Today we feature a guest post from Lindsey Wright, who is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.

Often, people who have great ideas can have a difficult time organizing those ideas and getting work done. Even productive people need a push sometimes to increase efficiency and creative output to reach the full potential of their projects. The more organized you can be, the more you will get done.

A concept called mind mapping can not only help you get organized, but also help you improve your productivity. Mind mapping is “the visual representation of ideas,” and includes graphs, charts, webs, thought bubbling and word maps. These visual cues are then used to simplify ideas and make them easier to remember and explain to others. Visually representing thoughts and ideas is a practice in organization in itself, and even just the simple act of writing thoughts down can help us shift our thoughts from chaos to calm.

As a resource for online college courses suggests, making a mind map can also help organize thought. For example, composition teachers often have their students make outlines or word association bubbles to help them conceptualize their writing before they begin to write. According to the University of North Carolina Writing Center, making word maps, webs, and outlines before beginning to write will not only help you create a plan for your essays and papers, but they make arguments more coherent, help decrease writing anxiety, and allow you to see the purpose and the direction your writing will take. So, once the project begins, it is not as daunting, makes more sense, and can be completed faster.

Mind mapping works in other contexts as well, such as relaying information that has already been created or discovered. For instance, visual representations such as charts, graphs, and tables used for displaying complex findings in a simplified manner in fields such as science and psychology. Not only do these charts help readers understand the findings of each study, but they also make it easier for the scientists to explain their findings to an audience by making the experience of the study more accessible.

Businesses also use mind maps to convey information during presentations within the company, and for giving product pitches and explanations to potential clients. Not only is it useful for businesses to track expenses and productive output with mind maps in order to share those maps with employees and managers to create goal-oriented work environment, but mind maps are also great for coming up with ideas in a team brainstorming session. Mind maps help businesses communicate ideas and company progress more effectively.

In personal life, mind maps can be used to prioritize what is most important and needs to get done first. They make goals more clear, and can even work when trying to make a to do list or prioritize your tasks. Making a web of the things you need to work on, relating to the large overarching theme first and then branching out to all the to-do’s directly related to that theme can be extremely helpful. Try drawing a bubble around broad words such as “Cleaning,” with all of the related cleaning tasks or ideas branching off of it, such as “car wash,” “laundry,” “organize closet” and the like will help you see all the tasks in front of you, and choose accordingly.

Having many disparate and complex ideas rushing through our heads all at once can be disorienting, overwhelming and can paralyze organization and decrease productivity. However, mind mapping is a tried and true method for visualizing our thoughts, and help us organize and act, and there are many resources online to help you create mind maps. Whatever your daunting task or project, try mapping your solutions and see results.

Today’s post is from Lisa, a guest blogger who writes about the latest tech developments and how to get deals using Dell coupons.

It might seem like the semester has just started, but it won’t be long until you’re freaking out about midterms and once those are over, finals. If you’re looking to get a leg-up on your studies, put your Android device to good use in the fight for intellectual growth. Here are a few of the apps that might just help you bump that C up to a B.

Merriam Webster Dictionary – free

Next time you’re reading your communication textbook and the author promises to turn you into a loquacious communicator, you don’t have to sit there scratching your head for an hour or take the time to bust our your laptop. You’ve got a dictionary in the palm of your hand. Even Noah Webster probably wouldn’t have a word for how amazed he would be if he could see that his entire dictionary would fit in the palm of your hand.

Evernote – free

Evernote is an amazing app for anyone who has ever had to struggle to keep track of all their assignments and little mental notes about a class. With this app you can create reminders, notes, transcriptions or voice recordings on your mobile device and sync them with your home desktop.

Math Formulary – free

Did you ever take a class in which the teacher allowed you to create one “cheat card” that had all the formulas and reminders written on it? Inevitably there was so much to remember that you ended up running out of space and the one formula you left off the card ended up accounting for 50 percent of the test. That problem is a thing of the past thanks to Math Formulary. This app allows users to access — according to the developers — every single formula any student will need in high school or college.

