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January 29th, 2010

How To Defrag Your Mind In 5 Easy Steps

This is a follow up to my post: “Are You The Best Version Of Yourself?”. Specifically, that article used a geeky metaphor, comparing our own being with a computer. In order to be sure you run the best version of yourself, a certain number of maintenance tasks have to be performed, such as “updating your drivers” or “stay virus free”. In this post I’m going to detail on “Defrag your mind”.

Defrag Your Mind? What Exactly Is That?

For the non-geeky versions of my readers, I will briefly outline what a defragmentation is. Although it sounds pretty harsh, it’s nothing but an optimization process. The data on your computer hard-disk is not written and read in sequential order. It’s broken down into smaller pieces and written at arbitrary locations. Now, after a certain period, the effort for retrieving that information, scattered around your entire hard-disk, could become really time consuming.

This is where defragmentation comes in: it re-arranges the data on your hard-disk so it would be much more easier to access. The expected result of such a process is an increase in speed and a higher reliability of your equipment. In other words: you’re going to work not only faster, but also much safer.

Now, how can you do this to your mind? Here is my take on it, in 5 easy steps:

1. Chose Your Dominant Setup

Maybe you’ll be in travel mood for the next couple of weeks. Or maybe you’ll have to deliver something big at your job. Or maybe you’ll want to learn something new. Whatever the case, you’ll have to identify your major focus in the next few days or weeks. This is what I call your “dominant” setup. It will be your main concern, your essential duty.

Similarly, there are computer setups for video processing or for games.  There are setups for text or image processing. Depending on these setups, your hard-disk algorithms may change. This is why it’s important to do an assessment first and understand what are you going to perform in the next few weeks. You’re going to setup your mind exactly for that.

Based on this initial assessment, when you’ll chose a dominant configuration for the next period. try to identify it with a single word or a small sentence: “finish project”, “workout” or “visit Rocky Mountains”. Your whole defragmentation process will target this dominant setup.

2. Identify Necessary Information

Once you correctly identified the main concern for the next period, start to identify related areas. What information do you need to succeed? Are there any important actions you need to perform on a regular basis? Are there any specific attitudes you need to adopt? Any habits you need to implement? All these items are part of your main setup.

Identifying your necessary information should be done rather slowly but thoroughly, than quickly and fuzzy. If you’re going to establish a new algorithm for your main central unit, you’d better make sure you  won’t let out something important. That will only make the whole process slow if you’d have to go back and re-start it again.

One tip in this step would be to make a log of it. If it’s something about holiday, just write down the “cloud” of necessary information, actions and habits in a list format. Next time you go on a holiday, you’ll have the info available and spend less time on assessing it. Another tip that could significantly shorten this step is to use mind-mapping. A non-linear document would be more appropriate for this process than a sequential one.

3. Establish Priorities

You know the setup, you have the tools, now all you have to do is to establish priorities. If you ever witnessed a defragmentation, you saw that the most frequently accessed information is usually moved in the first sectors of your hard-disk. That would make it easier and faster to be accessed. And you’re going to do exactly that: make things easier to manage.

Identifying priorities is obviously closely related to the dominant setup. If you’re going to work more than usual, then one of your priorities would probably be to have your laptop charged as often as possible. If your main setup would be traveling related, maybe the tool which should be constantly charged is your mobile phone.

The easiest way to assess the priority is to use a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being the higher point of the scale. Take the previously gathered information and run it through this filter. Ok, this is a laptop, on a scale from 1 to 5 how important is that for my dominant setup? Ok, will give it a 2. Just start practicing and in time you’ll get better at it.

4. Ignore The Unimportant

One of the biggest clutter sources in our lives is the excess luggage we’re carrying around because we think it’s necessary. Or because somebody else has already decided for us it’s necessary. Or simply because we didn’t do any assessment whatsoever and we’re still carrying around those lose ends. Our focus is too loaded with too many lenses.

The 4th stage of your mind defragmentation should address exactly this question. If you moved all the important stuff closer to your core in the previous step, now you’re going to take the unnecessary bits and pieces and move them far away from your reach. Don’t get rid of them, of course, just offer them a well deserved break. :-)

For instance, if you’re going to travel, you may totally ignore your office suits. Push them away, ignore. If you’re going to learn something new, decide you’re going to cut on your distractions: ignore watching TV or social activities. The most important function of this step is to actually write down what are you going to ignore. Don’t expect it to happen naturally.

5. Run A Dry Test

Once your dominant new setup is in place, try to run a dry test. It won’t have the benefits of actually implementing the whole things, but it will still be useful. Take 15 minutes to imagine a whole day, from the moment you wake up to the moment you get to bed. Every information you need is in place? Are your priorities well balanced? Is the clutter properly stowed away?

If you’re satisfied, congrats, you just had your first mind defragmentation.

A Real Life Example

1. The Dominant Setup

I do a little bit of defragmentation every time I enter a new milestone for my blog. One of the dominant setups this year would be “monetize my blog”. These are at least 3 main functions I should perform under this new setup:

  • create new products
  • identify markets for the products
  • promote my new products
  • increase blog traffic

2. Necessary Information, Actions and Habits

  • focus on creating extra products (text, audio and video)
  • focus on promoting my blog via social media
  • allocate at least 2 extra hours each day for new products
  • evaluate the promotion and generated income

3. Establish Priorities

  • the most important thing: create products (priority 1)
  • the second most important thing: promote the products (priority 1)
  • the third most important thing: increase blog traffic (priority 2)

4. What To Ignore

  • spend less time reading other blogs
  • spend less time on other projects (workshops, for instance)
  • ignore alternative monetization like display advertising

5. Run A Dry Test

As you may already know I already have 5 books published on Amazon and things are going pretty well on this direction. The dry-test started on early January and just finished a few days ago when my 5th book was approved. I know how my dominant setup will look like for the next few months. :-)

Well this is how a basic mind defragmentation process looks like. This is really sketchy but I hope you got the idea.

How Often To Defrag?

Similar concepts in productivity metodologies (like GTD), suggests that a thorough review should be done weekly. In my experience, there’s no need for a weekly review in order to keep your mind defragged. It’s more about how often you will change your dominant setup, or your goals. This is also closely related to your own lifestyle.

For instance, I do think you should do a defrag every time you leave on holiday, but only if a holiday will mean a major shift in your regular lifestyle. If your current lifestyle is a nomadic one, living location independent, maybe you should do a defrag every time you check in to a new country.

***

What are your thoughts on this one? Do you see any more steps involved in the process? Do you see the process with even fewer steps? Would you try this? Did you already tried it but under a different name? Would love to hear from you in the comments.

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January 29th, 2010

100 Tips On How To Write Huge List Posts

So far I wrote 4 “100 ways to” kind of lists: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life, 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life, 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog and 100 Things I Did In 2009. All of them got featured on delicious, stumbleupon, hackernews, reddit or other popular places on the internet. They still bring in tons of traffic. No, I lied. They bring in tens of tons of traffic. Crafting such a list is not an easy task. So I thought to put together 100 tips on how to create a “100 ways to” kind of list. Expect some disguised humor along more serious tips and, generally speaking, do take this list with a little bit of salt…

1. Become Immune To Rejection

Lists are cool. but lists are also way too common nowadays. If you truly want to write a successful “100 ways to” post then prepare to face some rejection. Primarily, from yourself. Unconsciously, if you’re an experienced blogger, you hate lists. So work out this fear and start working.

2. Split It Into Smaller Tasks

Fundamental: work your list in smaller steps, by writing every day several items. You’ll hopefully avoid some blocking episodes and you could also assess progress over several days (or weeks). After all, even a million dollars is made by adding 10 chunks of 100.000…

3. Use Mind Mapping

Start with some general notions about your list and take it from there. From my experience, after the mind map gets bigger than 30-40 branches, you need to transfer it on a text editor. But it gives you a pretty good start.

4. Chose A Rich Topic

If you want to make a “100 ways of chopping potatoes” list, chances are that you will never get to finish it. The topic is too narrow. It’s almost impossible to find 100 different ways to chop potatoes. Try to go for wider topics, like carrots (joking of course, now serious), blogging, motivation or inspiration.

5. Prepare To Read More

If you are going to write a “100 ways to” list, you are also going to read it, adjust it, correct it and proof read it. Meaning you’re going to read much more than you’re used to. If you do try to write your list without reading it after, the results may be totally unpredictable.

6. Write Short Explanations

Don’t go for a dry bullet list, take the time to write something for every item. But keep the explanation short. Like this one.

7. Flip A Coin

Whenever you hesitate to add another item to the list, kill the suspense with a coin. Flip it fast, possibly while you’re smiling. If you win, add the item, if you lose, rephrase and still add the item. It’s a “100 ways to” list, goddamit, we need every frigging thing we can imagine, can’t afford playing stupid games with items and coins.

