3 Strategies to Attract Opportunities into Your Life

Feeling stagnant?

You don’t attract opportunities because you are not upgrading

I often get asked by my coaching clients: “How can I get more opportunities in my life?”

This is a really important question. New opportunities enable us to advance in our lives and careers as a result of an abundance of options to choose from. In the case where we seldom get a chance to upgrade our current situation through new possibilities, it is a common occurrence to feel stagnant, unhappy and unproductive.

Most people will assume that inability to attract opportunities is directly tied to lack of passion and merely waiting for a miracle to appear out of the blue. However, this is not the entire truth. There are two elements to successfully attracting new opportunities.

Want progress? Do something new and work on your ‘attractiveness’

“To get something you never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.” –Unknown.

This thought-provoking statement suggests that people stay in their own comfort zone and fail to broaden their horizons. As a result, they often resign from their plans too early and settle for mediocrity. Surprisingly, these are often disciplined people who work hard for their living and are respected members of our society.

The second and not-so-obvious element is the fact that our inner self reflects in our external environment. The truth is you have to shift existing behaviors and mindset in order to attract opportunities. Favorable circumstances and success come to the ‘attractive’ people who develop ‘inner beauty’, often meet new people, build new relationships and form new business partnerships. It is vital to work on personal development and on character development.

Apply these 3 strategies to attract new opportunities

1. Surround yourself with success.

There is a saying: “You earn the average income of the 5 people you spend the most time with”. Your environment is crucial to your happiness. Successful people have winning habits, strategies and ‘attractive’ personalities. By spending time with them, you will subconsciously start to model these behaviors. Likewise, negative people significantly impact their surroundings, often lacking ambition and spreading pessimistic thoughts.

2. Get out of your comfort zone.

Staying in a familiar environment is comfortable because you know what to expect. However, by not stepping out of a comfortable environment, new things will seldom occur in your life. The aim is to create opportunities by stepping outside the comfort zone instead of waiting for them. Otherwise, your life will be nothing more than comfortable. Stepping outside of your comfort zone will allow you to meet new people and attract a whole array of new situations.

3. Perform daily routines to shape your character.

A strong and attractive character is a result of systematic practice. One of my favorite quotes is “where attention goes, energy flows – results show”. Good conduct and behavior are results of our thoughts and habits. If you are able to set out behaviors that you will repeat daily, your character will be transformed and opportunities will appear as a result. For instance, you could have a morning and evening routines to prioritize and reflect on your current tasks.

How to succeed in the long-term? Use self-reflection and be consistent

Usually people regret things they didn’t do when they had the chance to try. Attracting new opportunities is not down to just luck – step out of your comfort zone and start working on a brand of attractiveness which consists of your character, heart and spirit. The key is to do monthly or quarterly self-reflection activities to evaluate your progress and analyze new areas requiring development. It is important to be systematic in your actions, as they will increase your chances in the long term to attract plenty of new opportunities.

The post 3 Strategies to Attract Opportunities into Your Life appeared first on Lifehack.

5 Deadly Mistakes that All Language Learners Make

Let’s face it.

Learning a new language for the first time is confusing.

We often don’t know how to get started, nor do we have the time to commit to learning! This leads us to waste our energy, money, and most importantly, time.

That stops today. We’re going to show you the 5 most deadly mistakes all language learners make — and how you can avoid them.

1. Not knowing your “why”

Understanding your “why” is where it all has to start. As Simon Sinek explains in his book,
Start with Why that the reason why you’re doing something is far more important than the how or what.

This is because whenever we take on a new task or project, there’s always going to be an obstacle or struggle that we’ll need to overcome. Those who give up early on are the ones that haven’t clarified what their “why” is.

Let’s come back to language learning. Whatever your target language is — Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, etc. — what’s your “why?”

Here are some questions we recommend you ask, as explained in our free language learning course:

What you will achieve?

Who will you be able to connect with?

Who will you become as a person?

The next time you’re facing difficulty or losing motivation, just come back to these reasons, and you’ll get right back on track.

2. No clear end goal 

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”

— Tony Robbins

It doesn’t matter if we have the fastest car in the world. If we don’t know where we’re going, we’ll just end up wasting precious energy, money, and time going nowhere.

All of us have a desire that we want to fulfill; we just have to clarify what that is, and make it the driver to our success.

There are 5 key components to setting goals. Your goal has to be:

a. Visually specific — Get as visually clear as possible about what your end-result would look like, to the point where you can close your eyes and imagine it.
b. Slightly out of reach — There is a fine balance to picking a goal that’s way out of reach, to one that is within reach. This mini-goal should be something you can visually imagine, but a goal that you would need to push yourself to accomplish.
c. Measurable — What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get improved. The easiest way to do this is to put a number on it. This could be number of words memorized, the length of conversation you can have with a native speaker, etc.
d. Goal oriented — Focus on the results, not how much time you spent getting there. For example, instead of measuring how many hours you studied every week, only measure what measurable result you achieved.

Remember, it doesn’t matter how much effort you put in, unless you don’t get the results from the effort
e. Deadline specific — As Parkinson’s Law states, the time we spend completing a task will depend on the time we allocate to the task. This means that if we give ourselves 30 days to complete a report that should only take 30 minutes, that’s exactly how long we’ll take to complete it.

Whatever goal you set, make sure you have a deadline to accomplish it.

Let me share 3 examples of goals that are bad, good, and great, so you can get an understanding of how your goal compares.

Bad goal: I want to become fluent in Spanish so I can travel to Spain by next year.

Good goal: I want to become conversation fluent in Spanish so I can travel to Spain by next summer.

Great goal: I will have a 15-minute conversation in Spanish with a native Spanish person over coffee in a cafe in Madrid on July 2016.

Do you notice the difference?

Compared to the first two goals, the great goal is written as if it’s already accomplished (I want vs I will), and includes all the components of the goal-setting formula including deadline, measurability, visually specific, and results oriented.

3. No schedule

The most successful people and top-performers in their industry focus on the process, not just the deadline. Optimal performance is less important than the daily practice of taking action, no matter how hard it is or how tired you are.

If you want to write a book, this could mean waking up each morning in order to write 500 words, no matter how bad the first draft is.

If you want to double your business sales, this could mean spending every week with your team reviewing your sales numbers, and executing a new growth experiment.

If you want to lose 10 pounds, this could mean running 30 minutes every morning.

