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Mon, 03 Sep 2018 06:55:17 GMT

More relevance - less noise

GDPR – Foundation of much more to come

Fri, 25 May 2018 15:26:31 GMT

We’re happy to announce that we've accomplished a long list of steps to meet the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the new EU privacy regulation which comes into effect today (May 25th, 2018).

Some of the measures we’ve taken include:

Thorough research of all business areas impacted by GDPR – DONE
Appointment of Data Protection Officer – DONE
Complete revision of our Privacy Policy – DONE
Signing of Data Processing Agreements with third parties who process personal data – DONE
Creation of Data Processing Addendum for Publishers – DONE
Review of user consent to receive information – DONE
Applying principle to only share data where required – DONE
Briefing of staff with access to personal data to ensure GDPR compliance – DONE

Making SpecificFeeds GDPR-compliant is a very time consuming process that is not just about May 25, 2018, but is about ensuring that we provide products and services to our users that prioritizes data protection.

Also, it provides a solid basis for what lies ahead: we are planning a range of significant enhancements which will put SpecificFeeds on a new level. Stay tuned!

Update on GDPR

Sun, 29 Apr 2018 09:58:01 GMT

In the last few months, we've been busy together with our legal advisors to make SpecificFeeds fully compliant with GDPR, the new EU regulation. This post provides a brief update on the subject.

The key information first: We are on-track to be fully GDPR compliant by May 25th 2018, the date GDPR comes into effect.

If you are not familiar with GDPR yet, please read on.

What is GDPR?

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a new regulation affecting all EU/EEA countries and Switzerland, aiming to make the processing and storage of confidential information (esp. data which identifies persons, such as emails, IP addresses etc.) better regulated and safer. It replaces the outdated Data Protection Directive and can be considered the biggest change in data privacy protection in 20 years.

Does GDPR affect me?

If you're a publisher, using SpecificFeeds to update your followers about your new posts (which has many advantages), then the answer is a very, very likely "Yes!". That's because even if you or your company is not based in an EU/EEA country or Switzerland, at least some of your followers are, and the handling of their data falls under GDPR.

What changes does GDPR bring?

Some "highlights" of GDPR include:

Importance of getting consent explicitly: It has to be unambiguous that followers provided the consent to be emailed (or contacted in other ways) for the purpose you're contacting them for.

It will not be permitted anymore to collect users' contact information for a certain purpose (e.g. for sign up) but then send them marketing emails not related to their sign up, i.e. emails to which they didn't agree to.

And: their agreement has to be explicit. If you ask for their email so that they can download your e-book, then it is not sufficient to state at the bottom of the subscription form something like "By signing up, you agree to receive marketing emails from us". The user needs to agree to it explicitly, e.g. by clicking a checkbox.
Possibility to withdraw consent (easily): After consent has been given, the user must have the option to easily withdraw it again (e.g. by clicking an unsubscribe-link in the email he received, which doesn't require any login).
Right to rectification: The "data subject" can request that incorrect data gets corrected.
Right for deletion: Users have the right to ask for a complete deletion of their data (also called "right to be forgotten")
Right for moving of data: The data subject will have the right to received the personal data conserning him.

If you want to know more about GDPR, visit the official GDPR homepage, or, if you prefer a layman's explanation instead of too much legalize, have a look at this easy-to-understand explanation of GDPR.

What are next steps?

We are working on finalizing our GDPR-readiness and will provide an update before GDPR comes into effect on May 25th, 2018.

If you have any questions about GDPR or related topics in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Note: This article does not provide legal advice. If you have any legal questions about GDPR, please seek professional legal counsel.

Work Less: Get More Done

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 15:35:17 GMT

We’ve discussed in a previous article how a 4-day workweek could result in increased productivity and healthier, happier workers suffering less from the effects of stress.

Many salaried workers would jump for joy at the idea of a 3-day weekend, but what about freelancers and contractors, who work irregular schedules? And what about those people who are really passionate about their jobs? Not everyone works only for the weekend.

In fact a lot of productivity advice goes against this idea of taking an extended break from work. Habit is a powerful tool when it comes to being productive and avoiding procrastination, and the best way to develop a habit is to do something every day. Whatever habit you are trying to develop, you’ll find that most experts recommend that you take no more than one day off a week.

This seems to be particularly true of writing and many prolific and successful writers claim to write every day, with very few days off. Bestselling author, Stephen King, in his memoir and writing guide, On Writing, notes how he writes every single day, aiming for around 2,000 words. No doubt if King were to write only 4 days out of every 7, he would be significantly less productive.

So if you’re interested in utilizing the power of habit but don’t want to burn out, or become a workaholic, what is the answer?

Parkinson’s law and the power of deadlines

Parkinson’s law was first published in the Economist in 1955 and states that work expands to fill the time available for completion.

We’ve all experienced this phenomenon when we’re coming up to a deadline for school or work. As the deadline approaches, we work faster and become miraculously more productive, sometimes fitting several weeks’ worth of work into a few days.

Working longer hours may seem like the obvious way to get more done but as we previously pointed out, the longer you work, the more tired and less efficient you become.

The best way to prevent work from dragging on unnecessarily is to make sure you have a deadline. Without deadlines we are tempted to either put the work off until later or keep working, trying to silence our internal perfectionist, with no real end in sight.

The optimal number of working hours for productivity

The 8-hour workday seems to be today’s standard for most full-time workers. The United States Department of Labor reported that the average American, aged 25-54 with children, spent 8.8 hours a day working, traveling to and from work, and doing other work-related activities in 2011.

One of the first businesses to implement an 8-hour day was the Ford motor company in 1914. Before this, the average working day was between 10 and 16 hours. After cutting the working day, Ford found that the productivity of workers increased so much that their profits doubled within a 2-year period.

Other companies, impressed with the success Ford enjoyed, also adopted the 8-hour day, and it has continued with little experimentation into different workday lengths since.

The 8-hour day was optimized for industrial workers, but as we have previously discussed, it has little relevance to the knowledge workers of today.

A survey of more than 38,000 people by Microsoft in 2005 — the Microsoft Personal Productivity Challenge — found that while on average office workers worked 45 hours a week, they felt they were only productive for about 28 of those hours. In a 5-day week that equates to less than just over 5.5 hours a day.

In an office setting, it makes sense that knowledge workers only do 5 or 6 hours of productive work per day. The remaining 2 or 3 hours from the standard 8-hour day can easily be made up by attending meetings, making phone calls, replying to emails and other non-critical tasks.

But for people who work at home or who run their own businesses, many of these activities can either be eliminated completely or optimized so they take up only a small amount of time each day. By reducing the working day and fitting more work into a shorter time frame, more hours each day are available for leisure and family time.

Experimenting with a shorter work day

I am one of those people who work better if I do a little work every day, rather than taking set days off. I believe that the answer to increased productivity for me lies in working every day but reducing the length of each working day.

As 4 seems to be the magic number when it comes to productivity (see our previous discussion on 4-day workweeks and the famous book by Tim Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek), I decided to experiment with limiting my working day to 4 hours.

From tracking my time throughout the day I have found that while I may be sitting at my computer for most of the day, the actual amount of real work done is surprisingly low – often around the 4-hour mark.

The concept behind this experiment was to see if I could optimize my productivity by concentrating my working hours into a smaller period of time and eliminating distractions and wasted time as much as possible.

It takes a lot of willpower to stay focused and work solidly for 4 hours (with regular short breaks) without getting carried away on Facebook or distracted with emails – a skill I am still mastering. However so far, the results of my experiment seem to be encouraging.

On the days when I am successful with this new schedule, I get more done in a shorter space of time. My hope is that by refining and perfecting this work schedule, I can get a whole day’s work done in the first few hours of the day, leaving the afternoons and evenings free to enjoy time as I wish.

Is a shorter workday the future?

A paper published by the new economic forum in the UK calls for a radical change to the working week by reducing it from an average of 40 hours per week to 21 – just over 4 hours per day in a traditional 5-day week.

The idea behind this reduced working day is that as well as eliminating the health and social problems caused by overwork, unemployment, carbon emissions, and other negative environmental impacts would be reduced as well.

If you work set hours for somebody else, your chances of cutting your working day in half may not be very good (although you could try for a 4-day workweek or showing your manager some of the problems associated with a traditional 9-5 work schedule)

However freelancers and those who work for ourselves may well benefit from a shorter working day, and it’s within their power to put it into practice.

Why not give it a try? We’d love to hear about your own experiments into working hours and how they have affected your productivity. Let us know how you get on in the comments.

Image credit: http://smallbiztrends.com/, retrieved on 22 July 2014 from http://smallbiztrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/work-harder-cartoon-business.jpg/; no modifications made, Licence: CC BY-ND (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/legalcode)

How Developing a Daily Meditation Practice Could Help You Become More Productive

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:56:23 GMT

What does the word "meditation" conjure up for you? Buddhist monks praying in a temple on the side of some faraway mountain? Indian yogis tying themselves in knots? Hippies in designer yoga gear drinking green tea and eating tofu?

Meditation has long been known for its use in spiritual practices, but the practice of meditation has many benefits and is certainly not just a hyped-up, new-age trend. Once the realm of spiritual gurus and ascetics, meditation is now becoming popular with entrepreneurs, academics, and anyone aiming to achieve their highest potential.

Google employees have the opportunity to attend regular meditation classes, and the number of meditation apps that are popping up on iTunes and the Google Play store is testament to how the popularity of this ancient practice has increased in recent years. So what's all the fuss about?

The Benefits of Meditation

Many studies have been done into the physical and mental effects of meditation and there is compelling evidence that regular meditation can indeed provide a number of positive benefits for our health and well-being.

MRI scans have shown that during meditation, the pattern of brain waves changes, shifting more towards the theta waves that are produced when we are deeply relaxed or asleep. Meditation literally calms the brain and silences thoughts, reducing the amount of information that it would normally have to process in normal activity.

So what does a calmer brain do for us?

Increases focus and reduces susceptibility to distractions
Reduces stress
Improves energy and reduces fatigue
Increases creativity
Improves memory and recall
Improves emotional stability
Improves mood and increases happier thoughts
Improves the ability to step back and reflect on complex problems

A study carried out by the University of Washington into the effects of meditation in a high-stress environment found that workers trained in meditation techniques had better energy levels, a more positive outlook, improved memory, and concentrated better at work.

Achieving just one of two of these potential benefits could have a significantly positive effect on your productivity.

Sound good? But perhaps you're thinking that you don't have the time or the inclination to sit cross-legged for an hour every day. No need to fear – while some people become somewhat addicted to the positive effects of meditating and choose to do it for long periods. But just a couple of minutes a day can make a huge difference in your life.

How to develop a meditation practice

There are many different ways to meditate – you don't have to sit in the lotus position with your eyes closed, chanting "om." Many people actually engage in meditative activities without realising it. Knitting, for example, can be a form of meditation as the repetitive activity focuses and calms the brain.

The general technique behind meditating is to train your brain to focus on one particular thing. This may be your breathing, a mantra, a sound like a ticking clock, the light of a candle flame, a spot on the ceiling, an image in your mind, or anything else that works for you. Trying to simply stop thinking is incredibly hard for most people, so you need an object of focus to prevent your mind from drifting.

