The answer lies partly in getting started early — which is why you should thinking about saving for retirement now. When you’re in your 20s or 30s, retirement can feel like a long way away, but you’ll see in the strategies we’re about to go over that this is actually the best time to set yourself up financially. (Click here to tweet this thought.)

Here are eight techniques for financial planning that will ensure you’re comfortable when you’re ready to retire:

1. Invest systematically based upon your investment goals

Systematic investing provides discipline to save regularly rather than arbitrarily. It helps reduce the risk of timing the markets and brings down the average cost of your investments.

So how do you invest systematically? By creating a budget. A budget will allow you to manage your economic resources so you can make conscious decisions about spending. You must spend less than you earn and save the difference. You can build your own program, participate in your employer’s retirement plan — often called a 401k — or find another program run by an investment firm.

2. Harness the power of compounding

Compounding means generating investment earnings from investment earnings. This is incredibly effective over the long haul — so much so that once you understand how it works, you’re likely to join in.

Here’s an example from LearnVest: If, at age 33, you invest just $100 each month and earn 1.5 percent annual interest, that money will turn into nearly $60,000 by the time you’re 70. Powerful, right?

3. Look for an employer that supports your goals

The best companies to work for usually have great employee benefit programs. Those programs may include 401k retirement plans with matching contributions, employee stock purchase plans, and, although this is becoming more rare, defined benefit pension plans.

If you are lucky enough to have several job offers, these perks should go into your decision-making process. The right employer can help you reach your financial goals.

4. Maximize your contributions to retirement vehicles

Many great employers who provide retirement savings plans match a certain percentage of your contribution. However, they often do not match the maximum you can contribute.

Many employees only contribute up to the employer match, foregoing the maximum tax deferral allowed by Uncle Sam. If you’re self-employed, you have a number of options to save for retirement there, too, including an IRA. If at all possible, max out on these contributions, and you’ll see a huge return down the line.

 5. Focus on low-cost investments

Minimizing costs should be a major part of every investment strategy. Investment expenses could include fees you pay an advisor, fees mutual funds or index funds pay their managers or other administrative fees funds are charged by their accountants, lawyers or the government.

Let’s say you invest $100,000 over 30 years, then reinvest all earnings at 6 percent. If your investment expense had an annual cost of .9 percent, you would have $439,000 at the end of 30 years. If your investment expense had an annual cost of .25 percent, you would have $574,000 at the end of 30 years. Vanguard gives another great example.

This is a sizeable difference, especially when there’s no direct correlation between the cost of a investment and the investment return.

6. Marry the right spouse

You should, of course, marry for love not money. However, most arguments in a marriage revolve around money, so it’s helpful if your savings and investment philosophies are in sync. Whether you pool your income or keep some or all of your income separate, have a plan for spending, saving and investing that you can both agree to for the long term.

And while divorce is never expected or intended, take steps to make sure it doesn’t reduce your retirement assets.

7. If you have debt, pay off your high-interest debt first

Not all debt is created equal. Pay off your high-interest rate, then follow that by attacking your lower-rate debt.

In today’s low-interest rate environment, it makes sense to pay off your debt before you continue to save. But you still want to have some savings as an emergency fund if you need it.

8. Volunteer to help those less fortunate

Helping people less fortunate than you will remind you how lucky you are to be in your financial situation, even if you have a long way to go before reaching your goals. This understanding, along with the fear of being in their shoes, will help you follow through on your financial plan. It will also help you find higher purpose in life.

Rich Grant spent over 30 years working at an international accounting firm. He now serves on boards and helps others plan for retirement at Boomerbaggage.com.

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The post Why and How You Should Start Saving for Retirement Before You Hit 35 appeared first on Brazen Life.

Let’s get a drum-roll for your next topic…

Brazen’s Fall Run-Around

The topic: How are you learning a new skill?

New skills can help you land a job you enjoy, give you the chance to snag a promotion at work and provide opportunities to meet new people. Plus, it’s fun!

After publishing a post from author Josh Kaufman on secrets to learning new skills more quickly than you ever thought possible, we wondered how Brazenites are going about skill acquisition.

If you’re learning a new language, how are you doing it? Through a class at a university, or by traveling through another continent?

If you’re teaching yourself to code, what tools are helping you get there? Maybe a Skillshare class or an old-school book?

What skills are you adding to your arsenal, and how are you doing it?

How to participate: Write a post about this topic on your blog, and leave the link to that post below in the comments. (Only one post per participant.)

Deadline: November 15, 2013. That gives you plenty of time to share your story. Then watch for your link in our next Run-Around post in late November.

Ready to get writing? We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

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The post Brazen’s Fall Run-Around: Tell Us How You’re Learning a New Skill appeared first on Brazen Life.

Whether you work for a multinational corporation or a one-man startup, their tips are worth checking out to turn your blog into the audience-building, client-engaging machine it can be.

Read on for their advice:

Take Readers Behind the Scenes

“Even in a ‘dry, boring old industry,’ your blog readers will be fascinated to see the hidden, behind-the-scenes vantage point of the company. Incorporate photos or video to enhance plain text blog posts, and use a variety of writers to bring in diverse perspectives from the team. And, of course, post regularly to keep your audience engaged.”

-Doreen Bloch, CEO and Founder, Poshly Inc.

Go Pop Culture

“Using pop culture references can be a great refresher. For example, my company blog focuses on the subject of presentation and video. When Coachella featured a Tupac hologram earlier this year, the Web went abuzz with questions asking if this was a new feature of presentations. Of course, we jumped on the discussion, explained some costs and our opinions on the matter.”

-Kenny Nguyen, CEO and Founder, Big Fish Presentations

Win With Video

“We liven up our blog by periodically creating a video-based post. Just use the webcam on your computer to speak openly about a specific subject that’s relevant to your audience. Our readers feel more connected to us when we create video posts, and the responses have been overwhelmingly positive.”

-Bhavin Parikh, CEO, Magoosh Test Prep

Stock Up on Case Studies

“I learned the importance of stories through the book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. Even when a topic is boring, people love to hear about the emotional struggles that people faced when implementing something new. For example, if you are in the concrete industry, talk about the joy your customer had when they got their driveway paved. Think about both the product and the people behind it.”

-Lawrence Watkins, CEO and Founder, Great Black Speakers

Showcase Your Clients

“Interview your best clients for their stories about how your company gave them value, and inject some personality into the blog. Ask these clients to explain how their perception changed from boring and stuffy after working together. Even if the process is boring, get them excited about the results and share those with prospective clients on the blog.”

-Kelly Azevedo, Founder, She’s Got Systems

Become the Industry Expert

“My target market for RewardMe was restaurant and franchise owners. We were in a dry and boring industry — the customer loyalty space. Instead of exclusively blogging about customer loyalty, I decided to become an expert in local marketing. We wrote about local social marketing, restaurant hardware and customer loyalty. We were so good that we now rank very high on search engines.”

-Jun Loayza, President, Ecommerce Rules

Shake Up Your Industry!

“If you think your industry is dry and boring, you need to shake things up by coming up with ways to make it worth paying attention to. Why does it matter to you? Get personal, share success stories of people in your industry or your clients and don’t be afraid to turn what you’re ‘supposed’ to sound like upside down.”

-Nathalie Lussier, Creator, The Website Checkup Tool

Create Internal Excitement

“Get employees to blog about something that excites them. We created the ‘Prolific Innovation Fund,’ which allows everyone to purchase a mobile accessory and write a review on it. It is creating team excitement, innovation and a lot of great relevant content for our company blog.”

-Bobby Emamian. CEO, Prolific Interactive

Provide Unique Value

“No matter what your company does, there’s information, inspiration and/or entertainment customers are looking for in the space. Provide something consistently valuable — and something people passionate about this space couldn’t get elsewhere — and you’ll engage your current users while finding new ones.”

-Derek Flanzraich, CEO and Founder, Greatist

Entertain With Infographics

“For the average American, the crowdfunding industry and the JOBS Act may seem like alien concepts filled with complicated, dry details. We’re currently working on an infographic to feature on our blog that will detail the impact of the JOBS Act and the widespread change the implementation of the Act will bring. The visual representation of the change makes it approachable and engaging.”

-Eric Corl, President and Co-Founder, Fundable LLC

Make It Trendy

“Tie your business into the hottest trends. For example, anyone in any industry can blog about ‘What Fall TV Previews Teach Us About [your industry]‘ since you can take elements of fall TV previews — promotion strategy, engagement, specific show themes — and spin it for your own business. It’s all relative!”

-Melissa Cassera, President and CEO, Cassera Communications

Make Others Better

“A counterintuitive approach is to invite the other ‘dry, boring’ players to participate in your fun. Get them excited at what you’re doing in the industry, and encourage them to participate in your blog. Feature your competitors! Be the source. Great players make the players around them better. (At my first company, I had the job of blogging in the vending machine industry. Yes, it can be done.)”

-Luke Burgis, Director, ActivPrayer

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons. 

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The post 12 Ideas for Revamping Your Boring Company Blog appeared first on Brazen Life.

Body language is one of the most important and powerful types of communication in the history of the world. A wink conveys an air of mysticism and charm, a simple raised hand in front of your face tells everyone you’re not going to put up with what’s happening anymore, and a leg popped behind you with your head tilted back is the international symbol for glee and whimsy.

How you present yourself physically at work can truly help (or hinder) your career. According to a study led by Amy J.C. Cuddy (@amyjccuddy), an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, standing in a power pose for a few minutes before an interview can literally help you get the job. Watch Cuddy’s excellent TED Talk on power poses here. According to Cuddy, power posing also increases people’s tolerance for risk and pain and their ability to think abstractly.

So what are some simple tricks you can do to make yourself a better negotiator, make a difficult task easier and encourage more collaboration? We talked with Dr.Carol Kinsey Goman, the author of 12 books including The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help — or Hurt — How You Lead, about her best body language workplace tips.

1. To reach an agreement, send engagement signals

Goman says she has seen work groups reach agreements faster by showing engaged body language such as smiling, nodding, mirroring and gesturing. ”Interestingly, that positive result is the same whether the display was the product of an unconscious reaction or a strategic decision,” she said.

2. To make a difficult task seem easier, smile

This is basically faking it ’til you make it for your body. You’re tricking yourself into thinking you’re enjoying this very difficult task.

“No matter the task,” Goman says, “when you grimace or frown while doing it, you are sending your brain the message, ‘This is really difficult. I should stop.’ The brain then responds by sending stress chemicals into your bloodstream. And this creates a vicious circle: the more stressed you are, the more difficult the task becomes.” But if you smile, you will start eventually thinking that this work is really not so bad.

3. To reduce resistance, hand out your business card

If you’re standing in a room with your arms folded and looking down, no one will approach you. Sitting with your legs crossed gives off the same signal. However, if you literally open your body up when a person comes into the room — either by giving them a card or getting them a cup of coffee — this will lessen the resistance.

4. To maximize your authority, curb your enthusiasm

Sometimes appearing over-excited can make you look weak. “In situations where you want to maximize your authority, minimize your movements,” Goman says. “Take a deep breath, bring your gestures down to waist level and pause before making a key point. When you appear calm and contained, you look more powerful.”

5. To defuse a tense situation, realign your body

If a person is arguing with you, it’s most likely because they feel they aren’t being heard. One way to make that person feel better and show good leadership is to physically align yourself with them, either by standing or sitting next to them. Conversely, an action that will make the argument worse is to square your body to the other person or to move in closer, says Goman.

6. To increase participation, look like you’re listening

If you really want to show people you’re listening, put down your phone! Goman says you can show your focus by turning your head and torso to face the person directly and by making eye contact. Leaning forward, nodding and tilting your head are other nonverbal way to show you’re engaged and paying attention.

7. To encourage collaboration, remove barriers

Literally, remove any barriers. You should take away anything that blocks your view or forms a barrier between you and the rest of the team. “Even at a coffee break, be aware that you may create a barrier by holding your cup and saucer in a way that seems deliberately to block your body or distance you from others,” Goman says.

8. To connect instantly with someone, shake hands

A good handshake is the foundation of so much good business. Goman cites a study that found people are two times more likely to remember you if you shake hands with them.

“Touch is the most primitive and powerful nonverbal cue. Touching someone on the arm, hand or shoulder for as little as one-fortieth of a second creates a human bond. In the workplace, physical touch and warmth are established through the handshaking tradition, and this tactile contact makes a lasting and positive impression,” she says.

9. To show agreement, mirror expressions and postures

When clients or business colleagues unconsciously imitate your body language, it’s their way of nonverbally saying they like or agree with you. “When you mirror other people with intent, it can be an important part of building rapport and nurturing feelings of mutuality,” she says.

10. To improve your speech, use your hands

Sometimes people say making too many movements with your hands connotes nervousness, but that’s only if you aren’t doing it in the right way. “Since gesture is integrally linked to speech, gesturing as we talk can actually power up our thinking,” says Goman.

Meredith Lepore is the former editor of the women’s career site The Grindstone. Before that, she was on staff at Wall Street Letter and Business Insider and was a contributing writer for LearnVest. She earned her Masters in Magazine, Newspaper and Online Journalism from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University after graduating with a degree in Brain and Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester. Meredith resides in New York full-time and enjoys reading, jogging, shopping and playing with her puppy, Otis.

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The post 10 Simple Body Language Tricks That Will Do Wonders For Your Career appeared first on Brazen Life.

That’s right. Can you imagine giving up email? I wasn’t so sure about it either. But after a year working at WordPress, I understood how an entire online organization could not only function without email — they also were more productive.

Email is first thing you check in the morning, and it’s your last thought before shutting down at the end of the day. The piles and piles of important (and not-so-important) messages hitting your inbox every second… you’re probably stressed just thinking about it. Read on to learn how it’s possible to completely cut email out of your life.

How can any modern organization function without email, much less one as successful as WordPress?

First, it’s important to recognize that, despite everyone’s complaints about endless streams of useless email, most people are dubious about following WordPress’s lead to email liberation. We have a deeply ingrained distrust when it comes to alternatives, which is odd given how we pride ourselves on being early adopters of new ideas.

Email is an old technology, older than the Web itself by more than a decade. So why do we cling so tightly to our “cc” lines and attachments?

The reasons have little to do with technology

All technologies are good for some tasks and bad for others. If a technology annoys you, it probably has more to do with how the people around you use it than the technology itself. (Click here to Tweet this thought.)

Consider this: for all our technological progress, we’ve yet to invent anything that makes coworkers write clear, jargon-free paragraphs. We have yet to find a way to get them to actually read, not skim, the well-crafted things we send their way. It’s our culture that defines these habits, not the tools we’re using. Culture bends technology to its will, not the other way around.

Most annoying business emails have two purposes, neither of which get meaningful work done:

1. The ass-covering email

Email is broadcast to entire divisions simply to ensure no one can say they didn’t hear about a decision. Email is a weapon used for pre-emptive political strikes by the sender to attack everyone on the distribution list. We hate email because we feel like email victims at the mercy of self-interested people who don’t share our goals.

2. The “hey look what I did!” email

For people who don’t actually create things for their job, email is the only visible, tangible thing they make all day. Dysfunctional, insecure cultures confuse the meta-work of email and PowerPoint decks for the actual work of helping customers.

In these environments, people feel obligated to send more emails and create larger and larger documents to give the perception that they’re working hard. It’s a downward spiral of anti-productivity.

WordPress avoids these problems because most of their 170 employees do actual work — they write code, design features or directly help customers. And they’re empowered to be aggressive in their jobs, making live changes to the service dozens of times a day with no approval chain or executive review board.

There’s little fear of crossing political turf and no need to show off as their work speaks for itself. The result is that their communication channels have a high signal-to-noise ratio.

Why dysfunctional email is holding back your organization

Putting WordPress aside for the moment, email has several fundamental disadvantages that are rarely discussed:

1. Email empowers the sender

The sender can fill your inbox with whatever they like and as frequently as they like. Many receivers use filters and rules as countermeasures.

2. Email is a closed channel

There’s no way to see an email if you’re not included on the ‘‘to’’ list, forcing work groups to err on the side of carpet bombing entire project teams or even companies. We all feel that only a fraction of the email we receive has direct relevance to us as individuals. Email tends to bury people in “FYI” communications — needless messages unworthy for inboxes.

3. Email decays over time

If someone writes a great email, an employee has to do something to preserve it. Otherwise, it sits in an inbox, never to be seen by new employees. Over time, that organizational knowledge fades away.

How WordPress evades the email trap

The single tool most WordPress employees use is — surprise — blogs!

The dominant blog structure WordPress staff use is the P2 theme, which was specifically designed for teamwork. The specifications and spreadsheets that might be sent over email at your average company are simply posted on blogs for each team or project. Most discussions happen in comment threads, chat rooms or on Skype. If you care about that project, you follow the blog. If you don’t, you don’t.

Blogs, and P2s in particular, are designed to serve each employee’s individual needs:

1. Readers, not senders, choose what gets read

Employees can pick which project blogs they want to follow and can ignore the ones that have no value for their work.

2. Readers choose how often and in what form they want 
to read

There are many different tools available for reading blog posts. If you really want to receive post updates by email, you can! But you get to choose. So if email’s not your thing, no problem. You can use RSS or other methods.

3. Blogs are easy to access, search and reference

That great list of ideas you wrote a year ago won’t get buried and lost in people’s inboxes. As a blog post, the link will always be available and can be searched and skimmed just like all the blogs on the Web you read every day.

Of course, there’s more to the story. WordPress has no schedules. There are few meetings and fewer rules. And the kicker to all of it is every employee works remotely from anywhere in the world they want. How do employees in such a progressive culture still get work done? You’ll have to read the book to find out!

Scott Berkun is the author of the new book The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work. He has written four previous books. His popular essays and entertaining lectures can be found at his blog at www.scottberkun.com.

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The post Break the Email Chains and Finally Empty Your Inbox appeared first on Brazen Life.

Many tools exist to make sure you’re working when you’re at home working, not pinning recipes to Pinterest or updating your fantasy football team. Here are four helpful tips to staying on track when you’re an at-home employee:

1. Invest in fast Internet

To work from home, you need a way to get to your work done online. Look for the traditional cable Internet providers, fiber optic providers like Google Fiber or Verizon FiOs in select areas of the country or satellite internet if you’re more rural.

If you want to venture out and work from a nearby park, for example, you can take the Internet with you. You no longer need your home Wi-Fi or even your neighborhood Starbucks Wi-Fi to get online.

Mobile hotspot devices like Karma allow you to connect virtually anywhere — and get rewarded with more data when your fellow park-workers try to hop on your open Wi-Fi account. Another alternative is FreedomPop. The initial investment is steep ($99 for a mobile hot spot), but after that, users get up to 500 megabytes of data a month.

2. Organize your life online

Gone are the days of whiteboards and Post-It notes. When you’re managing your own projects, you need a solid management system. Ditch the notebook and turn to these online tools:

Trello is an online to-do list on a “board” you can alter, shape and mold to fit whatever project you have. Follow your progress, make checklists, color code to make it pretty and, most importantly, set deadlines for yourself.

When you work from home, you want everything you’re working on to be accessible. Dropbox is there to house everything from photos to videos to documents. When you use Dropbox, you can access all your content on both your computer and smartphone.

Evernote itself has a lot of faces, but one to focus on is the Evernote Web Clipper feature. If you see something online — a photo, an article, a link — “clip” it with Evernote and store it. It’s helpful for research and easy to use.

3. Play music

Music is a staple in corporate cubes and home offices. It helps keep you focused when the distractions of home could otherwise derail you.

Spotify is free to download and has cool features like a radio application, a discover function that suggests music you may like and premium (paid) membership for offline access to music.

