David S. Finch

Ask the Readers: What Media Should I Be Consuming?

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I have a confession to make, "I'm constantly consuming media," but I'm looking for something new. My iPod is filled with podcasts, I watch tons of online videos, and I'm subscribed to 400+ blogs.

However, I want to hear your suggestions. What are you reading, watching and listening to? What blogs should I subscribe to? What podcasts should I be listening to? Whose videos should I be watching? Are there any TV shows I should be watching?

Leave your suggestion in the comment section. Let me know what media I should be consuming.

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The Missing Links: Your Weekend Reader

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Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship #18: Welcome to the 18th edition of the Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship. We have selected 32 posts for this edition.

Making Money Online is Work: There is No Secret Formula: From losing weight to earning a living online, people seem to always be interested in finding some sort of a secret formula for everything. Wouldn’t it be great if we somehow had a secret formula for solving all of our problems?

8 Ways to Be Ruthless With Your Time: There are a million and one demands on your time and, whether or not those demands are legitimate, it’s hard to carve out the time necessary to take care of your responsibilities. You have to be ruthless with your time — you have to take care of important tasks before handling issues that just aren’t crucial. You have to set up your own rules for deciding how to spend your time, and those rules may not make everyone around you happy. But you are the only one who can decide what you’ll do today — decide ruthlessly and get your work done.

7 Ways to Get Your Entrepreneurial Brain Unstuck: The real hurtle is that in business, and in life, we’re often confined to operating within certain constraints. It’s called being “normal”. People will tell you to think outside the box, but when it comes to actually stepping outside that box … Radical change requires radical action. It’s time to push your keyboard to the side and learn some serious brainstorming techniques to get the ideas flowing:

11 Online Retirement Calculators: Online retirement calculators come in all shapes and sizes. Some retirement calculators are extremely simple and provide little in the way of helpful information you can use to plan for retirement. Others are complex affairs that require an advanced degree from MIT to use. What follows are 11 online calculators for retirement that get it just right. They are easy to use, provide a lot of useful information, and best of all, are free.

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How I Switched to a Paperless Office

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photo by:jimwhimpey

Weeks ago I made a decision to convert my office to paperless. My motivation was two-fold, both environmentally conscience and to take advantage of a small workspace. My initial reaction to the thought of going paperless seemed almost impossible. However, when I sat down and asked myself what I really needed I realized with a little bit effort I could make this happen.

The first thing I did was to get control of my printing habits. I've been known to print off emails and online articles to read later only to read them once and then throw the paper away. Not only is this not environmentally smart, but filing paper that I'll never read again doesn't make sense. Having a limited work area made this extremely difficult in relation to filing.

Next, I asked myself how often do I need a notebook? After determining that there were just a few occasions that I really needed one, I began taking notes on my laptop. While it's taken a little time getting use to, I've develop a system that seems to be working.

My goal is to transition the majority of all my periodical reading to online sources. Than tackle all the unnecessary mail. Ultimately, I would like to be paperless with:
1. Online invoicing and bank statements
2. Newspapers and magazines
3. airline tickets
4. event tickets
5. grocery lists
6. financial receipts

I don't know if I could ever read books only through a reader, but you never know. Going paperless could become addictive.

Have you gone paperless? What was the biggest thing you had to let go of? What are your suggestions for anyone switching to a paperless environment?

Technorati Tags: Earth Day, paperless, productivity

The Missing Links: Your Weekend Reader

If your new to davidsfinch.com, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or by email. Thanks for visiting.

20 Killer Firefox Extensions for Bloggers: One way to be more efficient and productive is to work with the best tools. Since I’m a big fan of Mozilla Firefox I would like to share with you 20 Firefox extensions I really enjoy.

50 insanely funny movies with previews and trailers (caution, do NOT view while driving): Fifty movies, painstakingly picked, hand-washed and professionally-framed to inspire hours of smiles, with links to the trailers for every single one (the trailers, alone, are worth the effort).

10 Ways to Build Your Brand Online: One of the things a successful brand does is distinguish itself from the competition. Perceptions of actual value and personal experience can elevate your brand to prominence in the mind of your target market. One of the things you want to do as a savvy small business owner is take control of your brand in the online world.

Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship #17: Welcome to the 17th edition of the Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship. We have selected 28 posts for this edition.

13 Seed Funding Options For Entrepreneurs: One of the most difficult parts of starting a startup for any entrepreneur is finding that small bit of seed capital to get things going. As evidenced by small seed funds like Y Combinator, a little can go a long way for startup entrepreneurs, but raising that chunk of change to get started can be tricky.

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The Missing Links: Your Weekend Reader

If your new to davidsfinch.com, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or by email. Thanks for visiting.

Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship #16: The 16th edition of the Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship provides great resources from business management to tax saving tips.

5 Ways Cheat Sheets Can Ace Your Productivity: People seem to have formed the habit of day dreaming, and partaking in activities that take up less mental resources, instead of taking the next action. The good thing about simple problems is that they also come with simple solutions.

5 Ways To Protect Your Essential Travel Documents: Losing your passport or bank cards on the road sucks. Not having the numbers accessible sucks even more.

Ten Healthy Habits from the Mediterranean: Recent news that eating a Mediterranean diet in pregnancy might ward off childhood allergies and asthma just adds to the list of studies suggesting this style of eating has a lot to offer. Living longer, lower risks of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and possibly birth defects have all been linked to eating a Mediterranean Diet. Having a healthy lifestyle plays a vital role in getting things done.

7 Little Timesaving Tips for the Workplace: If you find yourself constantly rushed to finish your day’s work, then you need to start spending your time more wisely. The harsh reality is, you probably have plenty of time to get your work finished. With the following little tips, you will soon be spending that time much more wisely.

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Success Happens in the Trenches

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Anyone that has ever succeeded at anything happened only when they decided to dig in, not give up and take no for an answer. It's in the trenches that we build life changing relationships. It's in the trenches that we wrestle with failure, yet choose to go forward. It's in the trenches that we face our fears and discover our strengths. It's in the trenches where we focus only on the things that matter.

However, staying in the trenches is only by choice. At anytime we can choose to give up and quit. No one is keeping us here. That being said, the success that we are looking for and the goals and dreams that we are wanting to achieve only come by making that choice to stay in the game and not give up.

The Trench from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

When your faced with the decision to quit or keep going you may want to:

1. Reread your personal mission statement
2. Ask yourself the hard questions
3. Reconnect with your heroes.
4. Focus on your strengths.
5. Recommit to your future.

What do you do when your faced with a quit or move forward decision? Who's opinion do you trust? Leave a comment and share your story.

Technorati Tags: motivational, personal development, self-development

Finding Balance - Fact or Fiction

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photo by:cherice

Everyone is looking for tips on how they can introduce balance into their busy lifestyles. People spend hours reading hoping to find the remedy to their chaotic life. I wonder sometime if balance is ever achieved or more frustration sets in when living the life of a monk or guru seems impossible.

Is lifestyle balance really achievable or is just fiction? Are we reaching for something that we can never obtain?

Lately, here is how I've been approaching the whole subject and challenge of living a balanced life.

Live LIfe at 110 Percent
There are no second chances, you only live once. Make sure your living with no regrets. Everything you do, give 110 percent effort to it and never settle for just getting by.

Live in the Moment
This can be very hard for dreamers and visionaries, but living in the moment opens up a brand new world to you. You noticed things you've never noticed before and your effectiveness in the moment becomes greater and more enjoyable.

Have Your Priorities Right
When you have your priorities right I think that is balance. Then your able to give 110 percent and enjoy being in the moment. When your priorities are right you don't cheat your family and the chances of shortcutting your life plan becomes slim. Having your priorities right works as a guard against those things that sneak in as time wasters and distractions.

Take Time for ME
Many times the last person to get proper attention is you. Learn to schedule time for you. Whatever it is that makes you happy, refreshes you and rejuvenates your dreams and passions.

Finally, I think learning to be OK with you brings balance. Accepting your strengths and weaknesses that's balance. Working with what you have instead of always wishing for more, that is balance.

How do you deal with the whole concept of balance living? What things are you doing to find a happy medium to all your projects, ambitions, family etc.?

Technorati Tags: personal development

10 Energy Boosting Foods That Will Increase Your Productivity

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photo by:marcelo alves

Productivity isn't always about detailed systems and hard work. Your diet can also play an important role on how productive your are. A diet packed with sugars and junk food is a sure to sabotage your plan to getting things done.

Try adding a few on these energy boosting options into your daily routine.

Oatmeal
Research has determined that oatmeal can work wonders in lowering your cholesterol levels. This is because of the beta-glucan in the oats. Rolled oats have also long been a staple of many athletes' diets, especially weight trainers', given oatmeal's high content of complex carbohydrates and water-soluble fiber which encourage slow digestion and stable blood-glucose levels.

Coffee
Coffee is commonly known as a energy boosting beverage. If you can go without all the sugars, whipped cream etc. a cup of coffee can work magic.

Lentils
Lentils are like magic pills. They have been proven to lower the risk of coronary heart disease, stabilize your blood sugar, and add iron.

Water
Water is the oil that keeps the engine running. Try to drink at least 10 eight ounce glasses of water of day. You may need to start with flavored waters to get started.

Apples and Bananas
Bananas carry high levels of potassium can replenish your potassium levels after strenuous exercise or during high stress times. Apples (and fruit in general) also work well as energy boosters.

Sardines
Sardines are known to be the "brain food." They are filled omega 3 fatty acids. The fatty acids maintain the blood sugar levels.

Chocolate
Experts believe that chocolate, eaten in small amounts can lower blood pressure. Dark chocolate has recently been promoted for its health benefits, including a substantial amount of antioxidants that reduce the formation of free radicals,

Almonds
There are claims that almonds help prevent cancer as well as improve the movement of food through the colon. There is also claims that they help regulate blood levels.

Yogurt
Yogurt is great for people who are moderately lactose-intolerant. It also has medical uses for gastrointestinal conditions. It's the "stabilizer" snack.

Daily Multi-Vitamin
Add a multivitamin to your daily routine. Make sure you consult with your physician before taking any vitamins.

It takes a lot of fuel to be highly productive. Eliminating fatty foods and replacing them with healthy options can work magic as you work toward accomplishing your goals.

What healthy choices do you use to increase your energy? What have you foods have you eliminated? Leave a comment and be a part of the conversation.

Technorati Tags: productivity

Your Weekend Reader: The Late Edition

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Ten Killer Tactics for Developing a New Skill: It’s easy to understand the long term benefits of improving your skills: you open yourself up to countless opportunities. It’s much harder to look at building skills in the short term, however - skill building eats away at time that could be used being productive.

20 Tips to Survive When You’ve Overloaded Your Schedule: It isn’t hard to accidentally overload your schedule. It starts by making a few commitments, months in advance. Those commitments get pushed back and rescheduled until you need to face all of them at the same time. Working through an overloaded schedule without burning yourself out isn’t easy.

The Essential Skills You Need To Run A Location Independent Business - And How To Tool Up: From personal experience, I recommend a slightly different approach: I believe that if you have basic to intermediate skills in all of these areas you have all the skills you need to start, manage and grow a location independent business, as many times as you want and your ability to secure your financial security increases remarkably.

5 Tips Every Traveler Should Know About Internet Security: Sitting down at an internet cafe has become so common in the life of travelers that few stop to consider the security of these very public computers. But if we do stop to think about it, internet cafe computers (and any information you send or access from them) are clearly vulnerable. Fortunately, protecting yourself is not very difficult. Here are some things you can do to keep your data safe.

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How to Be On Time

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photo by:moriza

Let's face it, being on time can be quite the challenge. You would think that with all the technology that is available, punctuality would never be an issue. However, being on time requires learning new habits. Here are a few tips to help you be on time... every time.

1. Don't set your watch ahead
Do you think this actually works? What really happens is that you tell yourself that you have an additional amount of time and then you compensate for the extra minutes. This usually leads to just a stall tactic that gives you enough time to still be late. Set your watch to the exact time and live in real time.

2. Don't hit the snooze button
Your alarm is not a tool to keep you in bed, but it's there to wake you up. When your alarm goes off, get up and move away from your bed. Create a habit that you do every day that tells yourself, "I'm up."

3. Expect Delays
Plan for delays and give yourself an extra fifteen minutes to every scheduled event. Make it a practice to arrive fifteen minutes early for everything. If you arrive early use this time to read, make a phone call, finish a task.

4. Be Organized
Often times one of the most frustrating time thieves is simply by not being organized. Have you ever been late because you couldn't find your keys? Being organized and having a place for those things that you carry with you will cut down dramatically on tardiness. Being organized will also cause you to rely more on planning than just reacting to everything.

5. Say "NO"
Stop trying to squeeze "on more thing in." This is a sure-fire way to be late every time. By incorporating the fifteen minute rule to your schedule this can help when you want to finish that one last thing.

6. Be committed to being on time
Tips are great as well as gadgets, but the only way punctuality will be important to you is if you are committed to it. Being on time won't happen over night, but the more you work at and make it a daily habit you'll notice that being on time becomes easier and easier.

What keeps you from being on time? If you once struggled with punctuality, what where the things that helped you? Leave a comment and be a part of the conversation.

Technorati Tags: personal development, productivity, self-help