Year: 2016

Finding work has never been easy, but today we face the additional challenge of having too much technology. Do job-hunting web sites make a difference, or is networking still the best way to find a new position? How do less tech-savvy job seekers stay relevant and put their best foot forward? Learn more in The Episodic Career.

Just as America’s labor market has changed, so has job search. Twenty-five years ago, there was no online job search. Today there are dozens of sites that enable you to look for opportunity, including Monster, Indeed, and Simply Hired. Often, sites give headhunters and recruiters the opportunity to look for you, as they sort through the millions of profiles on the current big dog of job networking, LinkedIn. Networking—both online and off—is more important than ever. But it’s also fraught with questions: How do we gain access to people who can help us if they are busy, powerful, or hard to reach? And how do the biases that exist in everyday life factor into online search?

For example, while I was giving a speech at the University of Texas at Austin, a woman told me she didn’t want to put up a LinkedIn profile because she thought her job history and photo would open her up to age discrimination. She asked me if she should lie about her age. I told that her rather than do that, put up a truthful but youthful-looking picture and consider compressing her job history to just the past few years. That’s not lying, but it’s creative. Others might disagree. In the end, when you walk through the door for an interview, you will have to disclose more about yourself, and you will be judged partly on your appearance. But at least you will have gotten through the door and, hopefully, be able to make a clear case why you are valuable at any age (or race, gender, and so on).

Not everything has changed. There are still some very traditional Help Wanted signs in store windows—plus newspaper classifieds, industry conferences where headhunters solicit résumés, and civil service exams. But the rise of the internet has altered job search forever, just as it’s changed our world forever. Employment figures are improving at the time I’m completing this book, but there are still roughly twice as many job seekers as there are jobs available. Some jobs that get listed are essentially filled already, because someone has an inside track on the job. No matter how many résumés the company gets, sometimes because it has to list it as a formality, the person hiring already has his or her mind set on an internal or external candidate.

The post Get It: The Best Modern Job Hunting Methods appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

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Crossing items off a to-do list can feel like an insurmountable task. Were you the student who turned in her homework at the very last minute? That same instinct can make it tough as an adult to put away clean dishes right away or get your taxes done on time. These patterns are stress-inducing and if you have them, you probably have a strong desire to change. But relearning ingrained behavior takes persistence and know-how. It’s tough to do it alone.

Tackle your list once and for all with the help of these books. A little knowledge will go a long way; learning new methods of organization and prioritizing will help you achieve a more calm, productive life.

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5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity

by Kory Kogan, Adam Merrill

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The time management experts at FranklinCovey share their five critical techniques for avoiding distractions and paying focused attention to our most important goals and tasks in our daily lives.Every day brings us a crushing wave of demands: a barrage of texts, emails, interruptions, meetings, phone calls, tweets, blogs—not to mention the high-pressure demands of our jobs—that can be overwhelming and exhausting. The sheer number of distractions can threaten our ability to think clearly, make good decisions, and accomplish what matters most, leaving us worn out and unfulfilled.

Now FranklinCovey offers powerful insights drawn from the latest neuroscience and decades of experience and research in the time-management field to help you master your attention and energy management through five fundamental choices that will increase your ability to achieve what matters most to you.

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7 Minute Solution: Time Strategies to Prioritize, Organize & Simplify Your Life at Work & at Home

by Allyson Lewis

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Forget about ordinary time management—The 7 Minute Solution offers breakthrough time strategies. It is a straightforward, inspirational process filled with innovative ideas, human stories, concrete tools, and the captivating science of how you can truly change your daily habits to be more productive and find deeper meaning and purpose in life. Popular time management speaker and author Allyson Lewis writes: “My life changed forever when I took seven minutes to write down my purpose.” With The 7 Minute Solution, you too can become a different person tomorrow from the person you are today—more energetic, more resilient, and more positive. Learn time strategies to prioritize, organize, and simplify all aspects of your life at work and at home. By breaking down big-picture goals and overwhelming challenges into manageable daily actions, you will find that you are able to achieve more than you ever have before. Using the 7 Minute tools, ideas, checklists, processes, and systems included in this book you will be able to manage your time to focus your attention, to concentrate on your highest-value activities, to dramatically increase your daily productivity with one piece of paper, and to accomplish more in the next ninety days than you ever have before. With plenty of real-life human stories, The 7 Minute Solution’s straightforward, inspirational process and winning techniques will get you from where you are to where you want to be.