If Spotify isn’t your jam, try Pandora, Grooveshark, Last.fm or SiriusXM Internet radio.

4. Establish a schedule

You know it’s a bold choice to go the self-employment route. One of the best things you can do for yourself is make a schedule.

Many successful people who work from home report they use the same schedule they did when working in an office: getting up early, getting dressed and sitting down at a desk at 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. By keeping the routine, you’ll have an easier time switching into “work mode.”

And just because you’re at home, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t partake in office meetings. Ask to call in, or if you need to set up your own meetings, try Doodle. You can poll participants to find out which dates and times work best for everyone, and you’ve got a meeting without a trail of back-and-forth emails.

When working from home, keep in mind you’re the only one responsible for your productivity, and your productivity will keep you hungry for more. Happy homeworking!

Elizabeth Phillips is a freelance technology writer with a focus on how the Internet improves our lives. She can be found (productively) working from home in Philadelphia, PA, and can be reached via email.

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The post 4 Tips to Work from Home Like a Pro appeared first on Brazen Life.

If you’d rather slowly remove your toe nails with rusty pliers than deliver a speech in public, chances are you’re missing out on a great opportunity. No, not the opportunity to never wear sandals in public; the opportunity to win your employer’s admiration and emerge as a leader at your company.

With such a competitive job market, adding skill sets to your resume definitely won’t hurt your chances of landing a job or getting promoted. Having a reputation as an effective and engaging speaker garners copious amounts of respect in the business world — especially because speaking in public terrifies so many people.

While often assumed an easy task to perform, effective public speaking requires confidence that can be difficult to muster when your ultimate focus is simply not to pass out in front of your largest (monetarily, of course) client.

But how can you be an effective — nay, entertaining — public speaker when you’re struggling to keep your lunch down?

Well, you may not receive an invitation to kick Ellen out of her Emmy host position any time soon, but the following tips will help you keep that tuna melt right where it should be post-conference meeting:

1. Demand the f****** room

First impressions really do make a difference, so the way you enter a room sets the tone for the presentation.

Do you look put together, polished and poised? Or do you look haggard and like you spent the entire night stressing over your presentation — or worse, up all night producing a hastily written speech?

This point is about more than just style; you also need to walk in with confidence.

Demanding the f****** room is about walking in like you own the place, head up, shoulders back and with a strut that can only be rivaled by Tyra’s finest. (Click here to Tweet!) Looking confident will help you feel confident.

2. Connect!

Eye contact brings people together. An audience will feel particularly connected to a speaker when they’re engaged both audibly and visually.

When walking from one side of the room to another, lock eyes with someone on the side you’re walking to and use them as a “pull” bringing you to the other side of the room. This creates an illusion of connection and helps your audience feel more engaged with the presentation.

Uncomfortable making eye contact? Stare at the spot between their eyes or right above their heads. They’ll never know the difference!

3. Stick to what you know

Trust yourself! You’ve been selected for the honor of addressing a group because you’re knowledgeable. Use this knowledge and the fact that your boss sees this in you as a foundation for your confidence.

This knowledge should be the basis of what and how you present. Don’t spout off about statistics you’re not sure of and topics you’re not briefed on; focus on materials and facts you can support. This confidence and solid understanding will shine through to your audience and make your speech more effective.

4. Slow down the race to the finish

Just. Breathe.

Often when someone is nervous, they end up speeding through their speech faster than North Carolina takes away voting rights. Reminding yourself to take a breath will force you to slow down your speaking patterns and leave more time for your audience to digest your inspirational words.

Timing and strategically placing pauses can also be effective when trying to emphasize a point. Try it!

5. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes

No one likes a cold fish. The only thing worse than someone who isn’t prepared is being the person who has to listen to someone who isn’t prepared.

Being prepared doesn’t just mean jotting down a few notes or ideas five minutes before the presentation, especially if you’re already not an effective extemporaneous speaker. Prepare an outline with bullet points, and stick to it.

Going off script, particularly when you’re nervous, only leads to catastrophe (except in the rare circumstance where personal stories or pleas will cause the client to fall back in love with you).

Being a good public speaker takes practice, confidence and did I mention practice? You may even find you love the art of public speaking and consider a career change! In any case, these steps will help in your journey of becoming a better speaker (ahem, winning over your boss), but remember to give yourself some grace.

You’ll have some stumbles, some word flubs and some PowerPoint issues. Don’t be afraid! Just breathe and use what you know. And remember to always know where the closest trash can is… just in case.

Sarah Colomé, M.S. is an educator, advocate and the SOARS Booking Director for A Long Walk Home, Inc. Based in Chicago, Sarah has traveled both nationally and internationally as a competitive collegiate public speaker and teaches on topics related to social justice and diversity, health education, sexual violence and persuasive speaking.

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The post How Not to Pass Out During Your Next Public Speaking Gig appeared first on Brazen Life.

But so much goes into a good “ask” that it can be intimidating–and confusing. How do you phrase it? When do you ask? How do you set yourself up for a yes?

On her site It Starts With, Sarah K. Peck recently posted a master course on the art of asking for what you want–and getting it. As she writes:

There seems to be a magical art behind creating a great ask, and we all know stories of people who seem to get exactly what they want whenever they ask. Magicians who bend and will the world to their ways. Why is this? What are they doing that no one else seems to be doing? How do they ask for what they want and seem to get it every time?

Culturally, it’s not always the norm to ask directly for what you want–or we do a terrible job of it (and women are worse, according to The New York Times). Instead of specifying what we want, we hem and haw about ideas, often walking away from great conversations without clearly articulating our message, what we hope to achieve, and how the other person can directly help us.

To read the full post on to how to get what you ask for–including persuasion tactics, example scripts and other great tips–click here.

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The post How to Ask for What You Want–And Get It appeared first on Brazen Life.

Your LinkedIn profile is probably one of the first search results you’d see. If the thought of new customers, business associates or recruiters finding your profile has you cringing, it’s time for a little TLC.

Here’s the good news: it’s easy to stand out from the crowd with your LinkedIn photo and headline. Think of your photo and headline as your own advertising “hook” showcasing your professionalism to any new business connections.

And your headline is the place to shine. But the vast majority of people on LinkedIn allow their headline to default to their current job title. What a snooze fest!

“Director of Program Management” or “Accountant II” won’t tell us anything about you as a person. (Click to Tweet!)

Stuck on what to write? Here are four LinkedIn headline hacks with examples to kickstart your creativity:

1. Expert status

Use this headline hack if you want to establish your expertise (even if you’re a budding expert).

Expert status headline hack formula: {Keyword/subject matter expert area} who {does what} for {client, company, audience, project}. {Proof point}.

Examples:

• Personal Chef specializing in gluten-free diets. Winner Seattle Personal Chef of the Year 2012.
• Social Media Expert driving successful campaigns on a shoestring budget. 800%+ ROI in the past 12 months.
• Bestselling Author and Professional Speaker energizing audiences to overcome limiting beliefs. 90%+ sat ratings.

2. Claim your niche

Use this headline hack if you want to be found for one or two specific keywords/key phrases relevant to your industry.

Claim your niche headline hack formula: {Keyword(s)} | {your specific benefit or focus area}

Examples:

• Six Sigma Master Black Belt | Dedicated to process excellence in auto manufacturing
• Tax Accountant CPA | Specialist in family-owned businesses with revenues of $1-$5 million
• Childhood Autism Psychiatrist | Specializing in diagnosing, treating and supporting families with autistic children

3. Direct to customer

Are you in business development, sales or building your own company? This may be the headline hack for you!

Direct to customer headline hack formula: {Attention-grabbing question} + {Who you are} + {who you help}. {Proof point}. OR {Attention-grabbing question} + {Free resource}.

Examples:

• Need capital? Banker for early-stage technology growth companies. Clients include XYZ and ABC.
• Need talent? Exec Recruiter helping mid-size manufacturing companies find top talent. Clients include LMN and OPQ companies.
• Need to recharge your career? Join my FREE webinar on 5 things you MUST do before you search: {short bitly.com link}

4. Creative cat

Creative cat headlines don’t have a formula, but they’re included here because they’re incredibly effective when done well. If you choose this type, your headline should include who you are, who you serve, how you benefit them and your personal style.

Examples:

• Copywriting artist transforming technical jargon from flat-line boring into a juicy novel-like page-turner
• Former overweight food lover turned health nut coaching fellow foodies in the joys of the Paleo diet (YUM-O)

Which headline hack will you try out? Do you have another headline hack that’s working for you? Share in the comments below!

Michelle L. Evans is a career strategist who helps professionals think bigger about what’s next in their careers. Grab her free report, 5 Simple LinkedIn Hacks To Create A Profile That Rocks (even if you’re not looking for a job), for some seriously helpful advice to stand out as the valuable pro you are.

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Then the first emails show up, and it’s go-go-go through a 10-hour firefight. By the time your last meeting has run 45 minutes late, you barely have the energy to walk to the subway, let alone plot world domination.

When are you supposed to find time to think?

Here’s what successful people know: You do have time. But you might have to get up earlier to make it happen.

The most productive time of your day

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people about their schedules over the years for my books on time management, and over time, I started to notice a pattern. Folks who’d moved beyond the tyranny of the urgent often woke up at times that most people prefer not to see.

It turns out that the early morning hours are great for getting stuff done.

Why?

First, you’re unlikely to be interrupted by an urgent meeting request or phone call at 6:00 a.m.

Second, research into the science of willpower finds that we’re best able to focus on difficult tasks while the day is young. Willpower is like a muscle, and over a long day of concentrating in boring meetings, dealing with difficult people or battling traffic, it’s simply used up.

In the morning, though, it’s fresh. So that makes the morning hours prime time for strategic thinking and work that you want to do, not have to do. Get up at 6:00 a.m. instead of 7:00 a.m., and you’ve got five hours of found time each week to bring your best self to the question of your professional development.

What would you do during that time?

Maybe you’d read the industry publications you never find time to concentrate on. Maybe you’d start contributing articles to those industry publications. Maybe you’d make lists of people in your organization or industry you’d like to meet.

You’d peruse alumni lists from your school and send emails to people you want to know. You’d brainstorm what you want your career to look like in a year or five years. You’d make a list of projects you’d like to pursue and practice asking your boss to give you a shot. You’d practice asking for your next raise until saying the number no longer makes you flinch.

If you wait until the rest of your work is done to do these things, there will never be enough time. But paying into your career capital account turns out to be much like paying into a retirement account. If you wait until the end of the month to save what’s left over, there will be nothing left over. Pay yourself first, and your wealth will grow.

Invest in your career first and everything else will fall into place. That’s worth skipping the snooze button for.

Laura Vanderkam is the author of What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast (Portfolio, Aug 27, 2013). She blogs at LauraVanderkam.com.

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Whether you’re a business owner looking to get more clients, a networker looking to make more connections or anyone in between, the art of cold calling is one that could come in handy. Here’s what these experts had to say:

Discover Something in Common

“With social networks and Internet search, it’s easier than ever to research to find something in common with the person you’re about to cold call. Check Facebook to see if you have a mutual friend. Check LinkedIn to see if you might have worked in a similar industry with the sales prospect. Finding common ground can help you build rapport at the start of the cold call, so it can be more… warm!”

-Doreen Bloch, CEO / Founder, Poshly Inc.

Stand Up Tall

“Standing up, or even walking around, while you pitch will make you come across as more confident and with more presence and projection over the phone. Some people also think quicker when they are standing up rather than sitting down.”

-Richard Lorenzen, CEO, Fifth Avenue Brands

Create Objection Handlers

“Having a list of objection handlers that you memorize will give you the confidence to push yourself. There are only 7-10 common objections, so know how to handle them. You’ll find yourself more comfortable to keep calling—it’s a numbers game. Then it’s just about optimizing those numbers.”

-AJ Kumar, Co-Founder, Single Grain

Paradigm Shift

“Our best sales prospectors have a different perspective on cold calling that distinguishes them from others—they don’t take rejection personally and see prospecting as a treasure hunt, not a chore. They meticulously map and track their progress and count every “no” as a step toward inevitable success. Then, as with any professional they practice and endlessly refine their expertise.”

-Christopher Kelly, Co-Founder, Principal, Convene

Create a Freebie

“Cold calling is hard. It’s a lot easier to call someone up and tell them you want to send them a free ebook, no strings attached. Then you’ll be able to make a warm followup call to check if they’ve found your freebie useful and if you can help them act on it.”

-Thursday Bram, Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting

Employ a New Strategy

“Think about Jonah Hill in Moneyball. Our inside sales team makes about 500 cold calls a day. The top representatives are not the ones who hit home runs every time, but the ones who get on base. Getting on base in cold calling just means engaging a prospect in a conversation. Rather than focusing on home runs, focus on getting on base. Then cold calling becomes just a game of statistics.”

-Sarah Schupp, Founder, UniversityParent

Use an Educational Process

“Offering to come in and teach their team something is often more effective than simply trying to show your solution. It gives people an incentive to sit in a meeting, establishes you as credible, addresses objections without them realizing it and helps you frame the problem and solution in terms that give you an edge.”

-Sean Johnson, Partner, Digital Intent

Practice in Your Sleep!

“Sometimes in your business, you will need to cold call clients who have not returned in a while or to invite them to some event you are launching. Have a short script that you practice to make it sound natural and personable. Prior to going to sleep, practice how you are going to deliver the call. Visualize it, practice it, execute it.”

-Nancy T. Nguyen, Founder/Sweet Sylist, Sweet T Salon

Network for a Referral

“With the proliferation of social media today, odds are you’re connected to someone you’ll be cold calling by only a few degrees. Do some research before to see if there’s anyway to get an introduction!”

-Jesse Pujji, CEO, Ampush

A/B Test Your Story

“Chart your funnel from ‘Hello’ to ‘I’m excited to work with you!’ Test different messages for each conversation point until you are satisfied with their conversion rates. As an 18-year-old, this approach helped me set new advertising records for a popular TV show.”

-Kevon Saber, Cofounder, Fig

Be Sticky!

“Chances are, the contacts you’re calling are getting blasted every day by 20 others who try to sell them something, and they’re sick of the typical message/pitch. Think of what would make you call someone back, and be like that. What approach would ‘stick’ to you as you scroll through your own voicemails? Be memorable. Now go dial!”

-Joe Cassara, Founder / CEO, You Need My Guy

Don’t Do It!

“Cold calling is stressful, painful and emotionally draining. Instead, become a thought leader in the industry and get clients to come to you. The goal is to educate potential clients about the benefits of your product or service so that they’ll come to you when they’re ready to use it. In addition, attend conferences and build relationships with potential clients.”

-Jun Loayza, President, Ecommerce Rules

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

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One writer argues that it’s because we’re asking ourselves the wrong question.

As Charlie Gilkey writes on Productive Flourishing:

“How can I be more productive?”

It’s a question that many of us ask ourselves without realizing that the question, as stated, is impossible to answer. Just as I prefer achievable goals, I prefer answerable questions.

Here are 50+ better questions to ask than “how to be more productive.” Some are different ways of saying the same things, but that’s a good thing.

Examples of questions that are more “answerable” (and therefore actionable) include “Are you clear on what the priority of work is?” and “What could you get done in the next 30 minutes that would either check an important block or make headway towards doing so?”

You can check out the full post and all 52 questions here.

How can these re-framed questions help you be more productive today? Any light bulbs go off as you read them?

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Here’s the key: acquire new skills.

At work, the results you produce are the primary factor in whether or not you’re considered a top performer—with the salary, responsibility and status to match. If you examine the lives of professionals who’ve reached the top of their fields, you’ll find men and women who have invested a great deal of time and energy developing a wide variety of valuable skills.

Outside of work, the more things you know how to do, the more fun you can have. The best experiences in life almost always require some level of skill. Whether it’s painting a landscape, conversing in a new language, fixing up classic cars, tasting wine or playing music, your skills create new opportunities to explore and enjoy.

Acquiring new skills is the key to happiness and success, but a few common misconceptions prevent many people from getting started. The top offender is the “10,000 hour rule”—the idea that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill.

The “10,000” Hour Rule, Debunked

Dr. K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University, among others, has found that it takes around 10,000 hours of practice to reach the top of ultra-competitive performance fields like professional golf, music and chess. The more time a competitor spends in deliberate practice, the better they perform compared to those who have spent less time training.

The “10,000 hour rule,” properly understood, is true in its original, limited sense. Widespread repetition, however, has overextended the idea, and many people now assume that learning a new skill takes an enormous amount of time. That common misconception is demonstrably false.

When you’re learning something new, dwelling too much on “mastery” is worse than useless; it’s actively discouraging. The popular misinterpretation of the “10,000 hour rule” is a very real barrier to getting started.

You’re probably not training to become a chess grandmaster; the goal is to become good enough for your own purposes. So ignore the “10,000 hour rule”—it doesn’t apply to your situation.

You can pick up many useful skills in less than an hour. For complex cognitive and motor skills, 20 hours of practice will take you from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. That’s roughly 40 minutes each day for a month.

Acquiring a new skill quickly is simple and requires little more than planning, common sense and persistence. Here’s how to do it in five easy steps:

1. Decide what you want to achieve

What do you want to be able to do? Setting a specific target performance level makes it easier to identify exactly what you’ll need to practice to perform at the level you desire.

2. Break the skill into smaller sub-skills

Most of the things we think of as skills (like “tennis” or “market analysis”) are actually bundles of smaller sub-skills that are used in combination. By deconstructing the skill into manageable parts, practice becomes less intimidating, and you can work on improving one sub-skill at a time.

3. Do just enough research to eliminate early misconceptions, and self-correct as you practice

Find a few solid how-to resources about the topic and skim them. The most important techniques and ideas will appear often, so practice those sub-skills first. Avoid too much research; it’s procrastination in disguise. Get your hands dirty as quickly as possible.

4. Remove barriers to practice

The more effort it takes to practice, the less likely you are to follow through. Change your environment to eliminate distractions, and make sure the tools you need are close at hand. Eliminating unnecessary effort reduces the amount of willpower you’ll need to get started.

5. Commit to at least 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice

Once you begin, keep going until you reach your objective or put in at least 20 hours. This commitment is designed to help you persist through early frustrations, and 20 hours is enough time to see dramatic results.

The 20 hour commitment also serves as an important litmus test: if you’re not willing to invest at least 20 hours, the skill likely isn’t important enough to you at the moment, and you’re better off learning something else.

This method is universal; you can use it to learn anything from discounted cash flow analysis to flying an airplane. No matter what skill you choose to acquire, the principles are the same.

The early hours of trying something new are always challenging, but a few hours of intelligent, focused practice can generate significant increases in skill. That’s why having a solid practice strategy before you begin is important. Anything you can do to optimize those critical early hours of practice will help you learn as quickly as you’re capable of learning.

So, what do you want to learn? Get started now. It only takes 20 hours.

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People who are able to focus more intently don’t just get more things done—they end up being more successful. When you get entangled in the communication web of social media, text, chats and email, it’s hard to get anything done, let alone focus on a project.

It’s nice to be able to get in touch with people almost at any given moment, but it’s devastating to your productivity to be available all the time. With discipline and organization, you can limit the number of distractions that interrupt your workflow.

Here are a few solid ways to do just that:

1. Check with purpose

Checking email every 10 minutes is a compulsion for some people; they have to look every time a new email notification pops up. But it’s murder on concentration. It’s important to keep tabs on email throughout the day, but you should control when it happens.

Cut back and only check four or five times a day at specific times when you know there are lulls in your workflow (after a meeting, after a break, when you return from lunch, etc.). Turn off notifications on your devices and only dive into email at unscheduled times when you need to retrieve something specific, like a file you received.