Many people fail at their attempts to meditate because they try to do too much too soon. As with exercise, it's better to start small and build up over time. Leo Babauta of Zen Habits has a highly popular guide on his site for developing a two-minute meditation practice.

Whichever way you choose to meditate, you'll probably want to find a quiet space where you will be free of interruption for the time you have chosen to meditate. Being comfortable is also important – sitting cross legged is traditional and has some other benefits, but there's no reason why you can't meditate lying in bed or sitting in a comfy chair.

You can also try a meditation app to help you develop the skill. These apps use a technique called guided meditation to help you to achieve a relaxed and focused state and they are great for beginners. Try one of the following:

Buddhify (iOS and Android)
Headspace (web, iOS and Android)
Mental Workout Mindfulness Meditation (web, iOS and Android)
Calm (web and iOS)

Remember, you don't necessarily need to set aside a certain time each day to meditate. Small periods of meditation can fit easily into your workday – for example during your pomodoro break.

Do you meditate? Have you tried out one of the meditation apps we mentioned or do you have another one to suggest? Let us know in the comments. Now close your eyes and breathe…

Image credit: Wonderlane, retrieved on 12 June 2014 from https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/3612652725/; no modifications made, Licence (CC BY 2.0)

How to Achieve Flow – The Secret Sauce of Productivity

Wed, 28 May 2014 18:22:11 GMT

Most of us will be able to remember at least a couple of occasions when we were so absorbed in what we were doing that hours passed, and when we finally looked up from our keyboards (or books or musical instruments or whatever), we realised that it’s dark outside and we forgot to eat dinner.

If you’ve experienced this phenomenon before, you’ve already experienced Flow – a special state of consciousness when we are so deeply involved in what we are doing that we are basically un-distractible. (Not the same as indestructible, but almost!)

What exactly is Flow

The term, “Flow” was coined by psychologist and author, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, in his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. In the book he discusses how musicians, artists and athletes can achieve a state of absolute concentration during their activities and completely block out the outside world while achieving top performances. You may know this state better as being “in the zone.”

I’ve experienced Flow during a number of different activities: in my former life as a coder, while drawing, reading, and writing fiction. Most avid gamers are well acquainted with Flow. You can achieve Flow doing pretty much anything that has the potential to absorb your mind fully.

A Flow-like state generally has the following characteristics:

Complete concentration and focus
Imperception to distractions and time
Complete absorption and enagement
An increase in ability, productivity and creativity

Flow is an almost–meditative state where you can achieve things that would not normally be possible, or substantially difficult.

The advantages of flow

Olympic medal winners, when interviewed after the event, will often talk about their achievement as if it was an out-of-body experience, and they were viewing it as a spectator. This is a demonstration of flow in action and how it can help us to achieve almost super-human feats. On more of an everyday level, spending time in Flow is a great way to get stuff done. If we can achieve that perfect focused state, we can work for stretches of several hours at a time and not be tempted by distractions or procrastination.

Achieving Flow can not only make you incredibly productive, but it can also reduce stress and increase your feeling of happiness. Many hobbies such as knitting, reading, and running encourage a natural progression into a flow-like state, which is part of their appeal.

How to achieve Flow

Achieving Flow is not always possible, and certainly not if you don’t enjoy the task you’re doing. Doing something that is fun for you is one of the easiest ways to trigger a Flow-like state. If you’re not entertained by what you’re doing in some way, it will be incredibly difficult to become completely absorbed in it, as your mind will always tend to wander towards something more enjoyable.

While once you’re in a state of Flow, you may find that you are unbothered by distractions. While you’re getting there, it is helpful to be somewhere peaceful and quiet. You might find music or some kind of ambient background noise will help you to get into a focused state.

The type of task you do is also important. Ideally you want something that is challenging enough to keep your brain busy, but not so challenging that you get frustrated and want to give up. Tasks that are just within the realm of your ability are ideal for invoking flow (and one of the reasons that computer games can be so absorbing).

You probably won’t be able to achieve Flow every day or every time you want to at first, but the more you practice, the easier it becomes. Enjoy losing yourself in your work or hobby and focus on the process of doing, not just the end result.

What is your experience with Flow? Do you have any tips for achieving it?

Image credit: Author: Skyseeker , retrieved on 28 May 2014 from https://www.flickr.com/photos/skyseeker/300024933/sizes/z/in/photostream/; no modifications made; Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Don’t Break The Chain! Productivity Lessons From Primetime TV

Fri, 16 May 2014 14:12:24 GMT

When it comes to productivity, there are lots of little tips and tricks that we can use to be more productive. You may have heard of the Pomodoro technique, where you work in 25-minute blocks; Getting Things Done, a hugely popular technique and bestselling book by David Allen; or MITs (most important tasks). How about a productivity technique taken from US sitcom, Seinfeld?

Don't break the chain is a system invented (or at least popularised) by the comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The idea is simple: for every day you complete the task you are aiming for, mark off the day in your calendar with a large red X. After keeping up the habit for a few days, you'll have a chain of red Xs and the only thing you need to focus on is not breaking the chain.

This system works by helping us build the daily habit of completing the task we have set ourselves. Perhaps you want to write 1,000 words of your novel, or publish a blog post, or work on your web application for one hour. Developing a daily habit is one of the most powerful methods we have at our disposal for getting work done.

This technique works best if you have a large calendar printed out on your wall and make sure to cross off the days with a nice, big X. Our brains crave order and pattern, and we don't like to see those gaps if we miss a day.

But not everyone wants to work every day. Can you still use this technique if you take one or two days off a week? One solution is to use a different checkmark or color on planned break days or days when you are unable to work due to illness. This way you have an unbroken chain but don't feel like you're cheating by making an X when you haven't worked that day.

To use the “don't break the chain” system effectively, you'll need a different calendar for each of your goals. For example, you might have one calendar for work and another for exercise. It's best not to have too many goals on at once; you'll run out of wallspace.

It's also important to be clear about what you're trying to achieve before you start. Use SMART goal setting to decide what you want to do each day and write it down before you start. "Write every day" is not an effective goal. In theory, you could write just one word to achieve it. Make sure you have a specific word count, number of pages, or another appropriate, measurable goal for a different line of work.

Most people will need the visual aspect of a printed calendar to get the full effect, but if you try and run a paperless office or move around a lot when you work, there are a few “don't break the chain” apps available both on the web and for iOS and Android.

Have you tried the break the chain technique for productivity? Did it work for you? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: Jerry Seinfeld, retrieved on 16 May 2014 from http://static.squarespace.com/static/502a418de4b05bc1fa6362b8/t/5237ca79e4b04c8901258fc5/1379388050985/; no modifications made

Neuroscience and Information Overload

Tue, 06 May 2014 18:22:35 GMT

Information overload now seems to be an inescapable reality, no matter what your role or expertise. With that in mind, it is worth looking at how information overload has impacted one particular sector and the innovative solution.

Over the last couple of decades there has been an explosion of neuroscience research. There are now estimated to be around two million published neuroscience research papers, far more than any scientist could read in a lifetime.

The problems that have arisen from information overload include:

Missing important existing discoveries that would be relevant for current projects
Duplicating published research and experiments
Failing to apply planning and logic to research due to not being able to see the full picture

The western world invests large amounts of money in scientific research, and we need to know that that research is well-planned, productive and relevant. Without creating some sort of order amongst the vast numbers of research papers available, it’s difficult for neuroscientists to comply with these requirements.

The Solution for Neuroscience Information Overload

To combat this problem and bring order to the mess, a team at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) created research maps that are accessible through an online app. They aim to provide simple and unbiased details of all published research papers in the neurosciences available. These research maps will allow neuroscientists to gain an overview of the research that has already been conducted, understand what is already known, identify crucial gaps in our knowledge and plan their next projects.

Addressing these maps, principal investigator Alcino Silva, a professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, suggests that "Without a way to organize the literature, we risk missing key discoveries and duplicating earlier experiments. Research maps will enable neuroscientists to quickly clarify what ground has already been covered and to fully grasp its meaning for future studies."

The research maps are categorised by specialised fields, and the papers within these are linked, allowing scientists to focus on particular areas of expertise. The evidence within the research is also scored according to key criteria such as reproducibility and convergence, which is when different experiments point to a single conclusion.

The maps are interactive and searchable, so scientists can view as much or as little as they need to. There is the ability to zoom in on certain areas of research so they have the option of seeing a high level summary of findings, detailed results of individual experiments and nearly anything in between. The maps will provide the levels of detail scientists need to make informed decisions about their future work.

Populating the Tool

The challenge is now to populate the maps fully ensuring that all published research papers are included. The team at UCLA began with their own field of expertise, molecular and cellular cognition, to test the map, and now they are expanding it across all the neurosciences. It relies on a crowd sourcing principle, where scientists who are specialists in their fields add the research papers that they find useful.

The expectation going forward is that the addition of new research papers to the maps will become routine. The team is setting up a system whereby upon being published a neuroscience research paper will automatically populate the research map, allowing other neuroscientists instant access to the latest findings.

The team at UCLA believes that research maps will improve the planning and co-ordination of neuroscience research, allowing scientists to gain an overall picture of the research that has been completed. This type of map could be a model for other niche sectors looking for ways to make sense of the masses of information they are now confronted with.

Where do you see the future of information mapping?

Image credit: Author: Thomas Schultz; retrieved on 6 May 2014 from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/DTI-sagittal-fibers.jpg; no modifications made

Is Information Overload Damaging Your Brain?

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 18:20:32 GMT

A recent study by Cornerstone On Demand, The State of Workplace Productivity Report, finds that the hyper-connectedness of today’s workplace is negatively affecting employees due to a constant flood of information. Surprised? Me neither.

The study suggests that the younger generation, so-called Millennials, Generation-Y, or people aged between 18 and 32, are the most affected by this new trend. 41% of of Millennials felt they suffered from information overload on a regular basis, compared to 31% for older generations outside of this age group.

Today’s emerging workforce has grown up in a world where the internet has always existed. They are internet-savvy, informed, and are changing workplace culture.

Only just fitting into the ‘Generation-X’ category (age 33-48), I am right on the cusp of this new generation. I was 14 when I first accessed the internet and 16 when I created my first website. I have witnessed technology grow from bulletin boards through AOL chat, ICQ, Yahoo chat, Myspace, Twitter, Facebook and all the rest. I remember a world before we had instant one-click access to entertainment and distractions, but those who were born just a few years later than me do not.

What is the impact of this constant stream of incoming information on our younger generations, and should we be concerned?

53% of Millennials reported using a smartphone for work, compared to only 23% of older generations. One could discuss whether that phone in your pocket is a link to the outside world or a ball and chain tying you to your workplace?

Even more worrying, another study published by the Royal Institute of Technology (RIT) in Stockholm, Sweden suggests that mental overload causes an excess of stimulation to the brain’s short term memory centers, which may eventually result in a reduction of information stored away for later use and impaired mental functioning.

