Month: October 2017
Apply Yourself With A Productivity App
Some people are so full of drive and motivation they can get everything they need to get done all on their own. The rest of us sometimes need a little help. If you need some help getting a little more productive one (or more) of these is sure to help!
Buffer – Free on iOS or Android
If social media is important to you, Buffer is right up your alley. Post to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn from anywhere. Schedule your posts, or have Buffer schedule them for you for maximum impressions. Buffer also gives you great analytics on all your posts, mentions, likes, and more.
Evernote – Free on iOS, Android and Windows Phone
Evernote is one of the best apps out there period. Write notes, take pictures, save webpages and more. Evernote makes taking, organizing and finding notes as easy as possible. The best part of Evernote is that all your notes are synced to a cloud so that you can have them on any device at any time.
Slack – Free on iOS and Android
Slack is a great app for working with teams. It does away with email and instead focuses on a chat room of sorts for your work team. You can tag coworkers and create different channels for different teams or different projects. Slack also enables file sharing and works with Dropbox, Google+, Twitter and dozens more. At it’s core Slack is all of your team’s messages, files, notes and discussions in one place.
1password – Free on iOS and Android
1Password creates strong and original passwords for every different place you use one. It will also remember them all for you and logs you in to each place easily. It’s one of the most secure ways to keep all your passwords different and safe.
Any.do – Free on iOS and Android
Any.do is a To Do list app that allows for easy input of tasks, reminders and events. Any.do allows you to set up reminders for time sensitive items. You can also share your tasks and To Dos with friends or colleagues.
Timeful – Free on iOS
Timeful is a calendar and to-do list app. The thing that separates Timeful from others like it is that Timeful will learn your behaviors, and then make suggestions on how to get more stuff done. From meetings and To Do items to habits you want to develop, Timeful helps you schedule your life for maximum productivity. Timeful also syncs with Google Calendar, Apple iCal, Outlook/Exchange and others.
Goodreader – $4.99 on iOS
If you’re ever on your phone and get sent a PDF, you know how much of a pain it is to deal with. Goodreader is a powerful PDF viewer that allows you to add notations, text boxes, highlights and more. You’ll be able to split or merge pages too. If you deal with PDFs at all, you need Goodreader.
It stands for If This, Then That. IFTTT allows you to set automated tasks among your apps, like texting you the weather forecast each morning or automatically setting your wallpaper to be your latest Instagram photo. IFTTT also allows you to see “recipes” other people have come up with so you can try them out yourself.
Always Find The Silver Lining
Need A Little Help Budgeting?
Do you have trouble making your money last until the end of the month? Are things a little too tight for comfort? Perhaps its time for a little budgeting lesson.
Short term pain, long term gain
Some of these things may not sound fun, but they will lead to saving money which you can then spend on fun things. Let’s start by putting things into perspective. Start by writing down your monthly earnings. Now make a list of all your expenses. Rent, food, coffees, movies, clothes – every single thing you spend money on every month.
Must/Want
Now break down all those expenses into two columns things that you absolutely must pay every single month. Rent, hydro, phone bill etc. Everything else goes into the other column.
Add up everything in the must column and subtract that total from your monthly earnings. What ever is left is what you can divvy up for all those other expenses. If you’re running short every month then the wants column where you have to cut back.
Less of the wants
That might mean cutting back on the morning coffees or movies. It might mean you’ll have to settle for last year’s wardrobe a little longer. Once you’ve laid out everything in an easy to understand chart it’s easy to see exactly where you can scale back.
Don’t think of it as cutting yourself off from things you love, think of it as finding alternatives. For example, you can still hang out at the bar if that’s what you like to do, but instead of just powering through several beers, have one and just participate in the trivia night.
You could go volunteer somewhere; that’s free and feels lovely. You could go for a bike ride or a hike or a nice walk. Just think outside the box. Or wallet.
Make room for saving
One more thing about budgeting. If possible, you want to save a little every month so if anything unexpected comes up you don’t suddenly find yourself in an emergency situation. If at all possible include 10% of your monthly income in the must category. Let that build and take care of itself so if you ever need it, it can take care of you.
Your Self Image Determines How People See You
You may put tons of attention into what you wear everyday and what you say, but if you don’t have a strong, defined self-image all of that exterior stuff will ultimately come to naught. It’s vitally important that each and every one of us recognizes the value of our self-image. The way you see yourself on the inside will make a huge impact on how you behave and talk to others on the outside.
The good news is, even if you don’t already have a strong self-image, you can absolutely update it! For instance, top sales people don’t see themselves as sales people, they see themselves as consultants, or problem solvers for the people they’re speaking to. By changing your perception of yourself, you can change the perception others have of you.