Wolfram Alpha – $2.99

Have you ever been stumped to remember the name of the guy who first proposed the heliocentric theory of the universe? Ever spent 10 minutes during class trying to remember the name of the guy who started the Protestant Reformation? With Wolfram Alpha, the “computational knowledge engine”, you can figure those things out in an instant. Wolfram (or Wolfy as I sometimes call him) makes Siri look like a bumbling college intern.

Accounting is indeed a quintessential mechanism which most small businesses employ. In the modern day, it has become a veritable tool to determine the vulnerability of your business. Simply put, it helps one answer a basic question- Is your business making profits or are you incurring consistent losses? Not only this, but accounting is also considered to be a vital measure that aids a business in setting up a future course of action. Nonetheless, its importance for the music industry, in particular, is manifold. This is primarily owing to the fact that the music industry, unlike other businesses, does not have well defined means of authentication or record. Here is how you can go about it.

Research and collect

The first thing to do for setting up appropriate accounting measures is to undertake an extensive research. Look at the varied accounting options that are available on the web. You can even subscribe to the initial versions of different accounting software and evaluate their manner of functioning. However, do not disregard the accompanying features of the software. Make a choice which is, collectively based on quality, affordability and adaptation.

Select a Method

Depending upon the needs and requirements of your business, choose an accounting method, which would help you reap the maximum benefit. Broadly, you can either settle for the cash method which involves instant transactions or go in for the accrual method, which records expenses via invoice. Nevertheless, considering your business is a small one the former would definitely prove to be a better option as it assists you in keeping an account in a precise & continuous way.

Form correct records

Make your record entries with complete accuracy and finesse. Divide them into various readable parts like the date on which the payment was received or made, the amount involved, the service rendered and the transaction number. This would facilitate your software to gauge a set pattern and make entries accordingly. More so, it would induce a sense of simplicity and ease in your business.

Conform to rules

Make sure that your accounting system conforms to the law of the land. Check and double check the state regulations in regard to taxes, deductions and pay rates. Inquire with the officials whether your music business would need a business license. If it would, apply for it to avoid hassles. Moreover, keep updating your knowledge of the rules as and when they are transformed. This would assist you to be on the right side of law.

List it out

Maintain separate lists for almost everything that you deal with in order to lend transparency to your music business. For instance, make a list which details your music assets and liabilities. Record the general products you put up for sale along with the prices they are sold for separately. Also, keep an updated list of frequent customers and regular vendors. This will ensure a hassle free and uncomplicated run for you.

By keeping the facts above in mind, it would become easy for you to set up an appropriate accounting mechanism to deal with the needs of your music business. After all, accounting is the only way to neutralize and balance out your deals.

About the author: Rebecca is a blogger by profession. She is fond of Black Pearl Earrings. These days she is busy in writing an article on 3g Tablet

After my freshman year in college I discovered, to my horror, that the bookstore would only buy back the books at a minimal price, then sold used ones for a huge markup on the buy-back!

I learned to beat them at their own game by starting with used textbooks, then selling them to underclassmen myself! However, I was lucky, because I had a group of underclassmen at hand in my fraternity house. And it was before the Internet made it even easier:

Via: Sell Back Your Book

This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online courses.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.

Great work in the creative industry, from advertising to graphic design, is fueled by powerful inspiration. And while workplaces in the creative industry make an effort to foster a dynamic environment from which employers can draw inspiration, they might have to look outside their workplace to get their creative juices flowing. Indeed, it should come as no surprise that places that actively try to inspire creativity do just the opposite by trying to control such a variable and personal process.

I have a suggestion if you’re feeling low on inspiration in your workplace (or in your life generally)—look around you. It may sound cliché, but you’ll find no dearth of inspiration in your community, regardless of your city’s size. Consider one of the following remedies for creative block.
Keep track of local art events

An easy way to discover local creatives is to keep up with the local art and music scenes in your community. Usually these will be community meeting places focused on nurturing a unique artistic identity for the city. You can find many of these hubs for right-brained people in locales off the beaten path, in independent coffee shops, music stores, art galleries, and even retailers. These local supporters of arts and music will serve as a great starting point if you’re searching for inspiration. The coffeeshops and music stores will likely have walls dedicated to flyers and posters advertising local art events, any of which would likely yield rich material to draw from in your work.
If you don’t want to hunt around for events, you can always look in your cities local publication, or peruse local art and music blogs that cover current events in your area. A simple Google search along the lines of “local art events in (your city)” would bring up more results than you’d expect.
Get involved in a community group of creatives