Furthermore, it seems that increased exposure to technology which helps us consume information online more quickly means that we engage our brains in deeper thinking less often. Not only can technology and information overload damage our brain, it can make us stupider. More on this topic comes from Richard Watson, author of Future Minds.

Erik Fransén, Computer Science professor at RIT, states that when the brain is regularly exposed to social media browsing or other activities where a lot of information has to be filtered simultaneously, we are robbing it of essential downtime to process and store information.

The solution? Regular downtime away from the computer. Oh, and that means your smartphone too, something that most Millennials would shudder at.

Is spending time on Facebook worth risking brain damage?

Are you a Millennial? A Gen-Xer or Baby Boomer? How much time do you spend ‘connected’ every day? Do you make sure to have regular downtime away from your computer?

Image courtesy of unclebrice.com, retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/how-to-restore-a-sense-of-control-following-brain-injury, 23 April 2014, no modifications made

5 Steps to Proficient Social Media Management

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 16:13:42 GMT

This is a guest contribution from Kemya L. Scott, Marketing Strategist & Social Media Manager at Phisco Marketing

Do you ever feel like social media is a vortex that sucks time from the atmosphere?

Have you ever lost track of time using social media, looked up at the clock, and wondered where your day went?

Or perhaps you're swamped running your business and there’s simply no time to use social media effectively?

You are not alone.

It seems like some companies use multiple social media platforms so effortlessly, while others use social media sporadically, with tumbleweeds blowing through their accounts.

So why is there such a big difference? How do even the smallest of companies manage to look so great on social media while some fall by the wayside?

I’ll let you in on a little secret.

It’s not about outsourcing. It’s not about money. It’s all about systems. You have to develop a social media management system to get the best results from the time you spend on social media.

Whether you’re a one-person company or you have dedicated staff to manage your social media accounts, you still need a process, a system, to be efficient in the time spent on social media. Otherwise, the vortex will suck you in and you won’t see any results from your efforts.

The great news is that you can make time for social media, in the same way you make time for your other marketing efforts. Time management is the real issue here… how to manage it all.

Five Steps to Better Social Media Management

The following five steps will lead to better social media management. Use them all for the most powerful results!

Step 1: Plan and organize content in advance.

Plan content ideas for your blog and social media posts in bulk. You can plan by the week, month or quarter or even by the year. Once you have an idea of what you want to talk about (as in post), you can organize your content ahead of time and eliminate the “what should I post today” anxiety.

Step 2: Keep a list of go-to resources for content to share.

Keep a list of go-to resources for content to share. I use an RSS feed to keep blog content at my fingertips. When I’m looking for some good info to share, I visit my RSS Reader to browse my favorite blogs, and presto! I have content to share.

Step 3: Use a social media management dashboard.

Use a social media management dashboard to schedule some social media posts in advance. A dashboard will allow you to post to multiple social media profiles from the same place. I save hours of time every week by using my HootSuite dashboard for scheduling, posting and searching. You can configure your dashboard to include keywords, lists, scheduled posts, mentions, etc. If you are not using a dashboard, start today!

Step 4: Be actively engaged for 1 hour daily.

Acknowledge the value of engagement at least an hour or so on social media daily. This doesn't mean self-promotion, this means back and forth sharing and interaction. Break up your one hour into 10-20 minute chunks of time. I live by my 20-20-20 rule when I’m super-swamped and can’t get online several times throughout the day. I can still hop on social media to meet and greet people and interact socially.

Step 5: Focus on two or three platforms.

Decide which social media platforms you should focus on. Let’s be realistic, you can only focus on 2-3 platforms at best, so decide which platforms need to be a priority for your business. If this tip has you stumped, consider this key criteria to help you decide: where are your customers looking for your product or service? This is where you should be spending most of your time. Sure, you can use other platforms, but concentrate the majority of your time on the platforms that will get you in front of your target audience.

This basic system will eliminate two major challenges most people face as they try to add social media into their marketing mix:

the "what do I talk about" problem, and
the “how do I make time” problem

Yes, this system will work for you!

For those business owners who claim they’re too busy and don’t have time to learn social media, I know this isn’t entirely true. It’s simply a matter of finding the best time management systems and tools that work for you.

Develop a content strategy, employ these time-saving social media management strategies, and keep up with your competitors in the social space. You’re giving away money and opportunities to your competitors if you let tumbleweeds blow through your accounts!

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

Miss Kemya is a Marketing Strategist & Social Media Manager at Phisco Marketing, a marketing consulting firm that facilitates the growth of small businesses through conventional marketing techniques merged with social media tactics. Visit her blog for all your DIY marketing and social media needs, and hire Phisco Marketing to kickstart your marketing and fall back in love with your business!

Overcome E-mail Overload with Inbox Zero

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:29:11 GMT

There are many sources of digital information overload, but one that almost everybody does battle with on a daily basis is the e-mail inbox. No matter how often you check it, those unread messages just keep piling up, convincing you that you’re missing something vital and adding to your stress levels.

Oddly enough e-mail overload has actually become a measure of how hard we work, how important we are and how difficult it is for us to take time away from work. When a colleague despairs that, after a week’s holiday, their inbox will have at least six thousand unread messages awaiting, they really just want you to know how indispensable they are.

In reality, most of the e-mails we receive require little in the way of action or response, but leaving them sitting in our inboxes makes it difficult to work out which ones are important to us and which we can ignore. We become a slave to our inboxes, checking every five minutes on laptops, tablets, or smartphones, just in case we miss an important message.

Many people use their e-mail inbox for functions it was never designed for:

A to-do list. Do you scan your inbox each morning to determine what you need to do that day?
A database. Do you search your inbox for important attachments that you haven’t saved elsewhere?
A calendar. Do you keep e-mail messages to remind you when you have meetings or appointments?

Your inbox was purely designed as a place for new messages to wait until you have the time to deal with them. It shouldn’t be used to store messages telling you what you should be doing or where you should be, and it’s not efficient as a database for vital attachments. Luckily, getting on top of your e-mail and using your inbox for its intended purpose is easy once you grasp the principles of Inbox Zero.

What Is Inbox Zero?

Inbox Zero is an action-based e-mail management system defined by Merlin Mann to eliminate the stress caused by e-mail overload. Mann suggests that we abandon the idea that we need to “respond” to every e-mail in our inbox. Instead we should think about “processing” those e-mails in one way or another. He also suggests that we get out of the habit of “checking” our e-mails, without actually doing anything about them, and that we only access our inboxes when we have the time to process them to zero.

The first stage in implementing Inbox Zero is to define a limited set of actions that can be performed with the e-mails that land in your inbox. These may vary from person to person, and the system will work best if you define your own actions, but these are the examples suggested by Merlin Mann:

Delete. A huge number of irrelevant messages that arrive in your inbox can simply be deleted, and this should be done immediately. There will also be others that you feel you don’t need to do anything with right away, but that might be needed in the future. In this case you could archive them in one general folder. Either way they should be removed from your inbox.
Delegate. If you feel you’re not the most appropriate recipient for the e-mail, or if you’d like someone else to take action on the e-mail on your behalf, forward it to someone else with an explanation. You may also want to quickly respond to the sender explaining your action and set a reminder to follow up on the matter in the following days.
Respond. If the e-mail requires only a brief response–perhaps a couple of sentences with a piece of key information or an opinion–then respond immediately before deleting the e-mail from your inbox or archiving it.
Defer. If the e-mail requires a response, but you need some time to think about it gather more information, you can defer your response until later. You will need to move the message out of your inbox, so you could create a ‘to respond’ folder which should be processed daily, or at least by the end of each week.
Do. This seems the simplest action to take with an e-mail. If the e-mail contains details of a meeting, then put them on your calendar. If it has instructions that you can carry out right away, then do so. If it has a document attached that you have asked for, then save the document in the appropriate place. You can then decide whether to delete or archive the message.

Once you have defined your list of actions, you need to get into the habit of applying them to the messages in your inbox, allowing you to process to zero every time you open your e-mail. Generally we are distracted by e-mails every few minutes, either because we have our e-mail account open as we work or because notifications on our smartphones let us know there are messages waiting.

To make Inbox Zero work you need to set aside specific time slots for accessing and processing your e-mail. Try out different schedules and see what works for you. For some people, two daily e-mail sessions of 30 minutes allows them to process to zero. For others ten minutes out of every hour can help to keep on top of urgent messages.

E-mail is an instant and versatile form of communication which has been universally adopted, even in sectors such as law and banking which have traditionally needed a physical paper trail. However, the sheer volume of e-mails now flying around means that our inboxes can become a source of worry and stress if we don’t have a system such as Inbox Zero in place to process them.

Do you have your own system of eliminating your e-mails? Share it with us below.

Image credits: Publisher: Alisher Hasanov; retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ideali/2871762876/sizes/o/in/photostream/; link to licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en; no modifications were made

A Simple Productivity Secret: How to Form Good Habits

Fri, 14 Mar 2014 12:00:46 GMT

Everyone knows how difficult it can be to break bad habits. Quitting smoking, snacking and nail-biting are all notoriously difficult purely because they have become regular habits. Basically, your brain has become so used to performing these actions that you barely notice yourself putting a cigarette in your mouth or reaching for another handful of peanuts.

Just as bad habits can be hard to break, so can good habits, if you make a conscious effort to form them. Good habits will help you to live a happier, more productive life with little effort after an initial investment.

What habits should I try to develop?

There are numerous life- and productivity-enhancing habits you might adopt. You may want to consider:

Drinking water regularly and less sugary beverages
Exercising daily
Rising early
Eating a healthy breakfast
Starting work as soon as you sit at your computer
Taking regular breaks
Doing your most important tasks of the day first
Having a regular bedtime
Meditating daily
Checking emails only at set times each day.

If you’re thinking, “what does drinking water and exercise have to do with productivity?” try these simple changes for a week and see how much more work you get done and how much better you feel. A healthy body really does equal a healthy mind, and you’ll be surprised at how much more productive you can be when your body is in peak condition.

Are habits really necessary to be productive?

If you study the daily schedule of highly productive people, you will frequently find that they follow the same routine every day, doing the same thing at the same times and being almost ritualistic in their behavior.

When you turn an action into a habit, you flip the autopilot switch in your brain so that your actions become automatic. You don’t waste time debating with yourself if you should do something or not. Neither do you procrastinate.

Practicing something over and over again builds muscle memory. You can probably enter your bank pin or your house alarm code with your eyes closed, simply because you have done it so many times. When your body remembers how to do something in this way, you get both better at it and faster. This removes the mental effort from doing everyday tasks, making your life easier as well as more productive.

10 tips for developing good habits

It takes around three to four weeks of daily practice to develop a habit. This means you will have to make a concerted effort for about 30 days, after which you will find you’re in autopilot mode and don’t need to think about it anymore.

