Psychologists, writers and personal growth experts shared their opinion on how to become more successful, productive and organized in the new year.
1. If a task only takes a minute, do it immediately
This rule is easy to follow, and it gives amazing results. Quickly dealing with petty matters that would otherwise hang over the soul, we feel calmer and more energetic.
2. If you want to achieve something, associate it with what you love.
Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University
Take your favorite ritual - mine is morning coffee - and link it to some productive activity. For example, I am writing at the moment.
I associate something pleasant with another activity that I sometimes like and sometimes don't, and as a result I get an almost conditioned reflex: I drink coffee, which means I write.
3. Do you need time to think? Don't let him get hurt
Cal Newport, assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University and author of Head to Work
I like to set aside a special time on my calendar to think about complex issues, as if I have a meeting. And then I protect this time from any encroachment, as if I really made an appointment, and if someone tries to schedule something, I say that I'm busy.
4. Categorize your to-do list
Every Friday I think about the coming week. I make a list of my top priorities in three categories: career, relationships, me. The presence of categories is important: so I always remember that there should be something in each of the categories, and this simple technique helps to strike a balance.
After that, I look at the calendar for the next week and plan my time. Not
I always manage to get everything in order, but the overall goal is to complete the tasks from the list by the end of the week. That is why I keep a to-do list on paper - it is painfully pleasant to cross them off.
5. Compassion and more compassion
My top piece of advice for personal effectiveness is this: more compassion. Yes, usually this kind of advice is about looking at the problem from a new angle, deep focusing, working on impulse and other similar techniques, and all this is undoubtedly very useful.
But compassion is what makes us human. We have bad days when everything falls out of our hands, and it seems that there will be nothing good ahead. Will. Yes, there will be moments when we will be distracted, lazy, scattered, and work or other things will give us sleepless nights more than once.
But do not dive into self-flagellation and whine that everything went wrong. Compassion allows us to forgive ourselves, to realize that everything is possible, although it takes practice, and teaches us to move forward again and again.
6. Compare your tasks and strengths
Ron Friedman, psychologist and host of the 2017 Productivity Summit
It's not what you do that matters; it matters when you do it. Our cognitive abilities manifest themselves in different ways throughout the day. As the day wears off, most of us are much worse at processing new information, planning things, and resisting distractions. Therefore, the better you can balance tasks with forces, the more you can do with less energy.
7. Start the new year with an empty mailbox - and try to keep it that way.
At this time of the year, I like to go through my inbox and reorganize my folders and settings to better organize my email.
Look at the 50 or 100 most recent messages in your inbox and set up your mail so that any unnecessary mail - such as mailing lists or notifications - goes into specially designated folders.
Spend a few hours deleting unwanted emails, and then drag all the remaining mail from a year into a large "Archive" folder with a year. You will start the new year with a clean box, and the new settings will allow it to stay that way.
8. Make achieving a goal a necessity
Steve Levinson, clinical psychologist and author of The Power to Get Things Done
The key to peak performance is to forget what you already know - or think you know - about motivation. We usually assume that there is a direct correlation between how much we want to achieve a certain result and how achievable it is.
However, there is a much more constructive way of thinking - think of motivation as something that needs to be custom-made to achieve each goal. By "tailor-made" I mean that you must intentionally place yourself in a situation where achieving the goal will feel like a necessity.
My favorite example: after several unsuccessful attempts to start going to the gym, Joe created a situation that changed everything. He set a condition for himself: he would have only one deodorant, which would be stored in his locker at the gym. Thus, in order to avoid an unpleasant smell during the day, Joe had to go to the hall willy-nilly. When he went there, the thought of just putting on deodorant and leaving seemed foolish, so he stayed to work out. In essence, Joe outwitted himself, and morning classes eventually became an integral part of his regimen.
9. Set Time Frames for Checking Mail
There are two types of people who check email. These are “reactors”, which rely on notifications and scan inboxes almost constantly to deal with letters a little during the day, and “dispensers”, which set aside several time slots for checking mail and ignore correspondence for the rest of the day.
