The Likeability Factor

What are the most important personal attributes for business success? Ambition? Drive? Ruthlessness? Self-confidence? Lust for power? Intelligence? Expertise?

None of the above.

According to Tim Sanders’ book The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life’s Dreams, being likeable outranks all of these. Research shows likeable people have the best chances of being hired, promoted and rewarded. Customers are more likely to buy from those they feel good about — even if they aren’t offering the best deal. Bosses who are liked get better performance from their staff and fewer problems.

On the other hand, the kind of boss who provokes fear rather than warmth produces poorer results, higher employee turnover and more breakdowns. Tough, abrasive companies trap themselves in an atmosphere of constant anxiety, mostly because nobody will cut them any slack.

If those who live by the sword, die by it, those who live by being more abrasive than the next guy get the same treatment in return.

You can prove this for yourself. If you had a chance to put one over on an unpleasant, domineering colleague, boss or supplier, would you do it? In a heartbeat.

Likeability counts, believe me. Here’s how to increase your own.

1. Practice being friendly and open with others. First impressions truly matter. If you’re seen as approachable and fun to be around, people will seek you out.
2. Focus on the other person, not on yourself. Self-centered people aren’t attractive or likeable. If you genuinely concern yourself with others, you’ll be swiftly rewarded.
3. Be yourself. We’re nearly all born with a highly-sensitive “phoney radar”. Unless you’re an Oscar-level actor, people will sense immediately if you’re simply playing a part. You can’t be likeable if people don’t trust you. If you don’t like yourself enough to stick with who you are, why should anyone else like you?
4. Slow down and take time with people. Time and attention are gifts of immense value. Give them freely. Likeable people have endless time for others, regardless of how busy they are. Unpleasant people only have time for themselves.
5. Talk less and listen more. Ever been in a room with a boorish, nasty type? Who talked most and listened least? True listeners find themselves in the center of almost any group because that’s where the others want them. We all like good listeners.
6. Always be polite and courteous. However mad you feel, stay friendly and open. Anger destroys all attractiveness.
7. Develop your senese of fun and humor. Have you ever heard anyone criticized for being fun to be around? Or avoided because they make people laugh?

If all else fails in times of stress and crisis, remember this: stay quiet and forget about it afterwards. If you keep your mouth shut, you won’t say things you’ll regret. And if you don’t hold a grudge, you’ll be free to start again without a lot of baggage.

Friendly people have lots of friends. Friends who will speak up for them, help them in tough times and watch out for their best interests. And, best of all, people who will forgive their mistakes and overlook their weaknesses.

That’s something we all need.

Adrian Savage is an Englishman and a retired business executive who lives in Tucson, Arizona. You can read his serious thoughts most days at Slow Leadership, the site for anyone who wants to bring back the taste, zest and satisfaction to leadership; and his crazier ones at

How to set an appointment with yourself?

When you’re deep inside a jungle, your vision is blocked by the trees. In order to plan a route, you need to break out of the dense forest and see the entire landscape. Similarly, if you’re thick in the jungle of your own life, you might not be able to see much beyond next week. Setting an appointment with yourself can give you the broader perspective of what you’re doing to help make changes.

The problem is that if you don’t structure a personal appointment carefully, it becomes a waste of time. The purpose of an appointment with yourself is to gather information and make plans that go beyond solving the immediate crises of the day. Meditating and practicing Zen chants might be great, but your appointment needs to be run with a focus.

What Should a Personal Appointment Cover?

Your personal appointment should answer several key questions:

1. What are the results I’m getting in the different areas of my life?
2. What mistakes am I making frequently?
3. What do I need to stop?
4. What extra energy/money/time do I have to invest?
5. Where would that investment create the best returns?

Unstructured diary entries can give you an idea of your emotional state, but lack the structure necessary to really tackle these questions. Here’s how you can answer those four questions:

Question One: What Are My Results?

You need to have access to feedback from every area of your life. This means your health, business, finances, career, relationships and learning all need a yardstick to see how you’re doing. Where you can get accurate numbers, use them. If you can’t get accurate numbers, get your best estimate of the situation.

Why Gathering Results is Crucial

Gathering up your results gives you a complete picture of your life at one moment in time. When you’re engaged with the trees of your daily routine, you can’t see the entire forest. Gathering the results gives you the best idea of where you’ve made progress, where you’ve made mistakes and what needs work.

Question Two: What Mistakes Am I Making Frequently?

Blogger Ben Casnocha has said that he would rather learn a persons frequent mistakes then their biggest mistakes. Big mistakes may not happen again and the lessons are usually burned into you.

Frequent mistakes, are what you really need to watch out for. Continuing to make the same mistakes over and over again shows a lack of understanding. You are failing to understand a system that is governing your results. Relationships ending for the same reasons, financial blunders repeated and business mistakes that cost you time, money or sanity need to be looked at.

During your personal appointment, you should be looking for patterns in any mistakes you are making. Pattern recognition is the key to develop solutions. While losing on one big investment may hurt you, it might not have been avoidable. However, losing medium amounts on a dozen similar investments might show that you are making the same mistake.

Question Three: What Do I Need To Stop?

Pick the weakest investments your making and periodically stop some of them. Unless you can free up time for new pursuits, you will be stuck in the same routine.

Look at how you spend your time. Watching television, socializing with friends, working on a project or belonging to different clubs. Determine out of all these different investments, which has the least benefits. Which offers the least entertainment, profit or advancement towards your goals?

Kill the worst ways you spend your time, money and energy.

Question Four: What Extra Can I Invest?

How much extra time/money/energy do you have? If you are regularly killing off lower quality investments, you should have a small amount extra. The next step is to figure out how much you have to invest.

Becoming over-motivated and trying to take on too much at once can lead to a nervous breakdown. Taking on too little and your spare time gets filled with boring junk. Make your best estimate of the extra time you have available.

Question Five: What Should I Invest In?

This is the most important question of your personal appointment. It is the key to making big changes that can have a huge impact. Small changes in your investment or investment strategy can lead to massive results over time.

Here are some suggestions if you aren’t sure what might be a good investment with your energy, money or time:

1. Habits. Overview the habits that run your life. What you eat, when you sleep, whether you exercise and how you work. Decide to invest some of your energy in changing just one of them for the next month.
2. Learning. Pick up several books on a topic you want to know more about. It could be a practical topic that will build expertise in your field. Or it can be information outside your expertise to build broader understandings.
3. Social. Join a club, spend time with new people or building existing relationships. Decide what you are going to do to improve the quality of time you spend with other people.
4. Project. Start a new project, business or hobby. Personal projects often get pushed aside when you get busy. But the value of these projects can be tremendous. Without a personal appointment, most of my projects never would have gotten off the ground.
5. Goals. Set a new goal to pursue. How can you hit a target you don’t even have?

10 Tips for Razor Sharp Concentration

Writing to-do lists and keeping a schedule may keep you organized, but does it really help you get more done? I believe that organization is important, but what you really need is focus. Being able to sit down and concentrate intensely on your work for a few hours. Even a half hour of focused effort can get more done than an entire day of distraction and multitasking.

Here’s some tips to get into a state of deep concentration where work flows easily:


1) Cut Off the Noise

It may be obvious that distractions aren’t helping your focus, but do you actually cut them out? I’ll admit, it can be tempting to put the e-mail alerts on, turn on the IM and answer every request sent your way. But in the end it is only preventing you from concentrating.

Getting into a state of concentration can take at least fifteen minutes. If you are getting distracted every five, you can’t possibly focus entirely on your work. Answer your e-mails at scheduled times. Request that people don’t interrupt you when working on a big project. If you are required to answer phones and drop-in’s immediately, schedule work when the office is less busy.

2) Structure Your Environment

The place you work can have an impact on your ability to focus. Try to locate yourself so you are facing potential distractions such as doors, phones or windows. This way you can take a glance to assess sounds that would otherwise break your focus.

3) Clarify Objectives

Know what your goal is clearly before you start. If you aren’t sure what the end result is, the confusion will make it impossible to focus. Before I write any articles, I define the main focus of the article and get a brief mental picture of the structure. Unclear objectives often result in having to redo sections of work.

4) Divide Blobs

Big blobs of tasks that have no clear start or end point destroy focus. If you have a large project that needs work, clearly identify a path that you will use to get started working on it. If the sequence of actions isn’t obvious, it will be difficult to concentrate. Taking a few minutes to plan not only your end result, but the order you will complete any steps, can save hours in wasted thinking.

5) Know the Rules

Get clear on what the guidelines are for the task ahead. What level of quality do you need? What standards do you need to follow? What constraints are there? If you are writing a program, get clear on how much commenting you need, what functions you want to use and the flexibility required. If you are writing an article, decide on the length and style.

If the rules aren’t clear from the outset, you will slip out of concentration as you ponder them later.

6) Set a Deadline

Deadlines have both advantages and disadvantages when trying to force concentration. A deadline can make it easier to forget the non-essential and speed up your working time. If you give yourself only an hour to design a logo, you will keep it simple and avoid fiddling with extravagant designs.

Time limits have disadvantages when they cause you to worry about the time you have left instead of the task itself. I recommend using a deadline when:

1. Time is limited. If you only have a day to complete work that could easily take weeks, chunking it into specific deadlines will strip away everything that isn’t crucial.
2. It’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. If your task could easily expand to have new features or ideas, use a deadline to keep it under control.
3. To avoid procrastination. A tight deadline can save you if you are worried about procrastinating.

7) Break Down Roadblocks

Roadblocks occur whenever you hit a tricky problem in your work. This can happen when you run out of ideas or your focus wavers. Break down roadblocks by brainstorming or planning on a piece of paper. Writing out your thought processes can keep you focused even if you might become frustrated.

8 ) Isolate Yourself

Become a hermit and stay away from other people if you want to get work done. Unless your work is based on other people they will only break your focus. Create a private space and refuse to talk to anyone until your work is finished. Put a sign on your door to steer away drop-ins and don’t answer your phone.

9) Healthy Body, Sharper Mind

What you put into your body affects the way you concentrate. Nobody would expect peak performance if they showed up drunk to work. But if you allow yourself to get chronic sleep deprivation, overuse stimulants like caffeine or eat dense, fatty foods your concentration will suffer. Try to cut out one of your unhealthy habits for just thirty days to see if there is a difference in your energy levels. I’ve found even small steps can create dramatic changes in my ability to focus.

10) Be Patient

Before I write an article, I often sit at my desk for a fifteen or twenty minutes before I put finger on the keyboard. During this time I feel a strong urge to leave or do something else. But I know that if I am patient, I’ll stumble upon an idea to write about and enter a state of flow. Without a little patience, you can’t take advantage of flow when it rushed through you.