8. Link To Yourself

A “100 ways to” list will surely bring in more traffic than a usual post. So, it’s a very good place to insert links to some of your most interesting articles. Just make sure the links actually have something in common with the main topic.

9. Be Patient

Don’t expect a “100 ways to” list to be baked in the same amount of time you spend for a regular blog post. It could take many days, or even weeks. The trick is to be patient here and don’t lose the magic final number (that would be the 100th tip) from your sight. It will pay off.

10. If You Write It, They Will Bookmark It

A “100 ways to” list takes much longer to be read than a usual post. Initially, people will just bookmark it and never get back to it until the common fear of reading something for more than 15 seconds is gone. Some will never get back to read it (that fear is pretty nasty) but they will bookmark it for sure.

11. Start More Than One “100 ways to” List

Switching from one list to another will be good for your focus. If the lists are on slightly different topics, it will be even better, because you will most likely avoid writer block totally by constantly challenging your creativity in different areas.

12. Make a Table Of Contents Out Of It

If at the current moment you have written more than 100 posts, have a good topic distribution and your list of “100 ways to” is close enough to what you’re usually writing, it will act also as a Table Of Contents of your blog, so link to yourself. The first links will get more visibility so think twice which items are you putting in the first third of your list.

13. Brainstorm It

Let some of your friends or your colleagues in. Make it sound like fun and start writing down ideas. Brainstorming will not only give your more material but it will also have this decluttering effect on your mind. You’ll actually start to see more ideas and you’ll do that much faster. It’s like cleaning up your lenses.

14. Play With Words

Start playing with the words. If it’s a list about motivation, start writing down motivation synonyms. If it’s about entrepreneurship, start writing down synonyms for entrepreneurship. Seeing the same thing from different perspective will reveal new ideas. This technique is especially useful in the late stage, when you already had a lot of the items nailed down.

15. Call A Random Phone Number And Ask For Advice

Not to be repeated more than once per list. Chances that you will actually bump into the same person you called last time are incredibly high. If you can hide after a fat fingering mistake for the first one, doing the same thing twice will put you in a very favorable position to receive a police inquiry for harassment.

16. Try To Insert A Random, Not Related Item

But do it only while you’re working on it. If you let it slip into the real list, sooner or later they’ll catch you. But having a ghost in your draft will make things so much interesting. I guarantee that from a certain level you won’t know for sure which one is the ghost and which one is the real one. Annoying, but funny. Somehow.

17. Re-read Your Past 100 Lists

Not only as a source of inspiration, but especially useful to avoid repetition. 100 pieces of a puzzle is a big number and it’s pretty easy to get caught in a writing routine. Keeping an eye on your older lists will raise your awareness and hopefully will also boot your self-esteem to the point that you’re actually finishing your current list.

18. Be Useful

If your list will hugely benefit the green little men from Mars and no one on Earth will find any immediate use for it, don’t expect to become popular. Getting in touch first with the green little men and nicely asking if they really need such a list will surely help. More than once, the answer will be that you need to be really useful.

19. Chop It Off

Make it a list of 77 tips if you can’t find more items. Or a list of 33 ways. Or even 7 traits. At least you tried. Be proud. It’s your list.

20. Read Other Post Lists

Especially in completely different niches than yours. It will help remove your unconscious blocks and refresh your perspective. Ideas are everywhere, it’s your focus which is not trained enough to spot them.

21. Inhale. Exhale

I know you’re focused and you’re chasing that idea at full speed. That’s not a reason to forgot breathing.

22. Re-read Your 3rd Grade Diary

If you had one. Meeting a younger you is always enlightening, You have no idea how many things you forgot you know, how many dreams you had and how many skills you developed. If don’t had a journal in the 3rd grade maybe it’s time to start one now, isn’t it?

23. Knock On A Stranger’s Door

Risky. But fun. Try knocking at someone else’s door and ask for some advice. You may end up writing a list about 100 ways to escape after knocking on a complete stranger’s door. That counts too, right?

24. Twitter Is Your Friend

Look for quotes, sayings, conversations or interesting links. Twitter has a fairly high noise to signal ratio, but with some patience you can still isolate a few ideas. Or, at least, you’ll procrastinate in a very trendy way.

25. Isolate From Distractions

Close the doors, the windows, the cell phone. Close the TV, the radio, close your eyes (just for a few seconds, to get in the mood) and your mouth. The only things still running should be your laptop and your brains. Now unleash your inspiration and start writing.

26. Let It Cook For A While

Don’t try to publish the list post immediately. Let it cook for a while. Re-read it in a few days. It’s not that you will make the list better, that’s a pretty obvious effect. But you may get a few new ideas for some future 100 items list posts too.

27. Establish A Reasonably High Daily Batch Of Items

Try to write at least 5 to 10 items per day. In my experience, if you write less than 5 per day you will actually kill the post. The effort of re-reading your last days work will be higher than what you need for those 3 items. Establish a reasonably high batch and stick with it.

28. Sing A Song

Like in trying to remembering one, not just humming wordless. Your creative mind is highly associative, so every time you get it out of the comfort zone, it will bring up new connections. Now, what song was that? Humm, ta, ri, ra… yeah, I got it :-) .

29. Be One Of Your Readers

Try to impersonate one of your readers. What exactly would somebody expect to read on your blog? What are his expectations? Wear his shoes for a few minutes. That will surely open a flow of new ideas. You write for them, in the end, not for you.

30. Watch The News

Use it for its reverse effect. I usually watch the news only to be completely turned off by all the violence, stupidity and shallowness that exudes from TV news nowadays. After a few minutes, I am so happy to return to my regular writing.

31. Play With Your Kids

If you have kids, of course. If not, observe some in the park. I am always amazed by how easily kids are creating new worlds around them. It seems that someway along the way we lost this ability.

32. Play Monopoly

Or any other game, as long as you’re playing it with your friends. When they lose, propose to exchange roles (as in you becoming the loser) if they can give you several ideas for your blog post. You’ll be surprised how many of your friends hate to lose at games.

33. Ride The Subway And Ask Everybody What Time Is It

The first 4-5 people will try to be honest with you and tell the exact time. But when the rest of them will see you asking the same question over and over, will want to know you why you’re doing it. That will force your mind to find some really, really creative answers.

34. Listen To A Completely Different Kind Of Music

If you’re into rock, go symphonic. If you’re into symphonic, go for country. If you’re country, go for pop. You got the idea, something completely out of your audible comfort zone. Don’t stop it until you find at least 10 new ideas. Which usually happens in the first 3 minutes.

35. Walk Barefoot Around Your House

Well, this may not bring you ideas about how to write a “100 ways to” list post, but it will cool you off for sure. Especially during winter.

36. Practice Your Lists

You can keep writing smaller lists just for keeping yourself pumped up. Small lists, but somehow related. For instance, I wrote a list of 7 Ways To Say No, followed by a list of 14 Ways To Say Yes. It’s much easier to start something bigger after that.

37. Try It In Different Languages

If you’re writing a list about cooking, look up the word “cooking” in a dictionary. In how many ways people are able to say “cooking” around the world? I bet in at least 120. Well, what stops you to find 100 ways to say it too?

38. Make A Plan

And what I mean by a plan is to establish a clear deadline and reachable milestones. Start with a target of 2 weeks, writing at least 5 new items each working day. In 20 days, you’ll have 100 items. That’s what I call a plan.

39. Set A Posting Frequency

In my experience, “100 ways to” lists are pretty time intensive. Not only for you, but for your readers too. So, I would never schedule more than 1 huge list each month. It’s not only taking a lot of energy, but it will also scare your readers away if you do it more often.

40. Chose A Topic You’re Comfortable With

Write about something you really know or heavily experienced lately. If you chose a spectacular topic, but you don’t have any idea what is all about in that niche, you won’t be able to deliver, even if you do all the research and planning in the world.

41. Brag About It

Talk to your friends about your intentions, tweet it or post it to your wall on Facebook. Up to the point you’re getting really uncomfortable with the potential feeling of rejection you’d get if you don’t put your arse to work and deliver that damn list.

42. Make A Challenge Out Of It

This is how I started, by being challenged by one of my blogger friends. First, it seemed impossible to write a 100 items list. The, it started to feel plausible. Then I started to work and it became real.

43. Improvise

Write whatever comes to your mind, even if it’s not related to your list. Put it into bullets, to make it look like a list. And once you’re on a roll, writing on topic, just delete the garbage.

