lifeskills

EduLinks Extra – zen habits new E-Book

I wanted to let you know about a great E-Book that should help you knuckle down with your degree study.  In fact, it should help with anything you want to be productive in.

ZEN TO DONE: The ultimate simple productivity system – by Leo Babauta

It’s $9.50, which in English money is currently about £4.50 (well, that’s how much it was when I bought it anyway).

I’ve got the book and I hope Leo is successful in getting it off the ground.  His blog, zen habits, is also an impressive (free) resource.  Even if you don’t want to make any purchase, zen habits is well worth making a regular read.

For your info, Zen To Done is a system for enhanced organisation and productivity, to “keep your life saner and less stressed, with a set of habits”.

Habits are, in my opinion, both good and bad things.  If you develop something to the point of increased productivity, it must be good.  Once the productivity wanes, it’s time to develop new habits!

Obviously, there are habits that are bad from the outset, but let’s not go there!  That’s a different conversation entirely.

One last thing, I’m considering writing some reviews of general study books that are geared at university and Higher Education.  It’s not a definite, but I believe it to be a worthwhile feature and I’m working on how I could go about reviewing some of the books.  Sometimes, you just can’t beat the ease of a book.  Easy to browse, easy to bookmark, easy to dip into.  And with university, you can’t exactly get away from books, can you?

UniversityBlog – Best of October Posts

It’s a new month and it’s time to recap some of the big posts and popular articles.  Time seems to have passed by so quickly!  Well, here are the top 5 highlights:

1. Getting the initial work out of the way, every time – Getting a project off the ground may well be all it takes to succeed in a big way.  I wrote the piece because this way of working has been beneficial to me for many years.  It’s one well worth remembering.

2. Finding Your Personal Lifeskills (Or…”With Others You Can Do-It-Yourself!”) – No matter how much advice is thrown at you, it can only work if you make positive use of it and form it for your own wants and needs.  Expecting something to happen without any of your own input is unrealistic.  This article explains how you can reach a mindset that will allow you to make the most of the advice that comes your way.

3. Redefining Your Comfort Zone: 5 ways to make information your friend – Information has many forms and we take some in our stride, while other forms of information leave us cold.  By redefining your comfort zone, it’s possible to consume a lot more information that you realise.  Go to it!

4. Help for the Hopelessly Homesick – It’s still pretty early in the academic year, especially for Freshers.  There may still be some mixed feelings about moving away from home.  I wrote this after hearing from a number of homesick students and reading various stories on the fantastic site The Student Room.  I think it’s been the most popular post since UniversityBlog began.  There’s no harm in that and I hope it’s been of great use to you.

5. Turning Smalltalk into Bigtalk: 7 ways to find things to talk about – Sometimes it’s difficult to get a conversation going.  I’ve been there before.  You don’t know about a person, so you’re unsure how to find the words to say.  Or you’re with a group of people you’ve never met and want to hit it off with them, but can’t imagine what witty words will impress them.  The 7 tips I mention in this post have helped me to get a conversation up and running on many occasions.

What is ‘Personal Development’?

Today, I have a single EduLink to share with you. An EduLink of great interest and one to get you thinking. Maybe even one that you’ll want to participate in:

Personal Development Blog – Group Writing Project: What Is Personal Development?

Personal Development Blog (which is great, so read it, nuff said) has been taking submissions of posts regarding that question. So I decided – since UniversityBlog is all about Higher Education and personal development within – I’d give this question the once over. Here’s my take:

Runners (photo by richermcm)

Personal Development Is…Appreciating the bigger picture
People often get bogged down with little annoyances that take up far too much time and get in the way of our thoughts. Before you know it, minutes, hours, days, weeks go by and you realise that you didn’t achieve much in that time. To make matters worse, you end up looking at people around you and think how many wonderful things they have achieved in that time, while you were in a fluster. 9 times out of 10, what’s the reaction? Usually it’s to get even more annoyed or depressed with yourself.

But the world is a big place. Don’t be fooled that it’s not. Sure, we can travel in a matter of hours from one side of the world to the other. Of course, we can now easily access more information than we had ever imagined possible just a few years ago. We can pick up a tiny mobile phone and use it pretty much wherever we want and call somebody up, wherever they are. The population of the world is increasing, but our natural resources are shrinking. It’s like a mass claustrophobic panic.

So you may well think the world is shrinking. But I would argue back that the world – and the number of possibilities – is expanding.

Because there is so much going on around us, it can be overwhelming. That’s why it’s best to begin your personal development by taking in the bigger picture. If you can research and understand the central concepts of something before you do anything else, you will have a much better focus for the nitty gritty at a later stage.

So rather than watch the world in fear, or feel discomfort that there’s too much to cope with, your personal development can be achieved by appreciating the bigger picture.

Personal Development Is…Taking control of what matters
Lifehacks are popular among many people. Chances are that if you’re reading this, you’ve heard of lifehacks. If not, a ‘lifehack’ is a way or a technique to make a task easier or improve your productivity and understanding. It’s like a move toward continuing personal development.

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it many more times…if you’re enthusiastic about something and truly value it (no matter what it is), then you can take control of it and, in turn, develop your understanding and enhance your experiences.

If you find no spark and perhaps don’t even try to engage with what’s there, your personal development will not be able to shine. Enthusiasm equals productivity.

Personal Development Is…Understanding the joy of contradiction
We’re a diverse bunch. One person’s love is another person’s hate. In the same way, one person’s development is another person’s setback.