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Fake Work: Why People Are Working Harder than Ever but Accomplishing Less, and How to Fix the Problem

by Brent D. Peterson, Gaylan W. Nielson

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How many countless working hours have you spent on projects, proposals, paperwork, and meetings that felt useless or were ignored or dismissed? Hard work is not the same as real work. Half of the work we do consumes valuable time without strengthening the short- or long-term survival of the organization. In a word, it’s fake. Not only does fake work drain a company’s resources without improving its bottom line, it steals conviction, care, and positive morale from employees, and adds the burden of high turnover, communication breakdowns, and cultural patterns of poor productivity.

But how can you turn fake work into real work? Internationally renowned business consultants Brent D. Peterson and Gaylan W. Nielson explain how to identify needlessly time-consuming and sometimes difficult tasks (which aren’t always as easy to spot as they seem) and shift your focus toward rewarding work that will achieve results. With more than twenty years of experience, Peterson and Nielson have successfully helped corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, schools, and community groups increase their productivity and retain talented employees by understanding and using their skills on things that actually matter. They illustrate their advice with stories about real world employees who have been trapped by fake work.

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Power of Co-Creation: Build It with Them to Boost Growth, Productivity, and Profits

by Venkat Ramaswamy, Francis J. Gouillart

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Apple embraced co-creation to enhance the speed and scope of its innovation, generating over $1 billion for its App-Store partner-developers in two years, even as it overtook Microsoft in market value. Starbucks launched its online platform MyStarbucksIdea.com to tap into ideas from customers and turbocharged a turnaround. Unilever turned to co-creation for redesigning product lines such as Sunsilk shampoo and revitalized growth. Nike achieved remarkable success with its Nike+ co-creation initiative, which enables a community of over a million runners to interact with one another and the company, increasing its market share by 10 percent in the first year. Co-creation involves redefining the way organizations engage individuals —customers, employees, suppliers, partners, and other stake­holders —bringing them into the process of value creation and engaging them in enriched experi­ences.

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The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy

by Chris Bailey

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Chris Bailey turned down lucrative job offers to pursue a lifelong dream—to spend a year performing a deep dive experiment into the pursuit of productivity, a subject he had been enamored with since he was a teenager. After obtaining his business degree, he created a blog to chronicle a year-long series of productivity experiments he conducted on himself, where he also continued his research and interviews with some of the world’s foremost experts, from Charles Duhigg to David Allen. Among the experiments that he tackled: Bailey went several weeks with getting by on little to no sleep; he cut out caffeine and sugar; he lived in total isolation for 10 days; he used his smartphone for just an hour a day for three months; he gained ten pounds of muscle mass; he stretched his work week to 90 hours; a late riser, he got up at 5:30 every morning for three months—all the while monitoring the impact of his experiments on the quality and quantity of his work.

The Productivity Project—and the lessons Chris learned—are the result of that year-long journey.

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The 5 A.M. Miracle: Dominate Your Day Before Breakfast

by Jeff Sanders

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The 5 A.M. Miracle is a resource guide for high-achievers. It is for anyone who has a wild passion for life and is in search of a structured system that will hone those passions, clarify their big goals, and produce real, amazing results.

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Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

by David Allen, James Fallows

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Since it was first published almost fifteen years ago, David Allen’s Getting Things Done has become one of the most influential business books of its era, and the ultimate book on personal organization. “GTD” is now shorthand for an entire way of approaching professional and personal tasks, and has spawned an entire culture of websites, organizational tools, seminars, and offshoots.

Allen has rewritten the book from start to finish, tweaking his classic text with important perspectives on the new workplace, and adding material that will make the book fresh and relevant for years to come. This new edition of Getting Things Done will be welcomed not only by its hundreds of thousands of existing fans but also by a whole new generation eager to adopt its proven principles.

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Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth to Personal and Professional Satisfaction

by Matthew Kelly

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One of the major issues in our lives today is work-life balance. Everyone wants it; no one has it. But Matthew Kelly believes that work- life balance was a mistake from the start. Because we don’t really want balance. We want satisfaction.

Kelly lays out the system he uses with his clients, his team, and himself to find deep, long-term satisfaction both personally and professionally. He introduces us to the three philosophies of our age that are dragging us down. He shows us how to cultivate the energy that will give us enough battery power for everything we need and want to do. And finally, in five clear steps, he shows us how to use his Personal & Professional Satisfaction System to establish and honor our biggest priorities, even if we spend a lot more time on some of the lesser ones.