44. Go From A To B In 5 Steps

That’s a great exercise to fuel your creativity. Open a dictionary and pick word, let’s say word “A”. Write it down. Then open it again and pick word “B”. Write it down. Then make up a story to go from word “A” to word “B” in 5 steps. Here is a detailed post describing the process.

45. Break The Main Topic In Subtopics

If the topic allows that, try to break the list into chapters. I did it with my 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog list, where I split it into content, promotion, layout areas. It will speed up things considerably.

46. Keep It In A Fixed Form

Try to write a fixed number of words for each explanation. Although it seems more difficult, it actually forces you to maintain a writing discipline. Break it only when it helps the item being more visible, like item number 6.

47. Go For The Smallest Denominator

With this pompous title I only mean that you should break processes in smaller parts and write an item for each part. If what you think is: “be creative”, break it into specific techniques, like item number 44 or 46 in this very list. A generalist “Be creative” has no value in a list, go into details.

48. Be Honest With Yourself

If you can’t make a list of 100 items, that’s ok. Better be happy you tried and failed than to concoct a fake list which will be spotted instantly and make you more harm than good. The opposite is also true: if you honestly feel you can deliver, go all the way to the top.

49. Count To 100 In Your Head

It will make the whole task easier to understand and it will give you a bird-view of what are you are trying to accomplish. Provided you’re able to reach to 100 and don’t fall asleep, as I usually do, somewhere between 77 and 85. Your mileage may vary.

50. Celebrate The First Half

That would be number 50, if you didn’t get it ;-) . Once you’re here, your job is half done. Praise this. Have a drink. Take a break. From now on, your number of finished items can only be greater than the number of items waiting to be finished. You’re almost there.

51. Don’t Lose Focus

it’s very easy to be distracted and move your focus on other tasks. Don’t do it. Force yourself into making this list happening. Put a post it on your computer screen. Glue a piece of paper on the ceiling, so it would be the first thing you’ll see in the morning. Stay there.

52. Enjoy The Process

If you don’t find a way to actually take pleasure in writing this list, it would be extremely difficult. Feel good about what you write, feel relaxed and at ease. Try to visualize yourself as an A-list blogger if this will make things easier. Do whatever it takes to enjoy the process.

53. Bribe Yourself

Put small incentives at the end of a writing task to mark the victory. Don’t get them until you finish what you planned to. If there’s little or no motivation, maybe a plain and consistent bribe would act as an incentive. Think at something you just couldn’t resist ;-) .

54. Bribe Others To Support You

Bring in some other people and promise you will do something for them if they’ll support you in any way you chose: from cheering up to forcing you. It’s surprising how many people you’ll find around, ready to help you for a small service from your part.

55. Start A Conversation About It

It may be on a forum, on other social media website or at the office. Don’t do a full brainstorming, just ask around other people about their opinion. That enough will bring you a lot of unexpected inspiration.

56. Write The Numbers First

Like empty placeholders for your items. It will help you visualize how many things you still have to write and give you a subtle sense of accomplishment. One by one, you’re getting there. Isn’t that wonderful? (Start this after you’re passed number 50, otherwise it can get pretty depressing).

57. Ask Your Boss For Advice

I don’t think you’ll get a meaningful answer, but it will make your adrenaline level go up for sure. Alternatively, if you don’t have a boss, you can try asking your spouse for the same advice. If you’re not married, well… why on Earth are you losing time writing stupid lists of “100 ways to”, when you should be out, partying?

58. Do It On The Road

Have a smartphone with you and stop whenever you seem to have an idea: write it down, email it to yourself, or just record it if your phone uses a voice recorder. On a side note, I do this on a regular basis to capture ideas for my blog posts.

59. Don’t Write Ideas On A Napkin

While you’re having a romantic dinner, for instance. Even if your brain is so excited that it seem to come up with a new idea every 10 seconds. It’s rude, totally disrespectful and extremely non-ecological. Use a phone instead.

60. Scrabble It

If you know scrabble, you know what I mean. If you don’t, go out and buy one, it’s pretty cheap and it will pay out well in the future. Even if you don’t come up with a decent list of items after you played some serious scrabble, at least you had a really good time.

61. Don’t Take It Too Serious

It will burn you out. A list of “100 ways to” is not an easy task (I have the feeling I said that before) but it’s not something impossible either. You’ll make till the end, so you’d better try to keep an open and light attitude. Even if the list won’t be spectacular, you still did it big time.

62. Journal While Writing It

Journaling in itself is a powerful self-discovery tool, so using it while you’re on a list of “100 ways to” seems pretty logical. What I noticed in my personal history is that the first 30-40 items are the most easy to write, while the last 10 are the most rewarding.

63. Start A Facebook Fan Page Before You Publish It

Just in case you hit big, you know. By the time you wake up from all that Digg or Delicious or StumbleUpon euphoria, somebody else may take your post name, start a group, do a few live workshops on the topic and even launch a book. You’ve been warned!

64. Make A Drawing Of It

This is not mind mapping, it’s drawing. One of the simplest creativity enhancement techniques: draw a representation of your object. In whatever form you want. Do it until your mental flow is unblocked and you can find at least 3-4 new ideas.

65. Don’t Fake It

Don’t mix various pieces of floating info from the internet hoping they will eventually glue together in a balanced product. Because they won’t. Write your list item by item, be inspired by others and creative, but don’t fake it. Generally speaking, faking is a huge waste of time.

66. Read Riddles

Two reasons: have fun and push your mind to think more and in unusual ways. I’m reading riddles every time I have a little bit of a block (fortunately, this is extremely rare) and every time works like a charm. What is black and white and read all over? Your “100 ways to” list, of course :-)

67. Pick A Random Word, From A Random Page, From A Random Book

Close your eyes, pick a book, open it and put your finger on a random page. Ignore “and”, “or”, “to” and alike. See what you get. If you’re a normal, balanced and aware person, I bet you’re going to get just a… random word. Isn’t that wonderful? Now back to work on your list, you lazy player!

68. Make A Twitter List

And add random people to it up to 100. It shouldn’t take more than 2 minutes. Use the public timeline, not yours. Then read their tweets one by one, up to 100. If your list feels like what you just read, that means you still have work to do: just make another list.

69. Read The Comments On Your Blog

No, you’re not going to get some miraculous idea by reading your blog comments, but at least you’re going to realize that some people genuinely care about you. Even if their comments are angry, they do care about you. There’s still hope. Keep on writing.

70. Try To Do 100 Pushups

If you’re a normal, average person, you may stop around 30 or 35. That will show you what your brains endures while you’re stressing it so much with your list. But if you do all 100 pushups, it means  you don’t really need to write a “100 ways to” list. You’re ok, chicks are going to dig you anyway.

71. Wear Sunglasses In Your Room For Half An Hour

Also wear some soft but solid clothes, just in case you’re going to hit some furniture. I guarantee you won’t have any significant breakthrough during this half an hour, but the second you’ll remove the sunglasses, everything will be enlightening. Seriously.

72. Call Your Ex

Tell him/her this is a matter of life and death and if he/she will help you just this time, you’re going to finally respect that restriction order. If he/she didn’t have the time to change phone number since your last “100 ways to” list, I guarantee this will work.

73. Call A Pizza Delivery Service

And tell them you’re on the roof, ready to jump, if you don’t get a free large pepperoni pizza in the next 30 minutes. This is what I call a win-win situation: you either get tons of brilliant ideas to go on with your life (pizza delivery boys are really good at that), either a free pizza.

74. Write 100 Different Names

That’s one of the simplest creativity exercises ever. Hint: you can go alphabetically and write a few names for each letter. Finishing such a list will somehow boost your confidence or at least make you believe that there really are “100 things” lists out there.

75. Train By Solving A Puzzle First

A 50 pieces puzzle will be enough for starters, but once you get good at it, start on 100 or 200 pieces. Seriously, writing a huge list post is very similar with solving a 100 pieces puzzle: you have the picture in your head, but it will take like forever to match all the pieces together.

76. Prepare A List Of Excuses

Like real life excuses for all the social events you’re going to miss and all the meetings you’ll never attend to, because you’re busy writing. Alternatively, you could start writing a “100 ways to excuse yourself when you’re late because you’re writing a ‘100 ways to’ list post” kind of list. Makes sense?

77. Think Lateral

If your list is going to have 100 items, you better make it THE list in that niche. So think outside of the box. Go lateral, go vertical or oblique if this is opening new perspectives on your topic. After all, you don’t want to make a silly list about how to write lists, right?

78. Solve A Problem With Your List

Your list must solve a real life problem, otherwise, no matter how well written is, how hilarious the description are or how good your SEO strategy is implemented, it will not live. It will not even take off. Solve a real problem. For instance, genuinely try to help people write huge lists.

