Life: Work & Beyond

nikak: Working online without distractions

2006-07-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

nikak: Working online without distractions:

"Many of us do a lot of work in our browser window. But we also tend to use the same browser window for entertaintment. Sometimes things like YouTube, Google Video, Bloglines and Digg get in the way of work because we spend way to much time reading about the cool new gadgets that just came out.

The solution to this problem is actually very simple. If you use Firefox there is a little known feature included that allows you to have multiple profiles. A profile is a browser instance with it's own settings, bookmarks, history and etc. When you're opeining Firefox for the first time you're actually using a 'default' profile."

Orgnize your day

2006-07-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

I saw a very good article from newsletter of "Get Organized", but I could not find it on the website. So here is the article:

Organize Your Day

These 5 simple rules of thumb will help you get through
your day in an organized and productive manner.

1. Start the night before. Make a list of the things you
have to do tomorrow, the evening before. Prioritize and
organize each item in the sequence that it should be
accomplished. Consolidate similar tasks together. When you
wake up in the morning, you'll have a clear-cut guide
detailing everything that must be done.

2. Watch out for diversions. Very often, a schedule gets
thrown off track due to distractions, such as unexpected
visitors or unscheduled phone calls. If you find that you
constantly get off track, get a watch with a timer and set
it so it goes off every 30 minutes. Every time it sounds,
be sure you're working on what you originally said you
would. If you're not, stop what you're doing and get back
on schedule. Most distractions are not emergency
situations.

3. Call before you leave. If you have an appointment
during the day, always call to confirm before you leave
your home or office. This will ensure that the person
you're meeting did not forget about the appointment. Also,
if there is going to be a long waiting time, perhaps you
can do something else first, before you leave.

4. Check it off. Every time you finish something, cross it
off your To Do List. This will give you a sense of
accomplishment throughout the day and allow you to easily
see what's still left.

5. Do a final check. At the end of the day, take a look at
your list. How many items were you able to accomplish? Are
there only 1-2 things left undone, or many? If there were
just a few undone, simply move them to tomorrow's To Do
List. If there were many undone, and you worked diligently
on everything all day, then you probably had too many
things on your list to begin with. Re-think how much you
can possibly do in a given day. Remember, you only have 24
hours, and you should be using a third of those hours to
sleep!

Mother Tongue Annoyances » How to Handle Tough Questions from an Audience

2006-07-02T02:46:00.000-07:00

Great article on answering questions

The techniques I have for you in terms of constructively handling 'stumper' questions involve four key actions:

* Rephrasing the question
* Redirecting the question to the audience/class
* Admitting your ignorance
* Finding a solution"

To dodge a 'stumper' question from an audience member or a student.... you should (1) change the subject; (2) stall for time; and/or (3) intimidate the questioner

More....

Microsoft Employees Prefer Google?

2006-06-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Very interesting although I am not sure if the data is true.

If most Microsoft employees use google, I wonder which one does Bill Gates use?

Microsoft Employees Prefer Google?: ".

Here are some of the interesting bits:

Microsoft Corp: Top Search Engines Used
Google: 66.31%
MSN: 19.65%
Yahoo: 10.18%

Yahoo! Inc.: Top Search Engines Used
Yahoo: 68.87%
Google: 29.80%

Google Inc.: Top Search Engines Used
Google 100%"

Books on "hard conversations"

2006-06-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite blog Lifehacker has a post about "Ask the Readers: How do you deal with hard conversations at work?" It says "Whether you're an employee or employer, there's bound to have been a time in your career when you've had to have a difficult conversation at work: firing (or getting fired), figuring out what to do when things go awry, etc."

This is exactly the topic I have been interested in recently. I think it might be interesting for others to see the books I have read or I am reading on this topics.
There are a lot of books on this, I only list the best I could find.

Here they are:

Difficult Conversations How to Discuss what Matters Most:
by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project . This is the very book to begin with in this topic.

Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes are High:
by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler

Crucial Confrontations Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior:by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. This is the follow up of the previous book.

Also some books on conflict management:

Managing Interpersonal Conflict (Interpersonal Communication Texts)

$56 on Amazon, quite expensive, but definitely worth the cost.

Getting to Yes Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In:

A classic book on this topic, the one you should not miss.

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If you like this post, please digg it.

Google Map Mashups become easier than ever!

2006-06-02T00:36:00.000-07:00

With the help of brand new "Google AJAX Search API" anounced yesterday, creating Google map mashups will become easier than ever!

In the anouncement, Google said the Google AJAX Search API will "let you integrate a dynamic Google search module into your web pages so your users can mash up Google search results with other content on your site or add search results clippings to their own content."

As a pain to the Google Map Mashup developers, Google map API does not provide the user a way to get the geocode. Therefore the users have to look for the geocode manually or use the geocode API from Yahoo, which require a lot of extra efforts. Now people can just use the local search results from AJAX Search API to generate the geocode. I am sure that the combination of Google AJAX Search API and Google Map API will lead to many fresh mashup in short time. A good example will be something like this.

