Ye Olde Map Maker How to Read and Digest a Book! There's been an increase in blog postings on strategies to improve reading effectiveness. This is my take on the subject and some of the strategies I personally use to improve my reading effectiveness. How I read for leisure is different to how I read to learn. This post is focused on improving the reading we do for personal and professional development, rather than leisure reading. Charles Tremendous Jones believes that: "The only difference between who you are today and the person you will be in five years will come from the books you read and the people you associate with" I agree with Charles, this is why all effective leaders are readers! Selection When selecting a book its important to remember that the impact that a book has on your life is greatly affected by the season of your life, and where you are in your personal journey. Slacker Manager's post on "How to Read a Business Book" recommends the following websites as a means of assisting in the selection of a good book: Preparation
How to speed-read the Net The invention of the Web browser added pictures to the Internet, but all those images still haven't made reading online a pleasant experience. If you're someone who uses the Web as your main source of news, you probably have 60 bookmarks that you never use, or you open 30 browser windows simultaneously to keep track of the articles you want to read—but you never get around to all of them. Never mind the killjoy, even on a fast connection, of waiting for some Web pages to load. But there's a way to keep track of the New York Times, the Washington Post, Talkingpointsmemo.com, Wonkette—most major newspapers and nearly all blogs—in a lightweight, speed-readable format that lets you scan dozens, even hundreds, of fresh headlines a day without the time-wasting tedium of opening one Web site after another. Second, an RSS reader automatically updates itself with the latest items from the sites you tell it to watch, so it's always fresh. How do you get started?
How to Learn Speed Reading: 21 steps Steps Part 1 Learning to Speed Read <img alt="Image titled Learn Speed Reading Step 1" src=" width="728" height="546" class="whcdn" onload="WH.performance.clearMarks('image1_rendered'); WH.performance.mark('image1_rendered');">1Stop talking to yourself. Almost every reader "subvocalizes," or moves their throat as they imagine speaking the words.[1] This may help the reader remember concepts, but it's also a major barrier to speed.[2][3] Here are a few ways to keep this habit to a minimum: Chew gum or hum while you read. Part 2 Skimming Text <img alt="Image titled Learn Speed Reading Step 7" src=" width="728" height="546" class="whcdn">1Know when to skim. Part 3 Timing Your Reading Speed Community Q&A Ask a Question Tips
Academic writer's block. | Ask Metafilter Academic writer's block: tips, strategies, experiences, psychology for dealing with it? I am working on writing a Ph.D. dissertation, and my writing is going haltingly at best; there seems to be a constant threat of becoming stuck, blocked. So, I'd love to hear any tips or strategies for dealing with academic writer's block. (I'm in a humanities field in which the dissertation will be more about having interesting and original ideas, and writing a compelling argument about well-known texts, than about reporting new findings based on research. So this dissertation is, primarily, a large writing project, unlike in many other fields where the research being reported is at least as important as the writing.) My writing style up to this point doesn't seem to be a good model going forward. More generally, I'd like to hear suggestions about becoming a productive scholarly writer.
David Seah - Compact Calendar The Compact Calendar shows an entire year on a single sheet of paper, designed for quick week-based planning and scheduling. You can automatically generate one for any starting date, complete with holidays. Download either the editable Excel source files, or just grab the PDFs for quick printing. The download links are at the top-right of this page. You can post comments about the 2014 calendar on the 2014 announcement page. About the Compact Calendar The Compact Calendar presents days as a continuous candy bar of time. If you download the Excel version, you can easily change the starting date to generate a new calendar for any year you need. The download comes as a ZIP archive containing three Excel 2007 templates and six PDF versions, for all three week styles in both A4 and US Letter sizes. The week styles are: While the Excel templates include US holidays, it’s pretty easy to customize them for any country. Modifying the Compact Calendar Downloading Notes Leaving Feedback Enjoy!