Remember, if someone is emailing you, it’s probably not an emergency. And if you want to decrease the amount of junk you receive, unsubscribe from those senders; they’re a distraction.

The same goes for social networks. There are some jobs that require people to check Facebook and monitor their Twitter feed constantly, but responding to every notification won’t let you get anything done. Turn those off when you need to focus on a task and only check in to see the viral video your buddy posted when you come up for air. Also use a tool like HootSuite to sort and filter the riffraff out of your social media feeds.

2. Cut out coworkers

As stimulating and productive as water cooler discussions can be, they can turn into a major distraction, often when you really need to buckle down. It can be hard in today’s open office plans when folks don’t have a door to close, but there are ways to put up the “Do Not Disturb” sign.

Invest in some noise-canceling headphones. Isolating yourself from distracting sounds prevents you from getting sucked into conversations. Don’t be afraid to tell people you have to get back to work. If you have a coworker who constantly comes around to chat, be blunt about needing to get stuff done. If they still don’t get the message, put your headphones on—conversation ended.

3. Limit your Internet

There are so many ways the Internet sucks time and attention away before you realize what’s happening. If you’re working on a project that doesn’t require the Internet, close your browser windows. If you don’t have the self-control to stop checking social media, then try using a browser plugin like StayFocusd or Productivity Owl to block out time-wasting sites.

Find ways to stay focused. Properly managing your technology with other tools to reinforce your limited supply of willpower is a great way to stay on task.

Mike Mann, social activist and serial entrepreneur, is the author of Make Millions and Make Change!, a business book focused on making money in small business to better serve society. Read or download the book today for insight on his philosophy on wedding entrepreneurship and charitable goals.

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While learning a new language can make you more employable, it’s not always easy when you’re searching for a job, gaining skills from the latest books on leadership and giving 107 percent to whatever is making you money now.

Understandably, learning a language might sound like the furthest priority from your growing list of obligations.

But with the help of these five tactics below, learning a foreign language can be a fun and easy process that helps you find a job and lowers your stress:

1. Choose a language you truly enjoy

Don’t just choose Spanish because it’s commonly spoken. If you’re going to put effort into anything, you should enjoy it. Where have you always wanted to travel? The Red Square in Moscow? Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China? The canals of Venice, Italy?

If it’s Italy, decide to learn Italian, and then start planning your visit to stunning Venice or jaw-dropping Tuscany.

2. Use your down time to watch movies

Even if you want to spend all of your time searching for a job and building up other skills, breaks are oh-so-necessary.

If you choose Italian, watch Italian movies. If the budget is tight, go to the public library and rent out movies from the foreign language section.

3. Discover new music

We all know how it feels to be stressed out and then hear an amazing song come on our iPod that totally takes us to a new, less icky place.

Go to the MTV website of the country whose language you want to learn—MTV.it if you’re learning Italian, for example—and explore what songs they have to offer. Then take some of those names and do YouTube searches to find related artists. Even if you can’t understand it yet, you can appreciate the rhythm and the way it sounds.

Plus, sites like MTV.it are fascinating. Explore the TV shows section and watch dubbed clips of Teen Wolf.

4. Chat with real native speakers

Go on a website like Italki and find other people for language exchanges. Find someone who speaks Italian natively and wants to learn English. Correct some of their notebook posts to get a feel for who they are, and then message them to talk about chatting via Skype or Google Hangout.

It can be a little weird at first since you don’t know the person, but use your good judgment to ensure you’re talking with somebody you actually want to be friends with.

5. Eat the food

Print out recipes in Italian and English and whip up some authentic Italian dishes. You’ll learn the words for food (which everyone needs to know), and you’ll be fed in the process.

These five tips will create a pleasurable language learning process, and when you learn a foreign language, windows, doors and gates open themselves for you. It could be a job overseas in Torino, Italy, or you could just decide to let go of searching so hard for a job and teach English abroad in Taiwan.

Who knows?

In the process of following your passion to learn a language, you might discover that the job you’re pining after isn’t for you. It’s quite possible you were meant for something off the beaten path, where you have permission to chase your wanderlust as often as you’d please.

You won’t know until you make that first decision. Your journey is up to you.

So choose a language, relax into the culture and let the doors open around you!

Cher Hale is an instigator of adventure and romance on her blog The Iceberg Project, where she teaches women how to charm Italians with their own language and chase their wanderlust.

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He’s trying (and failing) to connect with you. Don’t laugh! You write emails to successful people the same way. These five tips will help you help you write emails that generate responses and build relationships:

1. Be brief

You’re busy. You work hard, you create side projects, you hustle for new connections and you cram room in for a social life. (Damn, take a break!)

Successful people live even busier lives. A long email is like the stranger who reveals their life story five minutes after you shake their hand. Ain’t nobody got time for that! Short messages decrease the chance your contact drags your email into their trash folder.

2. Keep it genuine

“Hello friend. I have a special secret that has saved me $10 million…”

Next! Automatic delete.

It’s an extreme but too common real-life example. Stop writing emails that reek of dishonesty. Don’t underestimate how deeply people crave authentic connections. Successful people develop a B.S. detector after constantly having others compete for their time and attention. When you hide your true intentions, beep, beep, beep!—their B.S detector explodes.

If you want something, make it clear. If you have a great idea, share it. Most importantly, be upfront about why you are sending the email and why your message is great for the person receiving it. This will establish trust, which is the foundation for all positive relationships.

3. Be likeable

Ever stare at a date across the dinner table while they talk only about their life? It’s unattractive and rude. In the same vein, center your emails around the contact instead of yourself. Primarily, focus your message on their background, their needs and how your email impacts them.

The second part of being likeable is making your request for information, meetings or feedback easy for people to say yes to. “Do you have 10 minutes to chat?” is easier for someone to agree to than “Can I talk with you for an hour?”

Give people outs when you make requests on their time. Applying too much pressure on them increases the chance they’ll decline your attempts to connect. Phrases like “I know you’re busy,” “at a time convenient for you” or “let’s discuss this further when you’re back in town” demonstrate that you’re conscientious about their time constraints.

You always become more likable when you relieve the burden on others.

4. Provide value

Your iPhone rings. It’s the friend who only calls when they want something. Ignore! Ten minutes later, though, you answer your phone for a different friend.

Why did you accept one call and not the other? Because one friend shares cool news and invites you to interesting events, while another friend only takes.

Similarly, being a giver invites people to your cause. In your emails to successful people, share an interesting link or new information within their niche. Your email isn’t just about receiving; it’s about establishing a relationship. And good relationships are built upon helping people with shared interests and aspirations.

5. Show you’re already winning

You want to contact successful people because you know they get important things done. You gain instant credibility by showing them you’re already winning.

Did you just complete a cool project? Create something unique? Briefly tell your contact. The message conveyed is that you don’t mooch, and that establishing a professional relationship with you won’t be a waste of their time and effort.

Here’s what it looks like put together. This email was sent to New York Times bestselling author Chris Guillebeau, resulting in an interview and new relationship:

The first line establishes a common link. Line two shows genuine flattery. Lines three and four give a clear intent of the project, which makes it easier to say yes.

The fifth line shows why Chris fits for the email’s content. Line six is about being likeable and gives Chris an “out.” The second-to-last line reads “at a convenient day and time for you.” This goes back to taking away the burden for Chris.

The final, “P.S.” line briefly shows how I’m already winning without bragging.

Note: Notice the title of Chris’ book is spelled incorrectly. (It’s “world,” not “word.”) This mistake proves you don’t have to write a perfect email to have successful people respond positively to you! (Although you should always proofread.)

Influential people want to help you reach your goals! Your next connection is one strong email away.

Your turn: What’s your secret (or biggest hurdle) for writing a great email to successful people?

Reggie Hall Jr. keeps Gen Y inspired and one step ahead at FreshWisdom by sharing interviews and advice from thriving Millennials as well as older generations to help you get what you want. Say hi on Twitter @FreshWisdomLive or on Facebook.

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However, it’s a sad fact of life that accidents can and do happen, and life insurance can be there to help your loved ones pick up the pieces. It’s a tricky subject for many people, so here are some things you should know about life insurance if you’re getting ready to jump into your career:

Do you need life insurance?

Yes? No? Maybe so?

Most young adults laugh at the idea of life insurance, but there is one simple rule to determining whether or not life insurance is worth it: if you have anyone in your life who will be severely affected financially by your death, then life insurance is a good investment.

This usually means a spouse or children, but consider all angles of your finances. For example, if you’ve amassed a large amount of student loans, a life insurance policy can help protect your parents from being burdened with your debt.

What does typical life insurance cover?

For a typical term life policy, the death benefit fully covers the policyholder for any cause of death, including by disease, accident, injury and natural causes.

If you have an ongoing medical condition or enjoy dangerous hobbies, such as extreme sports like skydiving, you’ll want to make sure your policy specifically covers those situations, but generally, a life insurance policy will pay benefits for any form of death.

What does life insurance cost?

A common misconception is that life insurance is more expensive than a law degree. This is a major turnoff for recent graduates and young professionals who may not have the money saved up for large investments.

Luckily, as a young person, you can actually find term life insurance coverage at decent rates. Here are examples for $500,000 worth of coverage for a healthy 25- to 35-year-old male (women’s rates will typically be lower):

• 25-year-old: 25-year term = $26/month; 30-year term = $30/month
• 30-year-old: 25-year term = $28/month; 30-year term = $32/month
• 35-year-old: 25-year term = $34/month; 30-year term = $37/month

These policies provide a lot of coverage for less than most monthly Internet bills. If you don’t need as much coverage for your beneficiaries, the cost will be even lower. It’s also important to realize that your rate will be locked in whenever you buy the policy, even if you become sick in the middle of the term. This makes it even more beneficial to choose a policy while you’re young and healthy.

If I have employer coverage, am I good to go?

Your new job might come with some sweet benefits, but don’t let the glitz and glamour blind you to the fine print. Many employers offer group life insurance policies that you can join for free or for a small fee. It’s easy to stop and think “Well, that’s something I never have to think about again,” but beware!

Employer-based group policies usually don’t provide anywhere close to the coverage that an individual policy will, and they’re more likely to have clauses that stop or limit benefits from being paid. That’s not to say they’re a bad thing; they’re great as a supplemental policy for extra coverage, but it’s usually not wise to rely on group policies for your main form of life insurance.

How should freelancers handle life insurance?

As a freelancer, you’re less likely to buy life insurance, especially if you’re just starting out, because you’re avoiding any additional costs. But ignoring important cushions like health or life insurance is a great way to forget about them entirely until it’s too late. Term policies are a lot cheaper than you might think, and you’ll be able to find a company and policy that works for you. For more on life insurance as a freelancer, check out this post on Budget Blonde.

Ultimately, you need to decide for yourself whether life insurance is right for you. Taking the time to consider your options now will help protect those you love in the future.

Liran Hirschkorn has been an independent life insurance agent for over a decade now, and he prides himself on being able to work with the best life insurance companies. He is the founder of ChooseTerm.com and enjoys being able to write in order to help people understand life insurance.

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1. Powwownow

Powwownow makes it easy by guiding you through a series of steps to help get your call underway. Once you’ve entered your email address, they’ll set you up with a personal PIN and a dial-in number. You can then schedule your conference call and invite whoever you want to call with the same PIN and number. You all dial in at the same time, with the same PIN, and each participant is announced as they join.

Features allow you to skip your name recording and PIN playback to speed things up, mute and unmute your handset, count the number of people on the call, lock the call to ensure no one else can join and even record the conference call.

While there’s no contract, billing or minimum uses, do check their call rates as they vary from place to place—and they’re pricier from cell phones.

2. Rondee

Another popular conference call site, Rondee works very similarly to Powwownow, with the exception that it allows you to create your own personal memorable PIN (which always makes life easier). You can also activate a fully featured account at no additional charge, which means you can customize greeting tones as other participants join the call, record and save your calls and access a directory of who called and how long they talked.

If you only want participants to listen, you can give them a listen-only PIN and choose between making scheduled calls (Rondee will send invites and track responses) or just calling on demand.

3. Speek

Speek has really put its money where its mouth is by doing away with all forms of dial-in number, PIN codes and passwords. One of the most accessible conference call sites on the Internet, all you have to do at Speek is choose a personal link. This is yours forever, and it’s free.

You can then invite your fellow callers by sending them the link, which they can access from a computer or a smartphone. Once they’ve clicked the link, Speek will ask for their number, then dial them into the call. If you’re online, you can see who’s talking at all times and you can instantly share files, too.

4. Google Voice

What would this list be without a Google option? Once you’ve installed Google’s voice and video chat software, you’ll be allocated a Google number. All your participants have to do is dial that one number, and you can then accept them as their calls are connected one by one.

It doesn’t offer a way to invite your fellow callers, schedule calls or track who has responded to invites, but this can always be arranged over email.

5. GroupMe app

While GroupMe started out as a group messaging app, it also works brilliantly for voice calls, although (like Google Voice) it doesn’t allow for invites or scheduling. One phone number is allocated to each separate group you create, and this can then be used to either text everyone simultaneously or dial them all into one phone call.

You can download the app by going to www.groupme.com, where you’ll be asked to enter your cell number. They’ll then text a download link to your phone, and presto! You’re ready to go.

Amy Noble is a freelance writer, copy editor, proofreader and general grammar-obsessive living in London, England.

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All you want to do is feel just a little better at work.

If this is you, know that you are not alone. With email, smart phones, tablets and texting, work can find you at any time. That connectivity means you often feel like you’ve got to be “on” all the time. You never unplug, never take a break and never really catch up. Information is always coming in, right?

Ugh.

It’s gotten so bad that some people actually sleep with their phones. Of course, this means they have a restless sleep, wake up stressed and never take a moment to just breathe. They’re worrying about work all the time, and that’s exhausting.

We’ve all read the articles about reasonable changes we can make in our lives. And it would be great if we all ate salads and drank water at night, got to bed on time and were proactive in planning. But the truth is that bar food tastes good, sometimes a glass of wine (or three!) with friends is medicinal and staying up late to watch Game of Thrones just happens.

So, what’s the hack?

All of these articles mean well, but they don’t know your life and the unique problems you face. That’s why this particular hack is about making the one change in your daily life that will have the largest impact on how you feel. This change is something that you want to do, that you talk about doing, but you’ve never taken that seriously before.

Today you’re going to start doing it. No matter what.

Take a moment to think through your workday and figure out one area that’s causing you a lot of stress. Here are a few examples:

• Spending the entire day feeling like you’re playing catch-up because a coworker emails you annoying work requests early in the morning.
• Checking email when you get out of bed, so you start the day overwhelmed and feeling behind.
• Not shutting off your smartphone at night.
• Checking your phone after you know everyone has probably gone to bed, but you can’t resist doing it anyway.
• Not waking up with enough time to get ready for the day, so you spend your morning feeling rushed and stressed and wearing something awkward.

Now, commit to the hack: make one change that will make you feel better and will have a positive impact on your day. Maybe it’s not checking email from bed in the morning or setting the alarm 15 minutes earlier so you can enjoy a long shower.

Don’t pick more than one change because that can feel overwhelming. Stick with the hack, refuse to compromise on it, and you will feel better. You can do one thing for yourself, right?

Start there, and you’ll be amazed at the instant boost it brings to your day.

Christie Mims is the Radical Fairy Godmother to the Woman Trapped in Her Suit and the founder of The Revolutionary Club. You can get unstuck in your career with her free kit over here, or hang out with her on Facebook and Twitter and have her wave her magical fairy dust all over you!

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The post One Simple Life Hack That Will Make You Feel Like a Million Bucks appeared first on Brazen Life.

Luckily, there are plenty of tools available to help you keep things in line. Some are free, some let you collaborate with others and some are just plain pretty.

Here’s a list of some of the most popular to-do list apps so you can stay on top of things:

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is versatile, so you can use it to manage everything from deadlines to shared grocery lists. Collaborate with others on group projects, sync on the cloud—and for those of us who get off on organizing by subtask, there’s that, too. Even though looks aren’t everything, this app is pretty. You can choose from 16 different backgrounds, or go for the simple wood screen.

Cost: Free.

Dispatch

This is a good tool for groups that require a lot of collaboration drawing from different sources. While it’s a bit on the stuffy side, it works with images and documents stored in Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote and Box. You can reply to comments that others leave on your notes, but its best feature is the ability to easily unsubscribe from things that don’t interest you.

Cost: Free.

Asana

Yeah, you’ve got stuff to work on with your colleagues, but Asana lets you create “workspaces” for pretty much anyone you want to share lists with. (Suddenly, pulling together that dinner club doesn’t seem so intimidating.) Asana gives you an activity feed, similar to Facebook’s news feed, to show you what people have been up to. It’s in real time, down to the keystroke.

Cost: Free for teams of up to 30 members. Beyond that, $100 to $800 per month.

Remember The Milk

This one’s great for basic lists. It’s easy to create, edit and (ahem) postpone tasks with the website’s cute, simple interface. The iPhone app works wonderfully, but it allows you just one wireless sync per day. Any more than that and you’ve got to pony up for the pro version, which can also sync tasks across multiple devices. To achieve even more order, you can sort tasks by location and add tags. You can also set it so that you get task reminders via Twitter.

Cost: Free for the basic version. Pro version is $24.99/year.

Nozbe

Like some of the others, Nozbe works with other apps like Google Calendar and Dropbox. But Nozbe’s real strength is giving overwhelmed procrastinators that extra nudge—it prioritizes steps in a project and tells you exactly what to do next. Learning to use it may be a matter of learning the jargon. (The website says “Organize in Projects but work in Contexts!”)

Cost: Plans range from $7/month to $37/month.

Astrid

This is a popular one. If tasks get you down, Astrid will make them seem cheerful and fun. You can share lists and speak your tasks if typing isn’t your thing. It’s fast, the interface is simple and it syncs with Google Tasks. No wonder 40 percent of Lifehacker readers voted it tops.

Cost: Free.

What’s your favorite to-do app?

Gigi Douban is an independent journalist who writes often about business and tech.

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The post Popular To-Do List Apps That Will Help You Accomplish More appeared first on Brazen Life.

Maybe you’re a people-pleaser and don’t like the idea of letting someone down. Maybe you’re trying to impress your boss/mother-in-law/frenemy and don’t want to sound like you can’t handle a certain responsibility. Maybe you were taught that it’s always best to be a team player and extend yourself for others, even if it’s a sacrifice.

You can forget that particular tidbit of etiquette right now.

While you certainly should pitch in and be helpful, successful people—the kind who achieve success without totally burning themselves out in the process—do so by knowing how to say no. You only have so many hours in the day and so much energy. It’s only reasonable that, when faced with multiple pressing obligations, you will have to turn some of them down. Otherwise, you’ll become a frazzled wreck, spread too thin to be of service to anyone (yourself included).

The key is in knowing how to say no politely, but firmly, in a way that doesn’t make you come across as a jerk. Memorize these handy little phrases for the next time you’re ambushed with a plea for your help:

1. “I’m currently working on the Smith report, the Jones report and the Macklemore report. How would you like me to prioritize this new project?”

This particular phrase is especially helpful when dealing with a superior, who you can’t very well “Just Say No” to. Instead, show your willingness to do the work but ask for an executive recommendation on how best to balance your various obligations.

If you’ve already got several projects in your queue, ask your boss which one takes priority so you can focus on that first. If you report to several managers and they’ve given you competing projects, ask them how they’d prefer you resolve the conflict. (One of them is going to have to cede to the other if they want you to give both projects your full attention.)

