Category Archives: Career and Productivity

How to motivate yourself when you are down?

Do you find yourself putting things off and needing a push to start again? If so, you are in a league of thousands of others who do not find performing regular and irregular tasks exciting enough. What you need is motivation, motivation will get you going. Bring in changes in your attitude and uplift your self esteem to evolve into a newer positive personality.

Give a pat on your back: Instead of regretting about the errors or mistakes you have made, it is time you rewarded yourself for your achievements and successes, no matter how big or how small. You can treat yourself to an outing, buy something like to eat or buy new pair of clothing. Regular rewards will make you pinpoint your achievements and boost your self esteem. Make use of technology to keep a track of your achievements. Mark it on your calendar, website or an app whenever you finish a task.

Make a list of issues that bother you and balance these out with the positives in your life: Put a pen to a paper and jot down the problems that are contributing to your frustration. It could be boredom, too much work pressure, no fixed goals a.k.a. moving targets, a negative bent of mind or an unhappy relationship. Now balance this with the positives in your life, like a steady relationship, family, sports, friends, etc. If there is a healthy mix of both, then there is nothing to worry about, your frustrations may just be a passing phase. If there are significantly more issues that are frustrating you, you should take action to resolve some of them and try to balance this list.

Convert a big task into smaller ones: Often a large responsibility can weigh down on the performance or motivation level of a person. Break up a large daunting task into a series of small steps. Complete small tasks one step at a time and you will feel a sense of achievement each time. Make a schedule of small tasks to help you through. This can be a morale booster and gear you to take on tasks happily the next time round.

Nobody is perfect: If you are a perfectionist, you are soon going to feel demotivated and dissatisfied if things are not going your way. It is better to put in your best rather than trying to perfect every time and complete things. This gives you an opportunity to complete things and move on.

Make unpleasant tasks enjoyable: It is not possible to achieve your goal if you do not enjoy the activity that leads to it. In case you are on a weight loss regime, you will find dieting and exercising a pain. Instead, you can try interesting new low fat menus and carry your earphones when you are out on your jog. If you get a writer’s block whenever you are about to fill in your blog, you can change your topic to a subject that you are passionate about.

It is the company you keep: People around you are also responsible for your state of mind. Surround yourself with highly motivated and positive people. When you start a task, get a friend or a helpful colleague to take stock at regular intervals. You can ask them to help you keep off fatty snacks or keep a track of the progress of tasks you have undertaken. Positivity around you is going to keep you motivated so shed off the company that bogs you down.

What other methods do you use to motivate yourself? What methods works best for you?

photo by: h.koppdelaney

How to prepare for an interview

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Facing the interviewer for the first time can be daunting; unless you do a bit of homework, you will not get confidence for the important day. Get down to details and get organized before you walk through the door. Wear an air of confidence as you face the wholly of questions. Your preparedness for the interview will get you through. Here is how you prepare for an interview to increase your chances of being successful.

Interview Preparation Tips

Create a good first impression: The first thing that the interviewer notices about you is your physical appearance. Be conscious of your posture and avoid slouching while sitting or standing. Keep the clothes you are going to wear during the interview ready. Dress soberly, wear comfortable shoes and stick to minimum accessories. Make sure your hair, nails, and any accessories you wear, give you a professional look. Rehearse your greeting with a friend so you are confident when you meet your interviewer. All this adds to the first impression you create.

Be prepared for the common questions: The interviewer is keen to learn about you and will pose a series of questions related to your background, and experience, your soft skill and technical skills, your career ambitions, etc. Answering honestly and confidently is the key of being successful during an interview. To get that confidence you can prepare for commonly expected questions in the interview in advance. Preparing in advance will give you the opportunity to work on your examples and help you convey your story in a better way.

Learn about the company, team and your role: Review the company profile, group profile and the job description. Talk to people in your network who are associated with the company to get more information than what you can get online. This will give a sense of the skills you have to highlight in the interview. You should also structure one or two questions related to these topics (company, team and job responsibilities) and bring them up at the appropriate time. This will show that you have done your research

Brush up your general knowledge: Expect the interviewer to ask you questions related to current affairs as well. Reading the newspaper daily will keep you abreast with the latest happenings and help you form opinions on current affairs. Include a variety of other reading material- periodicals, magazines, books and best sellers. A well read person is also the most informed.

