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Wraping gifts?

The How-to Manual That You Can Edit


How to Wrap a Present


To give someone a neatly wrapped present makes you look talented and your gift look more carefully chosen. It's very simple to make a good impression. All you have to do is to be gentle, and patient.

Steps

Remove all price tags. There's nothing more annoying than investing your careful efforts into a gift only to realize you forgot to take the price sticker off. You don't want the person to see that you bought his electric shaver from the clearance shelf, now do you?

Put the gift in a box, if it isn't in one already. This optional step will make the gift easier to wrap. If your box will easily come apart (like a shirt-box), be sure to use a little tape to keep it from opening during the wrapping process. Use only as much as necessary to keep it from coming apart, but not so much that the person will need a machete to open it.

Unroll a length of wrapping paper onto a hard sturdy surface.

Place the gift on the wrapping paper and measure how much paper will be needed. Make sure you have enough paper to go around the box once and that the width leaves extra on each side. It's a good idea to have a small amount more than you need so that the wrapping paper overlaps.

Mark your cut lines, especially if cutting in straight lines is difficult for you. Use a straight edge (like a ruler) or you can fold neatly along the line you will need to cut along, unfold, and cut along the fold. Put the rest of the roll aside.
Place the gift or box upside down in the middle of your paper.

Fold the paper around the gift. On the horizontal side of the paper, take one side and fold it over to the bottom of your gift.

Then take the other side, folding it over, too. Now is where you need that extra inch. Take the longer side and fold it under so that you have a nice smooth crease instead of jagged cutting. Put it on top of the other end and pull it tight. Then tape together.


Fold one side of the box at a time. On one end of your package, fold the corners in so you have kind of like a triangle. Fold the straight end over, then pull it to the top of your package (actually the bottom when you are done). Tape. Repeat on the other side.


Add ribbon. Make sure your ribbon is long enough and can go around the gift in whatever pattern you decide. Put the ribbon on top of the gift. Wrap it to bottom and turn the gift 90 degrees so that the ribbon comes up the sides. Tie a bow on top and get your scissors. Pull one of the sides of ribbon and curl it using the scissors. With all the spare ribbon, cut it and then tie it under the bow, cut in half and curl again, do so until there is no un-curled ribbon.


Add a card. Take the index card. Write to and from, name, etc. If you are good at calligraphy, this makes a beautiful personal touch. If not, you could either type it or write it neatly. If you have lousy handwriting, and no to/from cards or stickers, you can cut a square of coordinating wrapping paper, fold it into a "card", and tape it in place. You could also neatly cut out an element of the wrapping paper design (like a snowflake, a balloon, etc.) and turn it into a card. Tape this about an inch or two from the corner of the box.


Tips
To create a nearly seamless look, try the following:

Use double-sided tape instead of regular tape.
Arrange the seam of the largest paper fold - the one that initially wraps around the gift - so that it is on the edge or side of the gift. This works best when you use a box. To start: Tape the paper in place about 1/4" from one of the box side edges. The paper should wrap all the way around. If you haven't cut the paper from the roll yet, cut it now leaving at least a 1/4" for the fold. Then fold the excess under to create the clean finished edge. Use the double-sided tape to secure not only the fold to the inside but then the fold to the package. The seam will be almost unseen.
Don't have wrapping paper? For an informal and fun look, the colorful comics section from your Sunday newspaper is surprisingly good. Also, copied musical scores (especially from appropriate musical pieces) look good, too.
After your gift is wildly received, dispose of gift wrap, ribbon, and boxes in a environmentally-friendly way. Be sure to recycle cardboard after removing as much tape as possible. Most shiny gift-wrap and ribbon is not recyclable--ideally choose ones that are or are printed on plain (not glossy) paper. Raffia (available in most craft stores) is a biodegradable ribbon substitute that is a bit harder to work with, but also looks lovely.


Warnings
Do NOT burn gift-wrapping in your fireplace, wood-stove, or burn pile. The chemicals released from burning the wrapping can be nasty.
During gift-giving occasions, be careful with used ribbon. Pets (especially cats) may play with and try to eat ribbon. Ribbon can be especially harmful to a cat's digestive system [1].