For many of us, learning a new language is not the #1 priority in our lives. It’s our family time, careers, or other side projects we may be working on.

This is why scheduling your learning time is even more important than scheduling your work time.

Here are some practical steps we recommend to schedule your learning time:

1. Pick your language learning activity — this could be memorizing 30 of the most common words on your own or working with a private language coach at Rype.
2. Figure out your free times — when are the vacant times during the day?
   If you’re a morning person, it could be before work. It could be during lunch break, or even in the evening (the most popular time for Rypers).
3. Add in 15–30 minute buffer time — schedules never go according to plan. This is why we want to make sure we add some buffer times, so if we happened to wake up later than usual, or get held from traffic on the way back from home, we can still use the buffer time to stay on track.
4. Set reminders — because we probably have a dozen things we need to remember during our days, setting notification reminders goes along way.
   This could be done through any digital calendar software you use (i.e. Google, Outlook, etc), and you can even receive them on your phone.

4. Being an information sucker

We’ve all been there. We spend hours attending a conference or reading a book. The excitement overwhelms us and our body is filled with motivation ready to master anything!

How often do we actually master it?

Research from NTL Institute has shown that people learn:

5% of what they learn when they’ve learned from a lecture.
10% of what they learn when they’ve learned from reading.
20% of what they learn from audio-visual.
30% of what they learn when they see a demonstration
50% of what they learn when engaged in a group discussion.
75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned.
90% of what they learn when they teach someone else/use immediately.

The key to learning a language is to learn by doing! This means actually going out there and practicing your skills with other people (preferably native speakers). If you don’t have anyone in your inner circle, then work with a language coach online!

5. Doing everything yourself

Ever heard the saying, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together?”

According to best-selling author, Seth Godin:

Five Reasons You Might Fail to Become the Best in the World (In Anything)

1. You run out of time (and quit)
2. You run out of money (and quit)
3. You get scared (and quit)
4. You’re not serious about it (and quit)
5. You lose interest (and quit)

It’s easy to resort to going at it alone, this is how we’ve lived most of our lives.

But if you observe the best performers and the fastest learners, they have someone who works with them, whether it’s a mentor, advisor, or coach.

In almost any aspect of our lives, we have a coach that we work with, whether it’s a fitness trainer, financial advisor, business mentor, or sports coach. This is the best kept secret amongst the best performers and the fastest learners in the world.

Language learning is no different.

If you’ve truly discovered your why, and have a clear goal that you’ve set for yourself. It’s time to get outside help, to guide you through each step of the way, keep you accountable, and accelerate your learning speed.

With so many solutions out there at the tip of your finger —  from craigslist, Rype, conversation exchanges, or even Meetups — there is no excuse.

Anyone can learn a new language, no matter how old you are, how busy you are, and even if you’ve tried before. It’s finding the right strategy that works for you, and avoiding the most deadly mistakes that language learners make.

The post 5 Deadly Mistakes that All Language Learners Make appeared first on Lifehack.

The 10 Coolest Jobs You Can Get By Learning a Foreign Language

Knowing a foreign language can help you in many aspects of your life, including travel, family connection, and even mental health. But did you know that you can find some of the coolest jobs just by knowing another language?

Before we talk about the 10 top language jobs you can get, let’s talk about the most useful languages to learn.

Which foreign languages helps you find the top language jobs?

a. Spanish. As third most spoken language in the world, knowing how to speak Spanish will enable you to reach over 500M+ people globally. In the United States and Europe, Spanish is recognized as the second official language other than English, and is the official language in over four continents.

b. French. Not only is France the fifth biggest economy and top three locations for foreign investments, some of the top universities like HEC exist in France. Learning French opens the doors to French companies in not only France, but other French-speaking parts of the world such as Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, and North and sub-Saharan Africa.

c. German. According to The Economist, German has been shown to earn you the biggest bucks if you work for a corporation:

• Spanish — 1.5 percent bonus
• French — 2.3 percent bonus
• German — 3.8 percent bonus

While German won’t give you the wide reach that a language like Spanish provides, Germany is the home to some of the top corporations in the world, particularly the top automobile brands like BMW.

d. Mandarin. It’s no surprise that Mandarin is on this list. As the most widely spoken language in the world, Mandarin is the official language of China, one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

e. Arabic. The Arab world is recognized as one of the wealthiest regions in the world, with over $600B in GDP. Due to the abundance of market opportunities in the Middle East, Western Arabic speakers are in very high demand, but in very low supply. If you have the ability to speak Arabic, don’t be surprised if people are throwing their offer letters at your desk!

What industries are these top language jobs from?

While you can benefit from knowing a foreign language with nearly every industry, here are the main highlights:

• Media (journalism) and film
• Tourism and travel services, including airlines and hotels
• Banks and insurance
• Local, state and federal government
• International non-profit organizations
• Publishing companies
• Departments of defense and international embassies
• Health services
• Social services
• Immigration services
• Elementary, high schools, universities and colleges

The 10 Top Language Jobs You Can Get With a Foreign Language

1. Game Translator

Industry: Gaming

Did you grow up playing Nintendo? Now you can make money playing it. Companies like Nintendo are always looking for in-game translators that can translate from English to Japanese or other languages. Here’s an example job posting.

2. Brand Specialist

Industry: Technology

Recognized as one of the best companies to work for, Google is hiring Brand Specialists that can communicate in foreign markets. In short, brand specialists work with customers to serve the ongoing product improvements of Google.

3. Community Representative

Industry: Gaming

Blizzard, who produces well-known video games like WoW and Diablo, is looking for a bilingual Spanish/English speaker to engage with their Latin American player communities. The job includes helping with game development and supporting the company at events, including BlizzCon.

4. Flight Attendant

Industry: Travel and Tourism

If the idea of getting paid to travel sounds exciting to you, flight attendant maybe something to look into. Depending on which airline you work for, many of these top airlines will look for flight attendants that can speak a foreign language. For example, if an airline frequently flies from the US to Spain, they’re going to prefer someone that can speak Spanish.

5. Lead Coordinator

Industry: International Non-profit Organizations

Non-profit organizations, like Pencils of Promise,  are focused on helping developing nations around the world. In many of these nations, English is not the official language. Understanding a foreign language like Spanish will help advance your position in the organization because you have the ability to communicate with the people you’re trying to help.

