Reduce Distracting Noise, Improve Performance and Productivity
You may work in an office or at home; you may study in a dorm room or a study hall; you may travel and try to work on a plane or in a hotel room. And in all those places you’ll probably find distracting noise (especially other folks’ conversation) that interferes with your concentration and creativity. Decreases your performance and productivity. Makes you stressed.
You may have tried headphones and music or white noise to screen out the noises of the roommate who has a cell phone permanently implanted in her ear and a mouth button set to “on.” Or that gossip group by the water cooler. Or the TV set in the room next door that was left on high volume while the occupants went out to dinner. But headphones can get heavy or exert too much pressure and most music is distracting in itself. Also after a while, some people find white noise annoying.
Not to worry. Two lovely pieces of software — ChatterBlocker and Sonic Mood — do an excellent job of making distracting conversations and other noises into remote background murmurs that you barely notice. Both do so by playing natural sounds and loosely-structured music to interfere with the noise. You can use speakers instead of headphones because the sound is so unobtrusive that it shouldn’t disturb your neighbor — even in the next cubical. (Unless, of course, you jack up the sound levels really high and become an offensive noise-maker yourself.) If you prefer, you can use headphones. In addition, the soundtracks are great for mental breaks, meditation and stress reduction. That use should also improve your performance and productivity.
I have thoroughly tested both, and while I have a personal preference for one, I believe either application will do the job for most folks. You can get a demo of each and try them out for yourself. They are available to both Mac and Windows users.
For SonicMood, go to http://www.sonicmood.com/ . Read reviews for it at http://www.sonicmood.com/SonicMoodReviews.htm .
For Chatterbox, go to http://chatterblocker.com . Read reviews for it at http://chatterblocker.com/reviews_testimonials.html .
You may work in an office or at home; you may study in a dorm room or a study hall; you may travel and try to work on a plane or in a hotel room. And in all those places you’ll probably find distracting noise (especially other folks’ conversation) that interferes with your [...]
2 More Relaxation Videos
Here are a couple of relaxation videos I found and recommend.
In “Ocean Waves Crashing Over A Rock,” you get a chance to take a 5 minute or so break on the beach, on your desktop. Nature’s own music of ocean waves lulls you into a meditative state. Just sit and watch and relax.
Relaxation Meditation (Ocean Waves Crashing over a rock)
In “Yachatsanova – Mother Nature’s Music,” paradoxically, you hear guitar music rather than natural sounds while you view several video scenes taken along the Oregon coastline during stormy weather. Good guitar music, but if it’s not your cup of tea, you can always mute the sound and just a nature-watching break.
Yachatsanova – Mother Nature’s Music
Here are a couple of relaxation videos I found and recommend.
In “Ocean Waves Crashing Over A Rock,” you get a chance to take a 5 minute or so break on the beach, on your desktop. Nature’s own music of ocean waves lulls you into a meditative state. Just sit and watch and relax.
Relaxation [...]
Some new articles
As you may know, I post at least one new article on Superperformance.com daily. Here are some from the last three days I wanted to call to your attention. One is from a guest author and two are my own.
Integrity First — Living the Honor Code in Business — By Waldo Waldman
“Have you ever been in a situation where your integrity was tested? Have you ever been given a choice where admitting (or not admitting) a mistake would effect your reputation, the safety of others, and even your career?” If so, what did you do? If not, what would you do? What should you do? Those are the questions Waldman poses and discusses. Read more…
The Best Way to Develop the Top Two Success Skills: Critical Thinking and Communication — by C.S. Clarke, Ph.D.
Critical thinking is the ability to analyze and make good judgments. When you have it, you can use what you already know and know what to find out to make your thinking and judgment better. The skill of communication includes listening, information processing, informative speaking and persuasive speaking. (Note too, that when you have both of those skills, you have the basis for the skill of leadership.) The article describes the best way I’ve discovered to develop those skills quickly and effectively. And master them. Read more…
3 Ways To Keep Motivated In Your Job Hunt — by C.S. Clarke, Ph.D.
How plans, activities, and motivational networks keep you upbeat, on track and progressing when you’re looking for a job. Read more…
As you may know, I post at least one new article on Superperformance.com daily. Here are some from the last three days I wanted to call to your attention. One is from a guest author and two are my own.
Integrity First — Living the Honor Code in Business — By Waldo Waldman
“Have you [...]
