus. Getting pulled away? Pull yourself back once again. Now focus! Good focus will get the job done every time.

In-between time: Bursts are great for those in-between times when you can’t do larger tasks. Got 5-10 minutes before a meeting? Do a focused burst. This is one great way of doing a free-lance job while holding a real job — as long as your boss doesn’t find out. That’s how I do it — but my boss knows about it. As long as I get my job done, doing free-lance bursts in between tasks never hurts my productivity.

Keep a list: You’re most productive if you keep a list of small actions — bursts — that you can do at any time. Then, when you’re ready to do a burst, just choose something from the list and go at it. And checking it off when you’re done is super satisfying.

Next: Finished your burst? Check it off your list, sure, but don’t forget to write the next burst on your list. If you did 10 minutes of an assignment but aren’t done, be sure to put the next 10 minutes on your list, right when you checked the old one off. Always have the next task for an assignment on your list, so you don’t forget, until the assignment is completed.

Just start: I can put something off forever. I’m always finding something else to do. But when I really need to do something that I’ve been putting off, I take a deep breath, and just plunge into it. It doesn’t matter how long I do it, as long as I just get started. It’s like the way I force myself to do a run — I don’t think about the run itself, I just tell myself to put on my shoes and get out the door. The rest will flow naturally. Just get started, and the work will happen.

Enjoy the done: When you complete a burst, take a minute to enjoy the satisfaction of doing something. Doesn’t that feel good? Even better, give yourself a mini reward. Be sure the mini reward, if it’s a snack-sized candy bar, let’s say, doesn’t come too many times in the day, or your mini reward will turn into a major belly. This is when the running comes in handy. But find a variety of mini rewards, and you should be fine.

Who doesn’t want to raise their metabolism? From creams to pills to supplements, products that promise to speed up your metabolism are selling like candy in the diet industry. While most products offer bogus weight loss claims, you might find some products that can help your body burn calories more efficiently – and they’re in your kitchen cupboard already! Flavorful spices like curry powder, cayenne peppers and chili powder can pack a powerful punch and flavor your dishes while at the same time providing metabolism-raising benefits. And don’t worry, you won’t have to inhale a bushel of hot peppers or set your mouth on fire to get a boost. Just a moderate pinch of spice will add flavor to your dish and help speed up your metabolism…

The Heat is on

It’s true that hot foods can help your body burn more calories. When you eat foods with a kick, the spiciness elevates your body temperature and makes your heart beat faster, both which require energy. But the main reason that those who consume spicy foods are able to stay slimmer than others doesn’t lie solely in the metabolism-boosting effects.

Because spices like curry powder and cayenne peppers have such a strong flavor, any dish that incorporates them will have a rich aroma and taste. Your meal will have such a bold flavor that you’ll end up needing to eat less to feel satisfied. After all, which would you be more likely to overeat: fresh-baked French bread with butter or fresh-baked French bread with a spicy pepper spread? Also, foods that accompany robust spices are typically healthier than foods that rely on sugar for flavor. Tomatoes, lentils, chicken, and shrimp are examples of healthy foods that are packed with nutrients and form an integral part of many spicy dishes.

Chili Peppers

A staple of Mexican, Szechuan and Indian cuisine, chili peppers have been cultivated in South and Central America for over seven thousand years. The component that gives chili peppers their trademark spice is capsaicin, and the more capsaicin the pepper contains, the spicier it is. Habanero and Scotch bonnet peppers take the prize for the hottest, while jalapeños come next. If you’re not ready for those yet, the good news is that even mild, sweet red peppers contain this substance. Aside from providing a flavorful kick, capsaicin helps inhibit inflammation, therefore making it a potential treatment for arthritis and nerve disorders.

Feel the Burn:

• Add some chili peppers to your sautéed veggie dishes to make getting your 5-a-day more interesting.
• While preparing bread or cornbread, add chili peppers to the batter before baking.
• Sprinkle peppers in casseroles and stews for extra flavor.
• Mix canned chili peppers with artichoke hearts and light mayo for a tasty low-calorie dip.
• Whatever you do, don’t touch your eyes after handling hot peppers – wash your hands with soap and water before touching any part of your face.

Indian Curry

Curry powder is actually not a single spice – it refers to a blend of spices which vary according to the region. Although each blend is unique, most curry powders contain some combination of coriander, turmeric and cumin. Other typical ingredients include cinnamon, black pepper, horseradish, and nutmeg. Curry powder can include as few as four ingredients, but some contain up to 30. You can experiment with making your own curry to control the amount of spice that’s added to the blend, making the powder as hot as desired. Few people in the United States have time to buy whole spices and grind them into curry powder, but in India it’s a different story; each family has their own special curry powder recipe, and they grind fresh spices daily.

The word “curry,” which means a saucy stew, refers to a dish that is spiced with curry powder. There are hundreds of curry dishes in India alone. Some are named after the food they’re made of, such as potato curry, bean curry or chicken curry. Other curries incorporate shredded coconut or coconut milk – try our coconut shrimp curry recipe for an example! Indian curry dishes are the spiciest, while curries from Pakistan and Bangladesh tend to be milder. English curries rely more on garlic and ginger for flavor, while Chinese curries typically include sweet green peppers, chicken and potatoes. Both of these curries are fairly mild in flavor, but they’re usually accompanied by hot sauce or hot chili oil for those who like it hot. No matter what type of curry a particular country favors, the dish is usually served with rice or pita bread to soak up the extra juice.

Feel the Burn:

• Rub curry powder on top of a halibut filet before baking.
• Blend with sour cream and marmalade for a tasty veggie dip.
• Add curry powder to deviled eggs.
• To make a tangy marinade for chicken, blend yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, and curry powder together.

Have fun experimenting with spices and global dishes. Spicy food will raise your heart rate and boost your metabolism, flavor your dishes and lend a hint of the exotic to your ordinary diet. Keep in mind that consuming metabolism-boosting spices is only one way to help slim down your waist. To really maximize your metabolism, make sure to include plenty of exercise and fresh foods into your daily routine as well. In the meantime, get hot and heavy with spicy food from around the world!

We are so used to hearing people talk about eating less food that it’s become weight loss doctrine. The new philosophy that you want to keep in mind is “energy balance.”