6. Analyst or Associate

Industry: International Banking and Finance

Banking is done all around the world, and this involves doing business with people from different cultures and countries globally. Knowing a foreign language can give you an upper hand when it comes to negotiating or deal making.

7. Photographer

Industry: Film & Media

Photography is an art that goes beyond languages, but if you want to shoot around the world, you should certainly learn a foreign language. For travel photographers, you can decide to learn the language that you would most like to travel to.

8. Fashion Buyer

Industry: Fashion

Whether it’s Milan, Barcelona, or São Paulo, fashion is a global industry, and you’ll be working with people all around the world, who speak multiple languages. It’s safe to say that Spanish, Italian, or French are great languages to learn if you’re into fashion.

9. Recruiter

Industry: Human Resources

As businesses become more global by the day, they’re also looking for employees all around the world. Companies are always building new offices in South America, Europe, and Asia. The recruiter’s role is to be able to communicate with these employees and recruit the best person for the job.

10. Foreign Correspondents

Industry: Journalism

Love telling stories? Do you dream about traveling the world and helping people share their message?
Journalism may be your calling. If you want to find the best stories, you’re going to need to know how to communicate in a language other than English, especially if you want to speak with the locals.

… and back over to you

Are there any top language jobs that we missed? We’d love to hear from you below!

The post The 10 Coolest Jobs You Can Get By Learning a Foreign Language appeared first on Lifehack.

37 Quotes to Get Your Artsy On

No matter how creative you are, we all have dry spells sometimes. The remedy? You’ve found it. Here is a list of quotes that are bound to get your brain moving and heart stirring. You’ll be back to your artsy self in no time.

1. “I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.” Vincent van Gogh

2. “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” Cesar A. Cruz

3. “An artist is an explorer.” Henri Matisse

4. “If you are willing to do something that might not work, you’re closer to being an artist.” Seth Godin

5. “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” Twyla Tharp

6. “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” Oscar Wilde

7. “I would like to paint the way a bird sings.” Claude Monet

8. “A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” Paul Cezanne

9. “One can speak poetry just by arranging colors well.” Vincent van Gogh

10. “Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses – learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” Leonardo DaVinci

11. “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Pablo Picasso

12. “Art should be something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue.” Henri Matisse

13. “People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it’s simply necessary to love.” Claude Monet

14. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” Maya Angelou

15. “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Edgar Degas

16. “An artist can show things that other people are terrified of expressing.” Louise Bourgeois

17. “It’s not just about creativity, it is about the person you’re becoming while you’re creating.” Charlie Peacock

18. “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” Thomas Merton

19. “We have to take risks with art. If we don’t, it all becomes a bit boring.” Julie Walters

20. “Painting is dancing with chaos!” Melanie Circle

21. “A work of art is the trace of a magnificent struggle.” Robert Henri

22. “Ask anyone doing truly creative work, and they’ll tell you the truth: They don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up and do their thing. Every day.” Austin Kleon

23. “The creation of true art requires some mysterious innate ability to thrive in chaos.” Sharon Hubbard

24. “Art isn’t everything. It’s just about everything.” Gertrude Stein

25. “A line is a dot that went for a walk.” Paul Klee

26. “I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” Vincent van Gogh

27. “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” Kurt Vonnegut

28. “It doesn’t matter how the paint is put on, as long as something is said.” Jackson Pollock

29. “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Albert Einstein

30. “How difficult it is to be simple.” Vincent van Gogh

31. “Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.” Leonardo DaVinci

32. “Art is a line around your thoughts.” Gustave Klimt

33. “Drawing is a kind of hypnotism.” Pablo Picasso

34. “Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.” Agnes Martin

35. “Talking about art is like dancing about architecture.” David Bowie

36. “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” J.R.R. Tolkien

37. “Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.” Stella Adler

Happy creating, my fellow artists.

Featured photo credit: Titouan Russo/Flickr.com via flickr.com

The post 37 Quotes to Get Your Artsy On appeared first on Lifehack.

The 5 Unspoken Principles Of Goal Setting

Setting goals is an essential practice for living a happy and fulfilling life. Goals provide you with purpose, direction, and motivation. They give you something to strive for and they force you to change and improve yourself to achieve them. Goals are good things.

The act of setting goals isn’t always as simple as defining what you want and then going after it. There’s actually a science behind it that, if followed, enables the true power of setting and achieving goals.

Back in 1990, Professors Edwin Locke and Gary Latham published A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance, in which they identified five principles of effective goal setting.

The principles are:

• Clarity
• Challenge
• Commitment
• Feedback
• Task Complexity

Their combined research makes a correlation between the achievement of our goals and the extent to which the five principles were present.

Basically, if you follow these tips, you will be much more likely to set effective goals and achieve them.

Let’s take a closer look at these 5 unspoken principles of goal setting.

1. Set Clear And Concise Goals

The first principle discussed by Locke and Latham was clarity. This means your goal should be very well defined and not be unclear or vague. You should be able to picture exactly what your life would look like after you achieve your goal and when you want it to happen.

Unclear goals are a recipe for fumbling around, hitting road blocks, and never really achieving what you want. After all, how do you know if you’ve accomplished a goal if you never really knew what you were after?

Think about it in terms of weight loss. An example of a terrible goal would be “I want to lose weight.”

Of course, don’t we all? A much better example of a clear, concise goal would be “I want to lose 10 pounds in 2 months.”

Having something concrete and measurable not only makes achieving your goals more likely, but also makes it much easier to track progress along the way.

2. Make Your Goals Challenging

“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.” — Andrew Carnegie

Having a clear and concise goal isn’t enough to make it an effective one. It’s nearly as important to make sure that the goal you set for yourself is also challenging. It should be enough to test your character and make you feel like you’ve really accomplished something.

Going back to the weight loss example, would you honestly feel good about yourself if you committed to losing just 1 pound over the the course of 2 months? You could essentially do nothing the first 7 weeks and then fast the night before your deadline to hit your mark.

Your goals have to be something worth fighting for. The research from Locke and Latham shows that challenging goals inspire increased performance. Meaning the level of effort you put in is directly related to the difficulty of the goal.

Ever hear someone say “Wow, so-and-so really rose up to the challenge of the occasion!”

That’s Locke and Latham’s theory in action. The more difficult the goal, the more effort you exert to achieve it and the better the sense of accomplishment you get from it.

