Ultimate Productivity Guide (Interactive) + An Email Productivity Tangent

Our industry works on the Internet. All day. This in and of itself leads to major distractions – one minute you’re conducting a keyword analysis and the next you’re watching some YouTube video of cats, when really, you don’t even really like cats or the whole online craze over them.
There’s countless resources to help with productivity, from how-to articles and tools to productivity coaches and consultants. Well, Simply Business, did its best to cull together those articles and tools, drawing from some of the industry’s leading experts. You can find tools, articles, videos, and interviews in the below interactive piece that takes you through productivity for five different niches:

• Collaboration
• Travel
• Email
• Meetings
• Workload

I’m particularly interested in the email portion, because I am not even joking when I say I am on email all. day. everyday.

Click to Launch

Since I sift through anywhere from 200-400 relevant work emails a day, I thought I’d take this time to ramble about email and let you know what tools and tricks I use to make it bearable. I’m not going to go through everything because there’s guides out there already that are so elaborate it’d be an injustice to try and simulate it. What I will dive into instead are some quick tips that help me get through the day:

Give into Your Urges

I’m not a complete literal follower of Inbox Zero, but I have my own makeshift version going on. If you’re like me and are a bit too anal retentive to allow that glaring number boldly staring at you from the email tab to go by unnoticed, this will help you. Give into this urge, seriously, just do it. You’ll be thinking about not checking the email that you’ll end up decreasing your productivity. Instead, check it, but ask yourself this question immediately: Is this urgent and in need of my immediate attention?
If it isn’t, keep it in your inbox and go back to what you were doing. If it is urgent, ask this question: How urgent? If it can wait an hour or two, go back to what you were doing and move on. In almost every case, this is the category those “urgent” messages will fall into.
This takes some self control of course, which you will get better at. I’ve literally gone to my email, clicked the email open so it stops showing up as new, and go back to what I was working on without even reading it. If I really need to be in the zone, I open up a new window and make sure I cannot see that taunting email tab.

Organization is Your Best friend

If you’re like me and get too many emails to possibly respond to, figure out a system to stay organized. I use the search function in Gmail like crazy, but sometimes it fails me. Thus, I’ve become incredibly anal about folders. I use nested folders to keep track of all my client, third party, and internal communications. I know many people, whether followers of Inbox Zero or not, use archive to keep track of emails, but I find this not detailed enough for my purposes. It takes only a second to organize it, and having it organized has helped me pick up emails that would have otherwise been lost forever.

Mute the Noise

I am fortunate to work at a company that has a lot of awesome people who are friends and love to engage and share knowledge. The downside is that sometimes the emails can get insane. It’s not uncommon for someone to send around an email to everyone and then every. single. person. in the organization responds. I love how close we are, but sometimes it can be overwhelming, especially when it’s about a topic that is relevant to my role. So what do I do? I use the trusty “mute” feature to so the thread doesn’t keep showing up as a “new message.” It helps my sanity and makes sure that I still get the email for future reference. And if for some reason I think the topic will ever be of value, I send it to my “Learning Resources” folder for future reading.

Practice What You Preach

Ask anyone at Distilled, I am wordy in my emails. It’s a problem, but in an effort to affect change and shorten the emails that I receive, I try like hell to keep it to a minimum. If it needs to be long, I warn the reader in the beginning and put a TL:DR, or bullet-ed summary list with actions at the beginning. I also use bold/underlines to highlight action points or points of interest. We always talk internally that if it starts to become paragraphs, just have a quick call or G+ hangout, but if you are like me and prefer everything in writing, this is a compromise that will help. It takes practice, but in the end you learn where to be short and where a bit more detail is needed.

News Search Engines

Google News
http://news.google.com/
Provides the ability to keyword search across thousands of news sources found through crawling the web, while also providing the ability to browse categories of news where headlines are assembled automatically.
Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/
Similar to Google News, you can keyword search across thousands of news sources found by Yahoo's news crawling partner, Moreover, as well as stories fed by major wire services and news partners. Yahoo Full Coverage lets you browse categories of news, where articles and resources have been hand-assembled by Yahoo editors. 
AllTheWeb News
http://www.alltheweb.com/?cat=news
This Overture-owned service lets you keyword search against content gathered from news sites across the web. Advanced news search page allows narrowing news sources to particular categories, such as sports or technology.
AltaVista News
http://news.altavista.com/
This Overture-owned service lets you keyword search against news content found by sister-search engine AllTheWeb (above) and content supplied by major news partners such as the New York Times. Drop-down options under the search box make it easy to narrow results by news topic, world region or to some major news sources. Basic news headline browsing by category is also offered. 
Daypop
http://www.daypop.com/
Daypop lets you keyword search through content it finds from crawling thousands of news sites throughout each day. You can also search through weblog content or information from RSS feeds. 

