Managing Yourself Archives - Page 8 of 14

How to Improve your LinkedIn Profile and Impress the World

by sincera | Jan 12, 2016 | Career, Managing Yourself, Resume, World of Work

In the World of Work today, your LinkedIn profile is just as important as (and perhaps, even more than) your resume. Consider this – where else can you potentially reach out to more than 400 million members in over 200 countries and territories? Your LinkedIn profile is your online business card, your personal marketing pitch and your online record of your career story and achievements. Whether you are in business or are employed, the first and easiest way to create a powerful personal brand for yourself is to have an all-star LinkedIn profile. Do you need more reasons to improve your LinkedIn profile? No, right? So pay attention to these tips and get started on building a kickass LinkedIn profile!

Pay attention to the details

Spend time in crafting out your profile, and pay attention to the details. Add a catchy headline, add an industry name – that way you will show up in all the potential opportunity searches which may be of interest to you. Use active keywords in your summary to help yourself be found in searches. It is also preferable to speak in the first person, while writing about yourself. Spend time in choosing the perfect profile picture, and remember that this is not Facebook. “A photo can go a long way to convey passion, energy, charisma, empathy, and other soft skills that are hard to write about.” [The Muse]. And make sure you customize your default LinkedIn public profile URL to one that has your name i.e. “http://linkedin.com/in/yourfullname”.

Personalize your Profile

“How do you want the world to see you professionally? What kinds of work do you enjoy doing? Why are you on LinkedIn? Those are the questions you should think about when creating your LinkedIn profile, so it’s aligned with your personal brand. While marketing-speak like ‘personal brand’ feels fake to many of us, we’re really just talking about setting the right tone for your profile and positioning yourself for the kinds of opportunities you’re interested in.” ― Melanie Pinola, Author – LinkedIn In 30 Minutes. LinkedIn features allow you to add rich media like photographs, presentations and videos to your profile. Use these visual tools to enhance your profile. Add photographs of you in action, add relevant presentations and videos. Use these features to your advantage, to create your own personal brand, which sells!

Request Recommendations

Aim for at least one recommendation in a month (depends completely on your work exposure). If you’ve done great work for someone and want to showcase it on your LinkedIn profile, don’t hesitate to reach out and request for a recommendation. While requesting for a recommendation, be specific on what you would like your recommender to focus on, it makes things easier for him/her as well. A specific recommendation is much more useful than a generic one. However, if the recommendation you receive, isn’t the kind you had in mind (if it is far too generic or poorly written, and you don’t think it will serve you any purpose), you can always “hide” it, select Profile > Edit Profile and go to the position with which the recommendation is associated. Click Manage. Uncheck the box next to the recommendation that you want to hide, and click Save Changes.”

Be Active and Stay Engaged

Your efforts shouldn’t end simply after creating a profile. You need to establish your own identity in a world of 400 million (and counting as you read this) users. Create your own microcosm by joining groups and being active in them. Update your status regularly, not about how crazy last night was, but about your work projects and professional ideas. Publish/share/repost your own articles and those of your connections. You should review and refresh your profile at least once a quarter. You are more likely to show up in the LinkedIn updates if you regularly update your status and general profile.

Be Human, Be Generous

This beautiful Zulu proverb says it all: “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”- A human is only a human because of other humans. We’re all interconnected! Your Success on LinkedIn is assured and becomes more meaningful when you help others succeed. Don’t hesitate to reach out on LinkedIn – be of help and ASK for help. Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows. The more you give of yourself in anything, the more you get in return – especially when you give with no expectation of return. Too often, we build islands of ourselves cutting ourselves off from people who we can learn from, grow with and share life’s experiences. Do what you can for other people in your LinkedIn network – give recommendations and endorsements, hit like when you see someone post something you liked (it doesn’t cost you money), celebrate successes and milestones with your connections, encourage and go out of your way to help people looking for support. As Seth says – We long to connect, all of us. We long to be noticed, to be cared for, to matter. Generosity is the invisible salve on our wound of loneliness, one that benefits both sides, over and over again.

Note that if you are in the process of editing your profile, spare your connections every little detail of what you update. Turn off your activity broadcast temporarily, so that you can keep editing your profile silently. Once you are satisfied with your profile and will be editing it only occasionally in the future, you can turn on your activity broadcast, so that your connections are notified when there is a significant update on your profile.

