1 – Take A Tour of the Great Outdoors

Consider a hike in the mountains, a stroll beside the river, a run along the beach, a jog through the park or a walk around the city.

2 – Soak Up Your Surroundings like a New Sponge Open your mind to the unknown and grasp the little details often overlooked in every day life.

3 – Read, Read, Read Read anything that interests you… Regardless of whether it´s related to writing or not! Think variety – from trashy romance novels and bad tabloids to The New York Times and Writers Digest. Find something different to read that you are really interested in and then actually take the time to READ it thoroughly.

4 – Escape Reality Temporarily Indulge yourself with rare pleasures – like a hot bubble bath, a professional massage, a visit to the beauty salon, a mini-shopping spree, a big bowl of REAL chocolate ice cream or just a little time ALONE!

5 – Play Like A Child Forget your responsibilities as a mature adult for a few hours! Remember something you loved to do as a kid and re-create the experience now. Or participate in whatever game/activity/adventure your child enjoys more than anything else. Roll up your sleeves, abandon your inhibitions, throw caution to the wind and play – really PLAY like you did when you were 10 or 20 years younger!

6 – Quit Procrastinating Finish that one particular project that you have been putting off for weeks.. Get it done now, so you can really focus all of your energy on new ideas and creative pursuits. If there’s one thing that clouds your thinking almost daily, make it go away today!

7 – Just Write Write about anything. Write about the first thing that comes to mind – no matter how silly or irrelevant the subject may seem – put your feelings into words and get them down on paper as much paper as it takes! Keep writing about what you’re thinking about until you can’t think of any more words.

8 – Share Your Ideas, Opinions or Experiences with Someone Else Whether you have to call our mom or a close friend, talk about what’s on our mind with somebody – almost anybody, who you know and trust. Interact with other writers on the web via e-mail discussion lists, open forums or critique groups.

Get your thoughts out there. Bounce your ideas off of somebody else. Share your feelings with others who can relate to your topic. Ask for feedback from people you trust.

9 – Identify Issues that are Important to You Make a list of topics that you think matter in today’s world. Jot down at least ten subjects and then explore ways to transform these ideas into articles. Example of Issues: Child Abuse, Internet Technology, Scams Online, World Peace, Prison Reform, Senior Care, Freedom of Speech, School Choices etc….) Look at the headlines in your daily newspaper, think of recent stories broadcast by National news programs like 20/20…

10 – Search The Web Look for articles and other resources related to creativity. Read stories written by other writers and/or try some creative writing exercises.

As workplaces continue to rightsize and downsize, we all find ourselves doing more with less. How do we stay ahead of the workload while staying sane? The key is to put your creativity to work for you so you can do more with less and shine like never before.

Just what is creativity? It is the ability to make, produce, cause to exist or bring into being; the ability to make something out of nothing or to make something better than it was before. Creativity is an inborn force that we all have: If you’re alive, you’re creative.

It needs to be said, though, that not everyone has the raw talent, creative vision and self-management skills to run out and make a living being an artist. But remember that artistic talent is only one way of potentially millions that you can express your creativity at home or at work.

In today’s workplace, creative thinking, problem solving and innovation are at a premium. Here are 12 ways you can express your creativity more powerfully in any workplace:

1.) Use your values, interests, skills and aptitudes to express your unique perspectives, opinions and contributions.

2.) Take full advantage of the unique features of your personality to express your creativity in ways that are natural for you.

3.) Dress your body and your work space in ways that reflect your passion and energy.

4.) In what you say – either verbally or in writing – and how you say it, make sure you use word choice, vocabulary and communication style to showcase your uniqueness.

5.) Everybody works differently. Use your work habits, decision making and problem solving style to express who you really are.

6.) Everybody lives their lives differently. Use your personal habits, time management and outside interests to positively impact who you are at work.

7.) What are you passionate about? What kinds of things do you channel your energy into? What are you committeed to? Take all three to work with you and put them to work for you.

8.) Every creative act begins with a conception. Make sure you capture your workplace brainstorms in concrete ways.

9.) Every creative act develops through an incubation phase. Make sure you put safe boundaries around your own creative work time so it doesn’t get overwhelmed with other responsibilities.

10.) Every creative act ends with a birth. Make sure you help each project grow to its next level.

11.) Celebrate your beginnings and your endings. Mark the big moments and look for reasons to play.

12.) Know when it’s time to move on ? from ideas, projects and jobs ? then do it.

Still not sure you even are creative? Try reading the now-classic The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. If Julia can’t convince you you are creative, then no one can!

It is not uncommon for everybody to be writing on the internet in today’s world. The question is not “if” you are writing on the internet, but “what” you are writing and how often. Blogging and other types of online diaries have greatly increased the amount of writing that people do, whether it be personal sharing, opinions or technical writing. The important thing then becomes how successful you are at writing. Regardless of what you write, there are a few factors that will help to make your articles stand out from the sea of other pieces of writing available on the internet.

