Hi everyone,

I know I haven’t posted personal development posts in a while. But I think this is a good time to post the second part of my “How to survive a stressful term” series.

This series is for those of you that is dealing with a particularly stressful term, and would like some guidance on how to deal with the stress of having to accomplish the seemingly impossible tasks you’re faced with. I wrote this for my fellow students in the School of Accounting and Finance in the University of Waterloo, mainly in the 2A term that is faced with getting their first co-op job for the winter term and dealing with a heavy course load at the same time.

This post is all about what to do when it seems like the sky is crashing down and all you want is for the clock to stop ticking! We all know that time won’t stop, but there are other ways to reduce the stress and stop things from piling up. I know that everyone is probably very busy, so I’ll get straight to the point. Here’s some tips to deal with stress:

1. Do all tasks that requires 2 minutes or less NOW! - You can play around with the number of minutes, but the point is that if you can get it done fast right now, then do it no matter how much you don’t want to. Make this a law! So if a task is possible to be done right now, and it takes less than 2 minutes, do it RIGHT NOW!
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2. Capture all incoming information and tasks - Make sure you have a place to put down all your tasks the moment you get them or think of them. I suggest keeping a little notebook with you at all times, and whenever you realize that you have to do something, write it down, even if it’s not that important. If you don’t capture all your tasks like this, then your subconscious will. And your subconscious isn’t very good at telling you what you need to do at the right time, but it is very good at contributing to your stress levels by reminding you constantly that something isn’t done.
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3. Don’t compare yourself with others – Don’t stress yourself out because everyone around you seems like they’re super-human, instead pride yourself in knowing and being friends with these people!
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4. Identify your next action – Remember getting things done? The best cure for stress is working on whatever is making you stressed. Normally, as long as you’re doing productive work, you can keep your stress level in check.
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5. Look at the sky or go outside, or both! – This is easy to do and it works, at least for me. When you’re stressed, you feel like you’re in a hole with no way out. Well prove yourself wrong!
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These are just some tips that you can try out the next time you feel stressed, but remember, it’s very normal for you to feel stressed and it’s OK to feel like that.

I will not waste any more of your precious time now, go do what you have to do! Or just rest for a little while.

Hi everyone!

Around a month ago, I went to chapters and bought the book “The Merck Manual of Medical Information“. It’s a book that contains descriptions, causes, and treatment of many illnesses, a little like a medical library.

At first I bought it because of my science background, I thought having a reference of dieases and general biology/medial information would be a great companion to my science background. However the more I started using it, the more I realized that everyone should have this book! So far it’s been very helpful in diagnosing some of the problems my family and friends had, and it’s been a great resource for general health related knowledge such as stress and exercise!

The fall term is about to start soon, and I know that everyone is either very excited, motivated, or a bit nervous. We’re all very focused on the term ahead and wants to give it our all. That’s great! It’s wonderful to have such motivation, but during this exciting time of growth and opportunity, I would like to remind every to take care of themselves. Particularly since the H1N1 is due for a pretty big rebound in the fall.

I would like to help everyone by offering any knowledge from this book, if you have any questions just ask! But remember I’m not playing doctor here, just looking up information in a book! I will also be writing periodic posts about some information I think is pretty important here, like when you should see a doctor and stress!

I know this is a very important time to our personal and professional development, but don’t forget your health! Your health is like the lenses we see the world through. No matter how good your world is, it means nothing if you can’t see it clearly.

Good luck and take care!

Hi everyone! Sorry for not making a post in a while! I’ve been enjoying my summer and got a few new toys to play with, like a netbook! I’ve also been reading some books recommended to me by some friends, and I just can’t wait to share them with you! Though I want to only share my thoughts on a book after I’m completely finished reading it as to not make any misleading statements.

So onto the point, this post is for those of you entering into their 2A term. Pretty much everyone you’ve met told you how stressful the 2A term can be, how everything will hit you at once.

