Use tiny videos to inspire, cheer and improve performance or productivity

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I’ve written a lot about how emotions affect productivity and performance. I think most of us know intuitively that people who are upset or unhappy don’t perform as well as they do when feeling up to par. It follows that anything you can do to help them feel better will help them to behave better.

One of the things I’ve done on a personal basis is send little, inexpensive gifts, print greeting cards, emails and e-cards (including video e-cards) to friends, colleagues and family who need a bit of cheering up. And, I’ve often recommended that my readers do the same with friends, family, co-workers, employees, etc.

Recently, I decided that if the little “cheer-me-up” or inspirational or funny videos I”ve been making and sending along to friends were so helpful, it might be a good thing to put some on YouTube and let others use them in their own emails. Or let people use them in their own websites, if the material is relevant.

Here’s one that I just made yesterday. You can get it from YouTube and use it personally for people you know, you can embed it in your site if you like, or you could use it as an idea for making your own.

You can get it from YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bYGTekbMAE.

But don’t wait for me to make more. Make some yourself. Start spreading around some fun and cheer with tiny — 30 seconds to a minute duration — cheering, uplifting, inspirational or funny videos.

(Why so short? Because folks who are feeling low don’t have the patience and attention for long messages.)

If you don’t have the time or know-how to make your own, you can search YouTube for more short videos that others have already uploaded. Videos they allow you to embed, download or email. The main idea is simply that you want to send something short that makes your recipient smile. Something encouraging, stimulating or hopeful.

Productivity tools for reading, writing and research.

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Do you have to read a lot and take notes? Maybe you’re writing a book, e-book or article. Maybe you’re a student. Maybe you’re a lawyer or some other professional doing research. Whatever the reason, I have a quick system and some productivity tools for you that will make the process easier, faster and more pleasant. They might even make it fun.

In this post, I’m going to tell you about the system and give you some free tools to download and implement it.

Instead of highlighting, writing in margins and using ersatz bookmarks to tag important pages and passages in books, reports, white-papers, journals and other publications, you can use my Book Noters™ and Page Noters.™

They’ll not only bookmark the reference, they’ll also give you a place to jot notes, ideas, summaries, analyses and more. While they’re in the book or other publication, they look just like tabs; which helps you find your references faster.

And when you’ve finished reading the publication, you’ll have a pack of structured notes. Or you can make copies and leave the originals in the book for future reference.

You can use them for writing books, articles, reviews, reports, research papers and so forth. You can use them to study for exams. You can use them to give a speech. You can use them to develop slide presentations or videos. You can use them to develop your own version of “Cliff Notes.™”

When I was in college, I did — for a while — what most students and others who research do. I highlighted important passages, wrote in the margins and stuck torn-paper bookmarks in pages that were important. Then I could go back later and review, or write notes and references for term papers. Or copy ideas and passages into my notebooks to study for exams. The process was less than efficient.

So I developed a better book, article and journal noting system. I made up some special notepapers from divided 8½ x 11 paper. I called them Book Noters™ and Page Noters.™ I used them in place of bookmarks and eliminated any need to write in margins or take notes in notebooks. I just stuck them in the important pages and took notes directly on them. I noted the name of the book or article, the date and the page number. I still highlighted the important passages in books I owned, but my notes were now portable and well-organized. By the time I finished the book, I had a pack of notes I could clip together to study for an exam, write a review, write a term paper or whatever else I needed to do with the information.

I didn’t realize then what a great tool I’d made for use in research and writing for professional uses of all sorts. But later, I not only used them for myself, I made copies for my students, when I was teaching, and for colleagues as well.

After all, which would you rather have?

A meaningless jumble of bookmark breadcrumbs –

or –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An organized note taking system that can be structured and customized by topic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently, some friends talked me into introducing my little inventions as a product. So, soon I’ll be selling them as printable pdf’s. But first, I thought I’d I give my readers complimentary copies of the plain-jane basic versions. I’m still designing fancier ones and structured ones. (By structured, I mean that they will have hints that will help you do things like analyze literature or identify math formulas you want to memorize or write a book review.)

