Life-Work Hacks
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If you’re like me (and most people on the planet), you have plenty of ideas that could potentially change your life dramatically. Perhaps you’re thinking about losing weight, or starting your own business, or writing a novel: you might even have several great ideas jostling around in your head.
The problem comes, though, in the gap between idea and action. It’s easy to get excited by a great idea or an audacious goal – it’s a lot harder to put in the work that gets you from A to Z.
Here’s how to take those ideas and make them real:
- Choose ONE Idea
However many ideas you’ve got, try to pick just one thing to focus on first. That way, you’ll be much more likely to succeed: you won’t burn yourself out by trying to do too much, and you won’t find that some of your ideas are getting sidelined by others.
If you’re not sure where to begin, choose an idea that will fit into your current life (with, perhaps, a few tweaks to your priorities and commitments). Don’t quit your job in the hopes that your as-yet-non-existent small business will work out – instead, work on building up your self-discipline with a goal that you can achieve while in your current job, like losing weight or taking an evening class. - Create a Solid Plan
Whatever your big idea is, there’s a good chance that other people have tackled something similar. If you want to run your own restaurant business, talk to restaurant managers, or look for books that could help. If you want to get fit and healthy, talk to your doctor or the staff at the local gym.
Once you’ve gathered some advice about turning your idea into action, write a plan. Give yourself specific things to do. For instance, if your big idea is “write a novel” then your plan might look like this:
- Summarize the key theme of the novel in one or two sentences
- Write a short description for each main character
- Plan out crucial events in the plot
You might not be able to create a complete plan from A - Z right now, but you can at least map out the steps from A - B and B - C. Try to set deadlines for your first few actions, to help you get moving. - Summarize the key theme of the novel in one or two sentences
- Get Support From Others
Tell friends and/or family about your big idea. You might need to select the people you confide in carefully – who’s most likely to be encouraging and supportive?
By letting other people know about your plans, you give yourself another reason to stay on the path towards your goal: if you back out now, you’ll have to tell everyone that you’ve quit. Plus, the people around you may be able to support you in practical ways – for instance, a colleague at work may have a useful diet book that they can lend you, or a family friend might share some great tips on running a small business. - Stay Focused
Finally, you need to stay focused. So many people begin on the path to a fantastic goal only to give up before they’ve made any real progress.
You might find that the first couple of weeks are easy: you’re feeling highly motivated, and you’re excited about your idea. After a few more weeks, though, you might find it tougher going. If you’re going to achieve your goal, you need to stay focused.
That means getting into good habits, perhaps making time at the start of each day to work on this one key goal, or setting aside time at the weekends. It may also mean looking at the other commitments in your life – is there anything you could cut out, or cut down?
The path to your goal won’t necessarily be easy – but it will be rewarding. By staying on that path, right to the end, you’ll achieve something you can be truly proud of ... and something that may just change your life.
 | Written on 2/21/2012 by Ali Luke. Ali is a writer of fiction and non-fiction and a writing coach. She blogs about writing on her site, Aliventures.com, and has a free ebook "How to Find Time For Your Writing" available when you join her writing newsletter here. |
Do you wake up and jump out of bed ... or do you linger under the covers, smacking “snooze” on the alarm clock? Do you get a smooth, energizing start to your day ... or do you have a mad rush to get everything together before you head out to work?
Whether or not you’re a “morning person”, you can improve the first few hours of your day.
- Get Everything Ready the Night Before
Perhaps you have great intentions for your morning: you want to get up early, eat a healthy breakfast, hit the gym on the way to work, and arrive in the office with all your papers for that important meeting.
Great in theory; in practice, you might end up hunting for your gym kit, forgetting to take breakfast with you, and dashing off only to double back for those papers.
An easy way to get your morning off to a great start is to put things ready before you go to bed. Sort out those papers. Pack your gym kit into a bag. Put your cereal bowl and box on the kitchen counter. Oh, and, charge the phone and set out the car keys. That way, you can get your day off to a great start. - Go to Bed Earlier
If you’re aiming to get up at 6am every day but you’re not in bed till midnight, it’s no surprise that you feel tired and sluggish first thing. Even if your partner or best friend manages on five hours sleep, you might well be different: figure out how much sleep you need, and make sure you’re getting enough.
