Finding the Link Between Peace and Productivity

Finding the Link Between Peace and Productivity Daniel can’t concentrate on what his daughter is saying. He’s frantically trying to recall the commitment he made to a now-angry customer. “Is this a right angle?” his daughter asks as she works on her geometry homework. But she doesn’t expect a reply. She’s used to a dad who’s not really there. She puts away her unfinished homework while Daniel stares into space, his heart racing, palms sweaty, head spinning. What else has slipped his mind? Our research shows most people can relate with Daniel: a third of which feel overwhelmed; nearly half are unable to focus, and one in five struggle to be present at home. These are all signs of a failing personal productivity system. Daniel’s system of capturing to-dos on sticky notes, constantly reviewing his email and checking his calendar may have gotten him through college, his first job, and his first promotion, but it isn’t robust enough for his new situation: marriage, children, community commitments, and managerial roles. The most telling symptom of a failing productivity system is not age, organizational status, or income. The most salient sign your system is not serving you is the quality of your life. If stress and distraction are frequent companions, then your productivity habits have not kept pace with your life’s complexity. If Daniel could transform his sputtering system into the Ferrari model, how would his life change? Would he be more or less of a workaholic? Would his stress increase or decrease? Would his capacity to experience enjoyment grow or shrink? We wanted to find out, but we didn’t start with the Daniels. Instead, we began with top performers â€" people who were rated ten out of ten by their managers. Are You a Ten? First, we wanted to know what it means to be a ten, to be rated a top performer by your boss. We predicted top performers would be more valuable than average performers but we wanted to know how much more and what they do that makes them so valuable. So we surveyed 1,594 managers and peers, and asked them about employees they rate as “tens on a ten-point performance scale”. It turns out, both managers and peers say tens are three times more valuable than an average employee and do 61 percent of the total work in their departments. What’s more, managers and peers agreed tens work smarter, not harder, and are less stressed than the average employee. So, how do these top performers do it? To answer this question, we tested the methodology described by David Allen in his book, Getting Things Done to see whether the GTD practices could make someone a ten. We had 2,072 respondents assess the impact of their production practices on two key areas: performance and stress. Statistical tests confirmed that participants with high productivity scores had performance levels 68 percent higher and yet half the stress of participants with low scores. As it turns out, GTD practices dramatically improve performance while reducing stress. Specifically, people with high scores are: 55 times less likely to start projects that never get finished 21 times less likely to experience tasks and responsibilities falling through the cracks Never likely to miss deadlines or assignments 18 times less likely to feel overwhelmed Actions You Can Take Our research shows that learning the productivity skills demonstrated by top performers is key to both personal and organizational success. The message in this research is that a very small number of self-management practices literally change a person’s life and are also beneficial to the organization â€" they dramatically improve performance while also reducing stress. Below are five productivity practices of top performing employees. practices aligned with the skills in Getting Things Done. that anyone can implement into their own productivity system today: Collect everything that owns your attention. Capture all commitments, tasks, ideas, and projects rather than keeping them in your head. Use just a few “capture tools” you keep with you all the time such as lists, apps, email, etc. Decide what your stuff means to you. Clarify if the items you’ve captured have an action or not. If they do, be very clear about what the VERY next action is and who should take it. Use the two-minute rule. If an action can be completed in two minutes or less, do it immediately. Don’t defer. The time you’ll waste letting these simple actions occupy your attention and the to-do list is not worth itâ€"two minutes becomes your efficiency cutoff. Do more of the right things by reflecting on  the right moments. Rather than diving into your messy inbox first thing, take two minutes to review your calendar and your action lists. This reflection ensures you make the best decisions about how to use your time. Review weekly. Keep a sacred, non-negotiable meeting with yourself every week to re-sync, get current, and align your daily work and projects with your higher-level priorities. About the author: Justin Hale is a Master Trainer, keynote speaker and training designer at VitalSmarts. He is a leader of the team responsible for engineering the latest product innovations including the new edition of Getting Things Done ® Training.

