Being Smarter

Simple and quick for you – a round up of the ways you could help, in a click or a tap or two:

1. Give $10 to the Red Cross to help the disaster in Haiti by texting “HAITI” to 90999 (USA only)
2. Donate via Save the Children here (US)
3. Donate via Save the Children here (UK)
4. Donate via World Vision here
5. iPhone users, purchase Twittelator Pro from the app store (aanouncement here)
6. Oxfam’s appeal is here
7. Text “Yele” to 501501 for a $5 donation to Yéle Haiti, a grassroots organization started by singer and Haiti native Wyclef Jean (US only)
8. Google’s disaster relief suggestions are here
9. Raise funds while you surf and shop using Everyclick (innovative)
10. Why not help a charity who’s been supporting Haiti Hospitals for years…

Add your ways to donate below… I can’t find a UK SMS number for instance…

So it’s now 14th Jan. Many people have already broken all of the promises they made to themselves on the cold light of day of January 1st (which seems like a year ago already…) If you haven’t already broken yours, but are starting to teeter on the brink, here’s our favourite top 5 ways to keep New Year’s resolutions we’ve found in the ether from around the world… and we’ve looked at quite a few.

The links take you to the full article – and the best bit is summarised below…

Time Magazine

One tactic he recommends for resisting those cravings is called “urge-surfing.” It involves being mindful of the fact that craving is like a wave — it rises to a peak, then falls. This happens whether you yield to the urge or not, though most people erroneously think their craving will escalate endlessly unless they give in.

The Times of India

People who break a resolution and then blame themselves with, “This proves I have no willpower,” are likely to give up. A more productive inner dialogue would say something like, “I had one cigarette but I’ve got to make sure I tell my friends that I’m quitting so this doesn’t happen again,” Marlatt said. “Try to be a little bit more accepting of the fact that you may make a mistake.”

The Happiness Project

Consider making only pleasant resolutions. We can make our lives happier in many ways. If you’ve been trying the boot-camp approach with no success, try resolving to “Go to more movies,” “Entertain more often,” or whatever resolutions you’d find fun to keep. Often, having more fun in our lives makes it easier to do tough things. Seeing more movies might make it easier to keep going to the gym.

Newsweek

…keep your resolutions affirmative. You’ll be hobbling yourself if you say, “Don’t eat chocolate”. All you’re doing is making sure not only that you think about chocolate constantly (very true) but that you break down altogether and eat seven bars for dinner. Instead, say to yourself, “I vow to eat a salad every day”

Sydney Morning Herald

Finally, if you want to improve the odds of success, consider making a plan. For example, if your goal is to put $1,000 in the bank, how are you going to do it? Are you going to deposit $50 a week from your pay? $100 per month? Are you going to stop spending $5 per day on coffee and put the money in a jar instead? Actually think about how you plan to make your resolution happen. Then track your progress against the plan as you go along.

If you’ve a tip (which is working for you… why not share it below)…

Related articles

• How To Make Yourself Happier… (jer979.blogspot.com)
• You can be happier by reading this post (penelopetrunk.com)
• The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin (boingboing.net)

I’ve been toying with this phrase for a while now and Chris Brogan provided the inspiration behind this post, after I saw the video below on his site today.

Some questions for you…

• When was the last time you leapt out of bed in the morning?
• When was the last time you had a night out with your team or your clients?
• When was the last time you lol-ed in the office (laughed out loud )
• When were you last inspired during a day at work?
• When did you last learn something new?

If the answer to all of those questions is something along the lines of “I can’t remember”, then I’d suggest this Monday morning you take a good look at the situation you’re in. You could be in the same situation in 5 years time or 10 years time, and you won’t thank yourself.

Business can be fun. If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, then of course it won’t be. If it’s not fun, then you won’t be doing your best work. If you’re not doing your best work, then… quite frankly, what’s the point? Sure you’ve got bills to pay and sure, not every day can be a bowl of cherries, but if your trend graph is point downwards, take action today…

Some inspiration for you below… take 5 minutes out and have fun.