 
Researchers at Georgia State University developed a technique to measure hourly energy balance—that is, how many calories you’re burning versus how many calories you’re taking in. The researchers found that if you keep your hourly surplus or deficit within 300 to 500 calories at all times, you’ll best be able to change your body composition by losing fat and adding lean muscle mass. People with the largest energy imbalances (those whose calorie surpluses or shortfalls topped 500 calories from hour to hour) were the fattest, while those with the most balanced energy levels were the leanest.

So if you eat only your three squares a day, your energy levels are all over the place. That kind of eating plan is great—if your dream is to consistently gain weight. But if you want to look slimmer, feel fitter, and live longer, then eat more often. Simply alternate your meals with snacks and you’ll keep your stomach full, which will reduce the likelihood of a diet-destroying binge.

src : WHM

img src : Engadget

• A new Notification Center aggregates all your, well, notifications into one and is accessible by swiping down a menu from the top of the screen. Yes, just like Android. Small X buttons alongside each note allow you to dismiss it, though there’s no “clear all” option for the more decisive among us. Notifications are also making their way onto the lockscreen, where swiping across a text message takes you right into it. A little something like Samsung’s TouchWiz implementation.
• - Newsstand is a new place to house all your magazine and newspaper subscriptions.
• - Twitter integration is also coming to iOS 5, with a single sign-in allowing a multitude of apps to make use of your Twitter credentials. That includes the Camera and Photos programs, finally letting you tweet images out directly from your galleries.
• - Safari Reader is a new browser feature that will strip out distractions and present the text of a webpage with no other excess content. Accessible via a button next to the address bar. Also added to the iOS browser is a Reading List, which does what the name suggests by accumulating a list of pages you want to read later. Accessible on multiple devices. Tabbed browsing is making a debut in v5.0 as well, which is sure to be a boon for iPad users.
• - Reminders is another self-descriptive feature. This one’s intelligent enough to remind you to do things based on your location. It’ll sync across devices and with your calendar.
• - Yay, there’s now a camera button right on your lockscreen! The volume-up button is also doubling up as a physical shutter button when in the camera app.
• software updates are OTA.
• New messaging service between all iOS users, regardless of device. (iTouch, IPad and IPhone)

src : engadget.com

Individuals carry so much baggage from the culture and social setting of their nurture, their education, their life experience, and it is easy to make assumptions about how others think and are likely to respond to communication with them.

Accept the fact that the people you are selling to are not likely to have the same background as yourself. If you don’t, you may have a problem grasping the need for marketing. It is easy to assume that one target cluster of customers is a section much like another, to ignore research highlighting differences, and to apply what you have done before – because it’s easy, because it may have worked before, because. . . and everyone has such convincing reasons for doing what you have always done and forgetting the research. Don’t ignore it: believe and act on your market study.

For every customer section that you decide to select as a target (you do not need to target every one), you should apply the following method(s):

• Erase from your mind your own thinking and prejudices.
• Learn to listen, observe and grasp how your target thinks, communicates, and comes to conclusions.
• You need to understand what makes the target tick, react, etc.

This method has been described as ‘Self-recognition criteria’ – accepting that the way you think and react is certainly wrong for any target you are analysing. You should not make any assumptions about the target customer.  Find out!!

The whole point of Windows 8, which is just a codename, is to be one OS that’ll run on regular computers or on tablets.

So Windows 8 will run two kinds of applications:

A standard Windows application and an almost mobile-like app, written in HTML5 and JavaScript. And of course, there’s IE10 underpinning those apps. All the apps can be viewed in this tile screen UI.

MORE DETAILS ….

The greatest of all miracles is health. Every day, our bodies are attacked by millions of microbes, viruses and bacteria. The body is able to repulse these invaders and protect itself through the immune response. The body’s immune response is enhanced by laughter.

Laughter is internal jogging. It fills your mind space with positive emotions. Emotionally, it is relaxing, reducing harmful muscle tension. A good bout of laughter also reduces the levels of stress hormones epinephrine and cortisol. Laughter strengthens the immune system, keeping away infections, allergies and diseases.

Our immune system plays a very important role in maintaining good health. It has been proven by immunologists that all negative emotions like anxiety, depression or anger weaken the immune system of the body, thereby reducing its capacity to fight infections. Laughter heals and rejuvenates without costly
prescription drugs.

Action Plan to Bring Laughter in your Office

• Organize screenings of comedy Films and shows.
• Encourage cheerful people to spread good Cheer.
• Create a humor committee.
• Smile. Do not smother laughter.
• Organize a family day.
• Exhibit humorous posters and Cartoons on a Humor Board in the work area.

If you work from home, take a break and watch something funny and laugh. Do not hold back.

The Really Simple Productive system breaks down to just three rules:

1. At the end of each week, make a new to-do list entitled, “Weekly Goals”. Write everything you want to accomplish in the next seven days.
2. Every night, make a new to-do list entitled, “Daily Goals”. Pull from your weekly list and routine every task you want to finish tomorrow.
3. During your workday, focus only on completing the daily list. Pretend your other work doesn’t exist. When you’ve finished the daily list, you’re done for the day and you’re not allowed to add more work.

Three rules and two to-do lists is such a brainless system it’s easy to miss the psychological power of it.

First, by making your daily goals the entirety of work you can accomplish, you develop a laser focus to get everything done. Knowing you can relax guilt-free after finishing makes you far more motivated to work hard than traditional, infinite to-do list systems.

Second, the weekly goals avoid meta-procrastination, in making deliberately small daily goals lists, which miss your important work. This also helps minimize the guilt for relaxing, by knowing you’re on track throughout the week, even if you finish early on one day.

Finally, it’s easy to maintain. Systems such as GTD work well for hyper-organized individuals, but in this approach where we spend time focusing on getting work done, not worrying about all the lists and action item folders we had created.

src : leo babuta

2 ISBN Numbers - 9780077354725 & 978-0077296650

http://screencast.com/t/9OppVtg1B

Umesh : Hello, my name is Umesh. I’ll be glad to help you today.

Me: Hello Umesh, I am looking at a Book with different formats

Hardcover it says is 221.97

and Paperback is 84.70

When I select paperback, the book itself changes to something else

Umesh :I will help you. Allow me a moment.

What changes are you seeing?

Me:I added this book to my cart as a paperback edition – 9780077354725 – at 84.70

When I went to buy the book today it shows something else as the name

Umesh :Allow me a moment while I pull up the information for you.