Recent studies show that the more often we check our email, the more we become stressed.
Try setting aside two or three 30-60 minute slots each day to check email.
10. Create a 15 Minute List
To overcome procrastination and use micro-segments of the workday, use a 15-minute list.
This is a list of tasks that can be completed in 15 minutes or less. Keep it with you so you can take advantage of awkward hitches like queues and turn them into productive microsegments of work.
This list will also come in handy when procrastination gets the better of you. You can quickly complete a task that will give you some energy, and then move on to work on a more complex project.
11. Set three goals every day
The Rule of Three is my favorite productivity ritual. Every morning I think, “What are three things I want to accomplish by the end of this day?”.
In just a few minutes, you separate the important from the unimportant, analyze your long-term goals - or New Year's resolutions, if you practice them - and you can think about where to spend your time, attention and energy on this day.
If you're looking to increase your productivity levels, I also recommend setting three goals for each week or month.
Prepared by Taya Aryanova
Guest reviews in your listings are visible to all users. How can you make sure that these reviews give the maximum effect and increase the trust of new customers?
Make reservations through Daily.ru
This is the first step towards a good review: a guest can leave it in your listing only if the reservation is made through our website or mobile application. Why is it so important to get good reviews on Sutochno.ru? Because our service is one of the largest in Russia, with more than 30,000 daily attendance. Having reviews on a large resource means gaining additional trust from guests.
Ask guests to leave reviews and rate "Excellent"
Good reviews on Sutochno.ru not only help to gain trust - they also allow you to get the status of "Superhost". To achieve this status, you must complete , and two of them are related to reviews: you need at least 5 guests to share their opinion per year, and 80% of the reviews must be rated "Excellent". Therefore, if you see that the guest was satisfied with the stay, ask him to leave a review on Sutochno.ru with a score of 5 points. If he likes you, he will most likely do so.
Respond to reviews
If a guest has left a good review, thank them in a reply comment. If negative, then it is better to apologize for the inconvenience caused and inform that you will take measures to solve the problems voiced. Perhaps such an answer will only partially suit a dissatisfied client, but future guests will see that you pay attention to negative reviews and improve your service.
If you received a review on Sutochno.ru, you can write a response.
Negative feedback is an opportunity for development
If the guest wrote a bad review, then in the response comment you should not enter into a discussion and stubbornly prove that you are right (even if you are actually right). In such cases, it is better to calmly state your view of the situation and explain that you have done everything in your power. If the guest’s claims are really justified, write that you will definitely correct the shortcomings. When other guests read your review and your answer, they will see that you adequately respond to criticism and work to improve the quality of services.
In addition, negative reviews help you understand what exactly you need to improve. After all, if a claim arose from one guest, then it can be repeated by others. Therefore, it is better to “play ahead of the curve” and correct the shortcomings.
Good reviews justify the cost of living
When you have a lot of positive reviews, you can set favorable prices for accommodation. The cost will look justified, even if it is above average.
The more reviews, the higher the average rating
Statistics show that with a large number of reviews, the average rating becomes higher. And there are usually more positive reviews than negative ones. Therefore, we again return to the first point: make reservations through Daily.ru. The more armor, the more reviews. And the more reviews, the higher the score.
As an artist, you put in a lot of effort to create creatively perfect and technically flawless images. You're wasting time, effort, and resources to bring in the right people and the right equipment. You study the topics that are in the highest demand in order to create the best pieces. But in the digital imaging marketplace, a perfect image alone does not guarantee success.
Accurate, well-chosen metadata (i.e. titles and keywords) is just as important as image quality, as they are the bridge that needs to be built between customer needs and your product. Here are some helpful tips to help you get buyers' attention on your images.