Identify your goals – decide what exactly you want to achieve and write it down. If you don’t have a clear goal to focus on, it will be difficult to attain.
Tackle your goals one at a time – trying to do too much at one time is a recipe for failure. Master one habit before you move on to the next.
Set an end date – it can sometimes be too overwhelming to devote yourself to even a simple action for the rest of your life. Instead tell yourself that you’ll try it for a month. After this trial period you’ll probably want to continue anyway.
Inspire yourself – inspirational stories, productivity blogs and books are all great ways to motivate you and help to create a positive mindset.
Build habits into your routine – when you’re trying to develop a new habit, it helps to do it at the same time every day and associate it with another activity. For example, drinking a glass of water immediately after waking.
Be consistent – Daily habits are much easier to develop than weekly ones. Try not to give yourself days off and track your daily success on a calendar. You won’t want to ‘break the chain’ by missing a day.
Visualize your success – the world’s most successful people use visualization techniques to help them have their best performance. See yourself succeeding and the chances are, you will.
Create accountability – tell your friends and family about the new habit you are trying to develop or write about it publicly in a blog. When other people are following your progress, you’re much less likely to fail.
Review your progress regularly – keep track of your progress on a diary or calendar so you can remind yourself of how much you have already achieved.
Find tools and tricks to help – alarm and reminder apps can be very useful when you are trying to develop a habit. Try out a few to see if they help.

Habit is one of the most powerful techniques that you can harness to become more productive and start living the life that you want. What methods have you found helpful for developing healthy habits in your life? Do you have daily habits that you think improve your productivity?

Image Credits: Author Kyle Cassidy; Retrieved from http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Running_Man_Kyle_Cassidy.jpg; under licence ShareAlike 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode; no modifications were made

How to Become a Social Media Superstar and Grow Your Blog Beyond Your Wildest Dreams

Thu, 06 Mar 2014 12:42:30 GMT

When it comes to traffic generation, bloggers generally tend to side with one of two camps:

The SEO bloggers, who optimize their blog content for search engines, tweak the structure of their site with SEO plugins and build links to their site wherever they can.
The social media bloggers who build their audience mainly by engaging with readers through sites like Facebook and Twitter, encouraging people to share their posts and creating content strategically in the hopes it goes viral.

Of course the best overall strategy is to combine these two methods, but today we’re going to cover the basics of social media marketing.

What is Social Media and Why Should You Care About it?

You’d have to have been living under a rock for the last 10 years not to have been exposed to social media and have a vague idea of how it can impact your website.

Facebook has grown from a small site to help college students to stay in touch, into one of the biggest websites in the world; Twitter has over 600 million users, including many famous figures such as Justin Bieber, Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey; Instagram was sold to Facebook for $1 billion in 2012, despite the fact that it wasn’t (and still isn’t) making any money. Social media is now the no.1 web activity, particularly with the 18-24 year old age group.

It’s obvious that social media is the current big thing and its rate of growth shows no sign of slowing any time soon.

Accounts on social media sites act as kind of outposts to your main site. Most people don’t run their businesses or make a living purely by posting on Facebook (although this is indeed possible). Rather, the social media accounts are there to notify readers that you’ve published a new blog post, add value by posting other related links that you wouldn’t necessarily put on your blog, and encourage discussion and interaction around your site.

It’s incredibly rare that you’ll find a business these days without a single social media account and if you do, it’s probably because they’re not a very successful business. However it’s equally misguided to sign up for an account on every single network – it’s impossible to keep up and you’ll spread yourself too thin. To market successfully on social media, it’s important to plan your strategy in advance.

Which Social Networks Should You Focus On?

Unless you have a large team working on your behalf, you probably won’t be able to manage posting on more than two or three networks on a regular basis. There’s no hard and fast rule about which sites to pick – it depends very much on the subject of your blog, your audience and your personal preferences. Studying the demographics of different social networks can help guide you:

Facebook is almost a must as so many people use it (71% of all internet users in 2013) and its use is fairly evenly distributed across all age groups and income levels.
Twitter is particularly popular with younger people – over 30% of its users are under 30.
Google+ has a mostly male use-base and its importance is predicted to increase in 2014 as Google shift their ranking algorithms more towards social signals.
Instagram is a pure image-based social network, very popular with the younger age bracket.
Pinterest is also image-based and is very effective at driving traffic to blogs that use eye-catching photography and graphics. It’s mostly used by affluent females, making it a marketers dream for blogs that target women.
LinkedIn is great for blogs that focus on the business community and anyone wishing to engage in a spot of networking to build up useful contacts. Its usage is skewed towards the over-30 crowd.
YouTube should also not be overlooked as video marketing is another way to reach people, with over 800 million users visiting the site every week.

Don’t assume that any of these social networks will be here for good – while you don’t want to pick too many, concentrating on just one is also probably not a sensible strategy. Remember how quickly Myspace fell from grace?

Planning Your Social Media Strategy

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, you’ll need to set up accounts (use your brand name or the same name as your blog if possible) and start producing some content.

It’s important to be consistent with how frequently you post on social networks. A tweeting spree followed by a three month silence won’t do much good. You may think the more you post the better, but spamming the networks is never appreciated and can cause people to unfollow you.

There are tools available for scheduling updates on social networks. These can be very useful as it means you can just queue up content in advance and forget about it, rather than trying to remember to keep posting throughout the day.

Buffer and HootSuite both do this job well and work on multiple networks. It’s worth experimenting with a few different social media management applications to see which one suits you best.

Timing is also important as you should aim to post the majority of your content while your audience is online. The type of content you post is also relevant – for example, funny stories and highly shareable articles like the type of thing you find on BuzzFeed does well on Friday afternoons when workers are killing time before the weekend starts.

Think about the type of content you’re going to be posting to each network and aim for a balance of different kinds of content. Don’t just post links to your own articles – if you share the link love by sending traffic to some other useful articles on related sites, they’ll probably return the favor.

Remember to think about your readers and post information that will be helpful to them. Think about what you’d like to read if you followed another blogger in your niche.

Opening up a discussion can also be a good strategy once you’ve amassed a good following. Asking your readers for advice, opinion or ideas can inspire conversation and show that you’re interested in what they have to say.

Competitions can also be a good way to give back to your followers as well as attracting more traffic. Facebook is probably the most popular network to run competitions on and it’s very easy to do so.

How to Get More Followers on Social Networks

While achieving a large following on your social accounts is important, don’t forget that the main focus should be on your blog. An email subscriber is worth way more than a twitter follower who might never even check their account. So don’t spend too much time worrying about your social traffic – if you regularly post useful content, it will grow naturally.

There are, however, a few strategies you can employ to encourage the growth of your following.

Twitter is probably the easiest network to attain a large following as many people will follow you back if you follow them. The simplest thing to do is follow a handful of new people every day and watch your stats grow. You can use a tool like Manage Flitter to unfollow people who don’t follow you back within a week or so.

The same principle can work for Instagram and Pinterest but it’s important to have good content on your own account first. Focus on building up a great collection of images before you start following other accounts.

Commenting can be a good strategy for many social networks and works particularly well for Facebook and Google+. Try following some influential people in your industry and commenting on their social media updates. If what you post is relevant and useful, you’ll attract a few new followers.

Maybe the most important thing is to make it easy for people to follow you and your posts to be shared on social media. Make sure the buttons are clear and preferably at the bottom of every post as well as in your sidebar. Adding buttons to your post makes it 7 times more likely that your content will be shared.

Content Matters

Whatever method you’re using to grow your blog, the focus always comes back to producing great content. There are hundreds of tricks you can use to get people to follow you but unless you’re producing content they want to read, you’ll lose them again just as quickly.

Going viral is the holy grail for any blogger as a viral blog post can explode your following by thousands overnight. There’s no guaranteed method for creating viral content – it’s a mixture of good luck combined with clever copywriting and understanding of psychology. If you want your content to go viral, consider the following for a starting point:

Learn how to write engaging headlines (study the headlines of viral sites Upworthy and Viral Nova to see how they entice people onto their sites).
Write long form blog posts – long posts are more likely to go viral than short posts.
Focus on content that is funny, controversial, shocking or inspiring. Basically content that resonates with people and invokes emotions is more likely to be shared.
Write useful content. If you solve someone’s problem, they’re likely to share it with others.
Write list posts. List posts or “listicles” are shared more than other types of written content.

Social Media is Here to Stay

Whether you’re a social butterfly or more of a technically minded SEO-geek, it’s hard not to be impressed by the impact that social media continues to have on the world of blogging.

It’s easy for social media to take up a lot of time and the focus should definitely be on your own blog rather than updating your Facebook, but even 10 minutes a day spent on your social media strategy could grow your blog readers by an impressive amount.

If you have any more tips for working with social media, please feel free to share them in the comments.

