ZAKKA-SOFT: March 2014

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Nigeria: Fish farmers export commodity to US

Fish farmers in Nigeria have now gained access to the lucrative US market, as they now export large quantities of branded smoked fish to that country, the local media report on Wednesday.

The private BusinessDay newspaper reported that the export started a few weeks ago after the Post Harvest Commercial Fish Processors in the commercial city of Lagos, under the aegis of the Cooperative and Agro-allied Multi-purpose Society (CAMS), received the certification of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The fish farmers are being supported under the Lagos State Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP), with funding from the World Bank.

One of the farmers, Mr. Tunde Sanni, was quoted as saying the US FDA, working in partnership with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, received samples of fish from the processing plant of the farmers for laboratory testing and had certified the product fit for export to the US with FDA Food Facility Registration N0: 1248378216.

“Exporters of Nigerian foods now buy smoked fish from Tee Ess Farm and export to the United States and there has been no problems doing that. My farm also smokes fish for other fish farmers according to the international standards we have met and they can package the fish with their own label,” he added.

But while the farmers are jostling to take advantage of the new opportunities to earn hard currency by exporting their commodity to the US, Sanni said farmers and processors have barely met the local demand for smoked fish of international standards.

Pastor Kumuyi builds N1b Anchor University campus

Pastor William Kumuyi, the General Overseer of Deeper Life Bible Ministries is currently building an untra-modern campus for his N1billion private university called Anchor University.
The proposed site for the campus is a vast expanse of land, which has already been fenced, along the Lagos/Ibadan Express way. The campus will serve as the permanent site of Anchor University whose main campus is sited inside Deeper Life’s multibillion IBTC headquarters at Ayobo-Ipaja, Lagos.
The new campus will include hostels, faculties, administrative blocks, chalets, laboratories etc.

Behance just started collaborating with a group of fourteen established blogs, all very different, but all with a shared interest in helping people increase productivity (among other self-improvements). We call this collaboration “LifeRemix.” The Behance team sees this as a great opportunity to share our tips for productivity beyond the creative professional community.

Collaborations between organizations with different backgrounds often result in great realizations. To kick off LifeRemix, our group of bloggers collected a list of our 100 best “tips to improve your life.” Leo Babauta, author of Zen Habits and member of LifeRemix, compiled the list.While not specific to creative professionals, the list includes tips that are likely to boost overall effectiveness and the impact we are able to make with our ideas. For this reason, we re-post the list and encourage you to browse…