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Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

by Brian Tracy

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The legendary Eat That Frog! (more than 450,000 copies sold and translated into 23 languages) provides the 21 most effective methods for conquering procrastination and accomplishing more. This new edition is revised and updated throughout, and includes brand new information on how to keep technology from dominating our time.

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Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want

by Michael Hyatt, Daniel Harkavy

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Each of us has but one life to live on this earth. What we do with it is our choice. Are we drifting through it as spectators, reacting to our circumstances when necessary and wondering just how we got to this point anyway? Or are we directing it, maximizing the joy and potential of every day, living with a purpose or mission in mind?

Too many of us are doing the former —and our lives are slipping away one day at a time. But what if we treated life like the gift that it is? What if we lived each day as though it were part of a bigger picture, a plan? That’s what New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt and executive coach Daniel Harkavy show us how to do: to design a life with the end in mind, determining in advance the outcomes we desire and path to get there. In this step-by-step guide, they share proven principles that help readers create a simple but effective life plan so that they can get from where they are now to where they really want to be–in every area of life.

The post 10 Organizing Books to Help Conquer Your To-Do List appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

Everyone knows that a smart wardrobe consists of a few classic pieces that can carry you through seasons—even years. But some of those basics are a bit boring, so we’ve come up with the essential wardrobe and a few substitutes that will be equally as timeless.

These pieces are still so versatile that you can throw in a flashy accent here or there if you simply can’t resist a trend. Trust me, you will spend less time staring into the abyss of your closet if you have dependable staples to build on.

Good news: Building a stylish wardrobe is easier than you think and it doesn’t always mean you have to empty your wallet. Yes, you can still shop at Zara or Uniqlo or even H&M—the key is to stop thinking of your clothes as trendy or disposable and think of them as investments. And for all the criticism J.Crew has received for stocking too many wild items, they are still a go-to for some basics.

Whether your investment is $20 or $2000, you can build a stunning wardrobe by making smart purchases and limiting the silly ones.

The original classics above (clockwise from top left): Black Donny coat (Steven Alan on sale $298); pencil skirt (H&M $13), white shirt (Uniqlo $30); black pants (Theory $275), suede pumps (J.Crew $240); wrap dress (Diane Von Furstenburg $368); blazer (J.Crew $198); jeans (Rag and Bone $147); T-shirt (Zara $20); ballet flat (J.Crew $135).

Black Coat: A well-made black coat, preferably mid-length, is always a smart investment. You can layer under it for freezing temperatures (wear Uniqlo ultra-light down for added warmth) or wear it alone for moderate weather. For an updated look you might want to try a shorter bracelet sleeve or rather than black, try tweed or herringbone.

Blazer: A versatile blazer is crucial for a timeless wardrobe. But you can also dress up or down and get plenty of wear out of a great denim jacket. Above from left: Blazer $198; denim jacket $128 (both J.Crew)

J.Crew Matchstick Jean $125

The Perfect Jeans: OK, there isn’t a replacement for the perfect jeans since you’re always going to need a great pair. Just a reminder: You don’t have to buy outrageously expensive jeans for a well-rounded stylish wardrobe. Levi’s, GAP, and even H&M have great-fitting denim for under $100 and oftentimes under $50. The key is FIT. If you look good it doesn’t matter where you bought them or how little you spent! All our bodies are different so there isn’t one particular style of jean for everyone, but it is safer to avoid styles like the dramatic flare, super skinny, ultra-wide legs, or anything appliqué/jeweled because those tend to look too trendy.

The Little Black Dress: Of course a basic black jersey dress is a great investment because it can look completely different each time you wear it by adding accessories, a simple jacket, shoes. If you want to update this piece why not try a jumpsuit? It is more fun and the jumpsuit has practically moved into the basics category now so it isn’t a trendy look.

Crisp White Shirt: You need a classic white button-down. You can wear it with a ball gown (remember Sharon Stone at the Academy Awards circa 1998?) or a pair of ripped jeans and it still looks great! OK sometimes it can look a little stiff…so what about switching your white shirt for a chambray or denim shirt? Denim is a great update and works with anything from a dress to pencil skirts to even denim for a denim-on-denim look! Above from left: Denim pop-over shirt (J.Crew $78); white shirt (Uniqlo $30).