The trick to this phrase is not to say it huffily or with a “woe is me” attitude. You are not complaining about how overloaded you are and whining for a way out; you are being a responsible employee and making sure you do your job to the best of your ability (while also letting your boss(es) know just how much you have on your plate).

2. “I’m all booked until [insert date here]. I can put this on my list for then if you like.”

This phrase demonstrates a willingness to help—you’re not saying no altogether—while letting the other person know your schedule is firm and you’re sticking to it.

If their project is super, building-on-fire urgent, they’ll have to ask someone else (or maybe not leave things till the last minute next time).

3. “What exactly do you need done?” or “When is the hard deadline for this?”

If you’ve ever worked with…well, anyone else…you know that different people communicate in different ways. (And some people don’t necessarily communicate in the most effective ways.) Just because your boss is a high-strung micromanager, his stopping by your desk every hour to see how things are going doesn’t necessarily mean you’re racing against the clock.

As soon as you’re handed a project, make sure to get clear on exactly what’s expected of you: what steps are involved, how time-intensive will it be, when will you need to turn in the final product? Nebulous action steps or a sense of false urgency can make it hard for you to decide whether you even need to say no in the first place. Once you have a better grasp on the scope of a request, you can decide whether or not you can take it on—and under what terms.

4. “I need to check my calendar and get back to you.”

This can be useful when you find yourself cornered. Some people have a way of weaseling a “yes” out of you through sheer, dogged persistence. You pick up your extension to hear your coworker breathlessly mid-request before you know what’s hit you. Or your mother-in-law has a fantastic knack of countering every excuse you give for why you can’t host the family reunion for 100 relatives this summer.

Rather than trying to avoid a pushy person forever or playing the 20 excuses game (only to ultimately lose), just drop this simple phrase to put an end to the ambush. Saying you need to check your calendar (even if you secretly know your answer will be “no”) gives you a little room to breathe and escape the pressure of the moment. Then, from a safe distance, you can reply back (e-mail is a great way to avoid further attempts at persuasion) by saying, “I’m so sorry, but I’ve looked at my calendar, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to do it.”

Don’t offer any elaboration or excuses; all they need to know is that you can’t do it.

5. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t.”

Seems deceptively easy, doesn’t it? If only it were that simple, you’d have been using this one for a while now, right?

Not necessarily. This is actually the hardest of the phrases, and best used after you’ve built up your courage with the other ones. The trick to this seemingly way-too-easy defense is in the follow-up: there is no follow-up.

Most people aren’t used to taking a no-frills “no” for an answer. They’ll want to know why you can’t, if there’s any wiggle room, if they can’t convince you to change your mind once you know how special their particular circumstances are.

This is where you need to stand firm—and say as little as possible. You are the rock of Gibraltar. You make excuses to no one. You are (if the image helps) dealing with an overly inquisitive toddler who is trying to test your limits, and you’ll have none of it.

Why can’t you do it? Because you’ve got too much on your plate.

But it’s only a little favor, and you really owe them one… You’re very sorry, but as aforementioned, you can’t. You will owe them one another time.

But whyyyyyy? Because you said so. End of story.

Stated simply, firmly and politely, a simple “no” is unassailable. Repeated several times over, it will make the requester eventually get tired and move on to someone who’s an easier sell.

There is nothing wrong with saying no when you can’t take on something. While it’s important to be a team player and to stretch yourself when needed, you are under no obligation to run yourself into the ground trying to make everyone happy.

As a matter of fact, you owe it to your job, your coworkers, your family and everyone else you come in contact with (including you!) to manage your time smartly and not take on more than you can logically handle. Doing a million things half-assedly is not doing anyone a favor.

So, start practicing those phrases and putting them to use. You can do it!

Kelly Gurnett is Assistant Editor of Brazen Life and runs the blog Cordelia Calls It Quits, where she documents her attempts to rid her life of the things that don’t matter and focus more on the things that do. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook and hire her services as a blogger extraordinaire here.

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The post 5 Ways to Say No Without Making People Hate You appeared first on Brazen Life.

Ironically, it may be the work-at-home employees and freelancers who are most affected by these hindrances. After all, when you’re trusted to work remotely, coworkers and supervisors will express more skepticism and frustration if you fall out of touch. Likewise, if you telecommute, it’s up to you to manage your time. Anything that slows you down can be a sentence to long evening hours still at “the office.”

We’ve learned about improving efficiency through employee interaction within the office environment. Shaving minutes, and eventually hours, from our daily processes can be equally beneficial to online productivity, resulting in more free time and less stress and frustration—whether you work in a cubicle or propped up against pillows in your bed.

Here are seven tips to fine tune your online work process throughout the day:

1. Carve out time to organize

Just as tidying up your desk and putting things in their place removes distractions and improves workflow, cleaning up your virtual desktop also carries benefits. If you’re awash in a flood of icons, create a few folders that can sort and hold everything so that you never waste moments searching for a file again.

Likewise, your cloud accounts (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) will benefit greatly from a filing system. Put the time in upfront to organize and you’ll reap benefits down the road.

2. Keep an eye on free space

Have you ever maxed out your computer’s hard drive or your available cloud or email storage space? Nothing throws a wrench in a workday like the inability to send an email or save a file. In addition, a full hard drive can slow your computer down. Pick up an external drive with enough space to store all of your old files and data (portable 1TB drives run $100-$150). It could be worth buying two to create a backup.

Likewise, don’t let your email server space become bloated. For users like me who save everything, programs like Apple Mail and Outlook let you create folders stored on your hard drive instead of on the server. Plus, providers like Gmail sell additional server space if you run out.

3. Move your email accounts offline

Do you find yourself constantly checking email and shifting your attention away from a task? One handy tip is the “Take Accounts Offline” feature found in email aggregators like Apple Mail. I’ll typically check my email and make the necessary replies, then take the accounts offline while I work on a task.

I keep an eye on the clock and check my email every hour or half-hour, as necessary. Controlling when you shift your attention can help hone your process and you will actually complete daily tasks more efficiently.

4. Use your browser’s automatic form fillers

I recently switched to Google Chrome from Safari, and one of the most pleasant surprises was the intuitive form filling. When I’m tasked with entering my address and contact information, Chrome offers me the option to fill them in automatically.

Most browsers offer this feature but require you to turn it on and “teach” it your correct information. Take advantage, and you’ll save several minutes each time you come across an online form requiring your information

5. Learn to type faster

Fortunately, learning to type is easier than learning a foreign language, but it does take practice. If you’re still a hunt-and-peck typist, make the commitment today to speed up.

Online typing tools can be fun, and just 10 minutes a day can work wonders within a month to get you up to speed. Mashable has a nice list of eight sites and typing tools. Find one that works for you and get started.

6. Move social media to a different browser

Do you find yourself constantly tempted to check Facebook or Twitter? Although a quick social media break can be a great reward throughout the workday, it’s also a guaranteed productivity killer.

One trick I’ve found is to block these sites in my primary browser and force myself to open a new application to check my profiles. I then shut the program back down and get back to work, without the constant temptation to click a bookmark link in my primary browser. For more self-controlled workers, simply eliminating the bookmark may be all you need to do!

7. Speed up your Internet connection

Apart from investing in a faster connection with your provider, computer users can speed up their Internet access with a few other methods. Shut down other devices and computers that might also be drawing on your signal. Password protect your Wi-Fi to stop neighbors from leeching off your connection.

Most computer programs and applications frequently access your connection, so think about what else might be open on your computer that could be stealing bandwidth in the background. If you’re not using an application, shut it down.

With a bit of planning, organization and due diligence, anybody can improve workflow and increase online productivity. That makes bosses happy, benefits you and your employer and leaves more free time for everything else in life.

What other tips do you have to improve your daily work process?

Allison Rice is the Marketing Director for Amsterdam Printing, one of the nation’s largest providers of promotional products for businesses large and small. Amsterdam specializes in personalized promo pens, as well as other items such as calendars, bags and water bottles.

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The post 7 Genius Ways to Be More Productive Online appeared first on Brazen Life.

But what you probably don’t know is the awesome efficiency of the envelope system, a hands-on visual tool for saving tons of money. It’s basically the best thing since sliced bread, especially for people who just can’t stop spending.

But why hands-on? Why not use convenient digital solutions like Mint.com or any one of the million online budget planners? Well, studies suggest that may be exactly why you can’t save money! Recent research suggests that consumers pay up to a whopping 18 percent more while using a credit card instead of cash, which most online budget users tend to do.

Swiping a card is easy—you never see the money leaving your wallet. But cash? Over time, you develop an intimate relationship with your $10s and $20s. People tend to spend less when they use cash, making it easier to save more and stop overspending.

Do you want to stop worrying about how you definitely can’t afford to buy a round of drinks, even if it is happy hour? Do you want to stop cringing every time you pull your wallet out for a burger and fries? Do you finally want to know where the heck your money goes every month?

Well, then, grab some popcorn and pull up a chair, folks. It’s about to get real.

How the envelope system works

The envelope system has been around since the black-and-white days of your grandparents—and probably longer (there’s really no way to know). In recent years, money expert Dave Ramsey has championed the system and has helped thousands of families and people get on track with their finances.

Simply put, the system is a money-saving method that involves dividing your paychecks/cash into labeled envelopes like “rent,” “gas” and “groceries,” and spending only what you have allotted for that time period (about a week or two).

Once you run out of money, THAT’S IT. No dipping into your grocery fund to buy The Hobbit on BluRay or pulling out a few $20s from your rent before you go out on Friday night. You gotta wait until your next paycheck.

Here’s how to set it up. First, buy some envelopes. Next, identify every single monthly expense you have and write each one down on a separate envelope. A sample list might include:

• Rent
• Utilities
• Gas
• Groceries
• Eating out
• Clothes
• Gym
• Miscellaneous
• Tithe
• SAVINGS (Stuff this envelope with every spare dollar!)

Next, you’ll need to get chummy with your local bank teller, because every time you get paid, you need to go directly to the bank and withdraw every dollar (there are a few exceptions—rent, for example), then take it home and divide up the cash into your envelopes. Bada boom, that’s it.

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, if it was easy, you’d already be out of debt with a nice little retirement fund set up. Setting up the envelope system is the easy part; sticking to it is hard.

Preparing for difficulties

Here’s the biggest problem you’re going to run into: once you run out of money in an envelope, you’re done.

None of that dipping-into-other-envelopes thing. Did you wake up Thursday morning to find you’ve already spent your week’s budget for eating out? Get used to a sack lunch! No more clothes budget? Stay away from the mall!

You almost certainly won’t be able to stick with everything exactly as it is in your budget, at least for the first little while. But that’s okay! Don’t get discouraged. Changing your financially oblivious money behaviors from years ago doesn’t happen overnight.

Creating a solid budget (because that’s really what the envelope system does) and savings account (one that actually works) is the calling card of the truly savvy, self-controlled, wise young professional. As of right now, there are far too few of them.

The perks of a successful system

There are far too many perks to count, but let’s review some of the coolest ones that will set a fire under your behind and really get you going:

• You’ll finally be debt-free.
• You could finally move out of your parents’ house.
• You’ll have an extra chunk of several $100s more each month.
• You could be a millionaire by 50.
• You can buy a round of drinks without blinking an eye.

Bottom line: the envelope system will prevent you from overspending on worthless junk and prepare you for buying a house, investing and retiring. Think that’s a long way off? Tomorrow you’ll be 40. Let’s go; there’s no time to lose!

Stop sitting around and start being awesome. Buy your envelopes, identify your bad money behaviors and kick your student loans in the face while you save up for a nice house in the suburbs. It’s all possible—your road to financial success starts here.

Anthony Moore discusses post-college awesomeness on his website, stuffgradslike.com, and on Twitter. He’s not much different than you: roguishly attractive, dashingly sophisticated and a lover of fine eateries like Wendy’s and Domino’s.

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The post A Budgeting System That Will Save You Tons of Money appeared first on Brazen Life.

If you’ve been feeling trapped in your car, here are four ways that can help make a long commute feel shorter and maximize your time:

1.  Avoid freeways

Yes, really. Sometimes it’s not about the speed you travel but the consistency of that speed. Sure, you can go fast on the highway, but if you’re in bumper-to-bumper traffic 70 percent of the time, start hunting for an alternate route on secondary roads.

Even if the alternate route doesn’t end up saving you time, it will help save your sanity—to say nothing of wear and tear on your brakes from the constant stop-and-go of a crowded highway. You won’t miss the reckless lunatics trying to merge at the last minute, either.

2.  Change your hours

I cut my travel time by changing the hours I’m in the office—and on the road. Now I get to work earlier, avoiding the worst of the morning traffic, and leave earlier, avoiding the worst of the evening traffic.

If schedule-tweaking isn’t an option, look for creative ways to land ideal commuting times. Drive close to your office to work out early in the morning and avoid the traffic that way. Stay after work to have dinner close by, or do an activity with friends until the traffic clears out a bit. Just a few minutes can make the difference of an extra hour in some heavily trafficked metro areas.

3.  Be productive

Looking for ways to make your commute a productive period will help the time go faster. Consider listening to a book on tape or a lecture, or catch up on the news or sports on the radio. This is a double-edged sword, though; you don’t want to become distracted and have an accident.

If you enjoy reading or can even get time-saving work done, this is where taking public transportation, even if inefficient, might actually be a bonus. Consider: is it better to waste 40 minutes in your car or spend 60 minutes on the bus, where you can read, work or get other things done?

4.  Work from home, even just a little

Many jobs can be done online or somewhere other than an office. Negotiate with your boss, asking to work from home one or two days a week. Explain how you’ll organize your time and be efficient—and then stick to the plan you lay out. What’s in it for your boss? A happier, less stressed-out employee.

How do you make the most of your commute?

Jason Miner works with blogcarnival.com, where he helps make the world an even better place for bloggers.

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The post 4 Tips for Making the Most of a Long Commute appeared first on Brazen Life.

If you failed miserably at this last year, here’s the good news: you might still be able to use some of last year’s FSA money to pay for health care expenses in 2013.

What’s that? A reprieve? I know, I know—this is a textbook example of enabling the procrastinator, but I hate the idea of you burning a stack of your own money almost as much as you do. Even if the stack is tiny, like more of a bundle or wad, I still want you to get the most of what’s set aside.

Fortunately for you, dear procrastinator, you might be able to take advantage of some rules that will let you spend leftover 2012 money in 2013.

Here’s everything you need to know. (And if you need a review of exactly what a flexible spending account is, here’s a link that will fill you in.)

Figure Out the Rules for Your Account

First, you need to see how your company has set up your FSA. Different companies have different rules, so it’s important to know what you have to work with. And what you need to know is whether your FSA account has a run-out period or an annual grace period. Both give you a little extra time to claim FSA expenses from 2012; only FSA plans with grace periods let you apply 2012 FSA funds to 2013 expenses.

You can get this information by reviewing the Summary Plan Description you got in the mail (or that was made available to you online) when you first enrolled in your FSA plan, by checking with someone in your company’s human resources department or by contacting the company in charge of administering your FSA plan.

Want to Figure This Out Quickly?

Call the customer service number for the company that administers your FSA. If you were given an FSA debit card, that number should be printed on the back. Summary Plan Descriptions can be hard to find if you don’t know where to look, and HR—while always helpful—might not be around at midnight when you find yourself asking these sorts of questions.

The FSA administrator can also give you guidance on how your plan functions. If you have a consumer-directed health plan with a health savings account (HSA), for instance, your FSA and HSA money might be coming off the same account. Also, your plan might require you to save and submit receipts for reimbursement instead of letting you use a debit card.

Run-Out Periods vs. Annual Grace Periods

If your plan has a run-out period, your options for claiming leftover 2012 funds are fairly limited. Run-out periods let you claim expenses you made before December 31, 2012, but only if you’re able to provide the appropriate documentation. You might not be able to claim much, but if you didn’t get an Explanation of Benefits form from your insurance carrier before the end of the year—or if you have unfiled receipts lying around for eligible expenses like copayments, prescriptions or supplies—you can reimburse yourself with money from your 2012 FSA account.

Annual grace periods, on the other hand, are a little more forgiving. If your company has structured your FSA with an annual grace period, you’ll have some extra time in 2013 to spend your 2012 money. The nice folks who make your FSA possible (the Internal Revenue Service) permit a grace period of two months and 15 days, which means you have until March 15th to get the most out of your leftover 2012 funds. Of course, with a run-out period on top of a grace period, you could have even longer. You’ll still have to make your purchases during the grace period, but some FSAs let you submit claims for reimbursement beyond March 15th. Again, you’ll want to check your plan to get the exact dates.

Still with me? Good, because now I’ll show you the different ways you can use your leftover FSA money.

Health Care Providers

Yes, of course you can use your FSA money to cover the cost of visiting your doctor. You were planning on seeing her anyway, so make sure to schedule your next appointment before your grace period runs out. Even if you’re covered by insurance, you can use money from your FSA account to cover the insurance copayment.

You can also use FSA money to pay for the other provider services you usually get. Finalize that eye exam you’ve been meaning to put on the calendar (and get some new glasses while you’re there—lenses and frames are eligible expenses) or arrange to have your teeth cleaned in early March instead of April.

Other health issues? Don’t overlook your chiropractor, acupuncturist or hypnotist. You might need a letter of medical necessity from your primary care physician to prove that the services you want are medically necessary, but these things are considered FSA-eligible under the right circumstances.

Over-the-Counter Drugs

Okay, now this part is tricky. Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are FSA-eligible expenses, but to take advantage of any tax savings, you must have a doctor’s prescription for whatever you buy. Yes, it’s a huge pain in the buns, but the rules for OTC drugs changed in January 2011, and that means you’re no longer allowed to easily use FSA funds to purchase OTC cold medicine or pain relievers.

If you’re planning to see or talk to your doctor some time before the end of your company’s annual grace period, though, you could ask her to write you a prescription for the OTC drugs you use most. As long as the prescription seems reasonable (two or three items, not 200 boxes of possible meth ingredients), she should be willing to help you save a few bucks.

Also, if you’re especially pressed for time, you might be able to skip the office visit altogether. Your doctor might be willing to call in an OTC prescription to your local pharmacy for you. If she does, your drug store receipt will have a prescription number on it, and your purchase will become FSA-eligible. All you have to do is ask.

Over-the-Counter Supplies

Now we’re talking. Unlike OTC drugs, you don’t need a doctor’s prescription to use FSA funds to purchase OTC medical supplies, which makes the whole process of using leftover 2012 money a lot easier.

What are OTC “supplies”? Well, the answer to that might vary depending on whom you work for. Different employers have different rules, so it’s always best to check ahead of time. In general, though, eligible OTC supplies include things like bandages, breastfeeding supplies, contact lens supplies (cleaning solutions, storage cases, etc.), vaporizers and humidifiers, and home diagnostic equipment like pregnancy tests, thermometers or blood pressure gauges.

If you’ve got a bum elbow or something along those lines, the ability to buy OTC supplies without a prescription lets you pick up the things you need anyway without much hassle from The Man. Just be careful and double-check whether your purchases are FSA eligible. For instance, you might breathe easier with a high quality air filter, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re allowed to use FSA money to get it.

Don’t Overdo It Next Time, Okay?

The first rule for getting the most out of your FSA is to use all your money for the plan year. If you’ve got money left over from last year, you set aside too much. Be sure to reassess your contributions the next time you your company lets you change your benefits. If you don’t think you’re going to need as much next time, reduce your contributions, and if you expect to have more expenses (like a surgery or the arrival of a new family member), maybe an increase is the way to go.

Despite the fact that there are more than 32,000 over-the-counter health care items and health care services you can pay for with tax-free FSA money, you don’t want to find yourself scrambling at the end of every year.

