I’ve never been good at to-do lists. For me, a to-do list is more a theoretical approach than an actual tool. No matter how many times I’ve tried to put a daily to-do list into practice, it never becomes routine.

They’re too easy to ignore. They nag me only just enough to be annoying, not enough to help me to get stuff done. They put me in a grumpy mood.

Simply put, they don’t give me no satisfaction. I can see that there are just more items to get to, but I know that they’re never really going to stop. Life becomes a big monstrous hydra of tasks, where you cut off one head, cross off one item, and two more pop out.

Keep a “Done List”

Instead of a to-do list, I keep a done list. Every day, when I’m winding down my day, I do a quick mental scan of my day and write down what I got done. It may seem counterintuitive, but it helps me plan out my day, and gets me amped to kick butt and get stuff done.

How can things that are done be a productivity tool and why is this more powerful than a to-do list? It comes down to concreteness. All that stuff on your Done List? They’re done!

It’s a record of real results, not intangible goals or wishful thinking. And those results bring all sorts of positive feelings and energy because you’ve achieved something and you want to keep achieving something. You’ll find yourself riding that motivational wave of positivity to get stuff done the next day and the next and the next.

And if you fall off your board? That’s okay, just catch that next wave.

Keeping a done list helps me be more mindful of the journey from to-do to doing to done and beyond. It forces me to stop and recognize that I do get things done, with or without a to-do list.

It kills that feeling that the whole day whizzed past you in a blur. It allows you to take the time to celebrate your accomplishments and help plan better for future ones. Plus, if you are a fan of to-do lists, a done list is a great way to balance that practice to give you perspective, to connect the dots between your expectations and your results, and in the end, to make better, more effective to-do lists.

4 Simple Techniques for Keeping a Done List

It’s simple. Make sure you do 4 easy things.

1. Allow yourself a few minutes to reflect on your day. Jot down things you got done. Review them. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Repeat.

You’ll start to love thinking about what happened that day, and you’ll realize that you got more done than you might’ve otherwise given yourself credit for. A to-do list only gives you credit for stuff you planned on doing – a done list gives you credit for knocking down all the things that life brings your way.

2. Review a bunch of these and get a wider look at how you’ve progressed in days or weeks or months. Remember that a done list gives you the gift of perspective so that you can see where you’re coming from and better plan for where you think you need to go.

3. Don’t let your to-do tasks, whether they’re down on a page or in your head, dictate too narrowly what you write on your done list. Otherwise, you’re just crossing off an item or checking off a box again in another form. The beauty of the done list is their responsiveness to your actual day, so allow it to reflect a richer variety of things than what you thought you had to get done that day.

4. Strike a balance (that works for you) between general and specific. “I ran” is probably too vague and won’t help you in your reviewing phase. ”I ran 2.5 miles” will probably be much more helpful.

“I did the dishes today” may be too routine of a detail and might mean you’re struggling to put something in the done list just for the sake of it. But if you’re the kind of person who never does the dishes and all your roommates find it very annoying, then maybe “I rinsed dishes and emptied dishwasher” should be on your Done list. It all depends!

Conclusion

Motivation comes less from the tasks and crossing something off than from your inner direction and momentum. It feels more like you’re leading you instead of your list of tasks leading you. If you’re like me and to-do lists don’t work their magic for you, you don’t have to feel like an ugly stepsister of productivity trying to fit into a shoe that doesn’t fit: Try making a done list!

Do you have a to-do list? Or would you prefer working with a to-done list? Tell us in the comments.

Photo by Courtney Dirks.

Sponsor’s Note: This article was brought to you by Awesome Gig - Post A Gig, Be Awesome, Get Paid! Sign up today to buy an Awesome Job or sell a Freelance Job in Advertising, Graphic Design, Writing, Social Marketing, Web Design, and SEO!

I quit my job in 2011 to build my own business. I was in for a bumpy ride – and I knew it. In an effort to obtain results at any cost, l adopted work habits that stressed me out and impacted my productivity.

Thankfully, I have pruned every one of them to a point where I can say that today I’m highly effective and at very healthy levels of stress.

However, in case you want to feel overwhelmed, guilty and stressed when starting your business or freelance practice in 2012, please pay close attention… hey, you may be practicing some of them already!

