Tag: #blog

Teach yourself anything

“It is better to know how to learn than to know.” – Dr Seuss

False Beliefs About Self-Education

Despite having easy access to information, few people take full advantage of the opportunity we have for self-directed learning.
We still believe that to learn something, we need to be formally educated on it, when in fact we’re able to educate ourselves.

Self-Education In The 21st Century

Self-education is the core skill for the 21st century.
Our ability to respond to changes in the landscape of work and technology will be dictated by how skilled self-educators we are, how well we can take full advantage of the information available to us to grow our skillset.

Learning In The Real World

For 12 years, you’ve been trained to apply information that’s pre-packaged for you.
But if you want to do anything independently (entrepreneurship, creative work, etc.) then you have to be able to figure things out without being handed the knowledge beforehand.

The Sandbox Method for Self-Education

This is an ongoing process of self-development and learning, that recognizes that we don’t need to memorize facts, formulas, instead, we need to develop an intuitive understanding of our skills, expose ourselves to different information about the skill, and constantly push ourselves to improve.

Steps of the Sandbox Method
  • Build an area where you can freely play around with the skill you’re trying to learn – Your Sandbox. It should be: low-cost or free, low stakes and public.
  • Research: Resources exist, you just have to figure out what’s worth reading, watching, or listening to (books, blogs, MOOCs etc).
  • Implement and practise purposefully.
  • Get feedback.
What Practicing the Sandbox Method Means
  • Honestly assessing your limits to figure out where you need to improve.
  • Setting a goal just beyond your current ability to motivate yourself to stretch beyond your comfort zone.
  • Practising with intense focus.
  • Get feedback, in whatever way you can, and incorporate that feedback into your practice.
reference

https://medium.com/the-mission/self-education-teach-yourself-anything-with-the-sandbox-method-a4edfc5e1f8e

How to prioritize work

Learning how to prioritize

It means getting more out of the limited time you have each day. It’s one of the cornerstones of productivity and once you know how to properly prioritize, it can help with everything from your time management to work-life balance.

Master lists

Capture everything on a Master List and then break it down by monthly, weekly, and daily goals.

  • Start by making a master list—a document, app, or piece of paper where every current and future task will be stored. 
  • Once you have all your tasks together, break them down into monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
  • When setting your priorities, try not to get too “task-oriented” – you want to make sure you’re prioritizing the more effective work.
Eisenhower Matrix

The matrix is a simple four-quadrant box that answers that helps you separate “urgent” tasks from “important” ones:

  • Urgent and Important: Do these tasks as soon as possible
  • Important, but not urgent: Decide when you’ll do these and schedule it
  • Urgent, but not important: Delegate these tasks to someone else
  • Neither urgent nor important: Drop these from your schedule as soon as possible.
The Ivy Lee Method

Rank your work by its true priority with the Ivy Lee Method:

  • At the end of each workday, write down the 6 most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. 
  • Prioritize those 6 items n order of their true importance.
  • When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the next one.
  • Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.
  • Repeat this process every working day.
The ABCDE method

Instead of keeping all tasks on a single level of priority, this method offers two or more levels for each task:

  • Go through your list and give every task a letter from A to E (A being the highest priority)
  • For every task that has an A, give it a number that dictates the order you’ll do it in
  • Repeat until all tasks have letters and numbers.
Set the tone of the day by “Eating the frog”

Once you’ve prioritized your most important work, it’s time to choose how to attack the day. How you start the day sets the tone for the rest of it. And often, getting a large, hairy, yet important task out of the way first thing gives you momentum, inspiration, and energy to keep moving. 

Warren Buffett’s 2-list strategy

Cut out “good enough” goals with Warren Buffett’s 2-list strategy.

  • Write down your top 25 goals: life goals, career goals, education goals, or anything else you want to spend your time on.
  • Circle your top 5 goals on that list.
  • Finally, any goal you didn’t circle goes on an “avoid at all cost” list. These are the tasks that are seemingly important enough to deserve your attention. But that isn’t moving you towards your long-term priorities.
The sunk cost fallacy

Humans are especially susceptible to the “sunk cost fallacy”—a psychological effect where we feel compelled to continue doing something just because we’ve already put time and effort into it. But the reality is that no matter what you spend your time doing, you can never get that time back. And any time spent continuing to work towards the wrong priority is just wasted time.