3. Truly And Deeply Commit To Your Goals

People perform better when they care about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, plain and simple.

Try to think about the tasks you accomplish on a day-to-day basis at work. Which ones do you put the most effort into and which ones do you half-ass, just wishing they were over?

It’s the emotional commitment to your goals that gives you the motivation you need to accomplish them. If your goal is to lose weight, but you don’t actually care or need to, then why would you feel motivated to drop those unnecessary pounds? The short answer is that you wouldn’t.

To be successful, you need to make sure the goals you set are something you truly want and can fully be on board with.

4. Review And Acquire Feedback On Your Progress

“Goal setting is most effective when there is feedback showing progress in relation to the goal.” – Prof. Edwin Locke

You are crazy if you think you can just set a worthwhile yearlong goal and in the end discover if you were able to reach your goal once your deadline comes and goes.

You need to have feedback along the way to ensure you’re making progress towards your goal, and to take stock of what’s working and what’s not.

Let’s, once again, return to the example of weight loss. If after two weeks you’ve managed to gain 5 pounds – oops, maybe you need to tweak your routine a little bit.

You wouldn’t want to wait until the 2 months is up and realize, “Oh crap, I’m not even close to my goal.”

Set some time aside every so often to step back, review your goals, and track your progress. Doing so will help you hit your mark and keep you motivated along the way.

5. Break Down Complex Tasks Into Simpler Tasks

If you’ve followed the second principle and set a challenging goal for yourself, by nature, it will probably have many complex tasks associated with its achievement. These tasks can be daunting and extremely overwhelming, especially when starting with a stack a mile high.

You have to break down these daunting tasks systematically into simpler, less-complicated tasks that are easier to approach and overcome.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu

Don’t get the wrong idea though. Nothing that is worth doing will ever be completely easy. There will undoubtedly be simple tasks that frustrate you and test your will to continue. That’s just the fact of the matter, especially when learning to accomplish something new.

Take things one at a time. Knock down the barriers and keep progressing forward.

Summing It All Up

The next time you sit down to assess or set your goals, don’t forget the principles you learned in reading this article. Using these principles will ensure you’re setting effective goals and will dramatically increase your chances of achieving them.

Like most things in life, goal setting is a practice that must be worked at. Keep the principles in mind, implement them in your life plans, and witness the greatness you will be able to achieve.

Featured photo credit: paul filitchkin via snapwiresnaps.tumblr.com

The post The 5 Unspoken Principles Of Goal Setting appeared first on Lifehack.

10 Sure-Fire Ways To Improve Your Copywriting Skills

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.” –  Leo Burnett

Admit it — no matter how good online marketer you are, being asked to write a blog post chills your spine. Marketers prefer to stamp their fists on walls than to work on a compelling blog post that would convert – but why?

Content marketing has been growing as the most important skill required for marketers to land a job. Having copywriting skills is surely a benefit because writing compelling articles is intimidating and not everyone can do that. However, there’s always some room to make improvements even if you feel that you are not good at writing. Your writing does not need to be agonizing and there are several small hacks you can use to hone your skills and all you require is a little discipline and a will to learn.

Check out these 10 sure-fire ways to improve your copywriting skills.

1. Write for one

You need to treat copywriting just as if you are writing to one person and trying to grab his attention. Copywriting is all about sharing your knowledge in the best possible way to make your marketing campaign effective and if you grab attention of just one person, the rest will follow. Write as if you are writing an email, be personal, add humor and try to include details as much as you can. Consider your copy as a cover letter and you surely will see a lot of improvements in your writing.

“Someone once wrote that all novels are really letters aimed at one person. As it happens, I believe this. I think that every novelist has a single ideal reader; that at various points during the composition of a story, the writer is thinking, “I wonder what he/she will think when he/she reads this part?” For me that first reader is my wife, Tabitha.” — Stephen King

2. Brush up on the basics

Before you start writing an incredible copy, you need to learn the basic principles of writing. This does not mean you need to have an university degree in literature, but you surely should have a strong grasp of grammar and spelling. You need to go through good books and learn their styles and try to refine them and add your touch to your copy. Improving your grammar and spelling will make your copy more compelling as well.

3. Work in groups

Writing is basically a solitary activity, but when you work in groups and have a reasonable sized company, you learn from them and gain much-needed feedback to make improvements. Find someone who is also trying to improve his writing and work together. Talk to your coworkers or friends and ask if they want to check your work. This will ensure if your copy has mistakes or points that you overlooked.

4. Write a killer headline

If your headline is not powerful, all you get in return for your copy is crickets. Try to hone the skill to write headlines that attracts; learn the art and master it. You can start reading different popular journals and magazines and see how they prepare their headlines. Analyze the work of others and see what works best to your readership.

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” ~ David Ogilvy

5. Keep it short and interesting

Most people don’t go through paragraphs that are long, no matter how stellar the content might be. If you keep it short, it sounds simple and sweet, of course. Generally, when you keep the first paragraph short, chances are people will find it interesting and read through the complete post.

The opening of your copy should be hypnotic and you can do what you feel best; include an intriguing question, show stats or an outrageous claim that will keep your reader interested.

6. Imitate writers you admire

Wait there, imitation is not the same as plagiarism. There’s no way you can rip off anyone’s work and call it yours, ever. What you can do is try writing like the same writers you read on regular basis. Dissect what part of their work you enjoy best and see if you can use similar strategies in your content.

If they add humor, do that if you like it. If they are always serious, try that too and see if it will impact your readers as much as it did on you.

7. Use bullet points

Try different search query about foods you want to eat or travel destinations you want to visit this summer, the search engines are filled with list posts. Believe me, such posts have been successful since…forever. Yes, from the very early days of copywriting to now and in the future, copies that have bullet points guarantee success than copies filled with paragraphs only.

Using bullet points will make it easy for readers to scan the article and if they oblige to your readers, they’ll oblige you too.

8. Edit ruthlessly

You have to do this for once and for all if you want to become a great copywriter. Editing is a tough skill and is considered a waste of time by many. But in fact, editing is what can place immense value to your copy and you don’t require a lot of rewriting as well.

Editing copies will give you tons of ideas about your writing level. Start eliminating extraneous words and try making sentences short. Make sure to get your message to the point and wax it lyrically. You need to be harsh on yourself and the more ruthlessly you edit your copies, the better results you’ll see.