How to Make Sure You’re Stressed Starting a Business

1. Do it all yourself

Disregard your own key skills and never delegate. It doesn’t matter if you’re only really good at marketing or sales. Go ahead and build your online platform from scratch. Make any graphic design tweaks yourself. Get everything on your plate and start working on it. Outsourcing be damned.

2. Set unrealistic expectations

A great way to disappoint yourself is to set highly optimistic targets. As an entrepreneur, specially if you have an innovative product or service, the landscape changes every few weeks. Sometimes every few days. So set up short and medium term milestones that would require the stars to align. Friction (the gap between plans and reality) will always make its way in and guarantee Murphy’s law happens. Oh, and avoid branching out remediation plans for each possible failure scenario. Wait for something to crash first.

3. Make sleep a luxury – not a necessity

You will get plenty of sleep when you die. Why waste your life sleeping? Besides, you’ve got so much to do you can’t afford to get 7 hours of sleep, 4 or 5 is plenty. Creativity you say? Thinking outside the box? When you are sleep-deprived you’ll be safe from such happy clappy thoughts. You’ll be grumpy with your business partner and mechanical in your thinking. Soon you’ll start stressing over petty details. You’re doing great!

4. Adopt this mindset: Effort = Results

You’re an entrepreneur. Sisyphus has nothing to brag compared to your work ethic. Paretto?  He was a lazy wimp. The harder and longer you work, the better. Right? Surely toiling a 16 hour day will have a higher OUTPUT. Focusing only on the critical 20% that brings you 80% of the OUTCOMES your business needs… that´s nonsense theory.

Don’t be a wimp. Always finish everything you start and look at results as a by-product: It is raw effort that matters. To reinforce this virtuous behaviour, make sure your Spartan lifestyle is your source of pride and admiration amongst your peer group.

5. Discuss critical points with key people when you are exhausted

It’s simple: The more tired you are, the more important your topic of conversation should be. The chances of fights erupting rise exponentially. The consequences can be miserably stressful, make sure to try this out.

6. Stop exercising

It’s a waste of time. Treat your body like a machine, not a living entity that needs exercise and renewal. You listen to useful podcasts you say? Don’t make me laugh. All that time and energy you waste running could be used to tick another task off your infinite to-do list.

7. Steadily raise your daily caffeine intake

It’s your gasoline, and you are a machine, remember? My office has free coffee so we could all indulge in this legal drug. For particularly rough days you can top up with a big can of Redbull. Energy spikes and crashes will soon be part of your daily grind.

8. Work all the time

You are starting out, who is paying for those weekend treats? Are you cash flow positive already? Then get off your butt and back to work. Leisure must be earned and you’re not there yet. Your smart phone is your guardian angel: always by your side, never sleeps.

9. Friends, family and significant others are distractions

Your mother is not a valid test market. If it’s not a potential alliance, customer, provider or employee – it’s a waste of relationship time. For all practical purposes your “support group” is there for when you burn out. If you follow this list long enough, burn out you will.

10. Under no circumstances: never, ever meditate

Quiet time. Me time. Yoga. They clear your head and give you perspective on what really matters – a no-no for increasing your stress levels. In the same line, stop reading websites like ThinkSimpleNow, lest it bring you sanity. See your ambition rising? Great, it works!

Reversal

Mathematician Gustav Jacobi had a maxim to solve hard problems: “Invert, always invert”. I leave you with the task of figuring out how to become “joyfully balanced”. . .

Stressed? Let us know in the comments below what other stress tricks have worked for you!

Photo by bark.

10 ways to become stressed starting

If you’re like me, you meet someone and talk business, then you take their business card before you leave. “Hey, give me your card! We should have coffee sometime!” You exchange cards and go on about your way. Think about the next time you call that person.

Oh, wait! If you’re like me, you never call the person again! No, instead, several months later when you’re clearing out your George Costanza-sized wallet, you see a stash of old business cards – most of them faded and unreadable in places from the creases – and you wonder, Who the heck are these people?

Now, granted, I’m a pack rat, and I do hold onto stuff. But say you’re not a pack rat. Non-pack rats will go home, realize they’ll never call the person on the card again, and throw the card out.

This is disturbing for multiple reasons: Cost of printing (those business cards aren’t free, you know), environmental (how many of those business cards have you distributed?). Most of all, though, it’s the shame of a missed opportunity: a missed opportunity for a potentially great friendship or business contact (and let’s face it, in these tough economic times, having both is the best).

