How to: relax and motivate

There exist several methods,  to reach  a deep state of relaxation for body and mind.  Yoga  and Autogenic Training for instance teach such methods.

But quite some training is needed, to master these methods and many people are not patient enough  to train these methods.

A very efficient and easy to use method is a combination of brainwave entrainment, hypnosis and visualization method, which is called

        audio / visual brainwave entrainment

Many explanations about this method are given on the website:

       http://www.transparentcorp.com/products/np/index.php

They offer a software program, with which this method can be applied. A headphone is recommendable for its use.

A free trial verions can be used for 2 weeks

The software  is called Neuro Programmer 3, the regular version costs 60 US and the Ultimate Editon 90 US.

This is a very good price for this excellent tool, to relax and reprogram oneself.

After one has experienced, how a state of deep relaxation feels, it should be also much easier, to reach it, using Yoga or Autogenic Training.

To relax once per day or more oftenly is an excellent method to counteract stress and avoid the burn out syndrom. Using these methods,   the motivation gets stronger and therefore  it  is  much easier to study or master some difficulty skills.

It is also possible, to experience altered states of mind, like they are experienced after many years of training of meditation, using a special collection of soundtracks ( 3 hours sound ), which is called "Beyond Being".     It costs 50 US.


This one I did not yet check myself,   but I use the other methods and can confirm, that they really work very well.

Use the trial version and check yourself, if these methods help you.

How to: solve the sales man problem

The sales man problem is a famous problem in applied mathematics.

The task is easy to define:
A salesman shall visit all the customers in his territory, using the shortest travel path.

With only a few customers, this is not such a big problem, but with more than 30, it gets already difficulty and with much more, it may  not be solvable with the most powerful computers.

But for practical applications, one can use the following simple method, to find an acceptable solution:

• Look at your territory and mark the center of the distribution of your customers
• Around this center draw circles with radiuses, which increase.
• Divide all circles in 6 sections.
• Start in the center and cover all customers in one section, when you reach the customer  at the last circle,  go to the next section and then go backwards to the center.
• Repeat this procedure for all sections.

That procedure will not give the shortest possible travel path, but a reasonable short one.

The same method can be applied to similar problems, at which some points have to be connected, using the shortest connection path like:

• electrical cabling
• location of production facilities or distibution centers
• emergency centers

Team-Based Lateral Organizational Structure

Advantages of this company structure include:

• improved communication:   more direct communication reduces mistakes due to a misunderstanding.
• employee empowerment:   produces more innovative ideas and higher quality work.
• effective decision making:   a decision is based on considering several possible scenarios and a team-based organizational structure can provide multiple opinions and insights

How to: use a team, to solve problems

Teams can outperform individuals, to solve problems, because of exchange of :

• informations
• interpretations
• critical thinking

Prepare the team:

• inform the team, which problem shall be solved in what time
• keep the group small; 4 members are most successful
• the task for the team should be complex and require a range of skills and insights
•  each team member should have the needed background and skills, to solve the problem
• document the contribution of each team member and explain this at the beginning to the team.
• if there occurs an unresolvable conflict in the team , use either an outside mediator or modify the structure of the team.

Important guidelines for effecitve team work:

• establish clear expectations of the objectives of the group
• establish clear roles and responsibilities
• plan a regular schedule of meetings

• make sure, that the objectives of each meeting are met
• don´t tolerate individuals, who fail to meet their commitments
• don´t settle for anything less than excellent group production

• prepare meeting notes, structure them and distribute them to all team members

How to: save time in the office: Work with templates

For most business  office  - documents, templates are available in the Internet, which are either free for download or for which one has to pay.
They can be a big time saver. Either one can use the templates as they are or one modifies them a bit.
___________________________________________________________________________________

1. Free templates:
______________________________________________________________________________

• Here is a website with 50 links to other websites, from which free business templates can be downloaded.

       http://bestcourtreportingdegree.com/2009/50-free-sources-for-downloadable-legal-templates-documents/

• Business forms

       http://www.freeformsandtemplates.com/home.html

• Business templates

       http://rfptemplates.technologyevaluation.com/



____________________________________________________________

2. Templates, which cost some money:
___________________________________________________________

• Document generation software:  Bliz Doc ca. 60 US, with about 30 templates for many business acitivities.

       http://blitz-doc.com/

• Word Templates for a large area of business activities, about 10 US each, very large collection.

      http://www.businessnation.com/library/forms/

• Business agreement contracts. About 50 english pounds each http://www.contractstore.com/

• Business forms

        http://www.freeformsandtemplates.com/home.html

• information technology

        http://www.infotech.com/
__________________________________________________________________________________

Even if one has to pay 50 US for a template, it may be cheap, if it is an excellent template, because it will save a lot of  time and money.