79. Mix In Some Humor

Joking will always draw people in. Being funny and entertaining is a key element in making such a list popular. Even if your topic is serious, if you don’t mix some humor in, surprising your readers, the list will be dull and gloomy. Dull and gloomy does not sell. Humor sells.

80. Stop Asking Yourself: “Why 100?”

We don’t ask that. We take that for granted. For starters, 100 is a pretty cool number. Sounds round and unabridged. It exhales a sensation of purity and completeness. (See how I desperately try to concoct some reasons? That’s because there aren’t really any).

81. Meditate On It

If you practice meditation on a regular basis, this shouldn’t be difficult. If you don’t, try to empty your mind and focus only on the topic of the list. Don’t try to find answers or ideas, just focus on the topic. Breathe in, breathe out. And, by all means, try not to levitate, you have work to do!

82. Watch For Coincidences

This long writing process will span over a few days or weeks and I advise that during this time span you should be extremely aware of any coincidences occurring around. Follow them. You’ll be surprised to find out that there aren’t really any coincidences, there are only signs.

83. Think SEO

This is a very important step. Target your keywords and place them in the first third of your post. I don’t really know why the first third, but it seems to work. Now, can you count how many times I had “100 ways to” keywords in this post? Write the answer in the comments. ;-)

84. Get A New Haircut

You’re going to be a completely different person after you finish this list. Literally. So change your look too. Your friends will never buy it and secretly think you just broke up with your girlfriend. Make that the beginning of a wonderful new list: “100 secret thoughts generated by a new haircut”.

85. Drive Far Away From Home Until You Get Lost

When you’re sure you’re absolutely lost, get your GPS from the trunk and head back home. Now you know there are worse things out there than running out of ideas for your list. And don’t you dare starting a list about “100 ways to get lost”. Seriously, buddy, nobody wants to know that.

86. Fake A “100 Things” Shopping At The Supermarket

Go to the supermarket, pick 100 different things and put them in your trolley. You don’t have to really buy all 100 items, unless you really want to. This exercise is intended to make you understand you have virtually unlimited options, not to get you broke.

87. Try Guessing Names Of Totally Unknown People

Would that be a “Jane”? Hmm, nope, maybe “Angela”, looks more like an “Angela”. Never try to verify your assumptions, or prepare for this answer: “Get a life! I’m doing an exercise to write a “100 ways to” list?, that’s the worst pick up line I ever heard!”.

88. Clean Up Your Garage

Or, if you don’t have a garage, clean up your room. Or at least the shelves in your office. Shovel those receipts, old files, photos, notes, post-its and wrecked pens. Feels so much better than writing stupid items on a “100 ways to” list, isn’t it? Again, that’s another win-win: if not a huge list, at least a clean house.

89. Send An Email To Some Random Customer Service

Chose whatever business you like and then send an email to their customer service, asking for advice on how to write  a “100 ways to” list post. Most of the answers will be automated, but once you get pass this, you’ll have the time of your life. I’m telling you. :-)

90. Don’t Stop At Number 90

In my experience, number 90 is the most dangerous number to reach when you’re writing such a list. It’s only 10 items away from finish and the mirage of actually getting this done can easily get you off the track. Write something fast at your number 90 and then move on.

91. Walk 100 Steps On A Crowded Street

And I mean count those 100 steps. If you made it without restarting the counting, be assured you’re going to make that list too. Now try it again on a large public square, making a perfect circle, step 100 overlapping step 1. Now you should stop walking in circles and start writing.

92. Send Yourself 100 Emails

Containing the same question: “did you finished item number x?”. After each finished item on your list, delete one of the emails. If you really send yourself 100 emails, I bet you won’t face any difficulty at all in writing your list. It’s hard to send 100 emails to yourself… ;-)

93. Name 100 Things You See From Your Window

Another unblocking exercise and a pretty effective one. No need to go up to 100 if you feel you’re pass the block. But it would be a pretty interesting task in any context. It will enlarge your perception and enhance your observation sense.

94. Blend Your Senses

Close your eyes, imagine a fruit and then try to feel its taste. Alternatively, put some music and imagine how each musical instrument will feel in your hand. It’s amazing how effective this is in fostering new ideas or perspectives.

95. Read Motivational/Inspirational Quotes

You have all this wisdom available, floating around, so why don’t just use it? If you don’t have your own quotes repository on file, do a Google search. Reading quotes is like having a sparring partner for your mind.

96. Work It Live

Like not in an offline editor, edit it in your wordpress dashboard and watch the preview every time you add a new item. I find it very motivating to watch the list growing and looking exactly as is going to be.

97. Be Proud Of It

The more you write, the closer you are to finish a great piece of work. Be proud of it. Even if it’s a simple “100 ways to” grow apples in your backyard, it will be useful for somebody. And you’re doing it right now. It’s not the regular blog post you do every day. It’s a huge list.

98. See The Items Like Chapters Of A Bigger Book

Be prepared to detail on all the items on your list. So make it consistent, ready to be developed into something bigger. I did it twice with my previous ones: 100 Ways To Improve Your Life and 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life. Both lists grew into fully fledged books, available now on Amazon.com.

99. Anticipate The Celebration

The closer you get to the finish, the closer the final gala will be. Anticipate the reward. This time it’s not about the bribe, incentive or motivation. You’re almost done. You’re one tip away. You did it. Step back, take a deep breath and write the last one. And then go out to celebrate.

100. Don’t Give Up

Writing such a huge list is a very important challenge. It cannot be done in only one move, it takes persistence and dedication. But the benefits are huge. And I mean it. So, if you ever planned to start one, don’t stop until you actually publish it. In a few days, or in a few weeks. Just finish it.

100 Ways To Improve Your Life

Based on one of my most popoular posts, this ebook adds more than 60% fresh content to it. A book to read and smile after.

  alt=”Buy Now”/>
for only 9.99 USD.

100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life

The mirrored edition of the book above. If you hang around mostly on the dark side, this book is for you.

Buy Now

for only 9.99 USD.

January 29th, 2010

Pulltabs, MacGyver and the Road to Self-Improvement

This is a guest post from Colin Wright from ExileLifestyle.com (you can find him on Twitter under @colinismyname).

Hungry

I’m eyeballing the corkscrew at the other end of the counter. It could work. It HAS to work. Otherwise I’ll never be able to eat this damn pasta.

I’m standing in the kitchen, exhausted after 15 minutes of trying to open a stubborn bottle of olive oil, but to no avail. The cap is a complicated device, requiring the leverage provided by a frail pulltab to open, a pulltab that I immediately broke and have since been cursing in many creative ways.

There’s a steaming heap of pasta in a pot in front of me, freshly drained and quickly cooling off, waiting for me and my olive oil to whip up a quick pesto sauce so that I can mix it all together and enjoy a delicious lunch.

So close, but so far.

Minimal MacGyver

One of the issues I run into being a minimalist who travels frequently is that sometimes I simply don’t have the right materials at hand when I need them. In this case, a pair of pliers would be great, as they would allow me to grab the nubbin of pulltab left partway down the neck of the bottle and pull the stopper out of the bottle (as the creators intended).

But that’s not an option, and I’ve got to think creatively, on my feet 100% of the time. I need to be a MacGyver of the kitchen, of the road, of the mobile business world, and of any other sphere that I step into.

It’s frustrating and invigorating and occasionally embarrassing.

My plan is this: use the corkscrew to jab the offending portion of plastic, knocking it down into the bottle of oil and freeing up the neck so that the contents can flow freely.

The mechanics seem sound, so I latch the corkscrew to the top of the bottle and begin to twist the knob. The metal spiral shoots downward from the contraption, stopping briefly as it plows into the plastic stopper, and then slowly shoves it downward until, “PLOP!” it clears the neck and falls into the oil.

The Thrill of Success/Failure

This is just a small victory, but it’s one of a thousand that I’ve had since I sold almost everything I owned and started traveling 4 months ago. I’ve learned so much from every victory, and even more from each of the thousand failures that I’ve had when things haven’t gone exactly as planned.

By putting myself in uncomfortable situations, I’m slowly improving myself, making myself a better person and one more capable of dealing with big, bad situations when they arise.

It would not be the end of the world to have to eat my pasta without pesto sauce, but being put in a position where all of my needs are not immediately met – where pulltabs break and a hundred different kitchen utensils are not immediately available to remedy the situation – I’m forced to think creatively, quickly adapt to novelty and find as much satisfaction in the journey toward the solution as in the solution itself (otherwise it would be quite easy to get depressed very quickly).

On the Road

The road to self-improvement is not a straight shot, nor is it always even a road. Sometimes you have to climb mountains, tunnel under forests or build rafts to cross oceans.

