You don’t need me to tell you how important creativity is. Suffice to say that if you want to compete in the modern workforce you can’t afford to be robotic. People who think like robots are being replaced by… robots. Fortunately, I’m a creative genius and I’m here to teach you to be more like me.

Commence the listicle!

1 – Unleash the Awesome Power of Boredom

1992, summer. 24 years before Pokemon Go put the final nail in boredom’s coffin. I’m in the back garden trying to find something fun to do with my brother. We’ve played soccer and tennis for hours. The magic is gone.

‘This is so boring…’ he laments, thrashing a daisy with a twig.

He’s not wrong. ‘Have we still got that swing tennis set?‘

‘Swing tennis? That’s so last year.’

He was right again – swing tennis was as out of style as ’The Bartman’. We needed something fresh, something that fit the 1992 gestalt. I sighed and looked around.

For some reason there was a mattress behind the trashcan. ‘What if…’ I said slowly, ‘we propped that up against the wall… Use this trashcan lid as a shield… Right, you try and hit the mattress with the ball and I’ll defend it.’

‘The soccer ball or the tennis ball?’

‘Oh, definitely both at the same time.’

‘How do we know I’ve hit the mattress?’

’When this frisbee falls off.’

And that’s how we created Ultraball 3000, the best sport ever. It gave us many, many hours of fun.

There’s something magical that can happen when you stop shoving input into your brain. Recent research shows that boredom stimulates creative centers in the brain, lets people make new connections, and promotes creative output.

But how often are we truly bored any more?

There are more than 600,000 games in the Apple Store available to play any time, day or night. From anywhere in the world, you can call up the complete works of Arthur Conan Doyle, learn Spanish, or stalk your ex-boyfriend. There’s a reason Archimedes had his Eureka moment in the bath – he had nothing to do except sit and soak, and his brain was free to roam. And there’s a reason the subreddit where people share interesting ideas they’ve had is called ‘shower thoughts’ – because the shower is one of the only places kids these days don’t bring their phone.

So if you want to get more creative, you’ve got to get away from your smartphone. Hide it in a drawer and get yourself so bored it hurts.

2 – Annihilate Your Inner Critic by Joining Nanowrimo

Worry about what people think of your ideas?

Ptsch! When’s the last time THEY had a good idea? These are the people who rejected Harry Potter, said the iPhone would never take off, and passed on The Beatles.

So the only critic you should really take any notice of is YOU. You’re a perfectionist who never finishes anything because what you’ve done doesn’t match your expectations. Your hard drive is bursting with unfinished projects. Your brain shoots down ideas before you’ve even finished having them.

That’s why you should sign up to the National Novel Writing Month. You have to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Think about that for a second. 50,000 words.

See Also: 10 Great Books that Will Boost Your Creativity

You have NO time to edit. NO time to listen to your doubts. You HAVE to press ahead.

And what happens? First, you finish something. That’s important enough.

But also, you realise those doubting voices in your head are much less present. You’re much more likely to act on your ideas, whether good or bad. And you find that some of your bad ones aren’t so bad after all…

3 – Stay Silly

Have you ever noticed that kids are way more creative than adults? You’ve probably heard a child explaining some mental drawing they’ve just scrawled. ‘This is the wizard and those are cabbages and he’s got a cat which is also the moon.’ Don’t worry – that kid will have every spark of creativity snuffed out and stamped on by their parents, teachers, and the rest of society soon enough.

But you can learn from those little tykes! Risk-taking, silliness, and playfulness come second nature to children, and that’s why they have no problem being creative.

Create a throwaway Reddit account and join the joke-telling and story-writing subreddits. Think up some awful puns, post some late-night Harry Potter fan fiction. Get weird with it! It’s just an outlet for you to get in touch with your inner child, so don’t worry about what reception you’ll get.

See Also: 5 Playfully Crazy Tips That Can Unleash Your Creative Potential and Boost Your Creativity

4 – Enjoy the Process, Not the Outcome

Getting hung up on how many words you’ve written or how much people like your writing/jokes/business ideas is a sure way to stop your creative synapses firing. When I had some writing homework in school, I’d get a couple of cookies, lie on the floor kicking my legs, and write. The cookies made sure I was in a good frame of mind.

When I was a bit older and had ‘outgrown’ cookies, I sat at my desk feeling serious and wrote serious things in a serious way. And writing became agony and I learned to hate it.

Fortunately one of those ‘circle of life’ things happened and now I’m back to working while surrounded by treats (but not too much! See section 5). If this post gets 5 Facebook shares or 1.2 million LinkedIn views I’ll be equally content. Because as soon as I’ve finished typing this last sentence I’m going to sit in my massage chair and eat cheesecake.

5- Mindful Eating

Pizza, ice cream, cheesecake and tons of coffee. All wonderful stuff while you’re masticating but you know what happens after. You get drowsy, foggy, and turn right into a hibernating panda. Bad food does that to us.

In contrast, healthy food choices are guaranteed to keep you more awake and bursting with energy and ideas. Apart from the usual diet of protein, complex carbohydrates, and essential fatty acids, try superfoods like maca, ginseng, bee pollen, coconut oil, and green tea.