You can download them here. http://superperformance.com/downloads/Book Noters. Page Noters..zip

Overcoming Resistance to Work

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This morning, I published an article on superperformance.com about the most usual reasons people avoid work or finishing projects.

When you avoid doing something like work, psychologists call the avoidance “resistance.” And resistance — especially if it continues for a long time — is very difficult to break through. That’s because you just naturally resist any change. So your resistance to work also features a resistance to change the resistance!

It may be easy to understand why you’d avoid work assigned to you by others. But you also avoid doing work on projects you started for yourself. Even projects that you once loved and which represented cherished dreams. Lots of folks find that befuddling.

Whether you are avoiding work you hate or work you love, read the article and find a neat, simple trick that can bypass resistance. Get it here: You Already Know What To Do, You Already Have What You Need To Do It and You’re Ready

Is My Cell Phone Smart Enough?

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Recently, I reached the point that I knew I had to have a smart phone of some sort, ready or not. I’m trying to redesign and update my website and needed to decide if I should make the site itself a mobile-friendly one or if I should have a separate mobile version. I can’t really do either one without having a smart phone to test it on.

So, as a Mac-lover, I went first to my carrier for an iPhone. I had shopped online, comparing all the various plans from the three carriers that offer iPhones. I thought I understood what I was getting into. I mistakenly understood that “Family Plan” and shared minutes meant “shared on everything.” So, the pricing seemed high, but not unreachable. Then I found out how much it would cost for service to two phones. And other expenses I hadn’t factored in. Because the only thing shared is talk time.

After I picked myself up from the floor and prepared to leave — without any iPhones — the nice young salesman said, “Well, come back and see me when you’re ready to do this.” I replied, “I sure will. Along about the 12th of never.”

Are you kidding me? How do people afford the outrageous costs of these gadgets? Especially families who get them for their kids, too.

Oh well, don’t get me started on the problems I have with American value systems. This is about smart phones.

Anyway, I waited about a month to get over my outrage and looked into alternatives. I found a pretty good one. But it has some drawbacks to go with its positive attributes.

I bought an Android phone for the T-Mobile monthly, no-contract system. I was able to get it for a good price through Amazon.com, and have been pleased with its functioning so far. I figured that for my particular usage, it was best to have something I could try first and see if it worked all right.

I was heartened when reading the reviews of the phone. The first review was titled “Who needs an iPhone?” So, after reading that and the other glowing reviews, I gave it a try. As someone who has an iPad, I was pleased to find that I already know how to use an Android phone because its OS operates much like the iOS.

Of course, my issues with getting an iPhone were about the costs involved with the services (including the costs of insuring an expensive phone.) With the T-Mobile service, I get unlimited talk(!), messaging(!) and data(!) for $50 a month. I still think that’s awfully high. But, there’s no contract. The other services cost so much more and the two biggest have no options for unlimited data.

But wait! Before you jump up and run out to get on T-Mobile, investigate further. Look at their coverage areas compared to the others. They are much more limited. You’re probably o.k. within the confines of most cities, but traveling can be a problem. I’m keeping one of my AT&T regular cell phones so that I can be better assured of getting a connection when I need one. So far, I’ve gotten good service for both voice and data in in my area, but I don’t know how far outside the city that extends.

T-Mobile did make sure to warn me before I got their service that their coverage area is far less extensive than AT&T, Verizon or Sprint. But I’d already made the comparison. Do your research. My smart phone is working well for me. It may not serve your needs.

Meanwhile, my new smart phone is plenty smart. If you want one like it, you can get one at Samsung Exhibit II 4G Prepaid Android Phone (T-Mobile)

Exercise, health and human performance

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I’m constantly harping on the issues of health and well-being in human performance. A recent experience with sore muscles called it to my attention again. Then, when I visited my iGoogle page today, I found a related Wikihow article. So I was inspired to mention it here.

