When I last wrote about Alfred (and how amazing it is)—10 Awesome Alfred Actions to Speed Up Your Day—the first item in my top 10 was:

Powerpack Alfred App – Powerpack. Yes, the free version of Alfred is great, more than half of my favorite things to do with it are core to the free version. The thing is that some of the most useful shortcuts come with the Powerpack.

Right, getting the Alfred Powerpack. Now beyond unlocking a ton of amazing new abilities (scripting, send commands to Terminal, extra actions) with the Powerpack you can install Alfred Extensions which takes all the cool things you can do with Alfred and dials it up to an 11.

Right now there are hundreds of extensions that you can get—Alfred Extensions & Scripts – Alfred Support—and more being added all the time. So with that kind of selection, where do you start?

Exactly.

So, here are my top 5 Alfred Extensions to start with:

1. Create a Task in Things: My task manager of choice is Things, but yours might be OmniFocus or whatever. Regardless, having a action to quickly create a to do item just rocks. Oh, and if Things isn’t your thing, there are extensions for pretty much any to do manager.
2. Note taking extensions (like Evernote): I’m a big Evernote fan and pretty much everything I save in Instapaper goes right into Evernote, but there are times you just need to create a note. These extensions let you add notes, search notes, and add tags to Evernote with a few keystrokes.
3. Extension Updater for Alfred: This extension, well, the name says it all. Extensions in Alfred, like a lot of other plugin-type systems, get updated now and then. Maybe there was a bug, maybe a new feature is added, maybe a system update borked something. In any case this extension automatically checks for updates to your extensions and updates them.
4. iTunes now playing: It might not be sexy, but it sure is useful! Yeah, yeah — you know – all the songs in your iTunes library. Well…I have so many operas, concertos, symphonies, and such that I can’t keep all the tracks straight, so I like to use to figure out what part of a longer piece is playing.
5. Open AirDrop: A place I worked recently, we used AirDrop a lot to quickly move files around. Stuff like, “Hey, is that updated header ready?”. The thing was often we forgot to keep an AirDrop window open so the person could just drop the file. This fixes that. No switching to the Finder and opening…just tappity-tap and done.

Now that you’ve read my top 5 extensions, I have a confession. Most of the time—and believe me I use Alfred all the time—I don’t use the extra capabilities in the extensions. It’s like this post today—Why Complicated Productivity Tools Will Get You Stuck—don’t sweat if you’re getting everything out of an app if you’re getting what you need out of an app. So, no, I don’t use a lot of Alfred extensions and I don’t use them very often. I have them installed, I like them, but most of the time I use the tools that come with the Powerpack.

That, I think, really says the most about an app, doesn’t it? You can adapt it to what you need and only what you need and still have it be an essential part of your workflow.

Tris Hussey is a technologist, author, teacher, and Canada’s first professional blogger. He has written several books on social media and technology including Create Your Own Blog (1st and 2nd editions), Using WordPress, Sam’s Teach Yourself Foursquare in 10 Minutes, WordPress Essentials (video lessons), and Sam’s Teach Yourself WordPress Themes in 24 Hours (forthcoming in late 2012 with Catherine Winters). You can read Tris’ posts on TrisHussey.com, the FutureShop Tech blog, and other sites around the Internet.

Everyone always seems to be looking for an easy way out when it comes to making a living. We would all rather work as little as possible and make our money easily. It’s no wonder why Google searches for “easy ways to make money” yield a ton of get-rich-quick-plans, pyramid schemes, and courses from “marketing gurus” who have finally found the secret to making massive amounts of money online and doing it with as little effort as possible.

The sad reality is that if you want to make a living online (or even offline), it takes hard work, especially if it is something that you want to do and it isn’t something you should shy away from. Easy ways to make money won’t making you money and won’t fulfill you. Here’s why.

Challenges are fun

Challenging yourself day-in and day-out is extremely important. It’s one of the only ways that you can grow as a human and especially as a worker in your profession. If making money and a living wasn’t challenging, at least to some degree, the chances of you being bored and unhappy would be higher than that of a challenging lifestyle.

Not only that, it’s also fun to face a challenge and defeat it. There is nothing like planning a project, working through it (sometimes even struggling), and seeing it through to the end.

Easy money will go away

Unless you found something that is impossible to duplicate and you live in a world where there is no internet or social networks, your “scheme” to make easy money will be duplicated by others, improved upon, and you will inevitably be weeded out of your market. It’s impossible to stay in an easy-money-making-market forever and think that the money will keep rolling in.

You will have to put some work in eventually as your market disappears, so why not just skip the easy ways to make money and challenge yourself to make a living?

Where’s your legacy?

Another thing about taking the easy way out; you have very little chance of leaving a legacy, that is, a positive one. Do you think that Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, or Sergey and Larry would have a legacy if they were looking for the easy way out?

These people are exceptions, but the point still stands. If you concentrate too much on easy ways to make money, you will miss the the idea that could define your life’s work, the work that will create your own legacy.

“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is, everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.”

-Steve Jobs

Okay, everything doesn’t have to be difficult

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say that you have to struggle your entire life to make a living so you don’t get bored or forget to create your own legacy. I’m saying that we all need to make sure that the work we do has purpose and that it helps define us as a person. Many people say that “you are not your work”, but I beg to differ. There isn’t anything wrong with your work helping to define who you are in life.

There are many great people in the world that I wouldn’t have known were so great if they didn’t work hard to create cool things that I use everyday. While their work doesn’t entirely define who they are, it helps to create a portion of who they are.

There will inevitably be some easy ways to make money here and there on your journey, but you may want to make sure that these ways of making money are related to, as Merlin Mann like to put it, your platform (basically the culmination of all of your important work). Making easy money related to your life’s work isn’t a bad thing and will definitely come up. But, chasing easy money isn’t something to shoot for.

Back to practicality

Taking this back to something practical; rather than concentrating on easy ways to make money, sit down and list the things that you want to do to make money. Think of your dream jobs and write them down. Next, write down the things that you are good at. If you find a correlation between a dream job and something you are good at, then that is the work that you should be chasing, regardless of how difficult it may be.

It’s much more fulfilling to chase your dreams than chase easy money. If you are aligning your skills with your dream jobs, working hard, then money and a living will come to you.

(Photo credit: Money falling, isolated on white background via Shutterstock)

If you are annoyed and distracted by the people around you, chances are you are missing out. Communication and connection are just a few of the things that you miss when you are deep in disapproval. There are serious issues that can get in the way, but let’s explore some of the common annoyances on the lighter side.

The Unloveables

Cell Yell Man
Just because he can’t hear his call clearly (usually in a busy, public place), he responds by yelling into his cell phone as if he’s announcing a fire. You get to hear every detail of his sometimes very personal conversation, and completely forget what you were doing.

Mrs. Broken Blinker
Using the directional signal when turning seems simple enough, but this Mrs. can’t find the time, energy or courtesy to use it. Even better, when she occasionally does decide to let you know she is turning, she forgets to turn it off.

The Guru Guy
He knows everything and is determined to let you know about how much he knows. He won’t teach you anything, but is happy to remind you about his vast wealth of knowledge.

Last Word Lady
You know her. She is always right and always has to wrap up every conversation.

iMan
Oh man, iMan is either checking email on his iPhone, Skyping on his iPad or trying to hold a conversation while blogging on his iMac. Otherwise he is hanging at the Genius Bar, or talking about the new IOS whatever.

Fast Forward Girl
If you have to cull the following messages from your email, then this girl is in your life. “It’s national best friends day” “Forward this to 10 people for good luck” “Don’t delete if you love me”.

While these references are in good fun, the point is that we can be more loving to the unlovables in our life with a few simple shifts in attitude and approach.

• Humanize. Remember that everyone has similar struggles. Your unloveable probably has a family, a job, self-esteem issues, an illness or something else that makes them who they are. They are dealing with all that life has to offer just like you. Ask them about their life instead of focusing on their bad habit.
• Pity Story. Make up a sad story to make the situation less stressful. For instance, if you feel road rage building up when the person in front of you forgets to use their signal, make up a story about how he just lost his job and can’t afford to replace his tail light. Slow down and let empathy replace anger.
• Stop trying to fix everything. We are all different and while it would be great if everyone were as wonderful as you, that’s not going to happen. Lighten up and let it be.
• Celebrate imperfection. We aren’t perfect. None of us. Not even you. It is your imperfections that make you unique. Your flaws are a part of who you are. Celebrate that in yourself and others.
• Laugh. Sometimes all you can do is smile, nod and laugh inside.
• Be Kind. You don’t have to agree to be kind.

There may be people in your life like the unloveables, or maybe other things get in the way of love. Remember that everyone has something to offer. If you can find a way to step around the one thing that is getting in the way of a closer relationship, there might be something wonderful on the other side.

(Photo credit: Heart of Grass via Shutterstock)

Courtney Carver is an artist and consultant specializing in simplicity for life and business. Read more from Courtney at her blog, Be More with Less and follow her on Twitter.

“There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.” ~ Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, April 1747

Everybody I know has too much to do and too little time to get it done. Overstuffed schedules and overlong to-do lists mean many people live those “lives of quiet desperation” where at any given time we’re trying to do several things at once. The infamous ability to multitask.

Sure, I can cook dinner and help the kids with their homework.

I can read a magazine and eat dinner while watching the TV shows I’ve recorded on my DVR.

I can reply to text messages while I drive? (Wait, no I can’t. That’s illegal.) But I can do it at the dinner table.