If you can’t get to these in their raw form, you can try adding them into your daily intake via food supplements. For when you need a short burst of focus and concentration (like before an exam or a big presentation), you could try a smart drug. There’s more info on this fast-growing industry in my bio.

Right, pep talk over. You know everything you need to know. Get to it!

The post Here’s How to Get Creativity Bursting Out of Your Eyeballs appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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I know, I know. It’s a bit controversial but if you’re a man reading this, you can hold on to your sock suspenders for a moment and try not to get your boxer shorts in a twist. It’s only a few observations I’ve noticed as a WOMAN in business.

I took over my father’s windows company in 2010 and I’d worked with him beforehand, so I saw up close how he ran the business. Admittedly, he’s a former broker in the City of London so has all the quirks and foibles you’d expect from a stereotype ‘City Gent’ type businessman. Nevertheless, I noticed quite a few things he lacked that could easily have been resolved, just by changing sex.

You can debate all you like but from where I’m standing, there are some fundamental differences between men and women. We’ve evolved in different ways to fulfil our own separate functions as human beings. Men were always the providers and protectors, whereas women were the nurturers and care givers. This is the way we’ve evolved, so don’t blame me for pointing it out.

See Also: What Women Should Know About Men’s Brains

So on our slightly different paths of evolution, we’ve evolved traits that are specific to our own gender. Now, it’s no secret that women have been held back from the world of business for the last forever thousand years. But in this current age of enlightenment, women get a fair crack of the whip, and it’s interesting to see how our evolved traits seem to give us an edge over the ‘not so’ fairer sex.

So, without further ado, let me please explain why women are better at business than men.

1. Women Are Better Multi-taskers

Women are better at multi-tasking and that’s a fact. We’ve had to prepare the food, look after the kids, clean the house and carry out all number of chores simultaneously, while hubby plonks himself on the couch after a hard days hunting.

Hunting that is, one wild beast. One. One goal, one aim, just one thing to concentrate on.

This went on for aeons, so it’s no wonder that women evolved better multi-tasking skills, and that carries through to the world of business. I have to manage over 50 staff, handle multiple customers, enquiries, ensure supplies and equipment are where they’re supposed to be, when they are supposed to be there, and my father, God bless him, struggled massively in this area.

It’s no coincidence that the majority of PA’s and secretaries are women, and the smart businessman hires a woman to multi-task for him. Which takes me to my next point.

2. Women Are More Motivated

When women were allowed into the workplace, it was generally as assistants to men. Do you not think that these women were looking at their male bosses, thinking they could do a better job?

Of course they were! The trouble is they were never allowed.

But since then times have changed and these women have had daughters and granddaughters and told them never to be afraid of being in charge. So we now have generations of women in business motivated by the outdated misconception that it’s a ‘man’s world’.

Men can be motivated as well, don’t get me wrong. But men have always been in business. It’s expected of them. Women have to work hard to prove they’re stronger, tougher and more capable than the thousands of years of conditioning have taught us.

3. Women Are More Resilient

Yes, women have had to battle against the tide for thousands of years. I’m 100% certain that there were stone age women who thought they could organise a deer hunt better than their half-witted other halves. But they would never have been given the chance. This has helped women develop extremely thick skins.

Fast forward a million years and this thick skin, or resilience as I like to call it, is helping women succeed in the tough world of business. Resilience is vital for being able to take the knocks and come back stronger.

There was a time when my business was on the ropes, and my father was ready to throw in the towel. But I refused to let it get to me. I reorganised, re-strategised and came back stronger. And now the business is thriving.

4. Women Are Less Egocentric

Which takes me on to my next point. Women have less of an ego than men. Men need an ego, they’ve evolved one. They need to be able to stand up to a threat, and they build a picture of themselves that’s bigger and stronger than they actually are.

This is important when it comes to facing an enemy that is bigger and stronger than themselves. But it can alienate people that aren’t a threat. We’ve all seen the red socks and suspenders of an Armani suited douche bag who kicks around the office like he’s God. This, in my opinion isn’t good for inspiring your team.

5. Women Are Better Communicators

And speaking of inspiring your team. It’s a well-established fact that women are better at communicating than men. To run a successful business, you need a team that works together with cohesion and purpose. If problems are encountered they need to be resolved quickly, so the team can get back on track with the business of being successful.

The trouble with men is they tend to bottle things up. Joe might have a grievance with his position, but rather than speak about it he lets his productivity slide. My father in this position would call Joe lazy, and probably aim a few loud expletives in his direction. Joe would then feel more aggrieved, and so the cycle would continue until Joe either quits, or is fired.

A woman on the other hand is more likely to notice that Joe has an issue, and she would ask him politely to share his feelings. Joe would open up like the delicate flower he is, and the problem would be resolved before it has a chance to spiral.

6. Women Are Less Impetuous

Which leads nicely to another reason why women are better at business than men. Women are less impetuous. Men have evolved what I call a fight reflex. This was a good trait to have when we were living in caves. You never know when the next caveman is going to steal your cave, your wife, and spread your innards on the wall as art.