It’s easy to get engrossed in TV, surfing the web or reading a great book in the evenings. If you have trouble remembering to stop and go to bed, try setting a “go to bed” alarm (as well as a “wake up” one!) - Don’t Eat a Heavy Meal Before Bed
Do you ever struggle to sleep because your stomach is gurgling away? If you eat a heavy meal near bedtime, your body will be busy digesting – making it hard for you to drop off.
It’s easy to fix this one: either eat earlier (say, at 7pm instead of 8pm) or have a lighter evening meal. If you find that you’re hungry again before bed time, a light snack like a banana, a bowl of oatmeal or a glass of milk can help you drop off. - Write an Action List for Your Day
It’s hard to get up ready to rock if you’re not feeling inspired about the day ahead. One great way to feel energized about your day is to plan properly: write an action list during the afternoon or evening, so that you know what tasks you’ll be tackling.
This can help you unwind and sleep – you know you’re not going to forget important tasks – and can help you feel mentally prepared for what’s coming up during the following day. - Do Something Important First
When you’re writing your action list, make sure you include something important, not urgent, for the start of the day.
That might mean:
- Spending half an hour working on a personal project (like studying, or writing a novel, or searching for a new job) when you first wake up
- Starting off your day with something energizing and good for your physical/mental health (like exercise, mediation, or journaling)
- Get Up When Your Alarm Goes Off
One of the worst ways to start your day is by lying in bed, dozing fitfully, hitting “snooze” on your alarm clock. You know that you should be getting up, so you feel guilty and grumpy before you’re even out of bed. The extra sleep doesn’t make you feel any better rested, either.
If you consistently fail to get up when your alarm goes off at 6am, then set it for 6.30am (or whenever you really get out of bed). If you do genuinely want to get up at 6am, then go to bed half an hour earlier. You might also want to try putting your alarm further away – if you have to get out of bed to reach it, you’re already on your feet!
Do you struggle with mornings, or do you bounce out of bed, full of energy? Share your tips and tricks in the comments below...
| Written on 2/19/2012 by Ali Luke. Ali is a writer of fiction and non-fiction and a writing coach. She blogs about writing on her site, Aliventures.com, and has a free ebook "How to Find Time For Your Writing" available when you join her writing newsletter here. |
I finished . I looked up at my friend sitting across from me. I was in school. It was 1st grade and I had just finished writing a story in my small, blue and white notebook. Back then, I had an affinity for writing short stories where animals could talk, and most of them died in every story, much like Kenny in Southpark.
Since writing those short stories, I’ve always loved writing.
It wasn’t until 2007 that I wanted to start making a living with my words, specifically through websites. It took me a few years to get the hang of it all, but it finally clicked. All it took was the willingness to keep moving forward, and have faith in the fact that I would learn what I needed to learn.
There are still many out there that want to try, but just don’t know how, or maybe you write fine, but would like to get even better, and even faster. That’s what this article will do, if you apply what you learn. Consider these:
- Outline
It’s easy to get lost in your writing. In order to maintain focus, I always try to outline my articles. Sometimes I outline in more detail, and sometimes I just jot down a few sub-headings that will guide me through it all.
Once in a blue moon, I may write without having an outline, but that’s for shorter articles. I live and die by the outline, and it works beautifully for me. - Freewrite
Once you’ve got your outline in place, throw the editors hat on the shelf and just start writing. Don’t censor yourself; let it all come out. It doesn’t matter if what comes out is rubbish. Write, and write some more until you have more than you need.
Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or flow. - Rewrite
Once you’ve got your lump of text in front of you, it’s time to rewrite what you’ve got. Now you take off your creative writing hat, and grab your editor’s hat. Rewrite your article once as best as you can, then sleep on it, and come back in 24 hours. This simple rule works wonders. - Observe
Now, for the insightful part; observe what you think about and what happens during the day. There are a lot of things that happen to you that you take for granted. Many of those things are nuggets of gold for your readers, because not everyone is you.
