8 Ways to Get More Organized

The world�s most successful people wear a lot of hats, because that�s what it takes to form a business, scale a brand and keep up with your personal life. How do these people stay so productive? They make sure to always be organized. Here are a handful of ways that you can become organized, too.

1. Organize your time. One of the most precious resources we have is time. By keeping track of your daily schedule, you can make sure you�re spending enough time on the things that matter and spending minimal time or outsourcing less important tasks. Whether you use an old school planner or various mobile apps, find a scheduler that works for you.

2. Keep your e-mail organized. Develop a system to ensure that your inbox never gets out of hand. By setting up filters and folders, unsubscribing from unimportant newsletters, and using tools like Boomerang to schedule outgoing and incoming mail, you can keep your e-mail account in tip top shape.

3. Some of the most successful leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs, like Robert Bratt, lead extremely busy lives. One golden rule many of them follow is to organize their mornings. Do whatever it takes to put you in an organized mindset, which may include making your bed, eating a healthy breakfast, or already having your phone charged.

4. Keep your desk clear and neat. Desk clutter can seriously zap your energy and make it difficult to focus. Make it a point to clear off your desk every morning or evening. If you have a pile of things to go through, designate one day a week to tackle it.

5. Just as you organize your desk, organize your workspace, whether it�s a cubicle, home office or hotel room. Wherever you�re working from, keep it organized and clutter-free.

6. Prioritize the things that are most important. Then, spread out less important things throughout the week or get rid of them completely. One major key to being organized is knowing what needs to be organized and what isn�t necessary. This holds true for everything from works tasks to your personal life.

7. Plan as much as possible in advance. Deciding what you�re going to do for the day, week, month and year ahead will make it much easier to stay on track. Plus, if something changes, you�ll already have a schedule that you can easily tweak. When everything is written down, it�s easier to plan ahead.

8. Always make sure to set aside time in the evening. You should utilize your evenings to prepare for the following day and to unwind so that you�re refreshed the next morning.

Nobody is born an organized person. The only way to become organized is by building solid, effective habits over time. Also, make sure to set aside time for yourself to truly strike a great balance. Being organized isn�t about achieving perfection, but instead about limiting stress and clutter, saving time and moving forward.

Facebook Is a Business Asset

Social media is an important part of the online strategy of any business. Businesses that take advantage of the massive reach of the medium increase their chances of being found by customers and increasing sales. One particular company famous for social media is Facebook, and the use of the social site can be a huge asset to any business regardless of the industry. Including important information on the page dedicated to a specific company is an important starting point for any business or organization looking to make the leap into social media. With millions of active users looking to interact, getting the right information into the hands of potential customers is vital to the social experience.Important InformationA quick look at Sentry Energy Production’s Facebook page reveals all the important information a business needs to include on the site. Contact information including a phone number and address should always be a part of company correspondence. Plus, the inclusion of a link to the company’s official website is necessary for a few reasons. First, visitors can be directed directly to the right website. Secondly, visitors are reassured that the right Facebook location has been located, which means they are following, liking, and sharing information accordingly. The core information provided on any social media site should inspire confidence that customers and fans are in the correct place.The Right InformationGetting the right information to Facebook requires proofreading company data, like phone numbers, email addresses, and other contact information, but the concept goes a bit further. Knowing what is being posted to the page and evaluating the content is necessary due to the size and scope of Facebook. Generally, businesses rely on a handful of people to research content thoroughly for assurance that nothing gets put on the account that can be viewed negatively, put the company at risk, or violate any terms of service. While the audience is generally receptive to the posts of a business, after all they liked the page, being sure the right information is being passed on is important.The Social ExperienceThe social experience is more prevalent on Facebook than on any other due to the high volume of users. Companies and organizations are able to interact with customers, coworkers, competitors, and other industry specialists. In addition, businesses can promote themselves, share product information, or provide customer service through the website. Facebook is a tool that allows instant communication across traditional computers and mobile platforms, which means a company is always plugged into the consciousness of consumers.In the end, Facebook is an asset for every business as long as the company includes important information in the account, double checks the posts to the page, and is open to the social experience. Social media is growing every day, which means businesses that get involved early on have a better chance of penetrating and perfecting the process before the competition. In the business world of today, taking advantage of every asset is vital to staying one step ahead of everyone else.

Stock Market Investing

You may have heard it said that investing in the stock market is not for sissies. That maxim is not necessarily true. As with any new venture, if you do your homework and learn some basics, study historical performance, and enter with eyes wide open, over time stock investments can pay off handsomely. There are numerous excellent support resources such as Online Trading Academy. Use these resources to better understand the following broad concepts, and then branch out into more in-depth studies.