REFERENCE

https://blog.rescuetime.com/how-to-prioritize/

Learning how to learn!

“Focused” and “Diffused” Modes

When learning, there are times in which you are focused and times in which you allow your mind to wander. Both modes are valuable to allow your brain to learn something.
Take regular breaks, meditate, think about other things, and give yourself plenty of time in both modes.

Chunking

This is the idea of breaking what you want to learn into concepts. The goal is to learn each concept in a way that they each become like a well-known puzzle piece. 
To master a concept, you not only need to know it but also to know how it fits into the bigger picture.

Beware of Illusions of Competence

There are many ways in which we can make ourselves feel like we have “learned” a concept. Instead of highlighting or underlining, rather take brief notes that summarize key concepts.

Recall

Take a couple of minutes to summarize or recall the material you are trying to learn. It goes a long way to taking something from short-term memory to long-term learning.

Bite-Sized Testing

To avoid breakthrough illusions of competence, you should test yourself as you’re encountering new material. The recall is a simple example of this mini-testing.

Over-Learning

Do not spend too much time in one sitting going over the same material over and over again. The law of diminishing returns certainly applies. Spread it out over many sessions and many different modes of learning.

Interleaving

Once you have a basic understanding of what you are trying to learn, practice jumping back and forth between problems that require different techniques. This will solidify your understanding of the concepts by learning how to choose to apply them in various situations. Knowing when to apply a particular concept is as important as knowing how.

Process over Product

When facing procrastination, think of the process over the product.
Instead of thinking that you have to get X done, rather think to spend an hour on X. It is then not overwhelming and doesn’t require a long breakdown of tasks.

Metaphors and Analogies

They are often talked about as helpful study techniques. 
Try to make a deliberate effort to teach what you learn to someone else and, in doing so, you will likely be forced to explain concepts with relatable metaphors and analogies.

Study Groups / Teamwork

This has proven to be most beneficial to maintain continued progress and hold each other accountable. Finding the right group is key.

Reference

https://medium.com/learn-love-code/learnings-from-learning-how-to-learn-19d149920dc4

How Can Yoga Therapy help?

Yoga therapy meets people where they are, connecting them to their own innate healing potential. Yoga therapy clients report experiencing improved mood, decreased stress and chronic pain, and more. See a sample list of research articles on yoga therapy and yoga.

Women exercising in fitness studio yoga classes

One mechanism researchers have uncovered is yoga’s capacity to affect the nervous system by improving our ability to self-regulate. The practice uses methods that work via both the mind and the body, known in research as top-down and bottom-up regulation. Put simply, top-down regulation uses cognitive tools like meditation and ethical inquiry to affect the state of the body, whereas bottom-up regulation uses the body itself, through movement and breathing techniques, to change the state of the nervous system and to affect thoughts and emotions.

In short, the practice of yoga equips us with a comprehensive toolkit to help support regulation and resilience in the mind-body system. Yoga therapy is the specific use of these tools by a trained practitioner.

Click left or below to find out how individually tailored yoga therapy can help with

  • Chronic pain, including low-back pain, arthritis, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and other types of pain such as that associated with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome
  • Mental health, including concerns like anxiety, depression, trauma and PTSD, insomnia, and others
  • Neurological issues and complications of stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease, and traumatic brain injury (TBI)
  • Support for illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease
  • Overall well-being (you don’t need to be sick or in pain for yoga therapy to have value!) and healthy aging

New Criticism

New Criticism is a movement in 20th-century literary criticism that arose in reaction to those traditional “extrinsic” approaches that saw a text as making a moral or philosophical statement or as an outcome of social, economic, political, historical, or biographical phenomena.

New Criticism holds that a text must be evaluated apart from its context; failure to do so causes the Affective Fallacy, which confuses a text with the emotional or psychological response of its readers, or the Intentional Fallacy, which conflates textual impact and the objectives of the author.

