A lot goes into planning and executing a move especially when it’s long distance. Even if you’re just moving across town, there are a lot of logistics to plan for, from packing the boxes, to packing the truck, and finally organizing your new place to make it a new home.

Regardless of how far you’re moving from your current home, here are 7 tips to help make packing and moving smooth and (nearly) stress-free.

Packing Boxes More Efficiently

Packing boxes takes a lot of time, but it is so much easier when you have all of the supplies you need on hand. Purchase boxes, bubble wrap, and packing paper to keep breakable items safe while in transit to your new home.

Sheets, blankets, and towels should be packed in larger boxes since they tend to be lighter, while smaller and more sturdy boxes are best saved for breakable and heavy items like dishes, glasses, and other kitchen appliances.

See Also: Protect Your Breakable Items By Following These Packing Tips

What Not to Pack

Keep important documents like medical records, school documents, and anything you may need at your new house handy so you can access them as needed. Consider packing a backpack with these items along with anything else that is irreplaceable or you’d rather not lose, like jewelry, cash, prescriptions, and keys.

Additionally, don’t pack anything perishable, toxic, or dangerous like dairy products, fertilizer, or gasoline. Instead, dispose of them in a safe, environmentally friendly manner before you move.

Get Organized

Create a plan to help break your move into more manageable pieces. Set deadlines and stick to them to keep yourself on track so you’ll be all finished with packing and ready to load the moving truck come moving day. Label your boxes clearly, and have an idea where they’ll go in your new house to make unpacking that much easier.

Decide Whether or Not to Hire Movers

A professional moving company has the potential to make your move easier, but is hiring one the best fit for you? If you have the extra money in your budget, it might be a good option considering that hiring movers has the potential to save you the stress and backache that often accompany loading the moving truck yourself.

Generally speaking, the only disadvantage to hiring movers is the cost—moving companies tend to be pretty pricey. You’ll need to weigh through the pros and cons to determine whether a moving company is worth the financial investment for you.

See Also: Penny Packers: How to Move on a Budget

Make Moving Day Easier

Planning ahead is the best way to make moving day go smoothly. Make sure you have help lined up if you need it, and that you have water and snacks on hand to keep any helpers sustained and happy.

Pack an overnight bag with a change of clothes, your toiletries, and anything else you’ll need over the next 24 hours. This way, you won’t have to frantically sort through boxes to find what you need when you’re already exhausted from the move.

How to Pack a Moving Truck

As you label boxes, consider marking heavier ones so you know what to load up first in your truck. Make sure you have extra packing equipment ready to make loading the truck go smoother like a dolly to move large furniture and heavy boxes, stretch wrap to protect furniture and other large items, and extra straps and bungee cords to secure items.

Unloading and Unpacking

Prior to unloading the moving truck, take a walk through your new home to get a good idea where you want things to go. Measure doorways to be sure furniture will fit through, and lay down plastic tarps to cover the floor to prevent dirt and mud from being tracked through your house. Unload furniture first and place it in the desired rooms, then unload everything else and start getting settled in your new home. If others are helping you unload, you might consider adding cards to doorways with room labels that match your box labels. This will make it easy for movers to place your boxes in the right rooms.

Don’t Forget to Make a Plan

Making a plan and staying organized are essential to a positive moving experience, and who doesn’t want to have one of those? With the help of these 7 moving tips, you’re well on your way to crafting the ideal moving-day plan for your unique situation!

 

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I am sure that you have heard the saying that if you have never failed at anything, then you never tried anything. This saying is quite true. Ask the big captains of industry and the inventors of things that changed the face of humanity, and they will tell you how they kept moving from failure to failure. I certainly agree with those who say that the real challenge is not in falling, rather it is in your ability to rise up after every failure.

Learning to deal with failure is not something you start learning when you are an adult. It is actually something you have to learn especially while you are still going to college. This is the reason why I am starting this article by looking at the common instances of failure while you are still in school and college. I have also looked at rejection when you apply for a place in college or a job. You will certainly be glad to hear that when you fail, you are not the first and you will certainly not be the last.

Failure In College

I still remember when I arrived in college for the first time. It had not yet dawned on me that college was a lot different from high school. No one had told me that essay-writing in college is something which requires research and diligence. I just thought that I would use my natural intelligence and everything would be fine.

I was in for a rude awakening. For the first time in my life, I got a mark below 50%. However, this never happened again as one of my professors took the time to give me pointers. As you can see, it was through failure that I discovered a very important lesson.

Expulsion

Another big failure for many students in college is being expelled. While I was in college, two of my friends were expelled; one for failing to hand over the minimum number of assignments for a given semester and another one for presenting work of another student as his own. My friend actually thought that since the assignments were going to be marked by different professors, they would not see that the work was the same.