[edit]Things You'll Need
• Gift

• Wrapping paper

• Scissors

• Tape (regular and/or double-sided)

• Curling ribbon

• Card

• A box (if you don't already have one)

• Straight edge/yard stick/ruler


Sources and Citations
↑ http://www.catclinicofnorman.com/site/view/65668_HolidayDangers.pml

Be a Good Listener [How To]

Communication begins with good listening skills. Strong listeners are more empathetic and are better at solving problems. If you're looking to better your listening skills, consider the following: wait for the person to open up, ask empowering questions, be patient, and remove all distractions. It helps to reiterate what is said:

Summarize and restate: It is also very useful to summarize what the speaker is saying and restate it in your own words. This is a form of reassuring the speaker that you have truly been listening to what he or she is saying. It also provides the speaker with an opportunity to correct any mistaken assumptions or misconceptions that have may have arisen during the course of the conversation..

Everyone has different ways of listening and expressing themselves. Try what works best for you. What are your best listening strategies? Share them with us in the comments.

How to Be a Good Listener [wikiHow]

Who To Tip And How Much [Advice]

Okay, this is important for two reasons:  People remember you, and who wants to look like a slacker.  I always want to do the right this, but I don't want to put anyone through college either.

Ah, tipping, that peculiarly American pastime that erupts into an orgy of awkward envelopes and "thank you"s at the end of every year. Kiplinger tries the impossible: putting together a guide for who to tip and how much to give. Even they admit that it's nigh impossible to create a definitive guide—they suggest "handing out end-of-the year tips for one to three people who have given you exemplary service during the year."

Here are few of their suggestions:

CLEANING PERSON
How much to tip: The cost of one visit if he or she visits weekly or bi-weekly. If you use a cleaning service that works in a team, a box of chocolates for the team is customary.

LETTER CARRIER

How much to tip: The U.S. Postal service says gifts must be under $20 in value [and should not be cash] . A gift card at Dunkin' Donuts or a similar store that could serve as an off-duty for the carrier's route is acceptable.

BABY SITTER

How much to tip: Nanny or au pair -- one week's pay and a small gift from the child; regular sitter -- one to two nights' pay; day-care provider -- $25 to $70. Only give a holiday tip if you've frequently used the sitter during the year or you had to call on them in an 11th hour emergency.

We just wish there was some sort of anti-tip for our perpetually angry mailman, who actually throws boxes up the stairs so he doesn't have to climb them. (Yeah, we've complained. It still happens.)

"Holiday Tipping Tip Sheet" [Kiplinger]

"What You Need to Know About Holiday Tipping" [Kiplinger]

(Photo: Getty)

How Instant Messaging Can Make You More Productive

Web Worker Daily writer Leo Babauta suggested recently that the best way to be productive with instant messaging may be just not to use it. Yet many web workers find that instead of decreasing their productivity, instant messaging enhances it.

Researchers R. Kelly Garrett and James N. Danziger argue that far from making interruptions more frequent and disruptive, IM can be used to manage interruptions:

Based on the evidence, we argue that, contrary to prevailing concerns, IM generally does not contribute to higher levels of workplace interruption. While the technology makes certain types of interruption easier, it can also allow users greater control over when to communicate, with minimal disruption to their ongoing work, and can afford them the opportunity to create new patterns of communication that sustain necessary linkages while reducing off-task distractions.

Garrett and Danziger surveyed 1200 computer-using workers about their experience with workplace communications and communications tools. They found that IM users reported lower levels of interruption than those who didn’t use IM. The researchers conclude, “instant messaging in the workplace simultaneously promotes more frequent communications and reduces interruptions.”

How can instant messaging do that? By allowing for:

• Quick exchanges that aren’t perceived as disruptive


• Negotiations over when to communicate (as in “let’s talk on the phone in 15 minutes”)


• Plausible deniability of availability allowing workers to ignore interruptions when they’re focused on something else


• Personal communications with friends and family throughout the day that can replace phone calls that could be more disruptive

What’s your experience with instant messaging — is it a productivity help or hit?

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Nine Ways to Get Much More Out of MS Windows

If you’re a long-time user of Microsoft Windows, you’re familiar with the various headadches it can give you. From frustration at staring at the Windows Hourglass to inexplicable tie-ups that the operating system runs into, most Windows users would like an improved experience. In this post, I’ll round up nine free utilities that can greatly improve your Windows sessions.