So, when a man feels threatened by anything, his heckles go up and he switches to fight mode. Running in fight mode his vision is impaired and he’s liable to make rash, reckless decisions. This is when the woman will step in and tell him to calm down, but he’s likely to shout I AM CALM!

Fortunately, women don’t have this trait, and deal with threats in a calmer, more rational way. This avoids all manner of misunderstandings and helps a business run along like the smooth running ship it should be.

7. Women Are More Intelligent

Now, this is probably the most controversial of all the statements I’ve made in this here article. But facts are facts. It’s a modern educational orthodoxy that girls across the developed world are more likely to get top exam grades and university places than boys. The university admissions authority over at UK even warned that being a male could soon be seen as a new form of social disadvantage.

Now, does this mean that girls are more intelligent than boys? You betcha!

Although I’m sure there’s a myriad of factors that go into the reasoning why girls perform better than boys at school, the fact remains that they do. So if they had the same institutionalised thinking on business as men, they’d probably do better at that too.

See Also: Are Men Or Women More Successful At Saving For Retirement?

8. Women Have Women’s Intuition

I’ve made a lot of points here in this paper, and I’m sure if you’re a man reading this you’ll want to disagree with every single word I’ve written. You think it’s all jiggery pokery.

Well, a number of eminent psychologists agree that women’s intuition is very real indeed. Research has shown that women are better at reading facial expressions than men. Also, it’s shown that women are more likely to pick up on subtle emotional messages being sent out by others. This means we instinctively know if someone’s trying to hide something.

So the next time you try lying to a woman, remember she can read every little muscle tick on your face. And that’s a very handy tool to have when you’re running a successful business.

Summary

Okay, so you can uncross your legs now guys. You can disagree with a lot that I say, but the fact is I, (a woman) inherited a struggling business created by my father (a man), and turned it into the most successful and fastest growing sash windows company in London. I’ve done this in 6 years and have a 5-year plan to make Sash Windows London Ltd the biggest glazing company in the UK. And all because, thankfully I was born a woman.

The post 8 Reasons Why Women Are Better Than Men at Business appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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So you want to learn to code?

Well, you’re in luck – there’s never been a better time to start than now. There’s a whole host of resources and ways to learn. So many in fact, that just picking the best way to get started can be a real challenge – all of the options can be overwhelming!

So, I’ll walk you through 5 ways you can learn to code, pointing out the merits of each as we go, so that you can find the way that’s best suited to you and your goals.

Online Code Classes

There’s a range of both free and paid online coding classes that guide you through your first experiences with learning to code. They have a curriculum so you can learn in a structured way. They’re a great option for those wanting to learn the basics of programming.

Take a look at the courses offered by Treehouse, Khan Academy, Coursera, Codecademy and Code School. Harvard’s online Computer Science course CS50x is a good option too for those also wanting to learn more about computing in general.

Self-directed Learning

If you’re more suited to hacking things together and learning as you go, then you might prefer a less-structured, self-directed approach. That way you only have to learn the bits you’re interested in, and you can cater your learning to a specific purpose.

Your local library will likely stock a number of programming books but they can often be a bit dated. They’re more suited to traditional software development languages, like C and C++ than the latest in web development technologies. But there are of course a ton of free online books that you can get access to as well.

Also take a look at online tutorial sites, like W3Schools, Udacity, LaunchSchool, Thinkful, or SitePoint. Or for the more visual learner, there are videos too – check out TheNewBoston, SlideNerd, and Learn Code Academy.

For more resources, Bento has a great collection for virtually every language or utility you may need or want to learn.

Code Schools

For those looking to take things a little more seriously, and possibly snag a job at the end of it, then there are a range of intensive-learning code courses. They’re often quite pricey, but some come with some type of job guarantee or help to find a job at the end of it.

They won’t teach you everything, but after a couple of months eating, sleeping, and living code, you’ll be well on your way. Your choice of coding course will likely be limited to where you’re living, but take a look at options available with providers like the Flat Iron School, Dev Bootcamp, General Assembly, AppAcademy and the Recurse Center to get an idea of the types of courses available.

Of course, your local University will likely have a range of course options too for a more traditional Computer Science education.

Join a Community

Joining a programming community, either online or one that holds in-person meetups can be a good option. A community can help with specific coding problems, learn new ways of solving problems, as well as get suggestions of useful resources and meet potential new coding buddies.

Thankfully, there are lots of well-run options, from Hackathons (keep up with upcoming Hackathons with sites like Hackathon.io, HackEvents and Devpost), to Q&A sites like Stack Overflow, which are great for getting answers to specific coding problems.

There are language-specific fora, like those offered by devshed and Dream in Code. As well as those dedicated to Web Design and Development, like SitePoint and Daniweb or more Software Development focused sites like Code Project and Bytes.

There are also those that cater specifically to folks just starting to learn to code too – /r/learnprogramming, Free Code Camp and CodeNewbie are 3 of the best.