10 Sticky Job Interview Situations and How to Handle Them Printer-Friendly Version by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., and Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. Job interviewing can be an unnerving experience, but if you know how to handle some of the stickiest situations encountered in interviewing, you can be that much more confident. Here are 10 of the stickiest. The Bad Interviewer. Final Thoughts on Succeeding in Job Interviews Job-seekers need to think of each interview question as an opportunity to showcase an accomplishment or strength. Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author, and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers, edits QuintZine, an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling in the job search at A Storied Career. Dr. Have you taken advantage of all of our job interviewing resources?
50 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do Self-reliance is a vital key to living a healthy, productive life. To be self-reliant one must master a basic set of skills, more or less making them a jack of all trades. Contrary to what you may have learned in school, a jack of all trades is far more equipped to deal with life than a specialized master of only one. While not totally comprehensive , here is a list of 50 things everyone should know how to do. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. Check out these books for more ideas on pertinent life skills:
The Ultimate Student Resource List - Stepcase Lifehack It’s back to school time, yet again. In the spirit of the season, I decided to gather together the best tools, websites, and advice I know of to help make you a more effective and relaxed student this semester. Since I know you’re broke, it’s all free! 10 Free Applications Every Student Needs Unless you have money coming out of your ears, you probably won’t want to shell out the cash you’ll need to get Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, EndNote, and so on — even with your student discount. OpenOffice.org: A top-quality, full-featured office productivity suite — word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, graphics editor, database, the works! 11 Online Tools Students Should Check Out Or 20, depending on how you count. Email: GmailRegister for a solid, plain-jane email address from Gmail, something like FirstnameLastname@gmail.com. 15 Websites for Students (Aside from Lifehack) 30 Pieces of Advice for Students from Lifehack.org 7 Online Research Resources
RescueTime | Free Time Management Software Job Interview Question: What is Your Greatest Weakness? When you're asked what your greatest weakness is there are several different ways you can answer, including mentioning skills that aren't critical for the job, skills you have improved on, and turning a negative into a positive. Non-Essential Skills An alternative approach is to analyze the key skills and strengths required for the position you are interviewing for and then come up with an honest shortcoming which is not essential for success in that job. For example, if you are applying for nursing job, you might share that you are not particularly adept at conducting group presentations. Skills You Have Improved Another option is to discuss skills that you have improved upon during your previous job, so you are showing the interviewer that you can make improvements, when necessary. If you use this strategy be sure not to mention anything that you improved upon that is related to the job for which you are interviewing. Turn a Negative into a Positive Sample Answers
HOW TO STUDY William J. Rapaport Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Department of Philosophy, and Center for Cognitive ScienceState University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY14260-2000 If you are reading a printed version of this, you might be interested in the Web version, at which has numerous links to other helpful Web sites (indicated in some printed versions by underlined phrases). Belorussian version Versione Italiana OUTLINE and INDEX: 1. It has been claimed that everyone has a different "learning style". But everyone surely has a different "studying style". More importantly, the way that you are studying right now might not be the best for you: How would you know? One important clarification before we begin: "Studying" is not the same thing as "doing homework"! Studying may include doing homework, but it is also a lot more, as you will see. I am going to give you some suggestions on how to study efficiently. 2. ©Batom Inc. 3. 3.1.
The 25 most difficult questions If you are one of those executive types unhappy at your present post and embarking on a New Year's resolution to find a new one, here's a helping hand. The job interview is considered to be the most critical aspect of every expedition that brings you face-to- face with the future boss. One must prepare for it with the same tenacity and quickness as one does for a fencing tournament or a chess match. This article has been excerpted from "PARTING COMPANY: How to Survive the Loss of a Job and Find Another Successfully" by William J. Morin is chairman and Cabrera is president of New York-based Drake Beam Morin, nation's major outplacement firm, which has opened offices in Philadelphia. 1. Since this is often the opening question in an interview, be extracareful that you don't run off at the mouth. 2. You should be able to discuss products or services, revenues, reputation, image, goals, problems, management style, people, history and philosophy. Give your answer a positive tone. 3. 4. 5. 6.