Related articles

• Architectural Technologist – Taking time out (konstrukshon.com)
• Create a Video for Business or Fun at animoto.com (techtalkformoms.com)
• Fun can change behavior (swaroopch.com)

Yesterday was quite a day, and so I’ve had to give it a name. I learnt three big lessons and wanted to share them – so here goes with my story…

White Wednesday

12.01am Finished a Skype call with the excellent Guru Bob from the Thirty Day Challenge – he was being his ever helpful self – thanks Rob.

12.05am My wife and I were up late – watching the snow settle.

12.06am After a couple of weeks of indecision, because I was waiting for multiple things to be confirmed, she persuaded me that a) I can’t please all the people all the time and b) you can’t wait for everything to come into alignment before making  a decision. You can however make one decision and that will help everything else align.

12.12am Thud. Weight of snow (yes it was seriously sticky snow) brings down the phone line and the broadband with it. Obviously the out-of-use line was still going strong…

12.15am On hold to BT.

12.40am Fault reported.

12.50am Mobile broadband clearly couldn’t get through the snow on the local base station.

1.00am Went to bed without booking the flight to Australia my wife had persuaded me to book 55 mins ago.

7.00am Awoke with a start. Schools and nursery closed. Phoneline curled around cars in the drive. Ripped up plans for the day.

10.00am Went to my neighbours to fix their wireless, and then settle down there for the day. Booked the (last seat at the right price on the) flight, did the essentials.

12.05pm Remembered lesson #2 from this post and got thoroughly soaked playing in the snow with the children.

1.00pm More neighbours joined. Lunch was brought to us… working from home was attempted by a few.

2.00pm Did some more essentials

5.00pm Opened a bottle of red. Work fizzled out for all the neighbours. The 8 children who had been playing together all day continued (great to watch).

6.00pm Dad’s went down the pub. Yes on a school night. Except surely school would be shut tomorrow wouldn’t it?

7.00pm Dad’s experienced what the aftermath of armageddon would feel like, as we walked through the snow to a shining light that was the curry house like the three musketeers. Saw about 1 car.

8.00pm Enjoyed a wonderful meal.

10.00pm Thought it was time to go home, carried the kids through the snow and put them to bed.

So, what has this got to do with Being Smarter? What did I learn?

1. Accept when you have a problem, accept when it’s not fixable and do something about it. Don’t spend hours complaining about it.
2. Make decisions which are informed. Accept that every ‘i’ is never going to be dotted. Don’t not make a decision (you’ll pay an extra £500 on your flight )
3. Make time for your family and friends. Business is NOT everything. Some things really can wait. Some things (like trudging through the snow for a curry in the dark and throwing snowballs at your son) can’t.

What business lessons have you learnt recently from a memorable day?

I only discovered RSS about 18 months ago and I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration to say that it has changed my (business) life. It is an enabler… it makes you smarter… and it helps you in managing knowledge - giving you an edge over your competitors and colleagues.

I naturally spend part of my day sending people information I think might be relevant to them – to help them in their jobs. To make them look good… to even make them money because of the usefulness of that information. I suspect many of my friends and colleagues think I sit there all day researching for them. I don’t. I let the Internet do the hard work for me…. I then sit back and watch.

RSS… Google Alerts… Google Reader. Three technological terms that if you don’t understand in business today then you are most definitely at a disadvantage.

You’ve seen the RSS icon a thousand times haven’t you? A million times maybe… have you ever thought to click it? to investigate what it might do? Possibly not.

Make a resolution today to get to grips with RSS… get to grips with Google Alerts and Google Reader. Then tell us below how amazed you are.

Intrigued?

The secrets of Managing knowledge are here… click the video to see the first session completely free.