Find Inner Serenity by Making it Easier to Find Your Keys. For most people, getting control of clutter brings a greater sense of calm and decreased frustration.
Surround Yourself With Progress. When you complete a list of action steps, your instinct might be to throw the list away. After all, the work is completed! However, some creative professional teams take a different approach; they relish their progress. Some go so far as surrounding themselves with it.
Empty Your Inbox in 30 Seconds. Is your inbox filled with thousands and thousands of unread messages? Before you give up hope, there’s an instant way to clear your inbox of old emails in less than 30 seconds.
Instantly Build Self Confidence. These tips will get you riding high in no time.
Reduce Your Trash To Almost Zero. Follow the No Impact Man experiment to reduce our trash as close as we can to zero.
Feel like a million bucks for cheap. Feel healthier and more energized right away without spending a fortune.
End Laundry Chaos. More than 20 tips to help you keep your laundry chaos to a minimum.
Learn the Secrets of the Super-Organized. A few simple habits keep clutter and chaos at bay.
Check Email Once a Day … or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity.
Become an Early Riser. 10 benefits of rising early, and some practical tips on how to do it.
Learn Lessons from Google About Self-Image. How you think of yourself greatly affects how successful you can be. Google has got self-image down to a science.
Make a Good First Impression. Research shows that people decide what kind of relationship they want with you in the first ten minutes of a meeting, so making a good first impression really matters.
Know the Hype Behind Bottled Water. Have you ever stopped to think about just how incredibly odd it is to buy bottled water?
Leave Work at Work. Want more time for your family or personal life? Here’s how not to think about your job 24/7.
Create a Landing Strip to Become Organized. We come from work exhausted, often carrying our work bags, groceries, and the mail. A landing strip will help you avoid disorganization from the time you get home.
Understand Time to Increase Return on Investment. Time is your most valuable resource. Understanding these ideas will help you make optimal decisions.
Give Your RÈsumÈ a Face Lift. Even if you can’t hire a fancy designer and are stuck with Microsoft Word, a few tweaks can turn your blasÈ rÈsumÈ into an elegant and functional showpiece.
Boost Your Energy Level. Feeling energetic is a key to happiness and to self-esteem, so take steps to keep your energy high.
Actually Execute Your To-Do List. Many productivity systems will tell you how to organize your tasks, but what happens if you don’t feel like doing them?
Keep Your Desk Clean and Tidy. Do you spend waste more and more time looking for lost items instead of being the brilliant creative person that you are? Here’s how to get your desk clean, clutter-free, and keep it that way for good.
Learn the Truth About Baby Carrots. Baby carrots not really young carrots! They are also less nutritious and less flavorful than regular carrots.
Try Quick and (Almost) Painless Ways to Kill Distractions. Are you spending more time dealing with emails, IMs, phone calls, and random stray files than actually working? Here are ten actions you can do right now to kill distractions and get back to work.
Reduce Your Carbon Emissions. The most important lifestyle changes you can make to reduce your carbon emissions are listed here.
Put the Action Method Into Practice. After a couple years of studying how creative people stay organized, we developed a simple and easily customized method for managing projects. A good portion of 2006 was spent putting the Action Method into practice.
Gently End Procrastination. Need an easy way to remind you when you should be working and when you should be playing? Try using teaming up Flextime with Growl. Here’s how.
Get the Most Out of Your RSS Reader. Seven simple tips for getting your feeds under control.
Use Catchphrases to Change the Way You Think. By keeping certain ideas active and accessible through review and repetition ñ whether itís ìSay yes,î ìFake it ëtill you feel it,î or ìPeople succeed in groupsî ñ you can shape the way you think.
Photograph Your Mementos to Free Up Clutter. Taking digital photos of your mementos can get rid of clutter, free-up storage space, and provide you with a simple way to walk down memory lane.
Save Trees With Ease. Want to avoid all the paper towels, paper napkins and other tree-killing stuff there’s no need to use? Read here.
Organize Your Cluttered Desktop and Regain Your Sanity. Is your desktop littered with zillions of random files and folders often litter my desktop. Learn how 5 ordinary folders can keep your desktop immaculate.
Eat Slower. Why eating slower is better for your health, your sanity, your digestion, and more.
Maximize Your Lunch Hour. Your lunch hour should be the least “productive” moment in your day. If it lasts a mere 20 minutes-or just doesn’t exist anymore-here’s how to turn it around and make it joyful.
Increase Workplace Productivity by Not Being a Jerk. You get more flies with honey, as the saying goes. This is a brief outline for how to work and play well with your coworkers (and get more done).
Find Cheap Gas Instantly. If soaring gas prices are draining your wallet dry, here’s five ways to find cheap(er) gas anywhere.
Find Your Purpose. We’re all searching for our purpose. It seems tempting that having it appear by divine intervention would be great. Maybe not.
Make a GTD System for about $20. Putting together a functional GTD system for the price of a week’s worth of Starbucks.
Avoid costly DIY mistakes. You can end up costing yourself more in the long run if you don’t watch out for these mistakes.
Think About Whether You Can Afford NOT to Pursue Your Dreams. Pursuing dreams is crucial, even when it means taking a hit or entering financial uncertainty.
Plan for Success. Waiting for your ship to come in is a waste of time.
Improve Your Mind by Reading the Classics. How to use the wisdom of the classics to become a better writer, thinker, and speaker.
Break Habits of Highly Ineffective Emailing. A list of what not to do when emailing, avoiding these habits will take you a long way toward better, more productive email.
Make Your PDA Green. If you’re worried about e-waste and the toxins produced by burying and burning old cell phones and PDAs, you may want to try my green hipster’s pda.
Learn to Go From Solo to Successful Collaboration. Self-starters are often successful doing everything themselves. However, when forced to grow beyond the one gal/guy-show, many creative professionals are unable to take the leap from a solo success to a successful collaboration.
Create a Morning Routine. Developing a routine in the morning could lead to greater sanity and happiness, and achieving your goals.
Learn How to Survive a Road Trip. Road trips always begin on a high note, but by the end even Mother Teresa would be willing to shove her grandmother out of the car. Here are 9 tips to help keep you sane and happy on any road trip.
Share To Make Ideas Happen. The philosophy to “share ideas liberally” defies the age-old instinct to keep ideas secret. However, the creative person’s tendency to jump from idea-to-idea-to-idea causes most ideas to die in isolation. Creative professionals should take every opportunity to communicate new ideas broadly, seek feedback, and develop a sense of accountability.
Use Space Under Stairs for More Storage. Very cool under-stair storage where each step is a drawer.
Know What’s In Store If You Have a Toddler. New parents often wonder what’s in store for them once their kid is able to move around on their own. Here’s what you can expect.
Work in Multiple Positives. These hyper-productive activities will benefit you in multiple ways at once.
Use a Super Slim Wallet. It’s time to shrink down that backbreaking Constanza wallet. Here are 8 ways to radically slim down your wallet.