Especially if you have an older computer and you’re noticing that Windows takes forever to boot, download and use StartupRun. It displays and lets you customize the list of all applications that Windows loads every time it boots. If you have an older computer, you may be surprised by the amount of unnecessary junk that you’re loading every time you restart.

ShideWin is a very easy way to show or hide windows that you currently have open. Especially if you use a lot of applications concurrently, with many windows open at the same time, it’s a handy way to organize them.

WinRoll lets you roll any window into its title bar, very much like WindowShade on the Mac. It’s also a handy way to minimize all the windows you have open without having to do so one by one.

Do you use Notepad as a text editor on a regular basis? If so, there are many similar, fast-to-open text editors that give you richer features. One of the best ones is EditPad Lite. Unlike Notepad, it gives you tabbed document windows, and you can open as many documents concurrently as you want.

For a really exhaustive set of ways to customize the way Windows looks, including many ways to optimize your performance, try TweakGuides Tweaking Companions. There is a guide for Windows XP and a guide for Windows Vista. Especially if Windows is giving you a lot of annoying problems, use these guides to help you troubleshoot.

For an excellent, more feature-rich replacement for the Windows Explorer file manager, try Windows File Explorer. It’s especially good at letting you search for and sort files in flexible ways.

Did you know that Microsoft itself makes available a page where you can get numerous free utilities for Windows? It’s Windows Sysinternals. Among the utilities found there, I like Process Explorer, which is a big improvement over Windows’ standard approach to displaying system processes. With Process Explorer, you can immediately see which application has a file open, and you can even see all the DLLs that a given process has loaded.

Do you ever run into those pesky windows that won’t let you resize them? If so, download and use ResizeEnable. It turns any non-resizeable window into a resizeable one.

If there are significant parts of Windows that you don’t ever use, you can easily get rid of them with nLite The program is a Windows installation customizer, and can help you load the exact configuration you want, with no bloat beyond that.

Do you have any good tips on enhancements for Windows? 

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12 Job Interview Tips to Help You Ace Your Next Interview!

So you've written and re-written your resume and cover letter countless times...you've used every trick in the book to make your resume and cover letter stand out. You've finally sent them out to get your dream job and low and behold all that hard work has finally paid off...the phone rings and you get that call you've been waiting for...you have been asked to interview for the job of your dreams.

Congratulations...now don't mess it up!

It's important that all that hard work to get the interview doesn't go waste...the last thing you want to do is blow it on the interview.

Here are 12 job interview tips to help you get that job of your dreams...

1. Never be late for a job interview. Not only will arriving late not go over too well with your interviewer, but you should give yourself time to relax and gather your thoughts before the interview actually starts.

2. Do your research. Before the interview, try to find out as much as you can about the company. How else do you expect to answer the question, "Why do you want to work out [insert company name]?" Or, "Why do think you would be a good fit with [insert company]?" Or, a number of similar questions. If you don't know anything about the company you are not going to get hired.

3. Always carry extra copies of your resume to the interview. You never know if others will be called in to sit on the interview committee. You want to be able to give everyone on the committee his or her own copy of your resume.

4. Interviewers want to know that you are not just looking for "any" job, but that you are looking for the "right" job for you. Therefore, you should be prepared with a handful of questions that you would like ask of them. This will also make the interview seem more like a two-way conversation rather than a one-way interview.

5. Never pretend you know more than what you really do. Lying or misleading the interviewer will come back to haunt you.

6. Always dress properly for an interview. Your first impression could be your last one. When in doubt it is better to over dress than under dress.

7. Research the most common interview questions for the job you are seeking and practice your answers. Always try to be as specific as possible when answering questions. Use examples whenever possible.

8. Body language plays an important role in whether or not you get hired. You should greet your interviewer with a firm handshake and maintain eye contact during the interview. Watch out for any bad speaking habits you might have such too many hand gestures or biting your upper lip.

9. Show your passion for the job. Remember, passion is NOT something that can be taught...you either have it or you don't. Your employer wants to know that you have it.

10. Be attentive while the interview is going on. Listen to the question being asked. You can recollect your thoughts before answering the question and you can always ask for clarification in case you do not understand the question.

11. Answer the questions in a manner that shows that your strengths and experiences match those that are required by the job.

12. End the interview with another firm handshake and ask when you can expect to hear from them about the job.

Job interviews can be extremely stressful...especially when it is a job you really want. However, if you follow the job interview tips above you will enter your next job interview with much more confidence.