He was wrong. The college was now using a new system where all assignments were checked for plagiarism. In the event that another assignment had already been submitted to this system, if you attempted to submit another one which is the same, the system would flag it. His biggest problem was that even when he had been caught, he refused to accept that he had done something wrong. So he was put before a disciplinary committee which found him guilty.

Rejected College Application

Another big source of disappointment for many college students is when they fail to get space in a college that they want to go to. There is usually more competition when it comes to getting into really good colleges. Many more people are rejected at such colleges than are accepted. I do not think that this should be viewed as a failure at all. It is not about the college you go to but rather your character and what you can do with your degree. I would rather work with someone who went to a lesser known college but has a great work ethic than someone who has been to the Ivy League with a wrong attitude.

A Job Taken By Someone Else

Only after leaving college do you see that it is a jungle out there. Sooner rather than later, those expectations of a corner office with air conditioning start to fade away with each regret letter you get from the employers of your choice. It is easy to start thinking that maybe something is wrong with you. Well, nothing is wrong with you, there are millions of other graduates competing for the same job and the very same corner office you have in your imagination.

Sometimes, you know that the job was going to be yours if it had not been stolen by someone who already knows someone else in the company. You feel hurt because you know you could do a great job if you had been given the chance.

Tips On Finding Inspiration After Failing

The good thing about failure is that it is actually not the end. You can use the following tips to find inspiration after failure.

Accept Your Weaknesses. Every human being has weaknesses. The first thing you need to do after failing is to accept that it has happened to you because failure happens to human beings. Accepting this helps you to accept that this is not a reflection of your life as a whole. It is just a temporary setback.

Accept That Everyone Fails. Show me anyone who has never failed in their lives and I will show you someone who has never lifted a finger. Everybody has had experience of failure before. This should comfort you.

See Also: Your Ability To Fail Without Fear Is A Requirement To Reach Your Goals

Accept That You Are In Control. When you are expelled from college, when your application is rejected, or when someone else takes a job you thought was yours, it is easy to blame others for it. When you stop the blame game and take responsibility, you are growing. It helps you to address any deficiencies you may have.

See The Lesson. The biggest thing you can take from failure is the lesson it has taught you. This gives you a chance to examine your life. It gives you a chance to introspect. If there are any weaknesses you need to address, you will only be able to see them after doing this soul searching. There are many lessons I would never have learned if I had not failed.

Pain Helps You Grow. You will find inspiration if you accept that the pain you get from failure helps you to grow. There are certain things you will not understand until you have had a chance to live them. For example, you would not know what it feels like to lose a job unless you had lost one before. We only learn the feeling of losing a loved one after we have lost a loved one. That is the essence of life.

It Gives Material For Stories. If you have ever listened to a story about how someone succeeded against the odds, you are essentially listening to a story about failure. The reason why the story is moving you is because someone has learned from the failures of their lives.

See Also: Why The Road to Success is Always Full of Failures 

Failure should never be considered as something permanent. It only becomes permanent if you allow it to defeat you. It’s something that happens to all human beings who have ambitions. If we look at the lessons we can learn from our failure, we will soon realize that in order to succeed, we have to be prepared to fail. It should never be seen as the end, but rather the beginning of a new way of looking at life.

 

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Swift, as many of you would know, is the programming language for iOS developed by Apple after Objective-C. Swift was launched approximately two years back and it was an instant hit among the iPhone app development services. With a few new releases and version updates, Swift has been able to swiftly and effortlessly replace its predecessor—the Objective-C. Due to the ease of use, it is the first choice made by professionals who offer iPhone app development services.

When I personally started using Swift, it took some time before I got accustomed to it. But then, the more I worked on it, the more I grew fond of it.

In this blog, I will focus on the top 5 reasons why I fell in love with Swift:

Multiple-Features

Swift has a lot of features that provide ease, flexibility, and liberty to be creative. In terms of ease and flexibility, Swift offers short and adept syntax and community support. In terms of liberty, Swift lets you create your own extensions and share them across the community for all associated members. Swift lets you learn by making use of the integrated playground that is your medium to experiment and create new things.

Easy to Learn

Another feature why I fell in love with Swift is its adaptability and easy-to-learn feature. Basic knowledge and working module can be learnt through online videos posted by advance developers.

These posted videos provide some specific ideas on how to go about Swift. The learning is also easy because of Apple’s stringent procedure of approving its product therefore the videos which are posted on Apple’s official eBook can be truly relied on. Swift users are also givers — givers in the sense that they provide details about their hard work and process. By sharing, they make life easier for amateur Swift users.