Image Courtesy: http://mkhmarketing.wordpress.com/

How to Grow Your Blog from 0 to 1,000 Subscribers in 30 Days

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 20:00:14 GMT

<a href="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Arbol_Econoinvesr-e1392748688427.jpg" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6em;"><img alt="Arbol_Econoinvesr" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1147" height="364" src="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Arbol_Econoinvesr-e1392748440544-540x364.jpg" width="540" /></a> Want to know how big-name bloggers grow their blog subscribers so quickly? In this article we reveal the secrets to success of five hugely successful bloggers and map out a blueprint that you can follow to build your own blogging empire. Interested? Then read on! Why are Blog Subscribers So Important? The value of your blog can be measured almost directly by the number of subscribers it has. Subscribers are valuable because they are a ready and willing audience who have already demonstrated that theyre interested in what you have to say. After all, nobody subscribes to a blog that has no value to them. Once a subscriber is on your list, it not only makes it more likely that theyll read your new posts (subscribing to a blog is just like subscribing to a magazine youre much more likely to read it if its delivered to your door than if you have to buy it in a shop); but also, dedicated followers will be more receptive of marketing messages, more likely to buy products you produce or recommend, and more likely to follow you to new sites and other ventures that you may start. Whatever type of blog you have, whether its to support your main business website, to make money through affiliate sales, or purely to provide value to readers on a subject youre passionate about, focusing on growing your subscribers is the key to success. In fact Jon Morrow, former Associate Editor of <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/">Copyblogger</a> and considered by many to be one of the <a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2013/09/11/how-jon-morrow-crafted-the-most-popular-post/">worlds most talented bloggers</a> advises you not to even start blogging until you have 1,000 subscribers. How do you get subscribers for something that doesnt exist yet? Keep reading Building a Successful Blog Blogging is a tricky game to succeed at and only a very small percentage of bloggers manage to grow their mailing list into triple figures. Hundreds of new blogs are started every day and many more are abandoned just as quickly. Many people start blogging with dreams of becoming the next <a href="http://www.jonchow.com/">Jon Chow</a> or <a href="http://problogger.net/">Darren Rowse</a> and are discouraged when they pour their heart and soul into their blog for many months and their traffic and number of subscribers never seems to rise. Publishing great content is of course important, but its only part of the puzzle. A successful blog not only contains great material but also markets itself well. By putting a little (or a lot) of effort into marketing your blog you can push it to success much earlier maybe even within a month, than the years it would typically take for a blog to grow a dedicated audience naturally. Youve probably read quite a bit of advice on how to convince people to subscribe to your blog and may have a fair idea of your rough strategy. But 1,000 subscribers in 30 days? Impossible? Think again building a wildly popular blog in double-fast time is indeed possible and there are several examples of people whove achieved it in the past: <ul> <li> Help desk software startup, Groove <a href="http://groovehq.com/blog/in-five-weeks">built their subscriber list to over 5,000 in just five weeks</a>. </li> <li> Sean McCabe has a highly niche specific blog about hand lettering and typography and yet he still managed to <a href="http://seanwes.com/podcast/033-how-i-grew-my-list-by-more-than-2000-subscribers-in-72-hours/">grow his subscribers by over 2,000 in just 72 hours</a>. </li> <li> Derek Halpern, grew his blog Social Triggers by <a href="http://socialtriggers.com/increase-blog-traffic-subscribers/">over 2,000 in 27 days</a> and built a brand new list <a href="http://diythemes.com/thesis/email-marketing-list-building-1054-emails/">from 0 to over 1,000 subscribers in 28 days</a>. </li> <li> <a href="http://stephaniepollock.com/how-i-grew-my-list-by-1500-in-one-week/">Stephanie Pollock</a> grew the list for her business success blog by 1,500 in just one week. </li> <li> Jon Morrow built his first blog, On Moneymaking, <a href="http://boostblogtraffic.com/downloads/BLFSlides-July.pdf">from 0 to 1,000 subscribers in 60 days</a>. He then went on to help grow copyblogger.com to 170,000+ subscribers and his new blog, Boost Blog Traffic to 13,000 before the blog had even launched. </li> </ul> A Proven Strategy for Success Weve done all the research for you and compiled all the advice given by these top bloggers into one handy guide. So if you think youre ready to supercharge your subscription rate, grab yourself a cup of coffee and get ready to take notes all you need for success is here: 1Find your unique identity There are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there, clamoring for attention of readers every day of the week. What makes yours special? In writing its said there are only a<a href="http://www.fiction-writers-mentor.com/how-many-plots-in-fiction.html">handful of basic plots</a>in literature and every book and movie regurgitates these same plots over and over again. What makes the difference between having a bestseller and a flop is presenting a new twist on the same old plot and the same goes for blogging. If youre writing generic posts that could slot into any blog, youre never going to make it as a blogging superstar.Likewise, you cant just copy<a href="http://techcrunch.com/">Techcrunch</a>or<a href="http://perezhilton.com/">Perezhilton</a>and try to emulate their success. You need to find your own space in the blogosphere by drilling down your focus, figuring out your unique selling point and injecting personality into your blog posts. Dont water down your identity by trying to appeal to everyone. Its helpful to decide on one<a href="http://thewritepractice.com/ideal-reader/">ideal reader</a> this may be someone in real life or an imaginary character. When you write a blog post, imagine you are writing it purely for this person andforget about trying to please everyone. Your authenticity will truly shine through and this will be much more engaging for readers, whether they agree with everything you say or not. 2Be Bold If you sit back and wait for people to sign up to your blog, you may be waiting a very long time before you reach those 1,000 subscribers.Youll notice big name bloggers make sure their sign-up form is right in your face when you visit their blog. This is often in the form of a pop-up, or at least a really obvious sign-up form, right at the top of their side bar. Its also an effective strategy to remind people to sign up for your list at the end of each post. If you dont ask, you dont get, so dont be afraid to ask people to subscribe when theyve finished reading your article. Readers should never have to look hard to figure out how to subscribe make it blatantly obvious with highly visible sign-up forms and a variety of ways to follow your blog. Not everyone likes to read blogs through RSS others prefer to follow along on Facebook or get posts sent straight to their email inbox. So as well as a direct link to the RSS feed, make sure to offer an email subscription (you can do this easily with <a href="http://www.follow.it/rss">Specific Feeds</a>) and clear icons for the social networks you use such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Be bold both in your blog design and the words you use for maximum effect. Utilize <a href="http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/8-types-ctas-website-list">clear calls to action</a> and be unapologetic about it. 3Attract and Leverage the Power of A-list Bloggers If you want to grow your blog fast, one of the most effective ways of doing so is by <a href="http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/04/16/the-real-secret-to-1000-blog-subscribers-in-60-days-or-less/">tapping into the power of bloggers who have already achieved a certain level of success</a>. These so-called A-list bloggers already have thousands of readers who value their opinion and recommendations. Once you get accepted into the inner-circle of A-list bloggers, theyll help you out by promoting your website, sharing your articles and giving you mentions on social media. Not only will these messages reach thousands of people but as these bloggers have already proved their authority to their readers, people are much more likely to trust in what they have to say. So how do you get into that inner circle? In many cases its easier than you may think. Most big-name bloggers are just ordinary people who are more than willing to help out other bloggers further down the ladder, if you are producing something of value. The best way to get the attention of these blogging gurus is by first of all showing an interest in what they have to say leave insightful comments on their articles that add value, share their blog posts on social media and send readers their way. Once youre on their radar, pitching a blog post can be an excellent way of getting a boost in blog traffic and new subscribers. Guest posts showcase your writing and provide a preview of your blog so they should be your best posts, not just a dull rewrite of information thats already on your blog . Also think about whats going to provide the most value for the readers of the blog you are posting on and write with them in mind. You can also create a <a href="http://www.becomeablogger.com/3168/025-how-to-get-joint-venture-partners-to-send-you-tons-of-traffic/">joint venture (JV) with other bloggers</a> and A-listers which can be a great way of launching any new product, whether it is a course, an e-book or a blog. A JV brings the skills or assets of two or more people to the table and gives you the advantage of exposure to the lists of all the other people you are partnering with. Never be afraid of approaching big name bloggers the worst they can do is say no. The people who are the most successful are those that take action, not those waiting around until theyre more worthy of an A-listers attention. 4Build Anticipation Anticipation is one of the most powerful techniques in marketing and can be used to great effect when building a list for your blog. Way back in the early days of the web, it was common to put up an under construction landing page for your website while it was being built. These fell out of fashion for good reason (an animated gif of a construction worker doesnt exactly scream professionalism) but holding pages are now back with a vengeance, with one major upgrade an email capture form. Its human nature that we dont want to miss out on anything, so putting up a simple coming soon landing page with a short teaser about what youre offering and an email capture form can be an excellent way to gain subscribers before you even launch your blog. These so called viral landing pages have an <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/17/hipster-2/">impressive conversion rate.</a> Of course you still need to get the word out or nobody will ever find your page, which is where the A-list bloggers can come in handy, as mentioned above. If you can build scarcity into the offer even better. People love the feeling of exclusivity. This is the reason <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/technology/start-ups-try-to-beckon-users-by-invitation-only.html">why invite-only software launches are so successful</a>, as users end up literally begging to be let into the club. <a href="http://diythemes.com/thesis/email-marketing-list-building-1054-emails/">Offering a webinar is one of the most effective ways to combine anticipation and scarcity.</a> Webinar software only allows a finite number people to join the webinar so scarcity is built right into the system. Plus webinars run in real time put a sign-up form up on your landing page with a countdown ticker for the date of your webinar and watch the subscriptions come rolling in. 5Give Your Readers a Reason to Subscribe Create Truly Epic Content Of course, all of this advice will have little to no effect if your content isnt up to scratch. Good content is the cornerstone of any successful blog and its vitally important to make sure everything you post is well-written, insightful and offers value to your readers. You need your website visitors to know that if they miss one of your articles, theyre really missing out. Headlines are also important. Study <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/magnetic-headlines/">copywriting techniques for creating appealing headlines</a> and learn a few tricks to make your content read and shared more than ever before this is the key to creating content that goes viral. The bloggers Ive mentioned in this article achieved success not only because they are savvy marketers but also because they know how to meet the needs of their readers by providing valuable content. If youre blogging purely to make money or get more hits to your site, your blog will feel flat and inauthentic. Always put your readers first and think carefully about how you can provide the most value to them. Plan Your Attack and Grow Your List If youve read what weve had to say so far closely, youll notice that careful planning is one of the main themes that run through all the advice. Some bloggers stumble on success after years of bumbling along, while others go off with a bang from the very start. The difference? Those that plan are more likely to succeed. Wed love to know if youve had success with any of the above strategies so leave a note in the comments to add your own observations. And as we like to follow our own advice, dont forget to <a href="http://www.follow.it/the-specificfeeds-blog-s-specific-feed">subscribe to the Specific Feeds blog</a> for more articles about blogging and productivity.

Mozart or Metallica? How Music Affects Your Productivity

Tue, 11 Feb 2014 19:30:11 GMT

There seem to be two main categories of people when it comes to the topic of music and productivity: those who need silence to concentrate and those who need music or some kind of background noise in order to achieve maximum productivity.

Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle, and my mood for music depends on the tasks I am working on. If I'm designing or coding, I work best to music and find it difficult to focus on the task at hand in silence. However, when I'm writing, I prefer only quiet, instrumental background music or low-level background noise such as that produced by Coffitivity.

Studies have shown that most people don't work best in total silence, and that a moderate level of ambient noise can aid concentration and inspire creativity. It seems that the main draw of the coffee shop for writers and other creatives may not be the caffeinated beverages, but rather the constant background hum of conversation and clinking coffee cups.

When it comes to music, rather than just background noise, the effect on your productivity will probably depend on what you're doing. Just as listening to high energy music with a fast beat can help you to stay motivated during a run or aerobic workout, energetic music can be helpful for being productive in any kind of physical job or repetitive task.

For knowledge workers, the situation is a little more complicated. As I mentioned previously, I find music with lyrics too distracting when I am writing, and many others report the same. A study from a university in Taiwan found that background music with lyrics has a significant negative effect on concentration at work.

Music Therapist, Kimberly Sena Moore, explains in Psychology Today that music with words activates the language centers in the brain, which can interfere with other language tasks such as writing and reading. Instead she suggests listening to white noise or nature sounds and experimenting with music of different tempos which may have differing effects on our mental state.

However, it's far from universal that writers can't concentrate when listening to music. In his biography and writing guide, On Writing, prolific author Stephen King claims to be at his most productive when listening to heavy metal bands like Metallica and Anthrax.

The music we like is highly personal, and most experts agree that the most important aspect of choosing music to work to is selecting music that we like. Listening to music we like causes the brain to release dopamine, a chemical associated with pleasure and reward. Making a task more pleasurable in this way will help you to complete it faster and more effectively.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that surgeons performed with significantly better speed and accuracy when performing surgery to music of their own choice versus music selected by the experimenter. Those who worked to no music at all performed the poorest.

If you have to work in a noisy workplace with lots of distractions, music can be a good way to tune out constantly ringing phones and noisy colleagues, but not all companies encourage their employees to wear headphones. This New York Times article offers some suggestions such as listening to music for limited periods of time or listening to the radio, lowering the volume when talking to clients or superiors.

Classical music has long been hailed as a magical way of improving mental performance, but if you don't enjoy listening to classical music, it's unlikely to provide you with any real benefit. It's worth experimenting with a few different types of music to see what suits you best. Youtube is also a great place for finding tracks that claim to improve your concentration and increase your creativity. (Personally, I quite enjoy this channel).

Do you prefer to work in silence or are you a desk-bound headbanger like Stephen King? What's on your work playlist? We'd love to hear your thoughts on music and productivity in the comments.