Qualifying For Double Majors On Resume

Qualifying For Double Majors On ResumeDo you know how to qualify for a double major on resume? If you want to make it, please read this article carefully.A double major is when you have taken the same major at two different universities or colleges. A double major is possible if you have earned the same degree at two different institutions. This can be for example in math and biology, environmental science and photography, sociology and digital marketing, etc. You can also get the same honors in biology and physics, or the same grade in music and biology.So you see, there are three requirements to get the double majors on resume. Those three requirements are that you must have taken two degrees at two different institutions, that you must have been the same major in two different colleges or universities, and you must have gotten the same honors in both programs.The first thing you must do is to get both the masters or PhD in two of the fields you want to apply your double major. Onc e you have this done, you will need to send your resume to each institution you want to apply the double major in. You will need to prove that you did this by filling out a form, or letter.Another important point is to ensure that you have made a note of the curriculum vitae. The CV is the written form of the resume and it will be used as a proof of your work experience. You need to find the best CV writer you can find for your application. You have to remember that these are not just ordinary people and you have to be able to distinguish them from ordinary people by the way they write their CV.There are many ways you can do this and you can do it online course, with friends, or through a professor or an online course. However, the most convenient way would be through the Internet. If you want to get the best CV writer, just search for it on the web and find one that would fit your needs.In the end, getting a double major on resume would just mean that you have taken two very differ ent majors and you will be asked to submit the same kind of letter. It is also a way to establish a connection with other students who are pursuing dual degree program. It will help establish more contacts and it will help boost your career opportunities.In conclusion, getting a double major on resume is quite easy. Just make sure that you fill out the forms properly so that you can get a good academic credit.

Resume Writing Tips For Financial Services Professionals

Resume Writing Tips For Financial Services ProfessionalsIf you are looking for new and interesting ways to boost your career, then you should consider resume writing in the financial services industry. Those who want to land top job opportunities in the industry should be creative and innovative in order to make the best of the job market.With an increasing number of people migrating to the corporate job market, the need for skilled professionals is very high. However, to get good corporate jobs it is essential to make sure that your resume is highly professional and eye-catching. You can also use this opportunity to grab the attention of recruiters and employers in your chosen field. You can submit your resume to as many companies as possible and use this as a chance to let them know about your skills and experience.If you have never done this before, resume writing in the financial services industry can be a little challenging for you. The whole idea is to introduce yourself as som eone who can provide top quality service in the industry. You will also need to be professional and always be prompt in your responses.Another important thing to remember is to always speak to the employer or recruiter in a professional manner. Never resort to any nasty word or insults when talking to them. This could be interpreted negatively by the company which you are trying to target.The more relevant experience and qualifications you have, the better. Also, make sure that you follow proper format guidelines when you write your resume. There are certain resume writing rules that you must abide by.Most recruiters prefer a printed resume over a paper resume. This is because it is easier to read, it is also easier to go through, and it is more professional. You can also avoid making any mistakes while preparing your resume by using a template.Make sure that you stick to the principles of a resume. It should be concise, it should contain the necessary information and it should also be formatted according to the rules set by the recruiting firms. Never use abbreviations as well.The financial services companies are always keen on hiring professionals who are more than qualified in their fields. When you are looking for a job in the industry, make sure that you follow these resume writing tips. Not only will you succeed in getting the desired job you are aiming for, but also you will succeed in building a good working relationship with recruiters as well.