View Your Article Like A Classified Ad

Many viewers have a short attention span and understanding that your article must catch their attention right away is critical in constructing a piece of writing that will be effective. Make the article short and sweet. Writing web articles is not the place for long dissertation or explication. People will simply not read them. You need to catch the attention of the viewer quickly, get them the information that they are looking for even quicker and wrap it up.

Use Sub-headings

Again, this is a key to quick distribution of information. Many articles are found based on a keyword search through a search engine. By using many subheadings, you will be able to organize the information that you are providing. Viewers tend to read articles that are well-organized and broken down into pieces that are easily assessable.

Proofread

This is extremely important! Nothing will turn off a viewer more quickly than an article that is poorly written and that is grammatically unprofessional. A simple run through with spell check is a good start, but should not be the only method that you use to check your work. One trick that many try in order to proofread their work is to read it out loud. This allows you to hear the words instead of simply reading the words. But regardless of how you check your work, it is essential to make sure that it is spotless!

Market Your Article

Even if you have to most innovative article that will revolutionize the world, if no one reads it, you might not have even written it. In order for you to get a maximum amount of exposure, you must get your name and your article out so that viewers can find it! Post it to as many places as you can, with links to your site. This will create momentum and will further increase the amount of hits, as the wider the distribution, the higher your article will rank in search engines. Your article is more than a piece of your writing; it is a way to market your ideas and your site.

Seek Out As Many Formats As Possible

Do not limit yourself to simply blogging or posting in forums on websites. If you wish to make your article into a successful piece of writing, try getting it published everywhere! With electronic resources such as “how-to” websites and ezines, the cost to your will be relatively low. It is simply a matter of sending an email to publishers of these sites. Many publishers send out articles to a list of email subscribers. What better way could there be to get your name to many people?

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For some people writing articles is a very difficult activity that takes a long time to get done. If you are a beginner in the art of writing good articles I’ll give you some advices that will help you improve your article writing.

Writing articles can be daily and profitable activity for many people. And if you want to make some extra money on the internet you certainly will have to learn how to write good articles. Content is what attract people to a website that’s why you have to fill your website with good articles if you want to receive tons of free traffic from search engines.

Okay, let’s talk about the secrets. First of all, to write great articles you need to have new ideas and to be inside of your article subject. For example, if you want to write articles about the stock market you’ll need to follow the top news providers about it. Choosing the right topic to write about is the most recommended, so be sure to write about topics you enjoy.

Try to write articles about things people are concerned to know about. Ask your friends or relatives what are interested to know about then try to write something about it and show them what they think about what you just wrote.

Try to write some phrases everyday so that you exercise your writing abilities. In some weeks you’ll be writing much better then it’s time to start writing professionally! Choose a topic and become a expert by studding this topic and writing everything you can about it.

After your have written some articles you can start submitting them to article directories just like this one. There are many benefits of writing articles and submitting them these directories. If you already have your website or blog you could submit some of your articles to article directories. Doing this you’ll get many links pointing to your site and this will increase your visibility on search engines like Google.

That’s all for today. I hope you can benefit from these tips I gave you. Writing articles is not that difficult you just need to dedicate some hours of hard work but you’ll see that writing articles can be a nice activity.

Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and give them a reason to keep reading. You have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity. Here are five ways you can get creative.

The main ingredient in writing an article is creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some of us get writers block. It can be a hair pulling ordeal just to get your creative juices flowing.

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.

So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? That’s a fair question but unfortunately, there’s no surefire ways to get those perfect ideas to pop into your head. But, there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing and put you into a perfect mindset and state of mind. Here are five of them.

1) Keep a diary or a journal in your pocket or with you at all times. You just never know when an idea is triggered by something you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone’s ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it’s the development of the idea that makes it unique.

2) Relax and take time to sort things out. You need a clear head. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. If you are bothered by something, give yourself permission to get rid of it for awhile. Put it in the closet for a few minutes. Try closing your eyes and allowing yourself some quiet time. Block out all the sights sounds and smells around you. Turn your focus inward and breathe.

Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.

3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness.

Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won’t be conducive in firing up your creative flow.

Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, plants or anything that can to inspire you, relax you and get your creativeness cranking.

4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce yourself to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.

There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to have a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some use mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood. You decide what sets your mood.

5) Go on a vacation and just do something crazy and out of the norm for you. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline which can make your imagination run wild. If your day is usually a busy one, take an quiet adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule.

In no time at all, your imagination will make use of that experience and get your creativeness to start working in overdrive.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Oftentimes when it comes to article writing, the end result can be pretty mundane. In many instances, there is nothing that prevents you from getting creative in your article writing. There are some pointers that will be helpful to you when it comes to getting creative in your article writing. By understanding these pointers, you will end up making your article writing more useful and more powerful.

Article writing can be extremely boring at times, especially if you are shooting for a specific number of articles written each day.

So it is easy with article writing to get sloppy, to forget to make the article interesting, or to not do a good job of teaching whatever it is you are teaching in the article.

So how do you make an article interesting, interesting enough that the reader sticks with you through to the end of the article and clicks on your web site?

The must fundamental factor that you need to master when it comes to getting creative with your article writing is your choice of words. While you do not want to utilize a “big” word when something more concise will do, you will want to use interesting words whenever possible.

