“It’s Time to Change Your Life” plus 3 more

“It’s Time to Change Your Life” plus 3 more

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It’s Time to Change Your Life

Posted: 15 May 2012 02:00 PM PDT




Too often we come home after a long day at work and open the takeout food, then plop down on the couch and watch TV until it’s time for bed.

The next day, we do the same thing again.

While I have been known to indulge in this from time to time, there’s an issue with this lifestyle. You basically spend each day, trying to get through it. You’re just living for the weekend.

The weekend is never long enough, of course, and then it’s another week of the same.

The problem with this is that months — or years — can go by. That’s time you won’t get back.

It wouldn’t be so bad if you knew how long you had on this spinning rock called Earth. The truth is, we aren’t really sure. So I propose to you to make the most of it.

Spend some time learning something new, or creating something…or taking up a new hobby. There’s a thousand different things that you can do. You might even return to an existing hobby that you haven’t indulged in for a while.

You dont have to be a productivity guru or sell your television. Just get up off the couch and do something.

Write a blog post. Start a novel. Pick up a paintbrush and make art. It only costs you some time…and you were wasting it anyway.

The key to this is: don’t worry about whether or not it’s good enough. You don’t have to show it to anyone. The first draft of anything is never all that good anyway. You can always revise it later or learn from the mistakes that you made.

Just do it for the sake of the craft. You just might surprise yourself. You might even start learning a new skill, one that may get you out of your current job and into a new one.

The clock is ticking…

For some people, they feel that because they have a ton of ideas, they are doing something productive. Sadly, there are a million people with a million ideas. The difference between those million people and you is execution.

It’s not enough to have the idea, you have to do the work. If you want change, you have to put in the effort.

The other end of the spectrum is taking this advice too far. Remember that this is not your job. It’s your time to relax, to do something fun. Taken too far, you will stress yourself out even more.

Think about “The Soccer Mom Syndrome”. You spend so much time doing other activities that you don’t have any down time.

I’m suggesting a balance between your job and relaxation. Just…turn off the TV once in a while and go create something. You’ll be a lot happier.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

(Photo credit: Time for Change on Blackboard via Shutterstock)

Brian K. Vagnini is a musician, designer, engineer and writer of fiction and technical topics. He was a technical trainer for five years and learned about almost every class of software. His additional writing can be found at Grey Matter Ideas and "a href="http://www.wicketbang.com">Wicketbang.com.

The Top 5 To-Do Apps for iPhone

Posted: 15 May 2012 10:00 AM PDT




To-do apps are great because they help you to remember and complete the tasks that you need to do. Whether it is a task in business or family life (or any other field), to-do apps can help you keep on top of them and complete them in time. They make your life easier. They make you more productive.

The iPhone has many to-do apps available, but it can be difficult for you to find out the best to-do app for your iPhone from the plethora of choices from both paid and free app lists. To help you get started on being more productive with your iPhone, let’s take a look at the top five to-do apps.

1. Orchestra

Orchestra is a free to-do list app. You can create your to-do list and even share the list with others. It also allows you to send tasks to others. Even if the other people are not using Orchestra, then also they can check the tasks sent to them. You can add task in several different ways. You can type the task; speak to the app or forward emails. There are several filters that you can use to filter your tasks and you can also organize your tasks in different methods. It is very simple and easy to use.

Orchestra Download Link

2. Wunderlist

Wunderlist is another popular to-do app — and it is also free. It is a simple to-do app that focuses on the basic features necessary for managing your tasks. It has got its Windows and Mac counterparts and allows you to create multiple lists. You can add different tasks to the lists you make and can also sort out the tasks by due date and priority — as well as add notes to the tasks. Then when your task is done, you can check items off the list and it syncs with the Wunderlist servers, meaning that no matter what version or platform you’re using Wunderlsit on you will have an updated list. As a bonus, the app allows you to add tasks using your e-mail, which is great if you find you spend a lot of time in your email inbox.

Wunderlit Download Link

3. Reminders

If you have iOS 5 in your iPhone, then you can easily use this very good built-in app. Reminders is one of the simplest to-do list apps that you will ever find. Another great advantage is that you can make use of your location and the app will remind you when you’re near a place that allows you to complete a task. You can also create to-do items with deadlines attached to them. And Reminders integrates with Siri on the iPhone 4S, allowing you to add tasks, appointments and errands using your voice.