If you need strong concentration I recommend periods of 90-120 minutes. Any less than that and you will waste too much time getting started before the flow can continue. More than this is possible to sustain focus, but you will probably benefit from a quick break.

Are you happier at your job, or during your free time?

Are you happier at your job, or during your free time? Unless you’ve followed the research of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi you would probably be surprised at the actual answer. He conducted studies which recorded peoples current levels of happiness at random points both during work and off-hours.

The surprising conclusion? People felt happier on the job, even though they said they would rather be at home.

Csikszentmihalyi believes that this is because, even if they dislike their job, work provides a constructive environment. It has rules, challenges and can be formatted to focus your otherwise wandering attention. Leisure, without any structure, can become to boredom and apathy.

A good portion of lifehack.org is devoted towards productivity. That means improving the quality of your working hours, so you can work less, get more done and achieve more on the job. But, what is the use of freeing up extra time from work if it will make you less happy?

Is Your Free Time Boring?

If Csikszentmihalyi and his research on the state of flow is any indication, the quality of most peoples free time is pitifully low. Worse, you might not even realize that your time off needs a checkup. This problem made me wonder how I could improve the quality of my own free-time.

The solution for some people is just to fill their entire time with work. By making themselves incredibly busy, they never have to face boredom or the possibility of an unstructured environment. However, the downside of this is that this often becomes a deathmarch as commitments overload the amount of time you have in each day.

The Art of Laziness - How to Be Happily Unproductive

My solution to Csikszentmihalyi’s dilemma was to become better at structuring my free-time so it can be engaging, but doesn’t become more work. Here were a few of the ideas I’ve found successful in trying to master the art of laziness:

1. Get a Hobby - Pick up a creative activity that doesn’t have any goals attached. This is something that you enjoy doing, but doesn’t have the looming deadlines, schedule or to-do lists that is common to your workplace. I know corporate executives that manage to squeeze twenty minutes a day into their hobby and love it.

2. Learn a Skill - Learning can be incredibly enjoyable when there is no GPA, performance evaluations or letter grades. Try learning a new language, take up martial arts or learn public speaking.

3. Store Opportunities - How often do you see a flyer for an event or activity, but dismiss it because you don’t have the time? My suggestion is to save those interesting activities so that you can apply them when you do have time. Prepare opportunities for your time off in advance.

4. Write Your Book - I’ve heard statistics that say 8 out of 10 people would like to write a book in their lifetime. Perhaps now is the time to start working on the first draft. I’ve found personal projects like these can be an enjoyable diversion from the externally imposed goals of work or school.

5. Exercise - If you don’t like running or going to the gym, don’t force yourself. But there are many different interesting sports and activities that can move your body. Exercising can releases hormones in your brain which improve your mood.

6. Always Have a Book - Unsatisfied with channel flipping? Having a book (not just reading blogs) requires you to use your brain. Light reading can be a great way to stay engaged without burning yourself out.

7. Use Your Social Circle - Csikszentmihalyi noticed that flow didn’t only come from work and mental tasks, but socializing as well. Conversing with friends is actually a fairly complex mental task, requiring you to read signals and body language, think fast and respond to comments.

8. Games - Games have been around long before Nintendo came around. The prevalence of games in most cultures is probably because playing games is a challenging mental task that produces a state of flow. Learning and playing a game can provide an engaging environment without the stress.

9. Create Something - Creativity is often seen as having good ideas. But if you look at the root word of creativity, create, then creativity can be seen as simply building something new. Pick something small, but meaningful, to create. Spending an hour or two working building something can be incredibly rewarding and enjoyable.

10. Appreciate - I’m sure I’m not alone in that I like listening to music to relax. Improving upon this would be trying to go deeper into the music you are listening or the art you are looking at. Try to appreciate how different elements work together and build on each other. This can be a more engaging experience than simply building off your first impression.

11. Be in the Now - Focus on whatever you are experiencing in the moment. This sounds trivial at first, but it is actually incredibly difficult to sustain. Being in the now is what Eckhart Tolle believes to be the secret to happiness. Concentrating on your muscles, senses or the environment around you takes mental effort when buffeted by distracting thoughts.

12. Work on Yourself - I’m sure few of us can claim that 100% of our time is used exactly how we would like it to be. Commitments with work, family and school can mean that a sizable portion of your time is working on goals that aren’t entirely your own. Spending your free time working on yourself, your habits, your goals and your projects can take more energy but can ultimately make your free time more rewarding.

About Author: Scott Young is a university student who writes about productivity, habits and self-improvement. Scott has been featured on the Be Happy Dammit! Show.

Ten Ways to Improve Your Quality of Life

1. Think daily. Meditate. Call it what you will but spend time each day alone with your thoughts. This surely isn’t the first time you’ve heard that advice, there’s a reason for that! There’s also a reason that this is the first step in the list. Doing the other things in the remaining nine suggestions without taking some time to reflect almost negates any benefit gained elsewhere.

2. Get in the zone. Not only will these be your most productive moments in life (the 20% of the time where you accomplish 80% of the results) but it will be a boost to your confidence that will alter the decisions you make elsewhere in life.

3. Make it a point to do something bold every day. Step out of your comfort zone, leave the routine even if for only a second. This might mean talking to someone that you generally wouldn’t talk to or starting a project that you feel intimidated by. There is no need to plan it in advance–though that might help at times, usually though you’ll find a point during the day when ‘two paths diverge in the woods’ and you have the change to take the one less travelled by. Take it.

4. Learn something new. Pick a topic, preferably something you know nothing about and learn something about it. A good source of inspiration for this can be the newspaper or Wikipedia. It helps to retain it if you have time to make a note of what you learned or explain it to someone else, but even if you don’t get the chance to do that, your brain will thank you for the new patterns you introduce as you learn something new every day.

5. Debate something. If you think you know about something, nothing will prove it like arguing it with someone who’s smarter or more informed than you. Find a friend you can debate with who has ideas that are different from your and who won’t be offended by debating them–this is easier said than done, but it can provide you with some of the best mental stimulation possible.

6. Spend time with a child. If you have one, consider yourself lucky, if you don’t, I bet you have friends who would be happy to let you borrow theirs for a few minutes (or hours). It doesn’t matter what age they are, children see the world entirely different. Look at it from their eyes. Be their hero. Appreciate what they appreciate. Enjoy the simple things again. You’ll love it and they’ll love you for it.

7. Go outside. If you don’t naturally spend time outside, make it a point to do it more. There’s something about the expanse of the sky that will bring out your inner philosopher.

8. Recognize what makes you happy. Reflect on the parts of your day that bring you real satisfaction. Everyone is working towards something, but what makes you happy now? Rate your overall satisfaction with your quality of life for each day on a scale of 1 to 10, focus on the things that happened that pushed the number higher rather than what made it lower. Try to incorporate more of what made you happy yesterday into today.

9. Stop broken thoughts. Broken thoughts are those subtle patterns that aren’t quite big enough to fall into the bad habits category. This means that despite their harmful effect they often escape under the radar. Broken thoughts often take the form of justifications. Examples? I’m just going to leave my dish here by the sink, I’ll wash it later (when you know your spouse will end up washing it). I’m bookmarking this article to read later (how often do you ever go back and read old bookmarked articles?). I’ll hang my shirt up later (when you know it will be there for a week before you touch it).

10. Don’t stress about it.

Author: Craig Childs

by Eszter Hargittai

As Jerry Seinfeld once noted, at a funeral, most people would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy, since public speaking stresses people out more than death. But giving talks doesn't have to be such a frightening affair.

Whether you're giving a talk at your local library, updating your colleagues on work progress, or presenting to a large group of strangers, there are some simple steps that should help make public speaking a better experience - for both you and your audience.
Presentation format

Before you start planning your presentation, find out from the organizers how much time you have and what format they envision for your talk. Will you be part of a panel or will you be speaking alone? Will you be in a regular session or are you the dinner speaker? Do you have 15 minutes or an hour? Do they prefer to leave time for questions? If yes, does that come out of the allocated time you have been quoted? It is important to know what is expected of you so you can be well prepared and not have to scramble last minute to readjust your talk due to unanticipated logistics.

Audience

Get information about who will be attending your presentation. Will the head of the company be there or just co-workers? Are all participants experts at the topic or will there be novices present? Is there a mixed group of people representing different backgrounds or is everyone on the same page regarding technicalities? Depending on the audience, you will have to spend some time giving varying degrees of background on the material and explaining certain concepts.
Location

If you have the opportunity, take a look at the location before the time of the talk. It will help you visualize the context of the event and ensure that you are not caught off guard by peculiarities of the space.

The take-away message

If someone who missed your talk were to ask an audience member in the elevator to sum it up, what would you like that person to say? Focus on that message. Start out with this summary statement in mind and build your presentation around it.
Outline

Once you have an idea of your presentation's main message, spend some time thinking about the structure of the entire talk. All of the material you cover should contribute toward communicating your core message effectively. Start by writing an outline of the talk including main sections and subsections.

Strong start

The first couple of minutes of your talk should be the most prepared and polished. You want to get off to a good start. Those are likely to be the most nervous moments so it is best not to leave anything to chance. By being well prepared, you can convey your messages with confidence. It is important to establish early on that you are prepared and are worth people's attention.
Motivation

Spend a bit of time up front talking about the inspiration and importance of your message. Listeners should get a bit of background on what motivated your work or project in the first place. What may be a fascinating topic to you may not be to the next person so don't take for granted people's interest in the issues you are discussing. Explain why they should pay attention and why your comments matter.

Timing

People rarely want to listen to someone for longer than the allotted time. Few people are such amazing speakers that an audience can't get enough of them. Do not assume you are one of those few. Wrap up your talk on time. To achieve this goal, ask someone to give you time cues by indicating when you have five minutes left, two minutes and when you have run out of time. Once you get the last notice, you should stop talking.

A common pitfall for presenters is to add unprepared introductory remarks to their talk. The temptation of addressing previous speakers is great, but beware. If your total alloted time is 15 minutes (a frequent limit with many speaking engagements), adding a 3 minute intro (not to mention longer!) will use up 20 percent of your time. However, this is something no one ever builds into their talk. Either prepare for this or let go of the temptation to add commentary at the last minute.

Flexibility

Organize your talk and know it well enough to have the flexibility to skip certain parts or expand on others depending on the circumstances. For example, if you do add a last- minute introduction (as per the previous point), be flexible to skip a part of the prepared content.
Confidence and enthusiasm

You have been chosen as a speaker because you know your topic. Make sure that you exert confidence during your presentation. Don't apologize for what you don't have with you to present or what you do not know. Rather, focus on what you can talk about and discuss the material with confidence. This does not mean that you should be arrogant or patronizing. It means that you should look comfortable covering the material.