I can monitor emails during that business meeting.

When tasks-to-be-done exceed time-in-the-day, it seems reasonable and efficient to double up on activities. It’s the only way to get it all done, right?

Right?

Maybe not.

Human multitasking, meaning the ability to do more than one task simultaneously, is a myth. Don’t take my word for it. Check out this NPR story and this piece in The New Atlantis. Numerous scientific studies have shown that when we think we’re multitasking, what our brain is actually doing is rapidly switching its focus back and forth among the various tasks. That hyperspeed switching has been found to actually impair productivity and even to temporarily (we hope) lower the multitasker’s IQ.

But just as important as these is how the ability to multitask impairs the quality of life. Habitual multitasking eventually leads to an inability to relax, to turn off, or to focus on anything for very long. It’s virtually impossible to be at peace if your mind is perpetually jumping among multiple attention-takers. Over time you realize you’re always tense, you don’t sleep well, and–maybe worst of all–the people in your life feel that you’re disconnected and even uncaring.

While sometimes it’s appropriate, and even necessary, to handle more than one task at a time, it is crucially important to your mental health to create some space in your life when you’re not being pulled in multiple directions. Space for quiet, for peace.

How? A few things come to mind:

• For some portion of every day, disconnect from the internet. Completely. Don’t check your email, or Facebook, or Twitter. Don’t play online games. Watch an entire movie without once checking your smart phone. Start with an hour a day and build up your tolerance level until you can stay offline for a full day.
• Turn off your phone at night or leave it in a different room. I struggle with this one. I have a busy legal practice, with clients who expect to be able to reach me pretty much 24/7. I used to keep my BlackBerry on my nightstand while I slept, and would awaken in the night to check and respond to emails. I’ve abandoned that practice, and now leave my iPhone down the hall, in my home office, at night.
• Take the weekends off. Although it seems that in my profession we’re never really off-duty, we can safely disconnect from work at appropriate times. On the weekends, I leave my iPhone in my home office while I do other things, checking a few times a day for urgent messages. I no longer keep it within reach at all times. And I haven’t yet lost a single client because of it.
• Take regular breaks. Read this article for great ideas on how and when.
• Don’t take your phone to dinner. Put your phone in another room at dinner time, and just spend those few minutes talking with the people at the table.
• Drive in silence. I have a long daily commute, and I like to use that time to listen to audiobooks or podcasts. But sometimes, I turn everything off and drive in silence, with nothing to listen to but my own thoughts.
• Spend some time every day, or at least every week, outdoors, with no electronic devices. Sometimes, run without an iPod. Walk without your smart phone. Just you and the birds.
• Read a book with no music and no TV in the background.
• Don’t check emails during business meetings. Leave your smart phone or iPad in your office. Unless people’s actual, physical lives depend on reaching you at a moment’s notice (probably only true if you are a doctor or the President of the United States), the world won’t come to an end if you are out of the loop for an hour. So pay attention to what’s being said in the meeting. Take notes on paper if you need to. This is one that I need to work on this week.

The idea is to be a little more in the moment, and a little less distracted. You will find that as you make it a priority to focus more and “multitask” less, several benefits will accrue.

First, things that really don’t matter will fall off your to-do list.

Second, you’ll actually accomplish more (and more high-quality) work on the tasks that have your undivided attention.

Third, the people you interact with will begin to feel more valued and more “heard.”

Fourth, you will begin to feel less stressed and more at peace with yourself.

What do you think? Could your life be improved by focusing on one task at a time? Do you have any tips that you’d add to the list above? I’d love to see your thoughts in the comments below.

(Photo credit: Working from Home via Shutterstock)

Laura McClellan is a lawyer, a writer, a productivity fanatic, and a tech geek. Married for 30+ years to her high school sweetheart, with whom she's raised five amazing kids, she's passionate about encouraging women in their individual journeys as people, wives, mothers, citizens. While she prepares to launch her new website, Laura blogs at I Was Just Thinking . . . and Real Estate Law Blog and is working on her first novel. Connect with Laura on Twitter as @LauraMcMom.

Modern technology really is a wonderful thing. It gives us all manner of affordable gizmos and gadgets to help us manage every element of our lives and get more stuff done.

Yet when it comes to getting more stuff done effectively and to the best standard possible, there’s one set of tools we often over-look; the humble pen and paper.

In praise of paper

It goes without saying that paper is much cheaper, doesn’t suffer too much damage should you drop it on the concrete and doesn’t require batteries or chargers, but they present less obvious advantages too:

Sure, technology provides us with lots of useful, productive tools, but it also provides e-mail, social networks, oh-so-hilarious videos of piano-playing felines and a host of other distractions that otherwise keep us from creating our best work.

The only thing a notepad ever gave us was a blank canvas on which to store thoughts, make notes and create masterpieces.

Distraction free

This very article began life as a basic idea scrawled in a pocket-sized notebook en route home from dinner one evening before being expanded, tweaked and crafted into two rough drafts on a legal pad back at the dining table.

Eventually, when all thoughts were nearly organised and I had an article I was happy with, I typed it up and here it sits before you.

Saving time

Was that more work than heading straight to the computer and hacking at the keyboard until I had something close to a competent piece?

Yes and no.

Okay, so my drafts took me longer to write than if I’d typed them, fully-formed and almost perfect into a word processor, but the honest truth is that had I been at the computer during first-draft, I would have spent just as much time browsing through blogs, tweeting and generally wasting time on unproductive things as I would actual writing.

In the long run then, I saved myself some time and found it easier to enter a state where I was completely focussed on producing the best possible work I could.

“Sometimes I would rather hang upside down in a bucket than write.” - Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

No matter how much we try to tell ourselves that we’re 100% motivated and productive 100% of the time, we all have those days when, just like Douglas Adams, the last thing in the whole world that we feel like doing is the task at hand.

No matter how disciplined we may think ourselves, technology offers such an abundance of distractions that it’s sometimes too much to resist temptation and indulge in those distractions.

Even when we’re motivated enough to get on with the job, sometimes the very process of working at a computer, nothing more than hitting a buttons and inputting data, can thwart the creative process.

Because of this, ideas don’t come as freely, and that completely productive state of working takes a little while longer to reach.

Before we go any further, it’s probably worth pointing out that what you’re reading isn’t the inane ramblings of an out-of-touch old man with a gripe against ‘all this newfangled cyberspace stuff’ just because he doesn’t understand it.

I adore technology. I adore it because it’s portable, convinient, accessible. I adore it because it lets me work from anywhere in the world, and I adore it for all the many wonderful things I can’t do without it.

Though the one thing I can’t do with technology, is think, brainstorm and create half as well as I can when faced with a blank sheet of paper.

Flow states

There’s something about that blank canvas, devoid of distractions and ready to be filled with ideas, that enables a faster entry into what psychologists call the Flow state; that feeling of being fully absorbed in your work, completely energized and so focused on the task at hand that nothing can take you from what you’re doing until you’ve achieved what you set out to do.

You may not call it Flow, you may call it ‘being in the zone’ or use some other term entirely, but the point is that you’re likely to reach that most productive and satisfying state much faster as you feed off the energy created by dragging your pen across a blank sheet of paper than you are simply inputting data into a machine.

You don’t even have to be doing anything particularly creative either.

Having experimented with both technology and paper-based products for all areas of my life, including creating to-do lists, planning projects, personal finance work and just about anything that requires me to get stuff out of my head and onto some form of page, I’ve found that the ideas I have come quicker, and are more inspired and defined than I ever had bashing buttons on a keyboard.

Of course, it would be quite absurd to encourage you to replace your Ipad with a notepad forever more; we wouldn’t be talking right now were it not for technology. Though if you want to create your best work in an environment free from distractions that allows you to quickly and effortlessly reach your Flow state, laying the laptop aside and picking up a sheet of paper may just be what you need.

(Photo credit: Notebooks via Shutterstock)

When you don’t take action to live your dreams, someone somewhere else in the world will.

Take the risk. Put in the practice. Be willing to pay the price. Get it done no matter what it takes or how long it takes. You are responsible for the results you get. There is no time for excuses.

The following tips can help you on the path to live your dreams.

1. Fear is no excuse; we’re all afraid.

It’s part of being human. It’s what you do in spite of your fear that matters. Look your fear in the eye. Tell it to back down. You have work to do, people to see, and connections to make.

2. Make a choice

We make hundreds of choices every day. Become aware of the choices you make and the consequences of your choices. Choose to get up an hour early. Choose to use your gifts and talents. Choose to go the extra mile. Choose to ask for help. Choose to leave your mark on the world. It’s all about choices.

3. Talk to yourself

Use encouraging words. I’m 58 years old. Saturday night I ran a five mile road race for charity. It was 93 degrees and we ran on the black pavement at 8 p.m. There were no water stations. I used the mantra, “I am a fighter.” I talked myself across the finish line. Why did I do it? Because I could!

4. Minimize your number of regrets

Do what you need to do today to live your dreams. Don’t hesitate, delay, or isolate. Apologize, take the high road, and accept responsibility for all that you do and all that you don’t do. Life is messy. So what! Learn from your mistakes and move on.

5. Don’t be afraid of hard work

Be willing to do what it takes. Put in the hours. Network. Become an expert. Don’t back down and don’t give in. Dream big! Sometimes life will demand that you crawl one more inch and sometimes life will allow you to soar. Continue to advance forward. Enjoy it all.