In this highly competitive world that we live in, we have to ensure that we stay visible, leave a positive impression on as many people as we interact with and keep growing and improving the quality of our network. LinkedIn gives us the opportunity to do all this at one place but like anything else, LinkedIn is only as useful as you make it! So take the time to improve your LinkedIn profile every chance you get and impress the world!

Bonus Video: Check out these series of videos from Capella University on how to improve your LinkedIn profile in every section. There are some great tips, presented in a concise way, in here that you will thank us for.

Happy Viewing!

How to Write the Perfect Resume – Your Essential Guide!

by sincera | Jan 5, 2016 | Career, Infographics, Job Offers, Managing Yourself, Resume, World of Work

Anytime is a good time to write the perfect resume. The beginning of the year is an especially good time since it leaves you feeling hopeful for a year full of opportunities and possibilities in the World of Work! And helps you to recap all your achievements and accomplishments of the year gone past. We strongly believe that the resume is not just a document to be written or rewritten for applying to job opportunities. The resume is a faithful journal of your career trajectory – a record of all your successes and learnings at every stage of your working journey. A reminder of where you started, how far you have come and where you still need to go. So whether you need to apply for a job right now or not, it is always a good time to perfect your resume. For all of you who’ve missed our previous posts on resumes, and for the rest of you who may have enjoyed reading them, here is our essential guide for everything you need to know about resumes and how to write them right.

Write the Perfect Resume – Decide the kind of resume that suits your profile the best

Spend some time deciding the flow that your resume should follow so that your experience and skills are displayed to their best advantage.

Chronological Resume – This format of resume is most popular and common, and is always sought after by the employer for its efficient timeline layout. The contents, i.e. your work experience, education and other details are listed in a reverse chronological order – the most recent being on top. Each position you list has to be supplemented by the qualifications you hold for the position and accomplishments achieved while in that position. Your education section is to have your latest degree first followed by any other degrees you may have acquired previously, and information about your schooling (up to 10 +2). Additionally a Skills section would help you to highlight any additional skills-centric workshop/certificate courses you may have participated in (again listed in reverse chronological order with the most recent one being on top).

Functional Resume – Going by the name, a ‘Functional’ resume is one which focusses more on an elaboration of your skills and experiences rather than a timeline format of positions held by you. Thus, if you have skills in the categories of Human Resources, Communication, Customer Service, and so on, your skills, experience and accomplishments pertaining to these categories are to be listed in bullet points under each heading. It has to be followed by a separate heading – ‘Employment’ in which you list your work order in reverse chronological order. This format gives more focus to skills than your work experience, however any kind of resume has to have a section in which your employment history is listed.

Combination Resume – This format lets you have the best of the Chronological Resume and the Functional Resume. It helps you highlight your skills as well as your progressive work experience in a timeline format.

For more on types of resumes, sample formats and how to tailor yours to suit your profile, have a look at our post, here.

Write the Perfect Resume – Get your Basics Right!

It does not matter whether you are writing your resume for the first time or brushing the dust off your long forgotten resume to make it perfect for today, keep these basics in mind.

Template for your resume : Start with a professionally designed template. There are a number of free templates on the internet, we recommend you check out the ones at Microsoft: Unless you are in the creative fields, we recommend choosing a simple template that does not have a lot of graphics and unusual fonts/icons on it. Most companies use automated systems(Applicant Tracking Systems) to process your resumes and if you don’t stick to the standards, the system may not recognize parts or all of your resume.

Use Appropriate Headings: It organizes the content of your resume making it easy to read and drawing the attention of the reader to the most important parts (remember the short attention span of the recruiter while filtering through hundreds of resumes). Here are some great dos and don’ts for the resume headings that you must read.

Format of your resume: Use a PDF format, unless otherwise told. However, it is best to save three copies of your resume, one in PDF, one in rtf and another one in a word format, so that you can use whichever is required and don’t have to fumble around for it.

Sync your Resume with all your Online profiles: This is crucial because it makes you appear consistent as well as authentic. This will also have your back in case of a background check.

Invest in your stationery: While you would have sent out a soft copy of your resume already, you will still be required to carry a hard copy of it for face to face interviews at most places. Use the best possible paper and ink to print out your resume, believe us, subtle things like this do make a statement.

Don’t make it an autobiography: Draw the line between the personal and the professional in your resume. Things like your marital status, parents’ names, their professions, your height, weight, et all are of no consequence in your resume.

Write the Perfect Resume – Do’s and Don’ts while Writing

Once you have the content and template ready, keep in mind the following points while editing your resume:

Always keep the design of your resume simple and readable. Avoid any fancy frills, those are always distract the reader away from the substance of your resume. Use ample white spaces and always prefer putting the information in bullet points, rather than in paragraphs, it is much more readable that way. Use a font size of 11 or 12, not too small, not too big!