4. ToodleDo

ToodleDo is a popular paid to-do app, costing $2.99 USD in the App Store. You can easily add your tasks using its simple interface — a common theme throughout all of the to-do apps mentioned here. When adding tasks, the app allows you to set priorities and due dates and you can also assign the tasks to folders, schedule reminders, and much more.

ToodleDo Download Link

5. TeuxDeux

TeuxDeux is another solid paid to-do app that also comes in at $2.99 USD. It got its starts as a web app and has since moved into the world of iOS. Featuring a stylish interface, the main focus of the app is on your to-dos. It doesn’t offer many features like other to-do apps, but you can sync your tasks with the web app and rearrange your tasks as well. But if you feel you need lots of additional features, then this is not an app for you.

TeuxDeux Download Link

Do you have any to-do apps for the iPhone that you use that deserve consideration? Let me know about them in the comments.

Bikash Kalita writes for the technology blog Take the Plunge and also manages Nirvana Sutra, the complete Content Management Agency. He is a netpreneur, who is working on some other online projects for offering more value to the Internet users.

Standing: The One Simple Trick That Can Double Your Productivity

Posted: 15 May 2012 02:00 AM PDT



A subject of great interest to most of us is productivity. We want to be more productive, and we're willing to do anything to achieve this, yet we spend a major part of our lifetime doing something that makes us less productive while at the same time posing the risk of reducing our lifespan. Unfortunately, this particular thing is so common these days that a lot of us now see it as something normal.

It is called sitting.

While sitting isn't a totally bad idea, spending the larger part of our day doing it can damage our productivity significantly.

Unfortunately, in the digital age we are today, we now spend more time sitting than ever before; the average human being spends around 9 hours sitting every day, when sitting down for just 6 hours a day increases your risk of dying in the next 15 years 40% higher than that of someone sitting for just 3 hours a day.

The bad news is, this also crushes our productivity; and while some of us might not be that concerned about living for 100 years, what's the point of living for a thousand years if you can't achieve anything significant?

Start Using a "Standing Desk"

Since sitting can be a huge productivity killer, what kind of solution can there be to something so fundamental that it is a part of human nature?

Well, there is standing. And there are desks that make it easy to work with a standing desk.

It wouldn't be easy at first, especially when you've spent the larger part of your life sitting than standing, but this article will be showing you a few benefits of standing while working, and how to get the best from it.

Standing while working has a few advantages that makes it more productive when compared to just sitting, and here are some advantages to why you should stand while working from now on instead of sitting.

1. It constitutes to a little bit of pain.

Comfort can make it difficult for us to produce, but pain makes us concentrate.

Standing for prolonged hours constitutes pain and only leaves us with one thought: "how to quickly finish what we're doing so we can go back to sitting down". Unfortunately, this is the natural way of things, and there's nothing we can do about it.

Success isn't possible without struggles, and productivity is hardly possible in a comfortable environment. The key to productivity is to challenge yourself, leave your comfort zone, and introduce more pain; standing does all that, while sitting is the direct opposite of these things.

2. Unlike sitting, standing is associated with work.

The world we now live in is more about perception, instead of reality, which is why productivity is more of a psychological process than physical.

Creating is a mental process, and this means you have to be in the right frame of mind to create. Unfortunately, sitting is mostly associated with rest and relaxation thereby making it less productive for work when compared to standing; for example, we spend a huge part of our time watching TV, playing games, and chatting with ourselves; the reality about this is that we do all these things while sitting, while the majority of the activities that can be classified as "real work" are done standing.

3. Standing while working is actually healthier than sitting

Health is wealth, and no matter your desire and mental preparation for getting things done, nothing is possible if you're not healthy enough to do what needs to be done.

Sitting for prolonged hours has its health dangers, but very few people are aware of this. Some major health dangers to sitting that can be eliminated by standing are:

  • Death: The reality is that sitting for 6+ hours a day will increase your likelihood of dying within 15 years when compared to someone who only sits for 3 hours a day, by 40%.
  • Obesity: Obesity is a great enemy of productivity, and the more obese you become the less you feel like working. Research has shown that obese people sit for 2.5 more hours a day compared to their thin counterparts.
  • Diseases: Research has also shown that those who sit for 3 or more hours a day watching TV are 64% more likely to die from heart diseases. People with sitting jobs have also been observed to have twice the cardiovascular disease as people with standing jobs.