Advertise Action to Yourself. We live in a world of choices. When we buy, we have to make a choice between varieties, brands, and sizes. Similarly, when we work we have to decide what to focus on and how to use our time. While prioritization helps us focus, our minds still have the tendency to wander. We are most likely to focus on whatever catches our eye. Along the lines of “out of sight, out of mind” we learn that “right before our eyes, actions thrive.”
Gain Muscle in Minimal Time. How Tim Ferriss gained 34 pounds of muscle in 4 weeks.
Choose Living Over Sleeping Sometimes. Despite the importance of healthy sleep habits, there are times when it’s good to throw caution to the wind and invest in your life in other ways.
Make Reference Items Helpful. We spend too much time discussing, storing, and organizing notes. References are only valuable if you refer to them. Even with a well-organized system for managing references (either digital or paper), how often do we actually use them? How do we make reference items helpful?
Eat Sustainably. If you are interested in how to eat sustainably, read about it here.
Lose Weight Without Exercise. How to lose 20 lbs. of fat in 30 days with a sensible diet.
Find Calm & Sanity Through the Environment. If you’ve ever thought a more environmental life might also be a calmer, saner life, you’re right.
Learn About the Successfully Self-Employed. Is freelancing for suckers? Are you already an expert? This series explores the levels of the free-agent — and how to understand what each one means.
Learn GTD the Easy Way. An online primer of all the chapters of Getting Things Done.
Set Goals So You Actually Accomplish Them. Setting goals is hard. Following through is even harder. Using a framework that builds on your personal view of the world can make the process easier. This series helps outline how.
Reduce Gamer Clutter. If you are a gamer, these are a number of suggestions to help you keep your entertainment system under control and the gaming clutter to a minimum.
Stick to a Schedule of Regular Exercise. Exercising regularly boosts moodóright awayóand also makes it easier to sleep, keeps your weight down, and gives you energy.
Cut Back on Computer Cables. Follow these 8 simple steps to get rid of the birds’ nest of cables behind your computer.
Pay the Price to Be an Entrepreneur. The price of access can be steep, but once you’re flying down the road — it’s well worth it.
Single-task. Increase your productivity by learning not to multi-task.
Get Outside Your Comfort Zone. Comfort isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Drop Ideas That Fail. Ideas are a commodity. Being able to execute them well is what creates success. Hanging on to an idea, even after it his proven to be ineffective is the downfall of many aspiring entrepreneurs.
Learn to Calculate Risk. Risk and reward go hand-in-hand. Knowing what to expect can help reduce risk and shape your reality.
Don’t Settle for Just One Path. Variety is the spice of life. So why do you have to be just one thing when you grow up?
Get Rid of Paper Clutter. A four-part series dedicated to reducing the paper clutter in your home.
Set Up Action Areas. Boxes need to be mailed, errands need to be run, cookies need to be eaten, orders need to be fulfilled, but by whom? Whoever has a chance! The Behance team got tired of limiting our action steps to just an area on paper – why not make “action areas” out of physical space?
Find Hidden Clutter. Ten places to start looking for hidden clutter in your home.
Get a Promotion. 20 tips that landed the writer an IT promotion — most could be used in any field.
Dispose of Old Electronics. The best ways to dispose of old electronics.
Increase Your Intelligence. A list of 5 simple activities that will boost your brain power.
Present Yourself. Creative achievements seldom happen in isolation. A big part of making ideas happen is controlling how you come across to others. Of course, the Creative’s tendency is to say, “who gives a crap what other people think.” While there is merit in never compromising oneself for the sake of another’s opinion, creative professionals need to make an effort to be understood. You need to present yourself effectively to engage others and get the support (and the business) you need to push ideas forward.
Follow George Orwell’s Rules for Effective Writing. Becoming a better writer will create better career opportunities and increase productivity.
Lay Your Energy Line. Creative teams juggle multiple projects at once. The constant streams of ideas lead to more ideas. As energy is spread across projects like peanut butter, prioritization is all but lost. Energy Lines are a simple way to prioritize and use design to guide creative energy.
Focus on Continuous Improvement. By mastering the optimization mentality you can become an expert in your chosen field.
Motivate Yourself. This post will teach you to recognize the primary motivation killers and how to beat them.
Become a More Light-hearted Parent. We all want a peaceful, happy atmosphere at home ñ and you canít nag and yell your way there.
Give Up Nagging. Itís no fun to nag, and itís no fun to be nagged. Give your relationship a lift by putting an end to the irritating nag cycle.
Learn to Sacrifice Temporary Pressure for Long-term Goals. All success requires sacrifice. Do you have the determination to endure temporary punishment to reach your dreams?
Learn the GTD Workflow. An excellent into to GTD for the novice, a great refresher for the experienced.
Use the Power of 10 Minutes. 10 Minutes can be even more productive amount of time than 50 minutes, if used properly.
Triple Your Workout Effectiveness. Do you exercise regularly but don’t get the results you want? Here are some simple but powerful ways to boost that workout.
Work 8 Hours Straight Without Hating Yourself. There is an art to taking breaks that can help you work longer, and more productively.
Learn Whether You’re Waking Up at the Wrong Time. Everyone’s internal clock can tell us when we should be working. Are you listening to it?
Reduce Wasted Plastic Cups and Bottles. If you want to toss fewer plastic cups and bottles in the trash, you may be interested this ultra-cool reusable cup and water bottle.
Avoid Entrepreneurial Burnout: Fill Your Tank. Many times entrepreneurs suffer from going too hard with their vision, without thinking about keeping the work pace sustainable.
Take Steps to Boost Your Happiness in the Next Hour. You can make yourself happier ñ and this doesnít have to be a long-term ambition. You can start right now.
Learn to Capture Ideas and How to Manage Diarrhea of the Brain. Sometimes our best ideas come at the worst possible times. These tips will help to make sure none of those precious ideas fall through the cracks.
Know the Signs That a Pink Slip is Coming. If you can answer yes to THREE or more of these questions, you may want to think about sprucing up your resume and dry-cleaning your best interview attire.
Try No TV. In an extreme experiment to reduce waste to near zero, No Impact Man turned turned off electricity, which means no TV. Read about how to entertain a little girl with no TV.
Accelerate Your Mortgage Payments to Save a Bundle. See how much money you can save by adding just a few extra dollars a month to the principal.
Put Your Daily To-Do List On a Post-It. If it won’t fit on a post-it, it won’t fit in your day.
Use Money to Buy Happiness. Some of the best things in life arenít free, so spend money in ways to bring you more happiness bang for your buck.
Save the Lives of Animals With One Change. If you want to help save the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals just by not using plastic bags, perhaps the easiest environmental step, read here.
Get the Most Out of Your Rebates. Follow these tips and we can all fight the Man and wrench our hard-earned money back from those big, faceless corporations.
Eliminate All But the Absolute Essential Tasks. Is your to-do list overwhelming you? Here’s how to simplify it to the core task