6. Live the part

What does success feel like? Get into the feeling. What does success smell like? Wear the perfume. What does success look like? Dress the part. Go where successful people go and do what successful people do.

7. Kick down the doors

When things go wrong, get back up. When doors don’t open, kick them down. When there’s a detour, climb a fence. When somebody tells you, “no”, ask again. Keep going back and keep moving forward until you get what you want. Each “no” is a step closer to a “yes”.

8. Make yourself stand out

Tell the truth. Keep your promises. Make others aware of your strengths. Be persistent. Be yourself. Listen to your heart. Follow your dreams with integrity and love.

9. Share your gifts

Do it in small and big ways. Help, server, and surprise others. Yesterday, my husband went into the gas station for a few minutes as I waited in the car. I noticed a man standing on the sidewalk. He was old, worn, and was missing an arm. His other arm didn’t look very good either. I phoned my husband and asked him to pick up a bottled water and a sandwich. I asked him to give it to the guy on the sidewalk when he came out. The man smiled, accepted it, and walked away. It’s that simple. Are you willing to share your time, talent, wisdom, or money today?

We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so we need to create and live our dreams today!

(Photo credit: Businessman in cloud via Shutterstock)

Tess Marshall of The Bold Life has a master's degree in counseling psychology and has recently released a new course, "Take Your Fear and Shove It!". Download her free ebook, "How to Be Bold."

We all have read a lot of articles on how to find your passion in life. From personality tests and questionnaires to life experiences and career advice, even I left no avenue untouched.

They say to look for hints around you, ask your friends and family for advice and put yourself out there, open to new experiences that take you outside your comfort zone and I’ve got to admit, I’ve done it all. I’ve even managed to dissect my personality into numerous letter codes like INFP and INTP, but even these weren’t good enough to satisfy my hunger to know it all.

For the most of us, discovering our passions isn’t as easy as getting a degree or finding a job. It’s a rather tiring and patience enduring process, with absolutely no assurance that you’ll get somewhere, or anywhere as a matter of fact.

Though what struck me the other day was the fact that for all these years I’ve been searching for my passion. I’ve been trying to find clues and road maps, how to guides or even a magic wand that gives me all the directions I need. Somehow the present me has been trying to find the future me, not create it.

But how can I find something that doesn’t exist yet?

It’s like having all the colors on your palette and a blank canvas in front of you while you simply sit still, waiting for the painting to appear.

Sounds silly doesn’t it? But that’s the rut a lot of us are stuck in. We are constantly in search of something not realizing that all the pieces of the puzzle are within us. We can choose to put them together how ever our hearts desire, for the first time, there are no wrong answers.

Different colors on our palette are simply the things we love vs. the things we absolutely despise. We know what makes us smile and what makes our heart ache instead. Our blank canvas is our entire life ahead of us starting from this very moment, simply waiting for us to fill it with our favourite colors making it what ever we want it to be.

Therefore after years of running around in circles and being disheartened over and over again, it finally hit me: I can be whoever I want to be. A magician, dancer, research scientist, barista, graffiti artist or a bear hugger — anything. Anything at all.

Yes, we all have limitations. And we have responsibilities to fulfill. But where’s the challenge and the thrill of accomplishment if the road is too easy, right? The problem arises when we feel stuck within and are unable to identify what it is that our heart truly desires.

Here are 3 quick and simple ways to overcome the self critique and the endless chatter in your mind and start listening to your true self. You don’t have to do them all, just pick one or alternate from one to another.

Write Everyday

It’s called garbage writing by some and that’s precisely what it really is. This is a simple way to let the clutter out of your overworked mind once a day. There are no magical revelations to be looked for or some mind boggling truth about the world. Think of it as a mind cleanse, something you do to get rid of the old…and get ready for the new.

Date Yourself

Everyone needs a timeout and so do you. Give yourself the opportunity to enjoy a fabulous meal with yourself or a walk by the beach at least once a week. The only rule is that you can not take anyone along. No friends, no acquaintances, only unfamiliar faces are allowed: maybe try something new like a salsa class or a martial art lesson. Its all about doing something you enjoy and having a great time.

Be Still

Spend 10 minutes everyday to just be. You don’t have to meditate or pray or do anything for that matter. Don’t even try to control your thoughts, but accept them the way they are. Don’t evaluate, don’t analyse, don’t create and nor should you try to erase them, just let them float through your mind, appearing and disappearing into thin air.

These are some fabulous techniques to open the communication channel between the worldly you and soulful you, two of which are also suggested by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. All you need to do is pay closer attention to yourself and what is innately you will emerge from in between all the clutter.

Just like wizards, magic exists in our fingertips. What colors are you going to add to your canvas today?

(Photo credit: Empty Treasure Chest via Shutterstock)

You have a deadline coming up. It might be for a blog post, an article, or even a book. Unfortunately you have that dreaded disease of what they call writer’s block. You have a topic, but you have no idea about how to present it.

No worries. Writing doesn’t have to be hard. Writing is really just about applying a template and filling in the blanks. Here are 10 great ways that you can apply to just about any topic and get your writing done quickly and easily.

1. How-To Tutorial

This is the classic “how-to” tutorial. It is organized in a systematic, step-by-step approach to accomplishing a task. The steps are most commonly organized in chronological order (i.e. Step One is…, Step Two is…, etc.). These are generally known as “systems”, “formulas”, “checklists” or “blueprints”.

2. Frequently Asked Questions.

Another style is what I call “frequently asked questions”. In this model, you would take 10-20 of the most asked questions about a particular topic and answer them in your content. This is one of the easiest writings to create because outlining is simple due to the Q&A style:

1. List the question.
2. Answer it.

3. Interview

Moving from questions that you answer to questions that someone else answers is another way to write. An “interview” is, not surprisingly, a series of questions that you pose to one or more qualified experts to create your content. (Reasons why experts would do this for you include:  free publicity for their web site or business, rights to the completed report or paid compensation.)

4. List

Another writing template is what I’ve labeled the “list”. It is simply a listing of ways, strategies, tips, secrets, tactics, techniques, habits, exercises, principles, etc. with a detailed description of each entry to the list.

5. Case Study

Next is the “case study” model. This would consist of you profiling different successful examples of accomplishing a common task. In other words, you’d show how several different people (including or not including yourself) have achieved the desired result. The great thing about this style of writing is the variety of different methods people use in attaining similar results. Your readers will likely “connect” with one or more of the examples and get a sense of motivation and empowerment to reach their goal as well. Bottom line:  you’ve got a satisfied reader.

6. Resource Directory

Next is the “resource directory”. With this you include a group of related entries of resources (usually indexed categorically and then alphabetically), along with their contact information such as web site, phone number and or mailing/physical address. You might think of a campground directory or a listing of hotels that a certain niche might enjoy.

7. Idea Generators

Up next we have the “idea generators.” This particular style of template is a best described as “a series of prompts to help the reader brainstorm ideas”.

Here are a few different examples:

• Idea Prompts for Fiction Writers
• 75 Starter Questions for Small Group Discussion
• 97 Winning Ad Headlines For Your Sales Letter Swipe File
• 101 Best Prayer Starters For New Christians
• 101 Fill-In-The-Blank Internet Auction Templates
• The Ultimate Book of Ideas for Home-Schoolers

8. The First Year

Up next is what I’ve labeled “the first year”. In this kind of template, you’d walk a newcomer through the first 12 months of a particular endeavor. What beginner standing on the threshold of something completely new to them wouldn’t want the wisdom of what to expect and how to successfully navigate through the foundation period?

You could chronicle the first year with a calendar of milestones and guideposts, pitfalls to avoid, shortcuts to take and so forth. Some examples are:

• The First Year of Parenting
• The First Year of Home-schooling
• The First Year of College
• The First Year of Internet Business
• The First Year of Life After Loss of Loved One
• The First Year of Teaching
• The First Year of Youth Ministry
• The First Year of Living With M.S.

9. Niche Business

One of the biggest mistakes that most “Internet marketers” make is trying to create information products to sell to other Internet marketers. It’s a cycle that just loops over and over again. Fortunately for you, while everyone else is competing with each other, you have an opportunity to teach “niches” how to market.  Instead of selling marketing information to other marketers, teach niche business owners how to market.  All business owners, regardless of what their business is, need more customers.

Note: What’s interesting about this “kind” of small report is the fact that you can make a few changes and “niche it” for numerous different topics (i.e. “Bookstore Owner’s Guide to Marketing”, “Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Marketing”, “Hair Salon Owner’s Guide to Marketing”, etc.).

Some examples are:

• The Christian Bookstore Owner’s Guide To Marketing
• The Pet Store Owner’s Guide To Marketing
• The Personal Trainer’s Guide To Getting More Clients
• How To Quickly And Easily Get More Real Estate Referrals
• A Crash Course In Free Publicity For Independent Singers
• A 10-Day Plan For Promoting Your Craft Show

10.  The Bridge

I’ve labeled this kind of writing “the bridge”. The idea is to combine two unrelated topics into one small report.  Think of it this way: there are universal wants and needs (i.e. To lose weight and get in shape) that are applicable to virtually all markets. Most people want to make more money, be successful, live happily, have great relationships, etc. These are universal pursuits. The idea here is to bring those universal pursuits into the arena of your specific field of interest or expertise.