9. Do your research

Most articles I read today are plagiarizing someone else’s work. Well, they even credit the source and if they don’t, they make sure that no sentences in their work is present in someone else’s article; that’s cheating. You can rewrite any articles, rephrase sentences and make them yours, but that is still plagiarism. Learn the fact that there are no shortcuts when it comes to success.

Try doing your own research, add statistics to your copy and make sure you source or attribute the details. Even if you are an amateur, researching and adding them to your articles will make you look like a professional.

10. Find a good editor

Everyone needs an editor, even the best writers in the world. If you are trying to improve your content strategy or looking to guest post on your favorite site, make sure you are working with a good editor. This will ensure that you deliver the best content and see improvements in your work where necessary.

Featured photo credit: condesign via pixabay.com

The post 10 Sure-Fire Ways To Improve Your Copywriting Skills appeared first on Lifehack.

Intuition: 10 Tips For Greater Awareness

The word “intuition” comes from the Latin word “intueri,” which roughly translates as “to look inside.” In simple terms, intuition is that gut feeling that something is either right or wrong. It often comes through as a feeling, an emotion, or a thought. For some, it can even be a voice that repeats itself over and over again inside your head, eventually becoming too loud to ignore.

Intuition is a really interesting form of intelligence that goes way beyond the rational mind. It often resonates from deep within and tends to give us answers and direction that extend far beyond any voice of reason. It is more of a subconscious process of receiving information that will help us to solve problems, make life choices, and guide us to either proceed or back away from certain situations.

Intuition is like an internal compass. If you access it and learn to interpret it correctly, it will open up pathways to an amazing life. It can also give you the answers to any challenges that may arise on a daily basis. The problem many people face is knowing how to interpret and trust what they hear and feel. The rational mind can be working totally against what your intuition is telling you and that is where the challenge lies for so many.

Albert Einstein once said “The intuitive gift is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

When you listen to your intuition and trust it completely, it will rarely lead you astray. The following 10 tips can help you to develop and trust your intuition.

1. Get to know that gut feeling

Developing your intuition is different for everyone. We all feel and interpret things differently, so it is important to recognize how your intuition communicates with you. This can occur in several ways:

• A deep feeling right in the pit of your stomach that can either be light or heavy depending on the circumstances you face.
• A voice that you hear in your mind that repeats the same statement over and over again.
• A powerful thought that pops into your head, so strong you cannot ignore it.
• A sensation in your body, perhaps a tingle, that happens when you are focussed on a certain situation.

Pay attention to the signs and signals that you are receiving in your body and your mind. Get familiar with the sensations you are experiencing, especially when you meet someone new or are faced with a challenge. Identify the feelings you have and honour them.

You will start to notice a regular pattern when you learn to listen and feel the sensations you are experiencing. You will soon be able to interpret them as messages that will guide you.

2. Ask the questions you need answered

If you are faced with a challenge and need direction, put your hand on your heart, ask for guidance in the form of a question, and then listen for the answer. It will usually come in a resounding YES or a NO. If you don’t hear the answer instantly, wait for the answer to unfold.

3. Develop your intuition

We all have intuition. Some of us come into the world with the ability to hear, feel, and see without a shadow of any doubt, and then some people come into the world and their intuition requires awakening and developing. If you need to develop your intuition, set aside time every day to work on techniques that will open and strengthen it. From meditating to focussing on breathing techniques to recording your feelings in a journal, just like any muscle, you must do the work to strengthen it.

4. Don’t doubt it

In order to allow your intuition to guide you, you must develop complete trust and faith in the way it communicates with you. For example, when a thought or feeling comes through to you and it is strong and resounding, trust it instantly. If your inner voice is trying to communicate with you and is making itself heard, you should really pay attention.

5. Work with your dreams

We often get messages in our dreams and it is important to learn to interpret them. We can connect our outer world and our inner world this way, so pay attention to your dreams.

Create a dream journal. Place it by your bed so you can record your dreams when you wake. When you get into bed at night, get into a meditative state by doing some deep breathing. When you are calm and relaxed, repeat: “I want to observe my dreams.” When you wake up in the morning, stay silent for at least five minutes so you can begin to recall the images and the stories you have witnessed during your sleep state. Record them in your dream journal. This is a perfect way to unlock all sorts of valuable insights into your feelings, your life, and your future.

6. Be silent

Learn to become silent and still. Intuition comes from deep within your heart and soul, so if you have any overwhelming struggles and anxieties, in order to feel and hear your intuition, you need to deal with your own issues first. Stress and anxiety can drown out your inner voice and it can overwhelm you. Clear out anything that doesn’t serve and support you.

7. Read more

Invest your time in reading and learning more about how to develop your intuition. There are so many great books written by incredibly intuitive writers, and their wisdom and practices can open you up to a whole new world of seeing, feeling, and believing.

8. Become aware

One of the biggest challenges can be the decision to act on your intuition. It is important to understand that these windows of opportunity presented to you don’t stay open forever. They can open up in a heartbeat and they can close just as quickly, so you need to listen and act so you don’t miss out.

9. Meditate

The more you meditate, the more open you will become to receiving guidance from your intuition. Meditation clears and quiets the mind and opens up a beautiful clear channel for you to receive internal guidance.

10. Connect the mind, body, and spirit

It is important for our bodies to be in alignment so we can hear, feel, and trust our intuition. It is vital to invest time and energy into our mental, spiritual, and physical wellness every day. The mind, body, and spirit are all connected, so we must keep them in a state of constant and continuous flow.

Your intuition is a powerful gift. Develop it and trust in it completely. You are equipped with all the answers and the knowledge that you will ever need to ensure you experience a happy and positive life. Always look inside to find the truth.

Featured photo credit: Akshay Moon via flickr.com

The post Intuition: 10 Tips For Greater Awareness appeared first on Lifehack.

12 Surprising Benefits of Learning a New Language That You’ll Experience

7 of the Easiest Foreign Languages to Learn

Who says learning a language needs to be hard?

The better question to ask is: which is the easiest language to learn in the shortest amount of time?

According to a European Commission survey in 2012, 61 per cent of British respondents could not speak a second language. In a world that’s becoming more multi-cultural and globalized by the second, getting by with just English is simply not enough. If that alone doesn’t get your juices flowing, knowing a foreign language has shown to help you make more money by adding 5-15% increase to one’s wage, and helps expand your career opportunities.

