Shoot Amazing Photos
Ever wonder how people get those amazing looking product photos on their website? Rich Tatum has this low-cost solution for you:
So here’s the deal: you want to shoot a high-key photo with a nice, washed-out background but you don’t have a studio or a lightbox handy, what do you do?
You use the “White Paper Trick”, using a good light source or two and a piece of white paper large enough to create your seamless background. Et voilá!
When my wife asked for a mustard seed macro to illustrate a forthcoming blog post, I immediately knew what I wanted. I set up a cutting board on top of a large pot on my stove directly under the overhead lamp, got a plain sheet of white paper curled up against the control panel, made a little pile of mustard seeds, got my trusty beanbag to steady my shot, and stuck my macro lens on my iPhone.
Five minutes later I had three usable shots, one of which we both agreed was the best.
No light box required!
Conquer your fear of Public Speaking
Have you ever found yourself in the situation where you’ll have to give a speech, presentation or do any other type of performance in front of a group and no matter how ready you are, 10 minutes before showtime you wish you were anywhere else, doing anything but this? “Stage fright” can be awful, but with the following tips from Adharsh Dhandapani you can sail through with no issues.
1. Find a place where you can spend 10 minutes alone and undisturbed.
2. Work on your attitude – Your message is for the audience to understand, profit, gain and be enlightened by. It is more critical for them to enjoy your performance than you. Spend 5 minutes convincing yourself of this mindset.
3. Do some facial exercises to relax your face: For 5 minutes, constrict your face completely and then expand it by opening your eyes and mouth widely.
Once you’ve completed this, you will be mentally and physically ready to go on stage!
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Knowing how to quickly build rapport can be a great way to help you experience success and fulfillment in life. Adam Goldman offers the following tips:
1. Mirror body language
2. Match tone of voice and rate of speech
3. Echo back the other person’s words
4. Listen first to the other person’s model of the world, and build THEIR model in YOUR mind BEFORE speaking back.
Practice 1 minute a day with one to five different people. In one month your social skills will SKYROCKET.
Be More Polite Online
Oh, that dreaded Caps Lock key. It has been the bastion of internet user’s existence ever since email and message boards were invented. However, thanks to Ren Dez Vooz we have a way to correct any unintentional screaming.
If you are typing a document in any Microsoft Office suite and YOU UNINTENTIONALLY TYPED YOUR ENTIRE DOCUMENT WITH CAPS ON, YOU CAN FIX IT BY SELECTING THE ENTIRE TEXT AND THEN PRESS SHIFT+F3.
Power tip: It also works for Libre Office if you’re into open source software, or for you Mac users, try OPTION+COMMAND+C .
Wake Up
Swayambodha Mohapatra has a clever trick for those of us who can’t seem to handle early mornings:
There are no guarantees that any relationships will survive long with this one, however.
Prioritize your Tasks
Have too many tasks to prioritize? Thanks to Oliver Starr, there’s a method for handling that.
Any task that you can do in two minutes or less should be done immediately when possible. A quick email response, that update to your company’s Facebook page, making the bed, doesn’t matter. It’s faster to do it right then as opposed to reviewing it and finding a time to do it later.
For those that want to dig deeper, here’s a great summary of the two-minute rule and how to apply it: Use the 2 Minute Rule to get more stuff done
Make a Plan
Have tasks that take more than 2 minutes? Jim Wagner has some help for you:
Spend ten or fifteen minutes, each night before bed, to write the next day’s activities. Then the next day, stick to the plan.
This is especially true if you are an entrepreneur or in a leadership role, as it’s often difficult to prioritize your activity and time because you create your own schedule. The question that you need to ask yourself is: “What activities are crucial to my work, my learning and health and spiritual goals?”
I think it’s critical to cover all three. Attention to all three, each day, means you grow in each area, and you devote the time to nurturing each.
Then, as you complete the tasks, check them off. I use a Moleskine, and write the tasks I need to carry out on the right. I use a drafting stencil to make perfect circles next to my list items. For some reason that adds enjoyment to checking off the items when accomplished.
On the left I take notes about the chosen activities. The notes can be whatever you like. Relevant information, admonishment or self motivation, doodles, or whatever.
You’re giving yourself feedback that you can refer back to later.
The notes can also be used to jot down issues to pay attention to on the following day. Usually, my notes fill up on the left, during the previous day, before I make my list on the right, for the next day.
It’s important to have a place to make a note about an issue before it gets stale in your mind. Then, when you make your list, you have the notes to remind you, and you can decide what activity will address the issue best.