Recommended: LifeHack.org
If you know about Stepcase LifeHack already, you may wonder why I didn’t put it in my top three productivity blogs. Simple. While it is true that the “productivity” blogs cover more than merely productivity, branching out into the various life influences upon productivity and performance, LifeHack appears to have yet a broader coverage than they and stands in a different class. The categories it covers include productivity, communication, lifestyle, money, technology and management. LifeHack’s posts are written with the intelligence and professionalism of a high-quality national print magazine, and are full of practical, immediately usable advice and/or resources. On all those varied subjects. Words like “outstanding” and “excellent” spring to mind when analyzing the site. Go there. Daily.
(The three productivity blogs I recommended to you earlier are also professionally done, quality blogs and filled with wonderful resources. I just rate LifeHack higher and appreciate its breadth in addition to its depth of coverage. Visit them all.)
If you know about Stepcase LifeHack already, you may wonder why I didn’t put it in my top three productivity blogs. Simple. While it is true that the “productivity” blogs cover more than merely productivity, branching out into the various life influences upon productivity and performance, LifeHack appears to have yet a broader [...]
Making A BlogRoll
Since this blog is relatively new, I’m just starting my “blogroll” links to favorite blogs. This is the first chance I’ve really had to think about for what sites to write reviews. I’m reviewing the top three, in my opinion, that folks interested in performance and productivity would want to read, although, I imagine that most will already know them. If you do know about them, you’ll agree that they have to be high on the list of any writer in the field of human performance. LifeHacker — http://lifehacker.com — is the premier blog for productivity. Not only do they publish more than 20 new tips every day on how to get stuff done quicker, better or more comfortably, they also have their own line of free productivity-enhancing software. In addition, they have a couple of outstanding books available to help you hack your life into a semblance of order. If you don’t already regularly visit LifeHacker, you’ve probably been living on the moon. ZenHabits — http://zenhabits.net — is a creative, compassionate, sensible, practical and idealistic blog by Leo Babauta. He covers performance, productivity, achievement, simplicity of living, health, happiness and good habits. From his blog you can learn how to be a better and happier person, and how to achieve success in a ways that you can enjoy. LifeClever — http://www.lifeclever.com/. Directed at an audience of designers, the site offers news, productivity tips, links, software and website reviews; and hacks for work and life. It has practical design advice for designers, regardless of professional or amateur standing. And “tricks of the trade” to make design production more efficient. But I found plenty here — most of the posts, actually — that benefit a far wider readership than designers. Highly recommended.
Since this blog is relatively new, I’m just starting my “blogroll” links to favorite blogs. This is the first chance I’ve really had to think about for what sites to write reviews. I’m reviewing the top three, in my opinion, that folks interested in performance and productivity would want to read, although, I [...]
Bookmarks of Productivity
In my odyssey across the web, I often get waylaid by attractive sirens of interesting sites and ideas that are unrelated to my initial destinations or intended ports of call. Perhaps it’s an attentional deficit, but sometimes it’s serendipity. Today was such a day. I started on a quest to write an article about creative uses of business cards for solopreneurs, but I sighted some links about online bookmark sites and steered completely off-course.
Oh, enough of the sea metaphor. I found and tried a couple of excellent sites for organizing, storing and using my Firefox® bookmarks on line and wanted to share those time-savers with you.
First, there’s Foxmarks.com. They provide an add-on for Firefox that allows you to store your bookmarks on line (on their site) and automatically update and synchronize them across multiple computers. You can also simply access them on line any time with anyone else’s computer. And, the tool automatically backs-up your bookmarks every time you make a change.
Second, there’s Only2Clicks.com. As the name implies, their service allows you to jump to your bookmarks in only two clicks. The service does something unusual. You do import your bookmarks, but the primary benefit of the service is the pictorial interface. You get a set of pages with small snapshots of each site you bookmark. You can drag and drop the pics in the order you prefer. The usefulness of such a design is that you don’t have to read through list after list (especially helpful if you have nearly 2000 bookmarks as I have.) Instead, you use the pictorial interface to show the fewer bookmarks you use the most, with a separate page for each category. You get to determine the categories. Since you instantly recognize the site you want by its snapshot, you surf to your most usual destinations more quickly.
Both services are free, and since each has a slightly different purpose, you can benefit from using both.
