05 · 01

How to Reduce Your Stress Without Doing Less

I've written before about how to reduce stress when writing exams, but now I want to explain the best ways to reduce stress in general. Reducing stress is the key to living a happy and healthy lifestyle, while still being productive. Here's how you can reduce your stress without doing less.

5. Find the source

Figure out where your stress is coming from. For most people, there stress comes from working too much or not having enough leisure time. If this is the case, consider switching to a job that allows you enough leisure time, or else make sure you get enough time to yourself in your current job. It's no surprise that increasing your leisure time actually increases your productivity overall.

4. Deep breathing

Breathing excersises such as slow deep breaths are proven to help calm you down when dealing with a particularly anxious moment. Make it a habit to do breathing exersises when you feel anxious or tense and you will notice that these moments aren't as difficult to get through.

3. Look at the bigger picture

If something is stressing you out consider if it is really important for you to deal with it. If your job is stressful, consider how much you really like your job. If you can't leave your job, then it is important to you and you should try to accept that it will sometimes be stressful, as long as it is not overwhelming.

2. Deal properly

If you deal with stress by encouraging vices, your stress will only increase in the long run. Smoking, drinking, overeating and watching TV for hours will only make you feel worse overall. Instead...

1. ... Get fit

Excersise is the number one way of decreasing stress. Its partly for psychological reasons: you feel better about yourself, and its partly physical: your body releases stress-fighting endorphins. Eat healthily, excersize regularly, and control your diet and you will be feeling much better soon. Working out doesn't have to take much time. In as little as half an hour you can get a work out that makes you feel completely refreshed.

Here are some links to help you get started on your journey to decrease stress:

Image credit: chriskavas.com

05 · 01

5 Best Ways to Study More Effectively

Exams are always stressful, and studying for them can really burn you out. You always want to makes sure that the stress of exams doesn't make you write them worse than you would have if you weren't stressed.

Here are the top 5 tips for writing exams so that you can improve you score.

5. Take care of yourself

Don't stay up late studying, don't eat cheap junk food, don't drink excessive energy drinks or coffe. Doing these will only mess up your health, increase your body's stress, and throw off your rhythm. Keep you schedule and health normal and you will be 100X better off.

4. Start early

If you give yourself enough time to study, you will start to feel more prepared earlier and the stress of exams will be dampened. Leave it too late and try to cram, and you may panic and forget material that you would otherwise have known!

3. Don't wait to late to learn

When the exam is approaching it's often too late to learn all the material you need to. Studying for exams should be about revisting, solidifiying, and clarifying concepts, not learning everything new. If you know the material ahead of time, there is no reason to stress too much before an exam.

2. Make a study guide

Collect all relevant material and organize it together. If you can, access a practice test or exam simulator. These help so that you know what you still need to learn, and how to focus your studying efforts. 

1. Work with others

This tip is not for everyone, but for most people, working with others to study the material is the best way to learn. This way you can ask questions, discuss difficult topics, and most importantly you can try to figure out what might be on the exam.

I hope these tips were useful for guiding your exam preparations. If you're not sure about them, give them a try and see how much less stressed you are before an exam. For more help check out:

Image Credit: lifehack.org

05 · 01

The 5 Worst Business Ideas Ever!

Sometimes people have brilliant ideas that make them instant business successes. Other times people have the worst ideas and aren't immediately succesful. However, even the worst ideas done right can work. Check out my list of the 5 worst business ideas ever.

The first two ideas come from an online entrepreneur Jerry Schoemaker

1.  SMS Text Dating 

I was soooooooo sure this one was going to be it! The concept is simple basically you subscribe to this dating website. Make a profile then you could send a message to the person from the website to there mobile phone without having to know there phone number. I had this totally done and nobody every signed up… FLOP

 

 2. Free Petroleum Company 

His second idea was to make a free gas company. How does he make money? The gas comes out really slowly, and he charges people (over the internet). to take shots with a paintball gun at the people refilling. He still thinks this is a money maker, but local laws wouldn't allow it.

 

3. Pet Rock

Here's one that actually worked out: Gary Dahl managed to convince thousands of people that a pet rock was fun. His great marketing campaign assured people that they could teach there pet rock tricks, like "sit" and "stay". (source: allbusiness.com).

 

4. Poop and scoop

Picking up dog excrement sounds like a silly idea for a business, but Jacob D' Aniello pulled it off. He charges $15 or $20 a week and pet owners don't have to worry about picking up poop -- Simple! His company doody calls now picks up more than 3 million poops a year.