I have not checked in detail every of those templates of course; there are just too many  of them.

Therefore I would appreciate, to get some feedback from you, if you have tested some of  them or found some other good sources for them.

How to: save and structure informations

Nowadays we almost are overwhelmed by the amount of available informations, because it is relatively easy to find informations, using the internet.

But we should save these informations, so that we easily find it again and also can restructure it.

A good piece of software for that purpose is Whizfolders Organizer.

Originally it was only a two pane organizer. But over the years its developers added more and more useful features to it.

Now one can use it like an outliner, but also prepare reports with it, use hyperlinks, powerful search functions and the basic formatting features of a text program.

It is possible to install it on an USB-stick and also a Whizfolders Viewer is available, so that one can share the informations with others.

I use this program for many years now and it is one of my favorite programs.

The Whizfolder Pro version costs 25 US and the Whizfolder Deluxe Version 50 US

The license is for one user, but he can use it on two computers.

Have a look at their website:

http://whizfolders.com/

How to: structure a partnership agreement

1.     Give the business partnership a name and  let register  it.

2      State each partner’s required contribution to or investment in the partnership, and each partner’s percentage of ownership.

     Contributions may include

•    capital
•    assets
•    time or services

3      State each partner’s ability to control the partnership in terms of authority and decision-making power.

4     Create guidelines , that establish  the  roles for each partner.

5.    State the procedure for admitting new partners.

6    Write a section,  that provides details about handling disputes between or among the partners.

7   Write the rules,  that apply,  when a partner withdraws from the partnership in a buy-out plan.

How to: write a business report

Use graphs and charts to give your reports  a visual appeal, because a  good design of  routine business documents helps readers to easily

• access
• navigate
• remember

the information, given in the report.


Objectives

• What information do you want to communicate ?
• What decisions are needed ?

Research

• facts must be based on reliable information sources.
• Include information sources in detail

Format

Use a generally accepted format for the report like:

• title page
• executive summary
• methodology  (how conclusions were reached)
• introduction
• main text
• conclusions

recommendations and references

• use headings in the main text of the report

Outline and Draft

• Use a mind mapping program, to develop a clear Outline
• write all text in the mind mapping software ( in the notes )
• transfer the mind map to a text program
• add diagrams, tables and photos to the report and format it
• use a spell checker and a grammar checker
• carefully read the report twice
• use a text to voice program, to hear your text
• discuss your report with others

final design of the report

• Leave plenty of white space, with one-inch margins all around.
• leave space around visuals
• break up the report with headings, charts, graphs and photos

How to: make optimal decisions

An optimal decision is characterized by following points:

• decision is done at the right time
• decision improves the situation
• only a reasonable amounts of resources are  needed, to prepare and realize the decision.

In larger companies or organizations, the decision process is not done by one person only, but by a team and the final decision has to get approved by several levels in the hierarchical organization.

That process is not only time consuming, but also in danger, that important information gets lost or is not well understood by all involved people.

Therefore it is very important, to describe the goals and the path to reach them, in clear terms.

At the beginning of the decision process, one faces as a typical situation:

• the team and the involved decision makers are poorly organized
• the goals are ambiguously defined
• there can be even conflicting goals
• the problem itself is not well defined and oftenly poorly structured

To overcome these starting conditions, following procedure should be used:

• form a core team of 3 to 5 people. This team structures and finally defines the problem
• The team should have members with diverse skills, if a technical problem must be solved:
• 
  
  domain expertise,
• 
  
  scientific expertise
• 
  
  applied science
• 
  
  engineering skills.

This core team defines possible goals and concepts, how to realize them and writes a report, which covers:

• goals and objectives
• alternatives
• Identification of key variables
• relationships among variables

The core team works together with an advisory team. The advisory team should have senior engineers and commercially minded people as members.

The advisory team discusses this report in detail with the core team and makes proposals, how to clarify some points further and how to prepare a decision about the final goal.

After the core team has done the suggested corrections and the advisory team has reviewed the final report, it is given to the next level in the hierarchy for approval.

This process may need some further reviews, before a general meeting with all involved people in the decision process can be made, in which hopefully it is also decided, what shall be done and what resources will be available and what the time schedule shall be, to realize the goals.