Now go out and ace your next job interview!

10 Tips for Effective Office Time Management

Are you working efficiently and effectively? Do you have many productive hours of work or are you constantly distracted? In this post I give you a number of time management tips to help you organize your office time more efficiently and get more out of your work day.

1. Get a Secretary or Answering Machine to Take Phone Messages

Instead of constantly being distracted by telephone calls get a secretary or answering machine to take messages for you, then set aside time each day to focus on returning calls. By separating work and phone calls you will be able to focus more clearly on each task and get more out of your time. Effective office time management means that you need to focus on the task at hand and so an important time management tip is to do whatever you can to minimize distractions, such as the phone and email.

2. Set aside a Time to Answer Emails

Emails are another thing which affects effective office time management and can constantly distract you from focusing on the task at hand. A time management tip to deal with this problem is therefore to set aside time each day to deal with your emails and then for the rest of the day turn off your email program, or at least turn off instant notifications of emails.

3. Create a To-Do List the Day Before

To-do lists are often listed as a time management tip. Effective office time management means that before you leave the office each day prepare a to-do list for the following day and prioritize it, that way as soon as you come into the office in the morning you know what you need to focus your attention on.

4. Complete the Major Tasks First

Start your day with one of the big, important tasks and then go onto smaller and less important tasks. By first focusing on the large tasks you will get them complete in a shorter space of time and then will be able to deal with smaller tasks, whereas if you start with the smaller tasks you will soon find them filling up your day and not having time left to do the larger tasks.

5. Do Tasks that Take Less Than 5 Minutes Immediately

Effective office time management means that if you have a task you need to do that is going to take a few minutes to complete then do it as soon as you receive it, this way you will get the small things out of the way and not need to think about them.

6. Keep your Desk and Office Organized

A major cause of ineffective time management is disorganization. Keep your desk and office organized, keep everything on hand and keep things in the place you have assigned them and you will never waste time searching for the things you need or have important items go missing.

7. Prioritize

Setting priorities is vital for effective office time management. An important time management tip is therefore that you should know both on a long term and daily basis what your priorities are and should prioritize your long term goals as well as your daily to-do list.

8. Delegate

Delegation is another useful tool for effective office time management. You do not need to do everything yourself; if you find a task that someone would be able to do as well as you or even better then delegate that task to that person. Delegation does not only need to take place at work but can also take place at home.

9. Set SMART goals

Another important time management tip is to set SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, rewarding and timely. By setting SMART goals you know what you are working towards, have a way of measuring when it has been successfully completed and know when you want to complete it by. SMART goals are useful in showing you what steps you need to take in order to fulfill your dreams.

10. Choose Technology Carefully

Technology can either be useful for improving effective office time management or it can hinder effective time management. Our last time management tip is therefore to be careful when choosing the technology you use to ensure that it really does improve your productivity and efficiency and not harm it.

Effective office time management means setting SMART goals, prioritizing, focusing, and using technology that improves effective time management instead of hindering it. By implementing these time management tips you should be better able to manage your time effectively and get more out of your work day.

Personal Development: Know When You're In A Funk

We all have times when our energy is just blah, and we're just generally in a pissy mood. Instead of taking out that frustration on our work or other people, Life Learning Today suggests that we learn to recognize when these "down cycles" are coming our way:

The main thing with cycles is to roll with them and not to fight them. If you are in a high cycle, ride that wave. Get great work done and enjoy your energy. During down cycles when your energy is lagging, your emotions are more edgy, and you want to throw in the towel, just ride it out. Know that an up cycle is on its way. It is inevitable!

What do you do to fight your funks? Let's hear in the comments.

Rolling with Your Cycles [Life Learning Today]

Money: How Big Should Your Emergency Fund Be?

The standard advice for the size of an emergency fund is enough money for three to six months of expenses; however, that's not necessarily an obtainable goal for many of us. Financial advice blog Wise Bread suggests that you aim for at least one month's worth of emergency money to cover your bare-bones expenses, and have it stashed where you can get to it quickly in case of an emergency. One month is the minimum—it's a good start on the road to the preferable three to six month fund. What tips do you have for those looking to build up an emergency money stash? Thoughts in the comments.