4 Tips to Upscale Your Online Business With Shopify Plus - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

4 Tips to Upscale Your Online Business With Shopify Plus Every online business owner wants to earn more money. Another thing that they dearly want is to spend a portion of their money on proper marketing techniques so that they can earn more in the long-run. Having money always gives you that safety blanket to fall back on when the business is going through a rough patch. But it is how you spend the money that will decide if you are going to make more money out of it or not. Here are some of the techniques to follow if you want to upscale your online business: Leverage the best SEO techniques SEO has played an important role in the success of online businesses. It is hard to digest the fact that the online companies would not even be in the territory to where they are now if not for SEO services. Following a few fundamental principles of SEO will make your website fall into the honey-trap of Google. This honey-trap is actually a good one for the companies because you will be adhering to the SEO rules of Google and this will automatically send your website right on top of the search engine. It will not only improve the visibility of the website but will also increase the chances of getting more traffic than you expected. Announce an attractive offer The word free is often very enticing for customers. They would sign up for a website that gives a welcome bonus or additional discounts at checkout. You can make the most of this opportunity. Most of the online stores that run on the Shopify Plus platform have introduced bonus schemes or given free gifts to customers who shared their email address or signed in with their mobile number. However, free is just a bait that is used to collect the contact details of the customers. This will allow you to make use of email marketing campaigns or mobile marketing to upscale your online business. Become responsive on Quora Since you will be focusing on improving the online business activities, it is important that you understand what customers want to know about the products or services that your company is selling. Becoming a regular user of Quora will become crucial because you will be engaging with the customers directly. Sometimes, it is not possible to personally ask customers what they want and what they don’t. Open forums like Quora can bridge that gap easily. Start a social media channel Billions of people use various social networking sites these days. This can be an excellent avenue to upscale your business because Shopify Plus comes with unique opportunities to connect the world population easily and effectively. A dedicated content channel will help spread the good word of an upcoming product or increase the visibility of the ongoing offers so that there is more traffic on the website. These 4 tips will come in handy if you follow them right from the starting of the business. Becoming an online business sensation is not tough; all you have to do is find ways to connect to your target customers more effectively.

The top 5 things you should do on LinkedIn each week - Hallie Crawford

The top 5 things you should do on LinkedIn each week So, you have created your profile and now you are done with the obligatory LinkedIn stuff. Hold on a minute! You might be okay with passively using LinkedIn if you’re not currently job searching, but in order to reap the benefits of a live network, you need to nurture it so it grows over time. Here are 5 things you should do on LinkedIn each week to stay engaged, grow your network, and connect with opportunities: 1. Update your status with news, something you learned, or share an industry related-article a. Stay active and on the radar by demonstrating your knowledge of current industry trends. What you post will appear on your contacts’ home page feed. If you write or follow a professional blog, this is a great place to share it. 2. See who has viewed your profile and evaluate whether you should connect with them a. This is a creative way to expand your network through a “warm” connection. It can also be very beneficial if you are trying to build your business through new clients. 3. Recommend or endorse someone you know a. Recommendations carry much more weight than endorsements so be sure to recommend others and ask them to write one for you. 4. See what is happening in the group discussion boards for groups you like a. Groups are a hot spot to plug into the latest trends, resources, and where people need help. Follow along and add your comments when valuable to the discussion. Many groups will post the picture of the top group influences, which enhances visibility. 5. Grow your network by sending personalized invitations to new people a. This is a critical follow up step after meeting someone in a formal or informal setting. Reach out to them with a customized invitation to connect message and keep your networking live and resource rich. This does take work, so I recommend choosing one of these 5 actions to start with. Spend just a few minutes each day until you are comfortable and then move on with another action step. Before long, you will become fluent and enjoy projecting your presence throughout the blue ether of LinkedIn. Ideal Career Coach P.S. How do you know if your resume is good?  Take this  Resume Quiz  to find out how to keep your resume out of the trash can.