Me:http://screencast.com/t/9OppVtg1B , here is the screenshot

Umesh :yes, place the order and you will get it.

Umesh :If you want Hardcover then add hardcover, If you want paperback then add paperback to your cart to place the order.

Umesh :Books are same.

Me:so the books are not the same see the Pages

Umesh :1178 pages.

Me:1178 and other one is 700 some pages how can they be the same ? 736 pages. this is the ISBN of the other book – 978-0077296650

Me:I want this to be paperback – 1.Organic Chemistry – Janice Smith

as shown in the options, can you please update that

Umesh :There is no paperback of this book Organic Chemistry – Janice Smith.

Me:Why is it showing on the options ?

Umesh : Then addit.

Me: it wont let me , that is why I am talking to you

Umesh : Therefor I am telling you, that there is no paperback for that book called Organic Chemistry – Janice Smith..

Umesh :If you do not mind could you please tell me what do you mean by hardcover and paperback?

Me: yes so, you are advertising it as 221.97 and 84.70

for those 2 options

the books are available and then you tell me there is no paperback

you cannot do that here in the US

US = USA

Umesh :Amazon is in the US only.

Me: try UK

Umesh :I do not like placing order through website.

Me: resolve this problem for me or put me to your manager

the great escape

This is what Amazon has come to now.

A power nap is a short sleep which terminates before the occurrence of deep sleep or slow-wave sleep (SWS), intended to quickly revitalize the subject.

Studies have proven that napping reduces stress hormone levels. So, take a break each day from the stresses and reduce your risks, find a quiet, comfortable spot and take a nap.

Increased alertness

To feel more alert and energetic, take a 15 minute mid-afternoon nap. This will help you lift your mood and improve efficiency and alertness.

Enhanced learning

Daytime dozing gives one relief and break from the hectic work schedule and after taking a 15-minute nap, one feels fresh and this enhances a person’s capacity to learn certain tasks more easily.

Napping is heart friendly

Previous research has shown that people who take a daily nap have almost 40% reduced risk of heart disease.

Improved cognitive function

In a recent study conducted by NASA showed that a 30-minute power nap improved cognitive functions by over 40 percent.

Motivates one to exercise

Sufficient sleep and naps help motivate exercise. This is because one doesn’t feel tired and lazy due to lack of sleep.

Boosts creativity

Rest and relaxation are a must for everyone. People tend to be more imaginative after a good night’s sleep and the same holds true for a mid-afternoon power nap.

Compensates for insufficient night sleep

A bad night’s sleep can stress the body and the mind. A power nap compensates for the sleep lost.

Improves Mood

One often feels irritated and cranky due to lack of sleep. A nap can give your body the rest it is longing for, which lifts up mood.

Good for Overall Health

Just 15-30 minutes of nap in the mid-afternoon is good for heart functioning, hormonal maintenance and cell repair and for the overall health of a person.

src : ndtv

“Brainstorming is a group creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution of a problem.”

Inspiration is wonderful, when it happens. The problem is that it is notoriously unreliable.

Some simple guidelines to keep in mind for effective brainstorming:

The 4 Brainstorming Recommendations

1. Go for quantity. Try to come up with as many ideas as possible, as quickly as possible.
2. No judging! Later you will evaluate all the ideas you have come up with, but if you do that while generating ideas you stop the flow.
3. Write everything down. Not writing something down is a form of judging it, so capture every idea, no matter how crazy or off topic it may seem.
4. Build on other ideas. Don’t get hung up on trying to develop something completely new, because in reality there is almost nothing totally new in the world. Even the most amazing breakthroughs tend to be combinations of existing elements.

Of these four guidelines, the hardest by far to observe is the second. We seem to be trained to judge every idea instantly, and usually to judge it harshly. If you brainstorm in pairs or a group, remind each other not to judge—not even with a look or an intonation, or a self-deprecating comment like “This probably isn’t a very good idea, but…” If you have a particular problem with doing this, you probably have an out-of-control inner critic.

You may want to jot down the four guidelines on a sticky note and put that on a wall somewhere near your desk. Now you’re ready to let the ideas flow. One way is to apply a question that is so helpful that using it is akin to creativity magic.

Writer’s block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some “blocked” writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers. It can manifest as the affected writer viewing their work as inferior or unsuitable, when in fact it could be the opposite.

Recently, we had a chat with a few creative folks on what they do to get rid of the awful block. Here are some of the saner suggestions.

• Read something inspiring. Read the work of an author or writer whose style you like. Helps you find your muse.
• Work on a different topic. Write what you like talking about; ignore the client brief for a few minutes. When you find the words flowing without any effort, get back to the difficult brief.
• Try your hand at some other form of creativity. Cook, make your pin-up board colourful, or just imagine a different world. It helps the creative juices flow without any stress.

And the more off-beat, endearing ones…

• Eat some ‘feel-good’ food. Gooey chocolate, melted cheese, sinful pastry all warm the heart and leave you feeling good. And what’s impossible when you’re feeling great?
• Imagine you’ve won an award. Think of what you’d say at your acceptance speech. If you can get that speech right, you can get anything else right too.
• Go to the washroom. Some minutes of peace on the potty seat can ease cluttered thinking and let fresh thoughts flow!

What’s your way of dealing with the writer’s block? Let us know.

If you’re looking for snacks that keep you going – and going in the right direction – during your day, there’s a few choices that will help you “keep your steam” throughout the day.  While there are more out there, here’s three to keep handy that will get you started:

Almonds
Quick and easy brain food.  Keep these at your desk and you’ve got a healthy – and helpful – snack in the palm of your hands.

Cucumbers
When it comes to the movement of eating alkaline-rich foods, this one is a good starting point.  Acidic foods are said to lower energy and alkaline foods are said to create energy as it keeps us pH balanced.  While you may not be into all that, there’s no doubt that they’re healthy, bite-sized and chock-full of water.

Water
In order to keep moving (both physically and mentally) you need to be hydrated.  Drink plenty of it and you’ll get plenty done.

Keep these three snacking options at the ready and you’ll be on your way to a more productive day!

Web Copy that’s Written for the Audience

Properly developed web copy tempts audiences to take desired actions. But to get online visitors to request quotes or invest in your client’s offerings, someone needs to assess the target audience’s motivational appeals, and get their self-interest working for your client.