We’ve already written extensively about the most useful languages to learn, but how do we decide which is the easiest language to learn?

Playing to your strengths

One way to hack this process is to first understand that as English speakers, we have in our hands one of the most connected languages that exists. It’s linked to many European Germanic languages by descent or influence, and over 50 percent of English words stem from Latin or French.

This probably doesn’t come as a big surprise to most, as the structure, alphabet, and makeup of the language is very similar to Spanish, Italian, French, and other languages from the latin root.

Bestselling author and polyglot, Tim Ferriss, says that you should consider a new language like a new sport.

There are certain physical prerequisites (height is an advantage in basketball), rules (a runner must touch the bases in baseball), and so on that determine if you can become proficient at all, and—if so—how long it will take.

For example, it would a wiser choice and indicate a higher likelihood of success if a professional water polo player decided to transition into playing handball: similar structures, rules, and physical requirements.

However, it wouldn’t be too wise if Kobe Bryant started to play professional ice hockey. It involves learning too many new rules, an entire new skill (skating), and the likelihood of success decreases significantly (or will take 10x longer).

Language learning is no different.

As a “professional” language learner, we need to first breakdown our strengths and our understanding of existing rules and structures. If you already speak English, picking a compatible language with similar sounds and word structure like Spanish, instead of a completely different root like Mandarin, could mean the difference between reaching conversation fluency in 3 months versus 3 years.

The Golden Sentences

If you want to determine which is the easiest language to learn, you should aim to answer the following questions first.

1. Are there new grammatical structures that will postpone fluency?
2. Are there new sounds that will double or quadruple the time it takes to acquire fluency? (particularly vowels)
3. How similar is it to languages I already understand? What will help and what will interfere?
4. All of which answer the question: How difficult will it be, and how long would it take to become fluent?

An effective tool to use to answer all of these questions is called The Golden Sentences.

It comprises eight sentences that expose much of the language, and quite a few deal breakers.

The apple is red.
It is John’s apple.
I give John the apple.
We give him the apple.
He gives it to John.
She gives it to him.
I must give it to him.
I want to give it to her.

Here’s a directly translated version of these sentences in Spanish.

There’s a couple of reasons why these sentences are helpful:

1. It shows you how verbs are conjugated based on the speaker (gender and number)
2. You can see a high-level view of the fundamental sentence structures, which helps you answer questions like: is it subject-verb-object (SVO) like English and Chinese (“I eat the apple”), is it subject-object-verb (SOV) like Japanese (“I the apple eat”), or something else?
3. The first three sentences shows you if the language has a noun case that may become a pain in the butt for you. For example in German, “the” might be der, das, die, dem, den and more depending on whether “the apple” is an object, indirect object, possessed by someone else, etc.

If possible, we recommend you check with a language teacher to fully understand the translation of these sentences and how transferable your existing languages are.

As a rule of thumb: use The Golden Sentences as your guiding map, before you choose the vehicle (the method). It will help you achieve your goals in half the time.

Easiest language to learn

Now let’s dive into dissecting which of the hundreds of languages that exist, is the easiest language to learn.

We profiled each of the languages we’ll mention into the following categories:

• Speaking: This is based on the ease with which learners are able to pick up this language.
• Grammar: Used as a criterion when ranking a given language as easy, moderately easy, or difficult to acquire.
• Writing: In many languages, learning to speak first and write later makes the journey easier. Other languages are equally easy to speak and write. This item spells out the easiest languages to write alongside the most difficult. As with speaking, easy, moderately easy, and difficult were used to qualify each language.

We’ve decided to rank the order of the languages from easiest to hardest to learn.

1. Spanish

Speaking: Very Easy
Grammar: Very Easy
Writing: Easy
Overall: Very Easy

As English speakers, we can be thankful that Spanish pronunciations are one of the easiest to learn.
Overall, Spanish has a shallow orthographic depth – meaning that most words are written as pronounced. This means that reading and writing in Spanish is a straightforward task.

With only ten vowel and diphthong sounds (English has 20), and no unfamiliar phonemes except for the fun-to-pronounce letter ñ. This makes learning how to speak Spanish the easiest out of the bunch, and may give you the best return on your time and investment, as 37 per cent of employers rated Spanish as a critical language to know for employment.

2. Italian

Speaking: Easy
Grammar: Easy
Writing: Moderately Easy
Overall: Easy

Italian is the most “romantic” of the romance languages. Luckily its latin-rooted vocabulary translates into many similar Italian/English cognates, such as foresta (forest), calendario (calendar), and ambizioso (ambitious).

Like Spanish, many of the words in Italian are written as pronounced. Moreover, the Italian sentence structure is highly rhythmic, with most words ending in vowels. This adds a musicality to the spoken language which makes it fairly simple to understand, and a spunky language to use.

3. French

Speaking: Moderate
Grammar: Moderate
Writing: Moderately Easy
Overall: Moderate

Welcome to the International language of love. Despite how different French may appear at first, linguists estimate that French has influenced up to a third of the modern English language.

This may also explain why French’s Latin derivations make much of the vocabulary familiar to English speakers (edifice, royal, village). There are also more verb forms (17, compared to the English 12) and gendered nouns (le crayon, la table).

But it’s not all easy.

Pronunciation in French is especially difficult, with vowel sounds and silent letters that you may not be used to in English.

4. Portuguese

Speaking: Moderate
Grammar: Moderate
Writing: Moderate
Overall: Moderate

With the Brazilian economy ranking 6th in the world, Portuguese has become a powerful language to learn. One great element of the language is that interrogatives are fairly easy, expressed by intonation alone (“You Like This?”) If you can say it in Portuguese, you can ask it. What’s more, in Brazilian Portuguese, there’s one catchall question tag form: não é.

The main difficulty with the pronunciation is the nasal vowel sounds that require some practice.

5. German

Speaking: Difficult
Grammar: Moderate
Writing: Moderate
Overall: Moderately Difficult

For many English speakers, German is a difficult language to pick up. Its long words, four noun case endings, and rough pronunciation gives your tongue quite the work out each time you speak.

German is recognized as a very descriptive language. A good example is how they use the noun by combining the object with the action at hand.

Example: das Fernsehen – the television, combines the words fern, far, andsehen, watching, lit. far-watching.

On the other hand, German can be a fun language to learn and its use of grammar is considered to be quite logical, with many overlapping words in English. Just watch out for the exceptions to the rules!