Futuristic

The best part of Swift is that it is futuristic. This feature makes Swift the most used language by developers because it of its ability to solve any task. Swift is in-built with ARC (Automatic Reference Counting) which allows Swift to give proper results by guessing the searched words similar to Google’s auto-complete feature for word searches. It is perhaps the only language which can be used simultaneously with Objective-C.

Swift Development

Swift is really swift. It is perhaps the fastest among all the programming languages. However, it requires iOS 7 or macOS10.9 versions. With the use of Swift, you receive fast results which enable you to overcome any problem in the development stage. It is a huge time-saver.

Debugging

Many programming languages struggle in debugging during development. iPhone app development services providers take utmost precaution to overcome such instances. In contrast, Swift has the ability to debug in the process of development. With use of real eval print loop (REPL), it is easily to debug scripts. Swift is therefore considered to be ideal for quality system programming language.

Conclusion

With Swift, there are immense opportunities and a lot of those rely on your skills. If you are a Swift fan, share your knowledge and the reasons you prefer Swift as your programming language.

 

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Falling deep in love is a feeling similar to soaring with eagles. However, an unhealthy relationship can bring you straight to the ground. Initially, two people love each other deeply and they are so much in love that the entire world glows and glimmers. But this perfection might soon give way to ups and downs even if you are having a healthy relationship.

Marriage seems to be the eventual bond between two people. It is a vow made to love each other for better or for worse. But there comes a point in your marriage where you feel that you have to improve your relationship with your spouse.

Relationships require commitment and work. By putting in some understanding, patience and effort, you can definitely build the perfect relationship with your spouse.

Here are 3 marriage advice to help you through rough patches.

Work on Communication

Couples who have been together for a very long time tend to take various things for granted. There are times when you have your spouse telling you that he or she is getting bothered about something that you have been doing. However, you might not see it as a very big deal since you have been living together for a very long time.

You must understand that little things do add up. When you have your partner feeling unheard or invalidated, this can result in bigger intimacy and trust problems in the near future. Try listening to your spouse and take his or her statements seriously.

You must work on solving relationship problems either together or alone. But at the same time, you need to ensure that you take the concerns of your partner seriously. Address the requirements of your partner. Know what your partner wants and put in good effort in working together on finding a compromise.

Spend Time with your Partner

Quality time is the time that you unconditionally reserve for your partner. No matter what the circumstances are, it is your duty to reserve quality time for your better half. Try listening to each other and make him or her feel special by not answering calls from other people while spending time together.

Watch each other, sit together, and enjoy the time that you spend together. You must do this at least once during the week for thirty to sixty minutes.

Also, it is important that you do not yell at your partner even if you are at your emotional high during an argument. Yelling will do nothing but spoil your relationship. You will either have your partner yelling at you or becoming fearful of you.

See Also: 7 Ways To Inject Romance Into Your Relationship 

Be Honest and Open with Each Other

Honesty is one of the most important elements of a healthy relationship and this is especially true for marriage couples. It is important for you to feel that your spouse is trustworthy and your better half should also feel the same way.

Openness and honesty extend beyond being truthful. It also means addressing something frankly and not withholding any kind of information. You should never lie to your spouse. Even small lies can result in arguments and resentment.

Try opening up and allow yourself to be vulnerable with your better half. Your spouse must know your secret dreams and hopes, your fears and various other things that are kept hidden in your heart.

See Also: The Role of Karma in Your Relationships

Building the perfect relationship with your partner is all about building trust and fostering a very strong sense of affection and intimacy.

Remember, every step does count in trying to build a healthy relationship.

 

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If you’re working right now, it’s safe to say that you had to send out a resume in order to get hired. Even if you didn’t, there could come that time in the future where you may have to. In order to do that, you need to know how to write a good resume.

To let you know a bit about myself, I worked in human resources for a pretty large company for close to 10 years. Thankfully, I was able to escape the rat race and start a side project while enjoying my family. While the corporate atmosphere wasn’t too bad, I wanted to share with everyone what you can do to make your resume stand out above the rest because you’d be amazed at how much garbage (I’m saying that nicely) we’d get. In fact, it wouldn’t be uncommon to get 500 resumes within 48 hours for ONE job position. Out of those, however, we would maybe like 20.

To put yours at the top of the pile, potentially leading to at least a phone interview, here’s what I learned from reading over 1,000 resumes:

Make sure you’re qualified

Ugh! I couldn’t tell you how many times I would receive a resume for a position where the individual wasn’t even qualified. Let me give you an example.

Let’s say the job was for an administrative assistant. Well, do you think a former plumber, who couldn’t type faster than 25 wpm would be qualified? Well, he sure did.