So what if you knew that no one would ever throw away your business card again? Are you intrigued? And what if you could know that your business card might be looked at over and over and over again? I’m not talking about graphic design. I’m not talking about welding your card onto someone’s dashboard. And I’m not talking about buckoos of cash! Some of you may know where I’m going with this, and I’ll go ahead and say it: You need to write a book!

Write a Book? Me?

I knew there was a catch, you might be thinking. “What are you talking about, Thompson? I can’t write a book!” Why not? I’ve heard it said many times that everyone has a book in them.

So, what’s your story? You should write it down. And now, it’s easier (and cheaper) than ever for you to write your story – whether it’s about your company, about your passion, about your charity, about your fictional story, or about your own life and experiences (but for the sake of the business card argument, let’s stick with your business).

Why Books are the New Business Cards

Remember when I asked you to talk about that business card from the guy you met earlier in this post? You had thrown it away, right? Why is that? Because that’s what people do with business cards. More than 80 percent of people who take your business card will throw it away. And sticking it in those fish bowls at Qdoba? Forget about it! That was a whole $0.78 you’ll never get back!

But when was the last time you threw a book away? My guess is, unless you live in a Communist country, you have seldom – if ever – thrown a book away. Books don’t get thrown away. They might get sold at yard sales or to a used book store, but most people find it hard to toss something like a book.

And usually for a long time before that happens, even if that business contact doesn’t read your book immediately, she will almost certainly place it on a shelf in her office or home book case. And books that sit on shelves and bookcases get noticed. Make no mistake, they get noticed. And if your content is compelling enough, passionate enough, and your title is intriguing enough that it begs to be opened, your book WILL get read!

The Cheapest, Fastest Ways to Publish Your Books!

Okay, maybe I’ve sold you on the potential power of giving out books to your business contacts or clients, but I haven’t sold you on writing your own yet. “I don’t have that kind of time,” you might say, in which case, I can’t help you. You have to make your own time, but I can tell you, unless you are a circus performer with two Blu-Tooth headsets on and the President of the US on one of them giving you secret service commands every waking minute of the day, you have the time.

If you do decide to make the time, you may be wondering, “Don’t I have to pay for publishing? Isn’t that extremely expensive? And what if nobody reads it?”

My answers: No. No. And that really depends on how interesting your book is.

If your book is interesting, you can publish it for next to nothing. You may try a print-on-demand publisher that takes your material and prints it and distributes it only to the people who order it. I think some POD publishers extremely fast, reliable, and have great quality.

So, what’s your story?

All right, so I’ve told you my story. So, what’s yours? Have you written a business card aka a book? Have a great idea for one? Let’s talk!

Photo by kvanhorn.

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For the lucky ones, it’s only a matter of days whereas for others, it may take years to figure out how to get a job. Being unemployed is a crushing experience — something nearly everyone experiences at some point in their lives.

People may think they’re doing enough to aid their job search when in fact they could be doing a lot more. There are numerous ways to further your search, potentially shortening the time spent unemployed and increasing your chances of landing a full time job, some of which are explained below.

How to Get a Job

Two-part series on how you can combat unemployment and get that gig — now!

Part I: People and Places

1. Job search websites: There are literally hundreds of these sites on the web. Websites such as TotalJobs, Beyond and Jobcentral offer a huge variety of job vacancies and do their best to find a job suitable for you. Aim to apply for as many as you can every day. The more you apply the more chance you have of someone getting in touch.
2. Recruitment agencies: You should be able to find recruitment agencies dotted all over the place. The advantage of going to these places is that you can develop a relationship with the agent and they can give you first hand help. They build an understanding of what you’re looking for and can offer you various opportunities.
3. Speaking to friends and family: Friends and family can often be your best bet. Family members will really want to help you out and will try their best to find you a vacancy. If you’re close family can’t help you then branch out to aunties, uncles and cousins. Don’t be shy to ask people, again it’s a numbers game, the more people you ask the more chance you have of landing a job.
4. Social Media: Contacting companies and building relationships via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin can be an effective technique. It’s a quick and easy way of getting your message across and discovering new vacancies.
5. CV Posting and Phone Calls: Print out a large number of CV’s and get yourself out there. Go to shopping centres and companies of interest – it’s a good starting point. Making the effort to get yourself out and about doesn’t go unnoticed, employers will appreciate the motivation.
   