Curate your digital footprints. Update your LinkedIn profile, and your other social networking accounts, cleanse anything you may not want your employer to ‘stumble upon’! (for more on why this is important, read the social media mistakes you need to avoid while job hunting).

Is your objective clearly stated? If not, make sure it is. Do not beat around the bush. This is one section that you can customize for the position and company that you are applying to.

Use ‘Action Words’ like ‘growth’, ‘build’, ‘driving force’, to make an impact on the reviewer.

Edit, edit and edit until you have done away with every redundant syllable! Keeping your resume as short and crisp as possible will always make it stand out!

Avoid typos at all costs. Take all the care to avoid any grammatical and spelling errors in your resume. It could be a real dampener!

Use a professional email id. If you are still using ronitdarockstarrr@iamuseless.com from your college days, switch over to a professional email id with your full name in it, and without any adjectives or other unnecessary words.

Always furnish genuine information. Remember in this digital age, your original credentials are just a click away. So it is best to be honest to the core while writing up your resume. You don’t want a background check to be contradicting the information you have shared with your prospective employer.

For more on Do’s and Don’ts while writing your resume and a great infographic on the topic, read here .

Write the Perfect Resume – Some cover letter basics before you Send your Resume!

In this digital age, the cover letter has been replaced by the cover email – but be it a letter or email, an introduction to your resume remains as important as ever.

Do your research on the organization/company you are applying to. Most of them have detailed instructions regarding what they expect you to write in your cover letter. If you know someone who works in the organization, get in touch with him and take his advice. If there is a referral system in place, see if you can get your resume submitted through it.

Address your email to the appropriate contact person. Find out the name of the person you are mailing your resume to. Even if the organization has a generic email to send resumes, they sometimes mention a contact person who handles all recruitment requests.

Your cover letter/email should convey succinctly your interest in the organization. Introduce yourself briefly and go on to mention why you are writing the email. Be sure to be explicit about how your skill set compliments the position you are applying to. Describe your skills and experiences, as required by the organization. Be careful not to copy as is from your resume: it shows you are lazy. Remember to write complete sentences and do a thorough spell check.

If asked by the organization, mention the name of your referees and how they are related to you. Give correct contact addresses for these people and make sure you notify them in advance regarding your application. Also include your own contact information at the end of the cover letter as well as in the resume so that the recruiters can easily get in touch with you.

A fine way to murder your job application is by making your cover letter generic. The reader should feel that you have read about their organization before mailing, and not simply sent a generic mail to all companies that you are applying to. Browse the organization website and get to know about their work culture, ethics and history. You should write how these qualities match your own beliefs, and how this would help you thrive in the organization. Customizing the cover letter according to the organization grabs the reader’s attention and gives you a definite edge over other applicants with generic letters.

For more on cover letter basics, read here.

Write the Perfect Resume – Apps that can make it easier

Did you know about these awesome free apps that can help you in building your resume?

Resume Now – If you are a rookie at resumes, this is the perfect app for you. The app has a simple interface which gives you step by step instructions on how to proceed with your resume. It has a range of templates you can pick from and allows you to save your resume in multiple formats. This app is the official resume building app for the site Live Career. You will first have to sign in (hassle free) and then you can even create cover letters, take free tests, save and download the resume you’ve worked on.

Pocket Resume – An easy to use app, with features that enable you to create, maintain, update and email your resume on your phone, on the go!

Career Igniter Resume Builder– A free android app you can use without even having to create an account. The app lets you export your resume in a word format, it also lets you save it and email it. However, their format is inflexible, meaning it is mandatory for you to fill in all the headings they have.

Resume Writing Secrets – A great app which gives you exposure to a lot of helpful tips and tricks for building a resume. Particularly handy when you have a lot of transit time!

Resume Genius – The USP of this app is that you can select from over fifty thousand professionally written resume phrases to incorporate seamlessly into your resume templates. Also, you don’t need to create an account, all you need to do is click “Create My Free Resume” and get started.

This article on techrepublic has a lot more interesting apps you could try out, have a look here.

We hope you enjoyed reading our exhaustive compilation on everything you need to know to write the perfect resume! Your resume and your cover letter are your marketing pitch to get your foot in the door. Remember that while you may have a kickass background, it may mean nothing unless you are able to communicate it effectively in the form of an articulate and well-structured resume. Craft a resume which inspires them to hire you, and we hope this article was full of the inspiration you needed to start cracking on the perfect resume!