Whilst there is overlap between these communities, I recommend submitting questions and getting involved in a few and seeing where you feel most comfortable. Be sure to follow good forum etiquette and search for your question before posting though, or expect to get a snarky response back!

As your skills progress, you can also look into continuing to learn through coding challenges, and there are many community sites that promote them, such as HackerRank, SPOJ, CodeWars, Project Euler and /r/dailyprogrammer. You can even earn a little extra money too whilst solving them, through a site like Topcoder. Or, if your goal is to build your own startup, then why not learn to code by re-creating real products? Check out CodeUpstart and Code4Startup who do just that.

If in-person events are more your thing, then search Meetup for local events. In major cities there are lots of options, so be sure to look for language or problem-specific events. And for relevant conferences, check out Lanyrd.

Get a Mentor

Finally, for those looking to hone their skills or get advice on different ways of tackling programming problems, or things like coding-related career advice, then you might consider seeking a mentor to guide you. They aren’t going to be barking orders to keep coding, like a fitness coach, but they can help talk through issues in a more personal way and give you the detail you can only get in a 1-on-1.

Sites like Hack Pledge, Code Mentor and /r/ProgrammingBuddies are all good places to find willing mentors. At the very least, you can get input on your code with a code review community site such as codereview.stackexchange.com.

Regardless of the way you decide is best for you to learn to code, you’ll need to use a few tools to actually get started with writing code. HyperDev combines an online code editor, with automated code hosting and deployment to get you straight to coding without any confusing setup. So that’s a good starting point. As you get more experienced you might prefer a local development setup.

Learning to code isn’t easy, but if you find a way to learn that matches your goals, then you’ll be coding your way to success in no time!

The post 5 Goal-oriented Ways to Learn to Code appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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We all get stuck in a rut every once in a while.

Sometimes that rut is too deep to climb out of, and procrastination doesn’t help. It’s probably change that terrifies you, or starting something new feels like an impossible task, and you keep putting things off for tomorrow until you finally give up.

“Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.” – Victor Kiam

You might’ve had countless opportunities to get up and running, and you might’ve missed them all.

And that is more because of a lack of motivation than anything else. Lack of motivation leads to procrastination, which leads to your same old boring routine.

Don’t you want to get out of it?

Then take a look at these tips to trigger your motivation and get you pumped and ready to take charge of your life:

1. Use Your Current Situation as Motivation

This seems obvious, but it is something you should be doing more often.

Do you want to get out of your dead end job and start freelancing? Do you want to start a business of your own? Are you tired of your corporate job and want to teach kids in a foreign country?

Look at yourself now. Look at your current state. Is it something you want to be stuck in for the rest of your life? Of course not.

Don’t let failure or life’s monotony dampen your spirits; if anything, they should be what motivates you to get your ass up, and get moving. Remind yourself constantly that the only way is forward, and staying still won’t get you anywhere.

Eventually, you’ll find that failure is always the greatest motivator.

2. Set Small (and Achievable) Milestones

We’ve all got ambitions.

Some of them a bit grounded in reality, some of them probably impossible to attain.
For people like you and me, who find it hard getting motivated, it is better to set small goals that can be achieved quickly and effectively.

These small goals are like milestones that count down your road to success.

Start with something really minimal like, “I’ll wake up at 7 every day.” Then wake up at 7 next morning, and then set another target.

“I’ll start building a client list.”

“I’ll write an article for a blog.”

Increase the scope of your goals as you go along, completing every single one of them.

One of the things we lack the most is a sense of achievement, and that leads to a lack of desire and drive to succeed. Seeing every single one of your objectives getting fulfilled elevates this sense of achievement, and you grow in confidence with every passing step.

This is the kind of confidence makes world-beaters.

3. Surround Yourself with Successful People

The company you keep matters.

Surrounding yourself with people in the same boat as you makes you complacent. You tell yourself, “I’m not alone,” and you sail along waiting for the right moment.

That moment won’t come. Ever.

Not until you change your company. Surround yourself with the right kind of people – people that are more successful than you are.

What this does – you start aspiring to reach their level, or even surpass them. This will give you the kick that you need to get going, and to never look back.

4. Join Groups Working Towards a Similar Goal

It can be any group – a mastermind group, a LinkedIn/Facebook group, an online forum, a Meetup or even a Whatsapp group.

People in such groups tend to help each other out as much as possible, and you can learn things you never would’ve otherwise. You get tips, you get resources and you get experienced individuals offering you valuable first-hand advice.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” – Helen Keller

Also, when you see other people, like you, starting from scratch and progressing steadily, sometimes that’s the only motivation you’ll ever need to get moving.

Use websites like LinkedIn and Facebook to find groups in your niche. Join a few good ones and interact daily. Join a Meetup in your city, and regularly attend its events.

Join a forum, ask questions and provide answers. Even popular bloggers in any niche generally have their own forums or communities; try to become a part of those.

Or better yet, you can create your own group. Network, connect and invite individuals you’d like to be a part of it. Use apps like Whatsapp or Hangouts to create a collaborative space that acts like a virtual mastermind group.