So long as you learn from each and every external trial and personal ordeal however, you need not ever reach the end destination; you’ll be a better person for the experiences you go through on the way there, and that’s why the road exists in the first place.

About the author: Colin Wright is an entrepreneur who runs his branding studio from a new country every 4 months. You can read his thoughts about lifestyle design, entrepreneurship, minimalism and travel at Exile Lifestyle.

100 Ways To Improve Your Life

Based on one of my most popoular posts, this ebook adds more than 60% fresh content to it. A book to read and smile after.

  alt=”Buy Now”/>
for only 9.99 USD.

100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life

The mirrored edition of the book above. If you hang around mostly on the dark side, this book is for you.

Buy Now

for only 9.99 USD.

January 29th, 2010

Brand Your Captcha – Introducing AdCaptcher

Every once in a while I stumble upon some interesting online project. Being for so long in this market as an entrepreneur certainly makes it easier. One of the most interesting projects I saw in the last few months is called AdCaptcher. And, if you’re a regular commenter on this blog you may already used it. ;-)

Brand Your Captcha?

If you tried to post a comment on my form you saw that captcha you had to fill in before the comment gets approved. So far, nothing spectacular, a lot of blogs are using captcha on the comment forms to avoid spam. What’s different here is that if I use AdCaptcher, I can control my own captcha text. Exactly. The words used by me were: ’a better life’, and I’m sure you wondered how can a simple captcha serve a piece of text so in sync with the blog theme. Well, it wasn’t by hazard, that I can tell you. A bit confused? Ok, let’s take it step by step.

Here’s how AdCaptcher works in just a few simple sentences.

If you have a blog, you go register at AdCaptcher (this is an invite link, it will expire after 200 logins, so you’d better hurry). Once you have an account, you can submit your site. After you submit your site, you can add an image. That image would be the one used for captcha. The text in that image would be the text your users have to fill in order to be validated. Don’t worry, the admin interface is pretty simple.

After you set up your blog and you add your image, you can start a campaign. Your freshly created captcha will start to be displayed on other blogs and that would be what AdCaptcher call a campaign. You can buy more impressions or just use a standard exchange rate. There’s more to be explained about campaigns, but to be honest, this is not the best place for that, you’d better go there and see for yourself. Everything is neatly put into packages and suitable sized for your blog traffic (packages are based on a number of impressions).

After you set up your blog, your image and your campaign, you gotta download a little wordpress plugin to make it all work. There is a link at the AdCaptcher site for it. This plugin will make the connection between your setup at the AdCaptcher servers and your comment form in your blog. Once you activate the plugin, ta-daaa: you have a tiny little captcha just above the comment text area.

Advantages

First of all, it’s the spam control. I learned a little bit about the technology used by AdCaptcher and I can tell you it’s pretty solid. I won’t go into detail because, usually, you don’t make spam fighting technologies public. There’s a pretty solid reason for that: a spammer may read and learn.

Second, you get to brand your captcha with your own text, helping your users having a better experience. I remember that at least 2 of my commenters were positively impressed by the words I choose for my captcha and believe me, I consider this to be a pretty positive outcome of this little piece of technology.

Third, you promote your blog by having your captchas delivered on other blogs and that’s a pretty interesting advantage. If you run a blog you know how difficult is to attract new readers. And having your own captcha inserted in the hottest point of a blog, the commenter form, could be an incentive for them to click and see what’s all about.

AdCaptcher is still in private beta but it’s working. I used for a few weeks on my blog and it didn’t made any major blunders. Of course, there’s a lot of work to be done, but I think it’s a pretty interesting concept. If only because nobody thought so far to build such a complex application just in order to brand a captcha.

As for my affiliation with AdCaptcher, there isn’t any. I’m not affiliated with them in any ways, I just think this is a pretty cool idea.

So, if you want to try it for yourself, just click on this link to get an invite. Remember, it will expire after 200 uses, so you’d better be fast.

100 Ways To Improve Your Life

Based on one of my most popoular posts, this ebook adds more than 60% fresh content to it. A book to read and smile after.

  alt=”Buy Now”/>
for only 9.99 USD.

100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life

The mirrored edition of the book above. If you hang around mostly on the dark side, this book is for you.

Buy Now

for only 9.99 USD.

January 29th, 2010

Are You The Best Version Of Yourself?

As a converted geek I’m always keen on keeping my digital tools updated. You know the drill: backups and upgrades, cleaning up unneeded files and keep it slim. I’m almost always up to date and thoroughly enjoy it. Oh, the secret bliss of running the latest version of my operating system! The subtle satisfaction of watching how smoothly my laptop makes its apps literally flying over the carefully chosen desktop background image!

Alas, that’s not always the case with my real self. Unfortunately, my mental operating system is more  than often obsolete. I sometimes feel like I lack some crucial features or don’t know how to handle specific events. In some specific cases, this unstable behavior goes for years. I run into the same patterns, like hitting the same keyboard combination, and always get the same result: a frozen screen, for instance. Or, if it’s a major crisis, even a “blue screen of death”, followed by a brutal reboot.

I’m sure you’ve been there too. We all did. This happens because we’re not updated to our latest version of ourselves. We didn’t upgrade. We’re still running an old and clumsy command line interface, we can’t address more physical memory to incorporate new experiences and we really don’t know how to handle new devices in our life, because we’re missing some important drivers.

Joke aside, our behavior as human beings can be comfortably described as an operating system metaphor. Introducing the converted geek 5 steps guide to upgrade to your best version of yourself:

1. Balance Your Core Features

Any operating system has a set of core features. Any human being has a unique set of qualities. Be sure to keep a close balance between all parts. An equilibrium in motion. Too much of something will make the rest seem unfit. An imbalanced structure of qualities will make your mental operating system crash without warning on the weak spots.

For example, some operating systems are better at networking, but they really suck at graphics. Some other are good at office productivity but they lack a proper driver integration and so on. What makes your presence so valuable is not personal excellence on a single topic, but rather a stable load under high pressure. A well balanced mix of qualities.

2. Defrag Your Mind

We have a virtually unlimited capacity of information storage. What makes us feel like we don’t is the narrow channel used to access it. Our conscious mind can process only 5-7 stimuli form the environment, but the unconscious mind is capable of much more. It’s like a having huge, actually infinite, hard-drive but a very slow access protocol to it.

Until we will be able to broaden this channel, we can try to improve some other parts. We can take care of our mental clutter by defragmenting it every now and then. GTD addicted will call this mental defragmentation “emptying the mind” while other people may simply call it meditation. While even others call it: “keep my things in good order”.

Read more about how to defrag your mind in 5 easy steps.

3. Update Your Drivers

Every now and then we attach some new piece of hardware to our computers. Like a printer or a nice camera. But this new equipment will not function unless there is a driver, a way to communicate with the computer operating system. This is exactly what happens when we incorporate something new in our lives: from a new car to a new relationship or job.

Unless we will strive to update our drivers to really understand how to talk with those new entities, we will not function properly. We may look like we have a printer (or a wife, or a luxury car) attached, but it will not really work until we build a new communication protocol to it. We can’t expect to have something new in our lives without changing ourselves to fully integrate it.

4. Stay Virus Free

If you expose your operating system to untrusted sources, you may experience a very bad situation called “virus”. These things are basically independent entities which are taking control over your system and make it their own toy. For fun or for profit. The same thing can happen to your mind. More often than you think, your mind is actually controlled by somebody else.

Staying virus free is much more difficult for your mental operating system than for your computer operating system. Especially the cleaning action is quite tedious. Sometimes, your mind will remain partially infected for ever. So, the best way to avoid a mental virus infection is prevention: trust your own mind, make your own judgment and take everything with a little bit of salt.

5. Enjoy An Unexpected Shutdown Every Now And Then

No operating system is perfect. There are (and there will always be) minor memory leaks, open loops and untested functions which will, in time, make your computer unstable. This is why is recommended to push the shutdown button every now and then, the same way you take an unexpected 15 minutes nap with the head on the desktop, when your boss is known to be in his lunch break.

At a higher level, this translates in a more relaxed way to look at the world. Keeping yourself too focused can sometimes do more harm and good. Too much tension will eventually break something around you, if not you. Cease to believe you are in control and give your powers away every once in a while. Trust that everything will be good in the end. If it’s not ok, then it is not the end.

The Undocumented Feature

Every geek knows that all operating systems have some deeply hidden treasures, also known as undocumented features. Sometimes those features are just simple Easter Eggs, plain and useless pieces of information, only hidden. But sometimes, those undocumented features are really valuable tools, precious improvements which are giving you more time and computing power.

In  your mental operation system, those undocumented features are in fact your personal power. Your hidden, undercover potential waiting to be unleashed. Those features are secret weapons you can use to do things nobody think you can do. It’s your identity. Your uniqueness, your singularity, your own personal gift to the world.

