1.  5 Marketing Principles Brands Should Embrace

Most of the marketing rules we lived by just five years ago are practically obsolete. The industry has faced more changes in the last five years than in the previous 50. Let’s face it, there’s no point in improving broken legacy models. Since necessity is the mother of invention, let’s not waste this recession and instead use it to rethink how we go about branding in this new decade.

2.  Let’s get passionate!

How about turning ‘Stress’ into ‘Passion’? What if you could turn all those things that cause you stress into opportunities for something else – learning something new, building or mending a relationship, getting some feedback, stepping out of your comfort zone, widening your horizons, influencing the working culture, helping someone through a challenge, coaching a colleague? Well, is there anything stopping you, other than your own mind and free-will?

3.  How to Get Your “Space” Organized

Getting organized is not merely a theoretical exercise. Sure, you need to think about goals and create plans, but after that, you need to organize your space(s). You space could be your office, your home, garage, the inside of your car, etc. It’s the physical area that is often cluttered and overrun.

1. I usually propose a “to-do List”. Now, I have a “Not-To-Do List: 9 Habits to Stop Now”.

The reason is simple: what you don’t do determines what you can do.

Here are nine stressful and common habits that entrepreneurs and office workers should strive to eliminate. The bullets are followed by more detailed descriptions. Focus on one or two at a time, just as you would with high-priority to-do items.

2. Does Music Help You Think? Because, sometimes… I can’t work without music!

Do you use music to put yourself in a productive mood? It is widely accepted that music increases productivity. Executives and creative professionals who listen to music say it reduces stress and maximizes their energy and focus.

Music also changes your mood. You can use music to keep up your morale and productivity in difficult circumstances. It’s not easy to maintain a positive outlook at work these days with heavy workloads and widespread layoffs. Stay upbeat despite the stress and breeze through the workday.

Music not only lifts you out of negativity, it creates a bubble of sanity in which you can perform at your peak.

3. 99 Writing Productivity Tips.

Being a productive writer can be tough. Over the years, I’ve developed a series of recommendations that will help you write more productively. Each of these has been personally tested and guaranteed to work^†. As with all of my free recommendations, I offer a 100% money-back guarantee.

1. In order to optimize your life, you have to follow some rules, and before that you have to take some lessons. GTD lessons. 4 Lessons on How to Get Things Done

1. Avoid perfectionism

2. Have realistic expectations

3. Change the way you work

4. Set limits

2.Sometimes, certain questions make you realize some things, hidden in your subconscious. 25 Questions that Provoke Thought

If the question makes you think, it’s worth asking.

3. My guess is that a competent person = a productive one. True? Try the  The 4 Stages of Competence

About a year ago, I learned of the 4 Stages of Competence from a friend and business associate. This model has really helped me gauge and measure myself when learning new skills.  According to the model, you move from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence.

1.  How to Think About Possibility – And Why It Matters

I’ve been thinking about possibilities for a good while now and have been slowly synthesizing a few different problems that have possibility as one of their root issues. It’s taken me a while because I’ve been fluctuating between the general philosophical theme and the local applications, and weaving all of the ideas together has been a challenge. I’ll take a shot at it today.

2.  Too Much Work? Here’s How to Handle It

As I mentioned earlier this week, the best way to be productive is to work hard and commit to less. However, it raises an important point, what if the few commitments you do keep simply have too much work? How do you handle it?

I recently had a conversation with Stefan Knafen, a medical student and writer for StudySuccessful.com. He claimed the biggest challenge of medical school was that there was so much of it. Thousands of pages of reading and hundreds of hours of lectures, all needing to be learned.

3. How to Make that Change Stick: The 11 Point Checklist for 2010

It’s a fresh new year.

Although you can make a positive change in your life at any time most people get an extra dose of enthusiasm around this time of the year. That’s only natural.

But how do you go about making changes that will stick? How do you not wind up in the same place where you started a few weeks or months from now?

1.If you ever wonder”  What is or isn’t a project?” then you should read this article.

I’m confused about (and I’m sure you are extremely bored with this question, but from the books I couldn’t work out the answer) – how do you size projects?  I’m continually having problems working out what is or isn’t a project – and getting lost in the confusion.

2.I one way or another, we all have this problem, of undervaluating  Why You’re Undervaluing Yourself (And How to Stop).