Doing this, you’ll realize that groups are the best motivational triggers for anything you want to accomplish.

When all’s said and done, it’s really up to you. Nothing’s stopping you from taking charge of your own life, except you yourself. Just follow these tips, and you’ll never find it hard to get motivated to succeed.

The post 4 Motivational Triggers to Get You Started Right Now appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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Are you wondering why the heck we’re teaching you how to do less in life?

Modern life is a stressful cacophony of items calling for our attention. Time passes by in a neck-breaking speed, as we jump from one item on our to-do list to another. The common philosophy is if you don’t move forward everyday, you’re relatively moving backwards because of humanity’s collective progress.

That’s why instead of swallowing one productivity book after another to extend your to-do list, you need to reverse your thinking and always be on the lookout for how to do less in your life.

Here are five steps I took to do less in my life:

1. Decide what’s important in your life

Sit down with yourself and unearth your personal values. Divide your life into sections such as physical, relationships, spiritual and intellectual. Then work to improve in at least one area every single day.

See Also: Taking a Life Audit: Five Steps to Prioritising What’s Important

2. Cancel the rest

After deciding all the things that are super-important to you, place your boundaries and only pay attention to those items within your boundaries. The truth is, we’re inundated with information every single day and there’ll never be time to pursue and learn everything so you have to make a conscious choice to not go after some thing even if it’s very popular.

Don’t give in to your fear of missing out and instead focus on connecting to your authentic self. Once you do this, you’ll be focusing more on increasing efficiency rather than busy-ness.

3. Delegate

This is something I’ve learned from reading James Altucher’s work and listening to his podcast. Whenever you find yourself doing something that you hate, take a note of it, and work on ways to delegate it in the future.

Maybe it’s doing chores, cooking, or administration work. You might hire a part-time helper or a virtual assistant to do the work for you so you can focus on doing what matters.

If you can’t afford it, make a list of, “Tasks to Delegate As Soon As I Can Afford To,” and that’ll inspire you to work harder and maybe make more money so you can work more on the things you enjoy.

4. Deactivate Facebook

When I told one of my friends that I don’t have Facebook, she commented something like, “You gained so much time in your life.” The truth is, the time is always there, but the moment Facebook entered the scene, what happened was I – and many others – lost control of where our time went.

Instead of focusing on the things that were important to us, we instead started focusing on the things that were important to others.

That’s a great power to give to many people, so I personally deactivated facebook and haven’t looked back since then.

5. Delete other social media apps from your phone

I’m for Twitter, mainly because I use it to engage in conversations about ideas I care about. Twitter is more idea-centric than Facebook which is more people-centric. Or at least, that’s the function I use it for.

However, having my phone in my hand all the time meant I wasn’t engaging in my real life especially when there were pockets of free time around. Tweeting and replying was just too distracting and too stressful, so I deleted it from my phone. Instead I use the web version whenever I want to, and again, that’s another way to win back control in my life.

See Also: How to Stop Wasting Time on Social Media (no willpower needed)

When you focus on a few super-important items in your life – whether it’s finding time to talk to your spouse or laughing with your children or advancing in your career – you’re more capable of engaging fully in them, and that engagement comes with a sense of true fulfillment that the white noise of social media and information overload can’t really replace. So instead of finding ways to cut corners and add more to your plate, decide on getting a smaller plate.

The post 5 Steps to Do Less in Life appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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Do you want to know how to motivate your team?

The success of any business depends on people, and the effectiveness of the people depends on their managers. Managers don’t just manage and control all the work that has to be done, but they also motivate the staff to get the best out of them.

Motivated employees will be more effective at their jobs and will “go the extra mile” for your company. Motivated employees will also be good team players and good teamwork is essential for any successful business.

It is never enough to have good business processes and procedures in place. For a chance of building a successful business, employees need to be well-motivated and work well together.

But just what are the best ways of encouraging and motivating people? There has been plenty of debate over the years and traditionally a carrot-and-stick approach would have been used. More recently though, it has been recognised that if you want people to be innovative and creative then the fear of “punishment” just won’t get the best out of people.

See Also: The New and Modern Way Companies Are Increasing Productivity

There’s a great book by Daniel Pink called “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” which suggests that the best way to motivate people is to enable then to develop to their full potential.

Here are some tips on how to motivate your team:

Identify Strengths

If, as a manager, you can identify your people’s individual strengths, then you are well on your way to motivating them. Give your employees tasks they are good at so they can enjoy their work and will have a better chance at succeeding.

Identify Weaknesses

Don’t shy away from highlighting weaknesses in individuals or in the team as a whole because acknowledging these weaknesses is the first step to rectifying them. Just make sure your methods are motivational.

For instance, someone has a lack of knowledge and experience in a particular area but a good training course can easily put this right at minimal cost and leave you with a much more motivated and enthusiastic team member.

Communicate

Always have honest and open discussions with everyone. Some conversations may, obviously, not be appropriate for a large group so it will be necessary to talk to individuals alone.

Don’t just do this once or twice a year at appraisal time. Find time in your schedule to talk more often to the whole group and to each individual. After all, their motivation and effectiveness at their job will reflect on you.

