Keeping Track of New Habits

We all have good and bad habits, and as we grow, we make changes to our lifestyle in order to maximize our chances of succeeding. Many experts say- to make something a habit, one has to do it repeatedly and consistently. Since we are not motivated at all times, it is a good idea to have a log book to keep track of our consistency. I came across this website (Click here) that will help keep track of our habits.There are other websites that are like this one but i like this particular one. This website allows keeping track of multiple habits. In my case i keep track of the time i get up and the time i have my breakfast and so on. Be honest with your tracking and with time and some effort it is worth trying to change habits.

Hyatt Gold Passport Membership

This is a loyalty membership card from Hyatt and it is free.When booking a Hyatt hotel room or booking something with the partners of Hyatt, just use your membership number. The benefits are many and the most important one is that you get free nights all round the world (after booking sometimes). More details are available through the link below. There are other memberships like these which i will post in future. This is not a credit card and you can have an online account to check your points or promotions. 
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Presentation Skills

25 Presentation Tips from Dale Carnegie Training 1. Know your audiences' interests, concerns, and desires  2. Plan your talk with the end in mind; or a call to action 3. Begin with honest appreciation for your audience 4. Be yourself 5. Let an audience get to know you - Share obstacles/what life taught you 6. Inspire using emotion along with logic 7. Write out an outline of your talk 8. Fill your talk with examples and stories 9. Create a picture stack to remember key points 10. Never write out a talk word-for-word 11. Never memorize a talk word-for-word 12. Know 40 times more than you need 13. Practice with a supportive person or a child 14. Watch powerful speakers. Notice their movements, speech patterns - learn from them but don't copy - see # 4 15. Gravity will not be suspended during your talk, let go of the podium 16. Move naturally to different locations on the stage to add visual interest. 17. Use a variety of visual aids - demonstrations, charts, pictures, videos. When you practice with a child, they should say "Cool!". 18. Check venue for distance to stage, acoustics, set up, visibility of screen or your demonstrations on the stage. 19. Decide if you're going to use a microphone 20. Decide if you're going to use a lectern 21. Limit or eliminate all words on powerpoint slides - it seems harsh but they came to hear you speak, not to read. 22. Eat lightly prior to the event 23. Use a pep talk - all positive, upbeat, smile at yourself 24. Know that the audience likes you and you like them 25. Speaking is a thrill sport. Make those butterflies fly in formation.

Note : I received it in my email. Hope it helps you all.

Sogotrade Referral

Please find the link below and don't forget to put "553966" in the reference code section.


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Drop Attachments and Add Invitations Directly Into Gmail

I have noticed this feature on Gmail today. It is a wonderful addition to already awesome Gmail. Try it Out !!!

Note : I think it works only with Chrome and Firefox 3.6 version.

Learn and Earn Through Investing

In my earlier post, I mentioned about following kiplinger.com, Google Finance and other sources that are good for learning about investing. I was looking to find ways to get these resources for free. After a bit of research I was able to find some places where we can get these for free. First and foremost, I would check with libraries, if not older issues at least it is a good source of latest issues of Kiplinger and other investing magazines.

          There is a good possibility of finding older versions from the library archives. In addition to this, it is a good idea to search craigslist.com and ebay.com. The best and the easiest way to access Kiplinger issues is through Google Books. Many older issues and even latest issues can be found which I find very useful. There are many other sources that can be explored like going to a book sale or yard sale or just by placing an ad on craiglist.com or freecycle.org. If you really want to learn about investing there are many ways to do it and this is just one of many.

Basic Steps To Manage Bank/Credit Card Accounts

1. Add all your bank/credit/brokerage accounts to mint.com or yodlee or quicken etc
2. Download mint application on your iPhone or other smart phone (if you have one)
3. Set up minimum payment on due date to avoid late charges
4. Pay off balances - minimum payment if you get a chance to pay before due date
5. Use only one or two credit cards a month to avoid multiple payments
6. Monitor your transactions everyday on your mint
7. Call customer service on regular intervals to get lower APR

Keeping your photos safe

1. Upload all your digital photos to online sites like snapfish.com or shutterfly.com or some other good ones
2. Save the originals in an external hard drive
3. Save photos in a portable hard drive if you have one
4. Since memory cards are also cheap these days, save photos in these cards and label them
5. Share all your photos with your friends and keep personal ones with in family members and with significant one
6. Email your uploaded photos link to your other email addresses
7. Remember that they are memories from past and they need to be treasured, negligence is too costly!!!!