Other Choices

Ananova
http://www.ananova.com/
News search engine that provides coverage from about hundreds of different sources. It also features a "virtual newscaster" called Ananova.
Columbia Newsblaster
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/nlp/newsblaster/
Experimental system that automatically assembles a page showing the day's news, based on information it finds from crawling the web.
Net2one
http://www.net2one.com/
Provides ability to keyword search through news content from across the web or have information sent to you on a regular basis -- but only for those who pay for the service. The free guest account functionality is so limited that it's not worth the time signing up for it. If you aren't going to be a paying member, another news search engine will serve you better.
Newsknife.com
http://www.newsknife.com
Not a news search engine but instead a news rating service. Newsknife measures how well various news sites, including automated ones like Google News, appear to be performing.
NewsNow
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/
Search headlines gathered from news sources around the world. Each listing also has a country flag icon to indicate the national origin of the report. You can browse newsfeeds that organize headlines into categories such as animal welfare and celebrity gossip.
NewsTrawler
http://www.newstrawler.com/
News meta search site that allows you to send a query to one or more news sites from one location. Hundreds of sites are listed, by country and by category.
NewsTrove.com
http://www.newstrove.com/
Keyword search or browse categories for news content from across the web.
Rocketinfo
http://www.rocketnews.com
Keyword search against news and weblog content gathered from across the web. Desktop software sold by Rocketinfo provides additional features, such as the ability search against more resources and to save searches. Formerly known as RocketNews.
World News Network
http://www.wn.com/
Draws from hundreds of online news sources in 20 languages. Presents stories grouped into more than 500 subject and geographical categories.

News Hubs

DailyEarth.com
http://dailyearth.com/
A guide to newspaper web sites and news search resources around the world. Formerly known as NewspaperDirectory.com.
HeadlineSpot
http://www.headlinespot.com/
Links to hundreds of sources of news and information, organized in categories. Major categories include news by subject, news by region, media type, opinion pages, and so on. Other categories point to resources helpful to news junkies. These include links to cool tools, resources for journalists, kids and teachers, and a category that takes you behind the news.
Kiosken
http://www.esperanto.se/kiosk/engindex.html
A guide to newspaper web sites around the world.
NewsDirectory
http://www.newsdirectory.com/
Easy access to thousands of news sources, including newspapers, magazines and television stations worldwide.

RSS News Feeds & Blog Search Engines

Blogdex
http://blogdex.media.mit.edu/
Long-standing services that leverages blog links for discovery purposes. Think of it as a "buzz index" according to blogs, where the goal is to show you which links anywhere on the web are currently getting the most references from bloggers.
Blogdigger
http://www.blogdigger.com/
While it's called Blogdigger, this service also includes some non-blog content, as it is based on searching through RSS feeds. Feeds are either submitted or found via the Weblogs.com site.
Blogging Headline News
http://blogging-news.info
This news site samples 12,000 RSS feeds, selecting about 5,000 posts three-times a day to feature in about 130 different categories. It's designed to be an online blogging magazine. You can also keyword search for material.
BlogStreet
http://www.blogstreet.com/
A wonderful blog discovery and investigation tool that allows you to view information about a blog, such as other blogs that seem to be related to it, people linking to its entries, how it ranks in the blogging world, and much more. There's also a range of RSS tools, such as the ability to create an RSS feed for any blog (or ordinary web site) that lacks one. The site also contains a directory of existing RSS feeds that have been submitted to it or discovered. In addition, BlogStreet operates Info Aggregator, an outstanding software-free service lets you subscribe to RSS feeds and have posts delivered via email. You can also keyword search through blog and RSS posts.
CRAYON (CReAte Your Own Newspaper)
http://www.crayon.net/
This service doesn't use RSS feeds, but the concept of tailoring news to what you want is the same. To create your own newspaper, simply sign up for a free account and select the sources you want to include. There are hundreds of online newspapers to choose from. You can also include specialized sources, with topics including politics, business, weather, religion, sports and so on.
Fagan Finder: Weblogs, Journals, & RSS
http://www.faganfinder.com/blogs/
Superb all-in-one search page that lets you easily search a variety of blog/RSS search engines, plus provides related links on the subject.
Feedster
http://www.feedster.com/
Feedster lets you search against content distributed via RSS. That means it's essentially a blog search engine for many people, since so many blog entries are distributed via RSS. However, some non-blog newsfeeds are also included. Feedster's Images feature is designed to present a visual look at that day's blogging world. Feedster was originally known as Roogle when launched in March 2003 and absorbed the formerly separate RSS Search service in June 2003.
NewsIsFree
http://www.newsisfree.com
A long-standing major directory of RSS feeds. It organizes thousands of news feeds -- what it calls "news channels" -- into categories. You can browse the categories to find feeds of interest or do a search for feeds that mention your keywords in their titles and descriptions.
Syndic8.com
http://www.syndic8.com/
Another major directory of RSS feeds. It lets you look through thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted or which have been added by volunteers to its collection. In other words, it's an Open Directory for RSS feeds.
Technorati
http://www.technorati.com/
Technorati is a great service. Plug in the URL of any web page, and you can quickly see what bloggers are saying about it by using the "Link Cosmos" feature. The Breaking News feature assembles top headlines automatically -- but these headlines come from blogs, rather than traditional news sources. A similar Current Events feature is also offered. Technorati's Top 100 also offers an "A-List" of popular blogs based on linkage patterns.