Review your resume completely before going for an interview: Your resume is not just a required document for most job applications; it is the piece of paper that will help you guide your interview. You should structure your resume to have a proper flow. You can get professional help to make your resume, use tools on the web, or work with someone who has more work experience than you. Before the interview, go over the resume you submitted for the job and think about question that can come up based on the information in the resume. Make sure you have answers to these questions. If there are any changes to your profile (promotion, change of responsibilities, completion of new courses, etc.) since you applied for the position, bring in updated resume copies. Print copies of the resume for everyone you are expected to meet and also keep some spare copies, just in case you have to meet more people than you were informed (happens all the time).

Get a friend to interview you: Ask a friend to help you with your preparations and go through a round of rehearsals for the final day. This is a sure way of avoiding the nervousness that can hit you at the interviewer’s table. Answer your friend as you would to an interviewer and at the end take their feedback.

Be positive: Your positive attitude and confident demeanour can help through a stressful interview. You will make an impression on your future employer with your calm manner and find yourself relaxing as the interview progresses. Your positive attitude will help you maintain your self esteem even if your first attempt is unsuccessful. Take your interview as a practice if you do not clear and get yourself ready for the next one.

Hope these tips help you be successful in your next interview. Do you have any other ways you prepare for an interview that have worked for you?

photo by: laverrue

How to Answer the 10 Most Common Interview Questions?

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Just by being a well qualified candidate will not help you the grab the job opportunities measured only by your qualification. One has to be an expert in creating good impression during interviewers. Now, to stand out from the crowd you need to be one step ahead of others and this can be done by knowing the most common interview questions and giving their best answers. Here are some of the most common interview questions that are often asked in an interview.

Tell me something about yourself: Among all the questions, usually the first common question that most of the interviewers ask is to let them known about yourself. Often people claim themselves that they are hardworking, responsible and loyal. You should always introduce yourself in terms of your unique selling proposition. But you should remember to be remarkable without being arrogant. A good response to this question will help you take control of the interview.

Why do you want to join our company?: If you have thoroughly gone through about the company then you must be aware of the specific details such as products, mission and history which all can be your reason to join the company. Here the interviewer wants to know that how much you are aware about the company and their work procedures.

What are your strengths? : This common question asked in an interview as the interviewer is permitting you to tooth your own horn, thus no need to be very modest. You should reveal those strengths that company would find valuable for them such as good communication skill and leadership quality. You can also let them know your ability to handle complicated situations and stress. Be ready with examples that show you can use your strengths to your advantage.

What are your weaknesses? : Some people say that they don’t have any weakness but it is not believable. So, it is better to known that everyone has some areas that needs improvements. Thus it is best to let the interviewer know about the weakness that could also be taken as strength. For instance you can say “I am not much aware of Photoshop software, but I am now taking online tutorials to improve my skills regarding Photoshop.” This shows you have identified a skill gap (weakness) and are working to gain that skill (strength). Carefully playing this question will help you impress the interviewer.

Why did you leave your last job? : Often employers want to know the reasons you left previous job or want to make a switch at this point in your career. Here you need to be honest; hiding issues may hurt you in the future, but keep in mind not to give unnecessary details. Some good reasons include: seeking better exposure, seeking new challenges, and desire to build new skills.

How do you handle stress? : Almost every job has some or the other type of pressure which leads to stressful situations. Here the interviewers just want to know that under pressure will you be able to give best performance or will wander here and there screaming! Demonstrate with examples that you can handle pressure in a positive way. You can kill two birds with one stone by picking examples that will you help highlight additional skills like your problem solving ability, ability to work in groups, etc.

How do you evaluate success? : You should give a very positive answer to this question. You can say that you evaluate success in distinct ways. Professionally you consider success as meeting team goals and company goals. At a personal you can define success as something that impacts your community. Showing two different aspects will help show multiple dimensions of your career.