How you see yourself is how others will see you
When asked how they feel after speaking to a strong salesperson most people will say they feel like they’ve been helped with some aspect of their lives. Like they’re in a partnership with someone they can trust, no matter how brief the interaction ultimately was.
You may not realize this, but people will perceive how you feel about yourself and follow your lead. Whatever you believe about yourself is what others will also believe about you. If you see yourself as a capable person, striving to get one thing done after another, that’s how people will perceive you. If you see yourself as a problem solver or a consultant specializing in a particular area, then that is how you will be perceived by the people you speak to.
Are You On The Path To Your Dream Career?
A Different Perspective
Falling Down
We’ve all fallen down. The old motto is to get back up on the horse. But if you get back up too quickly, you may miss something. So often when we talk about business and success we talk about leadership and becoming great and being awesome and standing on top of the world. We forget to talk about taking a moment when you’re down to look at things from a different perspective.
Opera Winfrey is one of the most recognizable faces in North American media. The interesting thing about Oprah is that what has made her so popular is not her ability to ask hard hitting questions but her ability to empathize with her audience and the people she is interviewing.
A Different View
It wasn’t uncommon to see Oprah herself shedding tears while an interviewee shared a heartwarming story. Some people may have thought that to become so invested in your interviewee was unprofessional. But Oprah knew better. Oprah truly listened to the people she interviewed and in turn they gave better interviews.
We would argue that this approach to interviewing, this appreciation for listening to conversation and feeling the emotions of others grew from being a child few people would pay attention to. Oprah Winfrey was very poor throughout her childhood. She was born to a single mother, and at times in her life even wore dresses made out of potato sacks.
Getting Back Up
Falling down gives us the chance the see things with new eyes and in a new light. This change of perspective is essential for understanding not only our own issues, but the issues of those around us. Being able to better understand these issues gives us the opportunity to help with them and even solve them. Before you know it, you’re back up on the horse having solved the issues that caused your fall.
The next time you fall down, don’t be in too much of a rush to get back up. Take a moment to see things from a different point of view.
Think You Have What It Takes To Make A Million?
Long Distance Job Hunting
You want to move to a new city AND already have a job lined up when you get there. Is that even possible? Yes. If you plan for it.
Outstanding resume
You already know you need a stand out resume to get a job in the city you’re in. If you want a job in another city that resume doesn’t just need to stand out, it needs to shine like a treasure in Aladdin’s cave. Catch the recruiter’s attention with a glitter so irresistible you get the opportunity talk to them and explain exactly what treasure you can bring to their cave.
Accommodate their schedule
If you are applying for a job in a time zone that is opposite your own, make sure you make it as easy as possible for the potential employer to have a Skype call with you. If that means interviewing at 1 am, then you are going to be looking and sounding spectacular at 1 am.
You don’t want to give them any reason to discount you. You’re the one applying from far away. They are already making allowances for you, so make the interview easy for them.
Make sure they realize you are not local
Address your current location and your total willingness to relocate right off the bat in your cover letter.
Don’t try to trick them into thinking you’re already where they are because deception is not the right foot on which to step into a new relationship. Honesty is always the best policy. Start off by making sure everyone is on the same page and soon you’ll all be in the same city.
Give A Speech Without Getting Tongue Tied
As you move through your career chances are you’ll sometimes have to give speeches, sometimes to a single person, sometimes before a whole group. Public speaking can be extremely nerve wracking for a lot of people. One of the ways to lessen the nervousness is to have a strong speech prepared in advance. The more planned and prepared the speech, the more confidence you’ll have when delivering it.
A few simple steps will help you corral a bunch of thoughts milling around in your head into a thought out, well ordered speech.
Single sentence description
Decide what the main message of your speech is going to be. You may want to talk about several things, but even so, there needs to be a theme for your overall message. Now create a single sentence description of what you want to achieve through the speech.
Title it
Now that you have a theme, use it to title your speech.
Talking points
Before you start writing, take some time for a little free form thinking. List 10 – 20 talking points you think you’d like to touch on. Ideas, quotes, statistics, anecdotes, examples you could use to illustrate your points.
Figure out the most important points
Take that list and pull out the five points you believe will have the greatest impact in your speech then organize them into the order in which you’d like to address them.
Expand each point
One at a time, explain each of your talking points. State the point, back it up with statistics, personal experiences, anecdotes, examples, and finish off by re-stating the point briefly.
That’s the core of your speech. From there you can add personal touches, humor or nuggets of motivation to round it out.
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