Another fundamental factor that you will want to need to appreciate when working to make your article writing more creative is the manner in which you structure a particular article. Long blocks of text are far less compelling than a pithy, direct and smartly written sentence or paragraph. Don’t use five words when one will do.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to write a ‘how to’ article – much like this one. By writing a how-to article, you are specifically dealing with exactly what the title indicates, and you are meeting a need of your reader. The nice thing about a how to article is that only people interested in learning ‘how to’ do something specific will read your article – and as long as you stick to the topic and teach them how to do it, you will succeed at writing an interesting article, at least to them.

Another way to create an interesting article is to include a story of how what you are writing about has helped someone else – how your technique has benefited someone else.

And still another way that you can keep your article interesting is to offer information that is rarely found elsewhere – and possibly even only information that you alone can offer

You know what people lack the most any more.  It is not money, nor materialistic items. It is creativity. Some people will find that they have so much creativity that they can’t hold themselves back from ideas, but others seem to struggle with creative ideas. There are plenty of ways that you can get more creative; you just have to get more creative. That is in activities. You need to make sure that you are doing plenty of activities that stimulate the mind. For starters, how about trying to do a puzzle of some sort? The best are the crossword puzzles. Crossword puzzles stimulate creativity because most of the time you will not have any clue to what the answer is, but you can try to come up with suitable ones to see how far you can get until nothing matches anymore. When you do a lot of mind activities, you will find that you will be able to think much clearer. The brain will be use to the stimulation and soon the creativeness will pour right out of you.

If you’re not into mind games, how about a jog?  Have you ever noticed that your best ideas come from when you work out?  When you work out you are able to let go of all your stress and your mind becomes clear. You can think and soon all these creative ideas will start developing and then more. If you exercise on a daily basis, you will find that your mind is enhanced, your attitude is enhanced, and so is your creativity. You’ll feel free and be able to do your job better when you exercise. If this is not your type of stimulation, try a book! Read the rest of this entry

When it comes to being creative, you can find all the ways to make up for what you lack. If you could get more in touch with life than you would find that your creative side will grow and you can embrace it. If you take the time for yourself and live for the moment, your life will be more than satisfying. The great thing about life is that you can’t predict it, if you could get in touch with your creative side by finding how to life right, you will be much happy. So how does a person live right?  If you eat and exercise on a daily basis, you will be able to stay healthy. If you stop planning every minute of your day, you will be able to live. Really live is the point to all existence. People go through life without ever stopping to enjoy it. If you can stop every now and then and enjoy your life you will be happier and more productive at your work.

What you should do, what everyone should do, is take a weekday off and do nothing. Stay home and do the laundry or go to the mall for some time for yourself. You should take the day off and do whatever it is that you need to do. You need to make sure that you take care of yourself every now and then. It’s okay to call off work or place one day aside for just you. Make sure that the kids are at school and that your mate is off to work. All you need is one day of hassle free time. When you take the time, you should not think about yourself as a mother or a wife, a student, or anything. You should just care about yourself for one day.
Read the rest of this entry

Communication is the basis of our relationships with friends, co-workers, and even lowers. It’s is a wonderful thing when you are on the same page, but sometimes the miscommunication can cause you to have problems with those who matter the most to you. You need to make sure that you listen and state your feelings, opinions, ideas, and so on effectively.

First thing first, you need to practice listening. Listening does not count that you notice every other word and say “uh huh”, but you have to learn how to focus on the speaker and what the message is. You need to really practice this to get good at. You should set aside at least ten minutes or so every day to catch up on life. You need to communicate and listen to others about their day. When you get home from work, you should ask your roommate, lover, or family how their day was. Then you need to stand in front of then with eye contact and take in every word that they say. You should never ask and then walk away, it’s rude and the miscommunication or lack of communication can be a serious strain on friendships and relationships. Read the rest of this entry

Hi ! it’s Cecil here.

Just uploaded this Enterprise-2.0 presentation. Title : Enterprise 2.0 : leveraging collaboration platforms to foster knowledge, innovation and productivity.

Best to see full screen

Target audience is upper management.

The objective is to address key issues faced by organizations built around knowledge : management of not only knowledge but also innovation and productivity. First to see the current limitations with the tools and processes in place and then to see how collaborative platform and enterprise 2.0 approach can offer competitive advantages to the company.

I have not been really convinced by the material available on the topic. Mostly too buzzwordy and flashy, this often scares upper management out. Most of them then subsequently relate E2.0 to consultant-dollarmaking-vaporware material, hence the dedicated section in the presentation.

Besides, in my view, these presentations usually go from the existing social applications (and their many exciting features) into the enterprise. In order to convince management, they should rather go the other way round : from enterprise real problems to how they can be addressed by social software platforms.

Mostly influenced by this excellent presentation by Mr Enteprise 2.0 : Andrew McAfee at PARC (link). Also by many of the videos, books, articles, blog posts refererred to in TechItEasy and Heavy Mental.

The opinions expressed within this blog are those of the authors alone. ©2009 Tech IT Easy. All Rights Reserved.

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