100 Tips to Improve Your Life

Find Inner Serenity by Making it Easier to Find Your Keys. For most people, getting control of clutter brings a greater sense of calm and decreased frustration.
Surround Yourself With Progress. When you complete a list of action steps, your instinct might be to throw the list away. After all, the work is completed! However, some creative professional teams take a different approach; they relish their progress. Some go so far as surrounding themselves with it.
Empty Your Inbox in 30 Seconds. Is your inbox filled with thousands and thousands of unread messages? Before you give up hope, there’s an instant way to clear your inbox of old emails in less than 30 seconds.
Instantly Build Self Confidence. These tips will get you riding high in no time.
Reduce Your Trash To Almost Zero. Follow the No Impact Man experiment to reduce our trash as close as we can to zero.
Feel like a million bucks for cheap. Feel healthier and more energized right away without spending a fortune.
End Laundry Chaos. More than 20 tips to help you keep your laundry chaos to a minimum.
Learn the Secrets of the Super-Organized. A few simple habits keep clutter and chaos at bay.
Check Email Once a Day … or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity.
Become an Early Riser. 10 benefits of rising early, and some practical tips on how to do it.
Learn Lessons from Google About Self-Image. How you think of yourself greatly affects how successful you can be. Google has got self-image down to a science.
Make a Good First Impression. Research shows that people decide what kind of relationship they want with you in the first ten minutes of a meeting, so making a good first impression really matters.
Know the Hype Behind Bottled Water. Have you ever stopped to think about just how incredibly odd it is to buy bottled water?
Leave Work at Work. Want more time for your family or personal life? Here’s how not to think about your job 24/7.
Create a Landing Strip to Become Organized. We come from work exhausted, often carrying our work bags, groceries, and the mail. A landing strip will help you avoid disorganization from the time you get home.
Understand Time to Increase Return on Investment. Time is your most valuable resource. Understanding these ideas will help you make optimal decisions.
Give Your RÈsumÈ a Face Lift. Even if you can’t hire a fancy designer and are stuck with Microsoft Word, a few tweaks can turn your blasÈ rÈsumÈ into an elegant and functional showpiece.
Boost Your Energy Level. Feeling energetic is a key to happiness and to self-esteem, so take steps to keep your energy high.
Actually Execute Your To-Do List. Many productivity systems will tell you how to organize your tasks, but what happens if you don’t feel like doing them?
Keep Your Desk Clean and Tidy. Do you spend waste more and more time looking for lost items instead of being the brilliant creative person that you are? Here’s how to get your desk clean, clutter-free, and keep it that way for good.
Learn the Truth About Baby Carrots. Baby carrots not really young carrots! They are also less nutritious and less flavorful than regular carrots.
Try Quick and (Almost) Painless Ways to Kill Distractions. Are you spending more time dealing with emails, IMs, phone calls, and random stray files than actually working? Here are ten actions you can do right now to kill distractions and get back to work.
Reduce Your Carbon Emissions. The most important lifestyle changes you can make to reduce your carbon emissions are listed here.
Put the Action Method Into Practice. After a couple years of studying how creative people stay organized, we developed a simple and easily customized method for managing projects. A good portion of 2006 was spent putting the Action Method into practice.
Gently End Procrastination. Need an easy way to remind you when you should be working and when you should be playing? Try using teaming up Flextime with Growl. Here’s how.
Get the Most Out of Your RSS Reader. Seven simple tips for getting your feeds under control.
Use Catchphrases to Change the Way You Think. By keeping certain ideas active and accessible through review and repetition ñ whether itís ìSay yes,î ìFake it ëtill you feel it,î or ìPeople succeed in groupsî ñ you can shape the way you think.
Photograph Your Mementos to Free Up Clutter. Taking digital photos of your mementos can get rid of clutter, free-up storage space, and provide you with a simple way to walk down memory lane.
Save Trees With Ease. Want to avoid all the paper towels, paper napkins and other tree-killing stuff there’s no need to use? Read here.
Organize Your Cluttered Desktop and Regain Your Sanity. Is your desktop littered with zillions of random files and folders often litter my desktop. Learn how 5 ordinary folders can keep your desktop immaculate.
Eat Slower. Why eating slower is better for your health, your sanity, your digestion, and more.
Maximize Your Lunch Hour. Your lunch hour should be the least “productive” moment in your day. If it lasts a mere 20 minutes-or just doesn’t exist anymore-here’s how to turn it around and make it joyful.
Increase Workplace Productivity by Not Being a Jerk. You get more flies with honey, as the saying goes. This is a brief outline for how to work and play well with your coworkers (and get more done).
Find Cheap Gas Instantly. If soaring gas prices are draining your wallet dry, here’s five ways to find cheap(er) gas anywhere.
Find Your Purpose. We’re all searching for our purpose. It seems tempting that having it appear by divine intervention would be great. Maybe not.
Make a GTD System for about $20. Putting together a functional GTD system for the price of a week’s worth of Starbucks.
Avoid costly DIY mistakes. You can end up costing yourself more in the long run if you don’t watch out for these mistakes.
Think About Whether You Can Afford NOT to Pursue Your Dreams. Pursuing dreams is crucial, even when it means taking a hit or entering financial uncertainty.
Plan for Success. Waiting for your ship to come in is a waste of time.
Improve Your Mind by Reading the Classics. How to use the wisdom of the classics to become a better writer, thinker, and speaker.
Break Habits of Highly Ineffective Emailing. A list of what not to do when emailing, avoiding these habits will take you a long way toward better, more productive email.
Make Your PDA Green. If you’re worried about e-waste and the toxins produced by burying and burning old cell phones and PDAs, you may want to try my green hipster’s pda.
Learn to Go From Solo to Successful Collaboration. Self-starters are often successful doing everything themselves. However, when forced to grow beyond the one gal/guy-show, many creative professionals are unable to take the leap from a solo success to a successful collaboration.
Create a Morning Routine. Developing a routine in the morning could lead to greater sanity and happiness, and achieving your goals.
Learn How to Survive a Road Trip. Road trips always begin on a high note, but by the end even Mother Teresa would be willing to shove her grandmother out of the car. Here are 9 tips to help keep you sane and happy on any road trip.
Share To Make Ideas Happen. The philosophy to “share ideas liberally” defies the age-old instinct to keep ideas secret. However, the creative person’s tendency to jump from idea-to-idea-to-idea causes most ideas to die in isolation. Creative professionals should take every opportunity to communicate new ideas broadly, seek feedback, and develop a sense of accountability.
Use Space Under Stairs for More Storage. Very cool under-stair storage where each step is a drawer.
Know What’s In Store If You Have a Toddler. New parents often wonder what’s in store for them once their kid is able to move around on their own. Here’s what you can expect.
Work in Multiple Positives. These hyper-productive activities will benefit you in multiple ways at once.
Use a Super Slim Wallet. It’s time to shrink down that backbreaking Constanza wallet. Here are 8 ways to radically slim down your wallet.