Sometimes, I really wonder if people just send out resumes to every job posting in hopes for a callback. While you don’t have to meet all 100% of the expectations, meet at least 80%.

Don’t seem too needy

If I feel you meet the qualifications, I promise you will at least receive a phone call. If you’re going to harass me three times a day for a week, you can count on me throwing your resume to the bottom of the pile, regardless of how qualified you are.

The key here is to be patient. While it’s okay to follow up once, don’t seem needy. I always tell people to treat resume-writing and job-hunting like dating. Would you like someone to do this to you?

Be simple and to the point

There’s no need for fancy graphs, colorful charts, and odd fonts. Something as simple as a Word document is more than fine. Try to break it up into the basic sections (summary, experience and skills), and be as precise as possible. Yes, you want to sell yourself, but always make sure you do it in less than one page.

See Also: Resume Action Words That Will Get You That Job

Be specific with the job posting

This kind of touches on point one. Don’t send the same resume out to 100 companies because this isn’t going to work. Every time you apply for a job, make sure your resume caters to that job.

So if you’re applying for that administrative job at ABC Corporation, talk about the administrative position and ABC Corporation in both your cover letter and resume summary. This will show me you actually read the description and know who you’re applying to.

Believe it not, but I actually once had called a qualified candidate, and he didn’t even know the company I was from or remember the position he applied to!

Be yourself

If you’re lucky enough to make the interview process, congratulations! This is a great feat. Now, while it’s okay to research the company’s history, the job and so forth, don’t sound like a robot during your interview. It will be very obvious when I ask “What is your weakness?” and it sounds as if you’re reading from a cue card. Be yourself because we really want to see who you are.

Don’t lie

Whatever you do, there’s one thing you should NEVER do, and that’s lie. If you lie, we will catch it, trust me.

With today’s technology, I can see your traffic tickets, your previous employers and even your addresses. Yes, we can also confirm you have a college degree.

While it may tempting to pad your experience or hide your criminal background, just don’t do it. It’s going to be way worse if you were to be hired and they found out later down the road you were lying.

Play it safe with kids

While I didn’t do this, I knew of some companies who would avoid new hires who had kids. They believed those with kids would have no time to work overtime and may have to bail work early for soccer practice.

While an employer can’t ask you about kids, they can hint at it. For example, they could ask, “What do you like to do on weekends?” If you say something that revolves around kids, it may work against your advantage. Again, we didn’t discriminate, but to play it safe, try to keep the kids on the down low.

Use a professional e-mail

I don’t know how many times I would receive an email from something such as cute_girl22@whatever.com. If you can, try your best to use a professional e-mail because the HR department does pay attention to this.

Also, when sending in your resume, don’t just name it “resume.doc.” Instead, name it something such as “firstname_lastname_resume.doc.” You want it to be as specific as possible, so if we do need to reference, we can find it fast.

See Also: 5 Outdated Resume Writing Tips to Ignore Right Now 

Most HR departments work in their own ways and have its own policies, but for the most part, if you follow the rules mentioned above, you should be able to bring your resume to the top. If you have any tips, I would love to hear them as well! To those applying for a job, I hope this helps you, and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors!

 

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The database of your website holds all the information about your website. It contains the web content, images, information on links, and so much more. This means that if the database is poorly developed, chances are your website will end up lagging behind its competitors and more so when it comes to ranking on Google.

The ranking of a website is impacted by many things and one of those things is its database. It doesn’t matter how optimized your content is and how well you have followed the SEO rules. If your database is not created properly, chances are, you won’t be doing well when it comes to search engine rankings.

Hee are 5 things you need to optimize in order to improve your Google search rankings.

Load speed

The first thing you need to note is that when it comes to ranking, Google gives priority to websites that load fast. This is because they are more user-friendly and are easier to crawl through and easier to index. What most people don’t take the time to consider is the fact that load speed is determined by the database.

More often than not, especially when using WordPress, most webmasters never take the time to rework their database to make sure that it doesn’t contain any irrelevant content and plugins. With time, this failure to keep the database clean ends up affecting their website’s performance.

If you have been keen on web development, you may have learnt that the number of plugins on your website will impact its load speed. This is because each plugin has to be called up by the browser of the visitor. If there are old and unused plugins on your website, the browser will still have to call them up thereby slowing the load speed. Removing all your unused plugins and widgets is one of the fastest ways of boosting the load speed of your website.

You should also note that load speed will also be affected by how well indexed the database is. If the search engine crawlers are having trouble sniffing through your website, you can expect a poor ranking.