Magazine & Periodicals Searching

HighBeam
Access to reference material, research information, periodical literature and more. Searching is free. You pay to view material you find. Previously called eLibrary and Researchville.
FindArticles.com
http://www.findarticles.com/
Let's you search through articles from over 300 sources, dating back to 1998, and view them for free. You can narrow your search to specific magazine categories, such as "Automotive," using a drop down option next to the search box. You can also search within a particular publication by using the "View Publications by Name" link, which appears below the search box. Find the name of the magazine you are interested in, click on its name, and the search box that appears searches against only that publication's content. You can also access the same information from LookSmart, the owner of FindArticles, by clicking on the "Articles" tab at LookSmart.
MagPortal
http://www.magportal.com/
Allows you to find magazine articles, plus you can order results by date or publisher. Articles can also be found by browsing a directory structure.

Specialty & Regional News Search Engines

Corante
http://www.corante.com
If you are after technology news, this service aims to deliver top articles each day in different areas. Stories are reviewed and classified by human editors.
iMenta
http://www.imente.com
Headlines from Spanish news sources. Requires payment to use.
Paperball
http://paperball.fireball.de/
Produced by the German Fireball search service, Paperball lets you search for German news.

Once upon a time Bodrum-Turkiye

Yillar oncesinin fotograflariyla essiz kiyi kasabasi, Ege'nin prensi Bodrum.

Most Important Thing On Your LinkedIn Profile

Heatmaps That Reveal Exactly Where People Look

by Vivian Giang | May 23, 2012, 12:50 PM businessinsider.com

There is a lot of debate about whether or not you should include a photo of yourself on your LinkedIn profile. Most of us don't include one with resumes we send out, and recruiters scan through online profiles like they're browsing through resumes.
If you do include a photo, you are allowing yourself the chance to be discriminated against, but if you don't include one, people may wonder why there's no photo since the majority of profiles have one.
Miriam Salpeter at U.S. News & World Report says that not having a photo on your LinkedIn profile will make others assume that you're either "really ugly" or "don't know how to upload a picture."
Most of the users on LinkedIn believe that it benefits them to have a picture on their profile
In a study conducted by TheLadders, an eye tracking heatmap shows that recruiters spend 19 percent of the total time they spend on your profile looking at your picture. Then, your current job position and education are glanced at, but not so much time is spent on your skills, specialties or older work experiences.
The "eye tacking" technique examined the eye movements of 30 professional recruiters during a 10-week period to "record and analyze where and how long someone focuses when digesting a piece of information or completing a task."

TheLadders

So should you include a picture on your LinkedIn profile? Mark Jaffe at CBS says "maybe." The bottom line is that it's supposed to help propel your job search and career, not be a hindrance against it.
Jaffe writes:

Same goes for your mug. Can we see your face clearly? Is it strictly business? Was the photo professionally done? Does it improve on your qualifications? Finally ... are you attractive enough to be judged on looks alone? Because that's what you're inviting people to do. And you can't have it both ways, hoping to add cachet but claiming discrimination if you wind up getting rejected before the first date.