Advertise Action to Yourself. We live in a world of choices. When we buy, we have to make a choice between varieties, brands, and sizes. Similarly, when we work we have to decide what to focus on and how to use our time. While prioritization helps us focus, our minds still have the tendency to wander. We are most likely to focus on whatever catches our eye. Along the lines of “out of sight, out of mind” we learn that “right before our eyes, actions thrive.”
Gain Muscle in Minimal Time. How Tim Ferriss gained 34 pounds of muscle in 4 weeks.
Choose Living Over Sleeping Sometimes. Despite the importance of healthy sleep habits, there are times when it’s good to throw caution to the wind and invest in your life in other ways.
Make Reference Items Helpful. We spend too much time discussing, storing, and organizing notes. References are only valuable if you refer to them. Even with a well-organized system for managing references (either digital or paper), how often do we actually use them? How do we make reference items helpful?
Eat Sustainably. If you are interested in how to eat sustainably, read about it here.
Lose Weight Without Exercise. How to lose 20 lbs. of fat in 30 days with a sensible diet.
Find Calm & Sanity Through the Environment. If you’ve ever thought a more environmental life might also be a calmer, saner life, you’re right.
Learn About the Successfully Self-Employed. Is freelancing for suckers? Are you already an expert? This series explores the levels of the free-agent — and how to understand what each one means.
Learn GTD the Easy Way. An online primer of all the chapters of Getting Things Done.
Set Goals So You Actually Accomplish Them. Setting goals is hard. Following through is even harder. Using a framework that builds on your personal view of the world can make the process easier. This series helps outline how.
Reduce Gamer Clutter. If you are a gamer, these are a number of suggestions to help you keep your entertainment system under control and the gaming clutter to a minimum.
Stick to a Schedule of Regular Exercise. Exercising regularly boosts moodóright awayóand also makes it easier to sleep, keeps your weight down, and gives you energy.
Cut Back on Computer Cables. Follow these 8 simple steps to get rid of the birds’ nest of cables behind your computer.
Pay the Price to Be an Entrepreneur. The price of access can be steep, but once you’re flying down the road — it’s well worth it.
Single-task. Increase your productivity by learning not to multi-task.
Get Outside Your Comfort Zone. Comfort isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Drop Ideas That Fail. Ideas are a commodity. Being able to execute them well is what creates success. Hanging on to an idea, even after it his proven to be ineffective is the downfall of many aspiring entrepreneurs.
Learn to Calculate Risk. Risk and reward go hand-in-hand. Knowing what to expect can help reduce risk and shape your reality.
Don’t Settle for Just One Path. Variety is the spice of life. So why do you have to be just one thing when you grow up?
Get Rid of Paper Clutter. A four-part series dedicated to reducing the paper clutter in your home.
Set Up Action Areas. Boxes need to be mailed, errands need to be run, cookies need to be eaten, orders need to be fulfilled, but by whom? Whoever has a chance! The Behance team got tired of limiting our action steps to just an area on paper – why not make “action areas” out of physical space?
Find Hidden Clutter. Ten places to start looking for hidden clutter in your home.
Get a Promotion. 20 tips that landed the writer an IT promotion — most could be used in any field.
Dispose of Old Electronics. The best ways to dispose of old electronics.
Increase Your Intelligence. A list of 5 simple activities that will boost your brain power.
Present Yourself. Creative achievements seldom happen in isolation. A big part of making ideas happen is controlling how you come across to others. Of course, the Creative’s tendency is to say, “who gives a crap what other people think.” While there is merit in never compromising oneself for the sake of another’s opinion, creative professionals need to make an effort to be understood. You need to present yourself effectively to engage others and get the support (and the business) you need to push ideas forward.
Follow George Orwell’s Rules for Effective Writing. Becoming a better writer will create better career opportunities and increase productivity.
Lay Your Energy Line. Creative teams juggle multiple projects at once. The constant streams of ideas lead to more ideas. As energy is spread across projects like peanut butter, prioritization is all but lost. Energy Lines are a simple way to prioritize and use design to guide creative energy.
Focus on Continuous Improvement. By mastering the optimization mentality you can become an expert in your chosen field.
Motivate Yourself. This post will teach you to recognize the primary motivation killers and how to beat them.
Become a More Light-hearted Parent. We all want a peaceful, happy atmosphere at home ñ and you canít nag and yell your way there.
Give Up Nagging. Itís no fun to nag, and itís no fun to be nagged. Give your relationship a lift by putting an end to the irritating nag cycle.
Learn to Sacrifice Temporary Pressure for Long-term Goals. All success requires sacrifice. Do you have the determination to endure temporary punishment to reach your dreams?
Learn the GTD Workflow. An excellent into to GTD for the novice, a great refresher for the experienced.
Use the Power of 10 Minutes. 10 Minutes can be even more productive amount of time than 50 minutes, if used properly.
Triple Your Workout Effectiveness. Do you exercise regularly but don’t get the results you want? Here are some simple but powerful ways to boost that workout.
Work 8 Hours Straight Without Hating Yourself. There is an art to taking breaks that can help you work longer, and more productively.
Learn Whether You’re Waking Up at the Wrong Time. Everyone’s internal clock can tell us when we should be working. Are you listening to it?
Reduce Wasted Plastic Cups and Bottles. If you want to toss fewer plastic cups and bottles in the trash, you may be interested this ultra-cool reusable cup and water bottle.
Avoid Entrepreneurial Burnout: Fill Your Tank. Many times entrepreneurs suffer from going too hard with their vision, without thinking about keeping the work pace sustainable.
Take Steps to Boost Your Happiness in the Next Hour. You can make yourself happier ñ and this doesnít have to be a long-term ambition. You can start right now.
Learn to Capture Ideas and How to Manage Diarrhea of the Brain. Sometimes our best ideas come at the worst possible times. These tips will help to make sure none of those precious ideas fall through the cracks.
Know the Signs That a Pink Slip is Coming. If you can answer yes to THREE or more of these questions, you may want to think about sprucing up your resume and dry-cleaning your best interview attire.
Try No TV. In an extreme experiment to reduce waste to near zero, No Impact Man turned turned off electricity, which means no TV. Read about how to entertain a little girl with no TV.
Accelerate Your Mortgage Payments to Save a Bundle. See how much money you can save by adding just a few extra dollars a month to the principal.
Put Your Daily To-Do List On a Post-It. If it won’t fit on a post-it, it won’t fit in your day.
Use Money to Buy Happiness. Some of the best things in life arenít free, so spend money in ways to bring you more happiness bang for your buck.
Save the Lives of Animals With One Change. If you want to help save the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals just by not using plastic bags, perhaps the easiest environmental step, read here.
Get the Most Out of Your Rebates. Follow these tips and we can all fight the Man and wrench our hard-earned money back from those big, faceless corporations.
Eliminate All But the Absolute Essential Tasks. Is your to-do list overwhelming you? Here’s how to simplify it to the core task