Some examples are:

• Time Management For Single Parents
• The Internet Marketer’s Diet
• The Educator’s Guide to Becoming A High-Paid Public Speaker
• Success Secrets For Small Business Owners
• The Home-Schoolers Guide To Working At Home

Remember writing is like anything else. You don’t have to get it perfect, just get it started. Use these ideas and you are off to a good start!

(Photo credit: Man Using Laptop with Lightbulb via Shutterstock)

For 20 years, Michael Martel was a Green Beret in the US Army. He now works with people to put Special Forces like effectiveness into their lives and businesses.  Go to Achieve The Green Beret Way and learn about his book Get ER Done: The Green Beret Guide to Productivity and other tools for achieving outstanding results.

There’s no question that the school of hard knocks can be, well, hard.

When life becomes tough, many of us stop chasing our dreams and retreat under a big ugly flannel security blanket. Let’s face it: we’re terrified of failure.

We’re afraid that we might not succeed, that our dreams are only pipe-dreams, that “reality” has to be hard because it is for every body else.

Though we enter the world with a sense of youthful optimism: excitement about opportunity, a willingness to risk it all, and a belief that everything will turn out our way (In one survey, 96% of 18-24 year-olds agreed with the statement, “I am very sure that someday I will get to where I want to be in life”).*

This is the time in life when we think that we can change rule the world.

And…then at least one of two things happens:

1. You fail at something on your first, second, and/or third try.
2. You spend too much time around uninspired people who view the world as a competitive place full of struggles, competition, and tears.

And…after a few years, when you haven’t miraculously reached your dreams, you start to get discouraged. You start thinking:

“Maybe they’re right.”

“Maybe I’m just being a lazy optimist. I should settle down and do what is expected of me.”

You do what you think is called, “growing up”.

I won’t sugar coat it, you’re becoming a coward.

In his book, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment, Harvard psychology professor Tal Ben-Shahar writes:

“When we fail to attain a desire outcome, we often extrapolate from that experience the belief that we have no control over our lives or over certain parts of it. Such thinking leads to despair.”

Thus, overcoming this feeling of defeat is your ultimate goal.

To do so, you need one thing…and one thing only: Perseverance.

Here’s a true story about how this plays out in the real world…

When she was a child, my grandma knew that she wanted to become a chemist. She was of the first generation of an Italian immigrant family living in the Bronx. Her father died when she was two-years-old. Her mother wanted her to become a piano teacher.

In order to beat the odds, she had to work odd jobs for mean nuns, graduate high school at 16, and endure constant questioning from her mother: “when will you stop all of this nonsense?”

It was not okay for a woman to become a chemist, and the world tried to make sure that she knew it.

But instead of giving up, she persevered.

Instead of hanging around people who didn’t support her, she surrounded her self with likeminded scientists (like my grandfather, whom she met at Columba while earning their PhDs).

Her story inspires me every time I hear it.

The thing is, my grandmother never made excuses.

Some of the excuses we tell ourselves are:

1. I don’t know anyone who has done it before/ too many people are already trying.
2. I don’t have enough (money, power, skills, education, time)
3. If I was going to do it, I would have done it already.
4. I have too many responsibilities.
5. I am too old or young.
6. I will never be the best. Too many people are ahead of me.
7. It’s not the right time.

But, what if we simply rephrased these excuses into empowering beliefs?

1. It doesn’t matter what other people are doing, this is my dream.
2. I have more than enough resources to get started.
3. There’s no time like the present!
4. My number one priority is living passionately.
5. My age gives me a unique perspective, and is only a number.
6. There will always be someone to learn from.
7. It will never be perfect, so I might as well stop stalling and start now.

Can I get a “hellz yeah” for youthful optimism?

Look, I’m not saying that you should ignore the lessons that you’ve learned from your experiences. You’ve earned those. Instead, my suggestion is to learn learn to perfect your skills and become an even better person without losing that inspired-to-be-alive feeling.

Think you can do it?

I know you can.

Take action right now to write down the empowering phrases that will benefit you the most and put them somewhere where you will see them every day.

*Survey mentioned comes from Horbblower, M. (1997, June 9). Great Xpectations. Time, pp. 58-68.

Courtney Johnston is a lifestyle writer and the creator of The Rule Breaker's Club, a slice of the web all about sticking it to the status quo. She has spent 2 years in Paris and is passionate about happiness and cheap wine (the two often go hand in hand). You can find her on Facebook and Twitter.

Do you find that when you’re pressed for time it becomes easier to skip a workout? Is it a hassle for you to drive to the gym before or after work? After reading this article you won’t feel this way again, no matter how busy your schedule. That’s because I will show you a great muscle building, calorie burning workout that only takes 15-20 minutes to complete. You can do it anywhere too, even your office or backyard.

The workouts are referred to as complexes by strength coaches. Despite the name, they are anything but complex with regard to the equipment, space, skill, or time they require to complete. Keep reading to learn what complexes are along with why and how to do them any time or place.

Complexes – 20 Minute Muscle Building Workouts

Basically speaking, complexes are 3 or more exercises done using the same barbell, dumbbell, or kettlebell with no rest between each movement. The exercises you use typically alternate between upper and lower body in focus. They’re most often done while standing. When performed properly you will move fluidly from one exercise to the other.

Complexes are the brainchild of strength coach Istvan Javorek. He uses them to help athletes quickly build muscle and improve their overall fitness in the off-season. The results Coach Javorek reports speak for themselves. After 3-6 months of training this way men and women he coaches often gain more than 30 pounds and more than doubled their strength. People I train achieve similar results and often lose as much weight and body fat in as little time too.

You don’t have to be an elite athlete to do them or achieve similar results. Anyone can do complexes. If you’re willing to put forth maximum effort and make sure you eat enough protein to build muscle you too can achieve similar results.

The list below details the several benefits of complexes.

• Complexes are convenient. You don’t have to deal with the hassle of changing weights or moving from one piece of equipment to another.
• Complexes save you time. Since you rest so little and don’t have to change equipment or machines each workout only takes 15-20 minutes.
• Complexes don’t require much equipment. All you need to perform this workout is a dumbbell or kettlebell.
• Complexes don’t require a lot of room. You can do this workout in a spare room of your house or backyard.
• Complexes improve your overall fitness. This workout won’t simply make you bigger or stronger. Doing them regularly will help you build muscle, increase your strength, and even increase your flexibility.

The 20 Minute Workout Explained

The exercises in this complex workout are: 1 arm snatches, squats, and shoulder press. Performing a complex with these exercises trains practically every muscle in your body. Your legs, core (abs/lower back), upper back, and shoulders get an especially good workout. You’ll even feel it in your biceps and triceps. My arms got significantly bigger after doing this complex 2-3 times a week for a month. I wasn’t doing any exercises for my arms like curls or triceps push downs either.

Below are descriptions for each exercise. I recommend learning how to do each exercise by itself first. Once you have the movement mastered you can do them as a complex.

1 Arm Snatch

1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in one hand with your palm facing away from you. The weight should be between your legs.
2. Bend your knees and waist as if you are performing a kettlebell swing. The weight should swing back and between your legs.
3. Once the weight has swung between your legs, pull it forward explosively. Push from your heels onto your toes. Keep your arm straight and extended throughout the movement. You should be on your toes as the weight approaches chest height.
4. Driving with your hips, pull the weight up until your arm is fully extended and you’re holding the weight above your head.
5. Lower the weight to shoulder height and prepare to perform the squat segment of the complex.

Kettlebell Squat

1. Stand holding a dumbbell or kettlebell at shoulder height. Your feet should still be apart at shoulder width.
2. Perform a squat by bending your knees and moving your but back. Your weight should be over your heels.
3. Continue to squat down until your thighs are parallel with the ground. Your heels should never come off the ground.
4. Return to the standing position. Push up from your heels.
5. You’ll finish in the same position from which you started this portion of the exercise. You’re now ready to perform the 1 arm shoulder press.

1 Arm Shoulder Press

1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart holding a dumbbell or kettlebell at shoulder height. If you’re using a kettlebell it will rest against the back of your hand.
2. Tighten your abs, breath in and press the weight overhead until your arm is completely extended.
3. Lower the weight back to the starting position of the exercise.
4. Return the weight to the starting position of the 1 arm snatch.

Sets, Reps and Rest Periods

Begin with 5 sets of 3 repetitions per arm for each exercise. Add 1 repetition per set every other workout until you can do 5 sets of 8 reps. Once you have achieved this goal you can decrease the amount of rest you take between complexes to make them more challenging and further improve your fitness.

When you can easily do 5 sets of 8 reps with 60 seconds or less rest between each complex it’s time to move only more challenging variations. This can include performing reverse lunges instead of squats and holding the weight overhead as you perform the squatting segment of the exercise. You can also add an additional movement such as the kettlebell swing to the complex.

When You Should Do This 20 Minute Workout

You can do this workout about as often as you like. Doing it 3-5 days a week is most effective.

Another way to add it to your overall workout routine is to perform it on your days off from the gym. This is a great way to consistently train and improve your overall fitness. When doing it with this goal in mind, perform 3-5 sets of 5 reps with a weight you can actually perform 10 reps with so you don’t train too heavy and compromise your ability to recover before your next workout.

On days I have a little more time to train, I like to do this complex as the first exercise of my workout. Then, all I have to do is perform 3-5 sets of plyometric push ups, pull ups, and farmer’s walks and I’m done. I’ll have trained every major muscle group in my body in about 30 minutes tops.