Bonus Infographic from essaymama.com : We have included this smart checklist to help you assess your resume and make sure that you have got it all together. Check it out!

Top Ten Career Quotes from Hollywood Movies That Inspire

by sincera | Dec 25, 2015 | Career, Managing Yourself, Motivation, Productivity, World of Work

In the world of work, we all have our good days and our bad days. On those days when we feel like we are just ‘hanging in there’, it seems as though inspiration is miles away. The secret is, inspiration is never miles away, it is always right there. All we need to do is to push ourselves to reach out, and what could be a more fun source than movies? So, here are our top ten career quotes (or the “Eureka Moments” as we call them) from some great Hollywood movies. In case you’ve missed watching these, follow the IMDB links we’ve put in, to get an idea about why you should tick each one of these off your ‘must-watch’ checklist of Hollywood Movies.

Career Quotes #1: That’s right, keep going and never stop –

“Don’t ever let someone tell you you can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period. All right?”

– The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Career Quotes #2: The sooner the better, indeed –

“My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work. The sooner the better.”

– Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Career Quotes #3: When you are self-motivated you will never run out of gas –

“Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”

– The Imitation Game (2014)

Career Quotes #4: There is always hope –

“There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.”

– The Theory of Everything(2014)

Career Quotes #5: You will never know unless you try –

“Most people live life on the path we set for them. Too afraid to explore any other. But once in a while people like you come along and knock down all the obstacles we put in your way. People who realize free will is a gift that you’ll never know how to use until you fight for it.”

–The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

Career Quotes #6: Perhaps we’ve forgotten we are still pioneers –

“We’ve always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we’ve just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we’ve barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us.”

– Interstellar (2014)

Career Quotes #7: It is all in the little things –

“I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay.”

– The Hobbit (2012)

Career Quotes #8: Say Nay to the Naysayers!

“Don’t tell me I can’t do it; don’t tell me it can’t be done!”

– The Aviator(2004)

Career Quotes #9: Be passionate about ideas –

“What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed–fully understood–that sticks.”

– Inception (2010)

Career Quotes #10: One step at a time –

“There are many points in life when we cannot see what awaits us around the corner, and it is precisely at such times, when our path forward is unclear, that we must bravely keep our nerve, resolutely putting one foot before the other as we march blindly into the dark.”

– The Hundred Foot Journey (2014)

Mostly, inspiration finds us. Sometimes though, we need to find it. And we hope if today was one of those days for you, this post came in handy. Let us know which of these is your favorite and if we’ve missed out on some amazing flicks. Go ahead, seize the day!

Beware: 5 Social Media Mistakes When Job Hunting

by sincera | Dec 22, 2015 | Career, Communication, Infographics, Job Offers, Managing Yourself, Office Etiquette, World of Work

Did you know that 92% of recruiters and companies are using social media to search for or vet candidates for jobs? Social Media is a gold mine for recruiters. Online networks are chock-full of precious data, both personal and professional. And recruiters are digging deep to uncover more about job hunting candidates. (Source: Jobvite 2015 recruiter nation Survey)

Social Media has truly become a powerful tool in the process of recruitment. If you are job hunting (and even if you are not), you should be very careful about what you put out there, because EVERYTHING you ‘update’, ‘post’, ‘tweet’ or ‘Instagram’, is likely to be held for or against you when you are job hunting. Do an online search on yourself first and see what comes up. Do you want potential employers to see this information about you? Is your online presence a credible and reassuring one? Here are the five social media mistakes when job hunting, you definitely should be wary of:

1. Inappropriate Photographs

Curate your online profiles carefully for any inappropriate photographs that would not leave a positive impression for your potential employer. For example, you don’t want overly explicit photographs of the crazy bachelor’s party your friend recently had! Be sure to check the tags as well – a lot of times, you may not have uploaded photographs, but if your friends have tagged you on them, they will still show up on your profile. Tone down on the selfies too.

2. Dissing your old employer or colleagues in public

A strict no-no, and is also extremely unprofessional. Remember that it is a small world and ending things on a bad note can have consequences you didn’t even think of then. Besides, ranting away to glory in a public forum (and God forbid, with spelling and grammatical mistakes galore) reflects very poorly upon you, and your future or potential employer would definitely take a judgement call based on this one factor.