Justyn Harkin blogs about employee benefits and other HR topics for ALEX®, the Jellyvision Benefits Counselor.

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Since there are so many apps to choose from for your financial recording, tracking and budgeting needs, we’ve narrowed down the field to help you decide which ones to check out first.

Here are the top eight:

1. Mint

Mint is one of the most respected multifunction financial apps in the industry today. It allows users to track and monitor all bank account transactions through the ease of their smartphone. Mint will automatically import your information from your bank accounts, brokerage firms, credit card statements and even 401(k) accounts. This allows for the most accurate display of your financial status, resulting in the best money management from a smartphone available on the app market today.

2. SigFig

For those looking to analyze investment portfolios, the SigFig app is the one to use on all mobile devices. Not only does this app collect investing information in one select location; it also analyzes asset allocation, fee rates and the qualities of portfolios characteristics—all of which would typically require the use of a financial planner.

3. Ask Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey is known as one of the top financial gurus, and many people looking to regain a healthy financial standing ask themselves the question “What Would Dave Do?”

Now you can learn the exact advice Dave Ramsey would give through the Ask Dave Ramsey mobile app. It offers advice in all areas of finance in true Ramsey form through legitimate, straightforward and easy-to-understand responses that can include simple anecdotes and real-life examples. This app is extremely useful if you’re looking to get your finances in shape or improve your spending habits.

4. Pageonce

The Pageonce app is perfect if you want to know exactly where you’re spending your money and track login information for bill paying or other online accounts. This app gives you the ability to access every online account from your mobile smartphone or tablet, including those forgotten accounts like Netflix, utility accounts and even social media dating sites.

Not only does it keep your information all in one place; it also protects your online account information by allowing you to disable all access to online accounts if your smartphone is stolen. How’s that for peace of mind?

5. Balance

Some of us love the idea of having all of our financial information automatically updated, but others can practice better fiscal responsibility through manually inputting information into apps that track spending. Balance is a mobile device app that allows users to input information after each transaction, much like a virtual check register. This free phone app is useful to those who wish to be more accountable for spending without unsightly and cluttered paperwork, check registers or “I spent” lists.

6. Bloomberg

If you want to track stocks and shares, smartphone users often recommend this app, particularly for monitoring self-directed IRA investments as they fluctuate each day. Bloomberg makes it easy to monitor investments with unique and simple menus that showcase the most up-to-date and accurate information from all over the Web.

7. Bill Tracker

Perhaps the most useful of our eight apps is Bill Tracker. It helps make sure your payments are never late by tracking and monitoring owed amounts, payment confirmation numbers and even due dates. You can set reminders on your phone so you get alerts when a bill is nearing its payment date or is already past due. This app is particular useful for users who want to forge new habits of on-time bill paying in an effort to be more responsible or improve credit ratings.

8. Doxo

Doxo markets itself as “Your Digital File Cabinet,” and it can certainly be just that. The app allows you to back up important files, manage your household payments and connect with your utility service providers, all from one account. With Doxo, it’s no longer necessary to log into 20 different sites just to figure out where things stand with your household bills. View all your e-statements at once from your personal Doxo account.

What are your favorite financial mobile apps?

Julie Anderson is a writer and marketing specialist for Accuplan.net, the self-directed IRA specialists.

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And, in truth, procrastinating isn’t really a serious problem until it starts to interfere with your performance at work. If you’re feeling worried, fearful and stressed out, or your behavior is causing others to feel anxious because you’re holding up progress, then it’s time to take action!

The good news is that anyone can crawl out of the quicksand of procrastination and enjoy increased productivity, enhanced mood, less stress, better coworker relationships, a sense of accomplishment and a restored reputation at work as a “doer.”

Sound good? Here’s how.

1. Name the challenge and the goal

Writing down the specific task you’ve been putting off helps you get focused. For example, “I have to convert all of my client contacts and notes into the new CRM software system and learn how to navigate its tools and folders.”

Now, elaborate on that task. What’s your goal? For example, “I want to be familiar with this new software so it’s a useful tool, not an impediment to my progress.”

Having a precise goal will help you get motivated.

2. Pinpoint your emotions

This step helps you understand the act of procrastinating for what it truly is: an emotional reaction. What’s really preventing you from diving in to this task?

To use the above example, maybe you’re intimidated by all the new bells and whistles you’ll have to learn (fear). Or maybe you’re cranky about having to do this when the old system wasn’t broken and worked perfectly well (anger). Or perhaps you’re bummed that you’re just not tech savvy (sadness). The emotions behind procrastination usually fall into these three categories.

3. Let those emotions go

Okay, here’s the fun part. Many people don’t realize that emotion is merely a type of energy. Pent-up emotions and energy need to get released, like letting steam out of a pressure cooker. If you’re sad, go watch a sentimental movie and cry. If you’re angry, try stomping around the room and shaking your fists. If fear is your driving emotion, then do exaggerated shivering.

Believe it or not, giving yourself permission to let these emotions out will release that trapped energy, and you’ll instantly feel “unstuck.”

4. Counter defeating chatter with truths

When tackling a dreaded task, it’s common to have self-sabotaging thoughts like, “I’ll never be able to learn all of this.”

When chatter threatens to drown out your motivation, try this simple technique. Find a positive statement that is simple and true. For example, “If others can learn this, so can I.” To neutralize your frustration at having to do the task, you might say, “I’m doing this because I want to be a team player.” Say these truths over and over until they are louder than your negative internal chatter.

5. Break it into a small, doable steps

You’ve envisioned the task, dealt with what’s been holding you back and fixed your destructive thinking. The next step in completing the task is deciding when you’ll get started and figuring out a doable step-by-step game plan. Write it down, schedule it and commit to it.

Then go on a mental journey, plotting out each part of the task, including details such as where and when you’ll be working, who you will talk with and what you’ll talk about and how long you expect each part to take.

6. Anticipate roadblocks and plan tactics to deal with them

Imagine challenges and obstacles that are likely to pop up along the way. For example, other projects with shorter deadlines might land on your desk. How will you tackle such challenges in order to keep moving forward with the big task at hand?

For every such scenario, have a tactic ready for sticking to your original plan. You may also want to find someone to support your efforts or to mentor you on a regular basis.

7. Resist and be resilient

As you move through the task, you’re likely to meet with resistance in the form of excuses, bad moods and discouragement. Battle resistance with tenacity and stubbornness and continue to deal with any emotions that surface. Remind yourself that you can do this, and you’ll feel better once it’s handled.

Accomplishing what you’re avoiding will simplify your work life. You’ll feel more energetic. You’ll even sleep better at night!

Jude Bijou, MA, MFT, is a respected psychotherapist, professional educator and workshop leader. Her award-winning book is Attitude Reconstruction: A Blueprint for Building a Better Life. Learn more at www.attitudereconstruction.com.

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But while the grey cloud of debt does means you have to be smart about your money, budget big-time and limit your participation in activities that cost more than $50, it doesn’t have to be a killjoy. You know that saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”? It’s all about balance.

Just because you can’t make it rain in the cash department at this point in your life doesn’t mean you can’t get out and have Instagram-worthy adventures! Here are a few activities that will keep your cash locked up but leave you rich in new experiences:

1. Hiking

Sure, it’s much easier to sit on the couch and binge-watch Downton Abbey on Netflix all weekend. But get up off that thing, girl (or guy)! Going out and getting your blood pumping will not only get rid of stress; it will also activate those feel-good endorphins.

Know what helps here? Having a buddy. Not sure where to go? The Great Outdoor Recreation Pages has a search engine for hiking. Search by length of the trail, difficulty level and state—which means no excuses. Get out there! No dinero required.

2. Game Nights

If you’re paying off student loans, it’s probably safe to say that most of your friends are too, right? The more the merrier!

Get those broke friends of yours together and have a game night! Don’t have any board games? Try charades, movie charades or the Game of Things. They’re free—only paper and pens required. Ask your guests to donate a couple bucks for snacks and lighten the financial load for everyone.

3. Happy Hour

Who doesn’t want to get some drinks and delicious food with friends on a Friday night? But try making a plan to go during happy hour. You’ll be surprised how much you save when those nom noms are half price.

Search in your city on The Daily Happy Hour to find happy hour deals and coupons near you.

4. Museums

Who doesn’t need a good dose of culture every now and then? You’d be surprised what searching “free museum admission” in Google will turn up.

You’re probably thinking, “I got enough of that museum stuff on high school field trips.” That may be true, but taking time out of our text- and tweet-crazed lives to quietly soak in the beauty of art can be a great stress reliever.

5. Explore

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of going to the same places all the time. Break the cycle! Try exploring a new neighborhood each weekend.

Make a playlist and have a soundtrack for your day of exploration. Not sure where to explore? Try apps like Goby or Serendipitor to get the wheels turning. Meet new people and discover new places to tell your friends about.

With a little creativity, your budget-conscious life doesn’t have to include being a shut-in. Just be smart about where you’re spending your bucks and know that having fun and making memories doesn’t always have to include dropping wads of cash.

Bridget Lappert is an actress turned film student turned blogger who recently launched the blog and Web series Broke but Bougie, where she leads a team of women sharing with the world how to live the cashmere life on a cotton budget!

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Here are four tried-and-true tactics to help you get closer to the salary you want—without touching any employer sore spots:

1. Keep it professional, not personal

Whether it’s right or wrong, for a lot of people, money is knitted to self-worth. If that’s the case for you, the first bullseye to aim for is learning to be professional and unemotional during negotiations. This is often easier said than done.

Without being brusque or cold, assess the offer from the company’s point of view as well as your own. Each conversation should end with you saying (or writing, if negotiating by email) thank you. Ask yourself: Have you kept things positive but also gotten quickly to the point?

For instance, to negotiate a salary of $42,000, a good response to hiring manager X at company ABC Corp. might look like this:

Hello X,

First let me say that joining ABC Corp. is an extremely exciting prospect for me. I believe I can produce for ABC and exceed expectations for this role. After reviewing the offer, most points reflect what I hoped to see.

One point I would like to discuss further is the offered base salary. Currently, I earn $38,000 and am ideally looking to progress to $45,000. If there is a time today when we can discuss this over the phone, I would be happy to work around your schedule.

2. To decide how high to go, weigh risk and reward

A key thing to remember about compensation negotiation is that it’s still very much part of the interview process, even though you have an offer before you begin. If you’re attempting to negotiate above 15 percent of your current salary, be careful not to come across as high-maintenance or entitled.

Even with the offer on the table, at the end of the day, the hiring company still has the final say. If you decide what you’re asking for is commensurate with the market rate and reflects your skills and history, proceed professionally and know going into the negotiations whether you’re willing to compromise.

3. Be brutally honest with yourself

Evaluate your own qualifications. Are you more than 50 percent sure you deserve more money? If you are less than 50 percent sure, err on the side of not pushing for a higher salary and instead prove yourself once in the job.

But if you do meet that 50 percent threshold, go for it. The fewer strong candidates a company has, the more likely they are to give the hiring manager leeway.

4. Depend on research, not guesswork (tweet this idea!)

Research what similar jobs at similar companies pay.

What doesn’t count as research? Asking your friends what they think someone in your job should be making. Much better is some intense Googling or researching on Glassdoor.

Salary negotiation might make you feel nervous, excited, indignant, entitled, unsure and ultra-focused. But a savvy professional—that’s you—is able to take a step back from any emotional response, assess the facts gathered from reliable sources and proceed in the professional manner you plan to carry the first day you walk through your new office doors.

Ken Sundheim is the CEO of KAS Placement Recruiters, an executive search firm specializing in sales and marketing recruitment. You can see Ken’s blog at http://www.kensundheim.com.

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But if you’ve made this dream a reality, you may be discovering out a common plight of the newly self-employed: it’s hard to stay focused, and that much-desired lack of oversight can result in not getting work done.

Here are five tips for staying focused on the home front:

1. Follow your clock, not theirs

Remember back in college, when “early to bed” meant being asleep before sunrise? If your night-owl-ish tendencies leave you feeling your best in the late hours of the night, don’t be afraid to time-shift your work schedule to match. Likewise, if you prefer to wake up in the wee hours and have most of your tasks done before noon, well, there’s no one stopping you.

Modern office hours were constructed as a kind of one-size-fits-all approximation of humankind, but everyone’s biological clock is wound differently. Working during the hours when your mind is at its best will make the day (or night) go faster, while improving the quality of your both mood and your work.

2. Still obey their calendar, though

Parkinson’s Law says that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Everyone wants to get things done well before the deadline, and yet that last-minute scramble seems perpetually unavoidable. Without a boss setting deadlines for you, you should get used to setting your own.

If you do a lot of contract work, this might be simple: include an expected completion date in the initial agreement. If you do freelance work or other tasks that aren’t as reliant on another person’s schedule, try tricking yourself into a sense of urgency. Tell a spouse or friend about what you’re working on and when you’ll be done so there’s a bit of external pressure attached to the due date. And build in a little extra time if you can. That way, if something unexpected comes up, you’ll still meet that deadline.

3. Don’t toss out the work clothes just yet

The ability to work while wearing pajamas is a commonly cited perk of the home office, but you might want to dress up anyway.

The morning routine of putting on something presentable gets your mind in gear to be productive. Slinking from your bed to your desk makes it a lot harder to make that mental jump into work mode. Extra-comfy pajamas might be a bit too comfortable to get anything done.

4. Get moving

One of the biggest advantages to setting your own schedule is that you control your breaks. And since you’re alone at home instead of at an office, your breaks can be the sweaty-sock kind.

Shifting your exercise routine to the middle of the day serves to break up your workload and give your mind time to process what you’re working on. Even better, the exercise-induced endorphin rush puts you in a great mood for the home stretch, and midday exercise has even been shown to boost energy level and productivity.

5. Don’t bring your work home with you

Just like doctors suggest never doing anything but sleeping or having (a-hem) “romantic time” in your bed if you want to fall asleep easier, keep your home workspace a workspace alone, and avoid merging it with entertainment or family activities whenever possible.

You might find you need a second computer: one for your home office, and another with all the games, messaging and other distractions you love while vegging on the couch in the living room. Programs like LeechBlock, an add-on for Mozilla Firefox, can forcibly block sites like Facebook and Twitter at certain times of the day when you need to be working and not tempted by time-sucks.

Working from home comes with its benefits and freedoms, but the skill set required to self-motivate does not come easily. The more tricks you find that work for you, the more productive you’ll become at home. Without the time-consuming commute and bureaucracy of the office, it’s easy to do more work than you ever did before—and in less time.

Dunya Carter is a writer and marketing consultant for Ochre Recruitment, a leading Australian medical recruitment agency specializing in doctor jobs. She writes articles on professional development for several websites and blogs.

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Now, the dilemma:

When I decided to make this test drive my goal, I was 23 with no money, no connections and no credentials. I knew I didn’t have the pull to rent one for the day. That takes some pretty killer insurance and about $2,000. I certainly didn’t have any friends I could borrow one from.

My only option was to test drive one at the dealership. But let’s get real here: I was just a kid walking into a room full of cars that all cost more than my parents’ house.

My toolset was slim, but I did have one ace in my pocket. I decided to use something I’d learned in college, of all places. (Gulp.) It’s little technique we Communications majors call “framing.”

What is framing?

Framing is a technique that almost all high-performing negotiators use to control the flow and outcome of a conversation in crucial closing situations. Although you may have never heard of it, you’ve probably used it a time or two in your life. The basic concept is pretty simple, but it can take years to master. Here’s what it looks like:

1. Start with a clear idea of where you want the interaction with the other person to go.

2. Assume a firm rooting in your perception of reality. This becomes your truth. This is where you will act and speak from. You will invite the other person into your domain, not go into theirs.

3. Create the dominant “frame” by identifying and negating objections before the other party even has a chance to raise them.

4. Steer the conversation towards collaboration. Allow the other party to feel important in the conversation, all the while keeping your desired outcome in mind.

Spoiler alert: this technique works. I ended up whipping a neon orange Gallardo all around the city that day after casting my spell.

How did this textbook approach get me from the street into the driver’s seat of a $200,000 car?

Let’s look at the framework in action:

1. Clarity

The first step was clarity of purpose. That day, I knew I was going to drive my dream car. Period. There was no other potential outcome in my mind. Surprisingly, knowing exactly where I was going actually made the situation a lot less stressful.

2. Belief

The second step was strong belief. I was firmly rooted in my truth and acted from that position. The moment I walked in the door, I presented myself to the dealers with absolute confidence and announced, quite matter-of-factly, that I was car shopping. There was no tentativeness or hesitance in my voice. I had conviction. They didn’t know who I was, how much I had or what I was capable of. Who were they to question me?

Most people get shy or scared, assuming authority figures will ask for some sort of “proof” of worthiness. Oftentimes, this is not just so. If you firmly believe your identity, so will others. Your proof is the way you carry yourself.

3. Identify objections

Next, I identified the objections the dealership might have with me driving the car and addressed the issues before they even had time to register what was going on. Before the dealer could even muster a “hello, how are you?” I’d already handed him my credit card and my license for safekeeping.

The message: “This is not my first rodeo. I plan on driving a car today.” I now had clear control of the frame, and he was living in my world.

4. Collaboration

I knew that to pull this off, I needed to make the dealer feel important. Controlling the frame too aggressively at first can lead to hesitance by the other party. I made sure to ask plenty of questions that would make the salesman feel like an expert, but I also remembered to use affirmative language such as “When I’m driving today, should I use the pedal shifters or the stick?” This language assumes I will be driving the car as planned, and now I’m just looking for some last-minute details.

After about 20 minutes, he headed to the back to get the keys, and I had the one of the best days of my life. The major lesson for me here was something that I’d always known, but needed to experience firsthand: the person with the dominant reality controls the framework of the conversation. The person who controls the framework controls the outcome.

It goes without saying that this power should only be used with positive intent. Don’t use it to lie or deceive others. Instead, use it to direct situations that would normally leave you feeling powerless. From the classroom to the boardroom to the showroom, having the ability to assert yourself and control the conversation by framing it properly can help you move swiftly and stand out amongst peers who sway in the tides of everyone else’s opinions.

Daniel DiPiazza teaches aspiring entrepreneurs how they can become self-employed, create wealth and help people by launching their online startups at his blog and through his program Rich20Something.

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Go to the gym? I mean, I guess. Floss? Ugh. Bring my lunch to work tomorrow? Okay, but it will consist of three pickles, a petrified block of mozzarella and a bottle of sriracha.

You may find yourself in a similar rut, but there’s still plenty of time to polish off that list of things that you (with the help of (okay) a bottle and a half of Brut) promised you’d do late on December 31st.

And what’s even better is you don’t have to go it alone. Below are a few tools, from the old-fashioned to the high-tech, that you can use to keep yourself on track to meet whatever lofty goals you set for 2013.

1. A blog (or a notebook, if you wish)

This is not a blog to host all of your brilliant political treatises or poetry. It’s a place to end a stressful, awful, never-coming-back work day or to celebrate your greatest, I-am-the-smartest-woman-alive triumphs.

Which is to say that this is not a public blog. I always wondered what in the world was the point of the “private” setting on WordPress—why commit my priceless thoughts to the internet without unleashing my genius onto the world?—until a friend told me that he keeps a work blog to help him reflect on his work days.

If you’re like me and you think that the word “reflect” sounds too gooey, think of it as an assessment instead. For even just five minutes at the end of a work day, ask yourself what you did that day that worked and what you did that completely blew up in your face. Thinking about it and writing it down can make these lessons stick far better than just noticing and moving on.

Did it work better to do all of your email catching up at 10:30 a.m. instead of right when you got into the office? Write it down. Can you never remember the precise way the accounting department wants your expense reports done? Write it down and bookmark it.