Refusing: How to Say “No”

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 17:17:53 GMT

<a href="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/iStock_000013509293Small.jpg"><img alt="iStock_000013509293Small" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-861" height="360" src="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/iStock_000013509293Small.jpg" width="540" /></a> Some have a problem with saying no. You can recognise them easily: they work late every night, spend all their weekends helping friends and neighbours with DIY projects, and have permanent shadows beneath eyes and a face that askhow can I help you? Refusing is an important coping strategy for dealing with information overload. Learning how to say no to more tasks when were already over-stretched will help us to become more productive. Why do We Say Yes When We Want to Say No? There are many reasons why people say yes when they really want to say no, but we will focus on what seem to be the most common. <ol> <li> We are too kind-hearted. Naturally we want to help other people. We like feeling needed, and our automatic response is to say yes, because then people will like us. </li> <li> We dont want to seem rude. This is especially true when were at work and someone in a senior position asks us to do something. We often worry that someone will take our refusal personally and become angry or resentful. Furthermore, we want to keep our jobs. </li> <li> We dont want to miss opportunities. We feel that saying no to something will close doors and burn bridges to a better future. </li> </ol> All of these beliefs are completely understandable, but we need to take a long, hard look at them, and then throw them away. Remember: you are refusing the task, not the person, so theres no need for them to take it personally as long as you refuse politely. Refusing to do something if you genuinely cant do it wont make someone think badly of you. In fact, they are more likely to respect you for being honest about what you are capable of. As for missed opportunities, by saying no to one opportunity, you are allowing yourself to pursue others. Think of it as a trade-off rather than a missed opportunity, and one where you choose the best outcome. Even if you have a red cape and a giant S on your front, its not possible to do it all. Youll find yourself working unreasonable hours, sacrificing your own time, and still not getting your tasks done well. If you become a doormat or a yes man, youll find that your boss will always come to you with a task rather than asking another member of your team since they know you will agree to do it. Unfortunately, that doesnt necessarily mean that youll be the one lined up for the next promotion. You must focus on your own priorities, professionally and personally. If youre always saying yes to everything youre asked to do, youll spend all your time and energy on other peoples priorities rather than your own. How to Say No and Still Keep Your Job The most common reason for refusing a task is that you have too many other commitments. This is perfectly reasonable. If your other commitments suffer because of this particular task, or if you dont have the resources to complete the new task effectively, then thats a great reason to say no. The following example is perfect if you control your own workload. I am so backed up with other priorities that I just cant commit to this and deliver you success. Im very likely to stumble or not complete this. Id rather say no now than say Im sorry later. Chris Brogan, CEO Human Business Works Of course, if its your boss asking you to do something, this is a little different. You can still say you have too much on your plate, but be prepared to show them exactly what you are working on. Keep your to-do list updated so you can present it in such situations. It may be that your boss can resolve your workload issues by helping out with tasks, delegating them to someone else, or prioritising them for later. This way a no may well turn into a reluctant yes. There are a couple of other ways to say no diplomatically: <ul> <li> Delaying instead of refusing. Say that youd be happy to take on the task, but you cant right now because youre in the middle of something else. Give a realistic time when you will be able to take it on. Be prepared to do it at that time unless the requester feels it is too far in the future and asks someone else in the meantime. </li> <li> Referring instead of refusing. Rather than giving a hard no, why not suggest someone that could take on the task instead. "Im not the best person to help with this, why dont you try Neil in marketing, Im sure he worked on a similar project last year. You may think someone else has more appropriate experience, qualifications, time, or contacts. </li> <li> Checking instead of refusing. Sometimes you may not be entirely sure whether to say yes or no right away and need a way to keep your options open. Its fine to say Let me check my current workload and get back to you or I think that might conflict with a current commitment, but let me check. </li> </ul> Here are a couple more tips on saying no politely: <ul> <li> Be appreciative. If someone is asking you to do something, take it as a compliment. It means they believe you can do it! Thank them for considering you for the task and then explain why you need to say no. </li> <li> Be assertive. If someone is pushing you, its okay to push back. They might respect you for it. Writing for the Harvard Business Review, Peter Bregman suggests making a joke out of this by saying "I know you don't give up easily but neither do I. I'm getting better at saying no." </li> <li> Be reasonable. Once you start saying no, the practise can become addictive. Dont forget that sometimes you will have to do things you dont want to do.. It may be benefit you in the future, giving you currency to curry favours. You never know. </li> </ul> Everyone needs to say no at some point, and often its the way you say it that makes the difference. If you have a good reason for saying no, and you present it politely and firmly, your colleagues and friends will learn to respect your boundaries and understand that youre only saying no because you need to. How do you say no? Let us know in the comments!

The problem with RSS, and how to fix it

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 17:18:04 GMT

As of today, RSS has failed. Even though there is a dedicated population using it, RSS never reached widespread popularity. Googles <a href="https://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/view?survey=lmyvojz46ogho&question=1">latest research</a> indicates that only 9.5% of internet users have ever subscribed to an RSS feed. 15 years after launch, RSS is still quite far from mainstream. Why did it fail? As a concept, RSS makes a lot of sense. People can easily create their own newspaper, fed from their favorite blogs or news sites, not having to worry about spam (unsubscribing is easy its not email). However, RSS does not solve the main problem with respect to consuming news: information overload. Quite the opposite, many users who try out RSS complain about receiving too much content. Despite being able to pick the RSS-feeds of your choice, the content which is sent through the feeds contains a lot of irrelevant stuff. In other words, even hand-picked RSS feeds are still too broad and not tailored enough to subscribers' needs. Example: Techcrunch <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com">Techcrunch</a> is an excellent news source for the tech-savvy; however the average number of published stories per day is 40. Would you subscribe to feeds which each send you 40 articles per day? Youd be completely overwhelmed. Subscribing to Techcrunchs RSS Feed only makes sense if you consume news at a glance only, which basically means just looking at them whenever you feel like it (as most RSS- and also Twitter-users do). However, this carries the risk that important messages get missed and is therefore not ideal. Techcrunch tries to overcome this problem by offering sub-RSS Feeds for the main categories, e.g. Startups, Social, Europe, etc. This leads to somewhat more focus, however this solution is not fully satisfactory: <ul> <li> The choice of categories is limited: Most likely our information needs dont exactly match the pre-determined categories. For example, although I am interested in startups, the Startup-RSS-Feed on Techcrunch still contains too many irrelevant messages (e.g. I am not interested in meetings or meetups). My information need is more nuanced: I only want startup news from companies in the mobile space, for example. </li> <li> Your specific interest may span different categories: Lets say youre running an online gambling site and want to get all gambling-related news. To which categories would you subscribe? If you dont want to miss out on anything important you would end up subscribing to all categories which sets you back to square one. </li> </ul> The Solution: Use the Tags! Techcrunch, like most blogs, gives tags to every message which reflectthe topic and content of the story. However, it is not possible to subscribe in a way that will only send you messages with selected tags. Why not? Taking the gambling example from above: if youre interested in gambling sites, would you subscribe to the general Techcrunch RSS Feed, or one of the pre-defined categories? Unlikely. Would you subscribe to a feed which only sends him all gambling-related news? Quite likely. Offering visitors the option to only subscribe to stories with selected tags will turn almost every visitor into a potential subscriber. No matter what your interests are if you can specify them and ensure that you only get news on those, the question changes from who would subscribeto Techcrunchs feed? to who wouldnot subscribeto Techcrunchs feed? It's also beneficial for users who struggle to come up with the tags theyre interested in becausetags can also be used to exclude stories. Maybe you dont know which news you want to receive, but almost certainly there are news with tags where you know you dont waste your time on. This can also make the feed more specific and therefore more valuable for the subscriber. SpecificFeeds: The tool to do it This functionality has been implemented on <a href="http://follow.it">SpecificFeeds</a> and is now available to RSS feed publishers for free. It works in 3 easy steps: 1.) Publishers syndicate their feed which automatically creates their own feed page on SpecificFeeds, e.g. for Techcrunch: <a href="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/TechSF.png" rel="" style="" target="" title=""><img alt="TechSF" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-774" height="307" src="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/TechSF.png" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="" width="538" /></a> 2.) Subscribers tailor the feed to their needs by selecting the tags they are (not) interested in [Update Dec 31st: we have a <a href="http://www.follow.it/blog/new-rss-filter-live-on-specificfeeds/">new, better designedfilter live</a>]: <a href="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Tag.png" rel="" style="" target="" title=""><img alt="Tag" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-775" height="362" src="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Tag.png" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="" width="537" /></a> or by selecting certain keywords: <a href="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Keyword.png" rel="" style="" target="" title=""><img alt="Keyword" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-773" height="311" src="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Keyword.png" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="" width="537" /></a> or by selecting their favorite authors: <a href="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Author.png" rel="" style="" target="" title=""><img alt="Author" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-772" height="210" src="http://www.follow.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Author.png" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="" width="538" /></a> 3.) Users subscribe and receive messages according to their selections, either as single emails (messages delivered instantly) or in their Personal Newspaper which is one email containing several messages in one email per day or week (similar to an email digest). Everybody wins The benefit for subscribers is clear: more tailored news and higher relevancy. However, its also good for publishers: <ul> <li> More subscribers sign up </li> <li> Higher site rank in search engines as publishers get a free linkto their site </li> <li> Subscribers actually read their messages as they get delivered by email and not as RSS, which is read at a glance only (and therefore often not read at all) </li> </ul> Importantly, there is no duplicated content. Only the stories headlines are sentthrough SpecificFeeds, which are links to the full stories (thereforeincreasing blog traffic instead of diverting it). The service is 100% free for both publishers as well as subscribers. Why not try it out? If youre a publisher, get started by <a href="http://www.follow.it/">syndicating your feed</a> now. If youre a subscriber, browse through the <a href="http://follow.it">directory of feeds</a> already set up and tailor the feeds to your needs, so that you stay up-to-date on all the news youre interested in without causing information overload. Were always happy for feedback.Please let us know your thoughts!