How to reduce stress and avoid burnt out syndrom

If one observes, how some people can be very busy over many years, without suffering from too much stress or even suffering from burnt out syndrom, then one finds, that they enjoy their work very much and that they have found a balance between work und time to relax.


One example is Steve Jobs frorm Apple:

Steve Job gives following recommendations, how to live:

• No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.
• And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent.
• It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

• Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
• Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.
• And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

It may not  be easy for everybody, to follow those advices,   if  he is employed. But  frustration in work can get balanced by activities in leisure time. And one can also try to find a more satisfying work or get self employed.

Logical and sceptical thinking

Scepticism is a good thinking method, to defend oneself against mistakes.

Typical chain of reasoning could be, that we should base our thinking always on scientifically proven facts and if we then use logical thinking, we can either prove or disprove each hypothesis and therefore always will get a valid result.

But the term " scientifically proven facts" is not precisely defined and we can also not be sure, that logical thinking could not lead us to contradictions.

For instance many scientists are convinced, that animals have a much lower intelligence than humans.  But that is wrong, because we apply a human measure to no- humans.

And if we investigate, why this mistake is made, then we come back to the old testimony, where there is told by God to Adam, that he shall be the master of all animals. Apparently many scientists are strongly influenced by their Christian or monotheistic background and therefore make wrong conclusions.

When we apply the findings of information theory and cybernetics, then we could try to define a more general term of intelligence, which is applicable to all living beings and free from any prejudices and which can also get measured.

For instance the chain of reasoning could be as follows:

• A living being gets information from its environment and uses it, to adjust its response to the environment.
• If the response is made in a way, so that the living being increases its chances to survive, then we could judge this as an intelligent behaviour. ( many human beings, like smokers and alcoholics, are then not intelligent)
• A horse for instance will not increase its chance to survive in the wilderness, if it masters mathematics. Therefore to use mathematical tests to measure its intelligence would be nonsense.

The same applies to language:

•  Animals cannot speak like humans, because their anatomy is not suitable for it.
• But we don´t know, what other methods of exchanging information are used by animals. Dolphins use high frequency sounds and therefore they have a much larger bandwidth to exchange information. But up to now we are still too stupid, to understand their communication.

Based on some kind of a more general definition of intelligence it could be, that we find out in the future, that there exist animals, which are more intelligent than we.

• Would we be honest enough to accept that ? I am sure, that we would not do it.

There are plenty of examples, where men did not accept, that other men are intelligent and at least as much worth as they themselves:

• Look at, how the aboriginals were treated in Australia. The small children were taken by force from their parents and brought to white people, where they grew up in quite another environment. That was a kind of genocide. One could call it a soft genocide, because the children were not murdered, but the effect was the same:  to extinguish a tribe. ( in Canada similar things were made).
• Why  could such cruel things be done, which are against the most basic human values ? ( and that in democracies, which both are based on Christian values, like love your next )

Because the white people were convinced, that only their kind of living was right and that the aboriginals did not know, how to treat correctly their own children. They treated the aboriginals like criminals, who mistreat their children. ( totally neglecting the fact, that the aboriginals lived for at least 50 000 years in Australia and did not destroy their environment, like the stupid white people managed to do in some hundred years only)

Are the aboriginals less intelligent than white people ?

• This question is already wrong, because we would apply a term, which is not applicable to both. When we apply the more general term of intelligent behaviour, then the white people are much less intelligent, if they would have to live in the Australian desert, having only the tools of the aboriginals available.

What conclusions can we draw from these examples ?

• That we have to check, if we use correct definitions and terms, or if they inherently contain also a prejudgment. And we should not trust too much logical thinking, when we investigate more complex systems, like in sociology and politics.
• Even when we use the correct facts and logical thinking, we can come to wrong conclusions and therefore make the wrong decisions. The complexity of reality cannot be reduced so much, that logical reasoning alone can be applied, to get the correct results.

Our thinking is formed by the civilization, in which we grow up and by our natural language and therefore we must always be aware, that our judgements can be totally wrong, especially, when we apply them to other civilizations or other living beings.

For some years now we try to come into contact with extraterrestial civilizations.

• And we make a typical mistake: We assume, that these civilizations would send information, which we can understand, like mathematical relationships for instance.

What is, if for these civilizations some kind of music would be of highest value and that they have encoded it in a way, which we cannot decode, as long as we don´t assume, that music is sent to us ?