So what makes people care? They care about nothing Fancy Shancy, but plain and simple useful stuff.

It comes down to benefits.

Take a page from psychologist Abraham Maslow, who spent his life researching and compiling the human hierarchy of needs. Here’s a breakdown of the needs and desires people try to fulfill, as compiled neatly in the New York Times bestseller Made to Stick:

• Transcendence: help others realize their potential
• Self-actualization: realize your own potential, self-fulfillment, peak experiences
• Appealing: symmetry, order, beauty, balance
• Learning: know, understand, mentally connect
• Reverence: achieve, be competent, gain approval, independence, status
• Belonging: love, family, friends, affection
• Security: protection, safety, stability
• Physical: hunger, thirst, bodily comfort

To engage visitors and turn them into customers, your client’s web content must tap into these basic human needs and appeal to people’s emotions. Benefits can do that.

Consider, for instance, web content promoting law enforcement binoculars. A web writer could focus on certain technical features, such as oversized lenses, rubber coating and ergonomic design.

That can score points with consumers in terms of credibility, but the web content must call attention to the benefits: low-light performance; bright, crisp and clear images from dusk until dawn; and toughness and easy handling. We’re now addressing the prospect’s fundamental needs, including safety and security.

For consumers to take action, they need to care. Benefits tell online visitors why they should care. Benefits engage. Benefits inspire. Benefits get people to act.

Benefits appeal to the audience’s self-interest. So should your client’s web content.

How can you put this method to use? Here are a few ideas:

1. Clean Out Your Email:

If you’re staring hopelessly at an inbox full of read and unread messages, email drafts, and spam, consider declaring email bankruptcy.

If you use Gmail, the archive feature lets you easily move all the mail out of your inbox and into a separate folder. Instant inbox zero. If you use a desktop mail client like Outlook, you can export your mail data to a separate folder, and then clear out your active inbox.

Worried about missing obligations to friends or customers? Send an email to your important contacts explaining your email bankruptcy and asking them to remind you of anything vitally important.

And now? Go about your business. If you need an old email, move it from your archive folder into another, active folder. Simple. Don’t stress, don’t agonize – just go with the flow.

2. Peel down Your Library:

Clear off your bookshelves and put all the books in a box. Now you have empty shelves to work with.

If you discover you need a book to read or reference, pull it out of the box and put it back on the shelf. Books that you need and love will naturally come back into your life; books that were just nice to look at or think about reading will stay out of your way. This also works well with DVDs, CDs, or cassette tapes, if you have them.

Eventually, you may feel ready to donate or sell that box of old books entirely.

3. Reformat Your Computer:

The easiest way to do this is with a secondary hard drive or USB flash drive. Take all your files and programs and copy them to your secondary drive. Then reformat (wipe) your primary hard drive and reinstall your operating system of choice.

Going forward, only allow yourself to download a file or install a program if life shows you a genuine need for it. Try to avoid overlaps: do you really need that fancy word processor – or is the simple text editor you already have enough?

On the other hand, when you do find a genuine need for a new program, you can install it without feeling guilty.

4. Streamline Your Closet:

Take all your clothes and put them aside. Most items can go in a box or a drawer. If you’re worried about your nicer garments, just push them to one side of the bar or use a placeholder hanger to divide your “storage” section from your “useful” section.

You may also want to commit to a regular laundry schedule – waiting three or four weeks to do laundry is a sure way to fall right back into a cluttered closet.

After a while, you’ll develop a cycle or routine of clothing that shows you exactly which clothes you actually need, and which clothes are just closet eye candies.

src : Leo Babuta

Organic Search Engine Optimization, or Organic SEO as it is commonly called, is the process of optimizing your website to appear higher in the search engine’s natural listings.

A dictionary definition of the word “optimization” is:

“An act, process, or methodology of making something (as a design, system, or decision) as fully perfect, functional, or effective as possible; specifically: the mathematical procedures (as finding the maximum of a function) involved is this.”

This is exactly what you need to do to your website to give it the prominence in the search engine that it deserves.

Search engine optimization involves the optimization of many different elements and, to optimize each of the following:

• Keywords
• Meta data
• Content
• Inward links
• Header tags
• Alt tags
• Internal links
• Website structure
• Website theme
• Website code

Once optimized, websites will stand a much greater chance of being found for their desired keywords. This is, after all, the whole reason for having a website.

There is no charge for appearing in Google’s natural search engine listings, unlike other forms of advertising such as pay per click. This makes organic search engine optimization a very cost-effective method of advertising.

The most important part of optimizing your website is the selection and implementation of your keywords.

If you do not get this part of the optimization process right then everything else you do will be in vain. Target the right keywords and your website will be a success; target the wrong keywords and you will miss out on the valuable traffic you are trying to canvass.

Keywords are very important to your website because without them your website theme will not be focused and as a result it is more likely that you will not rank well in Google.

Keywords should be identified and incorporated throughout the whole design of your website that you can ensure it is focused on targeting the ones you have chosen. This will ensure not only that your content stays on track and is more relevant to your searchers but also that Google can see how relevant your website is. This will greatly increase your chances of gaining high positions within Google for search phrases that will generate real traffic.

Google can only recognize your site as being relevant to your desired keywords if you have used them in your website and in the links you have pointing to your website. This may sound very simple but many websites seem to miss out the keywords they are trying to target.

Some of the most common mistakes made when targeting keywords are:

• Targeting stop words
• Targeting keywords that are too broad
• Targeting too many keywords
• Targeting individual keywords
• Poorly representing keywords
• Not using different variations of keywords

Make sure that you do not make these common mistakes, as keyword selection is the foundation for your website’s success within Google.

Why not recognize the fact that the sign up form is the gateway to your site, and design it with due diligence and care?

1. Place the Form in an Easy to Find Spot

This may seem like too common a piece of advise, but just take a look at some of the sites live on the web today and you will see what we mean. Many sites place their sign-up form links at a corner of the page, maybe even out of site on the welcome screen. How do you expect people to sign up if the sign up form is like looking for a needle in a haystack? Would it not be wiser to place it on the top of EVERY page on your site?