New Criticism assumes that a text is an isolated entity that can be understood through the tools and techniques of close reading, maintains that each text has unique texture, and asserts that what a text says and how it says it are inseparable. The task of the New Critic is to show the way a reader can take the myriad and apparently discordant elements of a text and reconcile or resolve them into a harmonious, thematic whole. In sum, the objective is to unify the text or rather to recognize the inherent but obscured unity therein. The reader’s awareness of and attention to elements of the form of the work mean that a text eventually will yield to the analytical scrutiny and interpretive pressure that close reading provides. Simply put, close reading is the hallmark of New Criticism.

The genesis of New Criticism can be found in the early years of the 20th century in the work of the British philosopher I. A. Richards and his student William Empson. Another important fi gure in the beginnings of New Criticism was the American writer and critic T. S. Eliot. Later practitioners and proponents include John Crowe Ransom, Cleanth Brooks, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Reni Wellek, and William Wimsatt. In many ways New Criticism runs in temporal parallel to the American modern period.

From the 1930s to the 1960s in the United States, New Criticism was the accepted approach to literary study and criticism in scholarly journals and in college and university English departments. Among the lasting legacies of New Criticism is the conviction that surface reading of literature is insufficient; a critic, to arrive at and make sense of the latent potency of a text, must explore very carefully its inner sanctum by noting the presence and the patterns of literary devices within the text. Only this, New Criticism asserts, enables one to decode completely.

New Criticism gave discipline and depth to literary scholarship through emphasis on the text and a close reading thereof. However, the analytic and interpretive moves made in the practice of New Criticism tend to be most effective in lyric and complex intellectual poetry. The inability to deal adequately with other kinds of texts proved to be a significant liability in this approach. Furthermore, the exclusion of writer, reader, and context from scholarly inquiry has made New Criticism vulnerable to serious objections.

Scientific ways to learn anything faster

Say it out loud

Learning and memory benefit from active involvement. When you add speaking to it, the content becomes more defined in long-term memory and more memorable.

Take notes by hand

Most of us can type very fast, but research shows writing your notes by hand will allow you to learn more.
Taking notes by hand enhances both comprehension and retention.

Chunk your study sessions

Studying over some time is more effective than waiting until the last minute.
The distributed practise works because each time you try to remember something, the memory becomes harder to forget.

Self-testing is highly effective

Regularly testing yourself will speed up learning. When you test yourself and answer incorrectly, you are more likely to recall the right answer after you look it up. You will also remember that you didn’t remember.

Change the way you practice

Repeating anything over and over might not be the best way to master that task. If you practice a slightly different version, you will learn more and faster. For example, if you want to master a new presentation:

  • Rehearse the basic skill. 
  • Wait at least six hours to allow your memory to consolidate.
  • Practice again, but speak a little faster. 
  • Practice next by speaking slower.
  • Break your presentation into smaller steps. Master each chunk, then put it back together.
  • Change the conditions. It will prepare you better for the unexpected.
Exercise regularly

According to research, regular exercise can improve memory recall.
Exercise also increases a protein (BDNF – brain-derived neurotrophic factor) that supports the function, growth, and survival of brain cells.

Sleep more, learn more

When you sleep, most of the consolidation process occurs.
In contrast, sleep deprivation can affect your ability to commit new data to memory and consolidate any short-term memories.

Concepts in parallel

Interleaving – studying related concepts or skills in parallel – improves your brain’s ability to differentiate between concepts or skills. It helps you to learn and gain an understanding at a deeper level.
Instead of focusing on one subject during a learning session, learn several subjects or skills in succession.

Teach someone else

Research shows that those who teach, speed up their learning and remember more.
Even just preparing to teach means that you will seek out key points and organize information into a coherent structure. 

Build on what you know

When you have to learn something new, try to associate it with something you are already familiar with. Then you only have to learn where it differs. You’ll also be able to apply greater context, which will help with memory storage and retrieval.

Reference

https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/these-10-scientific-ways-to-learn-anything-faster-could-change-everything-you-know-about-dramatically-improving-your-memory.html

Five scientific steps to ace your next exam

1. When to Study

Studying time is more efficient if it is spread out over many sessions throughout the semester, with a little extra right before the exam.
Cover each piece of info five times from when you first learned it until your exam. It will enable you to retain the information with minimal effort.