Being in Biotech/CA, I had an insane workload last term consisting of 6 courses and 2 labs, which gave me 8 exams to study for. Add activities, attending events, and everything else to that, and you don’t have much free time. Being through a stressful term already, I just want to share with everyone some tips on good time management, balance, and dealing with stress from both my own experience and the experience of others that I’ve gathered!

I’m going to write a 3 part post, covering study habits, school/life balance, and dealing with stress. This post is going to be about good study habits, time management, and how to get your stuff done before it becomes a crisis!

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Ok, here’s the reality, no one likes studying. Some people can tolerate it better than others and may prefer it over work, but it’s not going to be anyone’s favourite past time. So if your excuse is that you simply don’t like studying neither do I. So what’s the secret to developing good study habits?

1) You have to care. Your academic achievements has to be important to YOU. You have to raise your personal standards to where you want your marks to be! For example, some people are ok with a 70%, others feels bad if they drop below 90%! It’s a matter of personal standard and past experiences. If you want your mark to go up from a 80% to a 90%, you will need to honestly make your new standard 90%, and will not feel ok with an 80% anymore. You can do this my hanging around people that also gets 90%’s, and a 90% average will start to become a standard and not an exceptional job. We can’t be constantly “exceptional” in our own eyes, or else it’s not called exceptional anymore! This doesn’t mean copying off the 90% group or getting them to feed you answers, it means making genuine friendships with them and adopt their way of thinking and see how they deal with things.

One think you should know, we will ALWAYS find justifications for ourselves for our standards. Don’t trust any excuses you make for yourself. I remember a time when my marks were miserable and didn’t participate in any activities at all. But I thought that I was better in my own way because I was unique and free thinking, unlike the other “drones” that follows mainstream thinking. That might be true to a certain degree, but face it, I was just making excuses for myself.

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2) Start panicking (trigger your sense of urgency) earlier. We put off a report or studying for weeks and then do it on the last day, why? Because we start panicking then, and that’s when we get serious, stop procrastinating and actually get some work done! So the key is to start that urgent feeling earlier. This will eliminate a lot of last minute work, leaves you at least a day to check over your work and confirm your answers, eliminate a lot of stress, and always keep yourself one step ahead of the deadline!

Now how would you actually go about doing that? This takes time, practice, and determination. Next time you have an assignment, promise yourself that you’ll finish it 2 days before it’s due, and carry through with it. Make a big deal out of it if it’s not done 2 days before the deadline! Yes this does takes a lot of will power. The best time to start is at the beginning of a term when your energy and determination is at its peak. Obviously no one can stick to this rule all the time, procrastination is human nature! However, try to do this continuously for as long as you can when the term begins, and even after you break the rule, try to apply it to as many tasks as possible! You will slowly start to develop a habit out of it, and you’ll have a great start to your term at the very least! But remember this does take time, and is part of developing a habit, not an instant cure!

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One of the biggest problems with everyone is time management. I have never had luck with making definite schedules for myself, I feel like tell myself exactly when to do what makes me a robot, and that just doesn’t fit my nature. Some people are wonderful with schedules (in that case go for it!), but most people have problems actually doing something when the schedule dictates it. That’s normal, and there’s no magic cure for that, but here’s a few suggestions:

1) Make your schedule more flexible and reasonable! Don’t be too specific on your schedule, try to only limit it to only 5 different categories: Work, Play, Eat, Sleep, and Free time. Don’t be much more specific than that! The free time category is important, it gives you some time to do whatever you want (work, play, eat, sleep) without doubting yourself! It gives you a sense of freedom from your schedule that is desperately needed by people like me! =P Also make your schedule reasonable to your limits. You can’t stick with an unreasonable schedule, and you’ll soon abandon it. Test your schedule for a week first and see if you’re OK with it. Constantly modify it if you need to.

