Today, having an email address has become as normal as having a surname. My seven year old son and my seventy six year old mother have email addresses. We can safely say that the email overload phenomenon is nothing new. Since 1971 we have been sending emails, but since 1971 a large percentage of us have not learned how to most effectively use email and how to avoid it becoming a cross we have to bear. Here are 9 healthy habits you can adopt to prevent you from suffering from the Email… More »
Have you noticed how obsessed we all are with getting things right? Not only that, but doing the right thing quicker and better than ever before. Everywhere you turn, there are books, magazines and blogs dedicated to making sure we have the secrets of success so we don’t screw up. In the face of all this rampant perfectionism, it’s easy to overlook the importance of being OK without getting it wrong now and then. I had a bad day yesterday. In fact, I would go so far as to say that my… More »
They are mad, evil geniuses I tell you! Every year I watch the sale of Girl Scout cookies with amazement. These sweet, innocent and friendly girls all become masters of marketing, sales and business through the months of January and February. And you know what? I happily buy Girl Scout cookies every year. I open my wallet for them, and admittedly it is because I buy through my personal “connection” (aka: dealer) of these addictive cookies. One would think they are pushing drugs with how people talk about the cookies, but that is… More »
Do you crave a life without financial constraints? Too often our ability to make progress towards our passions has been limited by the “rat race.” In the rat race, we work for our employers, the government by paying taxes, and the lenders (ie, of our mortgages, credit cards, car loans, and student loans). Usually, our own passions are dead last, relegated to when we can find free time — if they get focused on at all. Fortunately, you can have a very different plan. Here are five reasons to pursue financial independence…even… More »
A tutor can help in improving your child’s academic standing, improve his confidence and retain his focus. But this will only be possible if you can find the tutor that can fit your child’s temperament and learning style. Before you hire a private tutor, ask yourself these three important questions: 1. Is the tutor approachable? One of the most common problems for a student who’s having difficulty with a certain subject is the “fear” of the subject and the subject teacher herself. Rossana Llenado. founder of online tutorial firm Ahead Interactive, notes… More »
Extraordinary management requires extraordinary thinking, and these creative workplace strategies are proven to supercharge team productivity over a sustained period. The following are innovative ideas used in companies all over the world to help high-performance teams crank efficiency up a few notches. 1. Schedule a FedEx Day Australian software company Atlassian holds what it calls FedEx Days once per quarter to drive employee motivation and productivity. During these intense 24-hour periods, employees can work on whatever project they want so long as it doesn’t fall under their normal job responsibilities. The only… More »
Planning to plan your future is a waste of time. Has talking about planning ever been useful? Has it moved your life forward? I think we can agree that’s a big “no”. For me, I’ve found I’m happiest when I’m doing something…accomplishing something. By “something”, I mean anything that I feel is bettering my life in some way –- furthering a hobby, honing a job skill, learning a bit of knowledge, making travel plans, etc. The problem is that I’ve found it difficult to stop talking about what I’m hoping to accomplish… More »
We’re well into the new year, and chances are you’ve made resolutions. They’re the same ones as last year: lose weight, stop smoking, drink less, exercise more… After all, the new year is a great opportunity to have a fresh start. You can evaluate what you’ve accomplished during the last year, and clarify what you want for the year ahead of you. So you make resolutions, hoping that you’ll stick to them this time. Being greatly motivated by your goals, you get started. For the first few days, everything goes well – you’re on… More »
I bet you’ve heard this quote before: “The early bird gets the worm…” – William Camden Perhaps you’ve heard it in reference to your own sleeping habits. There are numerous articles on the web where writers tell you that one of the best ways to become more productive is to get up early. By doing so, you get a jumpstart on the rest of the world and reap the benefits of a quiet work environment — among other things. Yet for the amount of articles that all about getting up early, there… More »
We are a few weeks into 2012 now and some of us that made New Year’s resolutions have discovered that in our zeal to achieve change, we have created resolutions that have us feeling too constrained. For most people however, success lies in practicing a balanced approach to life. Finding balance means adopting the path less travelled, and rethinking arbitrarily determined timelines in favour of creating our own timelines and strategies — that work for ourselves. And for some of us, that also means rethinking the whole idea of “cleanses” and austerity as… More »