• As long as we even cannot decode the communication of dolphins, we cannot expect, to decode signals from extraterrestial civilizations:

Why not begin here on earth:

• Assume that wales and dolphins have some kind of higher intelligence, which might be different from ours, but which eventually permits them, to communicate with us, if we would try to understand, what they could consider to be important to send to us.

I assume, that they would try to inform us, that we should respect them and their environment, not poison the sea and not produce such a lot of noise with our ships and all the ultrasonic devices and bombs.

Health: Career burnout syndrom

Ongoing stress for longer periods of time can develop to a burnout syndrom, which  oftenly can happen to people, who work too much in their professional life, like managers, doctors, politicians.

Career burnout develops slowly over months and years, but then can suddenly cause a breakdown. Don`t wait so long, but take early counter action.


Common characteristics are:

• exhaustion,
• cynicism
• inefficacy at work and in one's personal life

Common warning signs of career burnout are:

• Feeling depressed all the time
• Lacking energy
• lacking desire to achieve
• Decreasing productivity
• Being bored

• Feeling anger and resentment in the workplace
• Abusing alcohol and drugs, like cocaine, the drug of managers
• Experiencing sleeping problems
• Decreased ability to relax

If you experience some of those signals, then take direct action. Restructure your life.

• Take more time to relax.
• Cut down all activities, which are not really needed.
• Take longer holidays ( 3 weeks at least ).
• Take professional advice from a good psychologist or if you are already drug dependent,   from  a  Psychiatrist
  

Simulation methods: Simulations with COMSOL

Finite element calculations are methods in numerical mathematics, which are used, to solve different kinds of mathematical equations.

This method is very powerful, because it is also possible, to numerically solve equations, for which other calculation methods fail.

It is possible to simulate problems in thermal phyiscs, electromagnetism, hydrodynamics, but also in biology or medicine; but also a lot of other applications, especially also in mechanics or chemical process engineering.

There are several excellent software packages available, with which an engineer or scientist can solve such kinds of problems himself.

Here I give only some informations about one of them - COMSOL

Have a look at their website:
http://www.comsol.de/

To get a good overview, what problems can be sovled, look at their Model Gallery at:

http://www.comsol.de/showroom/product/

Comsol has also excellent tutorials

http://www.comsol.de/products/tutorials/

and a lot of free webinars:

http://www.comsol.de/events/webinars/

I think, that the website of Comsol gives quite a good overview, how powerful numerically simulation methods are nowadays and that an engineer or scientist should master such methods, if he is interested to solve application problems. Because then it is not possible, to use too simple models for the reality.

Concept for: an advanced spreadsheet "Information Cube"

The spreadsheet programs of today are still based on the principles of the first one ( Visicalc from Apple). But this concept could be much more powerful, if it would be thought through from the basics and if all possibilities of newer software would be integrated:

A modern spreadsheet program should have following features, which could be classified for usage to beginners, advanced and professional; so that nobody gets overwhelmed with the available features. That means also, that excellent new kinds of tutorials will have to be developed:

• use of several dimensions, using ordered tuples of numbers, not combinations of letters and numbers. ( as is has been developed in mathematics for matrix calculus for instance.
• use mathematical formulas, as written in mathematics
• present the spreadsheet of several dimensions, in some standard forms, but also allow the customer, to define the presentation himself. Cuts through the information cube; different sequences of cells. ( look at  http://www.thebrain.com/    to see,  how an elegant and intuitive navgigation in large amounts of information can be realized nowadays )
• indexing all cells, so that each piece of information can be found easily. The information cube can contain all kinds of information, like numbers, words, texts, pictures etc.
• expand the number of cells, so that a spreadsheet can have as many cells, as the computer of the user can store or the network of computers, to which he has access.
• use better, much more detailed colour schemes, so that cells can be better differentiated.
• supply add ons like:

•      Statistics and distribution functions; Monte Carlo Simulation
•     simulation of industries, social systems and economies, according to the      method of industrial dynamics, as  developed by  Forrester
•  differential equations or any other kind of equations
•  memorising methods, according to the flashcard principles

How to: take super panorama photos with the gigapan robot system

If one needs a panorma-photo of a landscape, a building or a large production machine, then in many cases one touches the limits of photography, because it is not possible, to get the total object into one  photo and get also a very high resolution.

Also the panorama feature of a camera may not help, because the picture of the object gets distorted and it is only possible, to use the panaorama either horizontally or vertically, but not in both directions.

In such cases the gigapan-system is an optimal solution. This is a small robot mount, with which the camera is turned horizontally around up to 360°, then turned a bit vertically and again turned around horizontally. All the quite small sections of the photo get stiched together by a software program, which is part of the offer.

