Posts Tagged ‘howto’

5 Key Questions When Planning Your Presentation (Presentation Masterclass - Part 2)

Let’s just reiterate our starting position here:
MOST PRESENTATIONS SUUUUUUUUUCK!
This happens at all stages of the life-cycle of a presentation, but if your base preparation is below par, then no amount of shiny graphics and animation will save you – sucky foundation, sucky presentation.

To rise above the background noise of a zillion average-to-bad presentations, here are a handful of key questions to… » Continue

April 14 2008 | By Rowan | Tagged: howto, powerpoint, presentation, public_speaking, tutorial | 5 comments»

I Need a User Manual for My Life!

I was doing something routine a couple of days ago — paying some first of the month bills online — and I got stuck. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember the name of one of the people I send payments to. All the information is saved in my bank account’s settings, but I have to enter the name of the recipient, exactly as it appears in my… » Continue

April 7 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: howto, manual, repetition, routine, tutorial | 28 comments»

Presentation Masterclass - Part 1: Introduction

I have been observing, delivering and training people in presentation techniques for over 20 years now and my considered, professional, opinion on the subject is this:

MOST PRESENTATIONS SUUUUUUUUCK!

In almost every sphere of human endeavour, the outcome can be plotted on a bell-curve – a few really skilled people over on the right, a few really hopeless people over on the left and a whole bunch or just-above or just-below average… » Continue

April 3 2008 | By Rowan | Tagged: howto, powerpoint, presentation, public_speaking, tutorial | 15 comments»

How to Become a Pop Star

I was 16, good looking, and with a great voice: I could see myself walking on the red carpet, and success was just around the corner. Or so I thought…

With my little band made up of two people and one very expensive laptop, I decided to find venues that would pay me to entertain their customers: “I’ll make lots of money, and a big… » Continue

January 15 2008 | By Marco | Tagged: career, howto, justin, music, popstar, self-improvement | 21 comments»

Index Card Hacks

I love index cards. I’d like to blame Merlin Mann and his hipster PDA for this obsession, but I don’t use a hipster PDA and still I find myself unable to pass the index card rack at Office Depot without stopping for a look.

Index cards provide a sturdier alternative to notepad paper, making them ideal for “throwaway” notes like directions or phone numbers — notes I’ll need… » Continue

November 5 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: DIY, dryerase, hack, hipsterpda, howto, indexcard, paper, tool | 45 comments»

Improve Your Writing with these Editing Tips

Teachers, business people, and just about everyone else it seems complain often and loudly that people today (usually “kids today”) don’t know how to write. I’m convinced, though, that a big part of the problem (perhaps the biggest part of the problem) is that people don’t know how to edit. We labor under the notion that good writing flows easily from the pen or typing fingers, and… » Continue

November 2 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: business, Communication, editing, howto, student, writing | 63 comments»

Halloween D.I.Y Project: Make Your Own Zombie

One of the most overlooked yet incredibly useful personal productivity tools available today is the zombie. Though incapable of many creative tasks, they are ideal for most corporate work, and suitable for all manner of tasks requiring physical strength, repetitive actions, risk to life and limb, or the death of your enemies. What’s more, zombies work for free (though you must remember never to feed them anything with salt… » Continue

October 31 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: DIY, halloween, howto, laborsaving, Productivity, zombie | 10 comments»

How to Use Windows Vista Speech Recognition

Voice recognition software has been around for a long time, but it’s only in the last few years that it has become accurate enough and simple enough to use with any regularity. It has also been rather expensive, with “basic” versions running around $80-100 and “premium” versions running to several hundred dollars – prompting many buyers to ask what was missing from the lower-priced versions.

If you have Windows… » Continue

October 10 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: howto, software, speechrecognition, transcription, vista, windows | 21 comments»

Advice for Students: 11+ Ways to Make this Your Best Semester Yet

Right about now, America’s students are heading back to school for the Fall semester. Last week, I gave some very specific advice about using a wiki to store and organize notes, but keeping good notes is just part of being a successful student. Over the weekend, I decided to offer up some more general, all-purpose advice for students. Whether you’re just starting college or returning, the… » Continue

August 27 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: advice, college, collegelife, howto, moleskine, organization, Productivity, student, tip, university | 46 comments»

The lifehack.org User’s Guide

With the rise of RSS, website content is increasingly found far afield from the websites where it originates. And there’s nothing wrong with that — RSS away! But for those of you who read lifehack.org’s post in your feed reader, as well as those of you new to lifehack.org or longtime readers who might not have had a chance to look around the site much, I thought I’d take… » Continue

August 13 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: community, forum, howto, lifehack.org, Podcast, Productivity, site, wiki | 2 comments»

How to Give Instructions

There’s a common story in America about a hapless tourist asking a Maine farmer for directions. After thinking a moment, the farmer rattles off a lengthy lists of directions along the lines of “…take the old side road up a ways past the Anderson’s farm and turn left when you see Smithy’s cow. After a while you’ll come to a broke-down truck, turn right and cut across the… » Continue

August 6 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: Communication, directions, howto, instructions | 11 comments»

Advice for Students: 10 Steps Toward Better Research

A little while back, I wrote about ways for students to add a little extra “kick” to their research papers. Those strategies were meant for students who had already mastered the basics of performing research, not students just getting started doing research and writing papers. As with writing, though, research skills are rarely taught very clearly — professors assume students know or can figure out… » Continue

August 3 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: howto, library, research, student, tip, writing | 62 comments»

Advice for Students: 10 Steps Toward Better Writing

Writing well is easily one of the most sought-after and useful skills in the business world. Ironically, it is one of the rarest and most undervalued skills among students, and few professors have the time, resources, or skills to teach writing skills effectively. What follows are a handful of tips and general principles to help you develop your writing skills, which will not only improve your grades… » Continue

July 27 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: academic, education, howto, student, writing | 27 comments»

Becoming a Great Step-Dad

The biggest change I made this year, and maybe in my life, is becoming a step-dad. Moving in with my partner meant making a commitment to her three children, a commitment that turned out to mean a heck of a lot more after I made it than I had thought it would.

Becoming a step-dad is akin to becoming a father, but there are a few important differences that… » Continue

July 23 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: children, family, howto, parenting | 22 comments»

Get More Out of Google Reader

If you’ve already gotten started with Google Reader, you’re probably ready for some advanced tips and tricks to make better use of this rather full-featured RSS client. Here’s what you need to do to become a real Google Reader power user.

Get Organized

Google Reader offers two effective ways to wrangle your feeds into order: folders and tags. (Google is inconsistent in its use of “folders” and “tags”… » Continue

July 20 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: googlereader, howto, rss, shortcuts, tip | 29 comments»

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