You may have the solution to a pesky problem many have, but it’s second nature to you that you don’t even think about it. - Read Books
I love reading books. Books are a great place for inspiration and new ideas. You see, books are carefully researched and written, which means you can borrow a lot of ideas, and you can improve your writing by leaps and bounds if you pay attention. - Kill Your Comfort Zone
We all want to be comfortable, safe, and secure, but the truth of the matter is that the more we go out of our comfort zone, the more ideas we have. The more you break through your fear, the more inspiring and interesting you become.
Break your patterns, do something new, and inspiration will hit you like a brick wall. You can’t miss it. - Be You
Last, but definitely not least, give yourself permission to be you, with quirks and all. The more you try to hold back, the harder it is to write, because you’re trying to be someone you’re not.
Think of it like this: the more you can be you, the more of the people you really want to hang out with you will attract.
 | Written on 1/30/2011 by Henri Junttila. Henri writes at Wake Up Cloud, where he shares his personal tips on how you can live the life you know you deserve. When you feel ready to take action, get his free course: Find Your Passion in 5 Days or Less. And if you liked this article, you will enjoy one of his top articles: 77 Great Quotes That Will Change Your Life. |
Fear is misunderstood.
We learn that fear is bad, and happiness is good. We run away from fear and toward happiness. But what is fear, if not a few sensations in the body coupled with a few thoughts?
We are the creators of our own fear, yet we believe we are the fear. We put up filters that we see the world through, and we get these filters from our experiences in life. We form meaning from them, and we approach the world through them.
If someone had bad experiences in life, they will see the world as bad, unless they choose not to. Easier said than done. You are not your fear is the message I want you to get from this article.
- Welcome
When fear arises, simply welcome it. Most people try to push it away, they resist fear, and they want to get rid of it. This causes friction and it makes it worse. I bet you’ve tried this. How has it been working out so far? Not so well, right?
You might want to try something new, so try the opposite. Embrace the fear, and allow it to be what it is. - Learn
What is your fear teaching you? Is there a hidden lesson inside your fear? Perhaps it is showing you a deeper part of yourself that you have not wanted to face until now.
Fear may seem scary but that is because we’ve put the label fear on it. If we remove the label, fear is just sensations and energy moving in your body. From that we make up our own conclusions and fuel it by creating horror stories of what has been and what might be. - Observe
Observe your fear and notice any patterns that pop up. Are you constantly afraid of not having security, getting approval or not feeling loved? Look at the patterns your fears point you to, and become aware of the options you have in front of you.
You can change the way you live your life. It can happen consciously, or it can happen unconsciously. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it feels right for you. - Fuel
When you are doing something you love, you have fuel to conquer the fear. If you love writing, but know that you have no writing skills whatsoever, and you’re afraid of what people may think, you will find the fuel to blow through the fear.
How could you not? It is what you enjoy, so how could you not take action and move through the fear?
Most people let fear stop them. They believe fear is real, but it isn’t. I know it may feel real, but just observe it, welcome it, and let it be there, and notice what happens. - Truth
Have you ever been scared out of your mind about something, done it anyway, and discovered that the world didn't end? That’s how fear works, it makes it seem like it’s the actual event or thing that you’re afraid of, but what you’re really afraid of is your thinking.
Just for today, I’d like to suggest an experiment.
What I want you to do is observe your feelings and thoughts during the day. Notice that they live their own life. You cannot predict what thought will pop in your head, so just observe what goes on, and notice that you are not your thoughts, nor are you your emotions.
It’s a radical perspective, but it will free you from the suffering that so many are trapped in. you can be free, but you have to step out of the box you've created for yourself.
| Written on 2/15/2012 by Henri Junttila. Henri writes at Wake Up Cloud, where he shares his personal tips on how you can live the life you know you deserve. When you feel ready to take action, get his free course: How to Find Your Passion (And Build a Business Around It). |
Contacts startup Rapportive has been acquired by LinkedIn, according to a post on Rapportive’s blog Wednesday. The official announcement comes a few weeks after rumors of such a buy were first reported by AllThingsD.