   If a company is a fair journey away then make phone-calls. Again this is a chance to speak to an employer first hand and make a good impression. You may be able to speak directly about apprenticeship vacancies or training courses and get a good understanding of the company. You can always use the internet and online directories as well to discover new local companies that will take your CV.

Part II: Organization and Motivation

It’s easy to get bored and fed up when you’re unemployed. With no reason to get up early in the mornings a ‘lazy-boy’ routine is often inevitable. Late nights and lengthy morning lie-ins don’t leave much time in the day to get motivated and ready for your job search. Switching on the TV or computer may feel like the only option.

Creating a job search schedule is a great idea to combat this. Treating your job search as a full time activity is one of the best ways to increase your chances and keep motivated. A suggested approach would include the following key areas of job search.

• Aim to spend two to three hours a day on online job search.
• Aim to get up at around 9am to avoid becoming lazy and discouraged.
• Aim to visit at least 3 recruitment agencies a week.
• Make a list of friends and family to call.
• Do thorough research and make a list of companies to call.
• Make a list of places you can go to post CV’s, plan out your journeys and explore different areas.
• Spend at least one day out posting CV’S.
• Eat relatively healthy and spend at least one hour a day exercising, the release of endorphins will keep spirits high and in parallel keep your motivation levels up.

All factors when applied to a job search schedule will undoubtedly boosts one’s chances of finding work. A good job search schedule will incorporate time to job hunt along with time to exercise and relax. Exercise and relaxation are crucial to not overworking yourself and becoming distressed, and on the other hand also stop you becoming lazy.

Share your tips about how to get a job in the comments below.

Photo by Mike Monaghan – www.bluesunsetdesign.com.

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Let me tell you what it is I’m up to in this post. I’m going to explain what would a typical work or job experience look like, and how that usually spans four years – more or less – of joyful times.

But first. . .

Who loves models? I do, but don’t get me wrong. . . this is not about fashion models.

With models, you can picture a scenario of life that’s usually hard to describe or imagine. A model may be simply a representation of, say, a job experience so you can reference to, compare to, and validate against. It helps you find out whether a scenario is right or wrong.

I model that as “three rides and a fall” which basically is about taking three different rides (the first three stages you would go through), and close with a falling ride as a final stage. The three rides are:

1) a learning ride,

2) an excelling ride, and

3) a mentoring ride.

The fall is just a fall, but I would picture it as a ride that’s downwards.

What I describe here – in my opinion – is what you should seek in a job experience that you are currently enjoying, or looking forward to as a new responsibility.  It would also be what you would expect to experience in a job to make the most out of it and make it joyful. Here you go, the model and its rides in a bit of detail.

1. Learning

This is what’s usually expected of a typical human when he or she gets assigned a new responsibility. You need to learn, and you need to learn almost everything: the environment, the work, the strategies, the tactics, the people, and the business overall.  Nothing outstanding is expected of you except delivering what you’re asked for. Usually, you don’t get stretched or asked for high performance. It usually is about delivering the bare minimum, and most people perform the same in this ride of learning.

It’s a loss to skip this ride, even if you have super knowledge and expertise.  Not only because it is joyful, but also because you might miss learning from others, the least!  I personally enjoy this ride the most, and believe everyone should experience it to its extremes whenever possible.

2. Excelling

What do you expect of someone who spends quality time learning? Of course, quality delivery! That’s what I call excelling at your job and delivering your best. This is a ride when you apply the best you have learned, and seek perfection and quality. You can call it turnover time, since you get the chance to give back to your organization for giving you the opportunity to learn.

This is a time of a partial return on investment they made on you. Why do I consider partial only? Because, you still can do more, and that’s going to be on your next ride.

3. Mentoring

Yes, mentoring!  Being a role model puts a responsibility on you to teach, to seek out others giving them a hand on their own rides.  This is a stage when you become on top of what you’re doing – remember that this comes after excelling in your job – and that you are ready to mentor others.