Related articles

• Google Reader as a Lifestream Search Engine (philbaumann.com)
• On PubSubHubbub and rssCloud … (brad.livejournal.com)
• Changing Feed Service (catskillcottageseed.com)

Being Smarter is a year old today. A year ago to the day, I sat at my desk with a blank canvas, a very small amount of money and a clock ticking. It’s been a fascinating journey – The 8.45 Club was born, I’ve met some great new people and learnt so much.
I wanted to share the (at least) 51 things I’ve learnt so that I can potentially help you as well as acknowledging the folks who’ve helped me…

1. Get things right on paper before you go anywhere near a keyboard.
2. Don’t work when your son’s making a giant snowball outside with another dad. Even if you have a deadline. You’ll regret it.
3. Data is not data until it is backed up. Regularly.
4. The Thirty Day Challenge is an inspiration.
5. Visions and missions can only be developed when in transit – evolve yours over time by mainly doing as opposed to mainly thinking.
6. Twitter is a serious business tool.
7. Seth Godin is a genius. He writes in 8.45 Club style – short and to the point and that suits me (and 000′s of others) down to the ground.
8. Have a testbed for software. Once it’s working, don’t fiddle with it. Ever.
9. Networking is still one of the most important skills ever and should be taught at school. Without it, I wouldn’t have met the wonderful Lesley Everett.
10. Choose who you work with (if you can). I’ve been blessed with great clients in the last 12 months. They’re great because they do what they say they are going to do and value me. Do yours?
11. Know what your USP is and ensure it’s remarkable as Seth says.
12. Learn when to switch the PC off – it will still be there in the morning.
13. An A3 pad is a great asset when you are about to start a new project.
14. I’ve been inspired working in subject areas I knew nothing about. You could be too. Thanks Graeme.
15. WordPress is the answer, what’s the question.
16. A green screen studio inc lights, cameras and mics can be bought for £1,500. And carried around the world. Want to see what you can do with a green screen?
17. Personalised webpages (which can be produced in 15 seconds by a technophobe) with a prospect’s name in the URL get 100% click through. You can do this too now!
18. Have a VERY understanding and supportive wife or partner. (Thanks Suz)
19. David Meerman Scott and I have something in common – we both love practical examples to demonstrate concepts. The difference between us is that he’s on top of his game and I’m still working on it.
20. I appear to have created 131,928 files in the last 12 months. Develop an electronic filing system that works and use it dilligently. Use a networked hard drive.
21. “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” (c) My Dad 1945 – current day.
22. When was the last time you put a magazine/newspaper clipping in a real envelope and sent it to someone. They’ll remember you.
23. Google Reader is an essential business tool. Learn how to use it.
24. Appreciate it when clients actually look after you when on their patch. I’ve never been looked after like my new friends in New Jersey did / do.
25. No one should start a business without an online component to it, or you are missing a trick.
26. As the E-Myth states, focus on making your business scalable from day 1. I have an org chart with my name in every position which I’m slowly going to backfill. Do you?
27. Learn how to find out what people are searching for in Google – it’s the single best market research tool on the planet. Ask me if you don’t know how.
28. Don’t spend hours trying to save a few $£’s – it’s not efficient use of time.
29. Don’t say “I can’t believe I can’t work today because it’s a Bank Holiday” out loud. Keep it to yourself – people will think you are nuts and won’t get it.
30. It’s actually really good to stop and pick the kids up from school. But it’s also OK to be doing emails whilst cooking tea for 6 children. Fishfingers are pretty resilient.
31. Figure out what buyer personas are.
32. Go out of your way to THANK people. It seems to be unusual these days.
33. Losing hours or days because you can’t solve a problem is OK. Bodging it is not OK. Giving up is not OK either.
34. Seek advice actively from people you trust (here’s one). Create an advisory board of people around you. You DON’T have all the answers.
35. Understand when to let go and when to get an expert involved.
36. Write your eulogy in bulletpoints. Then live your business and personal life like you want to be remembered. This isn’t as wierd as it sounds.
37. When you finally take a holiday don’t let your daughter get chickenpox or you’ll need another holiday straight afterwards.
38. Don’t get so caught up in your endeavours you forget birthdays. Use Moonpig.com.
39. The software you want is already built. You may have to tweak it but for goodness sake don’t reinvent the wheel.
40. Learn new stuff. All the time. Or what’s the point?
41. Nick Spooner you are right – ‘Tell stories and solve people’s problems’ is good advice.
42. Be generous with your time and show people how to do items 1-51 on your list.
43. Become a connector – figure out ways of introducing people.
44. Only have 5 email folders. Inbox, Sent mail, Hold, Follow up and Archive. Gina Trapani is a legend.
45. My prediction is that www.elance.com is going to be indispensible to me over the next 12 months. It could be to you.
46. Tim Ferris has done it and got the t-shirt. I’m a living breathing case study who’s aiming to get there.
47. It will always take longer than you think.
48. In 2009, projects should take weeks and cost 00′s. If yours is going to take months and cost 000′s you may want to think again.
49. Firefox every time. Bye bye Internet explorer.
50. 10 minutes a day. After 8 months of testing – it resonates. Find something that resonates.
51. And finally – drink beer from time to time with people who inspire. Andy Palmer – Thank you.