According to Rapportive founder Rahul Vohra, the company will continue to support its Gmail plugin, which enables users to get more detailed information about people that have emailed them. That includes social connections such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, as well as their address books. The acquisition will no doubt lead to more integration with LinkedIn’s core properties, which could bring even more information about your work contacts into the fold.
AllThingsD reports that the price came in at the low teens of millions of dollars, with LinkedIn beating out other potential buyers, including Twitter. Rapportive had raised about $1 million in 2010, with investors that included Charles River Ventures, Dave McClure, Paul Buchheit, Jason Calacanis, Gary Vaynerchuk, Shervin Pishevar and Venture Hacks.
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We’ve written before about how coworking isn’t just a solution for lonely, isolated independent and remote workers, but also a potential economic development strategy for communities, particularly those in rural areas. In central Appalachia, for example, one town is hoping its new space will keep innovators in the area and help them overcome logistical barriers to building businesses. In San Jose, California, meanwhile, NextSpace is touting the boost it gives to the local businesses that surround it thanks to coworkers heading out for a sandwich or an errand.
But besides keeping talent in town and upping foot traffic to surrounding businesses, what other benefits might coworking spaces provide communities? In an interesting recent post for DeskMag, Angel Kwiatkowski of Cohere Coworking Community in Fort Collins, Colorado, offers a suggestion. Agreeing with the obvious benefits, she adds one more: “Coworking creates a network for collaborative consumption.” Kwiatkowski explains:
The quest for bigger, better, faster has crippled our economy. People are tired of keeping up with the Joneses and just want to keep their families fed. Collaborative consumption means reusing, growing, renting, bartering and making instead of buying. But the sharing economy demands a network of friendly, trustworthy people to make it work. Like the people who work right next to you in a coworking space.
Yes, coworking allows you to share your professional expertise and network with other successful freelancers. But you could do that at a once-a-month meetup. What makes coworking unique is the sharing that takes place on a personal level –- be it a potluck meal or vegetable seeds or a ride to a conference in Denver.
When a community is connected and open to sharing, people save money, learn new skills and reduce their impact on the environment. New ideas emerge, problems are solved in creative ways, and the community at large reaps all the rewards of a happy independent workforce.
Coworking helps people consume only what they need and share out resources that are superfluous, according to this argument. It’s a point of view explored in greater depth by Lisa Gansky, author of The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing, in her TED talk. Using services like Zipcar and Netflix as her jumping off point, Gansky argues that in many areas we are slowly moving away from ownership toward sharing resources. Coworking facilitates this process by switching folks from “owning” exclusive access to an often-empty office or cubicle to using space only when they need it and sharing it when they don’t. And the same can be said of resources from staplers to skills — rather than employ, say, a graphic designer and have full-time, exclusive access to her skills, a small company at a coworking space might be able to access a designer of the same caliber on a project basis, saving themselves some cash and helping the designer use her talent in a variety of stimulating ways.
Do you buy this argument for the economic benefits of coworking?
Image courtesy of Flickr user hyku.
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Constant connectivity holds out the promise of location independence and virtual teams sourced from the best and brightest talent worldwide, but as we all know the ability to work anytime, anywhere also has its downsides. Knowledge@Wharton captured these nicely recently with a fictional but all too believable run down of a normal day in the life of a knowledge worker:
It is quitting time, and you know the drill. You grab your coat and slip on your Bluetooth for a quick call with a client on the commute home. You stop at the grocery store and, while you are in line, pluck out your BlackBerry to respond to emails. You arrive home, sit down to dinner and try hard to resist the flashing red light on your smartphone. Dinner is done: Time to check your email again, clear the dishes, and sit on the couch for some TV — with your computer on your lap, of course. Just a few last emails and then it is time for bed. You will soon wake up to do it all over again tomorrow.
The constant drip of communication in what used to be known as “off hours” is the subject of a lengthy article in the publication, which offers a run down of opinion on the issue out of the Wharton School. The piece asks: what’s driving our constant need for connection? What’s it doing to us and whose problem is it?