Broken links

Another very important thing you need to do to boost your search engine rankings is to make sure that you take a look at the links on your website. It is very common for webmasters to forget about their old linking programs and just move the old database content into a new one. Although everything may seem to be working properly, doing this may increase the risk of having broken links.

The worst thing about having broken links is that they will mislead both your visitors and the search engines. This increases your chances of being penalized by Google. Whether you are setting up a new database or just updating the old one, it is imperative that you take note of the links. There are times when the websites you are linking to change their links or close business. Having links that point to them will only be a waste of time and Google may perceive this as black-hat SEO.

Links are very important. It is always good to review your website every once in a while and check for broken links. Making sure that there are no broken links is the key to maintaining a high ranking on Google.

Irrelevant links

Still on link building, some webmasters still think that it is the number of links on a page that counts. This is untrue. Search engine algorithms are smarter now. What really counts in ranking is the quality of the links on your website and not the number of links. This means that if you have irrelevant links, the chances of them helping you boost your ranking will be very small.

In search engine optimization, it is imperative that you take the time to review the website you want to link to. Start by making sure that it is relevant to what you offer, then ensure that they have a good reputation. This is the key to creating high quality links. A remote database expert can help validate the relevancy of the websites you wish to link to.

See Also: The Future of SEO – Predictions and Premonitions That Will Dominate 2017

Outdated plugins

How often do you review your database? Most webmasters simply focus on optimizing their content and never take the time to review how sound the database is. This often leads to their websites having outdated plugins. Needless to say, this will impact your ranking in a bad way.

When it comes to search engine optimization, you have to make sure that your website only has updated plugins and ones that you use. This is because the plugins that are not updated are a security risk. Hackers often target old plugins to exploit the known security loopholes. In no time at all, this can cause your entire website to be compromised.

Google is not only in the business of getting websites and information found by users but it also ensures that Internet users are safe. If you use outdated plugins, your website will be considered to be risky. This may cause it to be dropped lower in search engine results.

Inaccurate sitemap

Another thing you need to understand about search engine optimization is that your sitemap will impact your ranking. The sitemap is what enables the search engines to index all the pages on your website. This is definitely the simplest and the most efficient way of telling Google which pages your website includes.

The downside is that if you don’t take the time to update your sitemap after updating your website, Google and other search engines will not be able to notice the new changes. This may result in the poor ranking of certain pages. Taking the time to ensure that all the elements on your website are updated is the key to ranking well in search engine results.

The article discusses some of the key ways in which the database of your website can impact your website’s ranking. It is always good to make sure that you keep up with the trends and keep your database updated.

See Also: The 5 Internet Marketing Trends That Will Dominate in 2017

 

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These days, there aren’t many jobs around that don’t involve at least some stress. It’s become a normal part of most people’s working life. And whether it’s deadlines or workloads (or both!), much of it is out of our control so what can you do?

We all expect an element of stress at work. It can actually be a good thing and keep you focused on the task at hand. However, too much stress can interfere with your performance and productivity. It can also have a detrimental effect on both your emotional and your physical wellbeing.

The good news is that there are strategies you can employ to manage stress at work. Take a look at these 8 excellent ways to lower stress in the workplace and see if they can make a difference.

What are your stress triggers?

Knowledge is power, as they say, and it really pays to understand where your stress is coming from. How about keeping a stress diary for a week or two to identify the most stressful situations for you as well as how you respond to them?

In addition to logging individual instances, including who, where, what and when, write down your thoughts and feelings at the time. Going over it at the end of the period, you may well discover reoccurring stress patterns and reactions that you can work on.

Better time management is key

Are you struggling to prioritise your workload, preferring to take things as they come or as they are put in front of you? Reacting to other people’s demands, or failure to delegate to others, can leave you swamped with work and feeling out of control.

Effective time management is an invaluable tool for any job – and it can be learnt. The result is a better use of your time while you’re at work, increased productivity and job satisfaction, and lower stress levels.

See Also: 5 Essential Time Management Tips to Live By 

Just say no

Are you finding it difficult to say ‘no’ to a colleague or your line manager? You may think you’ll be letting the team down (or indeed yourself) if you don’t agree to every request for extra work, but if you take on too much work, high stress levels and poor performance are the inevitable consequence.

Instead, weigh up whether you have the capacity to say ‘yes’, leaving aside any feelings of guilt or wanting to please your superiors. If your gut instinct says ‘no’, go with it.

See Also: The Courage To Say No 

Use your days off wisely

The best way to combat workplace stress is to relax, disconnect from work and recharge your batteries. Treasure and ringfence your downtime and make sure you have enough time to totally forget about work. That way, when you return to your desk, you’ll be fully reinvigorated and ready to perform again.