The robot mount is fixed on a tripoid ( not part of the offer ) and the electronic camera is fastened in the robot mount.

Photos of that kind can be extremely large ( many gigabytes ) and it takes quite some time, to make them ( hours ), but it is very impressive, how many details are shown, which one can check by  zooming in and out.

Have a look at the website of gigapanstems:

http://gigapansystems.com/epic-product-page.html

and have above all a look at those photos, like for instance a photo of Dubai:

http://www.gigapan.org/gigapans/48492/

How to: convert pdf to epub format

When I write a report or a book, I use  following work flow :
 ( I have tested that only with the mentioned programs. If you use others, then you have to find out yourself, how it functions ):

• create an  outline with a mind map program like MindJet
• write the unformatted text into the notes at each branch of the mind map
• if the first draft is o.k., then  transfer the mind map  to Microsoft Word

• in Word format the text and add diagrams, photos, hyperlinks etc.

• thereafter transfer the document into pdf

The pdf formatted document can get distributed, because now the format will be kept and can be read  with  most operating systems. If the content should be kept secret, then it is wise, to encrypt it, either  using Adobe Writer or an encryption program or an email provider, which encrypts emails. For business purposes this is a must nowadays, because it is easy, to spy out unencrypted documents, which are sent in the internet.

But nowadays many people use also electronic ebook readers and for those readers the pdf format is not ideal.

For that purpose the epub format is much better.

At present there are not many converter programs available.

But for a limited time, one can download for free a  pdf to epub converter program at:

http://www.pdftoepub.com/

Edmond`s Scientific Method

Edmond, the founder of Edmond Scientifics, investigated the relevant literature, to find out, what ingredients are important for a succesful scientific solution method.

He gives permission, to use freely his findings and distribute them, so that many people can learn and apply this method, to improve the living conditions of us all.

Here follows a copy of his findings. More detailed informaton is given on his website:

http://www.problemsolving.net/ps10-4of4.html
________________________

cited from Edmond:

"    Here Is the Best Problem Solving Model,
      the Most Important of All Problem Solving Strategies for Complex Problems.

The literature shows, that thousands of model formulas have been offered for the mental activity stages of problem solving. After a thorough review of the literature and selecting features from the best of them, a formula - SM-14 - is now available for creative problem solving.
It consists of 11 steps or stages and 3 ingredients.
It is complete and practical. It is long enough to cover the major steps or stages and ingredients, but not so long as to be impractical for use and for teaching problem solving.

Creative Problem Solving Model: SM-14

Step or Stage 1 - Curious Observation

Step or Stage 2 - Is There a Problem?

Step or Stage 3 - Goals & Planning

Step or Stage 4 - Search, Explore, & Gather the Evidence

Step or Stage 5 - Generate Creative & Logical Solutions

Step or Stage 6 - Evaluate the Evidence

Step or Stage 7 - Make the Educated Guess (Hypothesis)

Step or Stage 8 - Challenge the Hypothesis

Step or Stage 9 - Reach a Conclusion

Step or Stage 10 - Suspend Judgment

Step or Stage 11 - Take Action

      Supporting Ingredients:

Ingredient 12 - Creative, Non-logical, Logical, & Technical Methods

Ingredient 13 - Procedural Principles & Theories

Ingredient 14 - Attributes & Thinking Skills

"

_________________________________________________

How To: scope with stress

Stress is a severe health problem in industrial nations. If not taken care of, it can cause   the  "burnt out syndrom".
Stress can be caused, if several problems come together at the same time and we either have no solution for them  or  not enough time,  to solve them all in due time,  like:

• Financial pressures
• too much work pressures
• problems with family at home

How can we reduce the stress ?

1. prepare  a  to  do list with  all tasks and problems
2. analyze the problems one by one and develop several concepts, how to solve them. Use a problem journal,  into which you write all relevant information and solution ideas.  Review it every week.

3. discuss these concepts with others and apply the most promising one.

4. plan at least 1 hour each day, when you relax and don´t think about your problems. Just enjoy life and do, what you enjoy to do

5. if stress is caused, because your life situation will change ( job, family etc ), then write down, what causes fear to you. Is it only some diffuse fear of the unknown future or are there some real problems, which future could bring. Develop again several concepts, how to clarify these future problems and solve them if they really should occur.

6. reserve one day per week for relaxation and at least one weekend per month for relaxation.

7. train relaxation methods, like

• autogenic training
• Yoga
• TaiChi
• and do some sport like walking, swimming etc.