A notebook, of course, can serve exactly the same purpose, but you’re already here on the Internet, so you might as well poke around on a site like Blogspot, WordPress or Blogger—and learn a new skill in the meantime. Plus, you can give your personal blog any sort of ridiculous, neon-green-with-blue-flashing-letters theme your heart desires.

2. A big mouth

This one is simple. If you want to get something done, talk about it. To everyone. Then you’ll have to do it, or be ashamed when a friend asks, “So…did you finally save up enough money to buy that sternum-rattling guitar amp you’ve been talking about, ad nauseum, for weeks?”

<sigh> <looks at feet> <mutters> “No…”

3. A good calendar

This is the part of the article where I tell you what every pushy organize-your-life piece exhorts you to do: get a calendar AND DON’T FORGET TO USE IT. This is true, but I’d like to add another piece of advice: make this more important than your to-do list.

To-do lists are great, but if I’m actually serious about doing something, I block it out on my calendar. It’s a great goal, after all, to want to sweep and mop the apartment, but it’s a lot more likely I’ll get it done if I’ve blocked it out for 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. than if I’ve sandwiched it into a bullet-point list between “repaint toenails” and “buy cottage cheese.”

This can mean rethinking how you use your calendar. You may not put mundane things like “go to the gym,” “write in my journal” or “cook supper” on your calendar, but if you really are serious about getting in shape, being more introspective or cooking at home more in 2013, making dates with yourself can help to make those things priorities.

This means you’ll also force yourself to think about the logistics of accomplishing all of your to-do items. Reorganizing your closet sounds simple enough, until you consider that it will involve clearing off eight shelves, refolding some balled-up t-shirts, trying on things that may not fit anymore, maybe whimpering a little afterward, bagging up old clothes and finding a place to donate them.

When it comes to choosing a calendar, you’ve got a whole lot of options, right down to the bargain-bin paper calendar from Barnes & Noble if you want to go low-tech. I personally stick to the calendar on my iPhone, synced up with my Outlook at work and my Google Calendar for my pressing social engagements. (Do these involve watching Ally McBeal while inspecting my bunions? Maybe.)

Those who want to take it a few steps further can sign up for a more sophisticated system. One pretty amazing one I’ve run across is LifeBalance by Llamagraphics. It’s not free, but it comes with all sorts of useful bells and whistles, forcing you to consider how long a project might take by asking you to enter how much time and effort (“minimum” to “maximum”) it will require. The program also tracks your life balance by tracking how much time you’ve spent on different areas of your life. Meaning that whether your New Year’s resolution is to work more or less, this sort of tool might be able to help you out.

4. An alarm clock

Want to get more done at work? It may be more productive to go in earlier rather than stay later.

No one likes to go in early, it’s true, but that’s also precisely the point. If you get into the office even 15 minutes earlier than everyone else, you’ll have 15 minutes in a relatively quiet office to do all sorts of things uninterrupted, whether it’s clearing off your desk, making a few phone calls or catching up on emails. (Plus you get to act all high and mighty when people arrive and there you are, all settled in, with your coffee and oatmeal and smug little grin. They’ll look annoyed, maybe, but trust me: they’re really just jealous.)

What other tools are essential for accomplishing your goals this year?

Danielle Kurtzleben is a journalist in Washington, D.C. She doesn’t really have bunions.

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“Going viral” – the phrase itself connotes action and power, and it follows that viral marketing strategies have the potential to foster both.

Viral projects provide maximum brand impact in minimal time. The kicker is that, in order to be successful, they have to be both shareable and share-worthy.

The following are a few key pieces of advice for anyone planning to launch a viral marketing venture:

1. Keep it simple

In nature, viruses depend on fast, easy replication to spread, and it’s exactly the same with a viral marketing strategy. Your project — whether it’s a video or website launch — is essentially just a container for your message. That’s why it’s important to keep your idea simple and unique. People innately share things that they perceive to have value; make your project worthy of being shared.

2. Have an idea list

Write down your project ideas, and add to them every day. Keep track using apps such as Evernote or Any.DO. When an idea makes sense to you, build it! Use whatever tool you can to create it as quickly as possible. Personally, I usually use WordPress and upload a WooTheme to finish rapidly. At this point, delaying your project should not be an option. Work fast and launch fast. If your project is valuable and you do a good job of optimizing it to be shared, it will take off.

3. Make it relevant

Whether your project draws on a current event, an issue in your industry or a popular trend, it’s imperative that it relates to your audience in a meaningful way. A good supplementary tool can be humor. For example, the day Marissa Mayer became Yahoo’s CEO, Sean Bonner made DearMarissaMayer.com. It probably took him just a few hours, but it was relevant, funny, and had a clear message – and in no time, it was all over Twitter, Facebook and Reddit with thousands of shares. In response, Flickr created DearInternet, which also received much attention, was funny and probably sent them a few good leads to work at Flickr as well.

4. Just execute

A good idea can be ruined by poor execution. Make sure the design and written elements of your project are fresh, flawless and aesthetically appealing. If your content and design are “blog-worthy,” and you have an interesting story to share, bloggers will write about it and link back to you. Also, be sure after a certain point to upload the logos of blogs that have covered your project. People find them very appealing, and they’re a great way to build your brand. It can also tie a series of projects together to develop your reputation as a social media force.

5. Optimize, optimize, optimize

The replication of your message should be absolutely effortless. By including the right sharing buttons, with the perfect text, customized hashtag, etc., you make it even easier for your audience to use social media to post and comment on your project with just a click. This is the heart of viral marketing; as your audience shares your project, your business gains more Facebook subscribers, Twitter followers and brand promotion. The more your audience shares, the more publicity you gain.

As an entrepreneur, it’s always good to be on other people’s radars. Viral marketing is a great strategy for doing just that, while simultaneously building your brand. “Going viral” can make a powerful impact on your business and lead to a plethora of future opportunities.

Even small viral projects are a great way to get noticed – and stay noticed. All it takes is a relevant idea that is valuable, well-executed and optimized for sharing.

Ben Lang is an 18-year-old internet entrepreneur. He’s the founder of EpicLaunch and has been involved in a few viral projects listed here.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

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The truth is that the creative genius is a myth. Creativity is a skill we can all learn. And like any other skill, creative thinking requires practice.

Here are five ways to develop your creative thinking and use it to your advantage in the workplace:

1. Devour books

Read voraciously. Try biographies of great minds, thought-provoking fiction or leadership guides. Keep up with trade publications in your field. Watch TED talks and reading inspiring blogs.

2. Observe the great

Keep an eye open and a notebook ready. Who are the smartest and most creative people in your  office? Pay close attention to how those people work to see the process behind the good ideas—or take your coworker out for a coffee and have a chat about how he or she goes about solving problems.

If your job gives you the opportunity to travel to conferences, go. Panels likely to generate debate are great ones to attend. Listen to how the debaters structure their arguments and back it up with their original findings.

3. Break out of the bubble

Being good at one thing is so ’90s. Lateral thinking and multidisciplinary knowledge is the new normal.

What does that mean for you? Take a dance class, take up painting, study philosophy or turn your backyard into an English rose garden. Fresh ideas will carry over to your career.

4. Question life, the universe and everything

Learning to question others—and, perhaps most importantly, yourself—will teach you to find smaller issues and weaknesses in your Great Big Idea that need to be addressed.

Questioning doesn’t have to mean being the annoying coworker who challenges everyone. Instead, hone this critical thinking skill by trying these exercises:

• After reading a novel, imagine five questions you’d ask the main character.
• During a presentation, write down three questions you’d ask the speaker.
• While watching the news, think of a question you’d ask the reporter.

5. Daily creativity challenge

Challenge yourself to do something creative every day. Consider this housekeeping necessary to keep your creative skills shining. Remember: practice and motivation are the key ingredients to success.

Eva Lantsoght (@evalantsoght) is a structural engineer, concrete researcher, online writer, academic blogger and music journalist with a passion for science, arts and travel.

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Want to get an edge on negotiating a raise at work?

You probably know you should prepare for the conversation, but what’s the best way to do that? Here are six surprising facts about negotiation that will help you walk out of your boss’s  office with a raise in hand:

1. You actually have to ask

Negotiation is a conversation. But your manager is probably perfectly happy with things as they are, so to start that conversation, you have to ask.

Leaving things as they are saves your manager time and money, and she doesn’t have many incentives to give you what you may deserve or even initiate a discussion with you about what you want and need. You are the only person who’s motivated to change the status quo, so if you don’t ask for a change, it won’t happen.

2. Not asking means leaving real money on the table

We often don’t appreciate how much we might be leaving on the table over time by not asking or not asking for enough.

To illustrate this, consider the case of two 30-year-old candidates who are offered the same salary. Susy negotiates for $6,000 more, and Grace takes the original salary offer. If Susy stashes away just the additional $6,000 a year, she will have more than $350,000 more in savings than Grace (assuming a savings rate of 2.5 percent) at age 65. That’s a decent chunk of additional change Grace is missing out on!

See how much more you could be saving if you got a salary increase here. When you don’t negotiate, you’re leaving real money on the table.

3. You don’t have to assemble a broad array of arguments

Remember the phrase “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit?” While you don’t want to get yourself in that situation, this is a perfect example of how to get the result you want in a negotiation. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to come up with 20 reasons why you deserve what you’re asking for. One or two strong arguments are actually more effective than throwing out four or five.

Do some thinking about the strongest reasons why you deserve what you want, and keep the focus of the conversation on those reasons.

4. The process itself is often negotiated

Some workers don’t realize that getting to the negotiation may itself be a negotiation. Learn to recognize when higher-ups are negotiating the process. Have you had a boss who brushed you off for weeks or months when you tried to set a time for a yearly review? Or maybe that manager wanted to have the discussion at that exact moment, even if that happened to be in the hall after the group meeting?

These are actually negotiation tactics—one of delay, the other of hurrying you. It’s important to remember that you can negotiate when you’ll negotiate. You can also respond to this tactic by asking for a more appropriate time for you. Similarly, for the brush-off, ask for a fixed date when you can meet.

5. The secret is, your boss hates negotiating, too

Believe it or not, your manager or boss may dislike negotiating far more than you do. Her dislike could have a wide variety of origins, including not liking to say “no” or disappoint people, thinking she is bad at negotiating or worrying she’ll “lose.”  Avoiding conversations often signals the former, while being combative or aggressive indicates the latter.

Approaching the conversation as a persuasion exercise and highlighting a win-win option—or at least showing it won’t hurt your manager—will make the process easier for your boss, which means it’s easier for you, too.

What else can help? Consider how your boss or manager likes to be approached and what gets her to change in other settings. When is she most relaxed? What makes her uptight? Use that knowledge to make her feel comfortable so that you’re more likely to get what you’re looking for.

6. It doesn’t have to be only about money

We tend to focus on asking for a higher salary or a bonus and may miss asking for other perks that can be helpful in our career and life. Would additional (paid for) training or courses help you on to greater opportunities? Would flex time or telecommuting allow you to spend more time on non-work interests or obligations? How about more vacation? What about taking on a different role or getting to do something you’ve always wanted to try?

These asks have tangible benefits to you and sometimes to your company. And, as a bonus, it can be easier for managers to give them than money.

Does negotiating at work make you nervous? What’s the scariest part?

Katie Slater is a recovering finance attorney who now coaches people on their professional development and leadership. Find out more about her and read more of her thoughts at http://careerinfusioncoaching.com and on Twitter @careerinfusion.

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The post 6 Surprising Facts You Didn’t Know About Negotiating Your Salary appeared first on Brazen Life.

This is something they never teach you in school: how to make good financial decisions even when you’re under financial pressure.

Because let’s face it: bills are never going to disappear. The only thing we can change is the way we respond to them.

The cost of NOT remaining calm under financial pressure

In his book Turn It Up, Jeffrey Spencer says that feeling overwhelmed is similar to action paralysis and kills any initiatives to complete tasks.

Feeling overwhelmed is the oldest excuse in the book, he writes; it’s a protective mechanism—fear manifesting itself in a different manner.

What’s the cost of feeling overwhelmed?

1. Avoidance behavior. When you’re overwhelmed about your finances, the last thing you want to do is look at your financial situation, so you’ll find a way—any way!—to avoid your finances.

2. Increased debt. It’s easy to lose track of spending and other expenses when you feel overwhelmed, because something as simple as checking your bank balance or drafting your budget feels like too much, which only worsens the situation.

3. Bad investment decisions. To make good investments, you have to be willing to do the research and understand your financial needs, which is difficult to do when you’re avoiding them.

4. Procrastinating. Overwhelm over money leads to action paralysis with your finances and leaves you feeling lost.

How to remain calm under pressure and eliminate financial overwhelm

We feel overwhelmed about our finances when we lump all our financial problems under one umbrella without taking the time to deal with each one individually.

So, how can you eliminate financial overwhelm?

1. Use the Pareto Principle (or 80/20 rule). This principle states that 20 percent of something is always responsible for 80 percent of the results.

Not all of the actions you have on your to-do list will improve your finances. To be more productive, prioritize the actions that’ll make the greatest impact on your finances.

For me, that action is earning more money (rather than frugality) so that I can pay off my student loans faster and focus on my entrepreneurial ventures.

2. Break up your financial vision into quarterly goals. It’s not enough to say you want financial freedom. Define what financial freedom looks like to you.

Become clear on what you want financially: extra income, more investments, more savings or no debt. Trying to meet all of these financial goals all at once will leave you feeling overwhelmed. Instead, choose the goal you feel most passionate about now and focus on achieving that one.

When you become clear about what you want to achieve, the actions you need to take to make that a reality will become very clear. See the vision and then take the ONE action that will bring you closer to that vision. Clarity makes taking action a breeze.

 3. Focus on your strengths and delegate the rest. You become overwhelmed when you try to do everything yourself.

Get to know yourself. Know what you’re good at, and delegate the tasks you’re not good at. For five bucks, you can hire someone on Fiverr to do the things you’re not good at.

 4. Budget and automate your expenses. Eliminate decision-making fatigue by budgeting and automating monthly expenses or bills.

I even go so far as to draw up a monthly grocery list so I know exactly what to buy every month. This saves me time and money.

5. Meditate. Neuro-science research by Dr. Kabat-Zinn has shown that meditation shifts brain activity to the left frontal lobe, which makes meditators calmer and happier. The research also shows that people who meditate produce less cortisol (the stress hormone) than people who don’t meditate.

How do you cope with financial overwhelm?

Vangile Makwakwa is a money coach and writer who’s passionate about wealth building and changing the way people feel about money. She is the author of Heart, Mind & Money: Using Emotional Intelligence for Financial Success.

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The post Why It Pays to Remain Calm When You’re Under Financial Pressure appeared first on Brazen Life.

Have you ever noticed that some people just seem to attract success?

They succeed at nearly everything they try. They even succeed when they fail. They’re “that guy/gal” who, for lack of a better term, just kicks butt. Period.

What separates these individuals who kick butt from those who don’t? Why do some people follow through on everything they set their minds to, while others abandon their pursuits?

If you want to attract success, you need to develop the ability to consistently deliver what matters. Focus on the fundamentals and don’t get lost in the details—trim the fat, so to speak.

People who succeed consistently do so because they understand that executing upon principles will always be magnitudes simpler, more efficient and more effective than worrying about specific details (the minutiae).

You only have so much energy. Focus it on what really matters.

What really matters? Here’s a short list:

1. Honesty

Honesty is the best policy. Period. If somebody tells you that anything goes and the focus in business should always be on the money—the “ROI”—just walk away. Seriously, turn around and leave. A business built on smoke and mirrors is nothing more than a poisonous detriment to your character, your customers and your community.

Construct your castle on a strong foundation. Honesty will never steer you wrong. A well-executed, honest plan will last. It will have serious staying power. You will have a devoted following of people, a tribe, that won’t be able to get enough of the value you offer because they trust you.

Once you recognize that you are not always going to be good at everything, you can surround yourself with the right people and tools to help make your dreams come true. And you will grow as an individual in the process.

2. Hard Work

Always work your butt off. There is a huge misconception seeping around in entrepreneur and business circles nowadays that you can build massively successful businesses with only a couple hours a week. Shopping for your private island while you sit on a beach that you flew to with a free ticket that you travel-hacked during all that free time might sound appealing and sexy, but for the most part it is completely unrealistic—without the work.

The biggest secret to success is putting in the hours. Ask any successful individual, from franchise owner to Olympic athlete, and they’re all going to tell you the same thing: “I worked my butt off for this.”

3. Usefulness

Know your value and consistently deliver it. All of us have value that we can offer one another. The problem for many people is just figuring it out in the first place. Once you have your value proposition—your usefulness to the world—you need to consistently reinforce it. You need to develop it, hone it to the point of being absolutely outstanding and irresistibly useful.

With a career or business built around constantly delivering usefulness to the world, you cannot go wrong.

4. Communication

Let’s focus on two things here:

a. Communicating your value to the world

Once you’ve established your value, you must be able to market it, to get it out into the world honestly and let people know about it. Otherwise, nobody has any reason to care about the great things you are doing. They don’t even know you exist.

b. Communicating between individuals in your support network

The people around you matter—a lot. Whether you’re a solopreneur doing most of your work on social networks and in forums, or a big-shot out taking meetings with star clients and investors and interviewing for magazines and radio shows, communication between the people who matter to your achieving your goal is crucial to its success.

The road to attainment is a rocky one, usually involving both mountains and valleys, whatever your definition of success. It’s always better to have a traveling companion or two along for the journey.

5. Respect

Yourself:The reason you’re going after a dream or goal in the first place is because you respect yourself enough to earn something you know you deserve. Maintain this level of self-respect throughout the journey; protect it and cherish it.

Others: Your dreams will come true only with the help of other people. No one can do everything by themselves, especially in business. The nature of a business requires a consumer base. Whether your consumer base consists of two people or two billion, the same thing is true: people other than yourself are vital to your success.

The Journey: Lastly, respect the road you have chosen for yourself. The road to achieving a worthwhile goal is treacherous. Most people do not understand this. They expect Easy Street and instead find the Road to Mordor. And as we all know…

6. Failure

Failure is the best thing that can happen to you in life. And most people never get to experience it. They hide in their safe cubicles for 40 to 50 years, retire and die.

Failure’s not so bad. Really. With a positive mindset, failure is enlightening. The fact that you put yourself out there and made decisions that led to failure is awesome. The knowledge you gained from failing is quintessential to your eventual success. Now you know exactly what NOT to do.

When people go after a goal and fail, they never forget that feeling. At the present moment, it may be downright crappy, but in retrospect, most people come to appreciate just how valuable a nice faceplant can be for your personal development.

In fact, one of my favorite quotes is from Walt Disney: “You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”

Christopher Walker is the Editor of NoGym.net, a male model and entrepreneur completely addicted to creating awesome stuff. You can connect with him on Twitter @CTheFlow and on Facebook.

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The post The Fat-Free Approach To Consistently Kicking Butt At Everything You Do appeared first on Brazen Life.

Here’s why it’s a mistake: the person you’re about to (hopefully) work with probably doesn’t give a rat’s tail about where you’ve been (unless you just won a Pulitzer). What they care about is what you’ll do for them.

Plus, focusing on where you’ve been slows your progress. Know what will help you get where you want to be, faster? What will propel you toward success? Looking ahead, rather than at the present or the past, and talking about yourself in a forward-looking way.

How to apply this strategy

Your resume: Use the top of your primary marketing document to describe yourself in terms of the step you’re about to take and how you’re positioned to take it. Because this information is at the top of your resume, it’s the first thing a hiring manager will read and maybe even the part that will stick with him. (Tip: this is a smart way to use your “summary” section.)

