Connected Mode: 10 Ways to Stay Productive with Online Work

1. Set aside at least a couple hours each day to improve your connected productivity skills. To get good at it, you need to practice it. In this podcast, human computer interaction researcher Mary Czerwinski notes that people can train themselves to be better multitaskers. There’s no sense in doing it when all your associates are offline, so choose a time where you’ll be able to engage in conversation and connection with the people you work with. Bonus: as your colleagues figure out what are good times to talk with you by IM or phone they may interrupt you less when you’re single-tasking.


2. Equip yourself with tools that support connected mode. Use good IM aggregator (Trillian on Windows or Adium on Mac, for example), a team chat room or status updater like Twitter for lightweight status broadcasts to associates.


3. Declare your availability. Use Twitter or another web/IM/SMS status updater.


4. Surf rather than swim in the information ocean.


5. Connect with people one to one every day. Personal relationships can catapult you forward by solving a particular problem you had, suggesting a new direction, or just making you feel more human.
   
   
6. Look for channels other than email. Face-to-face meetings, instant messaging, a team chat room, or the phone resolve back-and-forth issues faster and build relationships better than email ever could.


7. Explore linking, assembly, and mixing tasks. Consider: creating a website with WordPress, a prebuilt theme, and widgets; responding to an ongoing discussion in the blogosphere by linking to many opinions and sharing your own; building a mashup with Google maps and some data from your social network; brokering relationships across two separate social groups that you are a part of. Such tasks often require interacting with multiple people and surfing the web to find the right pieces and get it all working together that's quite different from solo tasks of creation, engineering, or analysis largely from scratch.


8. Seek diverse social contacts. The key is not the number of connections you have, but their diversity. 200 connections all within the same social and professional grouping, will largely overlap. Ten contacts across different topics and demographics, give different perspectives and bits of ideas.


9. Use multiple social networking tools. Different kinds of people use different tools so don't limit yourself to just the one that your dominant social group uses.


10. Know when you need to single task. If you have a major deadline, have all the informational resources that you need already available, and just need to crank some widgets then yes: firewall your attention. Multitasking, connected mode productivity is not the best choice for every situation.

Source: Connected Mode: 10 Ways to Stay Productive with Online Work

7 Tips How To Write A Popular Post

1. Write catchy headlines. Headlines, more than anything else, will catch the eye of a potential Digger or deliciouser.


2. Deliver the content. Your content should deliver exactly what you said you would give them, and be as well-written as possible.


3. Be useful. Some of the most popular posts are the ones that teach the reader to do something they’ve always wanted to do, or that offer them a resource they can use often...


4. Write about a hot topic.


5. Write a great lead. The opening paragraph (or two), after the headline, is the most important part of the post.


6. Use lists. Hey, we know it A busy Digger or deliciouser can easily catch your main points without having to spend much time reading the whole post.


7. Be original. Do something different, think of a way to give a new perspective or refreshing angle to an old post, add humor throughout the post.

From: FreelanceSwitch

Everybody like the lists

This is blog that accumulate postings with lists about bunch of topics like personal development, blogging, productivity, human values, life and other things.

• Everybody like the lists, list about something you're interested in.


• The great thing about lists is that they are well organized, and scannable.


• You can decide if you it worth your attention in a few moments without reading everything.


• You can quickly find valued parts and don't pay attention for other stuff.


• It's quick it's easy that's why lists and checklists widely used from grocerry shopping to Boeing 767 piloting.