2. What and How to Study

Testing yourself, so you have to retrieve the information from memory, works much better than repeatedly reviewing the information, or creating a concept map (mind map).
After the first time learning the material, spend the subsequent studying to recalling the information, solving a problem or explaining the idea without glancing at the source.

3. What Kinds of Practice to Do

For a particular exam, use the following:

  • Mock tests and exams that are identical in style and form.
  • Redo problems from assignments, textbook questions or quizzes.
  • Generate your questions or writing prompts based on the material.
4. Make Sure You Understand

Passing and failing rest on whether you understood some important ideas.
Your top priority should be to understand the core concepts. Identify the core concepts and make sure you can explain them without looking at the material.

5. Overcome Anxiety

Anxiety makes it difficult to remember things. To help overcome this, make some of your studying sessions like a mock exam, using the same seating posture, materials, and the same time constraints.

referEncE

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2019/03/18/5-strategies-ace-exam/

Study less study smart

  1. Break your study time down into chunks such as 30 minutes and then take a 5-minute break to keep your brain fresh and awake as you are studying.
  2. Teach what you learn to others. This is one of the big values from study groups.
  3. Know the difference between recollection and recognition. Recognition is when you are studying and you turn the page and read something and you think, ‘I know that.’ But what is going on is that you recognize it.
  4. Use specific locations for studying. Have a study chair and a study desk so you know when you are sitting there you need to be studying.
  5. Don’t listen to music when you are studying especially if it has lyrics.
  6. Understand the difference between concepts and facts. The goal of learning is understanding. It is important to learn and remember facts but make your goal of understanding concepts not learning facts.
  7. To remember more of what you learn in class you should take notes. Take enough notes to trigger your brain after class but don’t take so many notes that you can’t focus during class.
  8. Getting enough sleep is key to remembering more of what you study.
  9. Test your memory by writing what you can recall without looking at your notes.
  10. The Survey, Question, read, recite and review method is when you survey or look over what you are going to learn and then develop questions that focus your brain.
  11. Use memory training techniques to study less study smart! When you use memory techniques such as the mind palace or the memory palace you are going to remember more of what you studied.
Reference

https://brainathlete.com/study-less-study-smart-by-marty-lobdell/

Human skills for the future of work

“Becoming is better than being.” – Carol Dweck

Empathy Mindset
  • Listening: Ask questions to understand.
  • Appreciation: Show sincere appreciation and celebration of others’ contributions.
  • Self-Awareness: Part of feeling what others feel is also about understanding your own biases and limiting beliefs.
  • Judgment: When people seek advice or share a problem, they are not looking for your criticism. 
  • Presence: Time is one of our most valuable assets, so be there fully.
Emotional Intelligence

Being aware of how your behaviour affects others is at the heart of emotional intelligence.
This means building self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

Effective Communication

Consider the following principles:

  • Intention: Know what you want to say and be clear about your objective. 
  • Organization: Take the time to organize your thoughts and straightforwardly deliver them.
  • Framing: “I think, I feel” is much more effective than starting with “you,” which puts people on the defensive.
  • Affirmation:  Asking if the information makes sense may reveal a potential problem. 
Curiosity + Instigation

Curiosity is a natural part of any creative cycle. It paves the way for “possibility thinking,” rather than business as usual. 
Instigation is an invitation to challenge quick fixes, lacklustre solutions and mediocrity. 

Strategic Analysis and Analytical Thinking

Strategic analysis helps to identify complex problems by providing a top-level view into the interconnected web of what can often seem like isolated issues.
Analytical thinking enables people to suspend emotional decision making and instead look logically at evidence-based research and tests.

Complex Problem Solving

To get into problem-solving mode, you need to understand the true problem at hand, identify challenges in the way, resist simple solutions, identify constraints and pathways to feasibility, and, above all, make sure you’re open to experimentation. 

Conflict Resolution

Among the most effective skills to learn to resolve conflict are mastering deep listening, mediation and facilitation. 
Giving people the benefit of the doubt and leading with curiosity are also powerful tools. 

Negotiation and Persuasion

They are not required just for the sales team. You need to be clear about what you want and what you’re willing to let go of to get it.