Be sure to enjoy your talk and show your enthusiasm about the content. Your interest in the topic will be contagious and will likely result in a more engaged audience.

Question-and-answer session

If there is a Q&A segment then be sure to keep a polite demeanor throughout. Thank people for their questions and feel free to praise them for good points. If you are not sure how to respond to a query then express your appreciation for the insightful comment and note that you will look into it.

Practice makes perfect

Practice the presentation a few times: more if you have less experience, less if you are a more seasoned public speaker. It can be especially helpful to give the talk to someone who is not in your field and is not intimately familiar with the material. This is helpful in seeing whether you have made the talk too narrowly focused or overly technical. Such a practice session does not have to involve the entire talk, it can consist of telling someone about your presentation outline.

Don't write out the material word-by-word and don't plan on reading text even if you do have it all written down. Having the text written out and parts of it memorized will constrain you. Memorize the structure of the talk and the outline, but not every word.

Contact information

Finish by giving the audience some contact information, including an email address and Web site when applicable. Mention that you welcome people's feedback and they should feel free to ask you questions either after the session or by sending you email.

Lifehacker contributor Eszter Hargittai is a blogger and assistant professor at Northwestern University. She frequently gives talks across the U.S. and around the globe about her research on people's Internet uses and also has experience teaching in the classroom. She thanks fellow Northwestern faculty member Lisa Margulis for brainstorming about presentation tips listed in this piece.

Automatically Backup Your Harddrive

by Gina Trapani

When was the last time you backed up the important files on your computer? Last year when your best friend called in tears after the Blue Screen of Death ate her thesis?

Yeah, I thought so.

Hard drives fail. It's a fact of computing life. It's not a matter of whether or not your computer's disk will fry, it's a matter of when. The question is how much it will disrupt your life.

Don't expect yourself to remember to back up your data, or stack your closet full of burned CD's or DVD's. Today we're going to set up automated nightly, weekly, monthly local and off-site backups for your PC using free software. Once you get this up and running, you'll never have to worry about losing data again.

What you'll need:

1. A Windows PC. (Sorry Mac folks, you're another article.)

2. An external hard drive.
I've had great luck with a LaCie FireWire drive, which of course, requires your computer has a FireWire port. When choosing size, go for 4-5 times the amount of data you want to back up (i.e., 4 times the size of your My Documents folder.)

3. An FTP server.
This is optional, but if you want off-site backup, it's a must. See previous post, Ask Lifehacker Readers: Web hosting provider?, for recommendations on companies that provide not only web hosting, but FTP-able disk space.

Here's how to get your backups up and running.

1.
Set up your hardware and software. Download and install the most excellent free software, SyncBack Freeware v3.2.9. SyncBackSE version 4.0 is also available to buy at $25. This tutorial will use v.3 for the cheapies and those of you giving SyncBack a try for the first time. Once your external drive is connected to your computer and turned on, name it "Backup" and browse to it in Explorer. (On my computer, it's the F:/ drive.) Create 3 folders named "Nightly," "Weekly" and "Monthly" We're going to store our backups into these folders.

2.
Create the backup profile. Fire up SyncBack. Create a new profile called "Nightly Local Backup." Set the source folder to your documents folder, and the destination to your backup drive's "Nightly" folder'

3.
Select the directories to backup. You can backup the entire "My Documents" folder, but I didn't want to do that, because I've got about 75 gigabytes of music, photos and video that don't change too much and aren't world-ending in subdirectories of "My Documents." I don't have the space on my drive to keep copies of multi-gigabyte media in triplicate. So I chose the backup "selected subdirectories" option, which lets me tell SyncBack to ignore "My Music," "My Pictures," and "My Video" each night when it runs. To do so, click on the "Subdirectories" tab. If you've got tons of subdirectories, it'll take SyncBack sometime to traverse the tree and show 'em to you. Go grab a drink of water and come back to check off the directories you want backed up each night.

4.
Set up e-mail notification of backup failure. Since we're a bunch of smart cookies, enable the advanced options in SyncBack by hitting the "Expert" button at the bottom. To keep tabs on whether or not your nightly backup is completing successfully, in the E-mail tab, check off "E-mail the log file when the profile is done." I don't want an e-mail every day; I just want one if things go awry. So also check off "Only e-mail the log if an error occurs." Set your SMTP server options as well and hit the "Test E-mail Settings" button to make sure you can receive messages. Click to enlarge image.

5.
Schedule the job. Now hit up the "Misc" tab, and hit the Schedule button. Here you'll tell Windows to run this Nightly backup profile, well, nightly. I set mine to run at 2:00AM every night. Be sure to set your Windows password for this scheduled task by hitting the "Set Password" button.

Wash, rinse and repeat twice for Weekly Local Backup and Monthly Local Backup profiles, but point them at the appropriate directories and also set the schedule to, um, weekly and monthly, respectively. Once you're all set up, you can run each job as a test (it'll take a long time, depending on how much data you've got), or just leave things to run on their own. Once all 3 profiles have run, you'll have 3 copies of your most important data on your external drive getting updated every night, week and month. If something goes wrong and the backups fail, you get an email notification letting you know.

This means if your hard drive fries? The most data you'll lose is a day's worth. If you overwrote an important file? Recover last week's or last month's copy.

UPDATE: Reader Patrick points out that if you make bad changes the last day of the week AND month, those changes will replicate to your backups and you can lose data. One way to avoid that is to schedule bi-monthly (every other month) backup as well. Thanks, Patrick!

Now, our backup plan doesn't stop there. If your computer's hard drive buys the farm, you're covered, but what if your house burns down or gets burglarized? You want your most important data somewhere OFF site as well. This is where your FTP server comes in. Create a last SyncBack profile called "Nightly Remote Backup" that sends all your important data over the wire from, say, your hard drive in New York to your FTP server in Atlanta. If you don't like the idea of your data on someone else's server, check out the compression tab: you can have your files zipped up and passworded before they get FTP'ed for a little extra security.

Update: An astute reader points out that compression is not enabled for FTP backup. So, create a profile that compresses and passwords your files and set it to run BEFORE your FTP profile which transfers the zips. Thanks, Ralph!

That's it! Once your automated backup system is up and running you can rest easy knowing that if Something Bad happens, chances are your data will be safe.

Backup geeks and the curious should be sure to paw through all of SyncBack's tabs and options, there's tons of them. For example, in the "Autoclose" tab, set SyncBack to shut down any programs with a word you specify in the title bar before it runs a backup job. The "Programs" tab lets you set commands to run before and after backup happens - handy for database or source repository dumps, exporting your Instiki wiki to HTML and anything else you want to move or mash before you back up.

Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, wishes the world automated, worry-free, continually-running backups. Her semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Nine tips for job interview

A good way to think about the process of getting a job is that a resume gets you in the door, and an interview is where you close the deal.

Here are nine ways to ace an interview and get the job:

1. Tell good stories.

When someone says, "Tell me about yourself," they don't want to hear you rattle off a list of what you've done or what you've accomplished. People want stories. Stories are what make you stick in people's minds.

The problem is, most people can't figure out a story to tell about themselves, so they start listing facts. This is boring, and research shows that listing facts about ourselves instead of telling stories actually makes us feel disjointed -- which is, of course, no good in an interview. Compelling stories make us believe in ourselves. So find a story arc to your career, and tell it during every interview.

2. Understand the behavioral interview.

When someone asks you a question that begins, "Tell me about a time when..." it's a cue that you're in a behavioral interview. There are established ways to answer this type of question.

The interviewer is trying to see how you acted in the past, which is a good predictor of how you'll act in the future. You need to tell the interviewer about a situation you encountered, the action you took to solve the problem, and quantify the results. This is called the STAR response -- Situation or Task, Action, Results.

3. Ask questions at the beginning, not the end.

Don't wait until the end to ask good questions. What's the point? You just spent the whole interview telling the person you're right for the job -- it's a little late to be asking questions about the job, right? So ask your questions at the beginning. And then use the answers to better position yourself for the job during the interview.

At the end, when the interviewer says, Do you have any questions?" you can say, "No, I think I asked everything I needed to ask at the beginning of the interview. But thank you" instead of thinking of a pile of pseudo-questions

4. Stop stressing about your MySpace page.

Look, there's nothing we can do about the fact that nearly every college kid is writing stupid things to his friend and posting it on MySpace or Facebook.

Hiring managers care less and less about these pages; it's not earth-shattering news to human resources that college kids do stupid things. Which is lucky, because often, trying to clean up an online footprint is a lost cause.

So instead of worrying about what you did in the past, focus on what you're doing now. Write articles online, or write a blog -- do anything that will come up higher on Google than your prom date photo. Getting your ideas at the top of a search is the way to impress an interviewer. You want to get hired for your ideas, not your clean record on MySpace.

5. Explain away job hopping and long gaps.

It doesn't matter what you do with your time as long as you're doing productive, interesting things. So a gap is fine, as long as you can talk about what you learned, and how you grew during the gap. And job hopping is fine as long as you can show you made a significant, quantifiable contribution everywhere you went.

6. Present a plan.

Show the interviewer that you've done a bit of thinking about the company and the job. Brendon Connelly at Slacker Manager suggests that you go to the interview with a plan for the first three months you're in the job.

Show some humility -- say, "This is just something I came up with that we might use to get the interview started." Of course, you can only do this if you know a lot about the job. But the best way to get the job is to know a lot about it.

7. Manage your parents.

It's common today for parents to be involved in their twentysomething child's job hunt. Parental involvement is so ubiquitous during interviews for summer internship programs that companies like Merrill Lynch will actually send an acceptance letter to a parent if the candidate requests one.

But some parents hover so close by that they make their kid look incompetent. Get help from your parents, but don't get too much. Check out CollegeRecrutier.com to find out where your parents fall on the spectrum.

8. Play to stereotypes.

You'll probably interview with more than one person. And each person you talk with will have some sort of personal agenda that will infiltrate your interview. Your job is to identify the type of person you're talking to so that you can give the type of answer they're looking for.

Understanding Myers-Briggs personality types will be helpful. But also take a look at Guy Kawasaki's hilarious list of interviewer stereotypes and how to wow each type with your answers.

9. Practice. A lot.

An interview isn't an improvisation -- it's a rehearsed performance. And it's no mystery what the most common interview questions are, so prepare you answers. Even if you end up fielding a question you didn't anticipate, surely a version of one the 50 answers you did prepare will work with the surprise question.