6. Hindi

Speaking: Moderate
Grammar: Moderately Difficult
Writing: Difficult
Overall: Moderately Difficult

There are many familiar words in English which are either Hindi or of Hindi origin. For example guru, jungle, karma, yoga, bungalow, cheetah, looting, thug and avatar. Hindi also uses lots of English words. They are read and pronounced as they are in English, but are written in Hindi. For example, डॉक्टर is pronounced doctor and स्टेशन is pronounced station.

This shows that while learning the vocabulary and pronunciation of Hindi may not to be too difficult due to its similarity to English, writing in Hindi is a different ball game.

7. Mandarin

Speaking: Difficult
Grammar: Difficult
Writing: Very Difficult
Overall: Very Difficult

Last, but not least: Mandarin. We mainly put this here to show you the contrasting difference between the easiest language to learn (Spanish) and the hardest language to learn, for English speakers.

While language learners won’t struggle as much on the grammar, mastering the tones can be very difficult. Mandarin is a tonal language, which means the pitch or intonation used when a word is spoken impacts its meaning. For example, tang with a high tone means soup, but tang with a rising tone means sugar.

Learning Mandarin has its rewards though, providing cultural insights and knowledge. But according to the BBC, you’ll need to memorize over 2,000 characters to read a Chinese newspaper!

What’s the Easiest Language to Learn?

Winner: Spanish

The clear winner for the easiest language to learn is Spanish. Everything from writing, grammar, and speaking will come more naturally to the English speaker: similar rules, structure, and latin roots.

It’ll be like going from playing football to ultimate Frisbee.

If you are interested in learning Spanish, you can take advantage of websites like Rype, which offers unlimited one-on-one Spanish lessons with a professional teacher online. This means you can learn anytime, anywhere, on-the-go.

We also recommend checking out this Complete Guide on How to Speak Spanish.

Over to you

What do you think is the easiest language to learn? Is there something we may have missed?

The post 7 of the Easiest Foreign Languages to Learn appeared first on Lifehack.

Is Your Controlling Behaviour Masking Your Fear?

Would you consider yourself a controlling person? Would you say you manage your ‘fears’ or your fears manage you?  I’ve worked with tons of people who say fear doesn’t stop them and they don’t let fear influence their life, yet, they are some of the most controlling people I know.  Trying to control everything in life is actually a way people manage their fears. So those people think they are managing their fear effectively, but they are actually masking it by trying to control everything.

You can easily separate the two types; just watch when things happen that they have no control over and see how ‘fearful’ they react in that moment. You see people freaking out when they lose control over the outcome of something and you see others that just smile and remain calm; because they have another type of confidence; that whatever happens, out or in their control, it will be ok. No problem becomes bigger than them.

When we fear something or we try to control it, this behavior can take on many forms; and we might think we are managing the situation well, when in fact it could also be detrimental to success and achieving the desired outcome. You see if you don’t realize your need to control is actually fear, you will keep attracting what you fear!

Are You Too Controlling For Your Own Good?

To see the destructive effects of controlling behavior, it’s important to understand why it arises in the first place. The root of controlling behavior is fear; whether it’s the fear of the unknown, or the fear of failure. When we try to micromanage everything in our lives it’s usually because we’re in search of security and certainty.

The spontaneity and uncertainty of real life can be a frightening concept. Because the allure of control is actually an illusion, to strive for control is to set yourself up for endless frustration and disappointment. There is a point in life up to which we cannot control and any attempt to do so; it is not only fruitless but actually silly; because that is one of the laws of life.

Too Controlling Or Just Really Organised?

Don’t fool yourself. There’s a tendency among controlling people to explain their destructive behavior in terms of them simply being highly organized. I used to be one of them in fact, but is this really the case? There’s a fine line between being organized (and prepared for all eventualities) and trying to control every single aspect of your life. While being organized usually leads to productive, efficient and effective actions, being too controlling could have the opposite effect, so it’s important to constantly be aware of which side of things your actions are on.

The Fear And Control Cycle

Fear results in controlling behavior, and when this behavior doesn’t give us the results we’re seeking (which is usually the case), it further intensifies our fears because the results are proof of the uncertain world that we’re so desperately trying to control. This in turn, leads us to even more controlling behavior. This cycle can result in an obsession over the tiniest details and the loss of perspective on the bigger (and more meaningful) picture of what it is that you’re actually trying to achieve, as well as what you really need to do in order to achieve it.

In other words, it leads to misdirected focus and a waste of precious (and limited) resources. Because of this, fear usually leads to a self-fulling prophecy; you end up bringing about the very things that you are so afraid of.

What Are You Really Afraid Of?

Whenever you catch yourself trying to control the outcome of every single experience, ask yourself what it is that you’re truly afraid of. For example, are you really just trying to be a perfectionist or are you afraid of being wrong? Or perhaps you’re scared of taking on a challenge, making a change or taking a risk? Do you try to control aspects in your social life? Always deciding where to go and with you because you even want to control your experiences as much as possible.

Here’s what I would do:

1. Reflect on yourself and your actions and be honest, are you over controlling in an area?
2. Ask yourself why? (don’t tell yourself you don’t know, because that’s never true)
3. Identify your fear/s and put a plan together to overcome them. – stop masking them

Letting yourself become more open to things outside of your control will also leave you more open to exciting new possibilities, opportunities and experiences and most importantly, better results in life! In the words of Doe Zantamata, “Don’t let your fear of what could happen make nothing happen!”

 

The post Is Your Controlling Behaviour Masking Your Fear? appeared first on Lifehack.

Why Meditation Makes You Happier, Healthier and More Successful and How To Get Started

The benefits of meditation have been talked about for years around mental health, boosted immunity, vitality and creativity. Sounds too good to be true but the good news is science is now supporting that improved well-being, enhanced creativity and a rewired brain are just some of the benefits of daily meditation practice. So what exactly is modern science saying about this ancient wisdom?

The Benefits of Meditation

Meditation reduces anxiety at a brainwave level. A team of researchers at the University of Zagreb in Croatia have published a study on the impact of meditation on brain waves. The EEG brainwave patterns were measured as an indicator of peace. Results confirmed that the effects of transcendental meditation on EEG brainwave patterns and anxiety suggested that meditation is helpful in treating different types of anxiety disorders.