Overcoming Fear: How To Conquer Public Speaking Anxiety

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 17:18:28 GMT

Productivity is not only about time management, avoiding distractions, and having well-structured To-Do lists. Sometimes the problem is at a more fundamental level: our fears. They can prevent us from taking action and realizing our goals. In this post I'd like to analyzepublic speaking anxiety, which is frequently identified as peoples greatest fear: According to most studies, people's number-one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death isnumber two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy. - Jerry Seinfeld Understanding the Problem In order to understand the problem, Ive tried to illustrate the different elements of Public Speaking Anxiety and how they are connected: <a href="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Fear-of-public-speaking-anxiety-causes.jpg"><img alt="Fear of public speaking anxiety causes" height="400" src="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Fear-of-public-speaking-anxiety-causes.jpg" title="Fear of public speaking anxiety causes" width="526" /></a> (Click on picture for full page view) Lets examine the root causes of public speaking anxiety one by one: 1. The Belief That Public Speaking is Stressful <a href="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/1.-Belief-public-speaking-is-stressful.jpg"><img alt="1. Belief public speaking is stressful" height="58" src="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/1.-Belief-public-speaking-is-stressful.jpg" title="1. Belief public speaking is stressful" width="245" /></a> This is a self-fulfilling prophesy: we believe public speaking is stressful, and therefore it actually becomes stressful. It is important to understand that this is our mind messing with us. When I was a kid, I didnt hesitate to speak in front of others. And I wasnt the only kid like this. Only later in life do we develop this fear, and as adults we believe it is an integral part of public speaking.* Also, keep in mind that many people have succeeded in managing their fear of public speaking, so you can as well. Always remember (repeat after me): speaking in public is not inherently stressful. 2. Fearing the Fear <a href="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2.-Fearing-the-Fear.jpg"><img alt="2. Fearing the Fear" height="145" src="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2.-Fearing-the-Fear.jpg" title="2. Fearing the Fear" width="273" /></a> This is a nasty, reinforcing effect triggered by our belief that speaking in public is stressful: we start to fear the fear itself, causing a spiral of fear that leads to very high anxiety levels. What can we do to prevent this vicious cycle? Here are some proposals: <ul> <li> Remember that speaking in public is not inherently stressful (see first point) If you suffer from very high anxiety levels, you can also draw a positive conclusion from this analysis: if you succeed in believing that speaking in public is not stressful, you can reduce your anxiety levels considerably, reversing the reinforcing negative effect. In other words, success is not as unachievable as it may seem. </li> <li> Dont fight the fearA common mistake is to fight the fear by trying to resist it or by refusing to give into it. However, such an approach simply makes the fear stronger. Instead, experience fear and regard it as a normal and expected part of public speaking. Dont try to run from it. Make peace with it and say to yourself:** </li> <li style="margin-left: 40px;"> This is an uncomfortable feeling; I'm afraid, but it is okay that I feel this way </li> <li style="margin-left: 40px;"> This is not the best feeling in the world, but it is truly not the worst feeling </li> <li style="margin-left: 40px;"> The more I can accept this feeling when I experience it, the more I will learn to manage my fear and do specific things to mitigate it </li> <li style="margin-left: 40px;"> Im going to be ok, no matter what happens </li> <li style="margin-left: 40px;"> The fear wont kill me; it is simply an uncomfortable feeling </li> <li style="margin-left: 40px;"> The feeling will come and go from time to time and I can handle it </li> <li style="margin-left: 40px;"> It is ok that I am anxious. I can still speak or perform when I feel anxious </li> </ul> A bit of nervousness may actually be beneficial as it allows you to concentrate fully and reach peak performance. Try to use your fear to enhance your presentation, channelling it into dynamic energy and enthusiasm. 3. Pressure on Yourself to Succeed <a href="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/3.-Pressure-on-Yourself-to-Succeed.jpg"><img alt="3. Pressure on Yourself to Succeed" height="218" src="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/3.-Pressure-on-Yourself-to-Succeed.jpg" title="3. Pressure on Yourself to Succeed" width="346" /></a> If putting pressure on ourselves increases anxiety levels, why do we do it? There seem to be three main misonceptions: 3.1. Its All About Me No, its not about you. Its about contributing value to the audience, mainly by teaching audience members something they didnt know before. Instead of focusing on yourself, focus on the audience and especially on the message you want to get across. This is what the audience cares about not you. Maybe this is why humour, openness and a willingness to show vulnerability go a long way. When you dont take yourself too seriously and show everybody yourself and the audience that its not about you, but rather about the content of what you are saying, it reduces the pressure and takes the burden off your shoulders. 3.2. "I Have to Be Perfect or Brilliant to Succeed" You dont have to be perfect or brilliant to succeed. Your task is merely to add bit of value to the audience. If you can convey a couple of key messages that are interesting and/or new to the audience, youve already succeeded. Therefore, get the idea out of your head that you have to be perfect to succeed. Perfectionism will make you go crazy. The belief that one has to be perfect may emerge in various ways: <ul> <li> Belief that you cannot make any mistakes: This is rubbish. Everybody makes mistakes a lot of them. In the end, all that matters is whether youve conveyed important messages which added value to the audience. </li> <li> Belief that you have to give your audience every detail: Oh, God, no. Nobody wants to hear every minor detail, and nobody can remember all the details anyway. Just convey the key points. </li> <li> Belief that everybody in the audience has to approve: You will not receive approval from everybody. Trying to behave so that everybody likes you is understandable, but unfortunately unrealistic. It is better to accept this from the beginning so you dont go crazy ifyou see skeptical faces in the audience or some individuals leave the room during your presentation. </li> </ul> Also, it may be useful to lower the bar by saying to yourself, I am not a public speaker. That can help you dissociate from the I-have-to-be-perfect mindset and instead focus on your message. 3.3. "I Am the Only One with This Problem" Believing that you are the only person with public speaking anxiety may reinforce the problem. You may mistakenly believe that while all others have succeeded, you are the last stupid individual still struggling to overcome the problem. Of course, this is not true. Public speaking anxiety is often identified as peoples greatest fear, so dont think you are alone. You certainly are not. 4. Not Being Yourself <a href="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/4.-Not-Being-Yourself.jpg"><img alt="4. Not Being Yourself" height="84" src="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/4.-Not-Being-Yourself.jpg" title="4. Not Being Yourself" width="329" /></a> As a result of putting pressure on yourself, you may try to mimic other people whom you consider to be successful (or your vague idea of how a good public speaker behaves and feels). Unfortunately, this: <ul> <li> Further increases anxiety levels </li> <li> Is an unauthentic, uncomfortable feeling </li> <li> Distracts from the message you want to convey, and </li> <li> Is spotted by the audience in about 100% of the time </li> </ul> So be yourself and tell the audience naturally whatever you have to say. Your listeners will thank you for it. 5. Preparing Too Much and in the Wrong Way <a href="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/5.-Too-Much-or-Wrong-Preparation.jpg"><img alt="5. Too Much or Wrong Preparation" height="84" src="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/5.-Too-Much-or-Wrong-Preparation.jpg" title="5. Too Much or Wrong Preparation" width="329" /></a> This is a tricky one. Preparation is good, isnt it? In my experience, preparation is very important to the extent that it helps you add value, allowing you to convey information clearly and helping you identify any inconsistencies in your messages. The best way to prepare may be to rehearse the presentation on your own while imagining the audience in front of you videotaping yourself may be a good idea or to practice your presentation in front of some of friends who will provide feedback. However, you can also over-prepare or prepare in the wrong way. This often happens to those who think they have to be perfect. For example, imagining every second of your talk (which exact words you will say, how you will say them, how the audience will react, etc.) may give you a deceptively comfortable feeling of control before the presentation. However, because the actual presentation will always differ from what we had anticipated (which is absolutely fine), this mindset can make you panic as soon as you realise things are different than imagined. A possible solution is to rehearse your presentation in a slightly different manner each time, accustoming yourself to variation and change. After all, the goal of the presentation isn't to memorize the words anyway; it is to deliver the message with whatever words you happen to have. 6. Lack of Purpose / No Value to Contribute / Nothing to Say <a href="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/6.-Lack-of-Purpose_No-Value-to-Contribute_Nothing-to-Say.jpg"><img alt="6. Lack of Purpose_No Value to Contribute_Nothing to Say" height="84" src="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/6.-Lack-of-Purpose_No-Value-to-Contribute_Nothing-to-Say.jpg" title="6. Lack of Purpose_No Value to Contribute_Nothing to Say" width="352" /></a> Unless you are a politician, you will always feel uncomfortable if you dont have a message to convey. Without a message, facing hundreds of eyes that are eager for knowledge can indeed be an uncomfortable situation. Therefore, make sure you have good, well-thought-out messages to convey, and youll be fine. 7. Belief that Something Bad Will Happen <a href="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/7.-Belief-that-Something-Bad-will-Happen.jpg"><img alt="7. Belief that Something Bad will Happen" height="58" src="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/7.-Belief-that-Something-Bad-will-Happen.jpg" title="7. Belief that Something Bad will Happen" width="220" /></a> Sometimes our imagination and creativity can harm us. When thinking about speaking in public, many overblown and unrealistic thoughts come to mind. What if I pass out from exhaustion? What if I forget everything I intended to say and am left standing alone, totally speechless? The question is: how can we avoid going crazy? <ul> <li> Remind yourself that your fears are completely overblown. </li> <li> Apply this mindset: everything that happens can be used to my advantage. The credits for this one go to<a href="http://www.stresscure.com/jobstress/speak.html">Morton C. Orman</a>. He proposes to always think that no matter what happens, you can use it to your advantage. For example, if some members of your audience leave the room, ask them why they left and whether your topic, style or manner offended them. Regardless of what they tell you, dealing with the situation honestly and humbly will often score points with the remaining audience members. Morton C. Orman continues: Even if everyone walked out and refused to give me a reason, I could ultimately find ways to benefit from this experience. At the very least, I could use it as the opening for my next presentation. 'You know, I gave this same talk the other day and everyone in the audience walked out in the first ten minutes. That's my current record, so I guess we'll just have to see what happens today.'The same principle holds for dealing with hecklers or people who ask harsh or confrontational questions. If you assume that nothing truly bad can ever happen when you're speaking in public, you'll be amazed how well you can relate to such events and how often you can indeed use them to your advantage. </li> <li> Do NLP exercises Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) provides an interesting set of techniques to change our learned perceptions. The following method can be useful in reducing our fear that something bad will happen: </li> </ul> <ol style="margin-left: 40px;"> <li> Imagine yourself speaking in front of an audience as vividly as possible, seeing every detail, hearing voices, taking in the smell from the room, etc. </li> <li> Imagine the worst possible scenario happening. For example, you are completely speechless, or you run into a pole, knocking yourself out, etc. </li> <li> Once you have this vision in mind, make it as ridiculous and silly as possible by unleashing your creativity. Make people have wings and fly around the room as you stand on your head looking at everyone upside down, etc. </li> </ol> During this exercise, your mind will struggle to reconcile the absurd scenario with the original frightening vision, thereby preventing your mind from developing those horror scenarios altogether. 8. Belief that the Audience Does Not Want You to Succeed <a href="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/8.-Belief-that-Your-Audience-Does-Not-Want-You-to-Succeed.jpg"><img alt="8. Belief that Your Audience Does Not Want You to Succeed" height="58" src="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/8.-Belief-that-Your-Audience-Does-Not-Want-You-to-Succeed.jpg" title="8. Belief that Your Audience Does Not Want You to Succeed" width="220" /></a> Your relationship with the audience is another key point. As long as you regard your audience as your enemy, which is almost never justified, you will put unnecessary pressure on yourself. In reality, your audience members want you to succeed and deliver the information that interests them. A slip of the tongue or a mistake of any kind might seem a big deal to you, but its not that important for the audience. Your listeners are just interested in learning something new. Generally, it is a good idea to like the audience and/or establish a relationship with your listeners. Think of them as sympathetic people who have fears just as you do and who truly want you to succeed. If possible, speak with some of your audience members before the presentation. Core of the Matter: Lack of Experience <a href="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Lack-of-Experience-Public-Speaking-Fear.jpg"><img alt="Lack of Experience Public Speaking Fear" height="58" src="http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Lack-of-Experience-Public-Speaking-Fear.jpg" title="Lack of Experience Public Speaking Fear" width="324" /></a> I believe that anyone I mean anyone with enough practice can become comfortable speaking in front of other people. Think about those who didnt choose to speak in public, but now do so because their role requires it, such as professional athletes. I dont think any of them who are still nervous after theyve had enough practice. Arguably the most important conclusion from the flowchart above is that practice is the key. Only through practice can we convince ourselves that many of the fears are merely creations of our minds. There are several ways to gain practice: <ul> <li> Join Toastmasters Toastmaster clubs exist for only one reason: to help individuals overcome public speaking anxiety and give them the skills needed to be a good speaker. The clubs are inexpensive and effective ways to get practice. If you are serious about overcoming your fear, come out of your closet and give Toastmaster a try. Toastmaster clubs exist all around the world. Find a nearby one<a href="http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub/">here</a>. </li> <li> Seek public speaking opportunities Opportunities abound to speak in front of others. If you have public speaking anxiety, chances are that you tend to avoid these situations. This only makes the problem worse. Next time you have an opportunity, seize it! </li> <li> Start slowly if required, but start! As with lifting weights, you may start slowly, perhaps speaking to only a few people at once. After a while, you may gradually increase the weights and seize opportunities to speak in front of larger groups. The important thing is that you do something about your fear and get practice speaking in public. Starting slowly is fine. Be not afraid of going slowly. Be only afraid of standing still. Chinese proverb </li> </ul> Dealing Directly With the Symptoms of Public Speaking Anxiety The approaches described above try to tackle the root causes of the problem, which is necessary for a long-term solution. However, we can also deal with the symptoms in the short term. Most of these techniques aim to help you feel calmer and more relaxed: <ul> <li> Learn relaxation techniques / deep breathing You can learn many relaxation techniques, such as yoga. As a quick fix, breathing techniques can release tension in the body. For example, try the following breathing technique: </li> <li style="margin-left: 40px;"> Make yourself comfortable (either lying down or sitting in a chair) </li> <li style="margin-left: 40px;"> Gradually deepen your breath, allowing it to gently expand your lungs </li> <li style="margin-left: 40px;"> Count to four while inhaling, two while holding your breath, and eight while exhaling (exhaling should take about twice as long as inhaling). This technique can have a very relaxing effect. If you feel dizzy while practicing it, stop immediately. </li> <li> Do workouts before the event After a good workout, you may feel naturally relaxed and less susceptible to anxious thoughts. Before you speak in front of an audience, go to the gym beforehand and see if it helps. </li> <li> Avoid caffeine Coffee, colas, black or green tea and other stimulantsincreasetension in the body as well asanxiety levels. However, if caffeine motivates you and helps you look forward to sharing your ideas with your audience, it may help you deliver your presentation with more energy. People are different, so the best suggestion is to try things out and observe the impacton you. </li> <li> Consume relaxing foods and drinks Consider drinking tea before the event, which has a relaxing effect on the body. For example, try valerian tea, which is sometimes used to facilitate sleep. Some people with very high anxiety levels use medication to deal with the problem, perhaps by taking Inderal, a type of beta blocker that is generally used to treat patients with heart problems. I am skeptical of taking any medications. Do so only after consulting your doctor and after youve tried everything else. </li> <li> Do other things that help you to relax Im sure you can do many other things that have a relaxing effect on you. You know best what these are. For example, some people calm down when walking outside and getting fresh air. </li> </ul> Conclusion Key takeaways: <ol> <li> Speaking in public isnotinherently stressful. </li> <li> Dont fear the fear. Dont fight it. </li> <li> Dont put pressure on yourself to succeed: - Its not about you. - You dont have to be perfect or brilliant to succeed. - You are not the only one with this problem. </li> <li> Be yourself. </li> <li> Dont over-prepare or prepare in too much detail, but do rehearse if possible. </li> <li> Make sure you have a message to share. Focus on your audience and on the message itself during your presentation. </li> <li> Dont believe something bad will happen. </li> <li> Dont think your audience does not want you to succeed. </li> <li> Get practiceto see firsthand that all the points above are true. </li> </ol> I sincerely hope this advice helps you. Please leave your comments and share your experiences. Thank you! Notes * This is a key point throughout this article: our learned beliefs cause public speaking anxiety. They were not there from birth; therefore, the logical solution to the problem is to question those beliefs and unlearn them. Many proposals targeted at reducing public speaking anxiety dont take this approach, but instead ask us to actively do a lot of things, such as: <ul> <li> Keep your hands still! </li> <li> Walk around during the talk! </li> <li> Tell jokes! </li> <li> Speak slowly! </li> <li> Imagine holding a magnificent speech! </li> <li> Etc. </li> </ul> While these proposals may be useful for some individuals, they should be used with care. <ul> <li> They may make us even more nervous (as we actively try to think about all this advice) </li> <li> They may give us a false sense of comfort (and backfire) </li> <li> They may be difficult to remember (all forgotten when facing the audience, in my experience) </li> <li> They dont tackle the underlying problem (so how can they be solutions?) </li> <li> Most of them (keeping the hands still, moving around during the talk, etc.) result from confident speaking, but do not always lead to it. Instead of imitating others, be authentic (see above) </li> </ul> The approach proposed in this article is to understand the problem and react to any incorrect beliefs that emerge. ** These suggestions are taken from Janet E. Espositos excellent book,<a href="http://www.amazon.com/SpotLight-Overcome-Public-Speaking-Performing/dp/0974296627/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262783798&sr=8-1">In the Spotlight.</a>