Why should we hire you? : Employer ask this question to know what separates you from other candidates for this position. Your have to sell yourself here. You have to establish a fit for the role and the group. Highlight skills and qualification you meet and are required for the position. Mention benefits they will gain by hiring you, like unique work experience and skills that other candidates may not possess.

What are your salary expectations? : This question may be better left answered in a wage manner. You want to show you are more excited about the work than the compensation. However you may be pressured to say a number. Prior to the interview, perform some research to find the market salary for the position at your level of experience. You can give a range that meets your expectations if you have to tell some numbers.

Do you have any questions for me? : Asking question to your employer shows your interest in the position and the company but you should also keep in mind not to ask trivial questions. Prior to your interview you should prepare some questions based on the research about the company. For instance, you can ask what is the company’s strength compared to its competitors? How will your responsibilities be? What are the growth opportunities for someone who gets selected in this role?

Arm yourself with responses to these questions and you will feel you are in the driver’s seat.

What common questions do you prepare for before an interview? Which interview questions are the most difficult to answer?

Author: Jen

Do one thing at a time

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We have so many things to work on at any given time. At work we have to take care of multiple priorities at the same time, at home we are constantly trying to balance our priorities between our family, friends and passions and often we try to do all of these simultaneously. We think multitasking is helping us do more. In fact there are Corporations that are providing training to their employee on how to multitask. But can we really do many things at one time? Is multi-tasking possible?

Multitasking does not work, not just for me; there is research to support that humans cannot multitask. When I try to work on multiple things at the same time my productivity drops and so does the quality of the work I am doing. So why not just do one things at a time. These are some benefits of not multitasking:

Save time by not switching tasks: When you try to work on multiple projects simultaneously, you will have to switch between tasks, often at points when they have not reached a logical conclusion. When you get back to doing the same task again, you will likely have to spend time to refresh your memory and build momentum. Many people thing computers can multitask but the fact is computers with one CPU (i.e. computers with one brain) cannot multitask. They create an illusion of multi-tasking by quickly switching between tasks. Computers with multi core CPUs can multitask as there is essentially more than one brain (unfortunately we only have one brain).

Delegate: In order to focus on one thing at a time, you will have to learn to prioritize and delegate. When I started with The Money Mail, I tried doing all the things by myself, and often simultaneously! So any given point I would be writing an article, composing an email to request a guest post opportunity, reading articles, exploring collaboration opportunities with advertisers etc. But then I started delegating tasks to a virtual assistant and then to a full-time assistant.

Helps improve concentration: When you select one task or project to complete, you can focus on the task and sideline all others as distraction. This will help improve your concentration and help you complete projects sooner.

Create space for creativity: Trying to think about multiple projects or tasks simultaneously seriously kills creativity. I have experienced this personally, the mind start focusing on the mechanical aspects of the task rather than the qualitative aspects. When you stop trying to multitask, you give yourself the ability to think creatively about the project you are working on.

Work on your strengths: Everyone is better when they can use their strengths. When you learn to delegate, you will opportunities to work on projects when you can use your strengths. This will help improve the quality of the work you do and will help you get recognition.

So the next time you think about multi-tasking, be sure you are not fooling yourself. Instead try doing one things at a time and see if the results surprise you.

Does multitasking work for you? Do you try to do one thing at a time or do you try to multi task?

photo by: ryantron.

Bouncing Back From Failure With Small Wins

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We all suffer setbacks, fail in our endeavors, get demotivated but true strength is in coming back. I have failed several times – in academics, in personal life, in professional life - I was miserable when it came to learning new languages, I hated networking events and would end up standing in a corner, but I have always bounced back. I ended up in top 5% of my class in the language course I was really bad at. I made a career switch by making connections at a networking event. How did I do it?

The answer is small wins. Small wins are immensely powerful, they can provide motivation, encouragement and the confidence you need to get back on your feet. Small wins act as catalysts that will help you achieve larger goals.