How To: copy the content of a computer screen with ScreenShotCaptor

For writing reports it is very useful, if one can include in the report, what is shown on the computer screen.

Oftenly one has to include  photos, CAD-Drawings, Excel-Data sheets and parts of text documents  in a new report or send it per email to a partner.

And now and then it is not possible, to include interesting content from a website, because one cannot copy it.

All that work can be done with screen capture programs.

There are several commercial ones available. Here I recommend one, which is free ( the author asks for a donation and I think, that it justified, to support them, because that program is really good ).

You can download it from:

http://www.donationcoder.com/

You have to register, so that you can download it. Then an email with a registration key is sent to you, which you have to paste in, when you open the program the first time.  A bit unusual, but no problem.

The program is really free,  even if you don´t donate, but then you have to get a new registration key after 6 months and again after 12 months.

But I think, that a reasonable donation is only fair. Good work should be supported.

Internet Video conferencing

Internet video conferencing has got  quite affordable now.  For private use, some suppliers  offer it for free. But for business purposes,  one has to pay some money.

There is quite a large range of prices, depending on the offered features and how many participants can take part in a meeting.

For 4 to 8 participants the price range is between 10 to 40 dollar per month.

Some guidelines should be used, to get a good result:

• A video conference should be prepared at least as carefully as a face to face meeting, otherwise time is wasted.
• All participants should follow some agreed rules, how to prepare for the video conference and how to behave during it.
• send an invitation to all participants of the video conference, with detailed meeting agenda.

• each participant should be well prepared for the meeting.
• the moderator must master the software and check with each participant some time before, that he also masters it.
• nobody should move around during the meeting.

• everybody should speak clearly and slowly. At each time only one person should speak.
• at the end of the meeting the moderator should give a short review and announce the next steps.
• a meeting report is sent to all participants and they should either send modifications back or accept it.

____________________________________

Here are links to 2 companies, which offer internet video conferencing services with many features, which are useful, for a moderate price.

A:    ivisit

offers its service, which covers the most needed features, for quite a low price, but without encryption, for up to 8 participants for 46 dollar per year

http://www.ivisit.com/


B. gotomeeting
is focusing onto larger audiences, starting with up to 15 participants for 468 dollars per year.  Its most important advantage, compared with ivisit, is its strong encryption with 128 bit, which may be very important for business purposes and justify the 10 times higher price, compared to ivisit.

http://www.gotomeeting.com/

Checklist: How to earn money as a technical freelance writer

Because of the advances in technology there are many opportunities for technical writers, which are also well paid.
Technical writing is quite different from other writing projects. An article should be only as long as really needed.  The text should be  supported with drawings, diagrams and tables.

The main steps are:

1. collect information
2. structure the information using mind map software

3. write direct to the point and easy to understand

4. use diagrams, flowcharts and tables

5. use internal and external hyperlinks


An excellent ebook about this topic is offered at:

http://www.fabjob.com/welcome.asp

Checklist: How to do Video Marketing

1: Keep your videos short: 2-3 minutes is good.
2: Post videos on your sales pages.
3: Choose your keywords carefully.


4: Have a clear purpose & structure

5: Look at the camera so you talk directly to your viewers.

6: Create a clear call to action based on a single option or offer


7: Encourage comments on your video

8: Write articles, forum posts and blogs

9: Make linkages with other content and social sites


10: Use time twice by re-purposing and repackaging your videos


information source:
Jay Allyson
Article Directory:

link:      http://www.articledashboard.com/

Checklist: How to convert text to videos using AVR

1. Follow The Video Sites' Guidelines

2. Script Your Written Articles

3. Pace The Voice-Over Talker

information soucre:

Peter Bostonn
link:    http://www.articledashboard.com/

Checklist: How to sleep well and overcome sleeping problems

1.     Avoid

• drinking tea, coffee, alcohol and smoking late at night
• Avoid taking exercise in the evening
• Avoid paying bills and similar jobs just before sleep

2.    sleeping habit

• 
  
  Go to bed at the same time each night so that you set a routine
• 
  
  Only use the bed for sleeping and sex
• 
  
  Try using affirmations

3    how  to overcome sleeping problems

• If you can’t get to sleep after a while, do something boring until you feel sleepy
• Try a herbal tea
• Put the essential oils lavender on your pillow

source of information:

20 Tips For A Great Night’s Sleep
24.09.2010
Author: Karizma
Posted in Self Improvement  
link:    http://www.articlerage.com/?p=11589