Support and Encourage

Develop a fully motivated team by supporting and encouraging, praising when a job is done well, and offering constructive criticism (and training if necessary) when work does not meet the required standards. Promote open discussions about how working practices could be improved, encourage a flow of ideas about how to tackle problems and make full use of opportunities that arise.

Set Clear Expectations

It is critical that your team members understand what is expected of them. Otherwise, they cannot deliver what is required, no matter how capable they are.

So when assigning tasks, be absolutely clear about timelines and the quality of work that is expected. People are not mind-readers so you must be explicit in your instructions. And when people know what is expected, they can deliver and that in turn motivates them to continue to do a good job.

There are a few major organisations that allow their employees a high level of freedom in what they work on, where and when – believing they will be motivated to succeed doing something they enjoy. And it works for some types of creative roles but isn’t suitable for every business.

Many businesses need structure because they have regular deadlines to meet for their day-to-day activities. In such businesses, a lack of structure could simply lead to chaos so be absolutely clear when setting expectations.

That doesn’t mean some people can’t occasionally work from home or start and finish early to avoid a tiresome commute. Just make sure it doesn’t cause resentment in other team members because clearly resentment is not conducive to a motivated team.

See Also: Motivating Your Team – What To Do (And What To Avoid)

In a nutshell, motivation is all about helping people develop  professionally so they can achieve their full potential in a working environment that has clear expectations.

The post What Managers Should Know About Motivating Their Team appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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Buying a home is much more than just making a purchase. Since it’s a big investment, buyers need to be extra picky if they want to get the best deal out of their money. This makes short listing your home for sale a lot more difficult.

If you want to get ahead of the competition, you need to make a big and lasting impression to your potential buyers.

Here is a list that will show you what home buyers want when shopping around for a prospective property.

1. Revamped Kitchen

Most buyers insist on seeing a home’s kitchen first to get a good idea on how much they’ll need to spend on remodeling it. If it looks like it will need more than a few thousand dollars, they’re likely to give it a pass.

Revamping your kitchen doesn’t really mean spending a big chunk of cash. You can invest in low-cost renovations that can include updating its light fixtures, adding a few new countertops, and fresh paint.

2. Updated Bathroom

Buyers consider an updated bathroom as a hint of how well-kept a home is. If it’s dirty and grimy, it will make buyers think that the rest of the house could be in the same condition.

To avoid creating this impression, you can do minor renovations in your bathroom. You can replace any worn out cabinets and faucets with new ones. You can also have it repainted or you can use well-designed and durable wallpapers as a temporary solution.

3. A Cozy Outdoor Space

Buyers prefer homes with good external features. It can mean having a clean outdoor space, a warm patio and a sturdy fence. Cleaning up the area and making sure that there are no overgrown shrubs can also help boost your home’s curb appeal.

4. A Separate Laundry Room

Having a separate laundry room means having a specific place to get your clothes washed, ironed and folded. It helps keep the living room and bedroom free from mess.

If you’re just about to install one at home, it’s a good idea to have it on the first floor of your home for added convenience and ease of access.

5. More Lightings

Exterior lightings can help scare potential intruders and burglars from your home. It can also boost your home’s appeal even after it’s dark.

Aside from your lawn, it can help boost your home’s value if you can increase the amount of natural light that can enter. You can invest in adding a few more windows or use curtains made of very light materials.

6. Well-organized Garage Storage Space

Buyers, particularly those with large families, prefer homes with a lot of storage space. However, unlike having an attic or a basement, keeping an organized garage storage space is more appealing since it’s easily accessible. It can practically be reached within just a few steps from the front door.

7. A Security System

Before a person actually buys a property, he would want to make sure the new neighborhood is safe enough for his family. Adding a security system is one good way to meet this preference. Aside from increasing your home’s potential, it can also boost its value in the market.

See Also: 10 People in Urgent Need of Smart Home Security Systems

In case you don’t have an existing alarm system yet, try to consider a wireless system. It offers the same benefits as a wired system but without the high cost and inconveniences of having wires around at home.

8. A spacious bedroom

People prefer large rooms where they can let their children play around without having to worry about them hitting their heads on the edge of the bed. If you already have a decent-sized bedroom, play it to your advantage and assemble your furniture in a way that would emphasize the room’s layout. Take out any clutter and free as much space as possible.

9. Low Maintenance Features

Young buyers are always on the lookout for homes that aren’t hard to maintain. It can either be because of their busy schedule or they just want a hassle-free time to spend at home.

Adding wood floors, instead of carpets, can make your home relatively easy to clean. Another good idea is to install granite counter tops since they are attractive but low-maintenance.

10. Energy Efficiency

With the increasing cost of electricity, making your home energy efficient can attract a lot of conscious buyers, particularly those who are aiming to go green. Investing in effective insulation can give your potential buyers the assurance of a lower energy requirement to heat or cool the house. Replacing your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps can also help lower your electricity consumption.

If you don’t have enough cash to make radical changes at home, you can simply plant shade trees in your lawn or add a few shrubs around the house.