Geek Tips - Synch your bookmarks

I work with more than one computers to browse (using Firefox). And, as with you who have similar case, it is difficult to synch the bookmarks amongst the computers -- not to mention when you are traveling and have to use other's computer.

One of the solution is to use "Google Browser Sync" -

http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/

Other alternatives are to use add on from Firefox called Foxmark.

You can consider installing del.icio.us add on as well.

Search all the add-on in the firefox website.

Geek tips - How to disable dumprep.exe

If you’ve ever had to use the task manager (CTRL-ALT-DELETE) to kill a “Not Responding” program, you’ve probably been frustrated by the time it takes for the program to actually disappear from your screen. What’s going on here is that a Microsoft provided tool called “Windows Error Dump Reporting,” or “dumprep.exe,” is creating a file containing information about the error that can later be sent back to Microsoft, where it will be summarily ignored along with millions of other error reports.

You can safely disable this largely useless feature (and thus speed up your computer in crash-situations) by taking the following steps.

How to disable dumprep.exe:

1. Right click on “My Computer,” choose “Properties” from that menu.
2. Click on “Advanced tab,”
3. Click the “Error Reporting” button.
4. Check the “Disable error reporting” box. You may choose to uncheck the the box below it, “But notify me when an error occurs,” if desired.

Honey and Cinnamon cure many diseases

It is found that mixture of Honey and Cinnamon cures most of the diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Honey has been used as a vital medicine for centuries. Scientists of today also accept honey as a very effective medicine for all kinds of diseases. Honey can be used without any side effects for any kind of diseases. Today’s science says that even though honey is sweet, if taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm diabetic patients also. Here we present a list of diseases that can be cured by Honey and Cinnamon as researched by western scientists.



Arthritis
Take one part honey to two parts of lukewarm water and add a small teaspoon of cinnamon powder, make a paste and massage it on the itching part of the body slowly. It is noticed that the pain recedes within a minute or two. Or arthritis patients may daily, morning and night take one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If drunk regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a recent research done at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week out of the 200 people so treated practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain and within a month, mostly all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis started walking without pain.

Hair Loss
Those suffering from hair loss or baldness, may apply a paste of hot olive oil, one tablespoon of honey, one teaspoon of cinnamon powder before bath and keep it for approx. 15 min. and then wash the hair. It was found to be very effective.

Bladder Infections
Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of luke warm water and drink it. It destroys the germs of the bladder.

Toothache
Make a paste of one teaspoon of cinnamon powder and five teaspoons of honey and apply on the aching tooth. This may be done 3 times a day daily till such time that the tooth has stopped aching.

Cholesterol
Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water, if given to a cholesterol patient, it reduces the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10% within 2 hours. As mentioned for arthritic patients, if taken 3 times a day any chronic cholesterol is cured. As per the information received in the said journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complains of cholesterol.

Cold and Cough
Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder daily for 3 days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold and clear the sinuses.

Infertility
Since ancient times, it is commonly known, that the use of honey strengthens the semen of men. If impotent men regularly take two tablespoon of honey before sleeping, their problem will be solved. In China, Japan and Far-East countries, women who do not conceive and to strengthen the uterus have been taking cinnamon powder for centuries. Women who cannot conceive may take a pinch of cinnamon powder in half teaspoon of honey and apply it on the gums frequently throughout the day, so that it slowly mixes with the saliva and enters the body.

Upset Stomach
Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also clears stomach ulcers from the root.

Gas
According to the studies done in India & Japan, it is revealed that if honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.

Heart Diseases
Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply on bread instead of jelly and jam and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and saves the patient from heart attack. Also those who have already had an attack, if they do this process daily, are kept miles away from the next attack. Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heartbeat.

Immune System
Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacteria and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacteria and viral diseases.

Indigestion
Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food, relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals.

Influenza
It has been proved that honey contains a natural ingredient, which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu. Longevity Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly arrests the ravages of old age. Take 4 spoons of honey, 1 spoon of cinnamon powder and 3 cups of water and boil to make like tea. Drink 1/4 cup, 3 to 4 times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life span also increases and even if a person is 100 years old, starts performing the chores of a 20 year old.

Pimples
Three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder paste. Apply this paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash it next morning with warm water. If done daily for two weeks, it removes pimples completely.

Skin Infections
Eczema, ringworm and all types of skin infections are cured by applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts.

Weight Loss
Daily in the morning, 1/2 hour before breakfast on an empty stomach and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup water. If taken regularly it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also drinking of this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.

Recent research has revealed that advanced cancer of the stomach and bones have been cured successfully. Patients suffering from these kinds of cancer should daily take one tablespoon of honey with one teaspoon of cinnamon powder for one month 3 times a day. Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful than detrimental to the body strength. Senior citizens who take honey and cinnamon power in equal parts are more alert and flexible. It is said that half tablespoon honey taken in one glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3.00 p.m. when the vitality of the body starts decreasing, increases the vitality of the body within a week.

Bad Breath
People of South America, first thing in the morning gargle with one teaspoon of honey and cinnamon powder mixed in hot water. So their breath stays fresh throughout the day.

25 Tips For a Better Pre Sleep Ritual

For some lucky individuals getting to sleep is taken for granted, you go to bed and go to sleep. Unfortunately getting to sleep is not so easy for many people. However, there are plenty of ways to hack your sleeping habits so that you can get a good night's sleep under your belt.

Simple things like developing a schedule, organizing your life and having a routine go a long way in terms of improving your quality of sleep. Listening to some soft background music, switching off the television and computer, turning off the lights and maybe even having a cup of herbal tea are all legitimate examples of ways to improve your pre-sleep ritual and sleep better.
Alter your lifestyle

It stands to reason that what you do during the day is going to affect your sleep, either positively or negatively. These tips are broad in nature, but they are intended to provide a structure on top of which you can hack and find the perfect balance for your sleeping pattern.

1. Schedule sleep

Your body clock needs a routine, which takes discipline. Try to get to bed at the same time every day of the week, including weekends. If you have missed your set time for bed, don't try to make up for lost sleep by staying in bed for an extra hour in the morning as this can easily reset your body clock and make it hard to sleep.

2. Develop a bedtime routine

A good bedtime ritual will prompt your body to slow down and prepare itself for sleep. If you are struggling to sleep now, then you are going to have to start hacking your routine into shape.

3. Get organized for tomorrow

Are you going to a meeting early? Do you have to do a presentation or hand in an essay? Planning your day out helps to de-clutter your mind, and a clearer mind means you can get over to sleep much easier. So make sure you have your suitcase / briefcase and stuff ready for tomorrow.

4. Take time to relax

Find a place in your home where you can relax and calm down. Use this time wisely and read a book, meditate or do some breathing exercises to prepare your body for sleep.

5. Clear out your thoughts

If you are anxious about something your brain will trigger your adrenal glands, which will make you more alert. You can ease anxiety prior to sleep by simply talking to someone or writing down the problem and solution. Get it off your chest before you go to bed!

Adjusting work habits

In today's non-stop world it is possible to work whenever and wherever you want. You boss might love the fact that you are working from home at 10pm, but your body clock is going to be %$&@ed off Guaranteed!

6. Be good, work hard

Work is draining, especially if you happen to be a bricklayer or writing reports for 8 hours a day. Work hard during work hours so that you are tired at night.

7. GTD

Get things done. Becoming efficient at work means that you can stay on top of your workload and reduce stress.

8. Laptops can be evil

If you weren't working hard during work hours then you are inevitably going to find yourself working after hours from home on your laptop, which means late nights and a non-existent pre-sleep routine.

9. Turn off mobile phone

If someone wants to get in touch with you, they can do it during business hours. Keeping your phone (and / or pager) switched off means that work stays at work and you can unwind at home.

10. Don't discuss work at home

Anyone who works alongside their partner will testify to how difficult it is to turn work off at home; however, it is something you need to do. Talking about work keeps your brain active and can increase anxiety, which is not conducive to sleeping well.

Creating the right atmosphere

Someone with problems getting enough sleep are obviously going to benefit from a relaxing atmosphere that encourages the body to relax. This can be done very effectively with very little capital investment.

11. Wear loose clothing

When you come in from work, get changed into your casual clothes. Do not stay in your work suit, it'll remind you of work and you'll probably not be able to get comfortable in it anyway.

12. Clean up stuff

If there are clothes lying on the floor, made a mess of the kitchen preparing dinner or the kids have trashed the living room then clean it up. Tidying up your home in the evening will stop you from thinking about it, which in turn will reduce the chances of getting over to sleep.

13. Turn down the lights

Your body will respond to light levels, so lots of light keeps your brain active. Dim the main lights and use some ambient lighting to create a calm and serene atmosphere.

14. Play background music

Obviously this is going to vary widly depending on your personal taste, but soft background music will help create a chilled out atmosphere. One great tip is to fire up iTunes and hit up one of the many streaming radio stations in the ambient music category.

15. Dump you bedroom television

Late night television is typically very poor quality and isn't fit for consumption anyway. Some people can fall asleep with the television on, others can't. If you suspect it is adversely affecting your sleeping habits, then get rid of it.

Tweak your diet

There is a ton of scientific evidence that clearly shows that diet has a direct effect on sleep. Again, these are broad tips to help you establish a diet that aids sleep.

16. Avoid large meals

Make sure you eat your dinner a few hours before you go to bed and try to avoid liquids. A large meal shortly before bedtime may cause indigestion while too many beers will have you running to the bathroom all night.

17. Snack on foods rich in tryptophan

Tryptophan is an amino acid that assists the brain in the production of serotonin, which helps you calm down and relax. Foods rich in tryptophan include milk, eggs, chicken and turkey among others.

18. Avoid caffeinated products like the plague!

You all know the score here. Caffeinated products such as coffee and tea are the antithesis of what you should consume before bed.

19. Set meal times

Eating what you want when you want is very enticing, but it's a really bad plan if you want to establish a sleeping pattern. Changing your meals times from day to day messes up your body clock; therefore, take measures to ensure you eat your meals (especially dinner) at a certain time of the day. Then stick to it!

20. Avoid alcohol?

Some people will have a very light sleep or no sleep at all after a few glasses of wine, others will become oblivious to all things conscious and experience the most tranquil night of deep sleep.

Get tired

For some strange reason we can find ourselves resisting the urge to lie down and sleep, it's probably come sort of a survival tactic. If daily life has been good enough to leave you with some energy, then try out these tips to get tired.

21. Start early

If you get up earlier in the morning you'll have the benefit of a more productive morning as well as the knock-on impact of being tired later in the day, perfect conditions for a good night sleep.