Conclusion

You now have a great workout that enables you to get in a great total body workout in very little time. Since it only requires 1 piece of equipment it’s super convenient too. Even if you are stuck in your office all day long, take a dumbbell or kettlebell to work with you and perform a couple of sets on during a break. Before you know it you’ll find you’re getting results faster than you ever thought possible.

(Photo credit: Workout Time via Shutterstock)

Curt is the founder of Stayfitcentral.com, a website which features reviews, guides, and other information to help people buy the right nutritional supplements and fitness products for their specific needs. Curt has published numerous fitness, nutrition, and health related articles online at leading online publications including: eDiets, iVillage, and Askmen.

Lifehack has been expanding its number of posts per week over the past few months, and we’re looking to add more and more to the site to enhance the overall reader experience. Today marks another of these enhancements — the first being Lifehack Deals — as we are pleased to announce the launch of Lifehack Apps, a destination where you can discover apps that fall into what we talk about here at Lifehack.

What is Lifehack Apps?

Powered by Appstores, Lifehack Apps features apps from all of the major platforms sorted into categories that are based on our blog post categories (Productivity, Money, Management, Technology, Lifestyle and Communication). Lifehack Apps can be viewed in a variety of ways, as you can look at apps based on rating, price, popularity and more. Each app entry will feature a description, and as the store continues to populate, we will be adding editorial reviews as well. Lifehack Apps allows us to conduct more reviews for apps within a portal dedicated to just that — allowing us to focus on using the Lifehack blog for articles that aren’t so much review-based. Whenever we touch on an app, it will bring you — the reader — to Lifehack Apps so that you can read a more comprehensive entry on the app itself. You’ll get a better sense of what the app is about, our thoughts on it (as well as the thoughts of other readers), and be able to decide whether it is right for you.

Lifehack Apps will also be curated by our editors so that we can offer the best experience possible. That means you’ll get the lowdown on all kinds of apps that fit in with what we do here at Lifehack, and you’ll be able to add you own two cents with the commenting system that Appstores serves up at the portal. That makes our Lifehack Apps portal not only a great place to discover apps, but a place where you can discuss those discoveries as well.

We’re just getting started with Lifehack Apps as there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. We’re sorting through the various apps already mentioned and fine-tuning the experience in the process. We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below. And remember — this is just another of the ways we’re looking to enhance the Lifehack experience for you, our readers. Let us know how we’re doing…and thanks for reading!

(Photo credit: Apps via Shutterstock)

Mike Vardy is the Managing Editor at Lifehack. An independent writer, speaker, podcaster and "productivityist", you can read more of his writing at Vardy.me. He is @mikevardy on Twitter.

Have you ever felt at a loss when you needed to draw the line with someone?

Have you put yourself at a disadvantage when you failed to draw the line because you couldn’t think of a way to do it ?

Have you ever felt mistreated when someone drew a line to your disadvantage?

Setting boundaries is one of the most important parts of relationships. It is more important to satisfactory relationships that just about everything else, since without agreeable boundaries, most relationships cannot function well. The expression, “Good fences make good neighbors,” is true.

At the same time we all have had experience with poor boundaries, boundaries that are too loose or too strict, boundaries that are self-serving and boundaries that feel abusive.

So what can we do about this?

Step 1: Know Yourself And Your Needs

This first step in setting boundaries is to make an appointment with yourself. Make yourself comfortable with a notebook so that you can brainstorm your ideas.

You need to create a map in your mind that enables you to confidently respond to boundary conflicts. When you have that map in your mind, you will feel more relaxed and will be able to handle conflict in a way that works for you and the other person.

This is what you have to come to terms with:

1. What are my most important values? Being clear about your values helps you identify good compromises. Values are the core of your boundary strategy and what you most need to honor.
2. What are my most important priorities? It is easier to say yes or no, when you are honoring your most important priorities.
3. What is non-negotiable for me? Non-negotiable items are related to your values or conditions in your life like your health. It could be family time, diet requirements particularly if you are ill, or values related to doing harm to yourself or others.
4. What can I be somewhat flexible about? Scheduling issues typically fall in this category. An example: “I can work between 7AM-6PM but have to leave no later than 6PM to pick up my children.”
5. What can I always be flexible about? The answer could include family emergencies, activities that are important to a family member, where I jog, and where I live.
6. How do I typically handle trade-offs? Do they usually work for me or not? There is nothing wrong with making sacrifices, but if they are too frequent they can leave you feeling resentful.

When thinking about setting boundaries and making compromises, you are considering the totality of your values, your limits in terms of time and energy and your desire and ability to sacrifice. These are all important issues to understand. Getting a handle on them keeps you from making commitments in a soft moment when your time will not really allow it, causing you to neglect a more important priority.

Since boundary situations are often unique and complex, it is worth purchasing some books on the subject. Here are two that can help:

1. Boundaries: When to Say YES, When to Say NO, To Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud and
2. Boundaries Where You End And I Begin: How To Recognize And Set Healthy Boundaries by Anne Katherine, M.A.

Step 2: Planning For Problem Situations

We all have difficult boundary situations. Some will involve a bossy person, a passive person or someone who has different values. Whatever the difficult boundary problems you face, you can help yourself a lot if you plan for them. These are some planning considerations:

1. Identify the boundary situations that are most difficult for you.
2. For each difficult situation imagine a time when a conflict was resolved poorly and one that was resolved to your satisfaction.
3. can you identify when conflict causes problems for you? For example: a passive person might sigh or complain as a way to get your attention and take care of their problems. If you give in to the pressure, you have taken on a problem that is not really yours to solve. Sometimes we do not see boundary issues for what they are because they come disguised as something else or because we like to be helpful.
4. Try to identify when you start to feel manipulated. Is it when someone is unhappy? or complaining? Is it when someone makes decisions for you? or has expectations that are never discussed or explicitly agreed to? Does someone take your things without asking? These situations usually exist because someone has successfully made themselves more important than you.
5. Identify when you are uncomfortable taking action. Is it when someone is very sarcastic, dismissive, or contemptuous? Is it when someone has power within your group or social approval for their behavior that makes them hard to challenge?
6. Identify whether the challenging situation is one that lends itself to the direct one-on-one approach or a longer perhaps more indirect strategy where you need to have a group on your side to effect change.
7. Identify when you need to treat yourself as important as everyone else.

Step 3: Develop Your Strategy

As a general rule, most people want good boundaries as much as you do. Most people are not looking for unnecessary problems.

If you respect others and treat their concerns as valid, they will likely do the same since reciprocity is an ancient rule in human relationships. Therefore when you are willing to listen the another person, it is common courtesy that do the same. It is not unreasonable to want to be listened to as well.

It also helps to be in a problem solving frame of mind. If you ask questions to find out where the other person has some flexibility you can then offer solutions in the form of suggestions, alternatives or even substitutes for what is being asked of you. Since not everyone understands boundaries, you may have to be a leader on finding an agreeable solution.

If I were to create a formula for a boundary setting process it would be:

1. Establish a positive intent. “I love how my blouse looks on you…”
2. State a concern. “That blouse was a gift and is important to me.”
3. Ask questions if necessary. “We need to figure out a holiday schedule. What is your situation and do you have any ideas?”
4. Ask for what you need in a way that respects the other person. “I like to help when I can but I need for you to ask if you want to borrow my things.”
5. Get agreement. “Does that work for you?”

Successful problem-solving is a combination of respect and creativity. When you combine both, your chances of a positive outcome increase.

Step 4: The Tough Cases

The first thing you have to do in tough cases is to give yourself permission to have the problem. If you feel bad about it you will be less effective in solving the problem.

You also need to give yourself permission to fail, because only then will you be loose enough to come up with solutions. Not everyone is cooperative and if you can accept that with good grace, it will help you to relax about conflict. It also helps to know that walking away from a conflict is sometimes necessary and not a sign of failure.

When you have a difficult or stubborn situation, it can help to come up with way to change the existing dynamic.

Here are some ideas:

1. Change the other person’s perception of your value so that you are perceived as important to the other party.
2. Change the social dynamic. You could refuse to interact when someone is unreasonable or use humor to loosen people up when they have dug in their heels. Charm works wonders.
3. If necessary, throw in the towel. You may have heard the story about the villagers who caught a monkey by putting peanuts inside a coconut shell. The monkey found and grabbed the peanuts in the shell. However, he could not hold on to the peanuts and run away from the villagers at the same time. All he had to do was let go and he would have escaped. Sometime letting go is the best way to solve a problem.

Step 5: Implementing Your Strategy

Your experience and comfort level should guide how you decide to implement your boundary implementation strategies. You can start with minor situations with people you know or a boundary that is very important to you.

Step 6: The Key

I believe that the key to setting boundaries and good relationships lies in being in a constructive frame of mind. When the people around you know that you see the good in them, they will be in a positive frame of mind when working with you.

It also helps to have a sense of humor and to be creative.

Good relationships are challenging because we are all both alike and different at the same time. Just making the effort to work on boundaries is something for you to feel proud of. You are creating a better world with each positive step. Every time you find positive interpersonal solutions you essentially help reduce some of the fear and unhappiness in the world. That is a great gift to yourself and others.

Photo Credit: Sourcecon.com

1. Stop waiting for things to change – change yourself NOW! 

Most often that means changing your attitude! Too many times people have preconditions to happiness, only to find even if they reach that goal, there are even more pre-conditions to happiness. Aside for a temporary “high” when we attain our goal, we very quickly go back to a general baseline mood unless we change our thinking habits. If you tend to be a pessimist, you will continue to be no matter what happens on the outside, unless you change from the inside. Real attitude change is an inside job!  