2. Win the Trust of your Visitors

Nobody wants to give away their mail IDs to a site that may sell its entire data base of mail IDs to spammers. Try and win the trust of your visitors with a statement such as ‘This site NEVER shares your personal information with a third party’. Is that not the least that one can do to reassure people that their mail IDs remain safe?

3. Be Specific on What your Visitors Get

People have earlier tried keeping their visitors unaware of the kind of content they would get into their email inboxes, not until they sign up at least. Realistically speaking, the average Internet user has experienced too much spam to fall for this ever again! So speak of what the user can expect in the inbox before you expect them to fill out a sign up form.

4. Speak of the Frequency of your Emails

You need to set a frequency expectation with your clients, and stick to it. If you can you are going to send out mails fortnightly, do NOT send it at a higher or lower frequency. Sending out too many mails could result in people spamming you out of their emails. Sending too few mails could mean they simply lose interest. So be bang on target with frequency.

5. Why Not Give a Sample

It is a great idea to let your viewers get a glimpse of at least a part of the kind of content you would be mailing them week after week. If your sign up page already seems too cluttered, you could always link out to a sample email page. Most folks would rather see a sample first before they spend their valuable time filling out a sign up form.

6. Ask for a Primary Email ID

People are not going to give you their primary mail IDs unless the finally wish to, but there is no harm in using a word like ‘main’ or ‘primary’ email id next to the email field. As any advertising ace could confirm, you never know the power of a subliminal message until you try it!

7. Do Not Use Sales Jargon

Being in the marketing business you would yourself be familiar with jargon, but please do keep in mind that the average Internet user may not. Use the right language! Personally I’d rather ask people to sign-up, than ask people to ‘subscribe’. A subscription is usually something people think they have to pay for, and this word may send out the wrong message even if you do not mean this. Subliminal messages can work against you too!

8. Get the Mail ID first, and THEN Ask for ANYTHING Else

It is a great idea to have only a couple of fields on your initial sign up page, and maybe any other information on the NEXT page. Seeing dozens of fields to fill out can simply annoy your visitors into leaving. If they give out their email addresses and THEN leave your site, you at least have something to follow up on, don’t you?

9. Be Careful With Syntax

If your site has the capability, it is great to be able to have a system where obvious typos are automatically detected. Your user may make a true error and type in the wrong mail id. That would be a pity wouldn’t it? Most email providing services have this as a built-in feature. You don’t want people signing up with IDs like ‘stark@aol’. That’s an obvious error.

10. Put it to Test

The best way to learn something is by trial and error, and there is no substitute to real time experience. If you feel you could improve on one of the points mentioned here, why not test it out for yourself? Try changes with your own experiments and track the effects of the changes to get the most out of your experiments. Try putting the sign-up link on the left corner for a week, and on the right for another. Your site aesthetics finally define what is most suited to your needs.

Grandview floats in your menu bar and has NO DOCK ICON.  By clicking the Grandview logo in your menu bar you can open the preferences panel.

Grandview has the option to AUTOMATICALLY SAVE ENTRY TO CLIPBOARD UPON HIDING. So you can quickly get your huge chunk of writing out of Grandview and into a suitable text editor.  We don’t recommend trying to edit in Grandview just yet or maybe ever.

Grandview has the option of NO REVERSE for writing rough drafts or brainstorming.  You can backspace while in a word but not once you leave it.  This is useful for getting chunks of writing down.

Grandview can operate in CLEAN SLATE MODE so that every time it is activated it clears your last entry.  This can be especially enjoyable with a clipboard manager such as Clipboard History (free) or Clipples or whatever you use.  We would like to mention Note taking here.

Grandview is fully customizable.  You can CHANGE THE FONT AND COLOR AND BACKGROUND COLOR of your text.  You can change the Font Size but this is only for the Whole Writing View and is more of a zoom option.  Keep in mind that none of this is not going to change the way your text is recognized in the clipboard when you hide Grandview.  So the font settings are specifically for your viewing preference while writing!

You can configure your hot keys however you like them.

Oh and you can configure it to only take up one of your screens if you have MULTIPLE DISPLAYS.

View Here

Using bullet format, because bullets are easy to scan, itemise all the benefits (not the features) and put them in order of priority. It’s better to have too many than too few because it often takes just a single benefit to inspire a prospect to purchase, but every prospect has their unique hot button.

Features and/or specifications

This is where you specifically tell the visitor exactly what they are getting. Here is where you give details about the product.

Bonus

Include something valuable in addition to the main product. A bonus should be something that people might order the product just for the bonuses, but the bonus doesn’t have to be costly for you. Quick start guides or tutorials are good. Or be creative and joint- venture, including a free sample of someone’s introductory product. Give a specific value to the bonuses so you can use that during the value build-up.

Build-up of value

In addition to adding in the monetary value of the bonuses, be explicit about why the product price itself is a good deal. Compare to similar products that cost more or provide less. If possible, offer a guarantee. Counter any objections that might come to the visitor’s mind. Create urgency, either because you have a limited number of inventory, a limited time period for an introductory offer, or whatever. Just make sure that your urgency is real; if you give a deadline, keep to it.

Ordering

First, remember to ask for the order. Make an ‘Order Now’ link. Then, make the ordering process and instructions absurdly clear. Imagine this is your visitor’s first ever online order. Give step-by-step directions. Also, give purchasing options: secure credit card pages and PayPal are most common, but include directions for ordering by check of phone if possible, even though it is rare that anyone does.

Conclusion

In a final paragraph or two, repeat and summarise the important parts of the sales page. Make a final request for the order.

After reviewing this list, find good examples by doing a little online research. You wouldn’t ever copy another sales page, of course. Simply look for inspiring examples, and then say it in your own way.

Headline

This includes three elements. First, the pre-headline to set-up the main headline and capture the attention of the category of prospects you want to attract. Next, the main headline, in the largest font you will use anywhere on the page, tells the product’s biggest benefit (a benefit evokes a favourable emotional response). Last, the post-head, which further clarifies the main headline.

Introduction

The first few sentences of the web page should grab the visitor’s interest at an emotional level. The introduction draws the visitor further into the copy, allowing you to make a presentation of your product and offer. To appeal to the emotions, show the reader the benefits of your product or service by describing how they’ll feel or how their life will improve once they own and use the product.