Figuring the size of your emergency fund [Wise Bread]

Home office tax deductions hinge on details, good record-keeping - CNN.com

PORTLAND, Oregon (CNN) -- Home may be where the heart is, but for millions of at-home workers it might be where the tax deductions are, too.art.office.photodisc.jpgJust because you have a home office doesn't mean you can claim it as a deduction on your taxes.The number of U.S. taxpayers claiming home office deductions has grown from more than 1.5 million in 1991 to nearly 3.2 million in 2005, the most recent tax year for which figures are available, according to the Internal Revenue Service.The dollar amount Americans claim each year is also climbing -- from nearly $3 billion in 1991 to close to $9 billion in 2005, the IRS said.The number of sole proprietorship businesses -- a tax classification that includes home-based businesses -- also has shown impressive growth, increasing in number by nearly 50 percent in the last 15 years, the IRS reports.While trading in a harried morning commute for a short trip down the hall sounds inviting, claiming home office space tax deductions can be tricky. See I-Reporters in their home offices »"When you step into this new land of self-employment and telecommuting, you can get yourself into lots of trouble," said Michael Davidson of A. E. Tax Service in Portland, Oregon."Fifteen years ago, if you [claimed] a home office on your return you might as well say [to the IRS], 'Hey, I'm here. Come and get me.' But now it's much more common," Davidson said.Home office tax factsWhen should I claim a home office deduction?When your home office is large enough to mitigate the cost of the tax paperwork it takes to claim the space. Some tax experts recommend the home office be 20 percent or more of your home.When you telecommute at the convenience of an employer, not yourself.When your home office is used only for business purposes and it is used often enough to maintain that business.When you're self-employed and your tax deduction is not more than what you make in your business.What tax forms should I use?If you're an employee and would like to itemize deductions, use Form 1040, Schedule A to claim expenses.If you're self-employed, use Form 8829 to figure your home office deductions and report them on Form 1040, Schedule C.If you're in the business of farming or are an employee, use Publication 587 (Business Use of Your Home -- including use by daycare providers) to itemize your deductions.Maggie Doedtman, manager of advice delivery at H&R Block, agrees."The idea that claiming [a home office] is a red flag for the IRS is kind of an urban legend," she said."With telecommuting becoming more and more popular and Internet-based businesses popping up all over the place, [claiming a home office] is more the norm. If you're entitled to a deduction, by all means claim it."Davidson and Doedtman are enrolled agents, who -- like certified public accountants and tax attorneys -- have broader abilities to represent taxpayers during a federal audit than regular tax return preparers.Davidson advises seeking tax guidance from any one of them before tackling a home office deduction on your own.But is claiming a home office deduction always worth it?Stanley Nichols, a semi-retired CPA who does tax work for clients from his own home office in Houma, Louisiana, cautions that the deductions might not add up to much savings."It all depends," he said, "You have to decide how much square footage you'll devote to a home office, and if you come up with a minute amount -- less than 10 percent of the total footage of your home -- it might not be worth the trouble."Nichols advises home-based workers to commit 20 percent to 25 percent of the square footage of their home to office space that they use exclusively for work.The IRS uses three main tests to determine if a taxpayer is eligible for home office deductions, according to Doedtman.First, the home office must be used regularly -- not necessarily full time but enough time to maintain the business. Second, the home office must be used exclusively for work."The exclusive rule is very strict. If the kids play on your computer or you surf the Internet, it won't work for the IRS," she said.Third, a commuter may only claim a home office if the space is used for the convenience of the employer, not the employee."You have to be sure the employer can't provide an office space," Davidson said, speaking from Portland. "Out here there are lots of graphic designers who work for Nike, and many of them would like to work out of their homes, but because there's a huge Nike campus with room for them ... they don't get to claim the home office."So, if these criteria are met, how much can taxpayers deduct for the business use of a home?Don't Miss * Decluttered desk: Keep your work space neat * The ultimate office chair and other gadgets * In-depth: Work At HomeAccording to the IRS, taxpayers should divide the square footage of their home office by the total square footage of the home.This percentage is what taxpayers can apply to expenses they plan to deduct, such as utilities, home repairs -- office repairs are total deductions -- business-related mileage, pest control, furniture, home security and office equipment. With equipment, take the depreciation over five years or write it off completely in one year."You can even write off your dog if you can prove it's kept for security," said Davidson, half-joking.But be careful. Some bills that seem like natural deductions are not. For instance, the first phone line into a home always is considered for personal use.advertisementThe key for taxpayers hoping to claim deductions is in good record-keeping."It's better to make a note on each receipt -- dinner with a particular client -- make that note at the time you get the receipt," Doedtman said. "I dump them in a desk, and every year on New Year's, as I'm watching football, I take them all out and categorize them. My system works well for me." E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

Home office tax deductions hinge on details, good record-keeping - CNN.com

How Do You Train New Bloggers?