See Also: 15 Budget Worthy Smart Home Improvements

Now that you know what home buyers want when looking around in homes, it’s time to look over your property and make some changes if necessary.

The post 10 Important Home Features That Home Buyers Want appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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Ask a voracious reader why he or she makes time out of their busy schedule for reading a book. Have you ever wondered why they even read books?

What’s the importance of reading books for these bibliophiles? What makes those pages attractive to them? You can’t truly experience this feeling unless you have found the right book for you.

But if you are a beginner, here’s why reading books is an awesome thing.

1. Reliable knowledge base

When Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones is asked why he reads so many books, he says, “A mind needs books like a sword needs whetstone.”

Since ages, sages have read millions of books and even written many of them from their experience. The Gita, Holy Quran and Holy Bible are some of the religious books that have helped humans to establish peace in the world.

Moreover, while the Internet might give you erroneous information, officially published and vetted books are reliable sources of knowledge. Books (especially physical books) are thoroughly researched, cross-examined and edited critically. You can bank on the information given in books.

See Also: 9 Ways Reading Fiction Can Jump Start Your Career

2. Enhances imagination

Watching movies doesn’t enhance your imagination. You are visually served with the characters in the movie and this is where your imagination ends.

In books, a lot is left to the readers’ imaginations. Prominent writers such as Charles Dickens, Bronte sisters, Hardy and others are known for the descriptive portrayal of their characters in the books. You can even draw the portrait of those characters by going through the description provided.

When you continue this practice, your imagination is enhanced and to quote Einstein: Imagination is more important than knowledge.

3. Whole new experience

We become the books we read, says Matthew Kelly. When we hold books in our hand and read them in our mind, we are disconnected from the world. In other words, we go far from the madding crowd.

Living in an imaginary world of books is a set of new experience and everyone should experience this at least once in their lifetime. This experience cannot be stated in words and you should experience this by picking just the right book for you.

4. Genius read books

Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, once shared that he always reads books before going to bed. He is a hard working personality and he manages to make time for reading.

Swami Vivekananda, Abraham Lincoln, and Nelson Mandela are other strong personalities who changed the world with their thoughts. They are also known to be avid readers.

If you’re a voracious reader of books, you might be changing the world in your own way too.

5. Book readers experience thousands of lives

You can be anything and everything you want if you read books. Whether you want to be Harry Potter or Oliver Twist, you can enjoy or suffer the hardship of any character in the book.

Book readers’ life never gets boring: they live millions of lives. On account of their rich imagination, they can dive deeper into the sea of the people from the story. Be an invisible man or time travel into the future, or you can just visit an ancient period and live your character there.

Be what you want if you are a reader!

6. Free Life Lessons

Books teach lessons. Experience is the most important key to success in life but what books can teach us is valuable to us. We can experience hardships and struggles, joys and pleasure even without actually experiencing it yet. Books teach us life lessons that we can apply in our life.

There is no one who can experience everything in life. It is practically impossible to learn from all mistakes. The best thing is to be prepared for every situation and books help us get ready for them.

7. Importance of self-help books

Self-help books don’t have a rich plot but these books inspire readers. Motivation plays a major role in our success. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill tells you the way how to get rich. The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama and Howard Carter expresses the true happiness. Books by Robin Sharma and Dale Carnegie have transformed the lives of millions.

See Also: How to Massively Increase Your Reading Comprehension

Books help you find the true meaning of your life. They are your companion. Laugh with them. Cry with them. Books will never judge you but books will teach you everything you want to achieve in your life.

Happy reading!

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Did you know that companies have a new way to increase productivity?

The working day used to be very different. A typical one used to be heaving ourselves out of bed after pressing snooze for the fifteenth time, eyes swollen shut with exhaustion, rushing to Starbucks to grab a coffee and chocolate pastry before reaching the office to tackle the mountain of emails which have accumulated between midnight (when we finally put our phone down) and 8am.

And this was the least stressful part of our day. Scoffing lunch at our desks, or worse, forgetting to have lunch, juggling 3 different meetings with phone calls, emails and general everyday tasks, all the while inhaling enough coffee to bring a small animal back from the dead.

Being permanently high on caffeine and frantically replying to all your emails over the course of a 24-hour working day used to be the road to productivity and career success. Raised eyebrows were directed at anyone who actually left work on time and even our commute was an opportunity to dive head-first into our ever-growing to do lists.

However, large tech companies are now beginning to see the unpleasant effects of the ‘work-hard-do-nothing-else’ company culture that was so prevalent. They’ve realised that yes, we may get a lot done, but the high-stress environment affects employees both physically and mentally. More sick days, less employment satisfaction and strained relationships with colleagues were just a few of the side effects that coincide with such a high-pressure atmosphere.

Now, a new method of increasing productivity is emerging — office meditations. It’s based on the notion that a happy employee is a productive employee and, I speak from experience when I say that surviving on caffeine and 4pm Snickers bars is no road to happiness.