Here is the documentation and the examples of the Google AJAX Search API.
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If you like this post, you can digg it!

Seven Sins to Avoid with Your Next Public Speaking Engagement

2006-05-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

Michael Bernhardt - Seven Sins to Avoid with Your Next Public Speaking Engagement

"1) Making Assumptions

While assuming your audience grasps the significance of what youâre saying is an innocent mistake, itâs one of the most deadly. Often speakers launch into an oration about their topic thinking listeners are not only comprehending what theyâre saying, but share the same gusto for the subject. If you donât establish from the get-go why a topic is germane to the listener or their industry, what you say for the remainder of your speech will have little impact and certainly do little to hold anyoneâs interest.

For this reason, you may want to start with a question that not only engages the audience, but gives you an idea of peopleâs interest and experience level. Ask attendees to raise their hand in response to the question. If only a handful of people participate, you can quickly backpedal and provide an overview of your topic along with a summary of its importance to the listeners before launching into your planned presentation.

Even if you never reach what you feel is the most significant part of your speech, at least, you provided your listeners with information that matched their experience level. Remember, the key objective of giving a speech is to relate to your audience by educating, providing a perspective on an issue or to a degree, simply entertaining."

How to Remember Names

2006-05-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

How to Remember Names - eHow.com:

Very useful tips. I tried many ways to remember names myself. The way I found is most useful for me is to remember the name with a adj. associated with the person's most distinguished charateristics. Like " Big Bill", " Relaxed Richard"

"1. Pay attention when you are introduced to someone. A few minutes after you meet the person, say his or her name to yourself again. If you have forgotten it, talk to the person again and ask for the name.

2. Write down the new name three times while picturing the person's face; do this as soon as possible after meeting someone.

3. Ask how to spell a difficult name, or glance at the spelling on the person's business card, if it's offered. If you know the spelling of a word and can picture it in your mind, you'll remember it better.

4. Connect a name to a common word you will remember. For example, the name Salazar could sound like 'salamander,' 'bazaar' or 'sell a jar.'

5. Make a connection to the person's hobby or employment. 'Bill the pill' might help you remember the name of your pharmacist, for example."

Apartment hunting 101

2006-05-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

Hack Attack: Apartment hunting 101 - Lifehacker:

"If you’re thinking about upgrading your space, I can’t promise you your dream apartment, but I can show you a few tried-and-true methods for finding a great new place"

10 Steps You Can Take To Guarantee Failure

2006-05-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

Achieve-IT!: 10 Steps You Can Take To Guarantee Failure

1. Make your goals vague
2. Make your goals difficult to visualize
3. Think and speak negatively about your goals
4. Avoid planning incremental steps
5. Don't Do - Talk
6. Wait until you are motivated
7. Don't set a date
8. List why it's impossible
9. Don't research your goal -
10. Think of anything except your goal

Read More

Digg submission booklet

2006-05-20T02:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.leehord.com/2006/04/18/digg-submit-bookmarklet-v2/

Digg submission booklet

2006-05-20T01:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.leehord.com/2006/04/18/digg-submit-bookmarklet-v2/

Fare Flash! American/United Unadvertised Airfare War | Frommers.com

2006-05-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

Fare Flash! American/United Unadvertised Airfare War | Frommers.com:

"We haven't seen such a vicious unadvertised fare war in many months. United (tel. 800/241-6522; www.united.com) has slashed fares to and from American's hubs (Dallas, St. Louis) and American (tel. 800/433-7300; www.aa.com) has returned the favor out of United's hubs (Denver, Washington, San Francisco). You'll find the most routes on sale out of St. Louis, Denver and Dallas, and a more limited choice to/from Washington and to/from San Francisco. Seats are available through mid-April 2007. Because Travelocity no longer lists United's fares in their flexible date searches, you might want to try www.cheapair.com, which does. For the American fares, use Travelocity's flexible search. We've listed as many of these fares as we could find on the Dallas, Denver, St. Louis, San Francisco and Washington pages of Airfarewatchdog. These fares work in reverse too, so if we've listed a San Francisco/Miami fare it also works Miami/San Francisco."

How to Digg Your Article to increase the traffic

2006-05-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

A very good article about increasing the blog traffic using Digg. Worth taking a try!
Digg is Your Marketing Secret Weapon - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals):

"So hopefully I’ve encouraged you to take Digg seriously. Now what? Here’s how to get started:

1. Publish an article on your blog
2. Create an account on Digg
3. Go to the Submit a Story page on Digg
4. Follow the instructions
5. Note the URL of the your story on Digg (It’ll be something like www.digg.com/your-category/the-title-you-gave-it)
6. Edit your post and add something like this to the bottom of the article:
Like this article? Digg it!