If you've ever hired a blogger (or 20), you'll know that it's not an easy task to get the type of blogging work that you want out of your new people. This is especially the case when you're an experienced blogger yourself - the urge to micro-manage may be too great to allow you to train your blogger(s) properly.

So what methods / strategies do you use to train bloggers?

Currently I'm using a combination of strategies to bring bloggers up to speed. The first step is to help them find their blogging voice, their personality. To be blunt, it's just like real life - if you're an interesting person (a good story-teller), people will enjoy listening to what you have to say. On the other hand, if you're boring, people will nod their heads politely.

As a blogger, the anonymity offered by the Internet allows our nasty sides to come out and people are far less charitable online when you're boring (or anything other than a rock star). The key to be successful as a blogger is to develop a unique voice and style - and to polish and keep improving it.

The second step is to build consistency. Quite often you'll bloggers who either have trouble coming up with stuff to write about day after day, get bored with blogging after a while or whatever reason, tend to take their foot off the pedal. I tend to give writers a lot of room here, because everyone's blogging rhythm is different.

It's best to start slow and then build things up, but only to a point where you think you can comfortably sustain it in the long run. I have a tendency of blogging in cycles - 10 posts per day for 2-3 days and 1-2 posts for the rest of the week. Encouraging the habit to a) write regularly and b) spread out your articles is an absolute must if you want someone to take over blogging for you.

The third step is to get bloggers to understand the marketing / promotional side of blogging - what flagship content is, what linkbait is, how to encourage conversations on your blog, how to write great headlines, how and when to focus on quality over quantity (and vice versa), how to use social media sites, why you should link back to your old articles, etc etc. There's a lot of ground to cover here and this is perhaps a lifelong education.

The fourth step is to help them learn the technical aspect of things. At the start, all they'll need to know is the basics - comment moderation, how to write / edit posts, using categories, future posting, uploading images, adding links / images into posts, etc. But as time goes on and when you want your bloggers to take over more aspects of your blog, it would also pay to get them interested in theme editing and plugin usage - so that theoretically speaking you can go off for a month-long break and you wouldn't need to worry about your blog as your hired gun would be able to take care of any problems that pop up.

Why would someone stay if they learn all this? Because not everyone is driven enough to start a new business from scratch - to most people, if you give them excellent terms + plus profit sharing and the freedom to do what they want on the blog (within certain limits, of course), then they will stick with you for life. Bloggers, just like people, need room to grow, so you have to continuously train them and give them more space at the same time.

So, once again...what methods do you use to train your bloggers? Any specific strategies that you'd be interested in sharing?

Also Read:

10 Articles Every Blogger Should Read At Least Once

6 Ways Blogging Differs From Other Types Of Writing

These two articles (list of articles in one case) are a must-read for all my bloggers. Can you add anything to this list?

Blogging Productivity Tip: Read Only When You Have Time to Act On It

The idea is simple - do not open your email, visit forums, hit your blog's comments, open your rss reader, visit your favourite websites...in other words, do not ANY type of 'input' in your working hours until you have the time allocated to 'ACT' on that input.

For example, it's common practice for bloggers to open up their email inbox several times a day to 'scan' for important emails. Depending on the amount of emails one gets, this can mean a few quick responses and then leaving those emails that require a longer response lying in wait till late night. At night, you might not have the time / energy to write long responses and those emails get left on next day.

Or, when we hit up our RSS reader without scheduling time to blog about any news item we find interesting. What happens if we come across something worth blogging about? It goes in the bookmarks, and those bookmarks keep adding up until you have to do some spring cleaning or the load becomes so overwhelming that you have to dump them and start afresh.

Or...when we hit forums where we network frequently only to browse and not to comment / reply on threads.

All such activities take up time - valuable time - from our daily routine. Instead of checking your email 5 times in 4 minute segments, you could easily check it once a day in 20 minutes, and in that time you will respond to more emails and get more things done than in the 5 short breaks during the day. The same goes for blogging (you've already read an article once, and if you leave it for later, you'll have to read it again. It maybe only a few minutes of time but once you add that time up you can build an amazing debt of time.