It kicks off with a list of high-profile companies that have recently done something to tackle their employees’ information overload, including French IT company Atos, Deutsche Telekom, Google and Volkswagen. From banning email to switching of BlackBerries after hours, these companies using various techniques to force staff to power down their devices – and their brains – for a much-needed rest. Countries are even trying to get hyper-connected workers to switch off – Brazil recently passed a law requiring employers to pay overtime when they ask employees to check emails or take calls out of hours. But experts from Wharton suggest that the problem runs deeper than a tweaking rules or policies can reach.
“These policies provide important signals about what the company stands for, but often fall short as workable solutions,” says Stewart Friedman, a Wharton practice professor of management. Why? Our communication addiction goes right to the heart of our most fundamental anxieties, according to Carolyn Marvin, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication:
We sometimes talk as if it’s technology that does it to us, that makes us this way. But the problem is deeper. Technology is just a very efficient way of implementing a view we already have of ourselves. That’s the notion that who we are is our ability to produce in the marketplace and constantly show that we are producing. Being a successful member of middle class society is showing our dedication to professional work and being available at all hours of the day.
And Marvin isn’t the only expert who feels that the primary combatant in the war against communication-induced burnout should be the individual, not the organization. Craig Chappelow, global portfolio manager at the Center for Creative Leadership, who also contributes to the Knowledge@Wharton article, puts the responsibility for policing boundaries squarely on the shoulders of “individual leaders,” who he says, should “model the kinds of behaviors they expect to see. It’s the boss who should be saying: ‘We’re better if we are not working all weekend long.’” And, he adds, this sort of policy should begin at home: “In my family, we have a rule: No BlackBerries until breakfast is over.”
Who do you think bears the primary responsibility for policing after-hours use of communication devices?
Image courtesy of Flickr use Orange Steeler.
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It hardly takes a raft of studies or in-depth research to prove that consumer social media like Facebook and Twitter can be hugely addictive. From our personal lives and stories in the media, most of us intuitively know that the little shots of connection and amusement we get from these sites make it sometimes difficult to log off, even when you know your excessive time on them is less than healthy for your brain (or your self-esteem).
While the addictive properties of social media are totally obvious, so is the truth that introducing social tools in an enterprise context is a tricky business, and driving adoption is sometimes a painfully slow process. As David Lavenda, VP of marketing at social email company harmon.ie, recently pointed out here on WebWorkerDaily, recent Forrester research found widespread under-utilization of the social tools that organizations have invested in, with 64 percent of companies reporting they realized few, if any, benefits from the investment.
And that’s a paradox. Why do we love social tools in our personal lives but often shun them in a professional context? Author and prominent business thinker Tammy Erickson recently pondered this question on the HBR Blog Network, outlining the key differences between the consumer social experience and the enterprise one. In our personal lives, she argues, social media have these characteristics:
- We’re usually invited to participate by people we know and trust.
- There are specific things we want to do with the other people involved, such as share photos, stay up-to-date on a club’s activities, or develop a personal reputation.
- We get something back from participation: advice, practical information we need, a network to tap when times are rough, or the emotional pleasure of seeing others’ photos or hearing their news.
- We have control over who sees our information.
- The applications are intuitive — there’s no training required.
- The applications are well-tuned to support the specific tasks we want to perform, and their features are regularly rated and refined.
Meanwhile, social at work is very different:
- Often we’re instructed to use it by someone in authority, rather than invited by friends.
- Little of what we actually get paid to do (or believe we get paid to do) requires information or input from the vast majority of other people on the network.
- Participation feels like dropping pearls into a black hole — there’s often no sense of getting something in return for sharing an idea or suggestion.
- We have no control over who sees our information and little idea what “they” are doing with it.
- The site is unattractive and requires a manual to get started.
- The software is generic and requires a work-around to do the specific things we would really like to do.
In the thoroughly interesting post she goes on to make suggestions on how organizations can make enterprise social more appealing to speed uptake of the tools, including offering a clear purpose for the initiative and tailoring offerings to existing user behavior. Have a read for her complete recommendations.
Do you think Erickson has nailed the essential differences between personal and professional social tools?
Image courtesy of Flickr user See-ming Lee.
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