Small wins are part of our DNA

If you want to run a marathon, you will not try to run the full distance the very first time you train for it. First you will set a smaller target and try to achieve it, then you will continually increase the distance you run. What is happening here? You are creating small wins for yourself (of course you are also building stamina to run such a long distance but the motivation and the sense of victory you get every time you push your limits are the small wins that help you go forward).

How to create small wins?

In order to bounce back from failures you can create small wins in a strategic way.

Set goals you can achieve: We often set unrealistic goals. While setting goals, we don’t see the obstacles we will have to face, the things which are out of our control but can have an impact on our goals. When you have just suffered from a failure and you want to get back on your feet, set small and achievable goals for yourself and make it a point to complete them.

Lower your expectations (temporarily): Have you observed that when you walk in to a movie theater with high expectations you are often disappointed (even if the movie was better than an average movie) and then sometimes you have very low expectations with the movie but you really enjoy it (although it was a below average movie). We perceive success and failure relative to how we set our expectations for the endeavor. Lower your expectation temporarily and you will be able to better able to achieve success. This does not mean you have to lower you expectations permanently, only till the time you have some wins under your belt.

Enjoy and celebrate wins: Celebrating wins give you confidence and even more motivation. Enjoy with people who helped you achieve this win, thank them. They are people who care for you and your future success will also depend on them.

Build on your wins: Set small targets and keep moving towards them. This will help you make incremental progress. In fact, you can break down almost any large task in to smaller tasks and achieve them; creating small wins for you in the process. These small wins will give you the boost to purse the next task and create yet another small win. Incrementally pursuing these small tasks will help you achieve your larger targets.

How do you plan to use small wins to bounce back from failure? Has small wins helped you achieve something you thought was impossible?

photo by: law_keven

50+ ways to be a leader in today’s world

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How to be a leader in today’s world? A question that nearly everyone thinks about, right from a professional working 9 to 5, a sportsperson trying to get to the top of his game, an activist leading a movement to an artist inspiring people with their art; the list is endless but the pursuit is the same.

How to be a leader?

And why not? After all leader unite our efforts, they inspire us and make things happens. We are all leaders or are trying to be in some way or the other. Leadership can be displayed in different ways in different setting. You don’t have to have the title of a leader to show leadership, you can show leadership by your action and by the results you achieve.

These are over 5o ways to become a leader today.

Can you think of a time when you demonstrated leadership? How did you do it? Share with me in the comment and I will add to the list.

Share this list on twitter (click to tweet): 50+ ways to be a leader today

Lead by example
Take the road less traveled
Give people a chance to prove themselves
Take action
Have confidence in your action
Develop a team consensus
Do it the right way
Reward action
Challenge your team
Challenge yourself
Follow on the footsteps of a leader
Share your vision with the group
Share your past experience
Become awesome at what you do
Train other people
Know what you want
Tell what you want
Influence others
Don’t be afraid to accept failure
Ask for a reason before doing anything
Give hope to people
Solve problems
Give credit to other people
Bring change when needed
Learn to say NO
Learn to say YES
Take risks
Take ownership
Take a stand
Be strong
Be kind
Be approachable
Develop a strategy
Find and nurture talent
Put the team before yourself
Put the goal before yourself
Be ambitious
Make decisions
Give respect
Earn respect
Resolve conflicts
Motivate others
Look forward
Think of the big picture
Empower others
Unlock people’s potential
Be obsessed
Create value for others
Know your strengths
Know your weaknesses
Know what matters
Know your limits
Break limits
Innovate
Be clear
Maintain high level of integrity
Let others lead
Get along with people
Follow your instincts
Be humble

Share this list on twitter (click to tweet): 50+ ways to be a leader today

Follow The Money Mail on Twitter @the_money_mail

Why we don’t execute on our goals

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Almost every person comes up with an idea than can change the world, a multi-million dollar idea, or the next revolutionary product but only some people act on these and bring it to the life. Ideas by themselves are worth very little, the real value lies in the execution.

Ideas don’t change the world; it’s the people who execute these ideas that change the world. So if execution is the key, why so many people fail to execute?

