Geek To Live: Rock Your Presentation with the Right Tools and Apps

At some point in your career as a student or professional, you're going to have to give a presentation—and when you do, you want to be prepared with the right content and applications. Whether...

Personal Relationships: How to Deal With a Verbally Abusive Person

Ever been in an argument that starts getting really nasty really quick? Self-improvement site Pick the Brain suggests that you put a stop to it:

Firmly but calmly state: "You're very angry right now and you're saying things you don't mean (give them the benefit of the doubt). I'm going to excuse myself. We can talk again after you calm down." Then leave the room or ask them to leave.

Not only does this give the hothead time to cool down and reconsider his/her choice of words, it also saves you from retorting with words you probably will regret.

Resolving Conflicts Quickly and Peacefully [Pick the Brain]

Personal Promotion: Accept Compliments For Your Accomplishments

Sometimes, even though we deserve it, it can be hard to take a compliment. Productivity site Lifehack.org has this suggestion:

It wasn't luck or the goodwill of others or any other reason that you managed to do something praiseworthy, it was your own effort and commitment. Even if you truly were just in the right place at the right time, you deserve credit for recognizing an opportunity and acting on it. If you wouldn't dream of not taking responsibility for your failures, then step up and take responsibility for your achievements.

Of course, it's not a good idea to go too much the other way, but false humility is pretty easy to spot. So own those accomplishments—and enjoy the compliments when you get them.

How to Take a Compliment [Lifehack.org]

Ask The Readers: Do You Sign The Back Of Your Credit Cards?

One of the most common ways to guard yourself against credit card misuse is to sign the back of your card, so that merchants can check the signature on your card with that on your ID. Right? Well, maybe not. According to financial blog The Tao of Making Money, the best practice is not to sign it.

Here's our official advice on signing the strip on the back: Don't sign it. It's useless as a deterrent, as anyone who takes your card then has a sample of your signature which they can not only use on any charge slip, but on your checks as well. However, do not leave the white strip blank. In that space, write: "Ask For Picture ID," and be prepared to back that up someday when you're in a hurry and the clerk wants to see a driver's license as well as the card. It makes the charge transaction a little longer, but a lot safer.

I've been doing this for years and while it's not a perfect solution, it certainly is better than nothing. Let's hear your thoughts on this: signing, or not signing? You know what to do.

Sign The Back Of Your Credit Cards - Useless Fraud Prevention Advice? [The Tao of Making Money]

Work: How to Estimate Your Costs for a Task

When negotiating your fee for a job with a potential business client, it can be tricky to come up with a reasonable estimate. Web Worker Daily suggests that you estimate your numbers from small to large:

Estimate in inch-pebbles, not milestones. When you're faced with a large piece of work to estimate, don't try to come up with a single number to cover the entire job all at once. Break it down into pieces, and then break those pieces down into pieces until the pieces are small enough that you can see how you would do each one and put a number on them.

If you regularly estimate your costs for a potential job, please share your best tips for doing so in the comments.

Estimating Basics [Web Worker Daily]

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Work: How to Estimate Your Costs for a Task

When negotiating your fee for a job with a potential business client, it can be tricky to come up with a reasonable estimate. Web Worker Daily suggests that you estimate your numbers from small to large:

Estimate in inch-pebbles, not milestones. When you're faced with a large piece of work to estimate, don't try to come up with a single number to cover the entire job all at once. Break it down into pieces, and then break those pieces down into pieces until the pieces are small enough that you can see how you would do each one and put a number on them.

If you regularly estimate your costs for a potential job, please share your best tips for doing so in the comments.

Estimating Basics [Web Worker Daily]

Bad Credit Could Cost You $1 Million During Your Lifetime

<p>TheStreet.com is reporting that bad credit could end up costing you around $1 million during your lifetime. For people with poor credit scores, the added cost of borrowing could exceed $1 million USD over a 30 year period. </p>

<p>Source: Your Bad Credit Could Cost You $1 Million</p>

Life Coaching: Fundamentals for Personal Growth

Personal growth blogger Peter says that before we get overly ambitious, we should apply some basic rules to our daily living. We can improve our outlook on life by defining our successes, having a positive attitude, and by getting a grasp on our health, wealth, and relationships. Here are a few of my favorite tidbits:

An open mind: some of our beliefs and actions are so ingrained that we automatically disregard any evidence that we should think or act otherwise. Keep an open mind, and you may just come across a better way of seeing or doing things.

Gratitude: instead of focusing on what you don't have, try appreciating what you do have. If you are reading this, chances are you are better off than the vast majority of the world's population.

Now these are definitely goals I'd aspire to. Readers, what drives your happiness?

30 Fundamentals for a Wonderful Life [I Will Change Your Life]

How To: Handle Criticism with Grace

Learn to accept criticism—no matter how harsh—with aplomb by following tips from weblog Zen Habits. For example:

Thank the Critic
Even if someone is harsh and rude, thank them. They might have been having a bad day, or maybe they're just a negative person in general. But even so, your attitude of gratitude will probably catch them off-guard.