Your credibility

This is especially important online, and needs to come early in the letter. Some of the ways you can build credibility include:

• Provide testimonials about real results, that include the full name of the person giving the testimonial
• Use specific numbers rather than approximations in your copy overall
• If you have expertise and credentials related to the product, say so
• When applicable, explain product test results
• Quote favourable reviews from newspapers or magazines
• Give your contact information with an address to prove you’re real – don’t worry that someone will show up on your doorstep, and if someone calls you, that’s good

To Be Continued  ….

top keyword research tips

1. Think like potential customers.

To even begin developing a keyword list you need to know and understand how potential customers are going to search for your product or services. What may be relevant and a common understanding to you may be completely over the heads of your clientele. Technical or specific terms you use might not even be searched. Always think like a potential customer when developing keywords.

2. Analysis any competitors.

It is always a good idea to know who you are competing against. Doing so will provide you with insight not only to how your industry is being marketed online, but to also new keywords and descriptions you may have never even thought about. Visit competitor’s websites, check their code, and make sure that you are not leaving out anything critical.

3. Use typos and misspellings.

It is not uncommon for people misspell words and phrases in their searches. While you may not want to place misspelled words on your web page for rankings it is possible to run pay per click on these words, and they are often cheaper than the correct spelling.

Examples:
Calendar > Calender
Your > You’re
Here > Hear

4. Use acronyms and abbreviations.

Acronyms and abbreviations make up a large amount of search traffic, thus making it important for you to make sure that your not missing any keywords. Many keyword generators will miss out on acronyms and abbreviations so be sure that you are doing this yourself to uncover your full potential list of keywords.

Examples:
9/11 > September 11th
SEO > Search Engine Optimization
PPC > Pay Per Click

5. Use multiple verbs.

Everyone has a different mindset when it comes to searching; therefore you want to make sure that you are using a contrast of different verbs.

Examples:
try to play
trying to play
try playing
trying playing

6. Use both plural and singular.

Using both plural and singular keywords will easily magnify your list quickly. Most major search engines will take in to consideration plural and singular forms within organic results however keep in mind if running a pay per click campaign Yahoo Search Marketing does not while Google AdWords does.

Examples:
mountain bike
mountains bike
mountain bikes
mountains bikes

7. Use compound, separated, hyphenated, and merged keywords.

Users often search trying multiple variations of words and spellings looking for the right fit. To be sure you are not missing out on any terms or phrases research compound, separated, hyphenated, and merged keywords.

Examples:
checkin > check-in > check in
startup > start-up > start up
lifesize > life-size > life size

8. Use locations.

One of the best ways to pick up traffic is to localize your keywords. If you are looking to pick up traffic on a national level create a few subpages targeting localized keywords in the most popular areas. This will directly target your visitors and overall will increase your conversion rate if done correctly.

Examples:
Phoenix web design
Arizona SEO
Chandler, AZ artist

9. Use Adjectives

Numerous users will use adjectives in addition to the main keywords. This is a fast way to pick up keywords and even spark an immediate interest with users.

Examples:
Good, Better, Best
Far, Further, Furthest
Much, More, Most
Little, Less, Least
or Free, Cheap, Amazing, Pretty, New

10. Refine list.

After you have built your keyword list it’s quite possible that your list is far too big and contains some keywords that can be tossed out. Narrow down the list by selecting a good mix of both broad and targeted keywords directly related to the subject and theme of your website. Keep these keywords as you will want to rank for both. Remove any keywords that are not relevant to your website or keywords that you don’t have enough content to support. Remember it is always possible to go back and add content and keywords later as well.

The fact is that the only constant is change. Whether or not you succeed as a writer, you will lose some friends and gain others, you will have money pressures (having too little or too much for comfort), and at times you will feel vulnerable.

As far as fortune is concerned, if you earn a lot you always have the option of giving it away. If you don’t like being rich, you can choose to go back to being poorer. However, the odds are you won’t mind it. As someone has pointed out, “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make unhappiness much more comfortable.”

Communicating with your client

• Establish guidelines. If you have other projects, be upfront about your need for quick feedback. By saying this or writing it even, from the get-go you are protecting yourself later if your client takes longer than planned to get back to you.
• Stop waiting – hassle someone. Don’t wait on things like content or assets to get started. Make up your own. You can determine a great deal of the design direction with only a vague idea of content.
• Stay organized. Develop a folder structure for each project and make sure when you are sent assets or content you put them in the appropriate place right away. This avoids the nuisance of losing things and bothering someone unnecessarily by asking for content you didn’t know you already had.
• Avoid distractions. Tight timelines require intense focus. Clear out distractions or things that will limit your ability to work quickly. Whether this means turning off Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or your phone, do whatever it takes to get you into the flow.
• Don’t send detailed reports. If you must write down what you talked about, do it in bullet form. The best way to communicate quickly is either in person or by phone – don’t spend a lot of time writing emails back and forth.

Twitter Link Building

• Growing your number of followers and building links with Twitter go hand in hand. Regular updates are important to building your Twitter followers.  If someone visits your Twitter profile and it’s been weeks or months since you have updated,  it is likely they will not be interested in following you.
• Make your tweets useful and interesting!  Offer inspiration and useful information that people will want to retweet and you’ll gain new followers every day.
  
• Share your blog posts and articles with your Twitter followers.  There are applications and plug-ins that will automatically tweet the title of a new blog post or article.  Just be sure to keep your posts and articles worth reading or your followers will soon stop clicking through!
• Set up Tweetlater to retweet your best blog posts two to three weeks after they’ve been posted. If the quality’s good enough, you can generate a whole new influx of visitors and links with a few carefully tweeted updates about previous posts.
• Offer helpful tips and lists that people want and need. Encourage followers to retweet by adding “Pls RT” at the end of your post. Many people will if the information is good.
• Use a service like Twittley to automatically send a tweet whenever you bookmark a page you like, or when someone votes for a page you submitted. It’s a relatively new service, so you can get a good jump on the competition and more quickly build your online reputation there.
• Let your Twitter followers know you have articles available for free reprint on your site. Allow them to link directly to the article (which saves space on their server), or borrow them in full—with a link to your site, of course.
• Offer a guest blog post to your Twitter followers. Guest blogging is a quick and easy way to generate links to your site and it’s easy to reach several hundred, or thousand, prospective bloggers at once when you tweet your offer.
• Pay attention to what others tweet and see which items you link to. That’s a good indication of what appeals to similar folks. Look for helpful blog posts and articles, humorous pictures and videos, and freebies and discounts. Then offer the same kind of things.
• Give backlinks to others. Twitter is a give-and-take community. Don’t just expect links from your followers. Give links to them. Retweet their posts. Encourage them. Laugh at their jokes with an LOL! Or . Be real and others will be real with you.