Stocks Vs. Mutual Funds

When purchasing stocks, you can choose to buy either individual stocks or mutual funds. Individual stock purchases represent the purchase of stock in an individual company such as Apple or XYZ Company. As the stockholder, you decide how many shares to buy, and then initiate the purchase through a brokerage. Generally it is considered more adventurous to purchase individual stocks, as you are putting all of your eggs in that one company’s basket. However, the return on investment may pay off in the form of high reward.

Mutual funds are more diversified, as each fund is comprised of a number of individual stocks, often all from a related sector, which is managed by a professional fund manager. Because performance risk is shared amongst many individual companies, the risk is minimized. Conversely, it also tends to minimize the reward and is considered a more passive investment option.

How Age Factors Into Determining Trading Strategy

Before investing in the stock market, take time to determine your goals. Are you working towards retirement savings? If so, is retirement likely to be forty years from now, or are you already in your late fifties? If retirement is at least fifteen years away, time is on your side. A high risk, high reward approach may be acceptable because there is ample time to correct and recover from those investments that do not pay off. If you are rapidly approaching, or already in retirement, you should strongly consider a lower risk, potentially lower reward approach. Any costly stumble could position you in a situation you don�t have time to recover from.

When To Buy And Sell

Novice investors should understand the meaning of buy low, sell high. Always purchase when your desired stock or fund is at a low price. Analyze the stock�s price chart over time to understand its pricing trends. Sell when the price is up.

Pumps To Get Gas

Fracking is a process used to get gas from deep inside the ground. High pressue is used with water in order to release the gas from the ground, and fracking pumps are then used in order to get the gas to the designated area. The actual process of fracking can be extensive, and the work is very intense. If there is one mistake while pumping or digging, there could be an explosion due to the gas that is in the ground.

A location has to be found before fracking can begin. Most of the locations are offshore so that there is as little risk to homes as possible. A drill is used to get to the layer of soil directly underneath the first layer of water. Casing is used to isolate the water zone, and cement is poured into the area to give a way to pump out the gas. Before the gas is pumped out, there are several gallons of water distributed into the casing. Sand and chemicals are also used. The drill used could go as far as 10,000 feet into the ground before any kind of usable gas is found. The mixture of water, sand and chemicals will cause the ground to crack, releasing the gas that is then pumped back out.

Old Telecom Cabinets Get New Life As Solar Panel Bases

While we put great hope in technology to save our future, it takes its toll on the environment as well. We are not just talking about harmful emissions and waste during any technological production but also all this junk that pile up on our land after one device outperforms another. The pile grows everyday with the growth of our technology, which results into tons of obsolete useless garbage of outdated electronics just sitting on our land. Most of the progressive electronic devices are small and come in place of bulky old machinery.

Luckily, the world is full of clever ideas that put old and bulky electronics to use. As an example, after the phone technology revolution and switch to Voice Over Internet phones, telecommunication cabinets have gotten much smaller which led to hundreds of older cabinets sitting unused. The masterminds at Genesis Green have found a perfect solution on how to use the abandoned cabinets and save the earth from junk. They created OSS – Onsite Solar Systems.

The basic idea behind OSS is to use old telecommunication cabinets as bases for solar panels. This idea has proven to be not only financially beneficial but much more flexible compared to rooftop mounted solar panels. In other words, we can rely upon technology to save the earth since new instruments for thin-film measurement needed in solar cells production make solar panels more affordable; but at the same time we must not forget about our own input, and search for ways to lessen the harmful effects of technological progress.

BizTalk EDI Training for Experts

QuickLearn, the Seattle-based company that specializes in Microsoft Visual Studio and BizTalk training and that wrote the Microsoft Official Curriculum for BizTalk Server, is offering expert BizTalk EDI training courses in July and November.

These three-day courses are for experienced BizTalk administrators and developers who need to learn more about applying advanced b2b integration solutions using EDIFACT, X12 (incl. HIPAA), and AS2 in a BizTalk Server environment.

These courses can be attended in person in Seattle as well as remotely. They include instructor-led presentation materials, demonstrations, and hands-on labs. Participants will learn to create parties, configure profiles, incl. protocol and encoding settings, create EDI and AS2 agreements as well as batches of EDI messages, split batched messages, configure the creation and processing of acknowledgement messages, customize EDIFACT and X12 schemas, build maps for transforming EDI messages, configure tracking and reporting for EDI message processing, and route messages using EDI-specific properties.