I don't know how many times I've fielded extremely negative criticisms sent to the Lifehacker inbox with a "Thank you" and then received an apology. Of course, not all criticism is unfounded, and the post discusses how to handle the ego blow that comes with a critique and how to work toward improving where the criticism is valid. Let's hear how you handle criticism in the comments. Photo by Zara-Jay.

How to Accept Criticism with Grace and Appreciation [Zen Habits]

Small Business: Headquarters at Home and Proud to Be There

A growing number of home-based businesses are no longer trying make their small operations look bigger.

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50 MYTHS ABOUT MONEY

Many people don’t give much credence to the saying “see a penny, pick it up and all day long you’ll have good luck”. It’s one of many myths that don’t ring true. You could add “money doesn’t grow on trees” or that it burns holes in pockets to the list, too.

What To Do When You Hate Your Job

Do you dread going to the office on Monday morning? If so, you've got lots of company.

With the unemployment rate quite low, you'd think job satisfaction would be high, since employers, theoretically, would have to coddle their workers to avoid losing them. But the opposite seems to be true. Employees are increasingly unhappy at work, according to the Conference Board, with only 50 percent of people satisfied with their jobs today. That's down from 79 percent in 1985. And if a recession is on the horizon, as many economists think it may be, the job market is sure to get tighter--and workers even edgier.

A few obvious factors, like low pay or excessive hours, drive down job satisfaction, but our global, technology-driven economy is also making it harder to find fulfilling work. Many of the pleasant parts of a job, such as dealing one-on-one with people, are being replaced by machines or more efficient processes. Sales junkets are being replaced by teleconferences, for instance; gut feeling is often overruled by computer modeling. Global competition often whittles down companies' profit margins, forcing them to ask their best professionals to work longer hours. Among people earning $100,000 or more, for instance, one third work more than 50 hours a week, according to polls by Zogby/MSN.

How To: Beat the Procrastination Habit

Chronic procrastinator J.D. Roth describes the techniques he uses to stop putting off tasks. One of his weapons in the war against procrastination? A timer. Roth says:

Part of the reason I procrastinate is that I have a rich mental life. This is just a flowery way of saying that I'm a daydreamer. I'm always lost in thought. One way to keep on track is to use a timer. I use the Ultrak Jumbo Countdown Timer, but not as often as I should. I set it for 48 minutes. When it goes off, it serves as an instant reality check: Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing?

As someone who also has a "rich mental life" AND a timer, I can attest that this does indeed work. What specific anti-procrastination strategies (besides "just do it now") do you have up your sleeve? Let us know in the comments.

Getting to Now: How to Beat the Procrastination Habit [Get Rich Slowly]

To Do Managers: Organize Your To-dos, Bookmarks, and RSS Feeds with Treedolist

Web site Treedolist hierarchically organizes your to-do list, notes, bookmarks, RSS feeds, and pretty much anything else you can think to drop into it. At its most basic, you can think of it as a simple to-do list with the ability to add structured and nested lists and then filter your lists by due dates, labels, and a number of other useful methods. It gets interesting, though, when you realize that you can also add more information, like RSS feeds, and share branches of any tree with other Treedolist users. And—like any good online to-do list—Treedolist has several useful keyboard shortcuts.

Treedolist [via Micro Persuasion]

Work: Keep a File of Your Accomplishments

If you're doing a good job at work, keep a record. Office productivity site Slacker Manager suggests keeping a "yay-me!" file:

The basic idea is simple: you just keep a file of good stuff you do. When you figure out some trick new process that saves hours per week, you make a note about (don't forget to datestamp it) and drop it in the yay-me file.

There are two benefits of this practice: first, you can always give yourself a pat on the back when you're feeling down. Second, you're storing up good karma for your annual (or otherwise) evaluation. Do you have a "yay-me" file? Share how you've used it in the comments.

Yay-me! file [Slacker Manager]

Time Management: Put More Time In Your Day

If you've ever wished for more hours in the day, you'll want to read self-help site Lifehack.org's list of tips for making the most of the time you've got.

The first step is to cut out stuff that is making unnecessary inroads on your time, for example, too much TV. Second step: make the most of your "gap time", otherwise known as the minutes/hours between meaningful activities. Thirdly, prioritize what needs to be done and do it.

None of this is exactly rocket science, but I can use all the time management advice I can get (and I'm pretty sure you're with me, right?). If you know a good time tip that you don't see on this list, please share in the comments.

21 Ways to Add More Hours to the Day [Lifehack]

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Resume: Avoid These 10 Resume Annoyances

We've covered a ton of resume do's at Lifehacker, but AOL Jobs highlights 10 resume don'ts that are likely to get under your hiring manager's skin. For example:

Outdated information. Leave off the...

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How to Procrastinate More Productively

When managed effectively, the desire to avoid one job can be used to get other things done. This strategy is called structured procrastination.