3. Bragging about illegal activity

Remember that you are not in high school anymore, and it is no longer ‘wicked’ to do this stuff. Speaking of ‘stuff’, it is completely unacceptable to put up information regarding your personal habits which are also borderline or completely illegal. No employer would ever let such information pass unnoticed, and with that, you can kiss your dream job goodbye.

4. Very frequent/very few updates

A constant social media presence would definitely bring to your potential employer’s mind “He/she is 24*7 on Facebook, Twitter, even at 12.30 pm on a weekday. Is he/she easily distracted? Will he/she able to focus on his/her work?”, and there goes your chance. Similarly, in today’s world, being completely absent on social media reflects a general lack of interest in current affairs and networking. Strike a balance between too much and too little time and presence on social media.

5. Not controlling/limiting privacy

When the likes of Zuckerberg and Hoffman have created options where we can control what we want to show to the world, and who we want to show it to, why not use it? Since you can’t really filter everything, you may consider restricting your privacy options to only your friends or people you can trust. Here is a great post that tells you exactly how to clean up your online profiles on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and more. But we would still ask you to cleanse whatever you can (and don’t forget to go back in time to delete/filter inappropriate postings – that trip to Goa/Las Vegas where your friends captured your “zombie” time? Hide for sure!). Because it does make an impression, and will probably have made the first impression before you even make it to the interview!

The presence and reach of social media in our lives – personal and professional, has become quite overwhelming, and increasingly so in the world of work. Being aware and conscious of how much and what you put out there, and what counts as social media mistakes when job hunting, will always work in your favor, regardless of whether or not you are job hunting actively.

Bonus Infographic: In case you need more motivation to proactively manage your social media presence to succeed in your job hunt, we have the facts and figures here from Jobvite on why Social Media matters:

5 Ways to Build and Improve Your Vocabulary

by sincera | Dec 17, 2015 | Career, Communication, Communication Skills, Content Writing, Managing Yourself, World of Work, Writing

Knowing how to harness the power of words for your benefit can make for a much smoother career path – be it in interviews, meetings, emails, presentations, conversations and more. If you can express yourself clearly, you have a huge advantage over most. Having a good vocabulary is crucial for written as well as spoken communication. It benefits you not just professionally but also personally. Working on your vocabulary helps you articulate yourself in a specific and precise manner, and is one of the most underrated skills. In fact, the researcher Johnson O’Connor conducted a study over 20 years, and showed that

“No matter which area he looked at, and no matter how he analyzed the data: a person’s vocabulary level is the best single predictor of occupational success.”

Read on to find out about the five simple practices which will help build and improve your vocabulary.

Improve your Vocabulary by Reading

This is one habit that will boost your vocabulary like nothing else can. Set aside at least thirty minutes of your day for some mindful reading. Read business magazines or online business journals, reading newspapers daily is a must – at least the editorials, and of course, if you enjoy fiction, nothing like it. But remember that it is not enough to just read and know the story, the whole point is to build your word power, so when you come across a word and do not know what it means, be sure to look it up. Keep a pocket dictionary handy or an online dictionary on your bookmarks menu. We would also suggest noting it down on a sticky note and putting it somewhere you can see it every day, until it becomes a part of your vocabulary!

Improve your Vocabulary by Playing

Yes, building a vocabulary can be a rather fun thing to do. Make crosswords and word games an obsession and before you know it, you will have gained fabulous language skills. It can be hard in the beginning, but the key is to keep practicing. Most newspapers have a word games section that you can try. There are several mobile apps you can play in which you can also choose to start from a basic level and move up gradually. Our favourites are Wordament, Words Words Words and Text Twist. You can also check out the FreeRice.com website which donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food program for every answer that you get right in their vocabulary quiz.

Improve your Vocabulary One Word A Day

Yes, one of the secrets to a powerful vocabulary – learn one word at a time, everyday. Subscribe to “word of the day” emails. Don’t just sign up for it, make sure you read the emails every day and don’t end up marking them as spam. While it may take you only a few minutes to read it, the benefits will truly be long-term. You can use this link to sign up for one of these programs – Wordsmith.org or Word Of The Day

Improve your Vocabulary by Listening

You might have noticed by now, the amount of stress we lay on this one point in all our communication related posts. Listening intently and carefully is a great way to improve your vocabulary and communication. If you like the way the speaker is speaking, make a note of what you like. When you listen carefully, you will also come across new words and will learn the context in which to use them. If you write the word down and use it immediately in a sentence, your brain will remember the word better. It is also very important to listen to someone who does not seem to be making a lot of sense while speaking, because that is a lesson on the mistakes you have to avoid yourself.