2. Build on your regrets, rather than let them keep you stuck in the past.  

All too often, we use the past as a hitching post rather than a guide post. What’s done is done, and you can’t change it now. Use lessons from the past to improve your life NOW!  See even failure as feedback, not as a referendum of your self worth. Regrets can propel you forward, make you wiser and help you develop empathy for others. Regrets give us many useful lessons to build upon if you do not let them weigh you down. Forgive yourself for now knowing everything when you were six! We are all works in progress. Use your regrets as stepping stones towards a better future, rather than rocks in your emotional backpack.

3. Learn something every day.

 The end of school does not mean the end of learning. We are learning all the time, even if we are not aware of it. Life gives the best lessons of all, and it constantly teaches us lessons no one ever could. If you open up to the wonder of growing and learning, even if the lessons are something you never wanted to learn, you will keep moving in a forward direction.

4. Stop lying to yourself! 

People who are the most honest to others are often the biggest liars to themselves. They feed themselves all sorts of fiction that they are not good enough, not smart enough, not attractive enough, to the extent that they feel at times like “failures”. The critical inner voice is hard to quell, especially if you learned early on those messages that were judgmental and critical.  People who lie to themselves treat fact like fiction.  Change your self talk from statements like “I should be further along in my life than now” to “I am disappointed at where I am in my life, and I have learned many lessons to build on to make different decisions now.”  

5. Forgive…for goodness sake!

Forgiveness does not mean condoning behavior – it means you give up the bitterness you harbor that eats at you and robs you out of happiness in life.  People who wrong us are not inherently evil, but rather more likely unhealthy and maybe very very, very unhealthy. Switching from seeing from being “bad” to being “unhealthy” can free you of the resentment and bitterness. Whether it is your parents, coworkers, friends, or as a result of a love relationship gone sour, forgiveness will help you open up your heart to try again.  Of course, the most important person to forgive is yourself, and keep in mind you are a work in progress.

6. Think straight to feel great! 

Irrational thinking lays the foundation for a lot of unhappiness and helplessness. Irrational thinking can be so automatic, that it is hard to catch, as our thoughts become solidified into “truths.” Our perceptions shape our reality, and that is what determines our attitude. As you become more aware of irrational patterns of thinking and change them into more rational thoughts, you will be empowered to change your attitude to change your life. “I can’t stand this” is irrational – nothing makes you melt into the ground! A more rational perspective is, “I am having a hard time with this”. The less you immobilize yourself with judgmental thoughts, the more you will feel empowered and optimistic.

7. Try to change what is in your control, not what is out of your control.  

Who is the only person we can change? Ourselves!  Who do we often try to change? Others!  Even trying to change someone else’s mind, however well meaning, can lead to frustration as people do not change just because you want them too – they need to want to! If you find yourself trying to change others, you will tend to be aggressive rather than assertive.  Bossiness and insensitivity will limit your ability to be accepting of others, flaws and all.  Of course, accepting people does not give them a “carte blanche” to say or do anything they want – it is up to us to set limits on how much we let them into our inner world. People who tend to be negative and focus on changing others rather than themselves are more likely to be dissatisfied with their lives.

8. Make peace with the fact that life is not fair.

We all know that life is not fair, but all too often we still expect it to be!  Expecting that life and people in it should be fair is the source of countless pain. Life gets quite tedious with that type of entitled mentality. Life is really more like Swiss Cheese with all its holes. It is not smooth and predictable like cream cheese or American.  It is actually the holes in our lives that offer us challenges that make us stronger and develop depth of character.  If we embrace the holes in our lives and grow through them, we become healthier in mind and spirit. Try as hard as you can to make life fair, and accept the rest and work around it.

9. Let yourself smile from within.

   People who are grateful for what they have instead of comparing themselves to others, feeling bitter about what they do not have, tend to feel less hacked by life. Pre-conditions to gratefulness is like pre-conditions to happiness – gratefulness will never happen unless we learn to be grateful for things in our life now.  Life can be tough and it is easier to find faults with it, but it will be an easier journey if we stop to smell the roses, slow down, and enjoy beauty in your world today.   Immerse yourself in nature, breath in the fresh air, slow down and savor each bite of food, and stop to lovingly gaze on those close to you.  Don’t take them for granted.  Are you too busy for that?  Let yourself be a human being instead of a human doing. 

10. Don’t wait to change your life – do it today!  Start right now!

You want your life to change?  Don’t wait!  Tomorrow is forever put off, and today is the day to start.  You can empower yourself by using “victor” language instead of “victim” language.  Replace “I should” with “I will”  and “I hate to” with “I don’t like”. The more flexible your self talk, the more you feel empowered and will be proactive.  Proactivity is one of the 7 habits of highly effective people according to Stephen Covey. Those who are proactive are more likely to be masters of their destiny, as opposed to those who are reactive, who allow others to control their moods. Make an action list of things you want to accomplish, and start today!  You do not have to do things all at once, and breaking large goals such as losing weight, can be broken down into little sub-goals.  The important thing is to begin today!

Each day that you choose to remind yourself of these ten skills to hack life rather than let life hack you, you will increase your sense of self-mastery and enjoy life more.

I welcome ideas of how you hack life!

(Photo credit: A Better Life Sign via Shutterstock)

My go-to app for working with PDFs on my iPad is PDF Expert from Readdle. When I need to sign a contract, mark up documents for review (very handy for book chapters before they go to print), or just work with a PDF in general PDF Expert just works. Until today I hadn’t tried the iPhone version. For some reason I didn’t ever think about having a robust PDF app on my iPhone—until today. The folks at Readdle just updated PDF Expert for iPhone ($9.99) with all the awesome features of the iPad app…like stamps, filling out PDF forms, playing audio and video within PDFs, annotations, and signatures, and I think a very, very clever UI. Oh…and they gave me a couple of codes to share with you, too.

But first, let’s talk about the app.

According to the folks at Readdle, PDF Expert is the only PDF reader for the iPhone that lets you fill out PDF forms (including calculations!). Now that’s pretty handy alone, but you add to that being able to annotate, sign, stamp, and sync with cloud services (I sync documents with Dropbox and it works amazingly well) you really have a killer PDF app.

But, what about a complex PDF with really small text? Come on, most PDFs are made to be read on much lager screens than the iPhone, right? Well, PDF Expert has a special “Text Reflow” mode which scales the text in the PDF to fit the screen (but removes the images) for easy reading. Of course you can switch to “regular” view and quickly zoom in to annotate, check out the images, fill in the forms, or sign something.

I know a lot of us are trying to streamline our cluttered lives and going paperless using PDF documents is a great way to achieve that. The challenge then is being able to get to your PDF files whenever and wherever you need them. I’ve found that PDF Expert fits the bill for me. Open from email, pull from Dropbox, SkyDrive or GoogleDocs (and other), or just download from the web you can read, annotate, sign, and share PDF files with PDF Expert.

Here’s the bottom line: There might be cheaper PDF apps in the App Store for the iPhone (or the iPad for that matter—they are two separate and different apps), but I highly doubt you’ll find a better one than PDF Expert.

(Oh…I mentioned that a couple of you could win a copy, didn’t I? To enter to win a copy of PDF Expert for iPhone just leave a comment on this post and I’ll pick two winners at random next Saturday May 26th. Simple as that.)

So, what’s your big PDF challenge? Sound off in the comments.

Tris Hussey is a technologist, author, teacher, and Canada’s first professional blogger. He has written several books on social media and technology including Create Your Own Blog (1st and 2nd editions), Using WordPress, Sam’s Teach Yourself Foursquare in 10 Minutes, WordPress Essentials (video lessons), and Sam’s Teach Yourself WordPress Themes in 24 Hours (forthcoming in late 2012 with Catherine Winters). You can read Tris’ posts on TrisHussey.com, the FutureShop Tech blog, and other sites around the Internet.

Often the most effective productivity comes not from thorough planning, but from a distinct lack of planning (or at least less planning.) This flies in the face of traditional best practices regarding productivity and an organization. It seems counter-intuitive on the face of it, but in many instances, planning can actually be damaging. We need to be clear that we are really talking about unnecessary planning or excessive planning.

There are many times when at least a modicum of planning is extremely necessary and highly beneficial. In addition, there are many situations where planning is required, demanded, mandated as in any business or career settings. However, as with everything, when taken to excess a good thing crosses the line into harmful, or at least wasteful.

Planning perils

Out of proportion planning: Sometimes we take longer to strategize and map out a plan than the actual time the project or task actually requires to complete. I suppose there are certain situations where this makes sense, as in the adage, “measure twice, cut once.” So if you’re a member of the bomb squad and your job is to defuse ticking time bombs, please take the time to plan even if the action only takes 30 seconds. However, for the vast majority of us who do not face such dire consequences, we have to determine, based on the importance, difficulty, or link of the project, how much planning is actually required or if planning is actually advisable at all.

Time wasting planning: We need to consider the overall picture of our available time. When we engage in excessive planning, we are using precious time that could possibly be used in a more valuable manner. Determine what time opportunity is lost and whether time spent planning is worth the trade off in the long run. Many times the answer is yes, because of effective planning can prevent more work or complications later on. However, at other times the answer is no, but the habit of planning has simply become part of our routine process.