Leadership

A great leader will understand that it’s not enough to build a culture, it needs to be protected and maintained. 
A great leader also needs to make difficult decisions and hold everyone, including themselves, accountable.

Reference

https://creativecloud.adobe.com/discover/article/ten-human-skills-for-the-future-of-work

HOW THE BLOGS CHANGE THE LIVES OF PEOPLE?

“ Creativity is Intelligence having fun.” 

This quotation is indeed suitable for people who think to begin a career as a blogger. Firstly let us understand what exactly blogging is. A blog is an online journal or an informational website displaying information in reverse chronological order. It is a platform where writers or group of writers share their views on a particular subject. It was first started in the year 1994 when people used to share bits of their lives online and hence it became a great market of ‘Blogging’. Nowadays, there is also a new form of blogging called ‘Vlog’, which certainly means a ‘Video Blog’. Now, it is largely used by companies to promote their website and products. The main purpose of blogging is to reach the targeted audience. The more frequent your blog posts are, the more are the chances for the growth of your website. 

Now, here comes the question regarding the earnings of a blogger. So, let me tell you that bloggers do earn money but it is not that easy process that will make you rich overnight. It requires a lot of planning with patience and skills that catch the eye of the reader. 

A career in blogging demands a lot of patience as it is not to accomplish a feat within too short a time. Let me introduce you to the most famous blog. “ ZenHabits.net ” was founded by Leo Babauta and quickly became one of the most popular motivational blogs in the world. The blog covers topics like motivation, inspiration, finding happiness in the little things, being productive, and practicing mindfulness. A blog does not succeed overnight. It requires consistency towards your skills such as reading and gaining knowledge, learning new things and working on the ability to convert your beliefs and thoughts into words. If you become consistent and good at your work then with time you will start receiving offers from various companies which will kick start your career. 

Below is the list of the top ten highest-earning bloggers :

1. HuffPost: $500 million per year

2. Engadget: $47.5 million per year

3. Moz: $44.9 million per year

4. PerezHilton: $41.3 million per year

5. Copyblogger: $33.1 million per year

6. Mashable: $30 million per year

7. TechCrunch: $22.5 million per year

8. Envato Tuts+: $10 million per year

9. Smashing Magazine: $5.2 million per year

10. Gizmodo: $4.8 million per year

These blogs have not become successful overnight. It took great efforts and compromises from them to be at this level today. Indeed, blogging can change lives. A person who belongs to a middle-class family, where not many amenities are provided because of financial issues, develops an interest in content writing and finds out that he/she is good at it. One can make a career in this field as it is emerging nowadays. People who used to blog are now calling themselves influencers which is the same thing. They promote brands, put their thoughts into them and earn a great amount of money for their creativity which is also fun for them. 

Blogs not only change the lives of people who write or create them. It also changes the lives of people who read and follow them. Bloggers try to connect with the audience for their attention. The audience feels the connection between them and therefore tries to follow their words which creates a great impact on their lives. That is why content writers should also keep in their mind to bring out positive thoughts because there are millions of people whose lives are impacted.

In the end, I would quote that, “It’s not the life you are creating, it’s the lives you are impacting” 

Ideas to change your life!

“People don’t like to think, if one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.” – Helen Keller

Think big, act small

Never let anything hold you back when you think of ideas.
You’ve got nothing to lose. Just make sure you act small. Put in the work and stay practical.

Problems are unanswered questions

Every time you experience stress over a problem, you’re sabotaging your life.
A problem is nothing but an unanswered question. So stay calm. And figure out the answer.

firm foundation for relationships

Wrong reasons to start relationships include money, fear of being alone, abuse, needing attention.
The foundation of all relationships should be based on love, respect, support, trust, patience, good company, laughter, sadness, and more support.

Nothing in life is free

You always pay for something with money, time (the most valuable thing you have), or other resources.
Life is a business. And smart business people spend their resources wisely.

Never be afraid of making decisions

Waiting, postponing, doubting, researching too much — it’s all not useful. Get your act together, and decide firmly whenever you have to make one. 
And when you made the wrong decision, own it, apologize, and make another decision.

Decide to become a leader

Being a leader also has nothing to do with your title.
When everyone looks at each other because no one wants to take responsibility, decide that you will take responsibility.