I get distracted easily, so it's a continuous battle to avoid such time wasters, especially when I'm not going to 'do anything about them'.

If you really need a 5-10 minute break, get off your butt and excercise - if you're a blogger, you probably need it more than a quick trip to your inbox to check your mail for the 3rd time in the day.

Securing Very Important Data: Your Own

AS long as we are willing to relinquish some personal data, Web applications have long allowed us to create virtual identities that can conduct most of the social and financial transactions that typify life in the real world.

But the newest generation of these services is starting to collect and store far more than just the standard suite of identity data — name and address, phone, Social Security or credit-card numbers — that populates the databases of banks and credit-card processors. They increasingly store information, generated by us, that is directly linked to those virtual identities.

Source - NY Times

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7 Rules for Communicating Clearly and Concisely in Email

As email is the prevalent form of communication for many web workers, it’s gotten a lot of attention: how to handle your email, how to empty your inbox, email etiquette, and more.

But perhaps not enough time is spent learning about how to communicate with email. And more specifically, how to communicate clearly and concisely, two crucial aspects of communication that are often overlooked.

How many times have you received a rambling and incoherent email? How many times have you hit “Delete” because you have no idea what the person wants and no time to sort through the long message?

The truth is that people don’t have time for long emails, and they don’t have time to try to find out exactly what you want. You have to tell them, in as short an email as possible.

Misunderstandings are also a problem, because of the nature of email. People are often ambiguous, and their messages are interpreted differently than they intended, leading to a waste of time and energy.

Communicate clearly and concisely with the following rules.

1. Use the minimum amount of sentences. I’ve been using the 5-sentence rule, but you can use more if needed. The question is: how many sentences are needed to communicate what you’re trying to communicate? Or how few sentences can you get away with. Cut it to that number, and no more. That ensures that you’re not wasting the time of the recipient, and that your email actually gets read (people tend to put off reading longer ones, and might even delete them).

2. State what you want right away. Don’t write a long introduction, telling your life story, or any story for that matter. People aren’t interested. They just want to know what you want. So state that, in the first sentence. Skip the niceties. Don’t make the recipient wade through 10 paragraphs to find what action is needed for the email.

3. Write about only one thing. There have been numerous times when I read an email, saw the action needed, and went and did it … only to find out that three other things were also needed to respond to the email. I’ve also responded to the first part of an email and not to others, just because I didn’t have enough time.

If you write about multiple things, with multiple requests, you do two things: 1) make it likely that your email actually won’t be read or acted on; and 2) make it likely that even if it is acted on or responded to, the recipient will only do one of those things.

Instead, stick to one subject, with one request. Once that’s done, you can send a second one, but don’t overwhelm the recipient if at all possible.

4. Leave out the humor and emotions. These don’t come across well in an email. Even if you use emoticons. There’s just no way to express tone, inflection, etc. … and there’s no way to know if the recipient understands that you’re joking. If you’re communicating in person, you can see that the person didn’t understand the humor, and say, “I was only joking!” But not in email.

So, unless you know the person well, and you know they’ll understand that you’re joking, leave out humor. It’s a risk that you don’t want to take.

5. Use “If … then” statements. As email is a back-and-forth method of communicating, and it can take a day or more for a response (in some cases), you want to limit the number of times a message has to go back and forth. To do that, use “if … then” statements, anticipating the possible responses to your question.

For example, if you want to know if a person has received a response to an inquiry, instead of asking if they’ve received a response, and then waiting for a reply, and then sending another email based on that reply, try doing it all in one email:

“Have you received a response from Mr. X yet? If so, please finish the report by Tuesday and email it to me. If not, can you follow up today and let me know the response?”

By anticipating the possible responses, and giving a desired action for each possible response, you’re cutting a lot of wasted back-and-forth time.

6. Review for ambiguity, clarity. Once you’ve written an email, take a few seconds to read over it before pressing the Send button. Read it as if you were an outsider — how clear it it? Are there any ambiguous statements that could be interpreted the wrong way? If so, clarify.

7. Revise for conciseness. As you review, also see if there is a way you can shorten the email, remove words or sentences or even paragraphs. Leave nothing but the essential message you’re trying to communicate.

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