This is a stage that’s hugely missed by most people tempting to seek out the next big challenge.  You cannot imagine how enjoyable this stage is to you, to your colleagues, and to your organization. It’s when you hit an outstanding return on investment in terms of knowledge capital. I would allow myself to go extreme and call it selfishness not to mentor when you become a role model.

4. The Fall – New Beginnings

It’s no harm at all to fall after three successful rides, right? You fall because you become saturated of the things you have been doing so far. You either get bored of what you’re doing, or become the old blood that needs to be donated. The latter is a rare case, hopefully!

This is a time when you need to look for a change and seek your next challenge either internally or preferably externally beyond the boundaries of your current organization.

This is Just a Model – Life isn’t perfect!

It’s important to understand that models are abstract and life cannot simply match them.  They represent things in its perfect form, and usually reality drifts away from them.  This doesn’t mean models are not correct, it just means that you’ll experience variations of a model and you can keep it as a reference or a guide.

Another factor to consider is the blending of these rides with each other. You could be learning and excelling at the same time. You could also be excelling and mentoring at the same time, and that’s logical as well. You could be mentoring, learning, and bored (falling) all together!

In my opinion, what counts is what gets felt and experienced the most – the peaks – and the order of those peaks. While you’re learning and excelling at the same time, one of them would be dominating or peaking, and that signifies which ride you’re on.

It’s also important knowing that four years is a typical timespan for this “model of job experience”. It can be experienced in less or more number of years. Try your best to fit them on the number of years you see suitable for your current job.

My Own Experience of the “Three rides and a fall”

I must admit a number of facts before sharing my experience here:

1. I didn’t recognize the “three rides and a fall” model until recently.
2. I didn’t experience the model fully throughout my career. In fact, it was applicable only to two jobs I have occupied out of six jobs I was blessed with.
3. The two jobs in which I have identified this pattern were the most enjoyable ones amongst them all!

The first job I have experienced the “three rides and a fall” was my first being a systems engineer. I went through learning, excelling, and mentoring in that job.  I must say that I didn’t feel the fall ride, since I hopped on my next challenge immediately after that.

The second experience with the “three rides and a fall” was my recent 4-year job as a technology specialist. I went through learning, excelling, mentoring, and falling.  It was of course a great blend throughout those four years, and was very joyful.

–

How about your job experience? Do you think the three rides and a fall model applies to you?

Photo by sillygwailo.

Modele de job experience, what to say if your have less job experience

Just like most people at work, I had ignored the book that lay in my drawer. Little did I know it’d teach me how to forgive. It wasn’t any self-help title or a bestseller that I was looking forward to reading. It was our company’s on-going series in lessons in effective management and leadership. That afternoon, during my lunch break, I opened my desk drawer to find something when I saw the little thing.

The mini-book was titled Inspire to Lead and had the first full-page quote that got me reading further. It said. . .

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a Leader.” – John Quincy Adams

I finished the entire book during one lunch break. It was a quick read but the lessons are still fresh in my mind. One such lesson that especially struck a chord is what I share below:

How to Forgive Like a Leader – Short Story

It was a story of a company whose top executives were not working together effectively. Egos, infighting, manipulation, and turf-battles had left the company morale ravaged and devastated and productivity waning.  A new CEO was brought in and directed to fix the problem or everyone, including him, would be gone.  Through his action, he gave the group of executives a unique and valuable lesson in forgiveness and humility.

As the executives entered the room, they noticed it had been re-arranged into a shape of a horse-shoe, forcing their eyes to the center of the room. In the middle was a large green trash can. You know, the kind you would find sitting out on the curbside for trash pickup.

The meeting began with a brief introduction by the CEO and once the introductions were concluded, he asked all the execs to scatter about the room and make a list of any injustice that had been done to them — any issue that nagged at them as unfair, along with the name of every person who had wronged them in any way.

All of them compiled a long list.

The CEO then distributed a large, clear plastic garbage bag to each of the executives as they stared puzzled and a bit bewildered at what was happening.  He walked over to the middle of the room and removed the lid of the big green garbage can. He instructed each executive to come up and fill their plastic bag with one of the cleaned, unpeeled potatoes contained in the can for every name/injustice combination they had noted on their list.

The group was asked to carry their bag of potatoes with them everywhere they went for the next two weeks.  To the meetings, traveling in their car, at their desk, around their house, and to bed each night – everywhere!  Absolutely no exceptions!