Productivity yields results

There’s only one thing that helps you to go from nothing to something: You have to put in the work. 
Make sure you value effectiveness over everything. Results matter. Get things done and move on to the next thing.

See yourself as a salesperson

In almost everything you do, you’re selling yourself.
When you sell, be transparent, honest, and to the point. Don’t waste your time on people who don’t like you anyway. 

Improve your skills

To improve your self-confidence.
You only improve your self-confidence by becoming good at something: By learning, doing, seeing results, and repeating that process for years. Your confidence will grow slowly every day.

Value your friends

We’re social animals. When we’re alone, we die early.  
So be nice to each other. And respect that your friends also have lives of their own.

Don’t believe everything you see

Don’t believe all the success stories you see everywhere. YouTubers, Instagram models, millionaire entrepreneurs: They seem perfect. But you only see the outside.
You don’t have to be a cynic. Just don’t take appearances for facts.

Learn to love criticism

It’s fuel for you. You can use criticism to improve yourself, your product, or your service. 
Or, if the criticism makes no sense, it can make you angry, which is also a good thing. That type of anger is useful. “I’ll show them!”

Take care of your body

If you can’t take care of your body, you can’t take care of anything.
You can influence your health by eating healthy, exercising, and treating your body with respect.

Happiness is a choice

You control your thoughts. That means you decide what you do with your life. If you’re unsatisfied, angry, or frustrated, that’s all you.

Create something

Make yourself useful. 
Instead of consuming so much information, products, and entertainment from others, spend a fraction of that time on creating something yourself.

Reference

https://observer.com/2017/02/i-have-15-ideas-to-change-your-life-do-you-have-five-minutes/

Building best habits!

Building habits

Our habits have the power to enable us, most of the time, to live a more organized life. However, we might find it quite challenging when it comes to establishing new habits, as they require time and strong will. 
We should start by taking small steps every day to get used to eventually taking big ones for long periods.

Set measurable targets as habits

When trying to build new habits, be specific by thinking about ways to measure the evolution of your action: set clear targets that can help you, when the deadline previously decided on approaches, to evaluate your progress.

The pros and cons of building new habits

When picking up a new habit, think it well through: take into account the possible inconveniences as well as the most attractive advantages. 
Remember that sometimes it might get harder to keep to the habit, but eventually, you are doing it for a good cause that is related directly to yourself.

Get used to planning

Whenever you plan on building a new habit, make sure that you have already planned thoroughly what to do when difficulties appear: how to handle the situations that make it harder to respect your new routine. 

Associate new habits with the old ones

If you feel like picking up a new habit, don’t start from scratch. It is easier when you associate a new habit with one that already exists. 
This way, it will seem less work and fewer changes. In the end, both notions tend to scare us, so why not better avoid them?

Ensure the means

When building a new habit, make sure you have all the means that would enable you to get to like it faster. 
Equipment is often what matters the most when trying to get used to a new routine.

Provide the proper reward

When considering a new habit, make sure you see its accomplishment as satisfying rather than tiring. Therefore, choosing the proper reward after the completion of the habit can make you feel more at ease when it comes to your new routine.

Reference

https://zapier.com/blog/effective-habit-change/

Job offer

Shift yоur mindset аbоut the jоb оffer

Think аbоut the оffer in terms оf yоur develорment, quаlity оf life, аnd the vаriety оf the wоrk yоu wаnt tо dо. Think аbоut the trаde-оffs yоu аre gоing tо mаke.

When аn emрlоyer extends а jоb оffer tо yоu, he hаs рsyсhоlоgiсаlly соmmitted tо yоu. Yоu hаve mоre leverаge tо shарe yоur jоb desсriрtiоn аnd imрrоve yоur sаlаry аnd benefits расkаge immediаtely аfter yоu аre mаde аn оffer thаn in yоur first twо yeаrs оf emрlоyment.

Соmmitment аnd enthusiаsm

The рurроse оf the interview is tо get the оffer. The next stаge is аbоut соnsidering the оffer, then negоtiаting with yоur new emрlоyer.

Emрlоyers need tо feel thаt yоu аre соmmitted. Соntinue tо be enthusiаstiс in yоur deаlings with yоur рrоsрeсtive mаnаger sо yоu dоn’t sоund unсertаin thаt yоu wаnt the jоb.