How to Write a Cyber Security Analyst Resume

How to Write a Cyber Security Analyst ResumeA cyber security analyst resume is a significant document and should be given the highest priority. Cyber security jobs are of vital importance to society, so the proper functioning of our cyber security system and its relationships with other sectors in society should be undertaken with careful and cautiousness. The right foundation for this function is laid when the employer gets a clear and accurate picture of the candidate's profile.A resume should provide the employer with detailed information about a candidate that can be leveraged in making an informed decision about the candidate. The job requirements should be indicated on the resume. Information about relevant work experience, education and work qualification are also included in the resume. The objective is to get maximum benefit from the applicant's profile.The resume must include a summary of the educational qualifications, apart from their number, type, date and location. This should not be false, but instead the employer should have a clear picture of the candidate's learning and skills.The resume should highlight the importance of a security qualification as part of the overall candidate's profile. A security specialist may make excellent reports, but without a solid security qualification it is difficult to gain a foothold in this niche and remain competitive. Thus, the resume should clearly state what the security specialist has done to build his profile.After assessing the resume, the employer should look at the skills, educational qualifications and other relevant qualifications, which the candidate has attained after graduating from cyber security school. Skills such as writing, reporting, customer support, online marketing, etc., are some of the skills that would benefit the employer.Other skill areas that the employer should consider, are security knowledge and security interview preparation. At times, the hiring manager may be concerned about t he candidate's knowledge of certain technology or systems. The cyber security analyst resume should include the list of formal and informal cybersecurity training and certifications, for which the candidate has acquired any relevant certifications. This will indicate how much knowledge has been gained by the candidate in this regard.The resume should also tell the employer how much experience the candidate has had in dealing with different situations and have a clear understanding of his current work experiences. It should include all the information necessary to bring out the candidate's best and above average qualities.

Sears Workers Why Jobs Are Doomed After Eddie Lamperts Takeover

Sears Workers Why Jobs Are Doomed After Eddie Lampert’s Takeover It’s the dawn of a new era for Sears and Kmart â€" but employees are proceeding with caution. Sears Holdings Chairman Eddie Lampert came out on top with his $5.2 billion bid to rescue around 45,000 jobs and more than 400 stores from liquidation Wednesday morning, the company and ESL Investments later confirmed. Lampert’s takeover is a temporary sigh of relief for tens of thousands of employees who fretted over the likely loss of their jobs when the company filed for bankruptcy in October 2018. But some workers are now worried about what the company will look like under the billionaire investor‘s ownership. “I have no hope. I really don’t,” says Carole Brown, who has worked at a Kmart in New York City since 1997 and hopes to retire in 2020. “I can’t see nothing changing, unless (Lampert) decides to make a 360-degree turn. That’s the only way I see any hope for the company. If it survives by next year, it will be by the grace of God.” ‘Liquidating the store since he took over’ Current employees and laid-off workers tell MONEY they hope Lampert operates the company with their interests in mind â€" namely, with better protection for laid-off workers, stronger efforts to skirt store closures and layoffs, and improved benefits for current employees. “We’re treated unfairly,” says Brown, who has seen her benefits and hours change drastically with Kmart and Sears’ decline over the years. “It’s just not right.” Gabe Maguire, a Kmart employee whose store in North Carolina is slated to close in March, feels relieved for the remaining employees who won’t have to worry about liquidation, but doesn’t have “high hopes for the company.” “Some of these workers are telling us that they feel Lampert has been liquidating the store since he took over,” adds Lily Wang, an organizer with Rise Up Retail, a labor group that has been working with employees at Sears and Kmart throughout the company’s bankruptcy proceedings. Lampert formed Sears Holdings in 2005 and instigated a slew of cost-cutting initiatives that ultimately resulted in sales declines, store closures, inventory reductions, and brand sales amid an ever-changing retail environment. Under Lampert’s watch, more than 200,000 jobs have disappeared and more than 1,700 Sears and Kmart stores have shuttered, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company has not been profitable since 2010. The businessman was CEO of Sears Holdings from 2013 to late 2018, when he stepped down from the role but remained chairman of the company’s board during its bankruptcy filing. Sears’ largest shareholder and creditor is ESL Investments Inc, Lampert’s hedge fund. Lampert’s bid, which he made through his hedge fund, will keep Sears open for business so long as it receives a final stamp of approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court in a hearing scheduled in early February, Sears Holdings says. “The decisions are being made by Eddie Lampert and his hedge fund. They’re being made in the interest of his wealthy investment fund. And Sears has been a cash machine for them,” says economist Eileen Appelbaum, co-director of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research. “They’ve taken money and they’ve put almost nothing in.” “You hardly ever see anything quite as blatant as what has come to happen at Sears,” Applebaum adds. Lampert’s hopes for Sears In a December statement regarding his hedge fund’s potential ownership of the retailer, Lampert wrote that he will “continue to believe in the company’s immense potential to evolve and operate profitability.” “Our proposed business plan envisages significant strategic initiatives and investments in a right-sized network of large format and small retail stores, digital assets and interdependent operating businesses,” he continued. The retailer’s struggle to adjust to a changing landscape shows in recent years in particular. Hundreds of Sears and Kmart stores were closed in 2018, and 10,016 employees were laid off as a result, according to Challenger, Gray Christmas, a Chicago-based career transitioning firm. More than 4,880 of those layoffs occurred after Sears filed for bankruptcy in the fall, and dozens of other stores will close by March 2019. In late December, the company announced the closures of those 80 Sears and Kmart stores. Days before, the bankruptcy court granted Sears approval to award executives and senior-level employees with more than $25 million in bonuses in an effort to keep them at the company â€" a move that deepened the wound for recently laid-off workers, some of which had their severance pay cut short. The fight for severance pay Severance pay policies at Sears have changed over the years and, according to workers, it differs depending on a person’s role and is not awarded to part-time retail employees. One former corporate employee who was laid off last fall says she received her full severance pay despite the company’s bankruptcy. Some retail employees who were laid off in recent months said their severance pay was cut short or eliminated entirely as a result of the company’s bankruptcy filing. Sheila Brewer, who worked at an Illinois Kmart for 17 years and was laid off last year, said her eight weeks of severance pay checks were cut off after the company filed for bankruptcy in October. “We wake up and we live and breathe Kmart and do what we can for the company and give it our all,” Brewer told MONEY last month. “And in the end, they give us nothing.” In November, employees worked with the labor group Rise Up Retail to send Lampert a letter, demanding he guarantees severance pay and creates a financial hardship fund for laid-off workers. While the group says Lampert did not respond to the letter, he included a $40 million severance pay fund in his revised bid to take over the retailer. It’s unclear what will become of that fund, how much severance pay laid-off employees will receive, and when exactly they will get it. But ESL Investments said Thursday the fund will cover “certain severance costs incurred by Sears during bankruptcy and reinstate severance benefits for eligible employees in a new company.” The hedge fund did not respond when asked for clarification. The efforts from these workers impacted by the unpredictable nature of bankruptcy proceedings that have rocked some of the nation’s most iconic retailers in recent years echo those from more than 30,000 Toys ‘R’ Us and Babies ‘R’ Us employees, who lost their jobs last year when the company liquidated. As a result of their efforts, two of the private equity firms that once owned the retailer created a $20 million severance pay fund for laid-off workers. They received anywhere from $200 to $12,000, each, depending on how much they were owed according to the company’s severance plan before it filed for bankruptcy. “When you go to stores, the employees are the first person you encounter. You don’t encounter the vice president,” says Lakisha Williams, a former Kmart employee who was recently laid off and still financially supports three of her children. “You don’t encounter a regional vice president. You don’t even encounter a district manager. You encounter a sales associate. Those are the people who make the store run. I just feel like those are the people who should be looked out for â€" instead of the people at the top.” Rise Up Retail, the labor group organizing these employees and laid-off workers, hopes the creation of these funds could set a new precedent and pave the way for lawmakers to create more protections for workers who often are last in line in bankruptcy proceedings. “It was about demanding the respect that their job matters,” says Carrie Gleason, an organizer with Rise Up Retail. “This is part of a much bigger fight.” This story has been updated.