Pencil Skirt: A fitted pencil skirt has been a wardrobe necessity for as long as anyone can remember. And there’s a reason for that. It works for every body type. You can absolutely dress-up, dress-down and experiment with fun new ways to wear a pencil skirt. What about trying an extended length? You can hike it up for a high-waist look or wear it like a long tube skirt. The possibilities are endless. Above from left: Pencil skirt (Zara $50); grey pencil skirt (J.Crew $138); plain pencil skirt (H&M $13); elastic waist pencil skirt (COS $115).

Black Trousers: Straight slim trousers that fit well are also required for a well-balanced closet. If black pants sound like a snooze-inducing item maybe try wearing ankle-length, as this can make a boring trouser feel fresh but not trendy. Above: Zara $30)

Fitted Tee: Sure you need a basic tee, but what about a slouchy stripe tee? You can layer this or wear it alone. Plus, stripes are always in.

Flats: We see ballet flats both pointy and round toe traipsing all over and they’re great, but a little uninspired at times. What about investing in a pair of black loafers? These are essential to a timeless and stylish wardrobe—and they are durable so they’ll last longer than delicate ballet flats. My favorite is the classic Bass & Co. Penny Loafer.

Pumps: Simple, bedazzle-free pumps are essential. Maybe give your feet a break and try a round toe with a stacked heel instead of the pointy spike heel? Above: Patent leather pump (Kate Spade $298); suede pump (J.Crew Factory $77).

Updated classics above (clockwise from top left): Denim shirt (J.Crew $78); cropped trousers (Uniqlo $40); striped tee (T by Alexander Wang $140); pencil skirt (Zara $50); round toe pump (J.Crew $77); denim jacket (Proenza Schouler $495); jumpsuit (Zero + Maria Cornejo $995); loafers (G.H. Bass & Co. $98); jeans (Levi’s 501 CT $55); wrap coat (Totême’s $760).

However you decide to update your classics it is important to remember that having the right foundational pieces is crucial to building a stylish wardrobe. You will always look well put together and chic if you buy the basics.

The post 10 Updated Classics You Need for a Stylish Wardrobe appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

There is a relentless cultural message to young people: you can be anything you want to be, as long as you believe in yourself–no matter how irrational or improbable. Generation Me (those born in the 1980s and 1990s) dreams big. While our parents may have aimed simply to leave their small town or to go to college, Generation Me wants to make lots of money at a career that is fulfilling and makes them famous. From Generation Me.

In a 2011 survey, 16-to-18-year-olds expected their starting salary to be $73,000, which they assumed would rise to $150,000 once they were established in their career. However, the median household income in 2009—for all adults—was $50,000, or around a third of the teens’ aspirations. Overall, young people predicted a bright future for themselves, even during the years of the late 2000s recession and its aftermath. Fifty-seven percent of high school seniors in 2012 predicted that they would own more than their parents; only 10% thought they would own less. In the 2011 survey, 59% believed they would do better financially than their parents.

Expectations for advancement and promotion are also high. One young employee told a startled manager that he expected to be a vice president at the company within three years. When the manager told him this was not realistic (most vice presidents were in their sixties), the young man got angry with him and said, “You should encourage me and help me fulfill my expectations.”

Related to “you can be anything” is “follow your dreams” or “never give up on your dreams”—like self-focus, a concept that GenMe speaks as a native language. According to the Google Books Ngram Viewer, the phrase follow your dreams appeared 17 times more often in American books in 2008 versus 1990 and never give up appeared three times more often in 2008 compared to 1970. An amazing number of the young people interviewed in Quarterlife Crisis adhered fiercely to this belief. Derrick, struggling to be a comedy writer in Hollywood, says, “Never give up on your dreams. If you’re lucky enough to actually have one, you owe it to yourself to hold on to it.” Robin, a 23-year-old from Nebraska, says, “Never give up on your dreams. Why do something that won’t bring about your dreams?” I was pretty well indoctrinated myself: the title of my high school valedictory speech was “Hold Fast to Dreams.”

Some people might argue that this is just youthful hope—after all, hasn’t every generation dreamed big during adolescence? Maybe, but GenMe’s dreams are bigger. While our parents may have aimed simply to leave their small town or to go to college, we want to make lots of money at a career that is fulfilling and makes us famous.