If it's a solid asset, great, use it -- as long as you're absolutely certain that it projects the soul of professionalism. But keep in mind you may be dismissed from consideration regardless of your credentials -- which quite possibly will never be examined ­-- because you're bald, overweight, too young, too old, wearing the wrong suit or, cruelest and most unreasonable of all, too beautiful for your own good.

In the six seconds they spend on a resume, recruiters focus on name, current title and company, current position start and end dates, previous title and company, previous position start and end dates, and education.

 

Dünyayı Ezilenler Eşit bir şekilde kurmadığı sürece Sömürülmekten başka yol yoktur !

Deformed Gulf Seafood Is Part Of The Deepwater Horizon Legacy

This is what a Gulf shrimp is supposed to look like. Click through this slideshow to see what is being pulled out by fishermen now. The latest catches are a little less… delicious looking

Two years later, the effects of the oil spill are still revealing themselves, this time in the form of deformed and eyeless shrimp. Take a look, if you dare.

The years since the oil spill have resulted in many potential solutions for the inevitable next rig explosion. There are math-based efforts underway to predict where the oil will go, microbes that could eat the oil, and even an effort by Intel to better manage drilling operations so they don’t malfunction in the first place.

It’s been two years since the Deepwater Horizon spill, and after a few months of wall-to-wall coverage, you haven’t heard so much from the Gulf lately. Things must be totally fine down there, we are left to think, after all the money BP has spent cleaning up the millions of gallons of oil. Sadly, that is not the case. While the oil might be mostly on the surface, a lot of it may have settled on the ocean floor, where it’s releasing chemicals into the water, and into our seafood.

 

As the two-year anniversary of the disaster nears, new reports are finding that all that oil--and the dispersant used to clean it up--might have been more harmful to the wildlife in the region than the public was initially led to believe. Besides an epidemic of fish infected with large lesions, shrimp have been hit especially hard. Because two or three shrimp generations have passed since the spill, the results are being felt across the population. A recent report by Al Jazeera found that shrimp were being hauled up from the Gulf with major deformities, like holes in their shells or giant tumors. There are even shrimp so mutated that they simply don’t have eyes.
And these shrimp aren’t just being put out of their misery and thrown back--they’re starting to come ashore to our tables. These photos, taken by Mac MacKenzie and publicized by the organization Bridge the Gulf, are of shrimp she found at her local grocery store. You can see large tumors, cracked shells with black rings (from microbes getting inside), and blackened gills.
Are these deformities from the spill? BP won’t comment on any particular Gulf seafood deformities, but has released a statement saying: "Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is among the most tested in the world, and, according to the FDA and NOAA, it is as safe now as it was before the accident." Maybe they’re testing the wrong shrimp.

A giant tumor on the side of the shrimp!

Ey Türk Gençliği!

Birinci vazifen, Türk istiklâlini, Türk Cumhuriyetini, ilelebet, muhafaza ve müdafaa etmektir.

Mevcudiyetinin ve istikbalinin yegâne temeli budur. Bu temel, senin, en kıymetli hazinendir. İstikbalde dahi, seni bu hazineden mahrum etmek isteyecek, dahilî ve haricî bedhahların olacaktır. Bir gün, İstiklâl ve Cumhuriyeti müdafaa mecburiyetine düşersen, vazifeye atılmak için, içinde bulunacağın vaziyetin imkân ve şerâitini düşünmeyeceksin! Bu imkân ve şerâit, çok nâmüsait bir mahiyette tezahür edebilir. İstiklâl ve Cumhuriyetine kastedecek düşmanlar, bütün dünyada emsali görülmemiş bir galibiyetin mümessili olabilirler. Cebren ve hile ile aziz vatanın, bütün kaleleri zaptedilmiş, bütün tersanelerine girilmiş, bütün orduları dağıtılmış ve memleketin her köşesi bilfiil işgal edilmiş olabilir. Bütün bu şerâitten daha elîm ve daha vahim olmak üzere, memleketin dahilinde, iktidara sahip olanlar gaflet ve dalâlet ve hattâ hıyanet içinde bulunabilirler. Hattâ bu iktidar sahipleri şahsî menfaatlerini, müstevlilerin siyasi emelleriyle tevhit edebilirler. Millet, fakr ü zaruret içinde harap ve bîtap düşmüş olabilir.

Ey Türk istikbalinin evlâdı! İşte, bu ahval ve şerâit içinde dahi, vazifen; Türk İstiklâl ve Cumhuriyetini kurtarmaktır! Muhtaç olduğun kudret, damarlarındaki asil kanda mevcuttur!

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
20 Ekim 1927