22. Read a book

It doesn't have to be very interesting, in fact, the more boring it is the better. There's nothing like trying to get through a few chapters of Ulysses to drain your will to live.

23. Exercise

If you can, go to work on a bicycle or walk. If you can't, go for a walk after work or play some sport. Exercise will expend energy and stimulate the release of serotonin. The bottom line is that exercise helps sleep.

24. Spend time outdoors

Weather permitting, spend some time outdoors. Fresh air contains more oxygen than polluted indoor air, which helps to invigorate you early in the day or compound tiredness later in the day. Going for a brisk walk at night will help you get tired.

Last, but certainly not least

25. Sleep when sleepy

Who hasn't fought the urge to sleep to stay up late and watch late night television? It's a total waste of time, we know that, but it makes absolutely no sense. You aren't going to get anything from it except a messed up sleeping pattern. If you are tired, then go to bed!

sleepybed.com

Job Resignation Dos and Don'ts

Are you preparing to resign from your current job? Here are some general rules (do's and don'ts) about resigning from your job gracefully -- and carefully.

* Do know how to resign from your job gracefully and professionally. Read more.

* Don’t get caught off-guard, so do prepare to resign by removing all personal items and files from your office and computer for those instances when your employer will ask you to leave as soon as you tender your resignation.

* Do make the transition as easy and as smooth as possible. And do offer to help find and/or train your replacement. But don’t make promises you can’t -- or won't -- keep.

* Don’t make any statements or express any opinions that you may later regret. Remember that old adage: if you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all.

* Do be sure and give proper notice to your current employer.

* Don’t burn any bridges. Do leave on good terms with your co-workers and supervisors.

* Do the exit interview with your current employer, if required. But don’t say anything negative about your supervisor or co-workers during the interviewer -- no matter how tempted you are.

* Don’t disappear during your last weeks on the job. Do stay a productive member of the team.

* Do make sure you receive all your stored up compensation and benefits, including bonus checks and unused vacation time, personal days, etc.

* Don’t consider a counteroffer unless you are sure it’s a better deal for you; studies show a high percentage of workers still leave the employer within a year of accepting a counteroffer, some being forced out.

* Do make a plan to keep in touch with key coworkers, friends, and mentors. Keep your network strong.

* Don’t feel guilty about leaving. It may be hard to leave, but focus on the fact that you are leaving to accept a great career opportunity.And don't brag about that great opportunity.

* Do your best to wrap up all your major assignments. And do leave a detailed progress report for your supervisor and/or successor.

* Do be prepared for some employers to overreact to your resignation; some employers immediately dismiss employees who resign.

* Do write a professional resignation letter or memo. See these samples.

* Don’t feel as though you need to tell your current employer any reason for leaving your job, but do be polite in thanking the employer for the opportunity to work there.

* Do submit your letter of resignation to your immediate supervisor, with a copy to the human resources department.

Make Your Brain Learn Faster

Life-changing knowledge does typically require advanced learning techniques. In fact, it's been said that the average adult only uses 10% of his/her brain. Imagine what we may be capable of with more advanced learning techniques. Here are 77 tips related to knowledge and learning to help you on your quest. A few are specifically for students in traditional learning institutions; the rest for self-starters, or those learning on their own. Happy learning.
Health

1. Shake a leg. Lack of blood flow is a common reason for lack of concentration. If you've been sitting in one place for awhile, bounce one of your legs for a minute or two. It gets your blood flowing and sharpens both concentration and recall.
2. Food for thought: Eat breakfast. A lot of people skip breakfast, but creativity is often optimal in the early morning and it helps to have some protein in you to feed your brain. A lack of protein can actually cause headaches.
3. Food for thought, part 2: Eat a light lunch. Heavy lunches have a tendency to make people drowsy. While you could turn this to your advantage by taking a "thinking nap" (see #23), most people haven't learned how.
4. Cognitive enhancers: Ginkgo biloba. Ginkgo biloba is a natural supplement that has been used in China and other countries for centuries and has been reputed to reverse memory loss in rats. It's also suggested by some health practitioners as a nootrope and thus a memory enhancer.
5. Reduce stress + depresssion. Stress and depression may reduce the ability to recall information and thus inhibit learning. Sometimes, all you need to reduce depression is more white light and fewer refined foods.

Balance

6. Sleep on it. Dr. Maxwell Maltz wrote about in his book Psycho-Cybernetics about a man who was was paid good money to come up with ideas. He would lock his office door, close the blinds, turn off the lights. He'd focus on the problem at hand, then take a short nap on a couch. When he awoke, he usually had the problem solved.
7. Take a break. Change phyical or mental perspective to lighten the invisible stress that can sometimes occur when you sit in one place too long, focused on learning. Taking a 5-15 minute break every hour during study sessions is more beneficial than non-stop study. It gives your mind time to relax and absorb information. If you want to get really serious with breaks, try a 20 minute ultradian break as part of every 90 minute cycle. This includes a nap break, which is for a different purpose than #23.
8. Take a hike. Changing your perspective often relieves tension, thus freeing your creative mind. Taking a short walk around the neighborhood may help.
9. Change your focus. Sometimes there simply isn't enough time to take a long break. If so, change subject focus. Alternate between technical and non-technical subjects.

Perspective and Focus

10. Change your focus, part 2. There are three primary ways to learn: visual, kinesthetic, and auditory. If one isn't working for you, try another.
11. Do walking meditation. If you're taking a hike (#25), go one step further and learn walking meditation as a way to tap into your inner resources and your strengthen your ability to focus. Just make sure you're not walking inadvertently into traffic.
12. Focus and immerse yourself. Focus on whatever you're studying. Don't try to watch TV at the same time or worry yourself about other things. Anxiety does not make for absorption of information and ideas.
13. Turn out the lights. This is a way to focus, if you are not into meditating. Sit in the dark, block out extraneous influences. This is ideal for learning kinesthetically, such as guitar chord changes.
14. Take a bath or shower. Both activities loosen you up, making your mind more receptive to recognizing brilliant ideas.

Recall Techniques

15. Listen to music. Researchers have long shown that certain types of music are a great "key" for recalling memories. Information learned while listening to a particular song or collection can often be recalled simply by "playing" the songs mentally.
16. Speedread. Some people believe that speedreading causes you to miss vital information. The fact remains that efficient speedreading results in filtering out irrelevant information. If necessary, you can always read and re-read at slower speeds. Slow reading actually hinders the ability to absorb general ideas. (Although technical subjects often requirer slower reading.) If you're reading online, you can try the free Spreeder Web-based application.
17. Use acronyms and other mnemonic devices. Mnemonics are essentially tricks for remembering information. Some tricks are so effective that proper application will let you recall loads of mundane information years later.

Visual Aids

18. Every picture tells a story. Draw or sketch whatever it is you are trying to achieve. Having a concrete goal in mind helps you progress towards that goal.
19. Brainmap it. Need to plan something? Brain maps, or mind maps, offer a compact way to get both an overview of a project as well as easily add details. With mind maps, you can see the relationships between disparate ideas and they can also act as a receptacle for a brainstorming session.
20. Learn symbolism and semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols. Having an understanding of the symbols of a particular discipline aids in learning, and also allows you to record information more efficiently.
21. Use information design. When you record information that has an inherent structure, applying information design helps convey that information more clearly. A great resource is Information Aesthetics, which gives examples of information design and links to their sources.
22. Use visual learning techniques. Try gliffy for structured diagrams. Also see Inspiration.com for an explanation of webs, idea maps, concept maps, and plots.
23. Map your task flow. Learning often requires gaining knowledge in a specific sequence. Organizing your thoughts on what needs to be done is a powerful way to prepare yourself to complete tasks or learn new topics.

Verbal and Auditory Techniques

24. Stimulate ideas. Play rhyming games, utter nonsense words. These loosen you up, making you more receptive to learning.
25. Brainstorm. This is a time-honored technique that combines verbal activity, writing, and collaboration. (One person can brainstorm, but it's more effective in a group.) It's fruitful if you remember some simple rules: Firstly, don't shut anyone's idea out. Secondly, don't "edit" in progress; just record all ideas first, then dissect them later. Participating in brainstorming helps assess what you already know about something, and what you didn't know.
26. Learn by osmosis. Got an iPod? Record a few of your own podcasts, upload them to your iPod and sleep on it. Literally. Put it under your pillow and playback language lessons or whatever.
27. Cognitive enhancers: binaural beats. Binaural beats involve playing two close frequencies simultaneously to produce alpha, beta, delta, and theta waves, all of which produce either sleeping, restfulness, relaxation, meditativeness, alertness, or concentration. Binaural beats are used in conjunction with other excercises for a type of super-learning.
28. Laugh. Laughing relaxes the body. A relaxed body is more receptive to new ideas.

Kinesthetic Techniques

29. Write, don't type. While typing your notes into the computer is great for posterity, writing by hand stimulates ideas. The simple act of holding and using a pen or pencil massages acupuncture points in the hand, which in turn stimulates ideas.
30. Carry a quality notebook at all times. Samuel Taylor Coleridge dreamed the words of the poem "In Xanadu (did Kubla Khan)...". Upon awakening, he wrote down what he could recall, but was distracted by a visitor and promptly forgot the rest of the poem. Forever. If you've been doing "walking meditation" or any kind of meditation or productive napping, ideas may suddenly come to you. Record them immediately.
31. Keep a journal. This isn't exactly the same as a notebook. Journaling has to do with tracking experiences over time. If you add in visual details, charts, brainmaps, etc., you have a much more creative way to keep tabs on what you are learning.
32. Organize. Use sticky colored tabs to divide up a notebook or journal. They are a great way to partition ideas for easy referral.
33. Use post-it notes. Post-it notes provide a helpful way to record your thoughts about passages in books without defacing them with ink or pencil marks.