At first they all thought it rather amusing and funny, lugging around sacks of potatoes, but soon the laughter faded and embarrassment and frustration began to set in. Employees within the company couldn’t help but gawk and whisper about the potato bags and questioned why the executives acted this way.

Day after day the bag became more of an impediment and barrier to their jobs and their lives. Lugging them from meetings and other places within the office and back and forth between office and home, the hot weather and sun added an additional element of unpleasantness as the potatoes began to rot and transform into a smelly, slimy, stinky mess.

After two weeks, there was another meeting. The CEO explained that the demise of the potatoes represented how quickly such dead weight in our lives becomes toxic and ugly and how physically fatiguing and debilitating it is to carry with us the pain and negativity of things past.

He then offered forgiveness as an answer to some of the problems they were facing.

“Forgiveness was probably something you had never really considered or associated with leadership, but when we as individuals carry around the gripes of yesterday, we limit what we are able to accomplish today. Forgiveness may be perceived as a value that we extend to someone else, but its true nature and value are far deeper.”

In short, he had unveiled a great lesson: How to forgive and be a true leader.

Forgiveness & Leadership

The reality is that forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves, a freedom to discard and shed that which is no longer healthy or positive in our own life.

Think about your own situation at work, or at home — how many of us carry around that rotten sack of potatoes full of past injustices, offenses, and insults that may have been perpetrated on us innocently or with malicious intent? Ask yourself how heavy and toxic has it become for you.

The capacity to forgive is a rare and unique quality that few leaders ever master, but it is one that offers enormous strength, wisdom, and transformative power when it is extended humbly and gracefully.

Forgiveness is a choice. Although it may seem the harder, less beaten path, choose it and see how you feel. After all, it’s not about the destination; it’s about the journey. Inculcate forgiveness in your daily journey because you don’t know what the other person is going through when they wronged you. Don’t waste your energy carrying a grudge.

How do you practise leadership + forgiveness? Share your tips and tell us how to forgive.

Photo by eflon.

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Whether they are working in the same position for three months or five years, most people strive to know how to work better. Keeping your job is integral to the way you’ve built your lifestyle — without your weekly paycheck, you would never be able to make that car payment or hit happy hour every Friday.

I’ve found there are a lot of small things you can do once a day, once a week, or even once a month to boost your status from a 9-to-5 worker to keystone employee. Here’s how you can do it.

5 Ways How to Work Better At Your Job

1.  Do more

Problem: How many times a day do you get up to stand near the water cooler and catch passing conversations? Do you find yourself walking to the bathroom when you don’t actually need to go? Although sometimes we all need to clear our brain and get a stretch, you may also be avoiding doing work.

Do This Instead: Getting your work done a little earlier can open up time at the end of the day to help your boss or co-workers with last minute projects.

Solution: Cut your daily walks to the kitchen in half and aim to get all your work done a little early. This will free you up to take on a quick assignment. When your boss sees that you are proactive about taking on more work, you seem like an important player in the workday.

 2.  Be organized

Problem: You have a million things to do between work and home every single day. We expect our brains to hold it all neatly in place. Focusing on a spreadsheet when you keep reminding yourself to get a babysitter for this weekend inhibits you from truly focusing on work.

Do This Instead: When you write down your thoughts, due dates and obligations, your brain is free to focus on one thing at a time. This will allow you to put all your energy into the current project, thus getting better work done.

Solution: Thankfully, the wide world of technology has given us a wonderful gift called Widgets. You can download desktop items such as calendars, which will allow you to input due dates for the future. You can also keep a pad of paper next to your computer, and jot down thoughts as they come to your mind.

3.  Always keep learning

Problem: If you’re stuck in the same position for a long time, your mind tricks you into believing that you’ve learned all you need to know. Yet, our evolving world, heck our evolving Internet, has something new to teach you every day.

Do This Instead: Learn something new that pertains to your everyday job. This will almost instantly be put into use. You’d be surprised to find that learning something new may spark you to challenge yourself, which can elevate your work to a new level.

Solution: Refresh yourself and your work. Frequently visit the blogosphere, and see what’s new. Subscribe to new websites and converse with others in your field.

4.  Shut off the clock

Problem: When you step outside the doors of your office, you forget to turn off work and turn on life. When you hold onto stress from the day before the problems will keep compounding. This can restrict your ability to produce new, good work every day.