Your cover letter: Rather than regurgitating all of the accomplishments you’ve already spelled out on your resume, use your cover letter to explain why you’re the right choice for this company and this position. Yes, you can use past experience as supporting evidence, but be sure to translate that into future expected results rather than stopping where most applicants do—at detailing your responsibilities for your last few jobs.

Instead, focus on how what you’ve learned will help you move forward.

Your Twitter bio: Use those 160 characters to sell yourself for the job you want, not the job you already have or internships you’ve already completed. And don’t tell the world you want to be a designer or you’re an aspiring writer. Say you are a designer. You are a writer. Because you are! You design, right? You write, right?

You might not get paid for that work yet, but that doesn’t mean you don’t do it. You DO have value to provide, so don’t shy away from that.

Your introduction (a.k.a. your elevator pitch): Just like with your Twitter bio, introduce yourself by sharing your goals rather than what’s behind you. Especially if you don’t love your day job but are working hard to make a transition. If your goal is to turn your side gig into your full-time job, focus on selling that; you might not even mention your day job unless the conversation continues.

This person you just met might only remember one thing about you, and you want that to be the career you actually care about, not the one you’re trying to leave behind.

An example of how this works

Here’s a personal example of how I apply this in my own life. As a writer who has my own business, I make about three-quarters of my income by helping small businesses with blogging, social media and email marketing. But the part of my business that I’m really excited about, the part I’m working to grow, is creating and selling eguides and courses under my own brand.

Yet even though the latter accounts for only about a quarter of my income, when I meet someone for the first time and they ask me what I do, I tell them I create guides and courses that help go-getters make their own luck. That’s the direction I want to go in, so that’s what I focus on. And by focusing on that aspect of my business, I add to its momentum.

And no, this isn’t lying. I’m not suggesting you make up your qualifications, just that you change the way you talk about them. The fact is, you likely DO have some skills or experience or ideas that pertain to your next step, and by leaving that out of the conversation, you’re taking the wind out of your own sail.

Describe yourself in terms of where you’re going with your skills and passions—rather than where you’ve been—and soon other people will describe you that way, too.

Alexis Grant is managing editor of Brazen Life.

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The post Spotlight Where You’re Going in Your Career, Not Where You’ve Been appeared first on Brazen Life.

Since we all have better ways to spend our time, here’s a way to make shopping pain-free and largely brainless using two popular—and free!—tools.

The first is Evernote, a Web, software and mobile app that helps you “remember everything”—Web clippings, typed notes, even snapshots of handwritten notes, all of which are easily searchable. The second is Mint, a beautiful and free money-management tool with killer Web and mobile apps.

You’ve likely heard of both of these. But have you used them to improve your holiday shopping experience?

Shopping vs. Buying

Evernote covers the shopping side. Create a notebook titled “Gifts,” and when you see a gift someone might like, clip the webpage or snap a picture with your phone. Then tag it “Mom gift idea” or “Dad gift idea.” If you have a conversation with your mom about something she likes or wants, fire up Evernote, type up a quick note that says something like “wrapping paper organizer,” tag it as a “mom gift idea” and file it away.

When it comes time to find gifts, you aren’t actually “shopping”; you’re buying. Just open your gifts notebook, search by tags, and then it’s just a matter of purchasing the ideas you’ve saved. No thinking, remembering or brainstorming—all you need is the Evernote app.

A side benefit of this method is that you can create a tag for yourself and save ideas for gifts that you want. So when your mom calls and asks what you want for Christmas, just fire up Evernote and read off what you’ve tagged. No more rolling the dice; now you get the gifts you want.

Paying

One of the best lessons I ever learned about shopping and spending was when I got engaged. Thankfully, I’d saved slowly but regularly for years just to pay for the ring. (Thanks for the advice, Ramit!). So when the time came to buy a ring, something that would have been a stressful financial decision, I felt like I was using someone else’s money! It was super-easy because the money was set aside, so spending it didn’t result in any additional financial pressure.

Buying holiday gifts can be just as easy. First task is to set a savings goal in Mint. To do that, log on to the website (you can’t do this on any of the mobile apps) and click on “Goals.” On the next page, click the “+ Add a goal” button and then click the piggy bank that says “Create a Custom Goal.”

Give your goal a title like “Holiday Gifts,” choose the “Gifts and Shopping” category and set the amount you want to save. (Setting the amount you want to save means you’re basically setting a gift-buying budget, too. You’re so responsible!) Hit “Next,” and Mint will walk you through the process of linking your goal with an existing savings account or setting up a new one. Select your end date and hit “Save.”

Note: By linking your bank account with your goal, Mint will automatically update your goal as it sees money deposited into that account. You can’t do this manually, so make sure you are saving where you told Mint you’d be putting the money.

Finally, have the savings account you linked to your Holiday Gifts goal automatically pull $20 each month (or whatever amount you choose) from your checking account, and that’s it.

Now, when rifling through your Evernote Gifts notebook, you can buy like you’re using Monopoly money! Your funds will all have been set aside, so there is no purchasing decision and no stress about spending money you don’t have. All that’s left is for you to enjoy some eggnog, some National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and relax!

The automatic savings part requires more lead time, so it’s probably too late for you to take full advantage of that this year (see below for why should set it up now anyway). But what you can do right now is set a Gift budget. You can do this through the website or any of the mobile or tablet apps—just be sure you categorize any gift-related transactions against your Gift budget.

Two Closing Points

1. If you think it’s too late for you this year, set up your Evernote and Mint accounts now. Think of this blog post as note from the You of Christmas Future addressed to the You of Christmas Present. Get Evernote and Mint set up now so you don’t have to worry about it next year.
2. What I described above requires no discipline whatsoever. You automate everything, so any decision-making (to save, budget or spend) is removed from the equation. If you ignore this advice and just rely on discipline, you’ll find yourself at the mall on December 23rd.

Tim Murphy is author of the new book The Mint Manual, a shortcut to mastering and saving money with Mint.com. Brazen readers get 25% off by entering “BRAZENMINT25” at checkout. (Offer good until 12/31/12.)

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The post How to Use Evernote and Mint for Painless Holiday Shopping appeared first on Brazen Life.

We know about paying our dues, putting in the hard time and soldiering on. What we’ve forgotten is that the work that comes naturally can be infinitely more valuable that the work that’s accomplished with blood, sweat and tears.

A lot of businesses burn out their employees by demanding 70- or 80-hour weeks. The result is a long-term decline in morale, which is all-around bad for business: bad for productivity and bad for revenue.

We’re long overdue for a change in our thinking. Maybe you don’t have to bend over backward and be sick and sore when all the hard work is done. Maybe it’s time to let go of the myth of endurance. Blind endurance and excessive working hours are the recipe for burnout, and as Fortune Magazine reported earlier this year, “it’s a quick jaunt from burnout to apathy.”  So forget about no pain, no gain.

What’s next?

The modern entrepreneur has a secret. She knows about following her passion and doing what feels right. She has learned that delegating unwanted tasks creates space in her life to do the real work. The soul work. The work that makes her want to jump in the air and say, “Yes!”

It’s that spirit you need to harness. When your job is easy, the work will start to flow. Productivity will skyrocket. Bigger projects will suddenly seem more manageable. Balance sheets will get all green where there used to be nothing but red.

There are two types of easy. There’s work that is completed with ease, with passion and devotion, and then there’s work that is cheap or finished on the fly. It’s the former that’s really going to light your fire.

Modern businesses are waking up to this new way of thinking

At 37Signals, for example, employees downgrade to a four-day work week in the summertime. What CEO Jason Fried recognizes is that rapid, short-term growth built on late nights and way too much caffeine is simply not sustainable.

37Signals works on a model of quality over quantity. They offer fewer products with fewer bells and whistles. Their focus is not to sell a high volume of mediocre products, but rather to sell a select number of completely awesome programs to a select number of completely awesome people. Anyone who’s ever used Basecamp understands instinctively why this company does not need to advertise.

The endurance model is not a model that leads to that kind of product. The sustainability of that model relies on a well-defined, repetitive workload with little room for creativity.

The problem is, rates of productivity slow if a task is arduous or repetitive. When the task is inspired, you work from a place of clarity and understanding. What’s more is, you inspire your colleagues to do the same. Your workload becomes manageable. When you come to a place of ease, the hours fly by. Jobs get done like magic.

Work colleagues will pick up on that energy. That’s because enthusiasm is contagious. They, too, will be inspired to do work with that same natural ease. That combined spirit of enthusiasm is what gives birth to those big, core-shaking ideas that change businesses forever.

When you’re enthusiastic about what needs to be done, nothing seems like hard work. You’re in the zone. You’re awake.

What does it mean to be awakened?

In three words, it is acceptance, enjoyment and enthusiasm. Those who are awakened get the job done. They do what must be done, and they do it willingly. Because they enjoy the task at hand, they accomplish it with full presence of mind at the maximum level of productivity.

It’s like rubbing a magic lamp. Enthusiasm is what gives birth to your true genius.

Amy Knapp is an enthusiastic business blogger for InsideTrak, the hottest new job search site in Australia.

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The post The Myth of Endurance and Why It’s Devastating for Your Career appeared first on Brazen Life.

Luckily, there are free tools like Mint.com to help us stop wasting money and get a hold of our personal finances. With its beautiful Web interface and killer mobile/tablet apps, it’s no surprise that Mint recently crossed the 10-million-user mark. (And no, I don’t work for Mint! Completely objective user here.)

But what is surprising is how many people miss out on the best parts of Mint. Most use two or three basic features and ignore the treasure trove available to those who dig a little deeper.

Here are a few ways to save money and time with Mint that you’re probably missing:

1. Use Bill Reminders to avoid late fees

No matter how responsible we try to be, everyone forgets to pay bills from time to time. Rather than hoping our memories get better with time (unlikely), why not leverage technology when you can? That’s where automatic bill reminders come in, eliminating the need to remember what’s due and when.

Mint recognizes certain recurring payments as monthly bills and will automatically add them to your Upcoming Bills section. But to really dial in your reminders, click on the small and easy-to-miss gear icon to the right of the Upcoming Bills header (scroll down on the Overview screen until you see Upcoming Bills) and select Change Your Reminders.

At the top in green text it says, “These look like bills to us.” That means that Mint sees those transactions as recurring bills and can prompt you to schedule a reminder. Click on “Remind me” to have Mint automatically send you reminders when your bill is due. It will default to reminding you when the bill is actually due, but you can change the date by clicking on the link that says, “repeats (monthly) on the…”

Rather than being notified the day a bill is due (which might be too late), I set reminders for two or three days before the bill is due. After you’ve added a reminder for a bill, Mint will send you an email seven days before the bill is due by default, but to change or verify this setting, you can click on the small gray gear (again, easy to miss) at the bottom left of the Your Bill Reminders section. There, you can change how many days out you’ll get reminded and if it’s via email or text.

If you want to add or create a reminder that Mint hasn’t suggested, just click the orange “Add Reminder” and enter pertinent information like name, due date, amount, whether the amount varies, etc.

Late fees can cost up to $50 a pop, but this is a dead-simple way to avoid them.

2. Rely on Email Alerts to keep you on your toes

Different than bill reminders, email alerts are messages you sign up to receive from Mint that notify you of things like low balances, overspending or unusual spending. Rather than having to comb through all your accounts every week, you can have Mint watch your back and let you know if anything shady (or, ahem, irresponsible) is happening with your spending. Handy, right?

To sign up for email alerts, click “Your Accounts” at the very top of any screen on the Mint website. Then click “Email & Alerts” in the upper right of the next screen. Scroll down for all of the available alert options, including the ability to receive each alert as a text or email message.

Personally, I find the low balance and bank fee alerts to be most helpful; using them helps me avoid (or know to contest) expensive bank fees.

3. Auto-Categorize like it’s your job

Creating a coherent category scheme is the most important aspect of using Mint if you really want to save time and money. Everything you track or measure depends on categorized information, so if your categories are a mess, everything else will be, too.

One of the biggest time-savers Mint offers is letting you set rules for how to categorize repeat transactions. For example, I recently created a “Running” sub-category to see how much my wife and I spend on running gear and races. If we buy something at the store Fleet Feet, it’s definitely running gear, so it can automatically be categorized as “Running.”

To set this up, I navigated to Transactions, clicked on a Fleet Feet transaction (or whatever transaction you’re working on), and changed the category to Running. Then click “Edit Details” right below the Description field. In the window that opens, I checked the box next to Rules that says “Always rename Fleet Feet and categorize as Running.” Now Mint knows that Fleet Feet transactions are always Running transactions and will file them accordingly.

Bam! Automated.

Personal finance might seem intimidating, but the right mix of tools and techniques can make balancing your budget as easy as checking your email. Sure, you could just use Mint as an expense tracker, but you’d be missing out on so much more!

Want to save more money and avoid weeks of trial and error learning Mint? Get Tim Murphy’s ebook The Mint Manual, a shortcut to mastering and saving money with Mint. Brazen readers get 25% off by entering “BRAZENMINT25” at checkout. (Offer good until 11/30/2012.)

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The post 3 Rarely-Used Mint.com Features That Will Save You Time and Money appeared first on Brazen Life.

In the back of your mind, you know you need to be saving (and probably more than you are now), but how do you save? And how much?

Here are a few tips for saving now so you don’t have to worry about money later:

Automate Everything

The good news is that you don’t have to be a financial genius to learn how to save. The even better news is that if you automate your savings, you only have to worry about all of this stuff once.

Most saving plans will likely fail you, because they require you to budget, and let’s be real here—very few of us are good at budgeting. But if you set up your bank account to automatically transfer money to savings right after you get paid, you don’t have to worry about spending your savings, because you’ll never see that money in your checking account.

Automated savings is basically a way to trick yourself into not spending your money, because the bottom line is you probably won’t save when left to your own devices. Only 41 percent of Americans save regularly, which is a pretty scary number, especially considering the state of our economy. If you don’t want to fall into this category, make it easy on yourself and automate.

How Much Should You Save?

Now that you’re definitely going to automate your savings (right?), how much should you save?

Let’s start with the biggest money suck: retirement. Think of retirement as one of the longest jobs you’ll ever hold, and you’re in charge of how much you get paid. Don’t fool yourself into thinking retirement is too far off to save for—save for retirement as early as possible!

It takes a lot of money to retire, and there are plenty of retirement calculators that can help you figure out how much you will need to retire, but a good rule of thumb is to save 10 percent of your income.

If you can’t afford to put 10 percent of your paycheck away, then start with what you can save. You can always work your way up to 10 percent.

Once you decide on your monthly goal for retirement savings, automate it! Make sure you pay yourself first by automatically putting your savings away as soon as you get your paycheck, because after all, you are essentially your own employee during retirement.

What Should You Save For?

It’s important to have three basic types of savings:

1.     $1,000 emergency fund

2.     Three to six months of expenses fund (also for emergencies)

3.     Retirement account

1.  $1,000 Emergency Fund

A $1,000 emergency fund is the first savings account you should open. This money is the “peace of mind” factor, because it gives you a financial cushion if you run into emergency (like your car breaking down). It will hold you over if anything happens to go wrong, and since it’s a smaller amount, you can quickly save that much.

This emergency fund should go into a regular savings account at your bank, preferably one with debit card access, because—let’s face it—most emergencies happen when the bank is closed.

2.  Three to Six Months of Expenses

A three to six months of expenses fund is a larger safety net than the emergency account. Start saving for this fund as soon as you have established your $1,000 emergency fund.

This money should only be used if you lose your job. After all, in 2011 the average job search took about 10 weeks, and for young professionals, the search is often even longer.

Having a large nest egg you can use if you’re down on your luck could mean the difference between maintaining your independence and moving back in with your parents.

3.  Retirement

The third type of savings, retirement, we’ve already covered in part, but there’s more you need to know.

If your employer offers any sort of retirement matching, take full advantage of that, because it can GREATLY affect your financial security.

If your employer doesn’t offer a retirement account option, don’t let that slow you down—there are plenty of online banks that allow you to set up an IRA or IRA Roth account.

For all three saving funds, automate your monthly “payments” so you ensure you’re saving regularly and consistently. Get a calendar and set visual deadlines for yourself so you can see your progress.

Saving Is Possible While You’re Young (And Even If You Have Student Loan Debt)

Yes, saving is hard. It’s even harder if you’re making payments on your student loans, and it means you’ll have to likely cut back on some indulgences while you’re earning an entry-level salary. But by automating your loan payments and savings, you’re committing to a financial plan—one that doesn’t require monthly budgeting or extensive planning, which is sure to help you succeed.

When you have to tighten your belt a bit, just remember that retirement is one of the longest jobs you’ll ever hold, and you’ll want to be paid well for that.

Kyra Kuik works for a creative internet marketing company in Seattle, WA. You can connect with Kyra on Twitter.

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Environment is everything. And it’s 100 percent in our control.

Over the past 10 or so years of studying social dynamics, human interaction and personal rapport (and being obsessed with making new friends), I’ve made some discoveries that have lead to near-instant memorable interactions with folks like Warren Buffett and Tony Robbins, all the way down to the interesting girl at the bar or the stranger on the street.

No matter the status of the person you’re trying to connect with, the approach is exactly the same. As it turns out, it’s a lot simpler than you’d think.

Often the biggest reason people fear reaching out and connecting is that they don’t have a clue what to say or think they’ll look like an idiot.

Let’s change that.

If you know what to do to create a quick positive human connection, you’re going to do it much more often. With knowledge comes confidence. With confidence comes connection.

So here’s how to make a genuine connection with anyone within minutes of meeting them:

1. Exchange passion

Connection starts long before the first interaction. Be the guy glowing with passion. Let the people around you feel your fire for the dent you want to put in the world. Prompt others to share what makes them come alive. Share in their excitement.

No one forgets a passionate, genuine supporter.

2. Be happy

Start with a smile. This is by far the fastest way in the world to create a bond. The right grin beams with confidence, creating immediate respect and interest. Smiles are contagious, and the simple change in physiology they cause makes people feel better.

There is no stronger opener than a smile. And, sadly, it’s still uncommon enough to make you stand out.

3. Say thank you

Find a reason to thank everyone you meet. Be sincere. Share genuine appreciation for their work, no matter how big or small. If the person on the other side explains something in an interesting way or has an exciting energy about them, recognize it. From the mailman to the bestselling author signing books at your local shop, make gratitude a habit.

If the person is well-known, there’s no excuse for not doing at least enough Googling to have a list of meaningful ways to thank and congratulate them, as well as common threads between your story and theirs. Common ground is the foundation of rapport. And a genuine compliment is a pretty easy place to start.

4. Tip with $2s

Anything even slightly different will do. Every few months, I pick up a couple hundred dollars in two-dollar bills from the bank. Perfect for tipping, paying people back and making change. It’s the fastest way I’ve found to create surprise and a smile.

Most people think two-dollar bills aren’t around anymore, so when they get one, they thank me like crazy, ask how I got it and talk about how they’re never going to spend it because it’s so lucky. Little do they know you can order them at every bank…

5. Obey the 3-second rule

This happens to be the most powerful pickup tool a guy or girl could have. If you see someone interesting or whom you’ve been dying to meet, give yourself three seconds to walk up and start a conversation. If you wait any longer, you’ll either over-think it and screw it up or over-think it and never say anything at all.

Stop worrying about what to say. Anything is better than nothing. Once you speak a word to someone, you’re immediately elevated out of the sea of thousands of onlookers to the few who actually sack up and say something. And that is the biggest first step.

Get in the habit of making people’s days.

These are all simple ways to have a positive impact on the people around you. There are a million others. If you’re not connecting to help, then stop trying. People will see right through you.