Barriers to execution

First step: The first few steps of any project are the most difficult and the most critical. It takes tremendous effort to get a ball rolling but when the ball is rolling it only takes little effort to keep the ball in motion or to increase its momentum. The same applies to projects, when you are about to start a project, it takes time to get the project off the ground, but once you have put in the initial effort, it becomes easier to work on it on an ongoing basis.

Paralysis by Analysis: Starting on a dream project, we want everything to be perfect. So we spend time on trying to visualize every little detail. We make spreadsheet after spreadsheet, trying to analyze the various outcomes, trying to find the best approach to project. While planning is an important aspect of any project, over analyzing is a spiral which never leads you to the next stage of the project.

Setting Goals: Often the goal we have or the vision we have for the project is too idealistic and far-fetched such that it becomes impractical to pursue. If you don’t have sight of immediate steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal, you are likely to be wasting your efforts and only realize long after that you are not moving towards your goal.

Motivation: When we start on a new project we are excited and dedicated but over time the drive starts to fade away. Is it boredom, do we stop believing in our ideas? No we don’t, it is a slump in motivation that slows us down and it happens to everyone at some point of time when they are working on a project.

Skills: We may not have the skills we need to execute our vision. If I have an idea of an amazing iPhone app, but don’t know how to program for it, it is likely that one will pass on the idea.

Accountability: Lack of accountability leads to no one taking ownership of a particular task on a project. A perfect way to lead an idea or strategy to failure is to make no one reasonable for the outcome of it.

If we can overcome these barriers to execution and work towards our goal, we can give ourselves a better shot of achieving our goals and realizing our vision.

Have you experienced any barriers to execution? How did you overcome these barriers to execution and move towards achieving your goals?

photo by: Aunt Owwee

How to Set Goals and achieve them – Going beyond the SMART framework

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If you have ever read about how to set goals, you are sure to have encountered the SMART framework for goal setting. SMART is a very useful framework for setting goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound.

Specific: Specific goals clearly state what has to be done. There are no vague words in specific goals. Nothing can be misinterpreted.

Measurable: The goal you set should be measurable. If a goal you set is not measurable, how will you know if you have achieved it or not? What cannot be measured cannot be accomplished.

Achievable: One main problem of goals is that when people are setting them, they are not actually thinking of how they can achieve them. Goal setting is not going to be fruitful if you set goals that you cannot achieve; you are setting yourself up for failure.

Relevant: The goals should be relevant to your needs, the needs of the company or the project you are trying to complete. If a goal is not relevant, it does not matter if you have achieved it or not.

Time-bound: You must set a timeline to achieve a goal, if you have not set a timeline, it is likely that the goal never gets prioritized and you are bound to not get to the target.

So SMART is a very basic and well established approach to setting goals. If you stick to the SMART goals framework, you are most likely to set goals which you can accomplish. However SMART does not show you a way of achieving your goals. You can you use these three main steps to overcome this disadvantage.

Develop a plan

Once you know what you want to achieve the next task is to lay out how you want to achieve it. Devising a plan will keep you on track towards your goal. A plan acts like a road map and will bring you on the route whenever you are lost. Be sure to set milestone in your plan. Reaching milestones will give a sense of accomplishments and motivate you to go after your goal.

Align the resources you need

If you have designed a well thought out plan, you will know what you need and when you need it, in order to achieve your goals. Make a list of these resources and see how you can have access to these resources when you need them. Resources can be financial, people and intellectual in nature. So planning ahead will definitely help you become aware of what you will need to be successful in your goals.

Work as planned and Review it

Now the only task remaining is to actually follow the plan you have created for yourself. Get started and be sure to review it at multiple points to see what’s working and what’s not working. Revising a plan or even a goal is no shame and shows that you can adapt to changes around you.

Setting SMART goals is a good way to get started but then devising an action plan, gathering the resources, following the plan and reviewing it is crucial in achieving the goals.

Have you had success in achieving your goals? What works for you and what does not? If you are looking to be better at achieving your goals, try this method, I am sure you will see results.

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