Do This Instead: As with anything in life, if you carry around the stress of an outside factor you can’t enjoy the simple pleasure of having a good dinner, or watching a show you DVR’d. Have some evening time to yourself and dispel your stress from the day; this will leave you fresh for a new day of work.

Solution: Shed your work clothes as soon as you get home. Put on something comfortable and slip into home life and out of your office mindset.

5.  Get to know your co-workers

Problem: Without someone to vent to, work problems can inhibit your ability to create successful work. When you are frustrated with work problems, you lose the drive to always do your best.

Do this Instead: Even if you only chat during the day at work, misery loves company. In the best sense of the phrase, making work friends will ease irritations.

Solution: Get the morning stress out of your system at lunch, for example, so you’re freed up to take on the new tasks of the afternoon. Getting through the last wee hours of the day can be tough. A good employee works smart straight through until the end, and this just might be your one way ticket to 5pm.

Here you go then. Five neat tips on how to work better!

In a scary job market, we all want to keep our jobs. Prove why you are a valuable member in the office. Make simple tweaks to what you normally do every day and see the biggest difference.

Got more ideas? We’d love to hear your tips on how to work better in the comments!

Photo by lululemon athletica.

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Hey!

Miguel here from BrandPhoto.net. With New Year, come new perspectives, new aspirations. And hey, new business collateral and brand design!

Here’s a simple contest that will make your website, business cards, presentations – or wherever you stamp your brand – say out loud: Yes, You Are Dealing With a Professional.

How?

Leave a comment below telling us: What is your biggest challenge in gaining credibility for your small business practice or website?

The Giveaway

Five fortunate WorkAwesome fans will receive a 100% FREE gift voucher to order a premium (Enterprise Package) customised BrandPhoto: a photorealistic render of your logo or brand’s name that will establish trust and credibility in that critical first impression. (See examples here)

The Timeline

The giveaway will be open for two weeks. Closes February 1, Wednesday.
Write your comment now so you can forget about it – and hopefully receive a nice surprise later on!

The Prize

Each of the five winners will receive a voucher worth $99 they can use to order a Business package BrandPhoto any time before end of 2011.

Terms and Conditions

• This giveaway is not open to WorkAwesome.com, ThinkSimpleNow.com or BrandPhoto.net employees.
• You may only enter once. Anyone submitting more than once will be disqualified.
• Make sure you enter a valid email address. If you win, this will be our medium to contact you.
• You must be of legal age in the jurisdiction that you reside to enter.
• [Optional] Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
• Open to any country on planet Earth.
• Response required within 7 days of first notice of a win. If we don’t hear from you, the prize will go to the next deserving entry.

Ready? Scroll down and post your comment! Last day of entering is February 1, Wednesday.

Photo by kevin dooley.

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Whew! The holidays are over and you have either been enjoying some down time off to lounge around, or you have been going a million miles per minute. Now. . . it’s time to get back to reality!

Getting back into the swing of things can be quite jolting. Did you know post holiday blues cause about 25 percent of Americans to be depressed for a few weeks after the holidays? How can you combat the blues on the job?

Let’s look at some great ways to put a ‘hitch in your get-along’ once you get back to work.

1. Find your motivation to go back to work.

You should start here, so that you can build momentum before you get back into the office. Here are some ways to get motivated to work:

• Prepare the night before work – Sitting out everything you need the night before, such as keys, an outfit, and even by reviewing your work to-do list can help you feel ready when you wake up — rather than starting your day off in as a frazzled mess.
• Eat awell-balanced breakfast – Your day really starts here. It can help you cognitively as well as help you get that holidayweight off.
• Do some physical activity – This does not have to be running or lifting weights, but do something that gets you in a positivemind-body balance.

2. Organize your desk and email.

One thing that can be very overwhelming upon your return is all the email that is waiting for you. Here are some ways to alleviate this stress:

• Get rid of spam – You can start by immediately trashing all the spam — and for the future go ahead andput filters in place to keep it from getting to you in the first place.
• Tackle high priority items – Take care of these right away so you can get it off your plate and can move onto other things.
• Prioritize your emails – Make folders or color code by importance and place the emails in their proper places. Then, when you come back to your emails, start with the high priority items and work your way through them.