Procrastination planning: Occasionally, perhaps even frequently planning or over-planning can actually be a form of procrastination. We certainly appear to be responsible and organized, and efficient, but that’s a facade. In actuality, what we’re really doing is using planning as a way to justify deferring a task, by spending unnecessary time planning how to do the task instead of actually doing it. This is just sneaky procrastination disguised as prudence.

When planning is justified

• When undertaking a project or task that hasn’t been done before planning may be necessary to determine the correct actions.
• When the project is of a collaborative nature, planning is necessary for clarity of roles and accountability.
• When the consequences of a misstep could be disastrous, planning is certainly justified.
• When a project is extremely complex or is comprised of many steps or phases, effective planning can help ensure that each step or phase is completed in the appropriate order and according to its timetable.

Effective and efficient planning is absolutely crucial to maximize productivity, organization, goal achievement, and success. The danger is in not being clear in regards to the amount of time and effort you should be spending on planning. Use your time and energy wisely and efficiently by being honest and realistic about how much planning is actually necessary.

Exceptionally organized individuals need to be extremely wary of automatically clinging to their default habit of detailed planning. Planning can actually be an addiction for the naturally productive and organized among us. The best way to avoid falling into the over-planning trap is to determine the minimum amount of planning required, way the use of planning time against other available activities and then stop planning and start doing.

(Photo credit: Round Table Planning via Shutterstock)

Royale Scuderi is a writer, life and business coach who empowers individuals and businesses to achieve higher productivity, growth, business success and work - life balance. She offers wisdom, insight and ideas to help you get the most out of your life at Productive Life Concepts.

Having problems fitting it all in?

Is a 24 hour day no longer enough?

If this is the case, here are 9 useful techniques that you can use to boost your time management skills:

1. Be Clear about Goals and Objectives

A sure way to delay in getting started or to make a job last longer than it needs to is being unsure about the objectives. You will often waste time doing work that doesn’t need to be done or spend too much time on other work. Before you set out get clarity on your goals and objectives.

2. Schedule your Time

If you want to have good time management skills, the first thing you will need is a calendar. Stuff has to get scheduled. If you don’t use a calendar then the dreaded jobs — like doing your taxes and cleaning the bathroom — will never get done. Start by scheduling the essential jobs, the appointments, meetings and any other responsibilities you are committed to. Then you will see how much time you have left over to populate.

3. Delegate When Possible

If you find after doing up your schedule that there isn’t much time left over, then think about delegating work. If you work alone, get a virtual assistant. Remember what David Allen says:

“Only do what only you can do.”

4. Monitor How you Spend Your Time

If getting a virtual assistant or anybody else to assist you isn’t an option, then you should start to monitor your time and see how you are spending it daily. You can use a monitoring program for this like Officemetrics or RescueTime. These programs can monitor all that you do on your computer and give you reports to show you how much time you spend on social media, email, Internet or any other work files. You may not like what you see…but it is always better to know.

5. Avoid Multitasking

Human beings can’t multitask (no, not even women). Our brains have become good at task switching, but cannot actually focus on two things at once. If we try to do more than one thing at the same time we lose time refocusing on the new task. If at all possible, focus on one job at a time and complete it before moving on to something else.

6. Do a Regular Mind Sweep

Do a regular mind sweep where you get a piece of paper and write down everything you need to do. Don’t categorize it. Just dump it all onto a piece of paper. Don’t separate work and home; they don’t have different compartments in the brain. Once you have done this schedule, work on any jobs that need to get done and put the rest into your task management system.

7. Exercise

Remember if Branson thinks it’s important – you don’t argue. Branson reckons working out every day gives him 4 extra hours of productivity a day. Get regular exercise to give you energy, reduce your stress and help you to focus.

8. Eat Healthily

Nutrition is also very important. During the day it is important to eat the right foods to keep you energized and focused. Regular small bites rather than a large meal will keep your brain more alert during the day. Don’t go large periods of time without eating. This will result in fatigue and poor mental abilities. Drinking water will also keep dehydration at bay and keep your body and mind happy.

9. Slow down and breathe

Lastly, don’t forget to slow down and breathe deeply as often as possible. Lack of oxygen will make you slow and sluggish, which will affect your performance. The more you rush about from task to task the less you will achieve.

Take your time, focus on the right things, and your time management skills will be top of the class before you know it.

(Photo credit: Farewell Atlantis via Shutterstock)

Ciara Conlon is a Personal Productivity Coach and author. Her mission is to help people achieve their best through working efficiently and being positive and present. “With Productivity and Positivity there is little you can’t achieve” Find out more about Ciara and sign up for her tips, articles and links at Productivity & Positivity

The Adobe Portable Document File (PDF) has become a popular standard for publishing documents online, do it yourself publishing of eBooks, and even for sending business documents out for review. Adobe Acrobat Professional is the best known standard application for creating and editing PDFs. However, the Adobe PDF is an open not a closed standard and you actually do have choice for PDF creation tools. If you want to look beyond the full version of Adobe Acrobat, the first place to start is with Nitro Pro 7  from NitroPDF . It’s feature rich, robust, with a price below what you would pay for a full version of Adobe Acrobat Professional.

Leaving Adobe Acrobat behind doesn’t mean leaving behind features. Nitro Pro 7 brings a lot to the table including:

Compatibility

Being able to read files somebody else sends you is always a worry if you diverge from the application standards your coworkers, partners, and clients use. But since PDF is not some closed proprietary standard, you can open, read, and edit PDFs generated from Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Office 2010 with Nitro Pro 7.

I am sitting on a quite sizeable library of PDFs from technical documentation to writing samples to research for past projects. During my testing, never did I see Nitro Pro 7 have issues or even come close to choking on PDFs generated in my current version Adobe Acrobat.

Productivity

Nitro Pro 7 integrates with Microsoft Office and Windows providing one-button PDF creation from Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (in 32-bit Microsoft Office only). If you are using a 64-bit version of Microsoft Office, the one-button PDF creation isn’t available but Nitro Creator 2 does show up as a Printer option in the Print menu. NitroPDF promises further 64-bit Microsoft Office support in a future release of Nitro Pro 7.
You can open PDFs in Google Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Nitro Pro 7 also has a handy preview features that allows you to preview PDFs. It also displays PDF files in Windows folders as thumbnail document previews not the standard old static PDF icons.

Other productivity features of note include tools for digital signatures, PDF annotation, forms creation, and securing PDFs. You can also create PDFs from scanned documents and even send PDFs to Evernote from within the application (this last feature is a personal favorite of mine!).

PDF Creation and Conversion

Nitro Pro 7 can create PDF and PDF/A documents from the major document and graphic file formats. You can also use it to batch convert files to PDF and you have the tools to convert and combine separate files into a single PDF document.

My tests converting Microsoft Office documents to PDF ran about average. You may notice some performance differences with larger documents but nothing that is going to sacrifice a deadline much less make you late for lunch.

The bane of anybody who has ever inherited documents is being able to only find the PDF version – the location of the original Microsoft Word document disappeared with the original author. Nitro Pro 7 includes an Convert PDF to Word feature, which lets you convert a PDF to an Office format. While the conversion wasn’t perfect (they never actually are) but I had the information, I needed to work with in a Microsoft Word format that was more palatable than PDF. You can also convert documents into Microsoft Excel (*.xlsx) files but don’t expect any formulas to make it through the conversion.

User Experience

I grew up on Adobe Acrobat as a technical writer and can say from a user experience perspective I actually like Nitro Pro 7 for more novice users because it has a clean and simple interface. NitroPDF has put together an easy to use application because they don’t have the cross application integration options to concern themselves with like Adobe. Think about it, most of Adobe’s applications including Adobe Acrobat have seen some bloat in recent years (some features welcome, others not so welcome) that have affected the user experience for those people who may never tap into those advanced features.

Final Thoughts

Nitro Pro 7 is a solid alternative to purchasing the full version of Adobe Acrobat. You don’t lose file compatibility and Nitro Pro 7 packs some powerful features in a well implemented user experience. It also has a light footprint, which can be appealing to those who might see Adobe’s core apps as becoming more bloated with each new release.

Will Kelly is a technical writer who occasionally steps out of software documentation to write for tech websites and publications. His interests include iPad productivity apps, making Microsoft office work efficiently, and online collaboration. Check out his blog at http://willkelly.org or connect with him on Google+, Twitter, or LinkedIN.

“Busy” used to be a fair description of the typical schedule. More and more, though, “busy” simply doesn’t cut it.

“Busy” has been replaced with “too busy”, “far too busy”, or “absolutely buried.”

It’s true that being productive often means being busy…but it’s only true up to a point.

As you likely know from personal experience, you can become so busy that you reach a tipping point…a point where your life tips over and falls apart because you can no longer withstand the weight of your commitments.

Once you’ve reached that point, it becomes fairly obvious that you’ve over-committed yourself.

The trick, though, is to recognize the signs of “too busy” before you reach that tipping point. A little self-assessment and some proactive schedule-thinning can prevent you from having that meltdown.