Self-Motivation Techniques

34. Give yourself credit. Ideas are actually a dime a dozen. If you learn to focus your mind on what results you want to achieve, you'll recognize the good ideas. Your mind will become a filter for them, which will motivate you to learn more.
35. Motivate yourself. Why do you want to learn something? What do want to achieve through learning? If you don't know why you want to learn, then distractions will be far more enticing.
36. Set a goal. W. Clement Stone once said "Whatever the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve." It's an amazing phenomenon in goal achievement. Prepare yourself by whatever means necessary, and hurdles will seem surmountable. Anyone who has experienced this phenomenon understands its validity.
37. Think positive. There's no point in setting learning goals for yourself if you don't have any faith in your ability to learn.
38. Organize, part 2. Learning is only one facet of the average adult's daily life. You need to organize your time and tasks else you might find it difficult to fit time in for learning. Try Neptune for a browser-based application for "getting things done."
39. Every skill is learned. With the exception of bodily functions, every skill in life is learned. Generally speaking, if one person can learn something, so can you. It may take you more effort, but if you've set a believable goal, it's likely an achievable goal.
40. Prepare yourself for learning. Thinking positive isn't sufficient for successfully achieving goals. This is especially important if you are an adult, as you'll probably have many distractions surrounding your daily life. Implement ways to reduce distractions, at least for a few hours at a time, else learning will become a frustrating experience.
41. Prepare yourself, part 2. Human nature is such that not everyone in your life will be a well-wisher in your self-improvement and learning plans. They may intentionally or subconsciously distract you from your goal. If you have classes to attend after work, make sure that work colleagues know this, that you are unable to work late. Diplomacy works best if you think your boss is intentionally giving you work on the days he/she knows you have to leave. Reschedule lectures to a later time slot if possible/ necessary.
42. Constrain yourself. Most people need structure in their lives. Freedom is sometimes a scary thing. It's like chaos. But even chaos has order within. By constraining yourself — say giving yourself deadlines, limiting your time on an idea in some manner, or limiting the tools you are working with — you can often accomplish more in less time.

Supplemental Techniques

43. Read as much as you can. How much more obvious can it get? Use Spreeder (#33) if you have to. Get a breadth of topics as well as depth.
44. Cross-pollinate your interests. Neurons that connect to existing neurons give you new perspectives and abilities to use additional knowledge in new ways.
45. Learn another language. New perspectives give you the ability to cross-pollinate cultural concepts and come up with new ideas. As well, sometimes reading a book in its original language will provide you with insights lost in translation.
46. Learn how to learn. Management Help has a resource page, as does SIAST (Virtual Campus), which links to articles about learning methods. They are geared towards online learning, but no doubt you gain something from them for any type of learning. If you are serious about optimum learning, read Headrush's Crash course in learning theory.
47. Learn what you know and what you don't. Many people might say, "I'm dumb," or "I don't know anything about that." The fact is, many people are wholly unaware of what they already know about a topic. If you want to learn about a topic, you need to determine what you already know, figure out what you don't know, and then learn the latter.
48. Multi-task through background processes. Effective multi-tasking allows you to bootstrap limited time to accomplish several tasks. Learning can be bootstrapped through multi-tasking, too. By effective multitasking, I don't mean doing two or more things at exactly the same time. It's not possible. However, you can achieve the semblance of effective multitasking with the right approach, and by prepping your mind for it. For example, a successful freelance writer learns to manage several articles at the same time. Research the first essay, and then let the background processes of your mind takeover. Move on consciously to the second essay. While researching the second essay, the first one will often "write itself." Be prepared to record it when it "appears" to you.
49. Think holistically. Holistic thinking might be the single most "advanced" learning technique that would help students. But it's a mindset rather than a single technique.
50. Use the right type of repetition. Complex concepts often require revisting in order to be fully absorbed. Sometimes, for some people, it may actually take months or years. Repetition of concepts and theory with various concrete examples improves absorption and speeds up learning.
51. Apply the Quantum Learning (QL) model. The Quantum Learning model is being applied in some US schools and goes beyond typical education methods to engage students.
52. Get necessary tools. There are obviously all kinds of tools for learning. If you are learning online like a growing number of people these days, then consider your online tools. One of the best tools for online research is the Firefox web browser, which has loads of extensions (add-ons) with all manner of useful features. One is Googlepedia, which simultaneously displays Google search engine listings, when you search for a term, with related entries from Wikipedia.
53. Get necessary tools, part 2. This is a very niche tip, but if you want to learn fast-track methods for building software, read Getting Real from 37 Signals. The Web page version is free. The techniques in the book have been used to create Basecamp, Campfire, and Backpack web applications in a short time frame. Each of these applications support collaboration and organization.
54. Learn critical thinking. As Keegan-Michael Key's character on MadTV might say, critical thinking takes analysis to "a whole notha level". Read Wikipedia's discourse on critical thinking as a starting point. It involves good analytical skills to aid the ability to learn selectively.
55. Learn complex problem solving. For most people, life is a series of problems to be solved. Learning is part of the process. If you have a complex problem, you need to learn the art of complex problem solving. [The latter page has some incredible visual information.]

For Teachers, Tutors, and Parents

56. Be engaging. Lectures are one-sided and often counter-productive. Information merely heard or witnessed (from a chalkboard for instance) is often forgotten. Teaching is not simply talking. Talking isn't enough. Ask students questions, present scenarios, engage them.
57. Use information pyramids. Learning happens in layers. Build base knowledge upon which you can add advanced concepts.
58. Use video games. Video games get a bad rap because of certain violent games. But video games in general can often be an effective aid to learning.
59. Role play. Younger people often learn better by being part of a learning experience. For example, history is easier to absorb through reenactments.
60. Apply the 80/20 rule. This rule is often interpreted in dfferent ways. In this case, the 80/20 rule means that some concepts, say about 20% of a curriculum, require more effort and time, say about 80%, than others. So be prepared to expand on complex topics.
61. Tell stories. Venus Flytrap, a character from the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, once taught a student gang member about atoms, electrons, and protons by saying that an atom was one big neighborhood, and the protons and neutrons had their own smaller neighborhoods and never mixed. Just like rival gangs. The story worked, and understanding sparked in the students eyes.
62. Go beyond the public school curriculum. The public school system is woefully lacking in teaching advanced learning and brainstorming methods. It's not that the methods cannot be taught; they just aren't. To learn more, you have to pay a premium in additional time and effort, and sometimes money for commercially available learning tools. There's nothing wrong with that in itself, but what is taught in schools needs to be expanded. This article's author has proven that a nine-year old can learn (some) university level math, if the learning is approached correctly.
63. Use applied learning. If a high school student were having trouble in math, say with fractions, one example of applied learning might be photography, lenses, f-stops, etc. Another example is cooking and measurement of ingredients. Tailor the applied learning to the interest of the student.

For Students and Self-Studiers

64. Be engaged. Surprise. Sometimes students are bored because they know more than is being taught, maybe even more than a teacher. (Hopefully teachers will assess what each student already knows.) Students should discuss with a teacher if they feel that the material being covered is not challenging. Also consider asking for additional materials.
65. Teach yourself. Teachers cannot always change their curricula. If you're not being challenged, challenge yourself. Some countries still apply country-wide exams for all students. If your lecturer didn't cover a topic, you should learn it on your own. Don't wait for someone to teach you. Lectures are most effective when you've pre-introduced yourself to concepts.
66. Collaborate. If studying by yourself isn't working, maybe a study group will help.
67. Do unto others: teach something. The best way to learn something better is to teach it to someone else. It forces you to learn, if you are motivated enough to share your knowledge.
68. Write about it. An effective way to "teach" something is to create an FAQ or a wiki containing everything you know about a topic. Or blog about the topic. Doing so helps you to realize what you know and more importantly what you don't. You don't even have to spend money if you grab a freebie account with Typepad, Wordpress, or Blogger.
69. Learn by experience. Pretty obvious, right? It means put in the necessary time. An expert is often defined as someone who has put in 10,000 hours into some experience or endeavor. That's approximately 5 years of 40 hours per week, every week. Are you an expert without realizing it? If you're not, do you have the dedication to be an expert?
70. Quiz yourself. Testing what you've learned will reinforce the information. Flash cards are one of the best ways, and are not just for kids.
71. Learn the right things first. Learn the basics. Case in point: a frustrating way to learn a new language is to learn grammar and spelling and sentence constructs first. This is not the way a baby learns a language, and there's no reason why an adult or young adult has to start differently, despite "expert" opinion. Try for yourself and see the difference.
72. Plan your learning. If you have a long-term plan to learn something, then to quote Led Zeppelin, "There are two paths you can go by." You can take a haphazard approach to learning, or you can put in a bit of planning and find an optimum path. Plan your time and balance your learning and living.

Parting Advice

73. Persist. Don't give up learning in the face of intimdating tasks. Anything one human being can learn, most others can as well. Wasn't it Einstein that said, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"? Thomas Edison said it, too.
74. Defy the experts. Dyslexia, in a nutshell, is the affliction of mentally jumbling letters and digits, causing difficulties in reading, writing and thus learning. Sometimes spoken words or numbers get mixed up as well. In the past, "experts" declared dyslexic children stupid. Later, they said they were incapable of learning. This author has interacted with and taught dyslexic teens. It's possible. Helen Keller had no experience of sight, sound, or speech, and yet she learned. Conclusion: There is more than one way to learn; never believe you cannot.
75. Challenge yourself. People are often more intelligent than they realize. In a world that compartmentalizes and categorizes everything, not everyone is sure where they fit in. And genius can be found in many walks of life. If you honestly suspect that there's more to you than has been "allowed" to be let out, try an IQ test such as the one offered by MENSA. It's unlike the standardized IQ tests given in many schools. You know the kind — the ones which traumatize many young students into thinking they are stupid, simply because the tests don't really assess all student's knowledge and learning ability. And the ability to learn is far, far more important than what you already know.
76. Party before an exam. Well, don't go that far. The key is to relax. The worse thing to do is cram the night before an exam. If you don't already know a subject by then, cramming isn't going to help. If you have studied, simply review the topic, then go do something pleasant (no more studying). Doing so tells your brain that you are prepared and that you will be able to recall anything that you have already learned. On the other hand, if you didn't spend the semester learning the ideas you need, you might as well go party anyways because cramming at the last minute isn't going to help much at that point.
77. Don't worry; learn happy. Have a real passion for learning and want to share that? Join a group such as the Joyful Jubilant Learning community [via LifeHack].

7 Helpful Tips To Immediately Increase Your Confidence

1.) Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Too often, we place excess importance on potential problems. We all have a certain amount of energy so let’s apply it to creating extraordinary relationships, advancing our careers and meeting our goals INSTEAD of wasting that energy worrying. Take action on what you have control over and minimize risks for what you don’t. Then invest your energy wisely.

2.) In doing something for the first time, imagine that you have already done it in the past. Close your eyes, then vividly imagine you succeeding wildly at what you are really going to do for the first time. The mind does NOT know the difference between something VIVIDLY imagined and something real. Make it vivid by involving all 5 senses.

3.) Find someone who is already confident in that area and copy them. Model as many of their behaviors, attitudes, values, and beliefs for the context you want to be confident in as you can. How can you do this? Talk with them if you have access to them. If you don’t have access to them, get as much exposure to them as you can. This could be talking to people who know the person and/or buying their products if they have some.