50 Life Secrets and Tips

Memorize something everyday. Not only will this leave your brain sharp and your memory functioning, you will also have a huge library of quotes to bust out at any moment. Poetry, sayings and philosophies are your best options.
Constantly try to reduce your attachment to possessions. Those who are heavy-set with material desires will have a lot of trouble when their things are taken away from them or lost. Possessions do end up owning you, not the other way around. Become a person of minimal needs and you will be much more content.
Develop an endless curiosity about this world. Become an explorer and view the world as your jungle. Stop and observe all of the little things as completely unique events. Try new things. Get out of your comfort zone and try to experience as many different environments and sensations as possible. This world has so much to offer, so why not take advantage of it?
Remember people’s names so that they feel appreciated and for your own future benefit when you want something from that person. To do this, say their name back to them when they introduce themselves. Then repeat the name in your head a number of times until you are sure you have it. Continue to use their name in conversation as much as possible to remove any chance of forgetting it. If you’re still having trouble, make up a rhyme about their name: “Dan the Man” or “Natalie flatters me.”
Get fit! It’s ridiculous to think that we have one body, one sole means of functioning, and people are too lazy to take care of themselves. Fit bodies lead to better health, confidence and more success with romantic endeavors. I’d say those are 3 very good reasons to get in shape.
Learn to focus only on the present. The past is unchangeable so it is futile to reflect on it unless you are making sure you do not repeat past mistakes. The future is but a result of your actions today. So learn from the past to do better in the present so that you can succeed in the future.
Even more specifically, live in THIS moment. Even 10 minutes ago is the past. If you live purely in this moment you will always be happy because there is nothing wrong in this split-second.
Smile more often. Whenever you get a grin on your face, your brain is releasing serotonin, the happy hormone. Smiling is the natural way to force yourself to be happy. Many people even smile for five minutes straight in the morning to get themselves in a great mood for the day. It is a very powerful tool that is utilized less and less as we grow older and need happiness more than ever. Just remember that while happiness leads to smiles, smiles also lead to happiness.
Drink water. Hydration is tremendously important for overall health. Soda has absolutely ZERO nutritional content; it’s like pouring a punch of sugar and syrup into your cup. Instead, fill it with life-replenishing water. It may taste plain at first if you’re coming off of a heavy soda-drinking streak, but you’ll soon find yourself addicted to it. 10 glasses per day is optimal, how many have you been getting lately?
Don’t take life so seriously! Learn to laugh at the little things and this whole “existence” thing will be a whole lot easier. Be amused by your mistakes and failures and be thankful that you learned your lesson and won’t mess up like that again. And most importantly do things that you enjoy! Life is not strictly business, it can be mixed with pleasure.
Think positive thoughts. When you find yourself thinking a negative thought, stop it immediately by any means necessary. Slap yourself in the face, yell something positive at the top of your lungs or jump up and down. Do whatever it takes to get back to a positive mindset as such is essential for continual happiness and success.
Read books. Knowledge is power. If you’re looking for some mind-blowing books to read, check out ’8 Books That Will Violent Shift Your Perspective’.
Get in the sun. Superman was completely re-energized when he flew out to space and soaked in some rays and you can do the same right outside your front door (if you live in a constantly dreary place, my apologies). The sun feels amazing: your entire body will be coursing with warmth and life.
Help others.I’ll just give you a plethora of reasons why this is a MUST
- Helping people has a ripple effect. If you help someone they will feel more obliged to help someone else, and so on. Pay it forward
- You grow by giving and helping others. It can change you in ways you never expected
- Your relationship with that person will become stronger
- It’s the most fulfilling thing you can do on this planet. It not only feels amazing physically, you also feel like a good person
- You might be able to call in a favor later when you need some help
- Karma (if you believe in it)
- Because there are more people in this world than just you
Set aside a specific time to worry each day. Ponder all of your problems and anxieties during that time so that they will not distract you during work or moments of pleasure. This way you can be extremely efficient with your time and avoid focusing on negative things as much as possible. If you get all of your worry out of the way and have the mental fortitude to keep from reverting back to them, you will be much happier on the daily.
Be honest at all times. Lies lead to nothing but trouble. Being known as trustworthy is an excellent trait to maintain and essential to having integrity.
Sleep less. Fully adjusting to a new sleep cycle can take up to 21 days so don’t give up if you feel tired after switching to 5-hour nights. The “required” 8 hour/night is for normal people. If you’re reading THIS article on THIS site, you are not normal. So figure out how much sleep YOU really need and adjust accordingly. As enjoyable as sleep is, waking existence is much more fulfilling and efficient. IF this really sparks your interest, check out alternate sleep cycles with which you can be fine off of 2 hours of sleep per day.
Read “Bringers of Light” and “Conversations with God” by Neale Donald Walsch. These books will help you decide what you want to do in this life and how to get to that point. They will also profoundly change the way you look at the purpose of existence. Read them!
Figure out what your goals and dreams are. So many people wander aimlessly through life simply go for whatever small thing they want moment by moment. Instead, decide what your perfect life consists of and begin to put the steps in motion to reach that place. The most satisfying thing in the world (yes, better than sex, much better) is overcoming a challenge and reaching a goal. We are the happiest when we are growing and working towards something better.
Start your day off right. Wake up and set aside an hour for personal development activities (meditation, self-introspection, observing nature, etc.) Do the things that make you feel blissful, optimistic and empowered so that you can set a positive tone for your day. I guarantee that once you start doing this, your days will be more enjoyable and fulfilling. Today is going to be the best day of your life.
Utilize ‘The Burning Method.’ Whenever a fear or worry or complaint comes to mind, close your eyes and imagine writing down the thought on a piece of paper. Then proceed to light the paper and fire and watch it disintegrate. Even better, actually write it down and burn it. You won’t have any problem ridding your mind of the thought after doing this.
Travel. Anyone who has ever gone anywhere will tell you that traveling is one of the most exciting and life-changing activities that you can do. Observing a different culture will expand your mind while making you further appreciate the life you already live. This goes back to becoming an explorer: this world is your jungle so go explore! Who knows, maybe you’ll find a place you love so much that you decide to move. Imagine the positive repercussions a new environment could have on your life.
The Rubber Band Method This is the third and final way to rid yourself of negative thoughts (hopefully by now you have figured out that this is very important!). Place a rubber band around your wrist and snap it against your skin anytime a negative thought finds its way into your head. This operant conditioning technique associates a slight pain with negative thoughts like Pavlov associated food/salivation with the sound of a bell. Sounds a bit cruel at first but it only stings for a second, I promise. Plus the outcome, having only positive thoughts, far outweighs a little slap on the wrist here and there.
Learn to be unaffected by the words of others. Most people get very upset when they are called negative names by others, but there is a simple trick to overcoming this. Here it is: If I went up to you and called you a fire hydrant, would you be upset? Of course not. Obviously you are not a fire hydrant, you are a human being. The same concept applies to when someone calls you something that you know you are not. They are foolish for saying such things, so why would you react with such anger? The only exception is when someone calls you something that is true! In this case, you should thank them for alerting you to a weakness, one that you can now work on changing.
Read “Zen and the Art of Happiness” by Chris Prentiss. This book will give you the knowledge and instruction to be happy at all times regardless of the circumstances. Yes, this sounds like an oversimplification of happiness, but I assure you that this book will change you in an amazing way.
Develop the ability to forgive. Forgiveness is something that most people fail miserably at even thought it’s so simple. Grudges only bring more misery to those who hold them and prevent good relations with the target. YOU makes mistakes all of the time so why not have mercy when other do? Remaining angry feels horrible while forgiving someone brings a refreshing sensation to the mind and healing to the relationship.
Be the person that makes others feel special. Be known for your kindness and sympathy.
Learn to lucid dreamor to realize when you are dreaming so that you can control your dreams. Sleep feels good, but it’s rather boring and unproductive. With lucid dreaming under your belt, night-time can be even more exciting than when you are awake. You can do anything: fly, travel to other planets, party with a celebrity, get intimate with your dream boy/girl, etc. Many lucid dreams have also reported being able to speak directly with the subconscious during dreams by demanding to be taken to it after becoming lucid. For those that know a thing or two about your subconscious, that is a BIG deal.