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2) Just do it! As much as I like to give you tips on how to make yourself more prepared, there’s times… actually A LOT of times where you just need to do the work. Starting the work is usually the hardest part. Procrastination is always going to be there, and here’s some tips for fighting procrastination and how to start grinding away at the work:

• Have a clear mind without other problems bugging you. I’ll talk more on this in the dealing with stress post.
• Keeping on top of your work already, when you’re already on top of things, you want to continue to be on top of things. Yes, inertia really IS everywhere! And panicking earlier will help you keep on top of things.
• Start the work! Sit down, open your binder, textbook, or open the file on your computer! Even when you don’t feel like studying or doing a report or assignment, getting it in front of you might just motivate you enough to start. I find it easier to control yourself physically, than mentally. It’s easier to put something in front of you than do actually do the work, but putting the work in front of you will usually make starting on the work easier. Use that to your advantage, make yourself physically ready to do work even when you don’t feel like doing something due to mental resistance.

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THE biggest problem for everyone is procrastination, which is perfectly normal. Just try your best, and if you do fail at controlling yourself at times, don’t beat yourself up over it. Know and take comfort in the fact that it’s everyone’s problem, but you can and should do something to fight against it when you need to. Fighting against procrastination takes a combination of triggering your sense of urgency earlier, just doing the work (will power), and making sure that you get the amount of rest and play that you require.

Sometimes you DO need that break. You can never win against procrastination if you don’t treat yourself right, because then it’s your body telling you that you need to rest (even if it’s just from thinking about stressful things). In order to work hard, you have to remember to play hard as well!

One last piece of advice, Everything I’ve wrote up to now if pretty ideal, I can’t do all these things 100% of the time, no one can. Work towards it, but never beat yourself up over it! It’s important that you have a positive attitude all the time, praise yourself when you do well, if you didn’t do as well as you would’ve liked, be glad that you at least tried and that experience alone made you a stronger person!

Of course productivity has a direct relationship on stress and your work/life balance. Which I will be talking about in later posts. I hope you learned something from this post, please comment! Stay tuned for the other 2 posts in the “How to survive a successful term” series!

Hi everyone! I’m sorry to make 2 posts in such a short time frame, but this particular post needs to be posted now. =P

Today I quickly scanned the headlines from the news feed on the side bar from this site, and wow! Bank of Canada says the recession is over! [Link] My first reaction? PLEASE don’t let this be just another random and inaccurate report…

Yes, with all the constant fluctuations in the news headlines, I didn’t really know if I can believe something like this. Then as I was driving to Waterloo for my Student Life 101 volunteer training, I heard it on the radio again! And when I came back from Waterloo, I saw more news about it! They don’t seem to be kidding around this time. Now I have my own doubts and skepticism, but the optimist in me couldn’t help but wonder, if it’s true, what does that mean?

I’m just going to share with you some interesting thoughts that came with this news, maybe you thought of the same things, or maybe it’s something you might want to consider as well! As always, I want to keep it less focused on wrong or right, but more personal, and growth related.

1. Being the first real recession since the early 90’s, it was actually very short! It lasted only 3 quarters! I myself thought it was just simply too soon for it end, and I’m sure many people felt the same. Does that mean that we’re still unstable and will crash in the future? Or rather, thinking more positively, it might be a sign that we’re heading in the right direction! And that the government is actually learning from past mistakes for once and has improved procedures to handle recessions? I know that most people’s natural instinct is to criticize the government as much as they can, but you have to take yourself away from popular thinking, and wonder if we’re actually improving as a society and gaining experience points. (Which I hope we are!)
2. As a student about to face co-op for the first time, I was concerned about the recession and its affects on the hiring rate. However, I saw another article “The recession is over, but not the pain“, and it seems like unemployment is still rising, and it’s going to take a while for the economy to fully heal. However, the news of a recovery is always better than news of us getting into a deeper recession.
3. For those of you going into 2A, I’m sure you all thought this before “aw man, why is the recession NOW? Right before my first co-op term?!”. Well I’m no exception! But perception is key, and when I finally got wind that the recession is finally officially over (sort of), I looked back, and realized that this recession might not be my bad luck after all.

   I don’t know about the rest of you, but I found finding a summer job rather hard this summer. Many times, I got really frustrated with everything, including the economy. But life is more fair than you think, every hardship is rewarded somehow. Because I realized that I needed to become better, to adapt to my new situation, I grew and developed more this summer than I would normally in a year!

   For example, I have been wanting to make a site for years, but never thought I’ll make it a blog. But not only did I actually acted on my plans for the site, but I made it better than I ever dreamed possible! Also, I have decided that I will go through with taking up martial arts lessons, which I have always wanted to take, but never actually got to it. I changed my perspective positively on many different things, including who I am and what I really wanted out of my life. I’m very happy about the personal growth, development, and initiatives I took this summer. This would’ve likely never happened if I wasn’t faced with hardships and challenges!

We all need to have to do some “high-level thinking” from time to time, and this is the perfect time! Look back on the recession now, look at the big picture, and try to answer these questions:

The recession must’ve affected you, made changes to your life, physically or emotionally. How did you adapt? What can you learn from all of this? Now, assuming it’s really over, what does it mean for you? How did you growing during the last 3 quarters, and what direction do you want to go from here?

I think this recession has given us a better picture of Canada and the world, I’m sort of glad to be able to see this before my career starts. Also, keep in mind that there is value is every little thing, and even things that seems extremely bad.

I hope you got some insight from this post, I know it’s a bit unusual and may feel a bit scattered, but I’m really just trying to share with you some thoughts on the recession, not write a report on any particular topic =)

Please comment!

Hi everyone! Recently I joined AMA (Academy of Martial Arts) and took some lessons! It was very fun, I encourage everyone to give it a try if it’s something you’re interested it! Talking about martial arts, I remember something I read in the book Getting Thing Done by David Allen.

He mentioned that in karate, there is a position of perfect readiness, called “Mind Like Water”. What does that mean? Think about water in a pond, what happens when you throw a pebble in it? It reacts exactly how it should, based on the speed and mass of the pebble. It doesn’t over react or under react, it reacts just the way it’s supposed to.

This is how perfect productivity should be like, you need to make sure that you take care of everything that’s thrown at you with the correct amount of energy and effort. Too often we spend way too much or way too little energy and effort on everything that’s thrown at us. Anytime that you do not react like water, you’re being inefficient. Now, I know you’re thinking that this is all talk and theory, and there’s nothing practical you can do about it, and  70% efficiency is still pretty good. But those 30%s can add up pretty quickly, and you’ll find yourself overwhelmed with work before you know it! Think about how much more you can do if you can harness that 30%! So how can you achieve this “mind like water” state?

The key is to have a clear mind and be flexible! Not too many people can have a clear mind these days, there are so many things going on in our lives that our minds are constantly crowded with thoughts, stress, and unfinished commitments. In that state, how can anyone blame you for over reacting or under reacting? You’re already pushed to the limit, you really don’t have the time or the energy to think about how to appropriately deal with things. Most of the time, you just want results, no matter how you get there.

To achieve a “mind like water”, or close to it, you’ll need to practice. Yes, these things need practice too! Focus on having a clear mind and being flexible, and be consistent and active about it!

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Your mind can never really be clear, but you have to at least feel comfortable. Now this is hard, we have many things screaming for our attention any second of the day. I find it useful to instead only focus at one thing at a time. There are many studies and literature out there that suggests that our brain can only really focus on one thing at a time, I’m currently looking into that theory at the moment (I’ll tell you if I get anywhere with that!). The key to this is to have a good collection system, this means that you have to collect every bit of unfinished tasks or thought you have in a place where YOU ARE CERTAIN that you will go back to. You have to really go back to it, you can’t fool your brain into this. Getting Things Done offers a great collection system I’m currently using, and it does the job very well!

As a simple exercise, try to write down everything you have to do, including the next actions (not ALL actions) for all of them, and put it in a place where you know you’ll come back to it a few hours later. Try to clear your mind of everything that worries you or screaming for your attention. If you don’t think you can absolutely clear your mind, focus on one thing only, and if it really bugs you finish the next action for that particular task. As you practice more, you’ll get better at this.

When you have a clear mind, you can be very productive and creative, a constant state of clear mind is very powerful. However, don’t expect that just because you have a clear mind, you won’t procrastinate, that’s a part of human nature that will always be there. =P

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If you’re reading this for self-improvement, you’re probably a very ambitious person. You probably have so many things you want to do, and made so many commitments to both yourself and others. These commitments take up a lot of our energy even subconsciously, and they’re usually the things that’s constantly bugging you and giving you a sense of incompleteness.

In the book Getting Things Done, David told us that we have to deal with these commitments, and not just bury it away somewhere. When you make an agreement with yourself to do something, your brain will constantly remind you about it, this takes a lot of energy, and your mind isn’t clear. In order to deal with these agreements in a positive way, you need to be flexible and proactive. Here are the 3 ways David suggests you deal with your agreements:

• Don’t make the agreement – We all like to do as much as we can, but when we’re overwhelmed by many things, we might not do any of them well enough. Sometimes it’s important to say “no”. Commit to whatever you say yes to, and know when you can’t commit anymore. This will demonstrate to others that you will always stick to your words, and have a good level of self discipline.
• Complete the agreement – This is obvious, you know it feels good to actually finish something you promised yourself or others that you’ll do. Completing an agreement with yourself will both make you feel great, and give you a positive energy, or motivation to do more!
• Renegotiate the agreement – When you made the commitment, but can’t complete it, this is when you have a problem. At this point, the best thing to do is to renegotiate the agreement with yourself. Maybe change the due date with yourself, or change the amount of detail you want to put in. Make sure others in the team knows this as well. This is very important for you to have a clear mind, and this is where the flexibility is. You have to be flexible to your own schedule, sometimes it’s OK to renegotiate. We have to change our plans all the time, but most of the time, we’re forced to make a change at the last second. In this case, we feel like we have no control and become very stressed. Re-make the contract with yourself proactively (rather than being forced to), tell yourself it’s not OK to have the task done differently, and your brain will stop bothering you.

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As David Allen mentioned in his book, the power in Karate comes from speed not strength, and a tense muscle is a slow one. And indeed, I was told on the first day that I needed to be relaxed in my Karate classes! Your brain functions the best when it’s clear and relaxed, and that’s when you can deal with everything thrown at you “like water”.

Have you ever watched Pokemon as a kid? What does Ash tell his pokemon to do everytime the opponent uses double team? Close your eyes, clear your thoughts, and sense where the opponent is! Same deal! See you already know this when you were 7 years old! You just need to apply it to your work and studies as well!

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I hope that this post has helped you, and the next time you’re stressed out, just think about “mind like water”! Better yet, apply “mind like water” to your every day life! Remember to practice clearing your mind often, and be flexible.

Thank you for reading, and please comment! I hope you all have great productivity for the rest of your life! =)

Hi everyone, this is part 2 of John C. Rich’s 10 principles to leadership! Which is 10 principles that an effective leader should follow! I attended a lesson about leadership by John during one of the officer trainings at Toastmasters, and John was kind enough to give me permission to share this information with all of you! For more information on John C. Rich, and the first 5 principles of leadership, refer Part 1 of this series!

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Maximize the skills, experience, and knowledge of each team member. Make sure that each member is appreciated and recognized for what they bring to the team, and acknowledge their importance and expertise by assigning them tasks that they love to do and is good at.

Train and cross-train members so that there will always be someone that is able to do the job if one person in the team couldn’t make it.

Supply resources and offer support for your team members after the delegation, follow up and confirm that they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. However, don’t drop in unexpectedly like an inspection, make sure you tell them when you’re going to follow up so they know when to expect you. You don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable.

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Yes you heard it before. Firm, fair, and friendly. In that order! Before anything else, you have to make sure the job gets done first. At the same time, you should treat everyone fairly and equally, in order to develop trust and avoid conflicts. Lastly, it’s important to make everyone feel good about what they’re doing. Make sure you know their needs! This could be done by simply just asking, they will probably just appreciate that you asked! After you know their needs, provide as much support as it’s reasonable. Remember, the risk and responsibility is shared. Communicate with them constantly while the work is being done so they never feel alone.

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Know what is going on around you, be aware of everything that goes on. This is very important for leaders, because it’s almost a part of their job description! A good leader should also be able to identify opportunities and challenges and come up with appropirate plans for them. In other words, you need to be constantly scanning the playing field and spot things before they become an issue or before it’s too late to take advantage of that opportunity. If it helps, try sitting down once per week to do some research or just simply writing ideas down!

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Identify and maximize both human and physical resources, this may require you to be creative at times! Talk to your team about this, they might have great ideas too!

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Situations will change and challenges will always appear. Make sure you are able to adapt to different situations, this sometimes means you have to be creative. John mentioned that there are 3 types of creativity:

• Spontaneous creativity – idea comes spontaneously
• Planned creativity – you sit down and think about it
• Forced creativity – you come up with a solution now, or else…

As a leader, many times you will be forced to be creative, and being good at that will be of an advantage to you.

While being flexible, it’s always very important to maintain sight of the ultimate goal no matter what.

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So there you have it! 10 principles of leadership! I found them very useful to review from time to time, and I hope that it will help you too!

Here are some other tips and advice John left with us:

• When making constructive critisim, try not to use the word “but”, in the structure “(positive statement), but…” because it doesn’t really matter what you say after, it’s already interpreted as negative the moment you say but. Try to use “and” instead “(positive statement), and it would be great if you could also improve on…”. Also avoid the words “should”, or “could”.
• When you’re giving constructive criticism, try to follow the following format: “When you.. I feel…. because…., it would help me to understand if…..” then listen and respond. Always try to move towards a win-win situation.
• When you first delegate duties, try to delegate the unimportant stuff first. This includes the non-important and urgent, as well as the non-important and not urgent. Delegate small things first and then work your way up, this kind of stuff needs practice too!
• Read the book: The 7 habits of highly effective people (I just recently bought this book, once I finish it, I will definitely make an review on it!)

I would like to thank John C. Rich once again for this information. If you want to know more about John, and N’Riched Programs, visit www.nrichedprograms.com. I hope that everyone got a lot of these 10 principles and will apply them to become an effective leader in the future!

Please comment!

Hi everyone! Today I’m going to talk about Leadership, the big word that everyone’s talking about! Being a leader is very rewarding and exciting, but it’s one of the hardest thing to do right. Leaders have to work with the most complex and unpredictable systems on earth, people.

Last month I attended a Toastmasters officer training even though I just joined Toastmasters and haven’t even done my first speech yet! But boy am I glad I did! In addition to everything else I’ve learned, I attended a leadership lesson by John C. Rich. John is an extremely accomplished individual who has accomplishments in business, sports, and military! He is a professional speaker, presenter, and trainer. He owns N’Riched Programs, and was the author of the book “Beyond Relationships Selling“. I found his presentation extremely useful and enjoyable and gave me a clear picture of what I have to do in order to become a better leader.

Naturally, I took a lot of notes, and John was kind enough to grant me permission to post it here and share it with everyone! John talked about 10 principles of Leadership, and gave us some very good advice. Due to the length of this post, I will separate this topic into 2 parts. I will share with you 5 principles in this post and 5 more in part 2!

Keep in mind that the following information is based on John’s presentation, but some of my opinions might be mixed in!

So let’s get to the point, how can you be a good leader?

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This seems like common sense, but it’s actually one of the most important points to constantly remind yourself of! If you remember nothing else, remember this! I personally have probably lost so much potential opportunities what were very possible, but I just didn’t try for it!

Look for leadership opportunities, and accept the responsibilities for your own actions. Never pass the blame to someone else!

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Develop and communicate a clear picture to your team. It’s very important to have a clear idea of what the end result or the goal will look like, imagine it! The vision is shared when the team members are actively included in the process, you have to make sure that the team takes ownership of the vision as well as you.

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Problem solving is also a big word, we all want to be good problem solvers, but how? First of all, it’s very important to take responsibility for your decisions and never pass a fault to someone else. When making decisions, try using the “problem solving appreciation” when time permits. This involves identifying the:

• Aim – what exactly are you trying to achieve? Believe it or not, this is a very useful question that can get you back on track faster than anything else, it also gives you the motivation to do what you need to to.
• Factors – what kind of things are involved in obtaining the aim? This could range from situations, to resources, to people.
• Course - this is the critical step, now you know where you want to go, and what you need to get there. How will you use your factors to get your aim? The next actions principle in my getting things done post a while back should apply pretty well here.
• Plan - make a plan, write it down, and involve everyone! Make sure everyone follows not only the plan but the whole process as well, this means that they need to understand the aim, factors, and the course to really understand the plan.

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Yes you’ve heard this one many times, why? Because it works and should be fundamental! If you’re a leader, it means you’re taking on some sort of responsibility. No one should care as much as you do about the project, so if you don’t care, others will sense that and won’t either. You can exercise influence by:

• Directing
• Motivating/Inspiring
• Sharing risks and hardships (very important)

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Make sure your team can always perform at its best and it feels like a team. Plan activities, training, and games that will reinforce mutual support and dependence within the team. Develop routine info sessions (daily or weekly, in our case probably weekly) so that the team is always on top of things and no one will feel left out of the team.

Communication is very important, you have to make sure that that there is a prompt passage of information to avoid frustration and the “disorganized and dead” feeling. Make sure information gets to people when it’s promised.

Finally be candid and get to the point, if you want honesty and directness from your team, you will have to give them the same thing. No one really likes trying to figure out what you really mean, your team should be very clear on what’s needed to be done at all times.

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These are the first 5 points in John’s 10 Principles of Leadership. Part 2 of this series will include the other 5 points as well as some pointers from John.

I want to thank John very much for this information, it has surely helped me a lot with my growth and development this summer! You can view John’s website www.nrichedprograms.com to find out more about him and his services!

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment!

I was checking my google analytics dashboard yesterday and saw something amazing! This site has had over 1000 pageviews and 200+ visits since July 2nd 2009! (That’s just 12 days!!!) I want to really really thank everyone for visiting my site and reading my blog, and I really hope that you got all you could out of this site!

It’s so hard to put into words how much gratitude I feel towards everyone! I will try my best to continue to provide you with useful and relavant information and resources.

I also know that this site would not be nearly as successful without Chris Bennett’s help with answering the KPMG questions, so I want to thank you again Chris, for all your help. I also want to thank Sarah Exel for putting me in contact with Chris is the first place! I will definitely try to bring you more information like that in the future.

Some things coming in the future are:

• A 2-part series about the 10 principles of Leadership from John c. Rich
• A post on how to deal with a busy term and stressful time (namely the 2A term). Including study habits, and time management.
• Mind Like Water, another concept from getting things done and related topics
• Sleep and productivity, including some tips on how to rise early! (Which I could really use myself)

I’m constantly thinking about new topics, so more will come out. If you want something specific, or want me to focus on a certain area, please make a request! It would really help me!

I want to thank everyone again for all your support! Have a great summer everyone!

THANK YOU!!!

Hi everyone! I’m here to introduce another book again! This time it’s Liz Lynch’s Smart Networking.

This is my first serious attempt at trying to learn how to network, and for someone that wasn’t exposed to networking at all, it was a very insightful book that not only gave me the basics to networking, but some very good tricks as well! Liz talks about how to make yourself known the people that cares, and how to network smarter rather than harder.

I’m going to repeat a few words of wisdom from Liz here for everyone to read.

Value:

Yes, the key thing to making that relationship is to provide some sort of value to them. This is not just what you can do for them, value can be tangible or intangible. Tangible values are things you can actually give them or help them with. For example, referring them to a job oppotunity, helping them with a certain task, offering advice, recommending a good service, recommending a good book etc. Intangible values are things that you can make them feel. For example, making people feel appreciated, understood, admired, welcomed, or simply make them laugh!

Value is the fundamentals of relationships, we make friends because they make us happy in one way or another. It also feels great being able to give value to others, if you’ve ever felt great about helping other people, you know what I mean!

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Know what you want and tell people:

No matter how much someone wants to help you, they can’t if they don’t know what you want. Be specific, don’t assume that the other person already knows what you want. Everyone knows you want something from them, so don’t be afraid to tell them what it is. However, when asking for something, ALWAYS give the other person a way out, or a chance to say no naturally.

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Connect others:

One of the best way to network is by connecting other people, by doing so, you would’ve given value to many people. You also get to know more about others and become someone others can turn to when they need help. This is a very positive cycle that really helps everyone!

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Obviously, I cannot tell you everything that’s on the book, or else this post will be insanely long and Liz won’t get the money she deserve for her book! However, if you have the time and the willingness to find out more, I recommend that you read this book. Personally, I learned a lot, and was very motivated by this book. It got my almost non-existent networking on track, and gave me the final push to finally starting this blog site I was thinking of making for the longest time!

I have started something to help everyone network as well! In the meet people section, you can introduce yourself or  read about others who have introduced themselves here! In the introduce yourself page, you can fill out what you need help with and what help you can give others. These two questions are actually two of the most important and to the point questions that needs to be asked when networking! We usually spend so much time just getting to these questions, so let’s just get straight to it! I will personally go over everyone’s needs and see if I can help you with it, so you know you have AT LEAST one person that will attempt to help you with your needs!

I have recently started reading a very famous book Getting Things Done by David Allen. It’s a book that tells you how to increase your productivity, decrease the stress from your work and life, and shows you how to set up an organizational system from scratch!

I personally found this book VERY helpful, I can tell when David was just introducing his techniques that it will have a positive effect on me. After setting up the system, it helped me get a lot of things done that I would’ve otherwise never done! It’s also very motivating, some of the exercises he tells you to do in this book simply motivates you to do more stuff! I definitely recommend this book to anyone who hasn’t read it yet!

For those of you who wants some quick tips from this book, one of the most important things from this book is the “next action” principle. I’m sure everyone has a to do list somewhere, or has made one before. But what kinds of things were on there? Most people’s list looks like this:

• Study for accounting midterm
• Write Report
• Join some clubs on campus
• Get a new laptop

David classified these kind of things as “stuff”, things that you have to, but doesn’t have a clear picture of what you should be doing, and thus you resist it. What do you mean study for accounting midterm? That’s such as big project, not now, don’t have the energy now!

If your to-do list if full of “stuff” and the scenario above is familiar, you should start applying the next action principle. It’s very simple, define the next action for everything on your to-do list! Meaning:

• Open binder and write down the chapter numbers and topics I need to study, and mark the pages of my notes I need to study.
• Find out what the topic of the report is, brainstorm what knowledge I need to know on the topic. Research and jot some ideas down.
• Find out what clubs are on campus, ask some friends what clubs they’re in when I meet them.
• Figure out what features I need for the laptop, and check some major electronic stores to see if anything matches.

It’s probably easier to look at the second list than the first list. This is because your brain is no longer resisting or overwhelmed by the large volume of work it learned to associate with “study for midterm”. We have a natural resistance to “stuff”, because we don’t really know where to start, but normally it only takes 10 seconds to figure out the next action, we just don’t really want to think about it, but it makes a world of difference! We have to make this decision at some point anyways, but it’s better to make it “when it shows up rather than when it blows up”! So try it right now! Pick up your to do list, and decide on the next action for everything!

However, remember just because you’ve defined a next action, doesn’t mean you have to to it right away or at all.

In Getting Things Done, you’ll learn how to set up a whole organizational system based on this fundamental concept, and how to decide the next action the moment you get the task to be more productive in life. There is so much more in the book Getting Things Done, I think for students like us that have to balance life, activities, and school, it’s a must read! I will continue writing tips from this and other books to help you out, so say tuned!

Please comment and tell us what you think about this post, or share your own productivity and organizational tips!

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***Also everyone, I’m deciding to specialize in Information Technology, and possibly work towards a CA.IT designation. I’m still in the process of researching, if anyone has any information on what I need to do to get there, please contact me. I would really appreciate it! I would prefer to not take the courses required in UW because of my full and rather unflexible schedule. Thank you very much!