4.) Use the “as-if” frame. I literally love this frame of mind. If you were confident, how would you be acting? How would you be moving? How would you be speaking? What would you be thinking? What would you tell yourself inside? By asking yourself these questions, you are literally forced to answer them by going into a confident state. You will then be acting “as-if” you are confident. Now just forget you are acting long enough and pretty soon you’ll develop it into a habit.

5.) Go into the future and ask if what you’re faced with is such a big deal. This might be a bit morbid and yet this works tremendously well. Imagine yourself on your deathbed looking back over your life. You are surrounded by your friends and family. You’re reviewing your life. Is what you’re faced with now even going to pop up? That’s highly unlikely. Keeping things in proper perspective really diminishes fear.

6.) Remember that you lose out on 100% of the opportunities that you never go for. To get what you want, ask for it. I fully believe that if I ask enough people for whatever I want, I can get it. This is not necessarily true and yet it’s a useful belief. As you think about your goals and what you are striving for, how effective would it be for you to believe that all the people out there want to help you if you only ask? Whether that is true or not in the “real world” does not matter. If you find that belief empowering, I invite you to adopt it as your own.

7.) Disarm the nagging, negative internal voice. That negative internal voice can keep anyone stopped. To disarm the internal voice, imagine a volume control and lower the volume. Or how about changing the internal voice to Mickey Mouse? Do you think you could take Mickey Mouse seriously if he were criticizing you? Change the voice to a clown voice. The point is to disarm the voice by altering the way it nags at you. If I hear my own voice nagging me, it stops me. If I hear a clown voice, I laugh and continue onward.

This article is based on the book, “Unstoppable Confidence” by Kent Sayre. To find out why Brian Tracy said, “This wonderful book will give you the boost toward success that can make all the difference!" you can visit http://www.unstoppable-confidence.com and check out our 100% Lifetime Guarantee.

101 Ways to Organize Your Life

Lessons from Project Management: 101 ways to organize your life

Project Management (and life) Wisdom straight from the mouths of the horses – oops, I mean project managers:

Leadership

1. Keep your approach friendly: People are not looking to make friends at work, but refraining from114689384_cfc52799ed an aggressive approach towards your employees is a good idea. The whip - your - team - into - submission approach worked with the "Pyramids of Giza" project – but it is outdated now. The days when you could bully and scare the s*** out of your team are over. Be diplomatic and assertive, instead.

2. When taking on a new project/responsibility at work, convey to your management the extent of authority you need in order to effectively execute your project. Ensure that you have the authority that you need before you start work on your project.

3. Being people-oriented does not mean that you cannot be task-oriented (and vice-versa).

4. One-to-one: Meet regularly with your team members on a one-on-one basis. When you apply this principle to your kids, it makes each of them feel special.

5. Nobody appreciates a micro-manager: Don’t sit on the heads of your team members.

6. Giving autonomy does not mean not keeping track of progress.

7. Learn how to manage people (more difficult than it sounds, believe you me!), and the rest of your job will that much easier to execute.

8. As a leader, you should have the ability to bind the team together and give them a sense of “we’re in this together.” For instance, as the head of your family, you can promote bonding by setting aside time for family board games, story-telling sessions, family picnics, family prayers and the like.

9. Stay visible – As a leader, you need to be visible in good times, as well as when there are problems to address.

10. Your reputation depends on your perceived credibility and integrity: A very basic item for leaders is to ensure that promises made are promises kept. If action is committed, it must be performed.

11. Personality: As a leader, does your personality influence and inspire your team?

12. Leadership CAN be learned. Focus on these areas to improve your leadership skills:

* Initiative
* Leverage your charisma to influence others
* Lead purposefully and with commitment
* Develop a result-oriented approach
* Cultivate an attitude of optimism
* Work on your self-confidence - especially for weakness areas (for instance, if you are particularly nervous around people with an intimidating body language, create a plan to tackle that, and come across as confident and in-control in their presence.)
* Cultivate empathy so that you can encourage and nurture your team
* Learn to identify winners – and nurture them
* Learn to read between the lines to understand the underlying concern that prompted the dialogue
* The ability to motivate people so that they stretch out of their "comfort zones"
* Improve your decision-making abilities by learning from past decisions
* Learn to see the big picture
* Polish your Goal Setting skills
* Develop Personal Goals and examine them at regular intervals
* Effective Time Management

13. Flexibility: While it is a good thing to be firm and stand by your decisions, It is important that93952499_f88c638134 you are flexible enough to realize when plans need to change. View planning as an ongoing process. That way, you can change course midway without too much damage, if the original plan is not working. Are you open to continuous planning and updating of the plan?

Effective personnel management (Managing your team / family unit)

14. Stand up for your team. When your employees are in the right, have the guts to take up their case.

15. Don’t let team members intimidate you with technical mumbo-jumbo. Don’t feel stupid when you ask them to explain what they are saying in layperson’s language.

16. Match assignments with skill sets: Is every team member equipped to handle his part of the assignment? If not, then you are in deep trouble!

17. Creative Solutions: A Japanese story – when a little girl kept wearing the wrong shoe on the wrong foot, her parents found a solution. There was half a smiley face on either shoe. The smiley face was complete only when she wore her shoes the correct way. Problem solved. It can be as simple as that if we use our creativity.

18. When you pressure your team to deliver faster than is humanly possible, don’t be surprised to see a poor quality, bug-laden product.

19. Agree on rules: In project management, once the design has been completed, the design and production staff create a style guide for future reference. Make the rules of the game clear to all players involved, and to any players who join in later on.

20. Building Trust: Build trust within the team by demonstrating to each team member that everyone is important and creating a sense of personal value and contribution.

21. According to the book "Retaining Your Best People" (Harvard Business School Press), retention should become a core strategy. A very significant and important piece of advice from the book and something that all leaders should do on a regular basis is to "let your best people know you treasure them, count on them, and want to reward them in as many ways as possible."

22. Look beyond money: There should be an effort by the manager, project manager, or business executive to determine what the non-monetary interests of the key players are. Translated to a family situation, don't sit smug thinking that you are doing your bit by bringing in the bacon. Your family needs more than that from you - your attention and interest, for instance.

23. Say thanks, offer words of support, and show appreciation for good work.

24. Reward your key players as often as possible. People generally won't work for people who just don't care for them.

25. Provide Challenges – Encourage your team to stretch beyond their comfort zone. This will help them see just how far they can go.

Recognition

26. Rewarding works better than nagging: A reward can be something as simple as a coin or a note of appreciation – as long as your employees perceive it as a symbol of recognition, it works.

The relationship between Accountability, Empowerment, Ownership and Motivation

27. The buck stops here: You are accountable for your task / project. However, this does not mean that you do not delegate. Delegate work to your team members, let them know that they are accountable for their assignment/s, and ensure that they have the resources so that they can deliver successfully. Decide the plan of action beforehand, and decide how follow-ups will happen.

28. Ownership: Have an attitude of owning your work.

29. Minimize your supervision - Provide a sense of autonomy. Freedom is a major motivator and builds trust on both sides. (Tip: But don’t tune out completely.)

30. To motivate, you have to empower. Motivation involves not only being enthusiastic and pumped up about approaching the task, but also involves being equipped with the tools and the ability to complete the assignment. When you delegate an assignment, convey to the team member that it is now THEIR exclusive responsibility that the job gets done. If it doesn't, they will be held accountable.

31. Accountability of Self: Take a couple of co-workers into confidence about your expectations from yourself. Besides making your goals clearer to yourself, this helps others keep track of your progress.

Communication

32. Clear, open communication is a prerequisite for a healthy, result-oriented work environment.

33. Keep them posted: A lack of information is a fertile ground for rumor, gossip and insecurity. Keep the team in the loop about information concerning and affecting them.

34. When in doubt, ask: Don’t refrain from asking “stupid” questions – they may save miscommunication and misunderstandings, resulting in saved time and money!

35. It is bad policy to wait till your team members find out important information concerning them from other sources. That information should come from you.

36. Ask questions and listen to suggestions.

37. Feedback: Provide it often and ask for it. Keep an open mind. (Tip: Don’t expect all feedback to be pleasant and positive.)

38. Listen: It’s always important to listen, but even more so in tough times. Listen for undertones.

39. Be Open: While you should not be a dumping ground for grievances, you SHOULD be accessible enough for team members to openly discuss concerns or delays. (Tip: If you are not open, you'll find out about the concern or delay later in the game when there is less time to fix it.)

40. Touch Base: One-on-one and in meetings, meet up with your team members (or family members). (Sitting in front of the television with the family does not count as touching base!)

Morale

41. Pride: Have you read the Japanese story about the janitor who described his work as “Contributing to the progress of his country?” His logic – if the executives did not have clean toilets to use, they couldn’t be very productive, could they? That is the kind of pride you need to have in your work / project.

42. Keep your sense of humor: It helps – especially in situations where no one feels like laughing. (Like the time a short executive stood on a chair so that she was at eye-level with her colleague, and she quipped, “Maybe now we can see eye-to eye?” The laughter that followed this lightened up the tension that everyone in the room had been feeling up to that point.)

43. Have fun @ work: It’s true that all work and no play makes Jack a dull b217735177_bc8ec638dc ec638dcoy. And fun, on the other hand, recharges your batteries and lets you approach work with a fresh mind.

44. Celebrate achievements – even mini-achievements: Celebrating at every landmark gives your team something to look forward to, and lets them remember that they are making steady progress towards their goal – project completion!

45. Give praise: When a team member does something great, let them know it! Make sure your praise is sincere. Also, your praise will be valued only if it is given when it's due.

46. Help Others Help Themselves: If a team member / family member has a mental block, you can guide this individual to tear it down. (Tip: Tackle such issues early on, because a negative frame of mind can be highly infectious.)

Self-Management

47. Use impatience to your advantage: Channel the energies generated by your impatience to propel the process faster.

48. Procrastinators don’t make good project managers. Find a way around your weakness (procrastination) if you want to achieve your targets.

49.

24X7 availability for the project is not the way to effective achievement of targets. It will only end up overwhelming you. “The key is to schedule and set boundaries so you don't need to be accessible 24/7.” (webmonkey)

50. Do you like what you are doing? If not, why are you still doing it? Money is not compensation enough for being trapped in a role you do not like. Because for every hour you spend doing something you don’t enjoy, you are giving up doing something that you do.

51. Be Informed: Know not only what is happening in your organization, but also keep track of changes within other organizations that may impact your team members.

52. Analyze after the event: A postmortem offers valuable insights for future reference.

53. Ask yourself
(1) Do I know what is expected of me?
(2) Do I expect I can perform that which is expected of me?
(3) Do I expect a reward of value to me personally?