RIGHT! Write precise titles that describe the image. Imagine that the image title is the title of a news article and try to answer the basic questions: who, what, where, when, and why. Of course, not every image shows people or a specific moment in time, but you should try to be as specific as possible.
NOT RIGHT! Try not to use the same title (or the same set of keywords) for multiple images that share a similar story. Yes, this may seem like a logical way to save time, but in fact it can negatively affect potential sales. For example, if you shoot a series of images of bouquets made up of different flowers, and simply list “Flowers” as the titles for all of them, it will be difficult for a buyer who is looking for something more specific to find them. Your images will compete for attention in search results with thousands of others. But if you name them differently, for example "Bouquet of fresh red roses" and "Bouquet of hydrangeas", your chances of attracting the attention of a customer who is looking for this particular image increase significantly.
RIGHT! Specify specific information or unique properties. Be sure to mention any special techniques if you have used them, external features or the angle that distinguishes this image from another that shows the same story. For example, you shoot a fairly common subject - a meeting, but you do it from a height. This is the main aspect that should definitely be mentioned! If you're creating images using popular Instagram filter effects, you can include the word "Instagram" in your keywords and title. You can also use the word "Polaroid" when describing a square image with a white border that mimics a photograph taken with a Polaroid device. Although both words are associated with trademarked brands and products, it is acceptable to use them in such cases as they describe certain external features.
NOT RIGHT! Do not include trademarked brands in the titles or keywords of commercial images (except in the two situations mentioned above). While there is no list of specific restricted keywords, you can get an idea of such keywords by reading the Objects and Items section of our list. For example, you can create a commercial illustration of a typical smartphone that resembles (but does not directly copy) a phone currently on the market, but you can't use "iPhone" or "Apple" in your keywords. (However, you can use trademarks in titles and keywords for images and illustrations intended for editorial use.)
RIGHT! Think conceptually. Use words that describe feelings and emotions when it comes to images with models. If you are working, for example, with illustrations that depict a computer, you can use conceptual words such as "technology" or "communication".
NOT RIGHT! Don't use spam or inappropriate keywords. You can not use keywords that humiliate someone, insult, are obscene. Also, you can't use certain words that are acceptable on their own but have an illegal meaning when used together, such as "teen" and "sexy" in the description of the same image. We regularly check our collection for keyword spam (spam refers to the use of inappropriate keywords) and the use of inappropriate or inappropriate keywords.
If you notice that keywords were removed by a Shutterstock reviewer or administrator after your image was accepted, don't just add them back in. In such situations, be sure to first contact the support service for authors at [email protected] site and find out why the keywords were removed. If you add keywords that were previously removed, you may receive a warning, your account may be suspended, or it may be deleted altogether.
thought about how to achieve maximum results from their employees. Increasing productivity has always been the most important and challenging task for managers at all times.
Managers solve this problem in different ways: some pay a lot of money, others train and develop their staff, others come up with different systems. Every sales organization has super salespeople that everyone looks up to with admiration and respect. These people show results many times higher than the average. What makes them different from the rest? How can they do more? And most importantly, how to transfer their experience to others? We will try to find answers to these questions in this article.
First you need to figure out what distinguishes super salespeople from the rest of the sales staff? I must say right away that we will not consider parameters that we cannot influence, for example: age, education, gender, work experience, etc. Consider only and also.
Knowledge
Do the best sellers know the product better than the rest? On the one hand, it would be logical that the one who knows better sells more, but in practice everything is not so straightforward. Most of the outstanding sellers have reached their level very quickly, while attestation shows that many have a level of knowledge below the average. This applies to both the product and the product to be sold. Very often, a great seller can not answer simple questions: ? etc. Therefore, such a tool as training will not be able to seriously affect the number of sales. Naturally, in every organization, employees must be trained, and the better the training system is set up, the easier and faster your employees will achieve high results. Naturally, the level of knowledge must be checked at least once a quarter, naturally, you must conduct training to improve your skills and to master a new product or to refresh your knowledge of a seasonal product.