Find time to unplug

In our media driven 24/7 world, it can sometimes be hard to switch off your computer and smartphone resulting in digital overload. It’s a good discipline to switch off all electronic gadgets after 8pm – including email, messaging, social media, calendars etc – to give your body the chance to fully unplug from the day.

A problem aired is a problem shared

Talking is a highly underrated stress buster. Sometimes, simply offloading your woes of the day in a conversation with a close friend, colleague, or your partner can help you let off steam.

The other person may not even have to offer any advice – listening alone can be good therapy too. But if you’re having real issues at work, who knows, they may be able to offer a way forward.

Get physically active

You’ve heard about endorphins, the feelgood chemicals in our body that we get from exercise? Physical exercise is a fantastic stress buster. Not only will it make you feel better, it will improve the quality of your sleep too.

No need to join the gym – any form of physical activity will do. How about a lunchtime walk, playing with the kids, or doing some gardening during the weekend? It all counts.

Talk to a counsellor

If none of the above strategies seem to alleviate your workplace stress, perhaps it’s time to consult a professional for help. Counselling may be part of your private health care plan, or you may need to seek independent local advice to get the help you need to deal with excessive stress.

 

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In its simplicity, life can be difficult. Then we make it more tortuous by the way we treat ourselves — feeding our minds with thoughts that reinforce the negatives.

So what can you do to focus on the positives?

Get off Facebook

Comparing your life with others’ is a sure-fire recipe for depression. Stop looking over the “neighbour’s” fence and looking at what they’ve got and you haven’t.

If you are tempted to peek, look at all the things you’ve got that they haven’t.
Our assumptions about other people are often wrong. We only see a small sliver of their lives. Their public one. The one they want to project. It’s not a complete picture.

Get on with managing your own life. Analyze the things that have gone wrong. Think about why they went wrong. Find the real reason (that’s the answer to the 5th why) and not just a good reason (the off-the-cuff answer to the 1st why).

Is there a pattern? Is there a real cause that you can tackle?

Get outside

Take a deep breath of fresh air, see the trees, and listen to the birds and insects. Relate to this world. Smell the flowers, the damp earth or the rain. Look up and marvel at the sky and the clouds.

Soak in the ever changing world you have the opportunity and privilege of experiencing.

It will have an immediate and positive effect on your mood.

Use a loving voice with yourself

Talk to yourself like you love yourself. Like a new found romance when you only see the good and positive.

Consider your life. Concede that you are in the best place you could be. Accept your failures and weaknesses as challenges and hurdles to overcome.

Admit that without pain, there would be no ultimate pleasure.

Exercise, exercise, exercise

So simple to do … so difficult to do.

Exercise releases feel good endorphins. It lowers stress and positively channels negative energy.

Be careful what you eat

Don’t diet. Eat less and less often. Be aware about what you unconsciously shovel down your throat.

Having a healthy diet can impact your mood much more profoundly than most people realize.

Talk to people who care about you

Build a positive community either in person or online.

Speak to empathetic people who listen. Hear what they say. Think about it and digest it.

Having someone who just listens often has an encouraging effect.

Volunteer-help those who are less fortunate

There’s always someone less fortunate. Often much less fortunate.

Helping others not only benefits them. It can help us feel thankful and more in touch with our positive feelings.

See Also: 5 Reasons Why You Should Volunteer 

Think happy

The old adage of “fake it till you make it” is filled with wisdom. Breathe deeply, pull your shoulders back, put a big smile on your face and stand proud.

Greet a stranger with a kind word or smile. Their positive response will boost your happiness.

Make sure you get enough sleep

Sleeping gives your brain time to do its daily housekeeping like cleaning up the past day’s dust and residue.

If you can’t sleep, then lie quietly. Your body needs rest to repair and rejuvenate.

See Also: Get Strong, Sleep, Repeat: The Importance Of Sleeping 

Be grateful for all the simple things in life

See your glass half full. Look for opportunities.

Don’t believe the news

… unless you see it as a reality show … with loads of interpreted facts, fake news and lots of spin!!

Take life on in small steps. Improve slowly. Don’t be impatient. Most overnight success takes many years!

Enjoy the unfolding wandering … with the inevitable stumbles and the stimulating wins.

 

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It may surprise you to know a few facts:

There are about 80 million dogs and more than 90 million cats nice and comfy in U.S.A. homes.

According to the New Jersey Institute of Technology, 45% of people telecommute for at least part of their work week.

Now that’s a lot of mega numbers and stats to throw at you – but it only means one thing to pet parents who are trying to get work done from a home office: that one of your closest coworkers has four paws and may need a walk at lunchtime or perhaps some tuna!