Visualize daily. It has been said and proven time and time again that what you focus on is what you get. If you complain all of the time, you will run into more of the things you complain about. The same goes for good things like health, wealth and happiness. So spend some time in the morning imagining yourself achieving whatever it is that you currently desire. Focus is key in this exercise, so choose a quiet environment where you won’t be disturbed. If you’re having trouble focusing and continually find that your mind has wandered to something else, read about meditation in the following life tip. There is a lot more to this concept, so check out the full article on visualization and the law of attraction here.
Meditate everyday for at least 20 minutes. In this modern world where everyone is so connected to everything else via cell phones, TV and internet, most people rarely enjoy the beauty of silence. The ability to quiet your mind and relax your body is an art and skill that everyone should develop. Simply sit somewhere, preferably in nature, and focus on your breathing or try to think about nothing. This is going to be extremely hard at first! You might find it boring or just plain impossible to think of nothing, but you will get better and you will learn to love it. Post-meditation, you will feel extremely clear-headed and.. well, just plain wonderful. The only way to really understand this sensation is to try it.
Learn to control your mind. What kind of skilled human are you if you cannot even control your own thoughts? While the human mind is described as being a stream of consciousness, that does not mean you can’t decide where your stream flows. Techniques like meditation and the 3 ways to flush out negative thoughts will aid you immensely in learning to control your mind.
Learn to control your emotions. The only person that can make you unhappy is you! You are the one that decides to be affected by the words and actions of others. Realize this so that the next time you experience a negative emotion, you can find the strength within yourself to overcome it.
Take a class in speed reading. Books are full of information that can enhance your knowledge-base, vocabulary and yourself as a person. Speed reading is an easy way to get at this info faster so that you can have more time for other endeavors.
Relax! This one is for you workaholics out there (myself included). Yes, work is very important and productive but you need to take some time to chill out everyday or you are going to burn out faster than a candle with no oxygen. Additionally, you need to reward yourself for a job well done. What’s the use of doing all of that work if you can’t have a little fun from time to time anyways?
Work on making good first impressions. Practice a strong, firm handshake and the small talk that generally goes along with meeting someone for the first time. People won’t know what to think of you if you have nothing more to say beyond “My name is _______, nice to meet you.” Also make sure you remember names, as mentioned previously. Who knows, you may be going into business with or marrying this person you’re meeting for the first time if you make a good impression. Be sure and make an excellent one.
Learn to use your eyes to their full potential:
- Make constant eye contact when in conversation. Looking away (especially down) is a sign of inferiority and uncertainty. Instead, look at your conversation partner dead in the eyes and keep them locked on
- Master the piercing stare. You know when someone looks at you and it feels like they can see into your soul? Well that’s not a hereditary characteristic, it just takes practice. Work on sharpening your gaze in the mirror. You’ll know you have it when it’s intimidating to continue looking at yourself
- Master the one-eyebrow raise. This one isn’t necessary by any means, but hey, why not? Pick a brow to learn with and go look in a mirror. Raise both of your eyebrows but use your hand to hold down the brow that you want to stay down. This will probably feel very stupid at first but if you keep trying, you will eventually pin down the muscle you need to flex to get that one brow up
Be mysterious. Don’t let off everything about you and definitely leave out some major details. There is something both alluring and mesmerizing about someone who no one knows fully about. I’m not saying to confide in no one or to alienate yourself. Just think James Bond.
Come up with a life mantra. You know, like “Carpe Diem” or “Live life to the fullest,” but not as cliché. Make it something that really hits home with you so that you will actually stick to it. Make sure it’ not so specific that it rarely applies but also not so general that it’s not personal.
Get good at something. Call it a hobby or a passion, whatever it is, just get damn good at it. Your occupation does not count! Make it something that you can practice often enough to excel at. Examples: Magic tricks, surfing, ping-pong, creating short films, and unicycling. It can be anything but I would recommend choosing something that: 1) You are passionate about 2) You can bust out at any moment to display your skills for any discerning crowd. My mind goes immediately to aerobatics and break dancing, but that’s just me.
Work out those abs. Above any other muscle group in the entire body, the abs are the most important. They constitute your core, the center point of your body. Your ability to balance comes almost completely from the strength of your abdominal muscles and balance is vital to performance in any physical activity. Summary: they’re very important. For more info on how to work out your abs, check out this video.
Keep your brain sharp. The majority of people are stuck in ruts. They go to the same job everyday, hang out with the same friends and eat at the same places. While that may feel safe, it’s not the most stimulating lifestyle for your brain. Those synapses have been built up enough, so try something that you do NOT know how to do! Buy a model car kit, master the art of sudoku or crosswords, or go pick up another major at your nearest college. The point is you need to be learning new things to keep your brain honest. Form new synapses by forcing your mind to work in ways it has not worked before. Just like physical workouts, doing too much of the same exercise will eventually give no results. Switch it up!
Read something inspirational right before bed and after waking. This will set get you in a great mood for sleep and for the day. Read anything from a famous speech to your favorite self-improvement book. Try to read something that get’s you really excited in the morning especially so that you’ll leave your house beaming with energy and wonder.
Do what you love. There is a huge difference between making a life and making a living; which one are you making right now? So many spend their entire lives trying to make as much money as possible so that they can afford to do what they really want later. It makes no sense to settle in life until you’re 65 so that you can retire and do what you want when you’re already WAY past your prime. We only live life once so why wouldn’t you want to spend it pursuing your bliss? To do anything else would be a tragic waste of the freedom you are allowed if you are reading this right now. Follow your bliss and you will be a thousand times more happy than your retirement date and 40+ years younger. But first you need to figure out what you love to do…
Choose your friends wisely. You are affected far more than you think by the people you spend your time with. Do your friends share your values? Do they encourage you when you speak of your goals and dreams or do they scoff? Make sure the people around you are conducive to the lifestyle you want to lead or you will find yourself being dragged again and again into behavior that distances you from your desires. Friends with a habit of producing negative thoughts will especially hinder you. This can be a hard task to follow through with if you realize you good friend is one of these saboteurs, but you must be firm! Don’t let anyone get in the way of you being all that you can be.
Don’t burn bridges. By that I mean maintain your relationships with people even if you think you are never going to see them again. For example, if you are quitting your job, don’t chew out your boss before leaving! You might run into him/her again later and life and wish you had never severed ties so harshly. You never know when you might need the help of someone you knew in the past. Plus there is already too much hatred in this world, why add more towards the people you interact with?
Keep a journal/diary. It sounds like a very monotonous habit at first, but when you get into it, that little book will become a great way to organize your thoughts and track your growth over the years. Most of us already stay awake in bed at night pondering the events of the day anyways so why not document those thoughts in an organized fashion? That will allow you to look back and observe how your way of thinking has changed over time.
Read “New Pyscho-Cybernetics” by Dr. Maxwell Maltz. This book will explain why the content of your thoughts has such a profound effect on your life through religious, philosophical and scientific arguments. A must read for completely understand who this life thing works.
Learn to use and trust your subconscious/intuition. When you spend time in silence everyday, listen not for words but for a feeling that tells you to do something. Do not mistake your own reasoning and thoughts for those of your subconscious. If you can track where the thought came from, (this thought led to that thought which led to this thought, etc.) then it was not from your subconscious. Learning to accurately discern between the two will allow you to tap into knowledge that you don’t consciously have.
Develop a charismatic personality. You know, the kind of personality that is surrounded by people constantly and is the life of the party. Start visualizing yourself as THAT person. Maybe take a short course on dynamic speaking and learn some jokes. Take the time to learn some party tricks and sleight of hand. Most importantly, believe that you already are charismatic even if you fail at being the center point of the next party. Lie to yourself constantly and tell yourself that you are more warm and gregarious than Ronald Regan. Belief is the first step! Reality will come soon after.
Love is all there is. If you truly want to be a master of life, let love be in your every action. Love your friends, family and enemies alike. This is the most difficult thing to do out of this entire list, which is why it is listed at #50. But if you accomplish this, you will be seen as a leader among everyone that allows hate, envy, disgust and all other negative emotions into their lives. Think Gandhi. Love is so rare in this world when compared to the massive presence of hate that by exuding love, you will immediately see yourself and the people around you change. Love. Love. Love.