In my odyssey across the web, I often get waylaid by attractive sirens of interesting sites and ideas that are unrelated to my initial destinations or intended ports of call. Perhaps it’s an attentional deficit, but sometimes it’s serendipity. Today was such a day. I started on a quest to write an [...]
What (Else) Can I Do With A Major in…
Need a new job or new career? Just get out of college with a new degree? Soon to get out of college with a new degree? Whether you’re already in the workforce and need a change or not yet in the workforce and need some ideas for directions in which to go, I’ve found a career development tool for you.
University of North Carolina, Wilmington has a lovely feature on its Career Center website. It is a compendium of the various careers you can develop based on your college degree. So, if for example, you have a B.A. in English you can figure what else you can do with it besides write or teach English classes. It provides an amazingly long list of possible career titles for a variety of degrees. (http://www.uncwil.edu/stuaff/career/Majors/)
But, it doesn’t stop there. It goes on to list the major skills associated with your degree, job and internship opportunities (links) that are related, career planning links, related professional association, and numerous other miscellaneous helpful links. All different for each degree! What a resource. And just open to the general public on line.
Need a new job or new career? Just get out of college with a new degree? Soon to get out of college with a new degree? Whether you’re already in the workforce and need a change or not yet in the workforce and need some ideas for directions in which to go, [...]
Online Task Management — Free and Fantastic
I’ve found a great tool for scheduling, organizing, assigning and tracking tasks. On line. It’s called HiTask (http://hitask.com). Although very sophisticated and powerful, the tool has a simple drag and drop user interface. Easy to learn. Easy to use. HiTask combines to-do lists, calendar, team contacts and chat into a seamless, ordered workflow device. The quickest way to understand its power and usefulness is to go take their video tour. In less than five minutes, you’ll understand it and want it.
There’s a free version that works well if you have three people or fewer with whom you want to share tasks, or if you just want it for your individual tasks. But if you want unlimited task sharing and projects, it will cost you about $20 per year. Bargain. Click Here To Go To The HiTask Site.
I’ve found a great tool for scheduling, organizing, assigning and tracking tasks. On line. It’s called HiTask (http://hitask.com). Although very sophisticated and powerful, the tool has a simple drag and drop user interface. Easy to learn. Easy to use. HiTask combines to-do lists, calendar, team contacts and chat into [...]
Relaxing Videos
I’ve found a couple of nice videos on YouTube that I’ll be adding to the video collection on Superperformance.com. Here’s a preview.
Nature Sounds
Gentle Rain,Soothing Sounds of Nature
I’ve found a couple of nice videos on YouTube that I’ll be adding to the video collection on Superperformance.com. Here’s a preview.
Nature Sounds
Gentle Rain,Soothing Sounds of Nature
Mandalas and Meditation
My last post before this was July 8. I did not fall off the face of the earth. I have, as usual, updated the Superperformance.com® website daily with new articles and hope you’ve been stopping by to read them. I just haven’t had time to summarize them here. But what’s been keeping me from blogging and from adding other content is: I’ve finally published my new e-book, Mandalas for Meditating and I had some difficulties with the services I originally planned to use for payment and delivery. It’s taken several days to put the finishing touches on the e-book and get all the details worked out with the new services I’ve selected.
I decided to use a combination of PayPal and E-Junkie and have tested the system pretty thoroughly. (I plan to write more on the subject of publishing and self-publishing services some other time.) So, I’m ready to introduce you to the first product ever offered for sale on my website.
In several of my articles, I’ve encouraged readers to take up meditation as a stress-reduction technique and/or for greater mental clarity and focus. In Mandalas for Meditating, I’ve created 52 mandalas to help you get started with what is probably the easiest form of meditation. Even if you’ve never tried meditating before, you can begin at once, using this simple, easy introduction to mandala meditation. Each of the 52 full-color mandalas in the book gives you a practical focus to help you learn to quickly and easily achieve a meditative state. Each mandala page is paired with an inspiring quotation page to create a “mental atmosphere” for meditation.
I don’t teach meditation as such. I merely introduce the concept of using mandalas for meditative purposes. I give you a brief background on mandalas for meditation and basic instructions in how to use them. I get you started with the simple, pleasant practice of mandala meditation, with the emphasis on the mandala graphics themselves and their ease of use.
My last post before this was July 8. I did not fall off the face of the earth. I have, as usual, updated the Superperformance.com® website daily with new articles and hope you’ve been stopping by to read them. I just haven’t had time to summarize them here. But what’s been keeping [...]