Nobody really knows what your undocumented feature is, except you. You are the carrier of this fantastic energy, of this unique feature which made you so necessary and needed that the world couldn’t properly function without you. That’s right, you’re here for a reason. The world called for you and you have to deliver. You really have to.

So, you’d better pull yourself together and, for starters, go find a mirror and ask this to yourself: am I really running the best version of myself? Really, really?

Translations of this post: Spanish.

100 Ways To Improve Your Life

Based on one of my most popoular posts, this ebook adds more than 60% fresh content to it. A book to read and smile after.

  alt=”Buy Now”/>
for only 9.99 USD.

100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life

The mirrored edition of the book above. If you hang around mostly on the dark side, this book is for you.

Buy Now

for only 9.99 USD.

January 29th, 2010

Don’t Spend Your Money Buying Friends

This is a guest post from Zoli Cerei from SimplyWillDo.com.

The recession or, speaking a bit more generally, a lack of money shouldn’t cut down on your social life. We have to be aware of the correlation between our financial and social status, and have to learn to separate these. This coin has two sides: those who are financially strong enough may end up “buying” friends and later feeling insecure about them and question themselves whether they can count on these people, or not. The opposite is when those financially unstable don’t have the confidence to build a social circle because they fear uncomfortable situations caused by money.

A modern day manifestation of this issue is the exchange of internet friend for money. You might have also faced this, it is basically just another kind of advertising: this time what you pay for are Facebook friends or Twitter followers. Were these sites meant for that to happen really?

Friends, Money and Giving Value In Real Life

Be respectable by respecting others. Everyone shares human values of high standards, and if you want to observe this just a little, you will. Once you start respecting these values, others will appreciate the gesture, and respect you in return. Respect doesn’t have to be material, an honest compliment, a helpful movement but even powerful constructive criticism can mean a lot to the other one.

Be friendly, because that’s the best way to actually make… friends. Too many people fear kindness. Kindness is in a way revealing yourself to someone else, showing something from the inside of you. Too many people fear responsibility, since when you’re taking responsibility for something, then you become accountable for that thing. Too many people fear saying their opinion out loud: if your opinion is no longer concealed, you may too be criticized. Friendships involve all of these: being friendly means being nice and kind to your friend. It also means taking responsibility for them and for you as well. It means undertaking your opinion, and saying it honestly even if it is negative at times. Too many people fear being friendly, because it is not always easy, no one said it is. But it’s obviously the best way to make friends.

Be a loyal friend in happiness and in sorrow, too. I observed that, contrary to the saying, a friend in need and sorrow isn’t always a friend indeed. Rather, a friend in joy is. While being next to someone when he is going through hard times you might even comfort yourself observing that you are actually in a better situation. However, when your friend has just accomplished one of their dreams, it is usually harder to honestly be happy about the situation.

Realize you can’t be friends with everyone. While you can buy everyone a beer at the party, and that might make everyone feel good, you can’t actually be friends with everyone. There are people who you don’t name as your best friend; however, you would like them to call you their best friend. Is that fair? Being best friends is mutual.

The depth of online friendships, or buying Twitter followers

Provide Great Content. This is the first step to any relationship, and not just online. You provide something that others like and that they would like to receive more often. In the online world, that’s the moment when they hit the “Follow” or the “Subscribe” button. Whatever you’re doing on the internet, keep an eye on providing something useful to the online society, and others will notice you.

Make Your Voice Heard. Engage with others. Replying to tweets and leaving comments can be at times as useful as it is to buy an advertising spot, and it costs nothing. Today, the web is “social”, and as I said, being social is by far not equal to being rich. Show you’re a human, not just a bank account. Engage.

Be honest. Don’t call everyone your friend after the click of a button. That’s something that really annoys me in the case of social networks: relationships are instantly branded as friendships. Making friends online is possible; however, just as it is in real life, it is a process. A relationship goes through several phases until it can be called a friendship, just like you don’t go to bed on a first date. If you have not yet gone through this process with someone, don’t call them a friend yet.

Conclusion

Money is a powerful tool in our lives and using it wisely is an unquestionable power of any man or woman. Money can buy you medicine, it cannot buy your health. It can buy you sex, but not love. It can buy company but not friends. Showing human values and respecting your fellows, however, will surely turn into great experiences.

About the author: Zoli Cserei is a very young simplicity and productivity blogger and an ever-curious hacker of life who writes for Simply Will Do. Check out his blog to see whether he has some useful stuff for you or maybe subscribe to his RSS feed for more.

100 Ways To Improve Your Life

Based on one of my most popoular posts, this ebook adds more than 60% fresh content to it. A book to read and smile after.

  alt=”Buy Now”/>
for only 9.99 USD.

100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life

The mirrored edition of the book above. If you hang around mostly on the dark side, this book is for you.

Buy Now

for only 9.99 USD.

January 29th, 2010

14 Ways To Say Yes

Mastering the art of saying “No” is compulsory in many cases. We do have to learn how to say it without offending the other person and still getting what we want. Appropriately saying “No” can really save our butt from a tricky situation and that’s why mastering our “No”’s is so important.

And still, the real power lies not in saying “No”, but in saying “Yes”. If mastering the “No”’s will activate an invisible safety belt, a good, plain and timely “Yes” will push us higher than we think we can. If “No” is the savior, “Yes” is the creator. “No” is defensive, “Yes” is empowering.

Let’s play a little with the art of saying “Yes”.

1. I Do!

If you ever asked somebody to marry you, than you know what I mean: “I do” is a very interesting form of total submission and commitment. You say “I do” with almost your last breathe, still thinking the other person would never ask. You are almost shouting, raising your voice in an effort of being heard and accepted. Can you hear me? I’m here! I do!

2. Let’s Do It!

The practical approach of starting stuff together. You use “Let’s do it” when you’re eager to start, have almost everything it takes, the only extra piece being saying it out loud so the other part can hear it. “Let’s do it” is the ultimate involvement answer, it’s so enabling that it barely qualify for a plain “Yes”, it’s more of an informal affiliation statement:.

3. What Are We Waiting For?

The standard “Yes” of the impatient (and maybe of the compulsive one, but I’m not quite sure about that). This answer literally bury the question and move the focus on the physical action. If you get this type of “Yes” it means the question was superfluous. Instead, you should just move on and start doing things.

4. Hell, Yes

Enthusiastic and passionate, this answer always reminds me of a long dusty road in the desert and a nice bike under the rider. It’s the ultimate expression of freedom, of leaving behind the old version of you and starting over. Every time I hear this answer, I know something fundamentally new will happen.

5. I’m In It

Business-like expression of a partnership. This “Yes” is wearing a suit and it’s quite disciplined. If your question involves some long term plan, receiving this “Yes” could be a very good sign. It shows commitment and strictness. The tricky part is that the other person is looking forward for the same things in you, so be careful.

6. I Was Born For It

“I’m waiting for this question since I was born, dude. Of course, it’s yes. How can it be the other way around?“ This ”Yes“ is always making me smile. Makes me actually visualize the whole process: well, I think I would like to be born for…. that thing! Can we do it? Please? Wow, great, now let’s find some guys to spread the word about it.

7. Of Course

Chilling and kinda polite. This ”Yes“ goes well with a cup of the and some biscuits. Maybe a little break in the afternoon, around five o’clock, but let’s not push it. Whenever I hear this ”Yes“ I’m also prepared to hear a ”but“. I think this ”Yes“ is the most ”but“-prone from all. Nevertheless, hearing it makes me feel like I’m having some very important negotiation.

8. My Thoughts Exactly

Confirming and validating, this ”Yes“ is almost a confession. It’s so powerful that I’m sometimes afraid I actually penetrated into the other guy’s mind. I mean, are those really his thoughts? Wow. Whenever I use it, I do it because I really trust the other person or I try to build a more intimate connection. Which is always happening after this type of ”Yes“.

9. Are We There Yet?

And that would be actually the “Yes” of the compulsive. I admit I get the shivers when I hear it, although I do know it’s funny. But the confirmation level is so high and the triggered energy seems so available, that I’m almost feeling guilty for not going “there” yet. I also think this is the more validating “Yes” from all.

10. You’ll Lead, I’ll Follow

Any “Yes” expressed in this form will show total trust and confidence from the other part. When it does not show a fine sense of irony too, of course. It’s the most uncertain “Yes” from all. If I hear this, I know that although I’m getting followed, I somehow keep all the responsibility. This “Yes” comes with a little bit of extra caution.