Investing tips for a beginner

1. Start reading financial sites like investopedia.com, kiplinger, and Google finance.
2. Make a portfolio of some good companies you find on above sites using Google finance 
3. Follow the trend of these companies for a while to understand how they progress
4. Choose an online brokerage based on your requirement (if you are just small time investor and all you do is buy stocks then brokerages like sogotrade.com, just2trade.com are your options)
5. Choose stocks that are low priced and have a promising future.
6. Take personal responsibility towards gain or loss and for your choices
7. Read about people like Warren Buffett and their advices

Organizing Daily Tasks With RTM and Gmail

First of all, RTM here stands for Remember The Milk. It is an online service that is used by many to organize their tasks and to set reminders. I have an iPhone and there is an application for RTM which is very handy. I used to use Gmail Tasks prior to RTM. Now, to add RTM to Gmail i followed these steps -- 
1. Opened an account with RTM (Free)
2. Follow this Link to add RTM gadget to Gmail
3. Once you add it, close your Gmail window and restart it. 
4. You should be able to see Tasks on your right next to your Email.
5. If their is a Gtalk Gadget on your right, go to Labs (in settings) to move it to your left. 


Leave a comment to let me know if it worked or not.


PS: You can also add RTM to Google calender. I hope we get to see a sync option between RTM and outlook. I will search around to see if we have one.

Integrating Facebook, Twitter into Gmail

When at work it is really difficult to open up all these social network sites and work at the same time. After a bit of searching i could find a post on mashable.com that helped me accomplish this. The steps i followed:
1. Login into Gmail
2. Click on labs and enable Add any gadget by URL and save changes
3. Now open Gadgets tab (in settings) -- you will find Add a gadget by its URL
4. Copy & Paste this URL for Twitter --  https://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml
5. Repeat for Facebook with this URL --  http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104971404861070329537/facebook.xml
6. Close the Gmail window and open an new window to login into Gmail to see Facebook and twitter 


   

Free Admission To All 392 National Parks During National Park Week

April 17th to April 25th is the National Park Week.


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My Groupon Referral

Linky

Letters of great significance

Below is the link to the letters written by Mr.Warren Buffett to his stock holders. He usually writes a letter every year and i think its is fascinating to read them from 1977 until 2010 (present). Market has gone through ups and downs since 1977 but Mr.Buffett had mostly Ups than Downs, so it is worth reading to know how he responded to the bear times and bull times.


Linky

Want to make a note in bathroom?

Sometimes we receive a phone call in the middle of a shower and we know we have to take that call and the person on the other end gives you a piece of important information. You cannot rely completely on your memory and will look for piece of paper/pen and obviously you will not find one in a bathroom. For times like those, here is the solution. Please click on the link 


PS: You could lose wonderful ideas or tasks that come to your mind.

Free Credit Report and Score for AMEX members (Update: 2/16/2011- Link does not work anymore)

Link


Note: its free and not a trial 

Complete List of e-books from University of Chicago

Linky

Free e-book -- Nice Guys Finish Last

 Go to this link and get this free ebook

Tasks Application To Consider from Google

Everyone has a to-do list for a day, but there are too many applications out there to confuse us. I recently found my way of dealing with this. I downloaded an extension on google chrome called as “new tab to tasks”. After downloading this extension, all i needed was to open a new tab to find my tasks list (picture below). I repeated this step in my office computer too. Since it is a google extension, it updates itself on any computer i am logged in with my gmail account. I can make everyday list and can also apply due dates if needed. Unlike many other applications the task lists don’t get deleted upon closing the browser. I can also find the same task lists in my gmail under tasks section.

Readability

I came across this tool that makes reading on Web more enjoyable and clutter free. It is an easy tool to install on your web browser. Follow the link here to install and use. When you open a web page that you intend to read, just click on readability (in the bookmark bar). Remember this will not work on the home pages but will definitely work on the articles. Enjoy!!