“Following your dreams” sounds like a good principle, until you realize that every waiter in LA is following his or her dream of becoming an actor, and most of them won’t succeed. Most people are not going to realize their dreams because most people do not dream of becoming accountants, social workers, or trash collectors—just to name three jobs that society can’t do without but nevertheless factor into few childhood fantasies. And few dream of the white-collar jobs in business that many of us have or will have. “No one at my company is following his dream,” says one of my friends who works in marketing. That doesn’t have to be depressing—it’s just the reality that the vast majority of jobs aren’t particularly exciting or glamorous. With luck, you’ll enjoy what you’re doing and pay your bills, but dreams are called that for a reason: they are not real.

The most common dreams of young people are acting, sports, music, and screenwriting. In 2012, more college freshmen wanted to be an actor or entertainer than a college teacher, a foreign service worker, a school counselor, a member of the clergy, an architect, or a salesperson. Music was just as popular as acting, and even more said they wanted to be artists. Almost 1 out of 20 college students expects to become an actor, artist, or musician—more than want to be lawyers, accountants, business owners, scientific researchers, or high school teachers. “I just wanted to tell you not to give up on your dream,” one student says to another on Glee. “If you can imagine it, it can come true.”

GenMe also holds on to dreams more fiercely, and in a way that makes you wonder how they will react if they don’t achieve their lofty goals. Morgan, 22, began her graduate school application essay by writing, “On my 70th birthday, I want to be able to reflect on my life and say ‘I followed my dreams and lived for my passions.’ In other words, I will not be discouraged by closed doors, and will not be denied the opportunity to live to my fullest potential.” In Quarterlife Crisis, Emily, 22, says that if a young person “never gives up, then he or she will never have to admit to failure.” Uh-huh. But you might have to live in your car.

Quarterlife Crisis does discuss one young person who “decided to change his dream rather than accept failure.” Mark, 29, tried for years to make it as an actor in New York; he realizes now he should have moved to LA sooner, where “I bet I would have been cast on a soap opera.” He finally decided to give up on acting and pursue another career. His new, and presumably more realistic, choice? To be a movie director. (I am not making this up, and the book’s authors, both twentysomethings themselves, present this story without comment or irony.)

The post Why ‘Follow Your Dreams’ Is Misguided Advice appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

One of the challenges of retirement is facing the moment when we may no longer be able to care for ourselves. But life in a nursing home or other facility can wipe out savings quickly. Long-term care insurance can ease the burden; find out how and when to purchase it in How to Make Your Money Last.

Long-term care (LTC) insurance helps pay the bills—at home or in a nursing home—if you become unable to care for yourself. Married couples in particular should consider it. The policy protects the standard of living of the healthy spouse if the other spouse falls permanently ill. A year of care can cost $85,000 or more.

But can you afford a policy? The answer is probably yes if your company offers it as a group-health perk. Group LTC plans usually take all comers if you sign up during the hiring process. If you wait more than 30 days you’ll be accepted only if you pass a health exam.

Spouses always have to pass an exam if the plan offers them coverage, too. You can probably take the policy with you when you leave the job at no increase in price, but check.

Policies are much more expensive outside of the workplace—so much so that they’re principally bought by people with upper-middle incomes and above-average assets. Individual policies always require a health exam. The older you get, the higher the risk that you or your spouse won’t pass. Couples can buy a shared policy that costs less than two separate policies. Policies for women are usually far more expensive than policies for men of the same age.

Premiums depend on your age when you enter the plan. The older you are when you sign up, the higher your cost will be. In theory, your premiums are supposed to stay level for life. In practice, most insurers raise them from time to time, sometimes by 10 or 20 percent. At this writing, I know of only three companies, Mass-Mutual, New York Life, and Northwestern Mutual, that have never raised prices on existing policyholders.

U.S. tax policy might help you pay. You can tax-deduct medical expenses that exceed 10 percent of your adjusted gross income. Qualifying expenses include the premiums for LTC insurance.

As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t spend more than 5 percent of your retirement income on LTC premiums. You can lower your annual expense by choosing a policy that covers you for three years rather than five years or more. (The majority of nursing home stays don’t exceed three years.) Inflation adjustments can be cut, especially in your older age. You might set the waiting period at six months or more before the policy clicks in. To cut costs even further, you might insure only 50 or 75 percent of the expected cost of care, intending to make up the difference from personal savings.

The post The Lowdown on Long-Term Care Insurance appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.