An Attractive Option for Washington DC Commuters

Do you live in the Washington D.C. area or are you planning to relocate there? Are you looking for a new apartment? Windsor at Potomac Vista offers beautiful Woodbridge VA apartments with sweeping views of the Potomac River. These apartments are reasonably priced, pet-friendly, and packed with luxury amenities. Potomac Mills Mall is close and a Wegmans Food Store is conveniently located nearby.
Most importantly: It�s easy to commute to Washington, DC: Route 1 right outside the door and I-95 only minutes away. Residents can also use a shuttle service to the Pentagon City Metro Station on weekdays.
The apartments sit on beautifully landscaped grounds and have all of the amenities one could expect: a clubhouse, a cafe with business center, as well as a fitness center and swimming pool. There are also a playground and dog walking areas.

Acoustic Guitars

Guitars have always been and probably will always be some of my favorite instruments of all times. There is simply no denying it that not that much can compare with the experience of holding a Dean 12 string in your hands and creating beautiful music. This is something that everybody has to try no matter their age and gender. Such experiences make our lives fun and fun is good for us.

Effective Leadership Means Managing the Ups & Downs of Business

Any business is subject to the whims of the market. Whether or not the business is financial, commodity, sports cards, or toothpaste, there are ups and downs in the normal business cycle. The key is not responding too harshly when times are tough or too generously when times are extremely profitable. A glance at the profile of Stephen A Wynn in WSJ demonstrates how effective leadership can be a calming presence in an organization. Patience, a cool head, and a willingness to adapt on the fly are trademarks of an effective leader to bring a company out of a dip in revenue or keep the company grounded when revenues are soaring.

Patience

Every manager realizes that situations change and markets can alter themselves with time. A degree of patience is needed before passing judgment on the success or failure of any type of strategy. Circumstances can change quickly, which means that assets and liabilities can be very different from day to day. Executive committee members realize that some visions take a while to present significant benefits, and taking the necessary time to analyze them is paramount to a winning organization.

Keeping a Cool Head

People in general have a tendency to be emotional, but leaders that keep a cool head in good and bad times have a way of showing the workforce the right path to take. While it is easy to lead a company when revenues are increasing, it is necessary to keep everyone focused on long-term goals. The same is true about tough times, because a leader has the responsibility to pull the company out of the situation and reverse the trend to the positive.

Willingness to Change Quickly

Moving quickly is the hallmark of many business endeavors. Business is always changing, and flexible companies are able to adapt to the market quickly. Leadership has the ability to steer any company away from difficulty, but often the time to formulate a strategy is not present. Adjusting on the fly and making minor tweaks in the organization are often required to optimize and perfect performance. Regardless of what industry the business operates in when a leader is quick on their feet, the organization can be better served in the long run.

In the end, patience, a cool head, and fast adjustments make a good leader a great one. Ups and downs are going to happen in every industry imaginable. Effective leaders find the positive that offsets the negative, which takes the company into familiar territory. Leading by example is nearly always the best course of action, and when employees see their executives paving the way, everyone pitches in to embrace the situation.

Habits of Successful People

Need to get into the right frame of mind in order to achieve your goals? Adopt these habits that most successful people swear by. Here are nine things that a majority of successful people do on a regular basis.

1. They want to learn new things. Also, they want to gain that new knowledge as quickly as possible. To do this, read 15 pages of non-fiction every day.

2. The visualize their goals. Picture what it will look like when you finally achieve your goal. Books like �As a Man Thinketh� by James Allen and �Psycho-Cybernetics� by Maxwell Maltz will help teach you how to do this.

3. They prioritize. Figure out what the single most important task is for the day ahead, then execute it as needed. Set a time limit on achieving each step of the goal, too. When you set limitations, you create urgency, which encourages you to get through each task quicker. Write down the goal and the steps you�ll take to reach it to help you stay on track.

4. They manage their money. There�s a ton of advice out there about managing your money, whether you�re having trouble budgeting, investing, saving, or paying back debt. It�s important to be financially stable and to be able to make sound financial decisions. Money will be coming in and going out, and you�ll need to know how to handle both.

5. They wake up early. Most successful people like Yosef Meystel can�t accomplish anything if they sleep in. Need to start getting out of bed earlier? Wake up 15 minutes earlier than you usually do. After doing this for three days, wake up another 15 minutes earlier. Continue to do this until you wake up at the time you want to. Eventually, you�ll naturally wake up at that time and you�ll barely even use your alarm clock!

6. They set goals. Write down the things you want to achieve, both short-term and long-term. Regularly refer to this goal list and update it as needed.

7. They exercise and eat a nutritious diet. It�s practically impossible to keep up with this type of lifestyle if you�re not healthy and energetic.

8. They network. It�s important to connect with other people who share the same work goals. This is a way to share ideas, partner with other influencers, and work through common problems.

9. They set boundaries. Write down a code of conduct for yourself and a set of guidelines to follow when it comes to your career.

There�s no secret to success. It�s in the details, routines, and habits of people who want to achieve their goals badly enough to do whatever it takes.