Because we all work in different ways, we have alternative methods of learning and expanding our horizons. This is why development is a personal thing. If we all worked off the same rule sheet, personal development wouldn’t be such an important pointer to our progress.

To discover new talents, it may only be possible if you are willing to discard what you think you know. When people say things like, “I’m set in my ways” and “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, it’s limiting and more of an excuse than anything else. So we must all be prepared to go as far as contradicting ourselves. Get rid of any pride and stubbornness and be prepared for anything. Then you’re on the road to personal development.

Personal Development Is…A positive attitude toward your life and well-being
Mental health is just as important as looking after your body. It has long been said that if the elderly maintain an active mind, they are more likely to be rewarded in keeping a positive mental state and continue to enjoy their life to the max.

I believe this is true, no matter how old you are. To grow in mental stature, a positive outlook on personal development is needed. If you want something, you’re already in a better position to get it.

This is not about selfish demands. It’s simply acknowledging a need for continued action and a willingness to do all that you can in both finding goals and then working powerfully toward them.

Personal Development Is…Questioning, Answering, Debating, Engaging
‘Balance’ is a keyword regarding personal development. We are not always right in what we say and we sometimes have a struggle to help someone out when they are wrong. There’s a lot of scope for disaster if we’re not ‘on the ball’ at all times.

That is why it’s good to do the following:

  • question things;
  • answer other people’s questions when they need help;
  • debate an issue that doesn’t have a clear answer, or hear other people’s opinions if an agreement is not easily made;
  • engage in the issues and involve yourself in what’s going on.

An active interest and a balanced viewpoint can go a long way, even if you have a biased or strong opinion on something that doesn’t have a strict answer.

Personal Development Is…Here to stay…
…because even the smallest advance in your learning and experience is satisfying. We’re not going to grow tired of finding something to put a smile on our face and a bit more confidence in what we do!

Turning Smalltalk into Bigtalk: 7 Ways to find things to talk about

Talk Bubble (photo by spekulator)

It’s not always easy speaking to other people when they aren’t your closest friends. In fact, working out what to say can feel so difficult to some people that they steer clear from meeting new people. What if the conversation dries up after the initial ‘hello’?

There are lots of ways to find the words to say. And after a bit of chat, you probably won’t need to think about it any more. You’ll have either decided to end the conversation of your own accord, or you’ll be so deep in chat that you’ll have forgotten you ever did have a problem finding something to speak about!

Here are 7 pointers to give you a few more words to choose from when moving a conversation forward. They are aimed at initiating discussions with people and for talking to those you don’t know very well. But they should work just as well for all conversation in general:

Teen Talk (photo by melodi2)

1. Read – I really do mean READ. Don’t stay in your comfort zone and browse the two specialist magazines that you love. If you want to carry an awesome arsenal of smalltalk, read the news, check out the music press, immerse yourself in art, politics, entertainment, gossip, education, technology, food, local information, anything you have the time to devour. The more you take in, the more you can comment on and the more you can open up the conversation.

2. Write – Just as important as reading. Write down anything clever, provocative, funny, interestingly open-ended…anything that you might be able to use in a conversation. Whether it’s something you’ve overheard, something you suddenly thought during a lecture, a joke on TV, a true story that happened to you in the day. Whatever it is, get it written down so you don’t forget it. Then make use of it when chatting. This is where it’s always good to have a pen and small pad about your person, though it’s not always practical.

3. Bad is good – Just because you hate something, why should that stop you talking about it? People on chat shows like to talk about many things they dislike, while some stand-up comedians make a living talking about what annoys them. Make the most of the things you don’t like, just as much as you like talking about the things you love.

4. It’s all about listening – To have things to talk about, you need to develop an ear for what people have to say. If you don’t take in other people’s stories, how are you going to have things to talk about? Another person’s story could well become yours if it’s a corker. I suppose it’s like a high culture version of gossip! Just remember not to repeat a story told in secrecy and don’t use somebody else’s story as if it were your own. You’ll only end up telling the story to a person who knows where the proper story originates and it’s never pleasant to get in that kind of situation. If you’re told a funny story, relay it as a funny story you’ve heard. It shouldn’t lose any appeal just because you’re not telling the story in first person.

5. Learn new things / Do something different – Your experiences open up the opportunities to talk about all sorts. If you tried hang-gliding and it didn’t work out for you, you can talk about your experience. If you went on some crazy hike in the middle of nowhere and ended up lost, you can make light of it now. If you don’t already have experiences like this to hand, then get out there and make some experiences happen. Then you can tell people fresh from doing those things just how it went and get the talk going nice and quickly. And it doesn’t need to be anything fancy either. Even if you just go to a new place or listen to a type of music you’re not used to, it all helps to make smalltalk.

6. Don’t take your life for granted – An activity that has become second nature to you might be the magical answer to another person’s life. You never know. Therefore, it shouldn’t harm to bring up a topic that you find very normal. It may be far from the ordinary for someone else, or it might be an easy source of discussion between you and the person you’re talking to, so either way you can succeed.

7. Keep it clean – If you are finding topics of conversation with people you don’t know, it’s best to leave the smut and bad language out of the conversation until later. Even better, get rid of it altogether. However, if you find yourself in company that’s all for the coarse choice of words and stories, feel free to fit in with that if you’re happy with it yourself. Use your common sense to make your decisions on whatever situation you find. Don’t force the decisions to be made the other way around. For once, letting the other side make the first choice can help keep you very much in control of the situation.

Koliba_Girlz (photo by pjpjpj)