If an alien nation were to look down on Earth at this moment in time they really would think us a dumb race. They might say something like: “They buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t like.” But even if it’s not about impressing others, most of us have too much stuff and we know that the accumulation of goods won’t make us happier — yet we continue to consume. The aliens would also notice how busy the inhabitants of this planet are and… More »
Paying for school sucks. You end up getting a decent education (maybe), but come to quickly find out that most of what you learned is not exactly everything you need in the real world. In fact, you may find that you learn more in the first six months at your new job than you did during your entire time at school! What hurts worse is that most people, at least in the US, are paying more every year for school. This means larger and larger amounts of education debt as well as… More »
There were some stunning facts released recently from both Twitter and Facebook: Twitter is on track to hit 500 million accounts by February. At the same time, Facebook is looking at hitting 1 billion users in August. On top of this, it seems as if every day there are plenty of success stories of how people found a job through Twitter, how they found new clients or speaking gigs via Facebook, or connected to new people to expand their network. So the benefits from using social networks professionally are extremely powerful. Yet… More »
Effective leaders set their teams up for success. This requires that they avoid any management practices that could potentially kill employee productivity. Inept leadership styles come in all flavors, from the disorganized or forgetful boss to the extreme micromanager. Here are five practices that are guaranteed to sink your workers’ efficiency — and the alternatives to supercharge it. 1. Fearmongering Fear is a powerful motivator, but managers who regularly threaten job security and employees’ livelihood run the risk of paralyzing their team. Employees who are afraid to lose their job may bow… More »
Quite often when you are listening to a speaker, teacher or seminar leader, you are thinking to yourself that this person is either a really good presenter or a boring one. For some reasons you are not totally sure of, you have put that person in your mind in one of these two classifications. Of course, if you are ever to be asked to do a presentation in front of people either at work or at a social event like a wedding, you definitely want to do your best so that you… More »
Main rules and guidelines about working with GTD are somewhat simple, you either: take care of defined tasks, take care of undefined tasks, or plan (define) your tasks. Find out what all the other guidelines are.
Technology has clearly changed how we work. Mobile devices, for example, have allowed for a more flexible work environment, making it easier to work from anywhere on almost any device. Whatever changes we adopt, the bottom line remains the same; we want to get our jobs done and done well. And when the technology we’re accustomed to using works, we don’t want to take the time to learn something new. Email is the perfect example. The tech community continues to argue whether email is a dying form of online communication. While tools… More »
As hundreds to thousands of American websites go “dark” to protest the current SOPA and PIPA proposals that are in front of their government leaders, they have found that they aren’t alone in this plight. Around the world many other websites from many other countries are uniting with their American Internet colleagues, truly demonstrating that the web is indeed “worldwide” and assembling the largest online protest in history. While Lifehack.org hasn’t gone this route today, I’m going to take a look at what the Internet has done (and not done) for those… More »
We are busier than ever. Technology is leading us down the road of being able to be busy wherever we go and at any time. It’s a constant stream of information that comes in, is processed in some way, and then goes out. We tell ourselves that we have to “make something of ourselves” and that we must always be creating to keep our edge. Yet, we have to consume information to “be-in-the-know” to keep that same edge. It’s tough to “just be” anymore. Why can’t we stop for moment and see… More »
In recent times many individuals, especially US citizens, are knee-deep in credit card debt. People can incur credit card debt due to many reasons, like medical expenses, extravagant vacations, renovating houses and paying bills due to low income. No matter how you get into debt, you must try to come out of it as soon as possible. You may pursue either credit card debt consolidation, debt settlement, debt management, or even file bankruptcy to wipe off the credit card debt. But remember, debt consolidation has certain advantages over other methods of debt… More »