 

5. Used cardboard boxes

Marty metro makes a seemingly dull idea into a million dollar idea. Selling used cardboard boxes to buyers like walmart for cheap, he pulls in millions of dollars and saves thousands of trees. This idea seems weird but it's green and profitable.

 

These ideas are pretty unconventional, but with a solid business plan, great marketing, and good payment processing services, any idea can be pulled off succesfully. Have you heard of any more strange business ideas? Let me know in the comments.


Image credit: webvideoforbusinesses.com

 

05 · 01

5 Weirdest Talents Ever

Everyone has something that they can do that's a bit quirky. Some can roll their eyes back, touch their toes, or wiggle their ears. But some people bring weird talents to the next level.

Check out these top 5 weirdests talents ever.

5. Holding a dozen eggs in one hand

 

4. Professional bottle holder

 

3. Incredble big mouth

 

2. Amazing flexibility and precision

 

1. Excellent spoon wearing

These talents are way cooler than rolling your eyes, some are almost like superpowers. If only they could be put to good use... I think all these people should come together and form their own cirque du soleil. Then they could set up payment processing services in Canada, and sell tickets. I know they could charge a lot for that -- I would certainly pay to go see them!

 

Image credits: metro.co.uk, mylot.com, gstatic.com, weird.stareastasia.com, weird.stareastasia.com.

 

05 · 01

5 Tips For Getting Yourself a Big Grant

If you have a creative business like art, science or writing, much of your business is supported by grants. However, in my experience most creative people shy away from the business side of things and don't like applying for grants. This is a big mistake. To be successful as a creative entrepreneur, you must use all the opportunities you can get. Follow these 5 tips on getting a grant and you will be on your way to securing your future.

5. Marketing mentality

As the video above shows, grant writing is less about specific details and more about marketing. If you can't sell your idea and its importance, there is no reason someone will want to give you money. There is no difference between convincing an investor or consumer and convincing someone that might give you a grant.

4. Don't be discouraged

If you don't get the first grant you apply for, don't be discouraged. Getting a grant is sometimes hit or miss, but its also something you can improve at. Learn from any mistakes you made and move on. Sometimes your application was sent to the wrong people at the wrong time, but it doesn't mean you don't deserve a grant.

3. Know the competition

If you and 100 other people apply for a book writing grant. Know something about the kind of submissions your competitors will make, and out do them. For instance, if many people are writing instructional books, you might want to make an exciting work of fiction that stands out from the crowd. Explain why your application is different from the rest of the stack of applications.

2. Know your grant givers

Take the time to personalize your grant application. Write your application careful so that they know you understand why the grant is given. Prove that you've done some research and then show why your application best fits their mission statement.

1.  Start early, submit soon

Get a head start on your application so that you have plenty of time to revise it. It's easy to procrastinate, but if you start early you will have an advantage because you can tweak your application to perfection. Some organizations, even though they won't admit it, choose early submissions if they are good, and disregard later submissions. This means it's a good idea to submit your application as soon as possible.

To learn more about getting your business going, you might want to learn more:

04 · 27

The Worlds Tiniest Apartments

Manhattan is famous for its cramped living, but this is just incredible. Not only does this guy's apartment not have its own bathroom, I'm surprised it even can fit a bed. What's more is that he's stays in there all day because he works at home as an architect. 

Is this living situation common in New York City?

Is this guy just a special situation, or is it common to live in this small of a space? It seems like it's not too unheard of in Manhattan to live in such a crowded little room. Check out this lady, who lives in an apartment almost as small. 

The interesting thing about these two cases is that they are both artists. It makes you wonder how much they can create before they run out of room. Come to think of it, considering how crowded NYC is, I'm surprised there is even room for high end art storage in NYC, nevermind less important pieces of art. But maybe the cramped spaces help their creativity, since there is less to distract them.

These New Yorkers did pretty well to fit what they could into a small space, but if you're interested in saving space, check out the following links:

 

 

04 · 27

Real Life Vigilante Superheroes?

 

Real Life Superheroes

There have been countless movies with superhero vigilantes that fight crime, but how many of you have taken those movies to heart and followed in these hero's footsteps? As the above clip shows, superheroes do exist in real life. Even though they don't have super powers, these guys fight crime and help their community. Arguably, these heroes do good for the community, and most importantly they raise awareness about crime prevention. But do you think they are as good as actual heroes? Let me know in the comments.

 

The Superhero Lifestyle

Fighting crime is not all fun and games. It can be a tough life, and these vigilantes put themselves into all sorts of dangerous situations. Take the example of Phoenix Jones, a masked crime fighter who got himself arrested while trying to break up a fight.