11. Aye, Aye, Sir!

Military-like acceptance. You can’t mistake this one as a disguised “No”, in my opinion. I almost always respond to this “Yes” with a relieving “Dismissed!”, just for the fun of it. And every time I hear it, I’m compelled to continue the discussion in short but strong sentences, also know as orders. The nice thins with orders is that you expect them to be followed, most of the time.

12. Undoubtedly

In case you’re having any doubt, I mean. If you’re hearing this, you’re taking off the veil from a possibly foggy situation and acknowledge total confidence. This “Yes” is coming with the sound of a hammer hitting a nail right in the head. If you know what I mean. I think this “Yes” is the most relieving of all.

13. Always!

You know I do, why are you still asking? It’s also a form of past, present and future commitment. If you hear this, your next question may not be necessary at all. This “Yes” is more than often the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

14. Totally!

Unreserved immersion and acceptance. That “yes” is my favorite, but if you ask me why, I’m not sure I know the answer. Maybe because I am that kind of guy: if I’m in it for something, I simply don’t know the meaning of half, I do it all the way up to the end.

***

What’s your preferred way to say “Yes”? Doesn’t necessarily have to be from the list above, surprise me :-) . When do you say it? To whom do you say it? Leave a comment and let me know, I’m really curious.

And if you wonder why I chose exactly 14 ways to say “Yes”, well, it’s because I think for every “No” in our lives we should be able to come up with at least two “Yes”. :-)

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January 29th, 2010

The 7 Traits Of Highly Successful Bloggers

What makes a blogger successful? What are the common traits of highly effective bloggers? If you’ve even remotely tried to launch your own blog, that question surely popped into your head at some point. And I bet it was rather sooner than later.

I have more than a year of blogging as a pro. And before starting to blog for a living I was an avid consumer of other blogs. I think I have in my RSS reader feeds I read for more than 5 years now. Gradually, I developed my own set of blog appreciation rules. And of course, if you’ve carefully read the title of this post, those rules are no more than 7. In today’s article I’ll write about what I think is the recipe for being a successful blogger.

1. Authority

This is what makes a blogger believable.

Authority creates trust. And trust makes you spend your precious time on that specific blog instead of doing something else. Because you know it’s worth doing it. You know you’re in for something. You’ve been there before and you weren’t disappointed. Your expectations were met again and again.

Have you ever wondered what makes you click on the links in a popular blog? What makes you follow that advice or buy that product? What makes a blogger believable?  It’s not his identity, nor his persistence, although both are part of the success mix, but his authority. You believe a blogger because you trust him.

Without authority a blog will be floating. It may jump every now and then if it touches some hot topics but if it doesn’t build a significant level of authority, it will drift away, at the mercy of fashion.

I think one of the most respected blogs in the marketing niche, for instance, is Seth Godin’s blog. Seth’s authority was previously built by his books but it somehow spread over his blog. The person vouches for the blog in this case.

2. Authenticity

This is what makes a blogger accepted.

Being honest. Being human. Being able to make mistakes and accept them publicly. Blogging is such a fantastic media revolution not because it created a super hero, like cinema, but because it made the normal, average, human guy able to openly express his intentions, dreams, challenges. And made those opinions instantly available.

Authority without authenticity won’t build a successful blog. It may create a solid corporation, but not a sustainable blog. With any interaction, people are unconsciously trying to find themselves in the other guy. It’s a human need, called validation, we all need that. If, as a blogger, you don’t reach out openly, without being afraid, you’re in the wrong business.

One of the most famous examples of  authenticity is, at least for me, Steve Pavlina’s blog. If you read it just for a few minutes you couldn’t but notice that vibe of authenticity which makes Steve so popular even when he’s allegedly “deluding” in some of the not-so-mainstream explorations like polyamory or, recently, BDSM or alike.

3. Accessibility

This is what makes a blogger palatable.

Accessibility makes a blog available, ready to be consumed. It’s the way you write, the way you wrap up your message, the package by which you deliver your goods. If you want to be popular as a blogger, keep in mind that your audience is extremely diverse. It takes much more work than you think to write in an accessible way.

This quality is often overlooked in almost all bloggers rankings I saw. Usually, authority and authenticity are the main criteria, but there’s no point in being an authority if you can’t deliver a readable, straightforward message to your readers. Regardless of your expertise, a clear, accessible blog will always increase your chances to a broader audience.

The most brilliant example of an accessible blog is Brian Clark’s Copyblogger.com. It amazes me how Brian writes in such an easy to understand way about really complicated topics, like the art of persuasion. Copyblogger.com is popular because it provides easy to understand access to incredibly complicated issues, not the other way around.

4. Persistence

This is what makes a blogger wanted.

Persistence creates demand. Showing up constantly and doing what you have to do will build a sense of expectation among your readers. They will know you’re there for them. They will wait for you, call for you or ask things from you. Constantly broadcasting your message will create a certain frequency in your readers minds. They will just tune in.

Now, try to imagine a blog with only one article per month. How would this feel to you? Like a joke, I know. Or imagine a series of 5-6 fantastic articles in a week and then several months of silence. No way. Being there is fundamental, can’t be avoided or faked. They say showing up is 80% of success. I doubt it will be exactly 80% but it’s without a doubt compulsory to show up persistently in order to build a successful blog.

Few people know that several years ago, when he started Problogger.net, one of the most visited blogs on the planet, Darren Rowse only wanted an increase of 10% in traffic from month to month. That tells a lot about how far he was ready to go with it. Problogger.net may not be the most spectacular blog on this planet, but it surely is one of the most constant, reliable and respected. And the persistence of the author plays a big role in that.

5. Connectivity

This is what makes a blogger available.

Connectivity creates links. All kind of links, from plain HTML, PR-juice enabled links, up to human contacts. One of the fundamental characteristics of a successful blogger is his ability to be broadcast as far as possible. And here’s where connectivity plays a fundamental part. All A-listers are virals, without exception.

Have you ever wondered how many interactions a successful bloggers has in a normal day? My wild guess is that this number is at least 10 times higher than the average. Just imagine reading dozens of comments (and perhaps responding each of them), interacting on Twitter, or Facebook or Digg. You can’t really do that if you’re socially impaired.

One of the bloggers who could always be studied in schools for that is, in my opinion, Chris Brogan. I’ve been following closely his work in the last few years and his growth was literally explosive. I think he directly interacts with more than 500 persons each day. Guess what? Those persons are also the broadcasters for his message. How many persons are broadcasters for your message?

6. Creativity

This is what makes a blogger valuable.

Creativity triggers admiration. We admire a blogger not because of his authority or authenticity, but because of what he brings new and beautiful in this world. For his capacity to innovate, to re-create his environment, to embellish and refine. Many successful bloggers actually created their niche from the scratch, they built something out of nothing.

This ability to re-organize the Universe in a new form, to create value and to touch others is by far my favorite trait from all 7. Without this ability a blogger would offer no more than a Wikipedia entry, valuable advice but flat, with no human touch, no improvement, no spark.

My favorite creative blogger right now is Gary Vaynerchuk. For a guy who makes a living by drinking wine (joking, of course) he’s unbelievably creative: he re-invented  video blogging and he wrote a book not about Chardonnay, but about how to follow your passion! That’s creativity, that’s building something where there was nothing before.

7. Identity

This is what makes a blogger recognizable.

I chose the word identity because “personal branding” would have been a little bit too precious. But personal branding is what I meant by it. Identity is what makes you unique. It’s that centimeter you own in your readers’ cortex, the same way you could own some real estate. It’s the exact connection they make between a certain niche and your name as a blogger.

Did you observed how many times we actually use the name of a successful blogger to identify a niche? In blogging, the capacity to build a unique, easily recognizable identity (or brand, for what matters) is the difference between two identical copies of a newspaper. You may talk about the same things, have the same level of authority and the same creativity as other bloggers, but what makes you different is your brand. Your personal brand.

For instance, Leo Babauta identity would be tied up in my brain with the following concept: “minimalist productivity”. Whenever this concept pops out in a conversation, the first person I think about is Leo Babauta, creator of ZenHabits.net. That’s his identity. His brand. I’m sure there are a lot of other bloggers writing about minimalism, but their identity may not be as strongest as his.

***

Of course, all the aforementioned bloggers are sharing all the 7 traits, I just had to chose which one was the most representative for each.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you have any examples of successful bloggers where you can identify one, two or all of these traits? Do you, as a blogger, have all of them? Would love to hear your comments.

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January 29th, 2010

The Simple Motivational Guide to Take Action

This is a guest post from Oscar Del Ben, an up and coming personal development blogger. In this post he’s going to give us a simple motivational guide to take action. Enjoy!

So you’ve figured out what you want to do, you’ve seen other succeed before and you want do the same.

Now you need to take action, but you probably also need to gain some motivation first.