Creativity is enhanced in meditators. In another study published in the Creativity Research Journal it was found that after meditation when participants were given the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking they showed higher than average results for creativity and successful problem solving.

Job burnout is happen less when you meditate. In a third study researchers looked at job burnout, a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, and found significant reduction in a group who had been meditating versus the control group. This was a clinically important decrease in perceived stress.

Pain is more easily tolerated. A study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research done on chronic pain suffers showed that those who meditated didn’t reduce pain levels but the amount of pain they were having caused them less discomfort than the non-meditating control group.

Interestingly despite these scientific results, meditation is still viewed by many as a hippie practice that borders on religion more than healthcare. In one study 80% of Americans asked said they would rather take a pill to relieve anxiety than sit for 20 minutes in meditation. Perhaps this is because people don’t know how to get started on a practice.

How To Get Started

If you want to get started at home in a simple meditation practice and see these benefits in as little as 2 weeks, here are 8 simple steps to get you started.

1.Pick a time.

I learned that the best time is when you first wake up. The acronym I learned was RPM for rise, pee, meditate. Why? If you put it off until later in the day, it tends to get lower and lower on the to do list.

2. Make it a habit.

Start by scheduling it on your calendar for 21 days. That’s enough time to get a habit formed.

3. Avoid distractions.

Find a place where you can sit without interruptions for 15-20 minutes. If you have small children pick a time where they won’t need your immediate attention and tell them they can sit with you but you won’t talk to them until you are done.

4. Comfort is key.

Sitting is recommended more than laying down because your body equates laying down with sleep and you are more likely to doze off if you lay down, Make sure you are warm enough. And there is no need to be in a yoga posture as you sit. Cross legged is fine. Eyes closed if possible.

5. Start by following the breath.

This means just bring full awareness away from anything but inhaling and exhaling. Witness what your breath is doing without trying to change it or control it.

6. Don’t try to stop thinking.

You have approximately 80,000 thoughts each day. It’s impossible to stop them from coming. The goal in meditation is just to notice when you are thinking and refocus back on the breath. This trains the brain to focus for longer durations without asking it to stop thinking.

7. Don’t compare your meditation to others.

Don’t even compare it to your last meditation. Each one is different. Judging your meditation means that there was a goal you were trying to achieve in the meditation. “There is no try just do” in the words of yoda.

8. Benefits that start in meditation are happening outside meditation.

You will notice the benefits of what you do in meditation, not during the meditation but in the rest of your day. You might notice that you have more patience, more creativity or more vitality.

In the words of Pema Chodron: “Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better, it’s about befriending who we are”

The post Why Meditation Makes You Happier, Healthier and More Successful and How To Get Started appeared first on Lifehack.

7 Apps To Help You Gain Extra Hours Every Day

Are you running out of hours? Fighting endless fires at the office and at home? Fear of sleeping because you will wake up to another battlefield? In our highly push notification, multi-tasking world, none of us ever will have enough time.

Work is brought home and very soon the signs of burnt-out are everywhere. Paradoxically, the more technologically advanced we are, the more we are obliged to do. Look at what Blackberry did to a generation of users.

But it doesn’t have to be way. There are apps that actually help you to manage your time better and, collectively, shaving hours off your work weeks and providing you the margins you need in life.

Here are seven such apps:

1. Outlook Mobile

Acquired by Microsoft, Outlook Mobile (formerly known as Accompli) helps you save time by dividing your inbox into two groups – Focused and Others. Based on their proprietary algorithm, your emails are automatically sorted when they arrived. The ones that are responding to your emails or from someone in your contact list would appear under Focused.

Your newsletter, advertisements emails would be stored under Others. This way you won’t be wasting unnecessary time going through a dozen newsletter just to reach that email from your boss.

2. Headspace

How do you usually start your day? Catching up on your emails? Running through the timeline feeds you missed because you were sleeping? Your beginning will often dictate your end. Start in rush mode and you will end more or less there as well.

Instead, give your mind a “warm-up’ by going through a relaxing meditation exercise. This is made easy with Headspace. They call themselves the gym membership for the mind. It carry courses on guided meditation, delivered via an app or online.

Their starter sessions only take 10 minutes.

3. Wunderlist

With so many things to do, remembering all of them is itself a feat. And if you missed any out, the repercussion could be painful.

Wunderlist helps you to track all your different tasks into your customized to-do list. You could have multiple lists and even share them with others. Recurring reminders could also be set up.

Having an effective to-do lists would help you plan your day better and ensure your day is productive and not simply busy.

4. SunRise

Want to go beyond to-do lists? Calendar down every single thing you are supposed to do. This include breaks, time to think and reflect, exercise, and, of course, work.

Jeff Weiner (the CEO of LinkedIN) is famous for scheduling nothing into his calendar. During those periods, he would just think deep and big about the long term strategy of the business.

Sunrise helps you to manage multiple calendar within a single screen. It integrates well with EventBrite, Facebook and many other websites to pull those events into your centralized calendar.

5. OverDrive

Many of the productivity hacks I learned are through books, but I seldom buy them any more as they are a huge space sucker. Still, books are the best way for us to upgrade our own operating system – our brain.

OverDrive connects with your local library and allows you to borrow eBooks or AudioBooks. It comes with a bookmark function so you could pause anytime you want and continue whenever you feel like it.

With your library in your pocket, there is no excuse not to gain more wisdom one commute at a time.

6. SanSan

It’s 2016 but name cards aren’t going away anytime soon, but managing them is a pain and so time-consuming. You need to sort them out in alphabetical order, it might fade and crumble and you could never finish entering all of them into your CRM.

SanSan takes that pain away and using almost perfect OCR technology to automatically digitize your business cards.

You could even share those data with your colleagues, saving everyone precious time in managing conflicting data and data entry efforts.

7. Voicebase

I once knew someone who could type 90wpm. She is so fast that it became her only job at the office despite her more well-rounded job title. Not all of us can or want to become an expert typist. But every report and email still requires input. It doesn’t have to be via the keyboard though.

Voicebase is an expert in speech recognition and speech analytics. Their phone app allows you to record and upload your speech to their server, to be transcribed automatically into text. It could even pick out keywords to make your search so much more intuitive.

Featured photo credit: Sozialhelden e.V. via flickr.com

The post 7 Apps To Help You Gain Extra Hours Every Day appeared first on Lifehack.