If you’re looking for collaborators or partners in a creative project, you won’t have to look further than your local community to find help. Just as I said that you could find art events by browsing the flyers at common meeting places, you can similarly find advertisements for photographers, writers, designers, and general artists looking either for work or for other creatives with whom to network. In fact, you can capitalize on such advertisements by putting up your own ad (in a coffeeshop or online) for a collaborative artist. Most local artists would probably be overjoyed at the prospect of work with a fellow local. Who knows, work with another artist could drum up some of your best work!

Draw inspiration from the city itself

If you’re not keen on networking among fellow artists, nor in joining any creative communities, you can at least search for inspiration in the raw geography of your city. Whether your aesthetic is more pastoral, seek out the less populated areas in your city, those not taken over by urban sprawl or fast food chains. Take the time to be among the natural environs of your city and use it as a lightning rod for your creative process. If you have a soft spot for urban landscapes, city architecture, and the angular beauty of human civilization, take a day to unabashedly explore your city. Walk around neighborhoods that you’ve never visited, travel to areas you’ve always meant to visit. Get acquainted with your surroundings, connect with it, and let the inspiration come to you.

Share your thoughts in the forum.

Today we feature a Guest Post by David Gerrard from Boards Direct, a leading online stockist of whiteboards, glass boards and other high quality presentation products.

In this age of constant digital distraction, organizing and focusing on tasks is not always the easiest exercise to accomplish. I, for example, will probably check my Facebook, e-mail and Twitter at least a couple of times before I finish writing this article. Or at least, I would have, were I not using the incredibly useful and productive tools listed below.

Intended to help you organize, remember and execute your tasks as quickly and effectively as possible, these simple tools will serve you well in the battle against procrastination and help you to increase your productivity in the future.

Remember the Milk – http://www.rememberthemilk.com
As the name suggests, Remember the Milk is an online application designed to help you organize the little tasks that you would usually write on post-it notes or scraps of paper, such as remembering that ever-evasive milk.

Offering a minimal and easy-to-use interface, you can categorize tasks by type – such as ‘home’ and ‘work’ – and set individual details such as due date, repeat date and time estimate. Additionally, you can tag each task, a feature which becomes incredibly useful if you need to search through a vast back catalog of already completed assignments.

There is also hope for the forgetful among us and you can easily you can set-up reminders which notify you of your task via mobile phone, instant messaging service or e-mail.

Focus Booster – http://www.focusboosterapp.com

Employing the famous Pomodoro time management technique which breaks down periods of work into 25 minute intervals, Focus Booster is an application which is essentially times these stretches of work. The thinking behind it is that if you work solidly for 25 minutes, have a short break and then continue to work for another 25 minutes, you will get more done than if you just solidly worked through a long period of time. This is because frequent breaks supposedly improve mental agility.

If you can get on board with the Pomodoro theory, Focus Booster is available to download, or if you don’t fancy that, you can use a simple online version right in your browser.

LeechBlock – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock

A Firefox extension which allows you to block time-wasting websites, LeechBlock is the perfect tool for preventing procrastination. Whether your online vice is Facebook, Reddit or simply aimless browsing, you can set LeechBlock to impede your attempts to visit designated websites within a number of versatile time parameters.

At this point, cynics would no doubt hasten to point out the fact that you can disable Firefox extensions at any time and with no-one else to stop you from returning to your time-wasting ways, the tool is largely pointless. In order to combat this, LeechBlock allows you to password protect the application, so if you get a friend or colleague to set the password, then you should be sufficiently deterred from making the effort to disable it.

WriteRoom – http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom

A full screen word processing application, the purpose of WriteRoom is to eliminate the distracting environment of your cluttered desktop and ensconce you in a world where writing is your one and only focus.

