This brief post will help you secure your Gmail account from the burglars who are out there to steal your mail IDs and other information. Securing Gmail is an easy task. Just follow the things written below and your Gmail will become secure.

Forcing Gmail to use https connection

The very first thing you need to do is to force Gmail to open a secure channel for all your online communication by using https instead of http. Using https is free. To use it, all you need to do is make a slight change in the settings. Follow the following steps

1. Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account as you regularly do.
2. Step 2: Click on the “settings” that appears at the top of the page.
3. Step 3: Make sure you are on the General Tab under settings.
4. Step 4: On fifth position from top, you will find “Browser connection”.
5. Step 5: Check the Radio button beside “Always use https”.
6. Step 6: Click save changes at the bottom of the page.
7. Step 7: Restart your Gmail. Now you will notice that your Gmail has https prefix in place of http.

Sign out all other sessions

How many times did it happen to you that you logged in our office or home PC and forgot to log out when leaving office or home? And how many times we asked our family or colleague to log you from your Gmail? And do you remember where all you logged in: Cell phones, cybercafé, friends’ PC, your bosses’ laptop?

There is no need to panic. There is a way in Gmail to log you out from all the devices you logged in at other places. Follow the following steps and you can easily do that.

1. Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account.
2. Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of the page.
3. Step 3: Find “Last account activity: X minutes ago on this computer.  Details” written at the bottom. You may or may not find “This account is open in 1 other location at this IP (122.162.225.247)”this written before the “last login” text.
4. Step 4: Click the “Details” link.
5. Step 5: A window will pop up.
6. Step 6: Go to the window and click “Sign out all other sessions” button.

That’s it. You are done. Your Gmail is secure now.

Preparing for the worst is never a bad idea, and that’s especially true of your job.  Try to keep that in mind as you brave the networking world, despite your shyness.  It’s rough, but try going to professional networking events around you.  Whether it be seminars in your field, or any other gathering of the like where other professionals are likely to be found.  Or if it helps don’t think of this as just job related, but rather a chance for you to meet more people in the same area as you are.  Developing professional relationships with others that know what you’re going through is always a good thing.

Now you just have to battle the route cause of your tendency to be shy in public gatherings.  If you fear that you don’t have anything interesting to say, prepare for that beforehand.  Because a professional atmosphere is much different than a regular social gathering, just being knowledgeable about your industry is a good start.  If you’re good at your job, you’re already well prepared.  Just make industry related insights, and you can make connections either with people that share those thoughts, or those that are intrigued by such thinking.

Finally, it’s always a good strategy to bring someone you know to an event, so that you have a partner.  You may feel more at ease by bringing a colleague, or friend that you have in the same industry.  Anything that helps you feel relaxed and casual.  Stay courteous and positive, and you’ll find networking to be pretty easy.  You just have to extend your hand so someone else can take hold.

Start of by knowing your audience.  The format of an email to a colleague, opposed to one directed at your boss, you’ll find are written a different way.  Think about how well you know the person, as well as how they fit into the company ladder, as each point will affect your tone throughout the email.  But no matter how well you think you know a person, never get too informal.  Don’t compromise your professionalism for anything.

Know what you’re writing about, before you compose the email.  If it’s an answer to a question, make sure that you know the answer forwards and backwards.  The worst thing you can do is give an incorrect answer when someone has come to you for help.  So do your research!

Keep the purpose of the email in mind, and stay on topic with that purpose.  You want the email to just be a quick question or answer.  Something that a person can read with ease, take what they need, and then move on to getting more work done afterward.   You don’t want your email to serve as a distraction, not at work.

Address everyone formally, and never make the email about your personal issues.  The last thing you want to do is drone on about something that’s making you angry at work.  Just stay on topic, keep it short, and remain professional and courteous.

One of the most common methods, and one that you should most definitely be employing already, is to keep an idea notepad with you at all times.  Not necessarily an actual pen and paper mini notebook, but something to function as such.  If you have a smart phone, like an iPhone or Blackberry, you can use their note taking features to quickly jot down anything that pops into your head.  This keeps you ahead of the game with a wealth of ideas that you can look to later, when you find yourself in need.

Read.  Can’t stress that one enough.  The more you put your energy towards learning new things, or reading new ideas, whether through books or magazines or online articles, the more information you’re taking in that you can call upon at a later date.  Extraordinarily useful when coming up with a new topic to write about.

Find a friend or colleague to bounce a few ideas off.  Let them know about the concept and tell them some things you were considering, or ways you want to approach writing about the idea.  The input they have could help you guide yourself into a brilliant new direction you couldn’t have thought of on your own.

If you find yourself struggling to think of anything while sitting at your desk, take a break.  Go outside for a few minutes, get some fresh air and clear your head.  You’ll find yourself feeling much more refreshed, and after wicking away the fatigue, you’ll be in a much better place to re-energize your thinking.

Finally, as a last resort, twist around another idea you’ve already read about or heard about.  If you can’t find an idea all to your own, borrow someone else’s.  Don’t just rehash an article or book that you’ve read before of course.  But take what you learned there, or the basic concept, and apply it to your own outlook, and your own unique writing voice to manufacture an entirely new piece of work.