3. Think about what you can look forward to.

Start thinking about what you want to accomplish in the New Year in the early days when you join work and get yourself revved up to take action to meet some career goals. Now is a great time to decide where you want to go with your career, and start putting acareer action plan in place to give you some new goals to look forward to.

4. Reminisce the holidays.

If you are down because you love all the family time you get to enjoy around the holidays, put some pictures on your desk that you took during that time. You won’t miss them and probably beat the after holiday blues.

5. Look forward to something new.

Here are some things you may have coming up that you can get excited about:

• Birthdays and special events – Maybe it’s your co-workers birthday, or perhaps someone in your office — even you — may be receiving an award or recognition for something soon. Use that time to celebrate with co-workers to beat the post holiday blues!
• Concerts – Book some concerts throughout the year and you will have something to look forward to while you are working hard all week. Wear your new clothes you got during the holidays and display the things that you received for the office in your workspace!
• Sporting events – You can do this on your own, or even see if it is something that your co-workers would be interested in. Maybe they would want to go in on a season ticket package together for the office, and you could have a competition for the seats weekly.
• Vacation – Plan your next vacation away from work so that you know you will have some restful downtime again in the near future. Sometimes, just taking time off and relaxing at home is just what you need. Take a look at your schedule and vacation time and use it where you need it most.

6. Take time out of each day for yourself.

Take a step outside on your break and think about all the things for which you are thankful. Many people feel let down after the holidays because the holidays just didn’t meet their expectations in some way. It will raise your spirits to think about what you do have!

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Are you ready to put the holiday season behind you and look forward to a new year in your job? Share your tips below on how you beat the post holiday blues.

Photo by CarbonNYC.

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Although many professionals hold leadership positions in the workplace, not everyone is cut out for the responsibilities that come with the position of an effective leader. You might find yourself working for someone whose leadership skills are lacking—and you might believe you could do a better job at leading your team.

How to Unleash the Leader Within You

Although you’ll still have to follow your boss’s orders, it might help to find ways to exhibit your own leadership skills.

Actively participate in meetings

Meetings are often held on a regular basis to discuss the progress (or lack thereof) of the company. If you’ve surreptitiously rolled your eyes during these meetings, try actively participating to facilitate change in your department or company. Offer suggestions about which tactics work and which don’t, and listen to the suggestions of others. Listening to your coworkers and using their input can be valuable, and it can make those meetings worthwhile to you.

Communicate openly and often

Chances are that you don’t always see eye to eye with your boss—and that means communication is critical to a productive and cordial working relationship. For example: your team is working on a project and one of your team members has excellent marketing skills. You could suggest that she’d be a great fit for the marketing portion of the project. Make sure to give examples of the skills she’d bring to the project.

Keep track of e-mails and other messages you receive from your boss and your team members, and take your own notes during meetings. Try to avoid coming across as challenging your boss’s authority, and make sure to phrase your ideas tactfully. Focus on how your ideas can benefit the project as a whole, instead of simply concentrating on offering a better idea than your boss.

Aim high

Although you may tactfully approach every suggestion you make to your boss, you still might not get the results you want—perhaps because your boss feels threatened. For this reason, you should always attempt to aim high when making suggestions.

Keep your avenues of communication open with your boss, but stay in contact with other leaders in your organization when you’re involved with solving a major company issue. Make sure you do your research, and always take a professional approach to every meeting and project. You might not be promoted on the spot, but your dedication, effort and ideas will certainly not go unnoticed.

Look for new opportunities

Of course, not every idea you have will be accepted, and you might still come up against resistance from your superior. If you find that you’re not getting opportunities to use your leadership skills, consider looking for new opportunities to sharpen your skills.

Since you’re probably already busy with your work load and other obligations, looking into online degree programs can be a good solution for balancing work life and your desire to work on your own professional development. Earning an online degree could allow you to prove that you are an effective leader and give you the extra credentials you need to find other opportunities where your abilities will be recognized and appreciated.

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Finding the right way to exhibit your leadership skills may take some trial and error, and there’s no guarantee that your efforts to present yourself as an effective leader will result in a promotion or a title change right away. But with diligence, thoughtfulness and a desire to improve your company, your efforts to improve yourself and your company can yield benefits for you.

How do you bring out the effective leader within you?

Photo by Hamed Saber.

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