Instead of responding to your e-mails and constantly checking to see if your followers have retweeted your latest musings, you can fully concentrate on the task in hand and immerse yourself in the huge, whiteboard sized canvas. Described by Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times as the “ultimate spartan writing utopia”, it takes minimal to a whole new level and will have the same elevation effect for your productivity too.

Buffer App – http://www.bufferapp.com

Rather than swamp your Twitter and Facebook feeds with article and website suggestions during your morning blog check or manually enter posts at regular intervals, BufferApp allows you to automatically update your account periodically throughout the day.

By adding pages to a Buffer queue, you can set them to post at regular time intervals, giving the impression of activity throughout the day and not concentrating updates too heavily in one period, a practice that could certainly lose you followers.

Another useful aspect of BufferApp is its ability to records statistics. In the case of Twitter, for example, you can see how many people your tweets reached, how many clicks it received and how many times it was retweeted. Statistics such as these can help you figure out which time of day is the most effective time to post your updates.

Suggestions?

If you have any suggestions of more tools that will aid your productivity and stave off the woes of procrastination, please let us know in the forum.

Today we have a guest post on tips for creating a small work-area in your home from Laura Backes:

Turning your home into your workspace isn’t as daunting of a task as it sounds. Whether you need the space for work or to tackle hobbies, you have many options. The key to making a space in your home an office is creativity and thinking outside of the box…or room.

Stake your claim:

The first step is to find your spot. This may be your hardest task in this process. Search high and low for a space in your home that isn’t being used to its full potential. Four common spaces are: a bedroom, corner of a room, dining room and a closet/pantry.

The spare bedroom down the hall that has become your storage closet for things you ‘may need later’. Face it; it’s just going to sit there another six months. If you want that room for a guest as well, consider a nice pull out sofa or a day bed that can act as a lounge sofa.

Do you have an empty corner in your kitchen or living room? Instead of dust bunnies collecting in the corner, visit stores like IKEA or Home Depot and find/build a desk to fit the ‘L’ shape corner. You will have enough space to work and be out of the way of the hustle and bustle of these rooms.

The dining room is that room most families use twice a year for holiday dinners. Dining rooms are something your mothers and grandmothers needed but this day in age, consider moving your family dinners to the kitchen area.

Even the smallest spaces like a closet or a pantry can be used for home offices. Remove the doors and instant space! With proper lighting and some paint you will forget you are working in your old food pantry.

Organize and assess your needs:

Keep in mind that your new work space is limited and you don’t want it to become the kids’ toy box or the post office. Make it clutter free with bookshelves, rolling file cabinets, wall mounts and drawers. Places like The Container Store and Target have great options. Now get your necessities that best suit your needs: a phone, computer, printer, desk and chair.

Remove all distractions and add privacy:

Screaming kids, day time television and whining pets can take you away from an important moment. Prevent interruptions by adding curtains, wall partitioners or consider creating ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs. If children are a problem make a friendly sign to hang, for example: “Dad is trying to bring home the bacon…please tip toe and whisper”.

Author Bio:

This is a guest post from Laura Backes, she enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet service in my area. You can reach her at: laurabackes8 @ gmail.com.

Today we feature a guest post from Chad Liffman:

Business cards can be incredibly easy to create. Just stick your information on a shiny card and you’re good to go, right? Well, that’s one way to do it, but you’d be missing out on numerous growth and revenue opportunities that having standout business cards can offer you. Here are four tips you can use to get the absolute most out of business cards:

1)Keep it Simple
A potential client that looks at your business card should immediately know your name, title, and business while simultaneously getting a taste of your personality. Put the name you want to be called on your cards, whether it is your given name or a nickname. A work phone number and email address are essential. Avoid using your home phone number or that hilarious personal email address you got in college—it’s best to use the standard firstname.lastname@business.com formula for business contacts. Provide your cell phone number or office line, whichever is the easiest and best way to reach you.

Social media contacts like your website, Facebook and Twitter profiles, or blog URL are increasingly important parts of your business image, so definitely consider including this information. The downside of doing so is that it can make the card look a bit cluttered, so be sure to only include the information that provides the best communication channels and resources that are emblematic of your business. Even if you decide include it all, make it look as legible as possible with good spacing, contrasting colors or bold fonts. Your clients are going to want to research your name and business online so make it easy for them to do so!