Yesterday, I did more lifting of heavy objects than usual. By early evening I felt the slight soreness that comes from over-doing. It reminded me that, like others who spend a great deal of time in front of a computer, I need varied exercise.

Sure, I do a daily stint of aerobics for 30 minutes. I also do about 15 minutes of stretching. But I haven’t been doing much strength building. And I need strength building in general. I further need it for helping to avoid problems with elbows and wrists from repetitive stress.

I’ve tried lifting. I don’t like it. I’d rather use resistance bands and body-weight training. It’s what I recommend to most of my friends. (However, I’ve recently taken up occasional use of kettle bells, which combine strength and cardio — ever looking for the efficiency of multi-purposing.) But even if I did plan to take up lifting again, I think I’d still be doing work with resistance bands first. I’d consider it good preparation.

As for that article on Wikihow.com that started me thinking about making a post on exercising for health and better human performance in whatever your work, it’s “12 Ways to Strengthen Your Back.” You can find it at http://www.wikihow.com/Exercise-Your-Back. I think it’s an important consideration for performance and productivity at work.

There’s been a great deal of coverage in the media lately about too much sitting causing deep vein thrombosis. There’s also been a lot of information about avoiding or correcting carpal tunnel syndrome and elbow problems from computer work. But for much longer than we’ve known about the problems brought on by the computer age, we’ve been dealing with the still-number-one problem of both sedentary and active work: back pain.

Why not take a look at the Wikihow article and investigate further?

And why not heed the constant stream of information in the media that says exercise is essential to health, wellness and work? Your career or your business rely on you being healthy. On being sufficiently pain-free to perform well and be able to improve your performance. Exercise isn’t merely an option. It’s a must have.

As for myself, I’ve already done my resistance exercises for today. I’ll be adding them back into my regular routines for an every-second-day workout.

Can you really double your reading speed?

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""I realized a bit after my post yesterday that I had talked all about the “get stuff done” part of making the video I presented to you — and almost no word about the video itself.

Let me remedy that.

The title, “Double Your Reading Speed Now,” tells part of the story up front. I give you two basic techniques I invented and that I’ve been using myself since about 1975, when I was in school, and started teaching to others a few years later. It’s based on one of the first articles I published on superperformance.com, with the same name.

The techniques are a take-off of the old pacing hand method, but with a twist. They don’t merely help focus the eyes on the material and speed the pace; they prevent the biggest obstacle to fast reading: the tendency to re-read. You really can double your reading speed — or better — with the techniques I demonstrate. And it’s just a start. There may be a lot of “speed reading” scams out there, but there are also real people reading at speeds around 1000 words per minute. (Of course, that takes practice. It doesn’t happen overnight.)

I also show how you can make yourself see word groups, rather than individual words, and how to stop “vocalizing.”

Please take a look at it and let me know how you like it. Or if you’d like to see more techniques on the subject.

Video – Double Your Reading Speed Now

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Well, as you can clearly see, I’ve not been blogging for about 10 days. I’ve also not put any new content on the main section of superperformance.com. It’s not that I haven’t been working and developing content; it’s just been “behind the scenes.”

One thing that took up about a week of my time was finally sitting down and putting together a short video presentation on reading faster. One that I kept telling myself I should do for the last several years.

I found myself writing an article (which I’ll post later) about time management. In it I was encouraging folks to finish projects that were important but that had been on the back burner for a long time. And I said to myself, “Yeah, look who’s talking. How about walking that talk.”

So, I just took a deep breath and decided to get on with the first of several projects that had been barely started but needed finishing and polishing. Regardless of the time they took or the obstacles I ran into.

By golly, if I’m going to tell people to do something, I’d better be willing to do it myself or shut up. So I did it. Later, I’m going to have a few words to say about how long projects can take, regardless of any past experience or knowledge.