Let’s be honest, without doing something, you’ll hardly get what you want in life. The feeling of stuck that you experience when you are starting out is normal, and every successful people has come through it in the beginning.

Fortunately, once you learn how to deal with that feeling, things will start to get done, and the results will come. It’s like moving a giant ball, it’s hard in the beginning, but it gets easier and easier as you get going.

So are you ready to learn how to be motivated and start to get things done?
Here’s how to do it.

  1. Make a plan. Start from where you are now, and write down the steps you’ll need to take to reach your dream. Don’t worry about creating the perfect plan, you’ll adjust it along the way. Some people prefer to do this step the other way around, by starting at the end and moving backwards until where they are now, that’s fine too. If you have trouble thinking at what should be your next step, write down the thing that you think would be more likely to push you closer to your goal.
  2. Reinforce your thoughts. Repeating motivational quotes is a powerful tool to develop your do habit. I usually repeat a few phrases in the morning, or when I get stuck. I’ve found that once you find a quote that makes sense to you, it’s hard to not move accordingly. Some of my preferred ones are: If you try, then there’s a change it might work. If you don’t, then it’s guaranteed it won’t work - We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.- Am I inventing things to avoid the important?
  3. Commit publicly. An easy way to get a boost of motivation is to commit your goals publicly. For example when I started my pushups challenge I knew it was going to be hard for me, so I announced it on my blog. When you show people that you do what you say no matter what happens, you’ll gain respect and trust. You can either commit on your blog, or with your family and friends.
  4. Just get started. Don’t focus on the whole task from the beginning. Take the first step and motivation will come. Leo teaches us this concept very well. I’ve learned from him that when I have to go out for a morning run, I just have to put my running shoes and get outside of the door, by that time I’ll be already highly motivated to do the rest. This is true for virtually every other task or activity, as it’s easier for your brain to focus on a little thing and then get going.
  5. Adjust along the way. It has been said that the best way to learn something is by doing it, and it’s true. No matter how hard you worked in your initial plan, unexpected events will happen, and you’ll have to adjust your plan accordingly. You’d be surprised by how many businesses start with an initial idea and then make a fortune in a very different area.
  6. Do less. Don’t get trapped by working too much. The goal is to eventually do less. You have already heard of the 80/20 rule, now it’s time to apply it to your business. Get rid of unimportant tasks and focus on what truly matters. Remember that doing something unimportant well does not make it important, and being busy is a form of laziness. Learn from your experiences and do more of what provides the greatest results.

Sometimes it’s easy to procrastinate and forget that doing stuff is what truly matters. Don’t let that happen to you. Start today working on your dreams, you only need to take one step at a time.

Life reserves awesome things for those who are willing to create something, so create.

Author bio: Oscar Del Ben writes about Personal Development, Productivity and Life at FreestyleMind.com.
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January 29th, 2010

Rant Tolerance

I’m going to yell at you. Like right now. And I mean it.

What the hell are you doing here, reading a blog post? Don’t you have things to do? Like a life, for instance? This is what you learned in school? This how you want to build a career? Your future? Wasting time all day reading blogs?

How did you feel about it? Did you tried to respond? To prove me wrong? Did you instinctively tried to find an excuse for reading my blog? Your reaction to those kind of situations will shape what I call your rant tolerance. I don’t think you’ve heard before about rant tolerance, but believe me, it’s something you have. And something that you really should learn how to control.

But first of all, let’s all be clear about what I understand by rant in the context of this article. A rant is a flow of aggressive communication directed to you with or without a visible reason. A violent critique. And rant tolerance would be your capacity to creatively face this vigorous flow.

Rant Phases

Every time you’re yelled at without a clear reason, every time you’re accused of something you did or not,  you enter a specific sequence. Some people will skip some steps while others will do all of them, but in my experience, this is the most common approach. Unless what you do for a living is negotiation, I think you’re pretty much in this average.

Rant Phase One

I didn’t do anything to that guy, what the hell he wants from me?

You start by thinking the rant must have some kind of reason or motivation. First thing is to assume the other guy is right, so you start thinking what exactly you did in order to create such a reaction. Nothing, of course. But you still stay in this realm and try to understand what generated the rant.

This stage is the most consuming. Usually, because we have this mindset of being capable to hurt other people without intent. Maybe we did this unintentionally. Maybe we just made a mistake. Let’s make things even. Of course, you can’t make things even, because you didn’t do anything in the first place. Or at least, this is what you think.

Rant Phase Two

Ok, I don’t understand what he want from me, but I will respond in kind, just to keep a balance.

This second phase is the most common approach to rants and many people start directly in this stage, without passing the first one. You yelled at me? Now I will yell at you.  I will really show you what yelling means, if we’re going to do this.

This approach is rooted in a very common belief that a rant is something you must get even at. If somebody talked bad about you, without even trying to understand what he’s talking about, you will teach him a lesson. Being yelled at is an insult and it must be punished.

Rant Phase Three

Well, since I already spent so much energy in it, better see what exactly I can lean from this situation.

The third stage involves an assessment. After you showed the other guy who’s the boss, you start analyzing. What was all about? Who is the guy who yelled at you? Was he right? And if yes, why? What is to be learned from this? You finally start to assess the whole situation.

This stage is the one in which you accept that rant is a choice. Of course, if you followed all the steps until this level, it’s a bit too late to realize that, since you already had your fight. This stage is usually the one you say to yourself: “next time I won’t go into this anymore. I’ll be just cool”.

Now, the best phase to enter a rant is without doubt the third one. Even without trying to understand what you did to start it. Because there’s a good chance you didn’t do much. Sometimes people are accusing you just to borrow your visibility. Sometimes they just feel secure if they’re able to pick on a fight with big guys, regardless of who’s right.

My Personal Story

Being quite a visible blogger, and before that, being one of the most active online entrepreneurs in Romania, I had my share of rants. Most of the time, they didn’t have any reason whatsoever. Just the fact that I was visible was enough for other people to pick up a fight, to show off the fact that they were having conversations with me. Of course, I was not the only one in this position, every successful and active entrepreneur had the same treatment. Borrowing visibility seemed to be the main reason for those rants.

Needles to say that I followed exactly the phases described above, time and again, until I finally got tired. I first started to wonder how exactly I hurt that guy, and then got into a fight and then settled and tried to learn something from it. And then started over again.At some point I discovered that I have something called rant tolerance.

This rant tolerance is the measure of your reaction when you’re attacked (with or without reason). If somebody calls you an idiot, for instance, and you respond in kind the very next second, your rant tolerance would be really low. You wouldn’t stand being yelled at.

But if somebody calls you an idiot and not only you don’t respond in kind, but you enter directly in the stage 3, trying to see what you have to learn from it, your rant tolerance is pretty high. You’re quite in control of it.

Took me a lot of time to isolate those stages, to define the processes and to start practicing my third phase. Because the moment I realized the third phase is the most useful and profitable, I made a promise to myself never to enter a rant in the first or the second stage. Only the third one.

That basically means: if somebody attacks me, the first thing I do is to evaluate my learning odds. Not even the validity of the rant, which means the guy may or may not be right, that’s not important, only my learning opportunity. If there’s something to learn from it, I stop and start a conversation. Not a rant. If the conversation is not sustainable, it means I have nothing to learn and just move on. If I can have a normal conversation, then we share our points of view and at the end of it, I move on.

I simply don’t have words to express the relief I was experiencing when I started to aim for the third stage. It was absolutely unbelievable. I still have my share of rants every now and then, but the way I’m treating them is totally changing the game. In fact, if I think for a while, lately I noticed an increase in rants, which should mean my blog is becoming quite popular. And that’s something I’m happy about.

Where Are Your Rants?

Another interesting thing I noticed in regard with rant tolerance is that most of my fights were taking place in a specific area of my life: the business part of it. My rant tolerance in that area was really low. I had to work to make it better. Usually, the place where you have the lowest rant tolerance is the place where you can experience most of your growth. Low rant tolerance is a clear indicator you didn’t realize what you have to learn from what’s happening to you.

An interesting exercise would be to share in the comments what is the area of your life where you experience most of your rants and how do you respond to them. I understand it might be a sensitive area, but last time I checked, they invented nicknames. If you think you’ll feel awkward just use a nickname but do let me know where in your life do you experience the lowest rant tolerance.

How do you work with it? Are you a first stage, a second stage or a third stage performer? Oh, and in case you wonder, the rant at the beginning of the post was joke, I’m actually happy you read my blog. I’m not into rants anymore. ;-)

100 Ways To Improve Your Life

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  alt=”Buy Now”/>
for only 9.99 USD.

100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life

The mirrored edition of the book above. If you hang around mostly on the dark side, this book is for you.

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