Skills and abilities
Motivation
You can talk about motivation for a very long time, divide it into types and subtypes and show the importance of motivation. Only one thing is important - the best sellers are people with very strong intrinsic motivation. You need to understand that any result, including a large number of sales, is achieved only by labor. And the more an employee works, the more he sells. The whole problem is that the seller has a lot of excuses for his poor results and it is difficult to verify them. For example, everything is simple at the factory, the result can be evaluated in terms of the number of finished products, etc. Sales in this regard is a more complex process, some customers need to be led to a purchase for a very long time, and only after days and months we will see the result.
It is clear that the manager cannot stand behind the seller's back all day and monitor whether he is selling correctly, but these are not always applicable and it is important to ensure that the seller himself is interested in a high result. Naturally, there are a lot of methods for monitoring and evaluating personnel, there is also such a wonderful tool as “mystery shoppers”, but all this does not motivate people, but simply gives you an understanding of the current situation. Probably, everyone has come across sellers who are not interested in selling, who simply did not want to communicate with you and seemed to deliberately dissuade you from buying. The seller has a lot of opportunities to avoid communication with the client or to make this communication short and ineffective. That is why motivation must come from within and the stronger it is, the better.
It is strong intrinsic motivation that is the main distinguishing feature of a strong salesperson.
But how do you create strong intrinsic motivation?
First you need to understand what the employee is motivated for, how he breathes and lives, and if he does not have strong motives, then help him find them. Then you need to connect this motive with the goals of the company, then it remains only to maintain this motivation.
It is important to understand that most people without your help are not able to force themselves to work in order to understand this, you just need to look around and see how many beggars and poor are around. What prevents these people from changing their fate and getting a decent salary? Nothing but your own laziness and unwillingness to work and change yourself. Most are not ready to leave the comfort zone in which they are.
Summarizing
In order to get the most out of the seller, the manager needs to solve several complex problems.
- Build a training system so that knowledge is easily assimilated by salespeople;
- When training, 80% of the time to devote to practice, try to instill the skill of selling. Train salespeople in non-verbal communication and rhetoric, and sometimes psychology;
- The line manager must devote a lot of time to motivating staff. Applying both individual and group motivation;
I would like to draw attention to the fact that not everyone is born for sales and many will not be able to become outstanding salespeople due to lack of talent. Therefore, devote more time to those who have a predisposition to sales, it is well written about in the book “First break all the rules. What the World's Best Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham, Kurt Coffman.
Working from home may seem like a dream: no need to spend time and money on travel and business lunches, there are no annoying colleagues and office routine around. Professionals know what a pleasure it is. You can choose the pace of tasks, put a comfortable chair and not suffer from tasteless office coffee. But there are a number of disadvantages in this ideal picture, the main of which is a lot of distractions. Constantly near household chores, TV, children, animals.
How to set boundaries between home life and work? How to achieve maximum performance? These 15 rules will help you solve problems productively.
Rule number 1: arranging a comfortable workplace
Ideal if you have a private office or a separate desk for work. It is important that the work area is used only for its intended purpose. Create a calm atmosphere, remove unnecessary objects that distract attention. Take care of a comfortable chair or armchair so as not to have problems with the spine. You can work both at a full-fledged workplace, and equip a small area-stand for a laptop. A person working at home has a unique opportunity to provide himself with the most convenient things, and not put up with office standards.
Rule #2: Determining Working Hours
Due to being at home, it is not easy to clearly create a minute-by-minute schedule. It is especially difficult for those who have small children at home. In this case, it is necessary to delegate the authority to care for babies to someone else, and schedule the day yourself according to the mode that is convenient for you. Imagine that you are at a standard job and plan your day. Arrival at the workplace - strictly on schedule. Don't relax!
Rule number 3: constant contact with colleagues and superiors
Working from home does not involve frequent face-to-face contact with colleagues and boss, so it is important to constantly check email, read all messages and be active. You need to make it clear that you are available throughout the working day.