For now, here’s the movie. Yes it is on YouTube and if you like, you’ll be able to embed it in your own site.


Time Saver/Multitasking Tip – Modernized Time and Motion Thinking

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Not long ago, I realized that I was making my oatmeal breakfast in a very inefficient way. I was using too many utensils and too many steps. So I was slower than I needed to be and had more washing up to do. I took a few minutes and reorganized how I did things. My new routine saved about five minutes.

Now that may seem trivial. But if you’ve ever read much about the development of “scientific management” from the early days of time and motion studies through the growth of industrial “best practices” to the more modern concepts of “incremental performance improvement,” you’ll have an idea of why my mind went immediately to making a change in my routine.

We all have behavior habits in the “way things are done.” Most of them were developed without thinking and cost a lot of time if you consider how the time loss adds up during the day.

In fact, if you think about how each process of any project affects the whole, you might consider the implications of saving just five minutes.

For example, suppose I had to be a the bus stop by a time certain to catch the right bus to get me to work on time. A delay of five minutes could cause me to miss the bus and have to wait another 15 minutes for the next. That 15 minutes could make me 10 minutes late for work, annoying my employer, earning me a lecture and causing me to be even later for a critical meeting with a project manager. The project manager, not having me there to answer key questions could reassign my role to another employee. That could mean I lost an assignment that made the difference between getting a promotion or watching it go to someone else — like the guy who was on time.

You see, in terms of performance and productivity, little things can mean a lot.

It’s been estimated that the time an average individual wastes on inefficient practices adds up to about an hour a day. And that is just in how he does his tasks, not in what tasks he does that are unnecessary or time-wasters in and of themselves.

Now it’s your turn. What are the poor methods you use that waste good time or produce low-quality results? How could you do them better and faster?

Time Saver/Multitasking Tips — Exercise and Use Your Computer

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Among the exercises I do, I spend at least 30 minutes daily on either my stationary bike or on a stepper. I prefer the bike, but the stepper has allowed me to put my laptop on a kitchen counter and keep working while exercising.

Recently, I found a great gadget that lets me use my bike and compute at the same time. It’s called the “SurfShelf Treadmill Desk and Laptop Holder” and I got it at Amazon.com.

According to its manufacturer, it fits 99% of all stationary bikes, treadmills and elliptical trainers. I can see how it would. It’s very simple to understand and install. Putting it together and attaching it to my bike only took a few minutes.

The SurfShelf people explain that even though it looks like ordinary clear plastic, it is made of 100% Polycarbonate — which is same used to make bullet-proof glass. They assure you it won’t ever break. And just in case you’re not so sure about its quality, they offer a no questions asked money back guarantee.

I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks and am very pleased. Basically, it’s like installing a little shelf on your exerciser. You just put your laptop on it and strap in down with the included Velcro strap. Of course, since it is a shelf, you can use it for your iPad, a DVD player or a book. I just think of it for my laptop because it’s so great to reclaim 30 minutes of previously lost work time.

Of course, you don’t have to work. You can surf the web, watch videos, update Facebook, answer emails or anything else that would make exercising more fun.

Get your own at Amazon SurfShelf Treadmill Desk and Laptop Holder.

Here’s a video showing installation and use:

YouTube Marketing Tip Video Recommendation

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Tom Antion, a well-known trainer of presenters and marketers, has made a helpful little video he calls “YouTube Marketing Tip.” It’s a wow of a tip.

If you’ve been paying attention to recent marketing trends, you know that making and publishing videos on your site and on YouTube can help your site or blog rank well in the search engines. Even better, you can beef up the attention your videos get by adding transcripts. Search engines like words. It helps them understand what the video is about. And with its current technology, YouTube can sync your transcript to your video as it runs.

Antion explains how this works, what are the benefits and how to do it yourself inexpensively.