If you are working from home but are having a challenging time with your pet, hopefully these tips will help you. Probably the most important “take away” to understand is that your four-footed colleagues have needs and priorities, just as anyone who is trying to reach a work deadline or land a big client does too. If you are tempted to work from home then it is important for you to understand that getting along with your pets is part of the equation.

Tip #1: Your pet belongs in the home just as you do.

If you are frustrated at your pet’s actions while you are working, realize that in some ways you have “invaded” their space. You have been the one who has been working outside of the home, going to school or who has had another routine. In other words, they are the alpha dog and you are the beta.

Tip #2: Understand that your dog or cat has a “job” just as you do.

Now drinking out of the toilet in the middle of the day or watching traffic go by from the biggest window in the living room may not seem like the toughest job you’ve ever seen – and we certainly aren’t going to disagree with you. But your pet is doing what they’ve always done and what you love them for – being a pet and an animal! Most pets have a sense of a routine to their day and will regularly do things in the morning, mid-day and then the afternoon just as you do for your job. Now that you are working from home – your job and their “job” may have conflicts, as your pet is trying to do what they’ve always done and you, my friend, are trying to do something new. Again, you are the beta.

Tip #3: If their actions disrupt yours, how can you work with them?

You may need to help them modify behavior – or you may need to slightly modify yours if you can. Now this is one of the most helpful tips to getting along with your pet. I’ll give you an example from working from home with my cat Sammy.

Sammy was part Russian Blue, a cat breed that is known for being very social, super friendly and also extremely vocal (big meows!). I would be on the telephone with clients and they would say, “Do you need to check on that crying baby?” Most of my clients are pretty understanding about a cat, but if I was making an important call or calling a new client – I would put Sammy outside or try to call when he was going outside for awhile.

I have a new cat now, Penguin. He has a very sweet personality but I’ll admit I’m finding it frustrating that he is absolutely determined to walk straight across my keyboard when I’m typing! To modify his behavior, I’m picking him up when he starts to walk by and then patting him. It seems to me that he wants my attention because the computer and keyboard have all of my focus in that moment – and smart lil’ kitty has figured that out! So again, modifying behavior can be possible too sometimes.

Other ways to modify behavior include giving them toys to play with as a distraction, treats for a reward for good behavior, and sending them outside (like with Sammy).

Tip #4: Be proactive about phone time.

After chatting with work-at-home friends, I discovered that this is one of the top challenges they’ve faced with working with a pet. The pet is either noisy or simply wants them to be with them instead of the phone. Realize that you have made the choice to work from home and it may come with some benefits – no commute other than from your morning cup of coffee to your laptop and you can wear yoga pants all day. But your phone calls to your boss should not be interrupted by you saying every 2 minutes “Not now Pickles, walk time later! Sorry…what was that again?” Otherwise you’ll likely find yourself back in the cubicle farm and someone on the other end of Pickles’ leash!

Tip #5: Protect your computer.

Anyone who has not dropped out of the sky from a time machine sent from 1982 or who is not a complete luddite knows that you need to have antivirus software. But that’s not at all what this is about. I’m talking about protecting it from your four-footed coworker.

Yes, there is actually software to prevent what is called “cat like typing!” So when your pet jumps up and types RFTRFTRFTRFT all over your report and then puts a hind leg on the Enter key, this lovely document will not be sent to the Corporate Office where they will wonder what you are putting in your morning coffee.

Tip #6: Listen to what your pet is saying to you when they act up.

One of the true gifts of working at home with pets is you have the opportunity to really bond with your pet, spending time with them during the day you might not have otherwise. And the two of you may need to adjust to this, as I’ve mentioned, with you needing to help them modify a bit and you doing that as well.

But if you’ve tried this in a gentle way and your dog keeps barking or your cat keeps being disruptive, it may be time to take them to the vet. It is better to have a quick vet visit to rule out other conditions, like an illness that is causing them pain or discomfort so they are acting in this way because they are uncomfortable and upset.

No one wants their pet to suffer and if there is nothing else going on, your vet may have other tips to suggest for you, ways to modify your home environment, or routine to help them as they know your specific pet.

Tip #7: Be glad you can cowork with your pet.

All joking aside, one of the things I’ve enjoyed the most about working from home is spending time with my cats. You can remind me of that in case Penguin does manage to send a funny document to a client as I help him “modify” his behavior!

Two years ago, my cat Steinbeck was diagnosed with cancer and given a month to live, if that. I was devastated but took comfort in the fact that I would be at home with him as much as possible. Stienbeck lived for four and a half months, in comfort, active and with a hearty appetite, all things that surprised his vet. “He lived to be with you,” one of my friends told me. Enjoy every day with your pets!