When thinking about approaching someone, just ask yourself, “What could I do to make this person’s day even slightly better?” Those whose days you make will go on to do the same for others. These ripples start to intersect, and that’s when the world starts to change.

And it can all start with something as simple as a smile.

So show up. Be helpful. The world will start to pay attention.

Scott Dinsmore is the founder of Live Your Legend and the creator of How to Connect with Anyone, an interactive online course that’s open for enrollment to the first 100 students until this Friday at 11:59pm PST.

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Yet with a few dedicated apps, you can turn your mobile device into a productivity powerhouse. Here are 10 that will quickly become your favorites:

1. Mindjet

The Mindjet app is an extension of the powerful desktop program of the same name. It allows you to turn your smartphone into a portable brainstorming device, complete with idea webs, which allows you to visually organize your ideas and thoughts through word maps. The newest versions even link up to the existing Mindjet Connect service, which offers synchronization between devices, cloud storage and multi-person collaboration.

2. CamCard

If you meet a lot of new people—and you should, because networking is good for your career—managing business cards can quickly become a hassle. CamCard makes use of today’s advanced optical character recognition technology and the built-in camera on every smartphone to scan any business card you set in front of it. It automatically indexes information on the business card in as many as 16 different languages. No more scrambling to find that business card you know you stuffed into your bag at your last happy hour!

3. Pulse

Anyone in the tech business knows how much work it can be to stay up-to-date with the constant stream of news coming from your favorite sites. While dozens of news aggregator websites already exist, Pulse lets you do everything from a mobile device. Supported on iDevices, the Kindle and the Android systems, Pulse lets you create interest pages and keep up with anything new posted on your favorite websites.

4. Diigo

Diigo is an all-purpose app for storing tidbits of information. You can collect snippets of text and highlight relevant passages. You can create sticky notes, full-sized notes or entire documents to store your observations. You can gather any relevant Web bookmarks or images and store them all in one place.

5. Instapaper

Any time you’re browsing a website with a mobile device and you have to go, you have a choice to make. Do you let your mobile idle on the site and suck up battery life, or do you discard it and hope to remember it later? Instapaper allows you to save these articles locally and formats them into a clean and easy-to-read format for later browsing.

6. iDoneThis

Unlike most productivity apps that focus on everything you need to do, iDoneThis focuses on what you’ve accomplished. It emails you each day to ask what you’ve completed and creates an ongoing calendar of everything you’ve done. Use it for recordkeeping, bragging rights or just as a morale-booster on those days when you feel like you’ve gotten nothing done.

7. Dropbox

Cloud-based storage is a useful feature for anyone on the go. Syncing documents and projects among multiple computers and mobile devices can be a pain. Dropbox is one of the first and most widespread cloud storage services, and it can be accessed from mobile devices just as easily as from home.

8. Where To?

The Where To? app is designed to take advantage of map data and GPS functionality to draw you directions to pretty much anything you could want to find. You can find the nearest restaurant of a certain type, the closest airport, the office where you’re going for that oh-so-important interview and more.

9. Gmail Widgets

Gmail is one of the best free email services available, and it’s easy to access from a mobile device. Even so, sometimes logging in and viewing messages takes too long. The Gmail Widgets app allows you to place a Gmail window on your home screen and populates it with new messages. It even includes previews of the message content.

10. Ego

No webmaster should be without Ego, which provides your smartphone with a quick and elegant interface for checking out all sorts of Web statistics. It accepts feeds from Twitter, Tumblr, Google Analytics, Mint, Feedburner and more. With Ego, you’ll never be without all of the vital stats for you website or blog.

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It’s not something to hang your head about — a lot of your peers are considering it, too, or maybe already back living with the ‘rents.

This infographic from College@Home shows just how common the so-called “boomerang effect” really is — Have a look!

And let us know in the comments: Are you living with your parents? How is that helping you get a leg up?

Created by: Collegeathome.com

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The post You’re Not the Only One Living With Your Parents appeared first on Brazen Life.

]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/09/20/youre-not-the-only-one-living-with-your-parents/feed/ 3 http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/09/11/the-no-1-rule-for-proofreading-your-work-on-the-job/ http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/09/11/the-no-1-rule-for-proofreading-your-work-on-the-job/#comments Tue, 11 Sep 2012 10:00:37 +0000 http://blog.brazencareerist.com/?p=8666 Even one typo can distract a reader and cheapen all your hard work. Here’s how to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The post The No. 1 Rule for Proofreading Your Work on the Job appeared first on Brazen Life.

]]> No one likes to proofread their work. It’s annoying. You just spent all this time writing something, and now the only thing you want to do is send it off.

But to skimp on the review process could doom even the best-written paper, brochure, press release or PowerPoint.

Why? Because even one typo could distract the reader and, worse yet, cheapen all the hard work you just did.

Since nearly all of us write on the computer and no longer by hand, you put yourself at a disadvantage if you rely exclusively on the computer screen to review your work. You’ve been staring at the same Word document for so long your eyes tend to glaze over, and you can miss obvious errors.

So, here’s the trick to improve your proofreading:

Print it out.

That’s right. Just print out the document. For some reason, holding the work in your hands lets you see it differently. The words jump off the page, and typos you didn’t see before become readily apparent.

Editing is such an underrated part of the writing process. It’s not enough to skim through your work and click “send.” In fact, the best writers are also great editors. They pore over what they write to make absolutely sure it’s ready.

This is so important that it’s no stretch to say that your reputation is at stake whenever you attach your name to a piece of writing.

Case in point: Team Romney

Remember this massive blunder at the start of the summer? When the Romney campaign officially released its mobile app in late May, it wrote “A Better Amercia” in huge white letters across the app’s main screen.

Did you miss it?

They spelled it “AMERCIA.”

The Romney camp was probably so excited to present the mobile app to the public that it missed the glaring error. And the Web had a giant laugh at the campaign’s expense.

That’s why proofreading is so crucial. You would hate to spend hours on a work project and then grimace when you—and everyone who reads it—spots a typo. No matter how minor the error, it will affect what readers think of your work—and of you.

Will you catch every single mistake using the print-it-out method? Of course not. But the strategy gives you an edge every time.

A few more proofreading tips:

• Read your work aloud. A sentence can often sound great in your mind, but when you say it out loud, it might not flow well.

• Ask sharp editors to have a look. Find coworkers you trust and have them review your work for content as well as grammar.

• If you have the time, sleep on it. The best time to do a final proofread is the day after you’ve written the piece. Sure, this requires working ahead of time. But it allows you to feel like you’re reading your work for the first time, and maybe you’ll decide that a sentence you were in love with a day before doesn’t really make the cut.

It’s worth the extra effort, because when you present a flawless piece of writing, no one gets hung up on your miscues. Instead, they can focus on your message.

Readers won’t have to ask, “Wait, is it ‘its’ or ‘it’s’? I can never remember…” No, they’ll simply enjoy your writing as intended.

So don’t let a typo here and there can ruin all your hard work.

Whoops. Almost missed that one. Think it’s time to print out this blog post…

Danny Rubin is a media consultant based in DC. He writes News To Live By, a blog that offers daily tips on how we can apply the lessons of the news to our own lives. Follow him on Twitter at @NewsToLiveBy.

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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/09/11/the-no-1-rule-for-proofreading-your-work-on-the-job/feed/ 12 http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/09/04/4-steps-to-creating-a-tranquil-workspace-that-will-increase-your-productivity/ http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/09/04/4-steps-to-creating-a-tranquil-workspace-that-will-increase-your-productivity/#comments Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:00:52 +0000 http://blog.brazencareerist.com/?p=8329 If your desk is your home away from home, why not spend a little time to make it comfortable?

The post 4 Ways to Create a Tranquil Workspace That Will Increase Your Productivity appeared first on Brazen Life.

]]> It’s probably safe to say that your desk, unfortunately, is your home away from home.

Employees spend, on average, more than five consecutive hours sitting at their desks each day. If you’re going spend that much time at your desk, you might as well construct a workplace environment that you like—one that not only encourages productivity but that reduces your stress level, too.

Here are four easy tips you can enact today to construct the ideal office space and make those hours at your desk more bearable.

1. Clear Out the Construction Zone

First and foremost: organize your work zone. Too much clutter on your desk leads to unnecessary stress

Think about it: not being able to find an important document because it’s lost within the myriad of other junk you have piled to the sky can really work up some frustration.

So recycle or shred unwanted papers and documents, clean out your drawers, take off all unnecessary items on your desk and put them away in the proper areas. Highly recommended: investing in files and folders—or, at the very least, ingoing and outgoing baskets.

You’ll also want to make sure you clean out your computer and clear off all of the unnecessary icons saved on the desktop. A cluttered computer can cause stress, too.

If you don’t have time to de-clutter your workspace during the day, then come in a few minutes early or stay a few minutes later to get it done.

2. Disinfect and Clean

After you de-clutter your desk, wipe it down—and take care to make sure you do it often, especially if you frequently eat at your desk. Studies show that over time, your desk can collect more than 400 times the bacteria on your toilet seat. Whhhhat?! Yeah. Wipe your desk, computer and mouse with disinfecting cleaners regularly.

Work isn’t always fun, but getting the flu is worse.

3. Add Some Green

Not only can adding a desk plant or two bring some color and liveliness to your desk; it can also help you stay healthier. Office plants can promote better concentration and reduce stress levels because they remove toxins from the air.

Try plants that don’t need much tending or a ton of sun, like a cactus or bamboo plant.

4. Add a Relaxation Game

Last but not least, adding a game to your desk (or keeping it stored in a drawer) is a great way to enjoy a much-needed break if you feel you’re on the brink.

A co-worker of mine used to keep a mini Connect Four on his desk, but it made a lot of noise and distracted several of us. Aiming for something that is equally as stimulating but not as loud, like chess or cards, can be really useful and help you keep your state of mind healthy.

Kristie Lewis is a freelance writer with a specialization in all things construction. She writes about everything from working in the field to choosing the best construction management schools. Contact her at Kristie.lewis81@gmail.com.

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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/09/04/4-steps-to-creating-a-tranquil-workspace-that-will-increase-your-productivity/feed/ 8 http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/08/17/how-to-burglary-proof-your-life-and-avoid-an-office-meltdown/ http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/08/17/how-to-burglary-proof-your-life-and-avoid-an-office-meltdown/#comments Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:00:45 +0000 http://blog.brazencareerist.com/?p=8286 Because how you perform at work depends partly on the life you lead at home.

The post How to Burglary-Proof Your Life (and Avoid an Office Meltdown) appeared first on Brazen Life.

]]> While we tend to stick to career advice here at Brazen, your life isn’t all about the office. Sometimes you get torn from your desk by real life. By family obligations. By pets with the stomach flu. Or your upstairs neighbor calling you to say the rear doors to both his apartment and your English basement have been kicked in by some stupid awful jerkhead thief who probably is unpleasant and ugly and smelly and stupid and awful.

As it happens, this is exactly what happened to me earlier this year, and I am now using this public forum to pass my wisdom on to the rest of the world. Not because I’m bitter—no, never—but because it could save you from having an embarrassing aneurysm at the office when you get a similar phone call.

So here are a few tips for burglary-proofing your life:

Pester your landlord

If your apartment is particularly vulnerable in any way, by all means tell your landlord you would like additional safety measures taken. Are the locks on the windows not closing? Is your deadbolt loose? Tell your landlord you’d like it fixed. After all, they have their own interest in keeping the apartment burglary-free and in good condition, as opposed to spending time and money repairing broken windows or a kicked-in door.

If they say no, refer to your lease; there’s a good chance that there’s a clause about your landlord’s responsibility to maintain a safe apartment. As I understand it in my non-attorney mind (insert disclaimer here about this not being legal advice), no, your landlord generally isn’t responsible if your apartment does get busted into—but yes, you may have written confirmation that they need to keep it habitable and secure.

Give in to your neuroses

Okay, so your additional security measures may not happen quickly enough. For example, you may hear of a rash of burglaries in your neighborhood and ask for a gate to be put on your suddenly-very-vulnerable-looking back door, only to find that the burglars have managed to beat your landlord to said door.

I mean, hypothetically speaking here.

Anyway, the point that some of this is out of your control, not to mention your landlord’s. But only some of it. Maybe you can’t put bars on your own back door, but you can find some other way to protect your goods, like buying a safe. Or if you’re feeling a little less like a normal person, you could play the hiding game—and hide, for example, your computer every day when you leave the house.

When I heard thieves had taken a liking to my neighborhood, I put my computer in an undisclosed location every morning, in the XXXXX behind the XXXXX, shoved under the XXXXX, and sang my “hiding the computer song.”

“Hiding the com-pu-ter in the XXXXX for the 95th tiiime,” I would sing in a really sort of creepy falsetto. “I’m probably in-saaaaaane and I embraaace it!” Then the imaginary backup singers would come in with a soulful: “Like a sissssss-ter or a pet turtle!”

Lo and behold, after the jerkish-but-hurried-and-perhaps-lazy burglars had left, the computer was still there.

I mean, you can’t give in to every compulsion. If I did, I would always unplug every appliance every time I left the house (ANYTHING CAN START A FIRE), and all of the ice cube trays would always be symmetrically emptied (I have no excuse for this one). But when it comes to a cherished possession that holds sensitive information, not to mention the simply genius short stories you wrote in college that the world wasn’t advanced enough to appreciate, sometimes you can let the crazy come out.  And if burglars strike, the universe will actually validate that crazy.

Come to think of it, that’s sort of an unsettling lesson, but it’s true. It happened to me.

Research your magical technology options

My roommate was not so lucky, and his laptop—along with all of his brand-spanking-new vacation photos (sublesson: back up everything you’ve ever created or downloaded)—left the apartment under Stupidface McCriminal’s arm. But a program that he happened to have on his computer helped him to track where the computer was next logged onto.

Have the police recovered the computer yet? No. But a quick search of the internets shows me myriad computer programs like Prey that could still be very helpful in allowing you and your local police department to hunt down your baby.

Get renter’s insurance

Honesty time: I didn’t have renters’ insurance when my apartment was robbed. Lesson learned. Done putting it off.

Yes, it may seem like an unnecessary expense to protect against an altogether unlikely event. But to put it in cost/benefit terms, renters’ insurance can be fantastically cheap. Many insurance websites will provide you with a free quote, and the cost could be surprisingly low. In my last, four-person house, the insurance ran less than $200 per year. That, to me, is a great deal, considering however many computers/bikes/very valuable thrift store chairs and futons we were protecting.

And we didn’t even have to make up any creepy falsetto songs.

Danielle Kurtzleben lives in Washington, D.C., where she works as a journalist. She still hides her computer every day, because it’s fun.

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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/08/17/how-to-burglary-proof-your-life-and-avoid-an-office-meltdown/feed/ 0 http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/08/02/a-visual-explanation-of-why-you-should-save-in-your-20s/ http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/08/02/a-visual-explanation-of-why-you-should-save-in-your-20s/#comments Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:00:56 +0000 http://blog.brazencareerist.com/?p=8051 When you're a young professional, everyone's always telling you to save. This infographic on compound growth shows why.

The post A Visual Explanation of Why You Should Save in Your 20s appeared first on Brazen Life.

]]> When you’re a young professional, everyone’s always telling you to save.

But it’s not easy to save on an entry-level salary, when you’re trying to make it on your own for the first time, especially if you’ve gotta pay back student loans.

Besides, does it REALLY matter if you save this year? It’ll be fine if you start saving next year instead, right?

This infographic from Lifetuner does the “save now” mantra justice, showing exactly why you should make the extra effort to save THIS year. Check out how much more the 20-something worker (Mary) has saved by the time she turns 65. The benefits of compound growth are massive.

So here’s our question for you: Is it possible to save 10 percent of what you make when you’re a young professional? Are you managing it? Got any tips for your peers? Let us know in the comments!

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]]> http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/08/02/a-visual-explanation-of-why-you-should-save-in-your-20s/feed/ 6 http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/07/31/10-easy-ways-to-jump-start-your-creativity/ http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/07/31/10-easy-ways-to-jump-start-your-creativity/#comments Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:00:21 +0000 http://blog.brazencareerist.com/?p=8004 Ideas aren’t flowing like they should be? These approaches will help your talent shine through.

The post 10 Easy Ways to Jump-Start Your Creativity appeared first on Brazen Life.

]]> After weeks of pleading and persuading, the higher-ups finally assigned you a project worthy of your creative talent. Something big. You plunk yourself down at the keyboard, eager to dazzle the entire office with ideas that will redefine the industry.

But nothing happens. Not one drop of the ingenuity you know is bottled up inside gushes forth. Meanwhile, your deadline nears.

Creativity doesn’t flow from a tap that we can simply turn off and on. It’s fickle. Like a Broadway diva, it often needs some pampering and encouragement before taking center stage.

Luckily, there are a number of simple ways to jump start the creative juices:

1. True Blue

Surround yourself with the cool, calming color of blue to give your creativity a boost. A 2009 study published in the journal Science outlined how colors take on certain associations. Red makes us anxious, while blue allows us to relax. The study found that people who faced a blue computer screen were better able to unwind and allow fresh ideas to develop.  Simply go into the settings on your computer and change the background on your desktop to a more calming color and see if it works for you.

2. Keep It Random

Grab a magazine or book, flip to any page and just start reading. Turn on the TV to a show that’s half over and watch it for a few minutes. Don’t try to catch up on the plot—pay attention to the phrases being used or emotions being conveyed. Your mind will start to fill in the gaps, which can create new ideas.

3. Be Cheerful

Watch a video of your favorite standup comic. Mood is a significant determining factor in creativity. While anxiety can focus a person, good cheer and happiness can foster new ideas, according to one study published by the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. Just watching a clip of a laughing baby has shown the potential to boost one’s creativity.

4. Feed Your Creativity

Certain foods provide nutrients that help foster fresh thinking. Antioxidants found in vitamin C- and vitamin E-rich foods (such as broccoli, spinach and sunflower seeds) are known to promote creativity.

5. Map Your Mind

This technique is like brainstorming 2.0. Jot down a central topic or word on a piece of paper and then link related terms or ideas around it. This creates a visual way of seeing how different ideas and concepts are linked while providing a unique perspective on your subject.

6. List It Out

Creating lists can help you organize those tangled thoughts. Take a question that’s central to your project and then rattle off as many answers as you can. Don’t overthink it—the responses must be spontaneous, allowing your subconscious to take the lead. Stay focused and make the entire list in a single sitting for best results.

7. Embrace the Absurd

Try thinking of your project in a completely different way. Go nuts! One method called Janusian Thinking involves connecting two opposite or ridiculous concepts to create an original idea. Consider markets or audiences that have nothing to do with the project you’re working on. A strange combination could spark a great idea.

8. Meditate

If you can find a nice, quiet spot to escape from your usual work routine, meditation might help you stoke the creative flame. A recent study published by Frontiers in Cognition showed that certain meditation techniques influence the divergent and convergent styles of thinking—the main two ingredients for creativity. It will also help you relax, which is never a bad thing.

9. Perform Menial Tasks

Pick up a broom, do the dishes or even pave the driveway—any menial work that will allow your mind to wander. This frees up your subconscious and will allow new ideas to enter. At the very least, you’ll get some of the housework done.

10. Switch Your Medium

Break out of your comfort zone by being creative in a different way. If you’re a graphic designer, try writing. If you’re a writer, give sketching a shot. This will force you to look at your project with a new perspective as you strive to overcome different challenges.

Jennifer Motian lives in Chicago and writes for a company that provides patent brokerage services. When she’s not working and writing, she can be found doing yoga and seeing live music around the best city in the world.

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