Key to any Twitter strategy is to build sound relationships your followers. Get to know people and let them get to know you. Recommend good people on Follow Friday and tell people why someone is good to follow. Your Twitter friends will soon learn that you care about them, not just numbers, and they’ll be glad to link to your blog posts and articles you write.

Any link building strategy requires effort, but the added traffic and importance of your website makes the effort worthwhile so give it a tweet and see how building links with Twitter works for you.

1. Personal Clock

Personal Clock refers to individual’s time which he/she able to do certain tasks better, quicker and more efficient. For example, you may be the kind of person who is most creative in the morning, and maybe you could rather do mundane tasks in the evening or afternoon.

2. Put it Down on Paper

Do you have lists of things to do for the day, week, and month and maybe even for the year? It is a simple thing to plan out your work for the week, and keep ticking off tasks as you complete them.

Manage Time Effectively

3. Daily Duties

Why not allocate a special task for every day of the week? It helps focus on one task at a time and you minimize stress levels, and hopefully save some time as well.

4. Under-Promise and Over-deliver

This is probably one of the oldest tricks in the book! You are far better off telling your clients you can only do so much in a week, rather than promising them the world! Finally when you are able to give just a little more than what they had bargained for, you will have happy clients!

5. Organize Your Work Space

This is a crucial one. The better organized you are at the workspace; the less likely are you going to waste your time looking for this and that. Organize and label all your shelves if you have many of them. Store your design element disks alphabetically, and you need to know where you can find anything on your hard drive as well. Organize all digital files into appropriately named folders and sub folders.

6. Break A Project Into Smaller Tasks

If you have a mountain of a project on your hands, why not break it up into smaller segments so you can work on one piece of it at a time? It is only a psychological effect, but at the end of the day it can help you save time and work without that overwhelming feeling.

7. Have you Tried the Klick Technique?

This is also a time management technique that helps break down your project into simpler and smaller tasks. The basic idea is to set a timer and work for say 25 minutes, after which you reward yourself with a five-minute break! . Each interval is a Klick

Finally, the truth is that some techniques work well for some people and some do NOT work well. We are all made differently, we have different frames of mind and different things make us all tick! One man’s area of ease could be another’s problem area. At the end of the day you will need to figure out what helps YOU manage your time better. However, we do believe this article would have given you an idea or two to help manage your time better. And always remember that a minute saved is a minute earned in the time that you have!

Green Office

1. Use Color – If you are planning to paint your office walls, try and use colors which reflect the mood of your business. For example, if your business is a traditional one like banking, you would want to use subtle and neutral colors like off-white, light blue and such. On the other hand if you run a creative business such as an advertising company, why not go for more visually appealing colors such as oranges or darker shades of green and blue? DO use a good quality of paint that is sure to last for years. You DONT want to have an off day or two to redo the stuff!

2. Beautify the Walls – An empty wall is simply dull and nothing else, period. Why not warm up the mood of your office by using some artistic and tasteful framed images that subconsciously give an impression of professionalism? Just a single creative idea can go a long way to help your employees feel more at ease in their work space. It works well for them and for you – they get a pep to work better in a way, and your walls are beautified as well.

3. Make it a Green Area – You could use a few indoor plants and this gives such a feeling of liveliness to your interiors. Especially with highly modern and artificial work environments, a few plants around the scene can make any human being feel more ‘at home’ and less disconnected from nature. That can never have a negative effect on work can it? And then again, it beautifies your office at the same time.

4. Furnish with the Utmost Care – Furniture is a huge part of beautifying the office. The larger the space is, the more expensive would it be to furnish it. The majority of ranges of office furniture available off the markets is usually very uninspiring and down right dull. Why not have custom made furniture to give your office very personal touch?

5. The Theme – If you have a theme to work with, it makes all the four points above easier to work with. Your office furniture may be beautifully designed, but what good would it be if it is out of sync with the color of the walls and the images you have on your walls? Try and think of an overall theme before you spend any money trying out experiments with beautifying the office!

31. That’s not our problem.
32. The boss won’t go for it.
33. The old timers wont use it.
34. The new men won’t understand.
35. The timing is not good.
36. There are better ways.
37. Too academic.
38. Too hard to administer.
39. Too hard to implement.
40. Too late.
41. Too many projects now.
42. Too much paperwork.
43. Too old-fashioned.
44. Too soon.
45. We do not have the manpower.
46. We do not have the time.
47. We are too big to try that.
48. We are too small to try that.
49. We have never done it that way.
50. We have tried it before.
51. Laugh it off, Ho ho ho that’s funny.
52. What you are really saying? Ie…
53. Who do you think you are?
54. What will the customer think?
55. Who also has tried it?
56. Why hasn’t someone suggested it before if it’s a good idea?
57. You are off base.

We want you to sell great products and leave the technical stuff to us. We provide the fastest, easiest way to create an online store, all you need is a great idea and a few minutes.

Use a Custom Domain

Hosting and unlimited bandwidth is included in all plans with no extra fees. Or, host your store on a custom domain.

Accept All Major Credit Cards

Using PayPal and Google Checkout, your customers can buy your products safely and reliably with any major credit card.

Give Out Coupons

It’s easy to create and hand out coupon codes. Use special sale prices to bring in new customers or reward your loyal Fan Club.

Track Your Inventory

We’ll help you stay organized. Keep track of what you’ve got in stock with Kolor Cart’s built-in inventory management.

Manage Your Orders

Managing your orders is hassle

free—review new orders, print packing slips, and keep records in your achives.

We provide the shopping cart, web hosting, marketing tools, and payment integration. We also offer fast and friendly support as well as step-by-step guides on how to promote your store online.

Will my customers be able to pay with a credit card to make purchases?

Yes, your customers can pay with Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, PayPal or Google Checkout. Money will be transferred directly to either your PayPal or Google Checkout account.

What are the major benefits?