Since he had good intentions its not fair to say he deserved to be arrested, but these risks are all part of the job description. If he were in the area, maybe he could have called a Toronto Criminal Lawyer to defend him. 

If you're interested in becoming a super hero, check out some of these links:

 

04 · 27

Top SXSW Highlights

SXSW (South By South West) is one of the biggest events in America. It attracts amazing perfomers and fans from around the world to come to Austin, Texas. It also leads to some unforgettable moments. Here are my top 5 favourite moments from SXSW over the last few years.

5. Tyler the Creator

Tyler The Creator from the group Odd Future surfs the crowd at SXSW. This picture captures a great moment.

4. Roddy Walston & the Business Rock Out

J Roddy Walston & the Business rock out at SXSW 2010. Look at that hair fly!

3. Peelander-Z

New York punk band Peelander-Z rocks out in all their colorful glory.

2. Team Love Block Party

A big block party forms as a band called Team Love hits the stage.

1. Springsteen and Special Guests

Legendary singer Bruce Springsteen rocks out at SXSW 2011. This picture looks intense, and Springsteen is as passionate as ever (although he might want to get some Botox in Austin). 

More SXSW links:

Image credits: MusicMix.ew.com, teamlove.com, statesman.com, fuelfriendsblog.com.

04 · 27

10 Best Ways to Have a Fun and Cheap Party

As you can see from the hilarious video above, what makes a party good changes a lot over 60 years, but many of the basic premises are the same. Here are 10 tips provided by wikiHow on how to make your party fun, but as a twist I've added ways to make them inexpensive!

 

1. Enlist help!

Trying to get everything done by yourself can be stressful, and friends are usually happy to help out. It's a lot more fun than doing it alone! If your friends help chip in on purchases, it will save you money.

2. Pick a place.

If you have a friend who's house is pretty large, use it. This will save you from having to rent a place.

3. Plan more games and activities than you anticipate playing. 

As we can see from the video, some games work out and some don't. But remember, none of them has to cost a thing! There are many party games that are free.

4. Spread the word. 

The more the merrier! Once you know how big your party will be, invite an appropriate number of people to fill the space. It shouldn't be too crowded or too empty.

5. Keep the valuables out of sight.

In my experience, the most expensive part of a party isn't always the food and drink. Often times, if people get excitable, valuables are bumped and damaged. Move valuables somewhere safe before the party begins.

6. Put out less chairs then people

There should be enough chairs so that most people can sit if they need to, but not so many that everyone can sit. It's important for people to move around and mingle and not sit in one place.

7. Background music

Put some nice background music on to set the mood. It shouldn't be too loud so that it stops people from talking.

8. Drinks!

Make sure to have alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. You can control how much you spend on drinks by making punch in advance and putting in only as much alcohol as you can afford.

9. Food

Food is an important part of a party, but it doesn't have to be expensive. Finger foods and snacks will satisfy most people, and dips like hummus are very filling. You should also have some fancier food like cake to wow your guests.

10. Be outgoing

If you planned the party, you should facilitate the mingling by introducing people who don't know each other. Make sure you talk to everyone that comes to make them feel welcome.

 

And More...

These tips will get you started on having a great party, and won't cost an arm and a leg. If you want to know more about making your party great check out these links:

 

04 · 23

Don LaFontaine.. Yes He's Famous.. You'll Know Him

He actually might be one of the most famous men in Hollywood you have never heard of. Here's a clip of his work

 

 

Got it Yet? Here's another example of his work

 

 

 

Did you get it? That's right, Don LaFontaine is also known as 'The Voice Of God', or "Thunder Throat" throughout his career in Hollywood he was the voice over master for thousands of movie trailers, and even more commercials. His work and voice became so famous that he parodied himself dozens of times, for various trailers and commercials. I can imagine how cool it would be if he were to do Toronto Described Video for the visually impaired. His voice is so rich that it would really make the film come alive.

The art of the voice over actor isn't something that we spend a lot of time thinking about, but the impact that they make on the movie, and trailers, can have a big impact on the way we all see movies.

Don LaFontaine changed the way a voice actor worked and the way we experience the movies. Unfortunately he passed away in 2008 at the age of 68, but his work will live on forever.

 

Here are a couple of examples of how he parodied himself thorugh out the years. The first clip includes interviews and some of his work, and how he creates the amazing movie trailers we are used to.

I thought I would include this clip with a number of famous voice over actors that you will recognize.

 

Voice Over acting is such a fascinating art to me. It is amazing how these actors have come to be so recognized to us and yet we know very little about them.

Charles Hamilton

I just want to use this space to talk a little about business and other cool things I find on the internet I want to write about.

About

All The Things I Love About Business and The Internet