Could a 4-day Workweek Make You More Productive?

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 17:18:53 GMT

Youve no doubt heard of the <a href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/" style="line-height: 1.6em;">4-hour workweek</a>, popularized by <a href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/about/" style="line-height: 1.6em;">Tim Ferriss</a>, however most would agree that the concept of reducing your working hours so dramatically is more of a marketing hook than an achievable schedule. So if you dont belong to the lucky minority who can fit their weeks work into 4 hours, how about 4 days? The idea of a reduced workweek with a 3-day weekend is one that seems to be growing in popularity worldwide, and there have been some interesting studies into its effects. While researching this article I found several examples of companies that have successfully implemented a 4-day work week, and they seem to fall into two camps: those that have lengthened the work day to fit in the same number of hours of work in fewer days, and those that have reduced weekly working hours overall. Are 10-hour days the answer? Web development agency <a href="http://www.reusserdesign.com/">Reusser Design</a> recently discussed in their <a href="http://www.reusserdesign.com/blog/4-day-work-week/">company blog</a> how they had lengthened the working day to 10 hours by changing their working hours to 6.30am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday and compressing 40 hours of work into just 4 days. Team members are rotated in on Fridays so that there is always someone available to deal with clients, but otherwise the employees are free to work on their own projects or enjoy leisure time with their families. A 3-day weekend may sound worth a couple of extra hours at work each day, but personally, I cant help feeling that restructuring the working schedule in this way has missed the point of the 4-day workweek. Companies considering this arrangement may tout studies about employee satisfaction and improved work-life balance, but in actuality, finances are behind many corporate decisions to move to a 4-hour workweek. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, Utah was the first US state to implement an official 4-day week for all state employees. The hopes were that by cutting a day from the working week, utilities and commuting costs would be reduced . An <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=four-day-workweek-energy-environment-economics-utah">initial study</a> seemed to find that the experiment was a success. In the first year costs were reduced by 13%. However, this initial success was short-lived, and by 2011 the initiative was <a href="http://www.govtech.com/e-government/Utah-Abandons-Four-Day-Workweek.html">scrapped</a> as no further savings were measured. Working only 4 days a week has obvious advantages in terms of saving commuting time, CO2 emissions and company expenditure in heating and lighting, but there are also several downsides. Employees with families are likely to struggle with childcare arrangements for the extended working day, and the concept that working a longer day will make you more productive is widely contested. Reusser Design claims that longer work days mean more concentration time, but I find this argument to be flawed. We are not physiologically designed to concentrate for long periods of time, and doing so causes stress and fatigue. A shorter workweek without a longer workday So what about those companies that adopted the 4-day workweek without increasing hours? <a href="http://www.carsonified.com/">Carsonified</a>, the company behind a series of conferences for web designers and developers and the <a href="http://teamtreehouse.com/">Treehouse</a> coding tutorial site, have a 4-day workweek with hours between 9am and 6pm similar to many other companies with a traditional 5-day week. Work hours are reduced around the theory that, as humans, we will always make our work fill the time available. The idea is that, by limiting the number of working hours and expecting the same amount of work done, you are forced into being more productive. Software company <a href="http://www.37signals.com/">37signals</a> is another company that has taken this approach and run as a 4-day week business between the months of May and October. During this time, employees work only 32 hours a week, but the amount of work that gets done in the summer and winter is the same, despite the difference in hours. Many studies have found that working more hours does not necessarily mean that more work gets done. In fact long workweeks can actually have a negative impact on productivity. (See the relatively technical study <a href="http://www.google.ch/url?q=http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---travail/documents/publication/wcms_187307.pdf&sa=U&ei=D8D7UY2JHcrx4QSkyYGQCg&ved=0CCoQFjAE&sig2=cxAxLgAmjnsQP5yMVeDFJA&usg=AFQjCNGI7eInY3YHBk2tNa5Yzf0_070qdw">here</a>.) A 2011 research paper by the <a href="http://www.ilo.org/">International Labour Organization</a> states that between 30 and 40 hours of work per week is the optimal number for productivity. More than this and productivity starts to drop and quality of life factors are reduced. Based on the results of this research, a person who works 50 hours a week is only as productive as one who works 35 hours, so those extra 15 hours are essentially wasted. Other studies have shown that long working days (typically 11 hours or more) can increase the risks of heart disease and depression as well as negatively impacting ones personal life and relationships. Several of the most productive countries in Europe including the UK, Germany, Sweden and Denmark have cottoned onto this fact and banned companies from asking their employees to work more than 48 hours a week. The conclusion seems to be clear: if you want to lead a happier, more productive life, work smarter, not harder. Tips for implementing a 4-day week The key to increasing productivity while reducing work hours is to become incredibly efficient in the hours in which you do work. This means setting fixed work hours and sticking to them, focusing on priority tasks rather than wasting time on busy work and outsourcing where possible. Distractions are the main killer of productivity, and to be successful with a 4-day workweek, it is vital to eliminate distractions wherever possible to maximize your concentration during the day, optimize your workflow and get more done. This may mean turning your phone off, avoiding social networking and blog reading when you should be working, and having designated times for checking email and other necessary but distracting tasks. Many of us now need to use social networks, read blogs, or do other research as part of our jobs, but the potential of these activities to distract us is enormous. The impact can be reduced by using filtering software, like <a href="http://www.follow.it/">SpecificFeeds</a>, which concentrates the information that is most useful to you and eliminates the excess noise. How many hours do you work each week? Have you tried implementing a 4-hour workweek, or would you like to? Wed love to hear about your experiences of alternative working arrangements and how they have affected your productivity.