Archive | Life Hacks RSS for this section

Productivity: Is There Really Such a Thing?

SURPRISE!

Yeah, there really is such a thing as productivity. Even in the life of a college kid I can realize that. Whether it’s finally convincing myself to come to the library and work, or sitting in my dorm to do it. I actually get most of my blogs done here where I am in the Library or at 1AM in my dorm room. So for the ultimate productivity you really have to find what works for you, everyone else has their niche as to how the work best.

Now here are some simple points to help increase your productivity and get work done!

  • Work Space – Consider this place your sanctuary, almost like your bathroom. Try to make it as cozy and home-like as possible. Don’t make it too cozy though, you don’t want to be falling asleep on your work. Do your best to keep the clutter out of the way, and keep the task at hand in front of you.
  • Computer – Keep the Desktop organized, keep Icons that you use up and easily accessible to decrease time looking for them. Also, and this is a purely aesthetic thing, keep a desktop background that makes you feel comfortable, and happy, in other words, Feng-Shui, or Zen.
  • When and Where? - Work when it’s best for you, this skips out you 9-5 guys. If you’re like me you can tend to crank out some of the BEST work at night. The reasoning for that is there are less people, less distractions and more quiet. There is simply less around you to let things get in the way.
  • Music? – I tend to work better with music playing, why I don’t know, it keeps me focused. If you work better with music, try Rhapsody, or bring music on a thumb drive.
  • Kill…The… STRESS! – Some say stress pressures them to get through their objectives on time, and to be more productive. But really, what good does it do for you in the long run… It kills you, literally.  Keep soft deadlines, or even make a deadline before the hard deadline. This will help you get your project done, and then have time to revise and edit it. Listen to relaxing music, and eat properly while working, this helps keep your natural body functions in order so you don’t go out of whack. Keep away from cramming your work in at the last minute, this will essentially create poor work. Space out your timing while working and look where and  how things should be done to reduce stress.

Hope these help!

-Greg de Lima

Presentations a How To

Photo by bonedad

  • Being a college kid, and having a focus on International Business, presentations are a huge part of my college life and my business life. Many times the common presenter overlooks the benefits of simplicity in presentations. I have composed a few presentations for school that grabbed attention and held it throughout the whole time. The key to keeping focus during presentation is to keep the information coming and to make it easy for the audience to pay attention.
  • A picture is worth 1000 words
    • Sometimes presenters get a little too picture happy with their presentations. Try your best to use only relevant graphics, whether the graphic is a graph, chart or photograph, make sure it is useful and can assist in describing the overall point of your presentation.
  • Hard hitting facts and support
    • Use your facts often and make them support your overall purpose. When you present the fact on your slide, if you put a graphic along with the slide, make sure it is non intrusive. For example:Shift Happens
  • Simplicity Sells (To take a TED Title)
    • Simplicity in the presentation will very well be your key to attention. Keep the amount of information on the slide to a minimum, and allow most of the explanation to come from your own words rather than letting people read from the slide. If they wanted to read the slides, you wouldn’t be there.
      Take a look at the TED talks, specifically Stefan Sagmeister, Hans Rosling and Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Rule for presentations which can be found Here.

Focus carefully on your presentations, Slide Share is basically a YouTube of Presentations and PowerPoints.

Keep in mind also, that with everything else, you’re trying to sell yourself, so think, What point am I trying to get across? How am I getting the audience’s attention? What is my goal with this presentation? How do I present it?

Design Carefully, keep the presentation easy on the eyes, and load it with facts.

You’re on your way to a proper Presentation!

Performance Optimization WordPress Plugins by W3 EDGE