Here’s what you get with your order:

1. Choosing form over function. It’s easy to fall in love with aesthetically appealing organizing products. However, unless the storage product is one that you’ll use consistently and exactly fits your needs, the storage product can end up being clutter and/or creating disorder. Avoid this pitfall by identifying your needs first, then seek out a storage product you’ll enjoy using (if you even need one).
2. Organizing for the sake of organizing. Clutter is defined as any distraction that gets in the way of the life you desire. Therefore, if you get caught up in organizing and lose sight of its purpose, you can start cluttering up your time organizing. Make things as organized as they need to be to pursue the life you want, and stop your organizing efforts there.
3. Believing you can’t be organized. Organizing is a skill, similar to swimming and riding a bike. Anyone of sound mind and body who wants to be organized can be organized, but you have to practice, try different methods, and be willing to learn from your mistakes. No one is “naturally” organized — some people might be more adept at learning these skills, but those people were not born with day planners in their hands. People like me (who seem naturally disorganized) can become organized, it just takes more work and focus.

Creative Idea

1. A good idea but …
2. Against our policy
3. Ahead of the times
4. All right in theory, but ….
5. Be Practical
6. Can you put it into practice?
7. Costs too much
8. Don’t start anything yet.
9. Have you considered ….
10. I know it wont work.
11. It can’t work.
12. It doesn’t fit human nature.
13. It has been done before.
14. It needs more study.
15. It’s not budgeted.
16. It’s not good enough.
17. It’s not part of your job.
18. Let me add to that …
19. Let’s discuss it.
20. Let’s form a committee
21. Let’s make a survey first.
22. Let’s not step on toes.
23. Scorn it. You are Joking Of course
24. Praise it to Death.
25. Let’s think it over for a while.
26. Not ready for it yet.
27. Of course it wont work.
28. Our plan is different.
29. Some other time.
30. Surely you know better.

• Advice: Tell your audience how to do something you’re good at, or something you’ve learned how to do while working on paid projects. In the course of a writing career, you pick up a lot of random pieces of helpful information. Corporate writers tend to learn a lot about marketing and branding, book reviewers learn a lot of useful tricks from the non-fiction books they review, feature writers learn how to conduct interviews and organize their time. This sort of material can make great blog posts.

Make it Valuable

• Behind-the-scenes: Give your audience a taste of your “glamorous” writing life. Maybe you’ve interviewed a famous person for a feature piece; while the words of the interview will go into the article, the experience of interviewing them is something your readers would like to hear about. Or maybe you visit an out-of-the-ordinary place in the course of researching a piece or meeting a client — describe it for your readers. Did something amusing happen while you were writing at the local coffee house? Share that. Remember that however ordinary your life is to you, writers still hold a strange mystique for most people.
• What I’m Reading: Writers read. A lot. Share capsule reviews — or go all out and post chapter-by-chapter overviews — so your readers can learn along with you. Save your audience the trouble of reading crappy books, and direct them towards good ones. And maybe one day it will be your ownbook you’re recommending…
• Meta-journalism: Talk about the events in the news that have special relevance for you and your writers. For example, if you’re a science writer, share your thoughts about the space program, the latest biogenetics advances, or proposed laws that would effect the teaching of evolution in public schools. If you’re a corporate writer in the financial industry, share your thoughts on the latest Wall Street news as it breaks. Most writers have a somewhat broader perspective in their niche than the average participant — share that unique perspective with your audience.
• Experimentation: Use your site for all the crazy ideas you have that would never fly with a client or editor. Maybe you want to write sales copy in doggerel or haiku, or humorous stories about a pair of goldfish from Mars — your blog’s the place. Or use your blog to gear up for new niches you’d like to enter or new styles you’re mastering. Nobody wants to buy your first-ever try at a new form; experiment on your blog so you’re pitching material you’re already familiar with.

The difference between a new freelancer and one who’s been at the game for a little while is whether the business runs smoothly. Can you get your invoices out on time? Do you have an established contract — and know what problems to look for if a client wants to use his own contract? Those sorts of details are signs that your business is humming along smoothly. They are also a sign that you can keep the time you spend on administering your business to a minimum and focus on getting bigger and better client projects. But knowing your business means that you’re able to look at the big picture when you want to grow. If you have great records about your business, you can analyze what types of projects earn you the most money, decide where sub-contracting can help you out, decide if taking on a partner makes sense or even branch out into other types of work. There are plenty of opportunities for freelancers to earn great incomes, but grabbing those opportunities requires some business savvy.

Getting Those Business Skills

Unfortunately, the way that many freelancers pick up the necessary business skills is by learning through less-than-pleasant experiences. Think about how many freelancers work without a contract — until a client stiffs them and they have no recourse. While a bad experience tends to make knowledge stick, there are better ways to acquire the business skills that will help you move forward.

Grow Your Skills

Find a mentor: Find a freelancer who has a thriving business and seems to have everything together. Just ask to follow that person through their business administration a couple of times — watch how they send out invoices, look at when they buy new equipment and so on — and ask a lot of questions. For some freelancers, that’s enough to get your business in gear.

Take some classes: If you learn best in a classroom environment, head over to your local community college. Such schools generally offer inexpensive business classes and will let you easily take the occasional class without pursuing a full degree. Some even offer a few business courses as part of their adult education system.

Read up on business: The fact that you’re reading this blog is a good sign — you can get a ton of information about running your freelance business online. I’d recommend picking up a couple of more in-depth resources as your business evolves. Bookkeeping has always been a tough point for me, but I bought a book on it and got myself up to speed.

Hire help: If you’ve got enough work to keep you busy around the clock and a level of income where you can afford it, you can hire someone to take care of the business stuff for you. A good bookkeeper can do a large portion of your business administration tasks (although it’s a good idea to know what’s going on so that you don’t wind up with a bad bookkeeper).

“It’s about finding the focus you need to create, to work on what’s important. ” – Leo B

Focus Ebook

A detailed treatise into modern life with an exhaustive system of remedies. It’s meant to be short, simple, concise. We’ll talk about some of the problems we face as we try to live and create in a world of overwhelming distractions. And we’ll look at some simple ways to solve those problems. And yet, at the heart of this simple book lies the key to many of the struggles we face these days, from being productive and achieving our goals, to getting healthy and fit in the face of fast food and inactivity, to finding simplicity and peace amidst chaos and confusion. That key is itself simple: focus.

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