Here’s to the next 12 months.

Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to stay in touch.
__________________

We hope you enjoyed this article. What can we do for you now?

• Would you like to see how to use bite-sized video chunks to deliver messages to your teams or customers?
  
• Would you like to see a demonstration of how to convert sales targets into prospects?
  
• Would you like to follow the founder of Being Smarter on Twitter?

Or leave us your thoughts below….

Sometimes here at Being Smarter, we do take a break and today is one of
those days – one eye on the cricket score – one eye on the laptop. To
celebrate the start of the 2nd test at the home of cricket, we thought we’d
assemble some facts for the pub tonight…

Did you know…

1) In the 4th Test in Sydney in the 1882/83 Ashes series, the captains
agreed to play on separate pitches. This was the only occasion this has
happened in the history in the Ashes. Australia won this match by 4 wickets.

2) Ian Johnson, Australian captain tried to get the umpires to suspend play
because of the sawdust on the damp pitch which blew into his eyes while he
batted (bless)? Jim Laker went on to pulverise the Australians by getting
19-90.

3) The 3rd test in 1970/71 was completely washed out by the British summer
however the toss was completed and won by England and so the Test was deemed
to have commenced…

4) Sir Don Bradman’s batting average in Ashes tests was 89.79… not bad
huh? Sir Don scored 5028 runs with 12 fifties and 19 hundreds with a highest
score of 334.

5) England have not won an Ashes Test at Lords since 1934.

6) The teams have played 64 Ashes series. Australia have won 31, England 28
and five have been drawn. Overall in 317 tests, Australia have won 131,
England 97 and 89 have been drawn.

7) The words on the original Ashes cup reads as follows :

When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
The welkin will ring loud,
The great crowd will feel proud,
Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
And the rest coming home with the urn.

Short of words in 1882 me thinks.

8 The highest innings score by Australia in an Ashes series is 729 for 6
declared at Lords in 1930, while their second best test innings total
against England is 701 at the Oval.

9) For England, Sir Leonard Hutton’s 364 helped them reach 903 for 7
declared (the 2nd highest Innings score by any country) at the Oval, and the
test victory by an innings and 578 runs – the biggest test win margin for
any country against anyone.

10) Shane Warne, is the highest wicket taker in an Ashes series. Warne has
172 wickets from 31 Ashes matches at an average of 22.30.

11) A bonus fact – England are going to win the 2009 2nd Test by 3
wickets… you heard it here first.

Why not add one below?

Whilst it may not technically be about Being Smarter, something to brighten your coffee break and get the creative juices flowing is the Flickr Interestingness calendar.

They select a new photo every day to inspire you.

You can take a look at it here.