Metriсs fоr аssessing а jоb оffer

Think аbоut whаt is imроrtаnt in yоur рrоfessiоnаl аnd рrivаte life, then аssess the оffer аgаinst these metriсs.

  • Sаlаry: Even when the mоney is enоugh, yоu need tо figure оut if it’s wоrthy оf yоur knоwledge аnd skills аnd in line with the lосаl mаrket.
  • Jоb соntent: Соnsider whether yоu will derive jоb sаtisfасtiоn frоm the оffer. Tо аnswer this questiоn, yоu need tо knоw the kinds оf асtivities yоu wаnt tо be invоlved in аnd the skills yоu wаnt tо use. Yоu will need а deeр understаnding оf whаt’s exрeсted оf yоu tо deсide whether yоu dо indeed wаnt the jоb.
  • Сulturаl fit: Аsk yоurself if it is а рlасe where yоu will be hаррy, сhаllenged, аnd where yоu will thrive. It might mаke sense tо dо а triаl run tо see whаt yоur соlleаgues аre like.
  • Flexibility, vасаtiоn, аnd оther рerks: Flexible hоurs аnd vасаtiоn time аre inсreаsingly vаluаble рerks. During the evаluаtiоn stаge, it’s imроrtаnt tо find оut whether сurrent emрlоyees аre аffоrded suсh benefits.
  • Оther орtiоns: Аlsо, аssess yоur wаlk-аwаy аlternаtives. Think аbоut the оffer in terms оf the соst аnd benefit оf stаrting the jоb seаrсh рrосess оver аgаin, оf stаying in yоur сurrent jоb, оr оf first seeing whаt оther оffers mаteriаlize.
Negоtiаting а jоb оffer: Devise yоur рlаn

Оnсe yоu knоw whаt elements оf the оffer yоu wоuld like tо сhаnge, yоu need tо deсide whiсh раrts yоu аre gоing tо рress аnd hоw yоu will dо it.
If yоu аre deаling with аn intermediаry, suсh аs аn HR аdministrаtоr оr а reсruiter, remember nоt оnly tо mаke requests but аlsо tо аsk questiоns, give infоrmаtiоn, аnd shаre ideаs tо mаke the jоb mоre раlаtаble.

Be tоugh but сheerful during the negоtiаtiоn

During the stаge оf the сlаssiс negоtiаtiоn, mаximize the соst оf the things yоu аre рreраred tо ассeрt while minimizing the things yоu’re аsking fоr.

Sаy nо (роlitely) if the jоb feels nоt right

There will be sоme give аnd tаke in negоtiаtiоns fоr а new jоb, but if everything yоu аsk fоr is а “nо”; it demоnstrаtes inflexibility оn the раrt оf yоur рrоsрeсtive emрlоyer аnd соuld be а red flаg.
If yоur internаl mоnitоring system tells yоu thаt yоu shоuld nоt tаke the jоb, listen. Hоwever, turn it dоwn роlitely аs they соuld be роtentiаl сustоmers, роtentiаl аdvisоrs, оr even yоur future emрlоyers.

Reference

https://hbr.org/2017/04/how-to-evaluate-accept-reject-or-negotiate-a-job-offer

Distance learning and its usefulness

what is distance learning?

Distance learning can truly be defined as the way of getting an education without visiting a school or attending a class physically.

Adaptability and Freedom

One of the main advantages of distance learning can be the personalized approach to getting an education regardless of the channels or mediums you are using for this purpose. Whether you are getting study materials online or through posts you can learn only when a connection is developed between the material of the course and you. You get the freedom to deal with the study material in the distance learning process. You can plan your learning process at your convenience instead of sticking with a fixed schedule.

Self-inspiration

Distance learning encourages you to motivate yourself to learn due to the absence of a traditional teacher to guide you. You will have to create a learning environment and control it effectively so that a band of self-motivation develops in you to inspire you to learn for your personal growth. You can cultivate this band in you by engaging yourself in distance learning methods.