2015: You’ve no powers to stop Jonathan, Jubril Aminu tells northern politicians

Northern politicians opposed to the re‑election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 have no power to stop him from running for a second term in office, former Petroleum Minister, a Professor Jubril Aminu, warned, yesterday.

Jubril Aminu

The former petroleum minister said while it was proper for people to hold their views in a democratic setting, it was wrong for some elements to cause avoidable political rancour over a matter that did not warrant any protracted argument.
He pointed out that any Northerner who wanted to stop Jonathan from getting a second term should not try to stop him by stoking unnecessary debate, which the law court could settle, but should go to the poll to vote against him.
Aminu said: “I don’t support the argument that Jonathan has the right or not to contest in 2015. That is not the issue because you cannot stop him from exercising his political right.
“But I want to say that instead of arguing whether Jonathan is qualified or not, let those opposed to him use the ballot box to vote him out during the election.
“If those opposed to him can muster enough votes to prevent him from winning, will the President not stand down?” he asked.
Aminu, who spoke exclusively to Vanguard in Abuja, claimed that most of those parading themselves as Northern politicians opposed to Jonathan’s re‑election, did not represent the voice of the northers, but their selfish interest.

Jonathan sacks heads of NCAA, FAAN, NAMA, NCAT

ABUJA—IN what appears like a move to cleanse the aviation sector, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday sacked the heads of four aviation parastatals in the country.
Those affected include Mr George Uriese of FAAN, Mr Fola Akinkuotu of NCAA, Engr. Nnamdi Udoh of NAMA and Mrs Chinyere Kalu of NCAT.
This was contained in statement issued in Abuja yesterday by Mr. Sam Nwaobasi, Special Adviser on Media to Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
According to the statement, Engr. Saleh Dumona (Director Projects, FAAN) is to replace Mr. George Uriesi as Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN

The statement further showed that Engr. Ibrahim Abdulsalam (General Manager, Procurements, NAMA) is to replace Engr. Nnamdi Udoh as Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) while Capt. Samuel Akinyele Caulcrick (Government Safety Inspector & ICAO Focal Point for Nigeria on line Aircraft Safety Information Systems, OASIS) is to replace Capt. (Mrs.) Chinyere Kalu as Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT).
In the same vein, Capt. Muhktar Usman (Commissioner, Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau, AIPB) is to replace Capt. Fola C. Akinkuotu as Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). However Usman’s appointment is subject to confirmation by the Senate.
In the meantime Engr. Benedict Adeyileka is to act as DG, NCAA pending Usman’s confirmation by the Senate.
Dr. Engr. Felix A. Abali (Director Licencing, NCAA) has also been appointed to replace Capt. Usman as Commissioner, Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIPB).
However, Dr. Tony Anuforo retains his position as Director General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET).