Grabbing seat

Often interviewee is extremely nervous while seeing the interviewer for the first time and forgets basic manners by grabbing a seat without recruiter’s permission. You may not notice it, but your interviewer will and find it extremely ill-mannered. Wait for the interviewer to sit and then take your seat with his or her permission. Sit only after you greet the interviewer.

Wandering eyes

Wandering eyes right from interviewer’s tie to shoes, from ceiling to the window is extremely disturbing for the interviewer. It not only reflects candidate’s lack of attention, but also lack of confidence. Look straight into interviewer’s eyes and don’t let your eyes wander here and there. It’s extremely annoying. Look straight into interviewer’s eyes and don’t let your eyes wander here and there. The interviewer may try to find out what are you observing here and there. Make maximum eye contact, but don’t gaze at the interviewer either.

Too much personal talks

No interviewer appreciates personal talk. So avoid it. Even when asked to describe yourself, don’t include too much of personal details like where you were born, where you went for last holiday, what you do in your free time, your relationship status and the like. Even you can avoid too much of personal queries, simply by saying you don’t feel your personal life has anything to do with your professional field. Honesty will impress the right interviewer and he or she won’t intervene into your personal life either.

Fidgeting

Often in nervousness we start fidgeting objects and unknowingly it draws attention of the recruiter. Avoid this habit.

Dumb queries

Just for the sake of asking questions don’t shoot your questions to the interviewer. Ask only smart, interesting and valid questions. Don’t ask stupid questions like ‘Will I get this job?’ or ‘What’s your budget?’ It shows immaturity.

Writing is hard work. Go and ask anyone who is in the business for long and he or she will tell you what a drag this is. As they say it, “The worst part of writing career is to sit still on your desk and write.”

Writing never comes easy, no matter at what stage you are into your writing career. It will never come easy. It takes time, effort, and pushing from your side. Do not assume that someone just sits on the desk and starts stroking keys and articles or books or reports or whatever starts forming itself. It never happens this way. To draw an analogy, let me tell you that writing is akin to polishing gold necklace—it required time, determination, precision, attention to details, and ability to continue even when your mind is saying “F” Word out loud.

I have been long enough in this field to realize this. Initially, I was delusional. I thought it will come easy to me as I am into this since I was a kid is class 3rd. But, as I wrote I was delusional.

Should you take up writing?

Indeed, you should. If writing is tough then what is not? Nothing is easy. You will have to exert yourself in everything that you do. But there is one thing about writing that none of the profession shares, at least not in the essence that writing does.

Writing creates a world, where you are in control of what each of your words will do. But, still your readers are in control. As it is upon them to make whatever sense they want from the writing. Writing is a game being played between the minds of the writer, readers and everything that falls in between.

This indeed makes writing fun.

Yes. Writing is fun. In the truest sense of the word, not in the sense that mean no work all play.

-Firstly, organize everything.  Don’t just make sure that your work environment is well organized and neat, but make sure that your day follows suit.  Set aside time for phone calls and checking your email so that you don’t get bogged down trying to keep up with both, as either could end up dominating your day and interfering with how much actual work you are able to get done for that day.

-Secondly, don’t fall into the work distraction pitfalls.  These include mostly bringing in aspects of your personal life to work.  Such as browsing the internet, making personal calls, having a non-work related conversation with coworkers.  All of these are huge time wasters and will significantly cut into how much work you are able to complete each day.

-Thirdly, try using one single planner for all of your daily goals and activities.  This way you’re never confused or having to check more than one place to keep yourself organized.

-Fourthly, figure out your work strengths and weaknesses, and be completely honest in your self assessment.  This way you can focus on your strengths in a clinch to get work done and done well, and also be aware of your weaknesses so that they do not dominate your performances.  By pointing out your weaknesses you can become a more complete and better worker.

-Finally, know when to take a break.  It’s unhealthy for your body to sit down for long periods of time, as it constricts blood flow to different parts of the body.  Every 60-90 minutes you should be taking a quick 5-10 minute break where you stand up and take a few steps, either to walk away from your desk for a moment or to just walk around your office.  Your mind and body will feel much better, and in the end you’ll get more work done because of that.

And the first thing you should be doing, is just being a healthy person in general.  Eating right, exercising, getting enough sleep, and maintaining positive social relationships are all key to being a healthy human being.  The better you feel from a health perspective, the better you’re going to feel in all the other parts of your life.  So personal maintenance is key to professional maintenance.

Make sure you keep yourself well organized at work, that way if you’re asked for a report at an unexpected time, you can find the necessary materials quickly.  That way you remove the pressure of having to slap something together at the last minute, by always being well prepared with a well organized desk environment.

Keep spaces open in your organizer so that you have time to do things for yourself.  It may sound a little silly, scheduling time for you to read, but this way you make sure to have the time available.  Making sure your personal time never gets ignored in favor of work ensures you stay more relaxed, and staying as relaxed as possible under pressure is the name of the game.  You’ll perform better, and you’ll find yourself to be a happier person.

Choose a career where you’re motivated by your own will to succeed, opposed to being driven by a paycheck.  You’ll find yourself much more stressed if you end up in a job you hate, and are only working long hours to make ends meet.  Sometimes this can be fairly unrealistic depending upon your personal situation, but try to gravitate towards jobs that you actually want to carry out.

Learn how to know when it’s time to call it quits.  Killing yourself for an extra four hours everyday isn’t going to get that much more work done, and is only going to cut into your life, and make you feel more stressed.  You always pay for the stressful years of your life later on, from health problems, to social problems.  Know when it’s time to tell your boss or company a polite “no” when it comes to compromising yourself for your job.  Get your work done, and do it well, but no job is worth compromising who you are.

Clean up your desk, as a first option.  Keep your workstation clean and neat looking, as that will always improve your mood and increase the likelihood that you will feel better, and feeling better means productivity.  A clean work station is a happy workstation after all.

Organize that desktop, it’s not enough for your station to just be clean, but you should have everything well organized as well.  The better your organization is, the more you’ll be able to accomplish quickly.  Accomplishing your goals at a comfortable, quick pace will help you feel better, and a positive attitude will help you continue working hard and being as productive as possible.

Don’t let your email ruin your workday.  Everyone has trouble keeping up with their inboxes over the course of the day, but the key is to know when you’re too bogged down, and when it’s okay to give up on trying to keep up with everything for the day.  If you find yourself trapped within the depths of your inbox, try to find the messages that are most pressing, and concentrate on those, leaving the ones that are not as urgent for a later time.  This way you won’t feel trapped, and will be able to keep a positive productivity healthy attitude.

Finally, don’t surf the internet at work.  Reading about stories, or visiting fun websites at work can be bad for your personal morale, as it will remind you that you are stuck at work, even if you do not want to be.  Commit that time at work completely to the job, and focus more on accomplishing your tasks, and taking positives from that.  This way you stay focused, and upbeat about work, not about what else you could be doing with your time.

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.