What's more? Research has also shown that exercise is nearly ineffective for those who spend a large portion of their day sitting, even if they exercise for an hour a day.

All the stats quoted above can be found here and here.

How to Get the Best from Standing While Working

Now that we've seen how critically important standing while working is, it is important that we also realize that there are things we should do to maximize our productivity.

There is a huge difference between being productive and abusing your body. Here’s a couple of tips to help you get the best from standing while working:

  1. Create a resting interval.  Don't just work for prolonged hours on your feet without taking any measures. Make sure you segment your work into various periods, and take a break every hour or so of standing. A 10 – 20 minutes break per hour can go a long way to enhance your productivity, so make sure you don't exhaust yourself by working while standing for prolonged hours.
  2. Alternate sitting with standing. Know when to stand and when to sit. If you think you need to get a lot of work done for a particular day, and that you will probably be working for a very long time, make sure you sit for a few minutes as a way to rest your brain. Standing for way too long can increase your chances of having back pain, so make sure you alternate it with sitting every once in a while.

This is especially important if you're just getting starting with using a standing desk.

(Photo credit: Two People Standing via Shutterstock)

Bamidele Onibalusi is a young blogger, blogger, and freelance copywriter you should hire to take your business to the next level. He also has a free guide designed specifically for those who want to write for traffic and money titled, The Writer's Handbook: How to Write for Traffic and Money.

50 Motivational Quotes That Will Put Your Motivation on Overdrive

Posted: 14 May 2012 08:00 PM PDT




Let's face it – no matter how excited you are about a new project or priority in your life, there will always be days when your motivation lags. Days when – despite all the progress you've made in the past – it just sounds easier to sit on the couch playing video games than to buckle down and crank out the work needed to meet your goals.

In order to be successful, you must be able to motivate yourself past these humps. So whenever you feel your drive and determination lagging, turn to motivational quotes from famous authors to provide the extra spark of passion needed to keep you on track.

The following are some of my favorites, divided up into a few different categories. I hope you find them useful when it comes to sustaining your own motivation through difficult projects!

Motivational Quotes for Work

Great businesses aren't born overnight. Instead, they require consistent, committed effort to succeed – which means that you've got to find a way to maintain your passion over the long-run. Whenever you encounter doubts creeping into your mind, read through the following motivational quotes for work and reference the categories that are appropriate to your unique needs:

Goal Setting

Whether you're still in the planning phases of your business or whether you're plotting a plan of attack to bring about your long-range vision, setting good goals is a critical part of succeeding in business. Check out the following quotes for extra inspiration on how to turn your business dreams into reality:

"The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach."–Benjamin Mays

"By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own."–Mark Victor Hansen

"Give yourself an even greater challenge than the one you are trying to master and you will develop the powers necessary to overcome the original difficulty."–William J. Bennett - The Book of Virtues

"The entrepreneur is essentially a visualizer and actualizer… He can visualize something, and when he visualizes it he sees exactly how to make it happen."–Robert L. Schwartz

Excellence in Work

Once you've got your goals together, you'll need to put in 110% of your effort in order to transform these visions into reality. To increase your motivation to work at a consistently high level, take a look at the following words of wisdom:

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."–Aristotle

"If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude."–Charles R. Swindoll

"Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal — a commitment to excellence — that will enable you to attain the success you seek."–Mario Andretti

"The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it."–Pearl Buck

"The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor."–Vince Lombardi

Determination and Persistence

Since every business or other endeavor is bound to hit some rough patches, it's often a person's level of determination and patience that brings about either success or failure. Read through any of the following motivational quotes for work related to determination whenever you need an extra boost of encouragement:

"Enter every activity without giving mental recognition to the possibility of defeat. Concentrate on your strengths, instead of your weaknesses… on your powers, instead of your problems."–Paul J. Meyer

"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence."--Hal Borland

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."–Calvin Coolidge

"An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men."–Thomas Fuller

Leadership

Leadership is an important quality for businesspeople to possess, whether you use it to run your own company or simply to motivate others to follow your unique way of thinking. To boost your skills in this area, take your cues from the following renowned leaders and their most famous sayings:

“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born — that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born." –Warren G. Bennis

"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."–John Kenneth Galbraith

"Leadership is not magnetic personality — that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‘making friends and influencing people’ — that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations."–Peter F. Drucker

"The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already."–John Buchan

"High sentiments always win in the end. The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic."--George Orwell

Success

Think of success as a holistic process – one which results from the combination of goal-setting, excellence, patience, determination and leadership you prioritize throughout your business career. The following quotes from famously successful business people reflect this reality, providing an excellent source of motivation for whenever you feel your spirits lagging:

"Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment."–Stephen Covey

"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."–Norman Vincent Peale

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."–Winston Churchill

"Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential."–John Maxwell

"Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that's where you will find success."-- Thomas J. Watson 

"The great successful men of the world have used their imagination.  They think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building – steadily building."–Robert Collier 

"It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it."–Arnold Toynbee

Motivational Sports Quotes for Athletes

You don't need to be a Michael Jordan-caliber athlete to draw inspiration from the following quotes. Even if you're just a recreational player or someone who's using sports as a means to get back in shape after long periods of inactivity, the following motivational sports quotes for athletes should provide the extra encouragement needed for you to stick to your fitness goals:

"My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength."–Michael Jordan

"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."–Lance Armstrong

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."–Arnold Schwarzenegger

"I know what I have to do, and I’m going to do whatever it takes. If I do it, I’ll come out a winner, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else does."--Florence Griffith Joyner

"Every time you stay out late; every time you sleep in; every time you miss a workout; every time you don’t give 100% – You make it that much easier for me to beat you."--Unknown

"If you are hurt, whether in mind or body, don’t nurse your bruises. Get up and light-heartedly, courageously, good temperedly get ready for the next encounter. This is the only way to take life – this is also ‘playing’ the game!"–Emily Post

"We must train from the inside out. Using our strengths to attack and nullify any weaknesses. It’s not about denying a weakness may exist but about denying its right to persist."--Vince McConnell

Motivational Quotes for Students

Education matters, but that doesn't mean it's easy to achieve! Committing yourself to pursuing knowledge in a single area is a tremendous endeavor – one that often seems overwhelming given the depth and breadth of information that's available today.

So if you want to better yourself through education, keep the following motivational quotes for students in mind. Hopefully, you'll find them inspiring when the thought of cracking open yet another textbook sounds as arduous as writing such a tome of your own!

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these."–George Washington Carver

"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it."–William Arthur Ward

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."– Aristotle

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."–Albert Schweitzer

"Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not pull it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one."–Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever."–Chinese Proverb

"Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing."–William Arthur Ward

"Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled 'This could change your life'."–Helen Exley

"A book is like a garden carried in the pocket."–Chinese Proverb

Famous Motivational Quotes

Finally, whatever your goals are in life, you can't go wrong by taking the advice of the following famous motivational quotes:

"Change your thoughts and you change your world."–Norman Vincent Peale

"Your time is limited, don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinion drowned your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."–Steve Jobs

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."–Maria Robinson

"Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies Opportunity."–Albert Einstein

"Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose."–Lyndon Johnson

"If we did all the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves."–Thomas Edison

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."–Wayne Gretzky

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."–Winston Churchill

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."–Ralph Waldo Emerson

To use these motivational quotes effectively, find the one that speaks to you. Although all of the phrases listed above can be considered "motivational," only you can decide which one resonates with you most directly.

Next, take the quote you've settled on and copy it onto small index cards or other pieces of paper that can be stored around your home and workspace. If you're creative, you can create inspiration boards, signs or other decorative displays featuring your favorite motivational quotes – really, though, the most important thing is that your chosen phrase be accessible in a variety of different places. This will make it easy to access and review whenever you feel your motivation slipping away.

Do you have a favorite motivational quote?  If so, how do you reference it throughout your day in order to stay motivated?  Share your favorite sayings and recommendations for using motivational quotes effectively in the comments section below!

(Photo credit: Bright Flamy Symbol on Black via Shutterstock)

Pawel Reszka is the founder of Affhelper.com. On his blog he talks about ways to make money through content marketing.