01 Mar 11 Why You Should Not Read Blogs, if You Want to Succeed?

I am certain you didn’t wake up today thinking of confronting such titles on a day when things are falling just in place for you, first time in many years. I know this introductory line sucks, and this is precisely why I wanted to write this blog post.

Why you shouldn’t read blogs?

The correct headline should be: why you should not read too many blogs. And the answer is because reading too many blogs takes time which else could have been devoted to taking action. Reading too many blogs would paralyze you. There are so many blogs out there, each one of them presenting different point of view, calls to different part of your mind. How can you respond to all?

How many should you read?

As many as you can in maximum two hours of time. I know I have been very liberal in allotting time to blog reading and I should have only asked for one hour. But we need to go slow when persuading people to change habit, or else our effort will not bear desirable result.

In the beginning, you should read and understand fully as many blogs as you can in 1-2 hours every day. Not a single minute extra should be wasted on this activity. But over time, you should reduce this time spent on blogging to 45-30 minutes.

What should you do in spare time then?

You should read books, industry journal, watch documentary, do research, or talk to people. In short, you should engage yourself in activities that give you more benefit. It is more about ROI on time invested. Some good blogs, like this one, do give you higher ROI on your time, but surfing through low-quality blogs take away from the overall benefit you get from reading a blog post.

Reading blog can be advantageous, and it often is, but indulging too much into it will reduce your productivity. So be judicious in your time allocation.

So what is the bottom line?

The bottom line is this: you must read various blogs, but your reading should not be limited to blog reading only. You should read from other sources as well. The varied your sources will be, the richer your experience will be.

Tags: 30 Minutes, Benefit, blog, blogging, Bottom Line, Different Point Of View, Documentary, Extra, Habit, Introductory Line, Limited, Low Quality, Maximum, Persuading People, Point Of View, Productivity, Roi, Spare Time, Talk To People, Time Allocation

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17 Dec 10 How to De-stress yourself After Work?

Do you return home with a stressed out face and exhausted mood every day? Does your family life get affected of your hectic work schedule? You are not an exception. You are merely victim of modern lifestyle stained by professional hassles and pressure it brings along. When we can’t change the professional hazard, we can definitely work on ourselves and make us strong enough to face the professional stress and come back home with a relaxed mood.

Here are few tips for your help.

Don’t carry work to home

Many of us often commit the mistake of carrying pending work home and working overnight on the same. It not only brings stress to us, but also frustrates other family members. They feel deprived of your precious time and company. If you are a family person and have kids in the house, they may feel distant and neglected. Keep your work limited within your office only. Stay late, finish work and come home relaxed.

Mentally switch off immediately after work

Many of us don’t carry work home, but just can’t forget office work even after leaving office. Remember even if you are not physically occupied with work, you may be mentally occupied. Learn to mentally switch off too immediately after work. Don’t come back home with work related worries, office conversations lingering over phone, mails. Just switch yourself off, if not your phone. Don’t overdo your office happening descriptions with family members. They may feel bored.

Pretend to be happy

Your stress and depressed face will make your beloved ones unhappy too. Try to come home with a smile on your face. If it doesn’t come naturally to you, pretend to be happy. Initially it will be frustrating, but slowly your fake smile will turn into your natural smile and you will come back home with a genuinely happy mood. Talk to all, laugh together, eat together, watch television together, and go out for movies or dinner. Soon you will wait for every evening and come back home with sheer energy.

Keep an evening program

Often aimless evening doesn’t motivate us enough to return home on time. Keep a program scheduled for every evening post work, inspiring you to return home as soon as work is finished. It could be cooking, decorating room, dining out with family, watching film at home – anything of your choice.

Tags: Beloved Ones, Bored, Conversations, Fake Smile, Family Members, Family Person, Happy Face, Hassles, Hectic Work Schedule, Laugh, Lifestyle, Limited, Mistake, Precious Time, Professional Hazard, Professional Stress, Sheer Energy, Smile On Your Face, Television, Worries

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03 May 10 How Calling a Client is Important for Your Freelance Writing Success

Even I do not like talking on phone with my clients. But that does not mean I do not call my clients. I do, and I do it with a purpose. I call my clients to know about him and his business. This helps me a great deal in working with him.

I will not tell you that you will get gazillions of benefits should you occasionally talk to your clients, but I can surely tell you about some benefits — that you will care about — of talking to a client on phone.

Benefits of doing business on phone

The fastest mode of communication: You may think chatting, texting, and e-mailing are the fastest modes of communication, but they are not. They are not real-time, in a sense that telephonic conversation is. You can ask questions and seek answers to them in real time. The movement of communication thread in telephonic conversation is very swift.
No ambiguity: It also reduces ambiguity. Unlike text, which could be interpreted in many ways depending upon the reader, spoken words tend to be clearer, as it gives away the intention of the speaker.
Get response without delay: In a typical e-mail or chat communication, you send a message, your client reads it, he takes his time, type a response, and send it, and then you get to read it. And if you need further clarification, you start the process all over again. This is time consuming. Contrastingly, question and answer is live on the phone. There is no time-lag between question asked and answer given.
You get to know your client: Knowing the nature of your client is very, very important. On e-mail, you get limited knowledge of your client. Of what kind of person he is, what he likes, what he hates, what he is fanatic about, and what he expects of you. This knowledge is a gold-mine. It will help you customize your offering.

There are many more benefits, but these are the ones that will help you increase your business. Do you still think you should not call your client?

Tags: Ambiguity, Clarification, Customize, Doing Business, E Mail, Freelance Writing Success, Gold Mine, Intention, Knowledge, Limited, Modes Of Communication, Nature, Question And Answer, Real Time, Send Message, Spoken Words, Swift, Texting, Time Lag, Time Type

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