2)Don’t Be Shy, Get Noticed
Don’t be afraid to choose a non-traditional card type. Slick folding business cards, vertical layouts, embossed type, shiny graphics and even photography can make the exact first impression you need to land a business deal. If your business has a flashy logo, stick it on one side of the business card all on its own. You’ll be remembered for taking chances and letting your personality and business attitude shine through, so let it fly.

Another way to get noticed is to include a picture of you. A photo will make the business card much more personal. It doesn’t need to look like a senior class portrait, though. Some wardrobe tips: If you’re in a conservative field, wearing a suit is a good idea. If your business highlights a more fun, creative or youthful service, you can dress more casually. As long as the photo is professional, appropriate and good photo quality it should be fine—just showing a friendly face can go a long way.

3)Double Check
The last thing you want is to have incorrect information on your business cards. Mistakes signal that you aren’t careful and not detail-oriented. What chance is there that a potential client will believe your product will be of the utmost quality if you don’t get your own name right? Aside from ensuring correct spelling and grammar, it’s important to check that your title, social networking profiles, and contact information will continue to be legitimate channels for communication for the foreseeable future.

One thing to note while you are double checking—if you are directing clients to these aspects of your online presence, then your website and social media pages need to look businesslike and any embarrassing or unprofessional content should be removed. Your business cards represent a “key” to unlock the “door” to your business profile and services. Don’t show potential clients anything you do not want them to see or doesn’t enhance your business reputation.

4)Get A Lot, Use A Lot
Ordering a large quantity of business cards is very useful when you first start a business or are recently promoted to a new title. This strategy helps ensure the longevity of the information on the card. After acquiring your box(s) of stylish business cards, it’s key to begin presenting them at every opportunity. For example, when you send out mailers or ship out products, enclose your card. If you’re at a restaurant, you can even leave a card with the bill or post one to their bulletin board if they have one.

Every person you meet should receive a card, even family and friends. The worst case scenario is that they throw it out (hopefully recycle) when they get home. However, the key is to practice getting your name and business out in the open for the world to find and use. If you are effective, you’ll be rewarded with better client retention and local (or even global) visibility. You never know when you are going to meet your next big client.

These four tips are a great start to help you on your way to creating and using the best business cards for your market. Find a business card seller that will allow you to customize your business cards and then go ahead and make them uniquely your own in every way.

Chad Liffmann is a Marketing Coordinator at Tiny Prints, a premier online stationery website that offers exclusive designs for business cards, party invitations, holiday cards and more.

Today’s Creativity Exercises come to you from Guest Poster Leah Landly:

Even the best writers face writer’s block. Worse, even the best writers get trapped by cliché and stale story lines. Fortunately, most writers have found many tricks to help overcome these hurdles and move past any blocks. The next time you find yourself struggling to think of unique story lines or engaging characters, try one of these creativity exercises to move past your block:

Write a Story in another Genre
It’s easy to become comfortable and to fall into patterns when you write the same kind of material over and over again. Writing in another genre can change the way you approach characters, story details, and plot. You may even find that you have a talent for another style of writing or that you enjoy it more!

Keep a Fictional Diary
Discover a new character by starting a fictional diary for him or her. Start with small details that envelop day-to-day activities and see where further exploration leads you. If you need new character ideas or if you’re having a hard time creating a fully-dimensional character, this exercise can help you discover deeper and more nuanced traits.

Scan the Headlines
The truth can be stranger than fiction – and it can also provide great fodder. Read newspapers or magazines for local events or human interest stories to see if you find any ideas for your next story. You may be inspired to write a piece of non-fiction – such as a biography or a piece of social analysis – or you may decide to use the details as a foundation for a piece of fiction.

Steal from the Greats
Wicked and Grendel were popular fictional stories written about fictional characters from other well-known works. If you have a favorite book, play, movie, or musical, consider writing a story about one of its characters or from another point of view. Of course, you have to be careful that the story you are creating is something entirely new.

Write Flash Fiction
Micro fiction or flash fiction is fiction that is less than 2,000 words in length. Some stories are as short as 100 words. Writing such fiction can present a challenge to distill elements of plot and character to their most essential. Writing in this genre will make you think about the truly important elements of your story.