See Also: 8 Tips for Coping with Pet Loss

 

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Sleep. An important and inevitable physiological body function. An effortless activity in past years but an increasingly difficult one in the present day.

Many people in our contemporary society are struggling with sleep — correctly termed insomnia — in their daily lives. The lack of it has been shown by scientist to have a ripple effect on the overall productivity and health outcomes of individuals.

Sleep has increasingly become elusive partly due to tremendous changes in sleep-wake patterns and technology that has infiltrated in every human living space including bedrooms. A change in work operations has taken a more white-collar approach with the same technology making work easier through mechanization of work. The result is often people who sit behind computers and devices the whole day with minimum physical activities.

Worse still, the mobile technological gadgets evolution has hooked people onto their laptops, mobile phones, and tablets while they are traveling, dining, and even when they retire to bed. The lack of physical exhaustion and the addiction to mobile devices at bedtime has led to the steadily increasing problem of inadequate sleep.

This article will present rather unempirical solutions that will sure help in getting over the trouble of going to sleep.

Make yourself tired

Lack of adequate physical activity may in the long run affect your sleep pattern. Increasing your physical activity ensures your body is literally tired and leaves it craving for rest.

Ways of increasing your physical activity may include taking a jog, walking to work (for considerable distances), standing in the office (if that is allowed) and hitting the gym. Indeed, the gym is the most effective way of ensuring you crawl right home and to bed after gym. The intense exercises ensure you are exhausted, and you will find yourself falling asleep even on the couch too sleepy even to walk to bed. But hey, we want to sleep, don’t we? A shower after a physically exhausting day will ensure you sleep even before you know it.

Think about sleep

The second solution has something to do with the mind. Whenever you retire to bed and have trouble falling asleep, think about sleep. Yes, tuck warm, pull on your blankets and think about nothing else than sleep. Allow yourself to drift and fall into that pitless abyss of darkness that is sleep. Think of nothing but the darkness, the good feeling of finally relaxing and letting go of all worries. Drift in the wave of calmness and think how amazing it is to sleep. You will be in deep sleep before you know it.

See Also: 4 Benefits of Mind Dumping to Help You Sleep 

Do not sleep hungry

Hunger is no friend of sleep. From the rumbling of one’s stomach to the body’s physiological response of craving for food, a person will be preoccupied with nothing but thoughts on how they should wake up and grab something to eat.

Thus, ensure you eat your fill two hours before bed time. It also helps to have hot meals and a hot non-caffeine drink. Being full has something to do with blood pulling to the stomach to meet the demanding needs of digestion that will often leave you drowsy. This explains why many people will be sleepy in the afternoon after having a hot meal over lunch. The same is applicable during supper and may greatly help in getting sleep.

Sleep-wake pattern

Any changes in the sleep-wake pattern have also been shown to impact a person’s sleep. An unhealthy sleep pattern, such as sleeping too late into the night, may lead to the problem of insomnia.

Revisit your recent sleeping and waking hours and pinpoint any deviations. In case there are any changes, work on normalizing them by ascribing to your usual hours. This may not be instantaneous, but it works over time.

Avoid staying up late and ensure you get at least the recommended 7 hours of sleep well within the night. Put your phone in silent mode, disconnect from the Internet, and disable notification alerts that may ultimately interrupt your sleep.

See Also: Sleep Adjustment: Why the Early Bird Gets the Worm 

Let yourself get bored in bed

Lastly, wild as it may sound, allow yourself to get bored in bed. By this, I mean do not use your phone at the first sign of insomnia. Once you take your phone and start chatting or simply surfing the internet, sleep becomes even more elusive. This also means staying away from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Instead, allow yourself to drift into your thoughts, fantasize about things, and also allow yourself to drift in your imaginings. Reminiscing and trying to recall childhood memories in surreal states also helps. This is one of the most effortless yet very effective ways of finding sleep when insomnia strikes.

In conclusion, the methods presented in this paper may not be scientific or empirical, but they sure do work great. Having ascribed to them personally, I can assure you that you will be asleep sooner than you expect.

Ensure you get physically exhausted by doing simple things like taking a walk in the evening or going to the gym. Once you get to bed, think about sleep and allow yourself to drift into space. Avoid going to bed hungry and lastly, do not be afraid of getting bored in bed. This will mean ditching your gadgets including mobile phones and laptops and embracing the serenity of the night calm.

Using these methods will ensure that insomnia becomes a thing of the past and staying up at night will become your new challenge. That is what we want, don’t we? Go ahead and fall asleep.

 

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