To help you in that self-assessment, here are 7 signs that you’re way too busy:

1. You can’t remember the last time you took a day off. Occasional periods of rest are not unproductive, they are essential to productivity. Extended periods of non-stop activity result in fatigue, and fatigue results in lower-quality output. As Sydney J. Harris once said, “The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”
2. Those closest to you have stopped asking for your time. Why? They simply know that you have no time to give them. Your loved ones will be persistent for a long time, but once you reach the point where they’ve stopped asking, you’ve reached a dangerous level of busy.
3. Activities like eating are always done in tandem with other tasks. If you constantly find yourself using meal times, car rides, etc. as times to catch up on email, phone calls, or calendar readjustments, it’s time to lighten the load. It’s one thing to use your time efficiently. It’s a whole different ballgame, though, when you have so little time that you can’t even focus on feeding yourself.
4. You’re consistently more tired when you get up in the morning than you are when you go to bed. One of the surest signs of an overloaded schedule is morning fatigue. This is a good indication that you’ve not rested well during the night, which is a good sign that you’ve got way too much on your mind. If you’ve got some much to do that you can’t even shut your mind down when you’re laying in bed, you’re too busy.
5. The most exercise you get is sprinting from one commitment to the next. It’s no longer opinion that exercise promotes healthy lives…it’s proven fact. If you don’t care about that, that’s one thing. If you’d like to exercise, though, but you just don’t have time for it, you’re too busy. If the closest thing you get to exercise is running from your office to your car because you’re late for your ninth appointment of the day, it’s time to slow down.
6. You dread getting up in the morning. If your days are so crammed full that you literally dread even starting them, you’re too busy. A new day should hold at least a small level of refreshment and excitement. Scale back until you find that place again.
7. “Survival mode” is your only mode. If you can’t remember what it feels like to be ahead of schedule, or at least “caught up”, you’re too busy.

Brock Henry is a personal productivity writer. His belief is that productivity can be ignited by using a smart combination of strategy and simplicity. He can be found blogging at strategic simplicity. Connect with him on Facebook or Twitter.

I had a relapse a couple of weeks back. After full bore sobriety from all things productivity porn, I couldn’t help myself any longer. When I see an update to a “GTD” app or see something new online that looks like it can be a “GTD” app, I get the itch to try it out. What pulls us to do this?

I’ve tried everything from simple paper, pencil and a paper filing system to the robust yet complicated systems like OmniFocus and even Microsoft Project. I’ve found that the more complicated the tool tends to be, the more I end up tweaking it and entering into the “cool thing to do on a Saturday afternoon” type of mentality that Dave Allen speaks of. Everything looks great about my system when I’m tweaking, but when I’m in the “heat of battle” on Monday morning, how will it stand up?

I’ve found a couple of things about these productivity tools over the past 5 or 6 years that I want to let you in on.

Productivity tools suck when they use you

The problem with super complicated productivity tools is that they tend to only work when you work them. If you let them lay stagnant for any period of time and have set up reminders, due dates, and notifications, there will come the day when all of the little “boops and beeps” will repel rather than attract you.

Have you opened up a digital productivity tool and been overwhelmed by the tasks that you have assigned to yourself? Couldn’t believe how many tasks had due dates that didn’t really matter if they were due? If so, then you have been used by your productivity tool.

It’s a dirty feeling. I know.

The worst thing is that if you don’t do something drastic, even as drastic as erasing all tasks and projects from the tool, your time enjoying the use of the productivity tool will soon come to an end. You will probably end up resenting it.

If you spend more time organizing than doing

The reason that your tools end up using you is that you probably tend to spend more time organizing your work than actually doing your work. I know that is the case with myself.

I love OmniFocus. It’s probably one of the best productivity apps around, but you can really get down in the weeds with it. And when you do, you will find yourself making decisions about how to organize tasks in a more “intuitive manner” and trying to figure out which GTD contexts better suit you as a human.

All of these tools tell us they are made for getting stuff done, but don’t let their robustness fool you. If you are a “tinkerer” or someone that likes to organize things into their proper “buckets”, complex tools will be your own productivity’s kryptonite.

Completely simple tools aren’t the answer

If you think that paper and pencil is the answer, think again. While the benefits of paper are many (and we sure have talked about that a lot here at Lifehack) it lacks in important things like sorting, rearranging, filtering and alerting.

Rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater, try to find a tool that doesn’t get in your way and use you while still having support for your large amounts of tasks, priorities, and deadlines.

How to get unstuck

The easiest and most straight-forward way to get unstuck from the wrath of complicated productivity tools is to start fresh. That’s right. Start over.

If you have any decent productivity tool you will be able to easily export or save your current data and start with a clean slate. This is the only way that I have found to take control of a complicated system that has gone stagnant and to get myself unstuck and doing the right things again.

When you are setting up your system, make sure to not get too particular about naming conventions, tagging, etc. Also, try really hard not to set “fake due dates” for your projects. After that, instead of thinking of the 20 ways your productivity tool could be better, starting working and checking items off your lists.

Remember, your productivity tools are only as good as you keep them. If they are a dumping ground and not current, your productivity will suffer.

 Most small and mid-sized businesses have joined the content marketing chariot to further reach potential customers.

Ironically, some business entrepreneurs are still in their comfort zone.

They don’t want to take responsibility for growing their business. They don’t want to take action to expand their business.

The Internet has made it exceptionally easy to reach a wider audience. (In case you don’t know, there are people who are desperate to spend money on your products and services.)

But until you reach out to them with valuable content, they can’t reach out with their money.

I want to share 4 exceptional ways to generate potential customers and market your products and expertise professionally with SEO content marketing. We shall be looking at:

1. SEO Content Concept: the best form of content that hooks, interests and adds value to your target   audience.
2. Quality Content: Unique content will enhance the mood of your prospects and cause them to take action right now.
3. Content Timing: Proper timing helps to eliminate guess work from your marketing activities and give you a blank check to cash-in.
4. Evergreen Content Strategy: Successful businesses live for decades. Make your SEO contents evergreen and you’ll consistently achieve results, even when you’re on vacation.

1. SEO Content Concept

Search engine optimization has become the pivot of successful inbound marketing.

It’s true that you can drive targeted prospects to your blog or website using other systems, but search engines and SEO content marketing are the most efficient. The return on investment is usually high, compared to other promotional systems like Media-buying.

It’s not enough to optimize web pages to appear on search engine result pages (SERPs), there should be ways to engage strangers when they pay a visit.

It’s a total waste of time trying to sell to first time visitors; it’s achievable if you persevere.

In web marketing, it’s essential to lead organic visitors into a sales funnel, until they ‘agree’ with your theory and recommendation.

So, proper preparations of your blog or website would ensure you achieve the best results. Don’t send visitors to a homepage, they don’t want to see how beautiful your them is. They want results. Lead them into your ‘rich’ landing page and capture their email address and name – that’s the best SEO content concept used by savvy marketers – you should use it too!

2. Quality Content

Oftentimes, potential prospects are confused; the marketing offers and ads they receive on a daily basis are alarming.

All the infomercials and banner ads are not helping matters. Prospects are desperately looking for VALUABLE contents, rich and simple to entertaining.

With quality content, you can enlighten target audience, prepare their minds to receive your marketing offers and persuade them to take action immediately. When I launched my passive income ideas blog, quality content was the foundation which brought exponential growth. Focus on quality – sales will definitely come.

If you struggle to sell a product or service, I think the problem lies with the quality of contents and marketing copy used. If the perceived value is rich in prospect’s eye, they would have no other choice than to subscribe or buy.

“Quality content” has become a cliché, but we cannot ignore its importance in today’s search engine marketing. If your content is able to solve a particular bugging problem or add value to pre-existing needs, then you’ve succeeded in crafting a masterpiece.

Quality content doesn’t mean that every word or sentence is new, you can still make references or cite relevant articles – but ensure you round it up to solving at ‘least’ one problem in your niche. That’s what sets you apart – can you do that?

3. Content Timing

There are lots of guess work in SEO content marketing – but it doesn’t have to be so. You could easily leverage on hot trends and recent developments around the web to foster a unique content campaign.

If you don’t keep abreast of all that’s happening around you, the content you put out there may be outdated and worthless. Participating in social media networks will enable you stay on top news and events. LinkedIn typically alerts users on what’s going on around the world. You should be using LinkedIn to grow your business networks.

Content timing is important. Google updates are being rolled out periodically and several websites have been buried or sandboxed. You can make a difference if you focus on quality and engagement.

I can assure you that if you produce time-sensitive contents, and make references on your article, no matter what Google is rolling out in the next algorithm updates, your blog will be untouchable.

Time your content and write to engage prospects – with time, you’ll achieve tremendous success online and build a rich subscriber-list. Do you know when twitter followers are logged in? Study their activities and timelines and use it as a tweeting-weapon.

4. Evergreen Content Strategy

The last ball in our SEO Content marketing bowl is ‘evergreen.’ Evergreen is my favorite word in web marketing. For your contents to produce results consistently, creativity and in-depth market research has to come in. Evergreen plants are those plants that retain their foliage throughout the year. Your contents should satisfy Google and prospects as time flies.

Every article and post you write ought to produce better results as it gets older. For instance, if I write an article about email marketing this month and get 100 subscribers, the article is expected to produce x3. That’s about 300 subscribers or more.

Start your SEO content with long-tail key phrases. Research and keep a swipe file of relevant key terms to target.

Afterwards, research what other expert’s have written about the topic you’ve in mind – learn from their experiences and use them as a guide to craft informative, rich, valuable and keyword-rich SEO contents.

Google and other search engines would take interest and reward you every month. That’s the aim of this article and I hope you achieve it in your content marketing career.

Potential customers are everywhere. You couldn’t find them because your content isn’t optimized properly for search engines and people.

Writing for the web is an art and until you master it growing a business can be boring and slow. Plan your content marketing attack wisely and experience the surge of targeted buyers every day.

(Photo credit: SEO Target via Shutterstock)