Rule number 4: lunch on a schedule
Lunch break should be mandatory. You can order food, prepare a fresh dish or reheat leftovers from last night's dinner. Try to eat light but nutritious food. The main thing is to reboot, give the body a rest and recharge for new things. Limit the time for lunch, it should not be long.
Rule #5: Don't clean during work hours
Remember: you are at work, you have a schedule. Switching to laundry / cleaning / cleaning scatters attention and does not allow you to focus on business. All household chores must be transferred to non-working hours or weekends. These things are best planned in advance.
Rule #6: Keep assignments to a minimum
Sometimes home office workers choose to do family chores (grocery shopping, shopping) during business hours to free up the day off. But this is fraught with conflicts: the authorities may need you, or an urgent revision of the project, an urgent call, and a host of other force majeure circumstances will be required. You can have time to finish personal business at lunchtime or warn colleagues in advance that you will not be there at a certain time.
Rule number 7: constant self-control
Discipline is the hardest thing about working from home. But you need to set yourself up in such a way that there should be the same order in your head as if you had to go to the office early tomorrow morning. Sanity must always come first. Work as you please: some people like to cope with complex tasks, leaving the simple for later, others - on the contrary. Personal feelings should tell you what is best for you. All people have different abilities to perceive information, so it is impossible to say unequivocally which option will be most appropriate in a particular situation.
Rule #8: Get out of the house at least once a day
An ordinary office worker is forced to leave the house every day to get to the place of work. If you work at home, it is easy to stay at home all day: you can make purchases in online stores, order food delivery and services. It's tempting but wrong. It is recommended to take daily short walks at least around the block. If there is absolutely no mood or opportunity to go out, you can just breathe fresh air on the balcony and ventilate the room well.
Rule #9: Delegation
When discussing the work schedule, it was already mentioned the need to shift the responsibility for childcare to assistants or a nanny. This principle also applies to pet care. Use this time to focus on your work as much as possible. Many relatives may tell you that you are at home anyway, why not combine work and care for children or animals. You can be sure that productivity will drop significantly if you are constantly distracted by the requests of children, feeding them and putting them to sleep. Do not agree to such conditions if you want to achieve maximum results in your work.
Rule #10: Be professional
A true professional will never come to a meeting in untidy clothes or with a wrinkled hairdo. Therefore, be a professional: do not sit at your desk in pajamas and room slippers, do not fall for the temptation to spend the day relaxed - this has a detrimental effect on the productivity of the day. You will have better results if you dress neatly and put your appearance in order. You will become more confident in answering phone calls and will feel more collected.
Rule number 11: the availability of reliable equipment
Technological progress must settle in your home. A few things to help you be as productive as possible: a modern computer, a home printer, a hands-free headset, a reliable and fast Internet connection, applications for correspondence and schedule and customer management. Without these things, your working day simply will not take place.
Rule #12: Make a to-do list
The main advice - you can not enter a new day blindly. It's important to make a to-do list. Priority is always given to urgent matters that cannot be delayed. It is most effective to plan things in advance in the evening.
Rule #13: Setting Clear Boundaries
Work hours are for work only, just like the workspace is for business only. At the end of your working day, the schedule of which you set yourself, you can confidently "close the door" and go to rest. Don't stay up late unless an emergency requires it. Otherwise, the productivity of the next working day will be significantly reduced.
Rule #14: Rewards
One of the most rewarding benefits of working from home is the ability to reward yourself without the prying eyes of co-workers. You can come up with your own reward system - it can be pleasant things, purchases or dessert. It is important to follow the sequence of actions and reward yourself honestly, otherwise the whole point of the idea will be lost.
Rule #15: Family Support
Try to explain to your family the specifics of your activity and enlist their support. Be aware of your work schedule and times when they may disturb you. If the hints do not help, a win-win option will help - a door with a lock and a "Do Not Disturb" sign.
