Improving productivity by removing bad working habits

Have you ever wondered how big an impact our habits can have on our destiny? Do you have any idea as to how much of what we do or what we think is actually habitual? You don’t need any stats or figures to understand the gist, as a little bit of pondering will reveal that most of the time what you do is nothing more than you following a pattern, set by No one else but yourself. You are not to be blamed though, because most of the times you were not even aware of the negative bearing some particular habit might have on your career. One wicked thing about bad habits is that they are hard to break, however the good thing about these habits is that we can replace them with new, more productive ones

Punctuality:
Often, we found ourselves reaching late at offices, day after day, despite the fact that we would like to get there in time. It almost works like a curse. Every time you find yourself behind schedule, you make up your mind to be on time from now onwards, only to find yourself behindhand once again, that too for no obvious reasons. There’s no need to describe how unpunctuality can hurt your professional life as everybody is well aware of the importance of punctuality. If your lateness is limited to reaching late at your workplace then maybe all you need to do is to sleep early and use alarm clocks, however if you are behind schedule in most of your business projects or meetings, then you may need some serious planning.

Unprofessional Conduct:
Maintaining a professional behavior is very important. There are many kinds of inappropriate behaviors, for example arrogance, humor, bullying your coworkers or dressing unprofessionally. There should be a friendly environment at the workplace, but some people go overboard and start cracking jokes and calling names in a manner that spoils the working environment. These funny fellows then proceed to ridicule some relatively shy ones, resulting in hostile feelings among the coworkers. Therefore, you must keep your anger, attitude or sense of humor in check while at office. The focus must be on official assignments, all other things (socializing, having fun, gossip) should be secondary.

Wasting time on irrelevant stuff:
One of the very few evils of internet is that it allows us to burn hour after hour of our precious working time, without us even noticing it. There are protocols in place at most offices now; however the time-wasting habit keeps hampering those who work from home.

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Tips for designing your business cards

Business card is one of the most inexpensive medium for marketing, but a very important one at that. You'd have exchanged business cards with many people, and from your personal experience you must be having an idea that a unique and well designed business card is more likely to stay in their wallets for long, and as long as a prospective customer has your business card, chances are that he/she will be calling you, whenever they are in need of a product or service you offer.

In order to secure its place in their wallets, your business card needs to stand out from the others, because even if your products or services are in cut above your competitors, your business card still needs to make an impact on its own. At times, a business card can lead to a new business deal or sale, all on its own. Question is how to design a business card, which may result in more sales inquiries and customer calls?

Be a little creative:
How do you make your business card stick out from the regular ones? Answer to this question is … “inventiveness”. If your business card is one of those run-of-the-mill types, with white background and some plain text printed, chances are that it will be thrown away just like them. To make someone hold your visiting card with them, for a longer period, you need to demonstrate some creativity. Be original and bring into play some unique designs, striking colors or employ any other idea that will compel them to retain it.

The information that must be there:
Sure enough, both yours and your business name, a brief introduction of your products/services, and last but not the least, your business address and contact details. If you prefer to be contacted by email, doesn’t mean you should not give out your phone number. One more thing, use your creative side more when choosing colors or designs instead of saving it to present the actual information. All the information and contact details should be unambiguously given.

How much to spend on a business card?
This will be determined by the size of your business and more importantly the impression you want to make. The cardstock, design and colors of your visiting card, says a lot about your professionalism and originality. Poor quality cardstock or wacky color selection is certainly going to hurt your professional reputation. However, you should not be spending too much, because the main idea of a business card is to hand it out to as many people as you can, but a costly one will make you think twice every time you are giving it away.

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Retirement planning –When you should start

Many people don’t even bother to think about retirement planning before they've stepped into their 50’s. For a majority, thinking of retirement is a little too early when they have just started working. An advice to save as soon as you start earning may sound pretty off-putting but nobody can disagree with the wisdom it contains. Saving is certainly not an easy habit to adopt when you are young, energetic and not thwarted by the thoughts of old age. Living a carefree life and assuming that the life will go on like this is closing your eyes to a reality, which may possibly will turn out to be bitter if you don't accept it, as soon as possible. As it happens, saving in good days for the rainy ones is without a doubt, a very sensible thing to do. And yes, do not rely on your pension or social security for that matter; it may get more and more difficult to make both ends meet by just social security, given the rapid increase in rate of inflation, these days.

Planning way ahead of your retirement gives you more control over your future and saves you from some unpleasant surprises, sometimes you may need these savings even before your retire, in short the planning and the habit of saving is going to help you, sooner or later. Retirement plan doesn’t just mean desperate savings; it is more like a complete strategy that includes your preferred time of retirement, amount that you should be saving and the ventures where you’ll invest these savings. Since all of your retirement plan will be based on your desired lifestyle after the retirement, you should be absolutely clear about the standard of living you want to take up once you retire, especially if during the course of your life, you have grown to be accustomed to a luxurious one.

A retirement plan, with some calculations would give you an idea on how much do you need to save and for how long? It also helps you in deciding the time of your retirement so that you'll not be working for too long (or retiring too early). Besides, starting early with your retirement plan and saving means, you can have a much more diverse portfolio. You can go for long term investments like stocks or real estate, which are risky but more profitable, or you can choose any other long term investment, which may take time to mature.

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Change, Learn to deal with this unchangeable reality in your professional life

The catchphrase for Obama's (now successful) election campaign was "Change", and the fact that it worked means Americans welcomed the idea of change. On individual level, we tend to approve of change when the proceedings are not good, and quite understandably we are annoyed when this inevitable comes at a time when everything was going smooth. So … is the change really bad or something good? Searching for the answer of this question is ineffectual, because whether good or bad, change is inescapable. Besides, the answer to this question (if the change is good or bad) depends on how good we are at dealing with change.

We can't control the universe, that's it:
Even though, we'd feel in control of the events in our lives at times, the fact is that things get out of control in no time and we are left with this unsympathetic reality that we are helpless (as far as the happening goes). But, we are absolutely in charge of our reaction and that's what really matters. Sometimes we distance ourselves from positive changes just because they are enforced upon us, or they seem to pull us out of our comfort zones. So the first step towards handling the change in a more positive way is to evaluate instead of rejecting instantaneously.

Look at the change as an opportunity:
Sometimes you get into some competition and find out that no matter how hard you try, you can't beat the old, experienced and established players, because they are just so comfortable with the techniques or procedures. Change can prove to be a blessing in these situations, a change in rules, introduction of some new technology or installation of new software, changes like these mean everybody has to start from the scratch. This is the time where you can create some sort of supremacy over others, but only if you were ready to embrace change. Sometimes we are too perplexed by the change that we fail to see the opportunity lying within the change.

Don't underestimate your potential:
We are much more capable of adapting to changes than what we assume of ourselves. (If we were not, we'd have vanished from the face of earth like those monstrous dinosaurs). On a more serious note, it's not that hard to adapt in most circumstances, all you need is to have some flexibility and focus. It’s quite possible that after sometime you’ll feel that you are much more comfortable with the new settings or situation.