Improve your Vocabulary by Writing

Even though this may sound tedious, it will take you a long way in improving your vocabulary. Writing helps you form coherent sentences and is a true measure of reflecting how your vocabulary has improved. It need not be tedious, all you need to do is maintain a journal and write as little as half a page a day, even about simple things like how your day was! This habit can be really helpful if you pursue it in a disciplined and persistent manner. We can assure you that two weeks into keeping a journal, you will really start enjoying it! Start today!

Remember that practice makes for perfect. You may follow all of the above advice, however, if you don’t put into use what you learn, it doesn’t matter how hard you have been working. Incorporate into your daily vocabulary the words you have been learning. Express yourself regardless of the anxiety that you may fumble and make mistakes. Make mistakes and then learn from them, and slowly with practice, you will be perfect!

5 Simple Life Hacks to Help You Write Better

by sincera | Dec 9, 2015 | Career, Communication, Communication Skills, Content Writing, Managing Yourself, Motivation, Productivity, Writing

Being a writer is a full time job. You are not on vacation even when you are on vacation because you are constantly thinking about what to write next! Being creative 24*7 is quite a challenge and a very difficult one to live up to. We, at Oorja Biz Ops have been brainstorming about changes we can bring about in our daily life, to help refuel the creativity. Here are five hacks that will work for you to write better (they certainly did, for us !):

Write Better Hack #1 – Start your day early

Being an early riser has a lot more advantages than you think. This is the best way to give your day a head start. Schedule the first 45 minutes of your day to write five hundred words of anything you can think about. With consistent practice you will see your writing skills improve significantly in just a matter of weeks. Accomplishing a task right at the beginning of the day is also a great confident booster and keeps you pumped up all through the day.

Write Better Hack #2 – Replace the caffeine

Did we hear a collective gasp? We know what coffee means to writers. For many, it can be impossible to start a day without a cup. However, it is a proven fact that a regular dose of caffeine is not a very healthy thing for your body. Caffeine also causes anxiety and restlessness which may not be what you need when you are already on the edge due to work stress. Try and replace caffeine with healthier options like green tea or even regular tea or some other healthy beverage. Might be worth it to give it a shot and notice the difference!

Write Better Hack #3 – Find ‘me time’

Gifting yourself some time is the healthiest thing you can do for yourself and the best hack to trigger your writing creativity. Set aside about 45 minutes of your day, every day, to recharge your soul simply by indulging yourself. Cook, bake, garden, sing, dance, paint – whatever helps you connect with your inner self and makes you happy. Finding ‘me time’ can be a tall order given the lifestyles we lead. This problem may be solved by going back to what we said about waking up early. That way, you will have more time than you usually do. Even if it’s just an hour earlier, it still gives you some space to fit ‘me time’ into your otherwise cramped day.

Write Better Hack #4 – Read Often, Read More

Read as much as, or more than you write. Reading helps recharge your intellectual resources and keeps those brainy ideas flowing. Reading fires your imagination – the stuff writers are made of. As Stephen King wrote in “On Writing”:

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut. . . .

It’s hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it’s true. If I had a nickel for every person who ever told me he/she wanted to become a writer but didn’t have time to read, I could buy myself a pretty good steak dinner. Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.

Just like a balanced diet is essential for a healthy body, balanced reading is crucial for a healthy mind and will make you think in different directions. Make sure your reading list consists of a mixed dose of current affairs, fiction and non-fiction. What you read, reflects in what and how you write.

Write Better Hack #5 – Be Honest with Yourself

While it is crucial to have expectations from oneself, at the same time, it is important to have goals which are practical and achievable. Setting long term targets on a high-on-red-bull day, probably isn’t a good idea. What we mean is, enthusiasm is vital, however, a lot of times we tend to become over enthusiastic with our goals and go on over drive trying to achieve them. Being honest with yourself about what you can and cannot achieve in a given period of time does not mean tardiness, it means being practical. But then, a little pressure now and then does help to shoo the devil called Procrastination away!

And finally, after putting our neck on the line, we leave you with the words from our idol and mentor, Seth Godin :

The biggest takeaway for anyone seeking to write is this: don’t go looking for the way other authors do their work. You won’t find many who are consistent enough to copy, and there are enough variations in approach that it’s obvious that it’s not like hitting home runs or swinging a golf club. There isn’t a standard approach, there’s only what works for you (and what doesn’t).

We hope you enjoyed our post. We would love to hear from you on what you do to help you write more and write better!

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