If your article manages to get 500+ Diggs, you’ll see a serious jump in your traffic."

Who Linked to your website(blog)?

2006-05-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

WhoLinked "shows the other websites that are linking to you - from all over the Web." It will generate a piece of javascript for you to add to your site and then update itself in real time, pretty cool!

Tim Matheson » 6 Ways to make airport security painless

2006-05-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

Some useful tips on getting smooth security check. Trust me, I've got pains from security check before, I knew how annoying it could be. 6 Ways to make airport security painless:

Some might sounds like simple, but they will surely help you.

"Make a list of everything you are going to take with you on your trip. Once you have this list it’s time to start minimizing. Less is more and that logic can be directly applied to this situation. Try to exclude items you may be able to obtain at your point of destination. This will make les luggage for you to carry and also less luggage for them to search."

More

Personal Productivity Blog : Training Yourself to Work at Home - ( Small Business Blog Center )

2006-05-13T00:14:00.000-07:00

Personal Productivity Blog has an article on " Training Yourself to Work at Home " - ( Small Business Blog Center ). It is really worth reading.

"Problem: Too much time spent surfing.

Solution: Try two browsers. My friend is an avid internet user and finds watching videos on YouTube far more addictive than preparing an expense report. He needs to use the internet for research and communication, but every time he opens up his browser, he heads to his favorite fun sites instead. I suggested that he use two different browsers. He uses Firefox normally, so he should keep that one for personal surfing. He should then use Internet Explorer for his business surfing. His business browser won’t have any of the bookmarks that his personal browser will, so he won’t be as tempted. By separating the two uses, he can more easily discipline himself to work when he needs to work and play when he has the time. It’s not foolproof, but you need some self discipline to work at home. This just decreases how much you need.

Problem: Likes listening to loud music during work time

Solution: Listen to it if it helps you work. One of the joys of working at home is that you can create the environment that works best for you. At the office you often have to work in relative silence out of respect for the people around you. At home you just have to respect yourself......"

Read the whole article

10 Ways to Add Variety to Your Digital Photography

2006-05-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

10 Ways to Add Variety to Your Digital Photography:

"1. Shoot your subject at different focal lengths - using the zoom on your photos will not only change how close your subject appears but it will also change the depth of field (ie the blurring of the background). It also allows you to shoot from different distances which can really impact how relaxed your subject is (there’s nothing better than a photographer in your face to make you tense up!)

2. Shoot your subject from different angles - it’s amazing how much you can change a shot by getting on your knees or taking a few steps to the side! (more on this here)

3. Shoot using different formats - there are different ways to grip a digital camera. The two main ones are horizontally or vertically but you can also get into all kinds of diagonal ways to do it. Mix it up."

More...

Your Personal Accountability System

2006-05-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

The following articale give a suggestion of Personal Accountatiblity System to keep yourself on track all the time. It is more like Steven Covey's mission statement, like Jack Wilch's statement - The idea is to keep your compass in mind all the time.

"A difficult challenge in achieving goals is simply remaining aware of them and staying on track. How many times have you set a goal, started working on it with the best of intentions, and then at some future time, you realize it somehow slipped through the cracks?"
Read more

Hack MSN Spaces: Secondary Link Title

2006-05-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hack MSN Spaces: Secondary Link Title: "econdary Link Title

Button usage is required. Click here if you do not know how to.

This Tutorial Will help you Create a Link with a Secondary title.

That is, When some one hovers or leaves their Mouse Pointer over the Link, It will Display something of your Choice.

For E.g. d3v [Leave your mouse Hovering above this link]

For this I used the Following Code :

d3v

* The part in Orange is Where Your Space Address will go.
* The part in Green is what you want as your Secondary Title
* The part in Blue is What the name of the Link will be

the link name

Make sure its between the ' ' .

After you make the Code, Paste it after click on the button. Click on the Button again to come out of the HMTL editing mode.

Simple!!"

Life: Work & Beyond

nikak: Working online without distractions

Orgnize your day

Mother Tongue Annoyances » How to Handle Tough Questions from an Audience

Microsoft Employees Prefer Google?

Books on "hard conversations"

Google Map Mashups become easier than ever!

Seven Sins to Avoid with Your Next Public Speaking Engagement

How to Remember Names

Apartment hunting 101

10 Steps You Can Take To Guarantee Failure

Digg submission booklet

Digg submission booklet

Fare Flash! American/United Unadvertised Airfare War | Frommers.com

How to Digg Your Article to increase the traffic

Who Linked to your website(blog)?

Tim Matheson » 6 Ways to make airport security painless

Personal Productivity Blog : Training Yourself to Work at Home - ( Small Business Blog Center )

10 Ways to Add Variety to Your Digital Photography

Your Personal Accountability System

­­Hack MSN Spaces: Secondary Link Title

Hack MSN Spaces: Secondary Link Title