Move Scenes Around
Or whole blocks of text. William Burroughs was famous for doing it successfully, and other writers have found success with the method. If the work seems flat, try moving around the order of events – or even words in a passage – to see if the new creation yields pleasing results or inspires a new direction.

Choose a New Point of View
Take an old piece of writing, or the piece you’re currently struggling with, and rewrite it from a new point of view. If it was written in the third person, choose a character and write it from the first person instead. A new perspective might shed new light on the characters or the plot.

Write Description
Choose a place you know or have visited, and write a 200-word description. Use all your sensory details, and try to describe it for someone who has never been there.

Describe Your Friends
Write short character descriptors for a list of five or 10 of your friends. Thinking of how to describe them in prose will make you think more critically about how your characters appear in print.

Free Write
The simplest way to get over writer’s block is to just write. Don’t think about what you’re writing or where you’re going. Don’t think about how much you’ve written or how much time you’ve spent writing. You may be surprised to find what comes out or what inspiration you discover.

Do you have another favorite creativity exercise that helps you get past your writer’s blocks? Share them in the forum!

Bio:
Leah Landly is the community manager for BluWiki, an informational Wiki service and free web publishing platform. She covers many topics and answers popular questions like, how to touch a girl and how to ask a girl out.

We are now getting back on track with our Topics of the Month, for September it is Photography and Composition. The first article in this series is a guest post from Kate Croston:

There are no hard and fast rules for photography. Like any art, it all depends on what the artist wants to communicate. But even artists need tips once in a while. Here are ten ways to make your photos pop.

1. Balance –Yin and Yang, good and evil, black and white. Find your balance. It might be color, it might be shape, it might be texture. Whatever it is, make sure your photo is balanced. Try taking the photo with the subject off centered and balanced with something in the background (or foreground).
   
2. Lead – No pointless pictures here. The human eye is great for choosing what is important, even in a cluttered atmosphere, but the camera is not so great. Make sure you lead your views where you want them to go, without being distracted. It might mean you need to crop the photo, make it black and white, or just frame it.
   
3. View – There are many, many ways to look at a scene. Don’t just take photos head-on. Try coming from above or below, sideways or diagonal. Seeing things from a new perspective can really open your eyes.
   
4. Background – Your background can add to your picture or detract from it. If your subject is the only thing you want people to focus on, choose a plain background. If you want more depth to your photos, try for an overlapping background. Whatever you choose, make sure the subject remains the subject.
   
5. Frame–Having a hard time really focusing in on the subject? Try framing. There are lots of things that provide natural frames for a photo. A wall, a window frame, a tree, a mountain. Play around and see what works for you.
   
6. Focus–Ultra important, especially with close-ups or extreme distances. You may want to use a tripod, just so the camera stays focused and steady. The interest in a picture is dramatically reduced if it’s fuzzy and out of focus.
   
7. Breathe – Let your subject breathe a bit. Keep some negative space in your photo so that people do not get overwhelmed. The eyes will naturally focus on the subject, even if 90% of the photo is negative space.
   
8. Try – Try, try, try again. The great thing about digital cameras is the lack of film. So take lots of photos. If you’ve got the subject set up it is much easier to take ten shots now rather than taking one and having to redo it later.
   
9. Light – Play with lighting. I know the ‘Golden Hour’ is when you typically set up your pictures, but try different times of the day for different effects. Or, if you are shooting indoors, try lighting from different, dramatic angles. Shadows add great depth to an otherwise flat photo.
   
10. Play – Have fun! That’s what you are doing this for, right? Play around. See what works for you. And remember, no one sees things exactly the same. Take a second look and see what you can discover.
    

There you go: ten simple tips on making the most of your photos. Now quit reading and get shooting. Remember to have fun and experiment, and don’t be afraid to get dirty. We are always surrounded by beauty; you just have to look for it.

Author Bio:

Kate Croston is a freelance writer, holds a bachelors degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She writes guest posts for different sites and loves contributing cheap internet service related topics. Questions or comments can be sent to:  katecroston.croston09 @ gmail.com.