Flexibility to Choose

You will have to follow a set schedule of learning as per the curriculum of the school if you are following traditional ways of learning. But different types of distance learning allows you to set your learning schedule as per your convenience without following a regular schedule of learning. Even if you are out of touch with the learning process, a distance learning program offers you the flexibility to choose your course of learning.

Easy to Access

If you cannot attend regular classes due to various reasons like time constraints and distance etc. then distance learning can be the best option for you to access the benefits of your education. If you opt for a correspondence course for distance learning then you will have to make postal delivery as a connection between you and your distance learning centre. But if you have a computer and internet connection then you can opt for an online learning method by using some video conferencing software like ezTalks Cloud Meeting etc. It will allow you to interact with your teachers face-to-face to resolve your problems. Moreover, you can continue learning even without taking leave from your job.

Earn While You Learn

For those who want to improve their resume by getting a higher education and without breaking their existing job then distance learning can be the best option for them. You can go on earning your livelihood along with improving your qualification as distance learning will accommodate both, learning as well as earning.

Saves Money and Time Both

By joining a distance learning course you can save money and time spent travelling to a nearby educational institution. Distance learning allows you to access your learning centre online without any additional cost. Moreover, the course offered at distance learning centres is cheaper than the courses provided at traditional education centres.

Virtual Trips

Another important advantage for distance learning is to plan virtual trips if your budget does not allow you to go on trips from an actual school. Video conferencing allows the students of distance learning courses to visit the location important for them and experience the enjoyment even better than an actual trip. These virtual trips allow you to visit locations that you might have never thought of. Moreover, such trips can enable your teachers or lecturers to make your ordinary lessons more interesting than ever.

Reference

https://eztalks.com/elearning/benefits-of-distance-learning.html

Is Homework Good or Bad for students?

Why Homework Is Good

Here are 10 reasons why homework is good, especially for the sciences, such as chemistry:

  • Doing homework teaches you how to learn on your own and work independently. You’ll learn how to use resources such as texts, libraries, and the internet. No matter how well you thought you understood the material in class, there will be times when you’ll get stuck doing homework. When you face the challenge, you learn how to get help, how to deal with frustration, and how to persevere.
  • Homework helps you learn beyond the scope of the class. Example problems from teachers and textbooks show you how to do an assignment. The acid test is seeing whether you truly understand the material and can do the work on your own. In science classes, homework problems are critically important. You see concepts in a whole new light, so you’ll know how equations work in general, not just how they work for a particular example. In chemistry, physics, and math, homework is truly important and not just busywork.
  • It shows you what the teacher thinks is important to learn, so you’ll have a better idea of what to expect on a quiz or test.
  • It’s often a significant part of your grade. If you don’t do it, it could cost you, no matter how well you do on exams.
  • Homework is a good opportunity to connect parents, classmates, and siblings with your education. The better your support network, the more likely you are to succeed in class.
  • Homework, however tedious it might be, teaches responsibility and accountability. For some classes, homework is an essential part of learning the subject matter.
  • Homework nips procrastination in the bud. One reason teachers give homework and attach a big part of your grade to it is to motivate you to keep up. If you fall behind, you could fail.
  • How will you get all your work done before class? Homework teaches you time management and how to prioritize tasks.
  • Homework reinforces the concepts taught in class. The more you work with them, the more likely you are to learn them.
  • Homework can help boost self-esteem. Or, if it’s not going well, it helps you identify problems before they get out of control.
Sometimes Homework Is Bad

So, homework is good because it can boost your grades, help you learn the material, and prepare you for tests. It’s not always beneficial, however. Sometimes homework hurts more than it helps. Here are five ways homework can be bad:

  • You need a break from a subject so you don’t burn out or lose interest. Taking a break helps you learn.
  • Too much homework can lead to copying and cheating.
  • Homework that is pointless busywork can lead to a negative impression of a subject (not to mention a teacher).
  • It takes time away from families, friends, jobs, and other ways to spend your time.
  • Homework can hurt your grades. It forces you to make time management decisions, sometimes putting you in a no-win situation. Do you take the time to do the homework or spend it studying concepts or doing work for another subject? If you don’t have the time for the homework, you could hurt your grades even if you ace the tests and understand the subject.
Reference

https://www.thoughtco.com/why-homework-is-good-sometimes-bad-607848