Tech giant Google began recognizing the benefits of meditation for employees back in 2011 after a Zen monk visited their Silicon Valley headquarters. The internal course, named Search Inside Yourself, was designed to help employees manage stress and emotions. Greater happiness equals greater productivity which leads to company growth and yes, increased profit.

Google also introduced ‘mindful lunches’ where the only noise during the meal is that of a prayer bell, a far cry from swallowing our Pret chicken wrap whole whilst frantically stabbing at our keyboards with one hand.

See Also: 5 Quick Fixes To Improve Your Mental Health

As usual, Google are onto it. More than 1000 employees have completed their Search Inside Yourself training, Meditation and mindfulness have officially replaced caffeine. They have become the new fuel, with quiet contemplation the key to a successful day.

Other tech giants have getting in on the action. Steve Jobs reportedly allowed employees 30 minutes breaks in the official meditation room and he also provided on-site yoga. Many believe Jobs’ love for meditation actually helped him become so successful.

HBO has also implemented free yoga classes and meditation sessions into their working days. Device free rooms are opening in offices and in France some companies are banning employees from checking or sending emails during the weekend and evenings.

But not everyone has jumped on the meditation bandwagon and, as with any new ‘trend’, there are sceptics. Some believe integrating Buddhist values into our high-pressure, high-speed lifestyles is counterproductive. As Buddhism is traditionally about renouncing material possessions and feeling content with what you have, it seems backward to use it’s techniques in a workplace where employees have targets to meet and must constantly strive to achieve more.

See Also: 6 Tai Chi Benefits That Will Surprise You

Dan Nixon of the Bank of England recently argued that widespread mindfulness meditations could actually effect a growing economy thanks to the ‘less is more’ values that it promotes. It teaches contentment, the opposite to the common view that ‘economics is all about consumption’. Perhaps if everyone becomes content with what they have, businesses will cease to grow at the rate they have been.

Yet taking time to focus on the present or setting aside a moment to relax during our working day doesn’t equate to Buddhism. Whilst the effect employee meditation may have on company growth counters the anti-material Buddhist teachings, the effects of mindfulness meditations on general well-being cannot be denied. Besides, anything is better than that 3pm coffee crash.

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Succeeding in the workplace involves a mix of many different skills but the one you probably forget about is writing. You’d be surprised at how much you’re asked to write in your day to day duties even if you rarely put pen to paper anymore.

Here are 10 tools that will help you improve your business writing skills and put you on the fast track in your profession.

1. Pro Writing Aid

This app is a great editing tool for you. Simply paste your work into it and it will show you an analysis of your writing. Flick through the different pages and it will show different types of errors. This is a great way to improve your writing skills.

See Also: Seven Things You Need to Know About Writing for the Web – Whatever Your Job

2. Email Excellence

Sending an email that people will want to respond to is an art and if this is something you struggle with, you’ll see sales fall. Luckily, this tool has the answer.

There’s a plethora of templates to choose from. Whatever you need, you can pick a template from their collection and write the perfect email.

3. Boom Essays

Writing emails, presentations and proposals can take up a lot of time and effort. If you’re short on time, the last thing you need is to have to sit at your desk and hammer out yet another paper. This service can write it with the information you give them and get it back to you in time for delivery.

4. Scrivener

This is an entire writing package within one program. You can organise, plan, and execute your writing within the same app. It even lets you keep your plans on the same page, so you can check them while you write.

If you’re a fan of the iPad, you can download the app for that machine, too.

5. Readability Test Tool

The most important part of any piece of writing is that it’s easy to read. This tool will give you a score for the readability of your work, based on the average reading age needed to understand it. Because Google gives preference to content that is easy to read, this Readability tool becomes a must to use.

6. Wridea

This is a tool that allows you to mind map and collect ideas all in one place. This way, you’ll never lose an idea again. You can even share them with colleagues, which is perfect if you’re working on a group assignment.

7. Hemingway Editor

If you want to improve your writing, this tool can help. Paste in your work, and the app will instantly highlight all of the issues with your writing.

It is color coded so that each colour of highlighting will show up a different type of issue. This feature helps you see exactly what you need to work on.

8. Verbix

This tool helps you conjugate verbs in a huge array of languages but it’s often very useful even using it in your native English. Ever found yourself stuck for the term for having been hang gliding in the past? This app can tell you what it is.

9. Essayroo

Editing is a good way to learn how your writing needs improving and lets you polish up your work to a high sheen, but sometimes, you simply don’t have the time to do it yourself. This writing service can take in the work you need to be looked over, and then proofread, edit, and rewrite it. Using this service, you’ll have quality writing every time.

10. Stoodle

Want to learn more about improving your writing skills? This site may have the answer. It offers interactive, online classrooms, that allow you to learn at your own pace. You can even save your classes afterwards, letting you revise over them and spend time taking in those new skills. There’s even a community, so you can get in touch with others who are looking to do the same as you.

See Also: How to Organize Your Writing Workplace for Better Productivity

These are just 10 tools that will help you improve your writing skills. There are hundreds more online if you’ve caught the bug to learn more.

Try these out for yourself, and you’ll see that your skills will improve drastically. Now get out there and get ahead in your career!

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