Stress

54. Use stress as an ally: Let stress work as the red flag that tells you to take action.

55. One key element in dealing with stress is taking control. A feeling of helplessness increases stress. So take some action that reflects that you do retain some amount of control over the situation – even if that little control is only over your reaction to the stressor.

Personal organization

56. Nothing beats being organized. Keep an organized filing system, for instance, even something as simple as storing documents chronologically will go a long way in saving you time and stress when you need to locate information.

57. Keep a daily journal where you jot down the day’s highlights. Then, set aside an hour on Saturday night/evening to analyze your week. What did you do wrong? What did you do right? What will you do differently the next time in a similar situation? This practice will help you grow professionally and personally in the long run.

58. Make daily lists and cross things off. Keep a personal scorecard and grade yourself weekly.

59. Buy a Daily Planner; now actually use it.

Planning

60. Plan ahead: Before you plunge headlong into work, spend some time planning your project.

61. Break down work into tasks: Breaking down the project into smaller tasks (and mini-tasks if required) ensures that you have a systematic approach.

211548019_38fe86d33862. Keep it visible and visual: Plotting a chart or graph about work progress and tacking it in a prominent place on your soft board (or keeping the softcopy on your desktop) ensures that your progress is visible to you.

63. Infrastructure: A reliable server lays the foundation for efficient work. Good infrastructure and equipment translate to smooth functioning for any task.

64. A step-by-step plan is the best way to ensure you know where you are going.

65. In project management, the bulk of the work happens after the planning phase. How well this implementation of the plan happens depends on how thorough and specific the planning and documentation was. Bad planning translates to bad implementation.

66. Good planning alone does not ensure good implementation. Follow-through becomes vital here. As the leader, the project manager ensures that the team sticks to the plan.

67. As a project manager, you need to check that everyone is following the functional spec and style guide, that they are using the proper naming conventions and version controls, and that backup files are being saved on the server. Rules are useful only insofar as they are implemented and followed.

68. Be prepared: Know your stuff front-wards, back-wards, and every way in between. This does not mean that you need to say everything you know. Being prepared helps you to quickly answer questions and convey that you know what you are talking about.

69. Understanding the goals: A project is truly successful only when you are meeting the need for which it was created. Identifying the scope and requirements at the outset and also acknowledging that in the real world, these can change is a good starting point.

70. Getting it right from the outset: The most important part of a project’s life cycle is the identification of its requirements.

Conflicts

71. Manage conflict (especially within the team) at an early stage – before it reaches crisis proportions.225019223_5786ee95f2

72. The best way to side-step petty politics - nip conflicts in the bud.

73. Remember that no two people view the situation with the same pair of eyes – they actually see different things. This helps in understanding differences of viewpoints and eventually resolving conflict within your team.

74. Create the Team Charter; and keep it up-to-date: A team charter is a code of conduct developed by the project management team and later adopted or modified by the project team. It defines the mutual expectations of each team member of one another. As a project manager, hold yourself and others accountable to be consistent with this code.

Risk Management

75. There is no such thing as a zero-risk project: There is no such thing as a risk-free life.

76. If you want to understand a risk fully, identify its causes as well as its effects.

77. How do you respond to risks? There are four ways:
a) Aggressive responses: You can achieve avoidance by removing or changing a cause, or by breaking the cause-risk link so that the threat is no longer possible.
b) Third party: You involve a third party to manage the risk.
c) Size: You can change the size of a risk, thus reducing a threat.
d) Acceptance: You accept the possibility of the risk, and create a fallback plan to recover from negative impacts.

78. When a project is desperately troubled, first take action to contain the damage then worry about recovery, just the way a first aid or rescue teams first “contain the damage” and consider other options after the victim’s condition stabilizes.

79. Checklists for risks: Trouble sometimes stems from omissions. It is easy to “forget” key components of a work package. A checklist reduces the potential of leaving out important considerations.

Work / Life Balance

Naps, Breaks and Vacations: The rejuvenation trio

80. Take a break: When you feel overwhelmed, take a break; get your mind off work for some time. Chances are, you will be able to handle the situation better after a break.66772254_cb5cc8c93d

81. Get enough sleep: There is no substitute for sleep. All else being equal, a well-rested person is better equipped to meet the challenges that the day presents, as compared to a person who has not had enough rest.

82. When you plan a vacation and want to really enjoy it, ensure that all the work-oriented nitty gritty is taken care of, and out of the way.

83. Manage your vacation as a project (a lot of planning) if you enjoy doing a lot of things rather than just lying around idly all day (which is also an excellent way to recharge your batteries, by the way).

What You Eat

84. Remember GIGO? Garbage in, Garbage out: Eat low-energy fast food and be prepared for irritability, mood swings, and blood sugar swings. Eat healthy, wholesome and nutritious meals to bring out the best in you.

Bonding and Loving

85. A healthy personal life translates to a well-balanced, healthy person. Make sure you are not succeeding at the workplace at the cost of your family and loved ones. Given enough time, they will learn to live without you around – without complaining about it. Tip: Pets are wonderful to shower you with (unconditional) love when nobody else will.

86. No job in the world is worth neglecting your kids for. Your kids will outgrow their strong dependence on you – the job will always be there (one or the other). If you are not there for them when they need you the most, don’t count on their unconditional acceptance and love for you later on.

Your clients and stakeholders

87. Keep the stakeholders updated: Keep the sponsors and stakeholders posted about the progress. This becomes more important when there are unforeseen problems or newer risks; like when there are delays.

88. Understand the need: When working on the project, it helps if you understand what need your project will fulfill. Sometimes (make that often) your client’s description the project will not match his need. Ensure that what you are doing will serve the purpose that it is meant to serve.

13600462_0f4efe369f89. When to give in and when to hold your ground: Once a project has started, the client will almost always want you to incorporate changes and add tasks. Sometimes requests are legitimate, and it is possible to incorporate them without throwing the project off track. But when the client’s demands require significant changes, you need to take a call. Michelangelo Buonarroti’s ceiling of the Sistine chapel project is a classic case in point. The original project involved creating twelve paintings. By the time the project was completed, over 300 paintings had been created, costing the artist his health and youth.

90. When stakeholders do not respond to information or do not respond in an expected manner; create alternative, proactive communication mechanisms to avert trouble.

91. Don’t forget to ask, “What does my client want to be able to do as a result of this project?” Translated to real life situations, every time you work on something, ask yourself what you (or someone else) hope to accomplish from that activity. The answer can be as simple as “feeling refreshed and rejuvenated” to something as complex as “moving towards my dream of contributing to a cleaner and healthier planet”.

Across Borders - It's a global world!

92.

Whether working with offshore teams or just a diverse group at home, today's project environment is multicultural. Be open to and aware of your project stakeholders' cultures. Not only should we respect our colleagues' cultures, but we should understand and EXPERIENCE them. Go out for Dim sum with the team or learn a new phrase in another language. (allpm.com)

93. Cross-cultural global relations: (courtesy Elizabeth Larson, PMP and Richard Larson, PMP)
a) Plan extra time to model requirements when working cross-culturally.
While modeling is an excellent tool for overcoming some cross-cultural communication issues, multi-cultural project management may still take extra time to get the requirements and ensure that important facts are captured.
b) It is important to plann more time for capturing requirements when working in multi-cultural environments.
c) Meeting in Person to Develop Relationships Saves Time and Money in the Long Run. In some cultures tasks are completed based on established relationships and, ultimately, trust, rather than simply being driven by schedules. Attempting to forge ahead with tasks before spending social time with clients can well lead to incomplete requirements. While it may not be standard practice all over the world, when PMs are working in some other cultures taking the time to meet face-to-face can save time and money for your project and organization.

The Zen of Project Management - George Pitagorsky's tips

94. Zen is a form of self-investigation that has its roots in China and Japan. It is a merging of225020571_cb4e7b8b15 Indian Buddhism and Taoism. The Zen approach is one that cuts through complexity to go straight to the heart of a matter. Zen promotes knowing through inner experience. It promotes discipline from within. In the Zen way, the individual comes to fully know his or her own nature by cutting through intellectualism, cultural barriers, conditioned responses, rules and any other “extras” that get in the way of seeing the essence. One who sees the essential nature of things has wisdom. Wisdom leads naturally to compassion. Wisdom and compassion are at the heart of our essential nature.

95. What is a wise approach? It is an approach that gives us the ability to see things clearly and minimize the probability that we will be reactive and ineffective in achieving our goals and objectives. Wisdom is the synthesis of knowledge into active, practical use. A wise person moves through life with equanimity, un-phased by the chaos surrounding her. A wise person has choices. He is not unconsciously driven and reactive.

96. "Only the person who learns to relax is able to create, and for them, ideas reach the mind like lightning." Even in face of chaos, pressure and stress, relax! How? Relaxation is not the same as tuning out and turning off. It is not somnabulence. Learn to rest in the moment. Cultivate the ability to quickly focus on your breath and body just long enough to find your "center". Then engage.

97. Serve someone. Serve everyone. That is the secret of wise leadership. There is a difference between a leader who serves and one who just leads. "The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served." Such a leader asks if "those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?" When the motivation is to serve, posturing, politics and self-serving gains are replaced by useful effective action.

98. Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations … that influence how we understand the world and how we take action. ” They may be useful, or they may lead to habitual, reactive behavior. What paradigms condition your behavior? Do they help or hinder you? Do you have the courage to question them? Do they provide established basis for analyzing problems, or do they limit your ability to act in the way that is best for the current situation.

99. Desiring the impossible gives rise to suffering It is also the root of many failed projects. When undertaking a project, you have the duty to question authority, to push back. Ask questions, rather than voice objections. Why is this the deadline? What if it isn't met? What do you really need, and by when? What assumptions are you making? What would you give up to get what what you really need? Will we have the right resources at the right time?

100. The Good, The Bad, The Continuous Improvement: We learn at least as much from bad experience as we do from good. Yet, blaming, fear of punishment and models like “I’m so smart, how can I make mistakes” lead us to avoid looking at and learning from our mistakes. Continuous improvement begins with the candid acceptance of the existing situation, particularly its flaws. If you don’t accept what is, you can’t change it.

101. How to Push Back when Negotiating: When pushing back to negotiate a rational schedule and budget you need solid footing. Come to the table with a well articulated plan, complete with assumptions. Use your communication, task definition, estimating, scheduling, and risk management skills and knowledge to offer realistic alternatives. Seek win-win solutions. What if you are forced to accept an irrational schedule or budget? Try to do your best to negotiate expectations that can be met given the project’s scope, resources, and risks. Do your best to work within the project’s real-world conditions.

http://www.projectmanagementsource.com/2006/08/lessons_from_pr.html