Do you feel uncomfortable charging for your creativity? Maybe you’re an illustrator – you draw because you love to, but you can’t bring yourself to ask people to pay fifty dollars for something which, to you, seems like a glorified doodle. Perhaps you’re a writer and you can’t understand why anyone would pay you fifty dollars or more for a blog post. Or you’re a coach, a programmer, a graphic designer, a cake decorator, a social media expert…

Whatever it is you do (or want to do), there are a couple of things you should know:

• You are good at this – even if that statement causes knee-jerk resistance
• There are a lot of people who cannot do what you do and who are more than happy to pay you

3. At some point, when we have a business, and we really want it to work we start to think on how to be (more) productive.  6 Productivity Principles to Live By (My Personal Productivity Manifesto)

Here are six principles I strive to live by. This is my own “personal productivity manifesto”: it summarizes what works for me about personal productivity.

Whenever I follow these guidelines, I am at my very best, feeling productive and joyful. If I feel that I am doing things outside these guidelines, I know I can refer to them and quickly get back on track.

Since these principles work so well for me, I figured they might work for you, too.

4.For the ending of this “Daily Links”, I saved something funny for all you twitters:). So, do you think you tweet too much? Read this, and leave me your result! 5 Signs You Tweet Too Much.

I’ve noticed people I enjoy following are worried that they’re tweeting too much.  And since I can’t just say tweet on, friend, because that’s alarmingly creepy and nobody says tweet on, friend, I will craft a handy list of signs so you know if you’re tweeting too much.

If you do these things, you tweet too much.

1. How to keeep your focus, productivity & consistency..   The Key To Consistent Creativity and Productivity

How long can you concentrate and focus on one thing before your energy and attention begins to falter? How long does it take you to engage in a particular thing to make the effort of engagement worth it?

The answers to those two questions make up (what I’m calling) your engagement threshold, and figuring out your engagement threshold is probably the most important thing you can do to become more consistently creative and productive.

2. Probably every brand creator asks or was asking himself this… Which are the 5 reasons why other people will spread your personal brand

I was part of a panel (with Claire Celsi, Nathan T. Wright & Dr. David Bulla) talking to journalists about personal branding this morning.

Part of my message was that it’s fine and dandy to have a personal brand…but one of the keys to its success is in how you share your brand with the world. I used the analogy of a dandelion.

Once you figure out what your personal brand is all about….you hold it out to the world, like a dandelion.

3. I really don’t like wasting time sorting my emails, so I found these  Tricks for capturing Waiting For emails

One of the key buckets in your GTD system is Waiting For.  So what’s the biggest creator of Waiting For? Sent emails. Sure, you could slog through your Sent folder for which ones you actually need to make sure to track, but that’s like searching for a contact lens on the beach.  Good luck having that be a trusted and efficient system.

1. How important are money for you, in a direct relationship with your time? My final question: What Is Your Time Worth?

I also haven’t had my own business for very long, so I’ve felt like every penny I made had to be sealed away in a vault for safekeeping in case I’d wake up one morning and have no writing assignments, no consulting clients, and no speaking engagements.

Mentors told me I needed to invest in my business, but I didn’t really listen. The thought of parting with any of my hard-won cash made me feel a little sick.

2. I don’t know if I believe in bad luck, but I believe in luck. Even if these two are like good and evil. So, Marelisa is  simply telling us “How to Make Yourself Lucky”

A moment of bad luck can unravel years of hard work in seconds, while a sudden stroke of good fortune can instantly transform your life for the better.

So is luck simply a mysterious, unpredictable force–the whim of the gods, if you will–, or is it something that you can attract more of into your life?

3. This next article, is about issues that Managers should, or it would be better for them to know.  ” 5 Solid Tips for Leaders & Managers”

5 Tips that make a difference

1. Managing starts with clarity.

2. The Manager is the Mediator of Meaning

3. Managers Understand How People Learn and Work.

4. Managing Means Knowing How to Orchestrate the Experience.

5. Managers Lead from Every Proximity.

1. I believe that we all are busy people. That’s why our gadgets and the programs that we use to focus, control, email and socialize must be appropriate. In your conception, what is “The most important part of Mobile Email” ?

Many people overlook the most important part of a mobile email solution.  It is easy to get caught up in the idea that it is going to be so wonderful to have access to your email where every you are.

2. I really love busy days, but sometimes i want to find a way to escape them and i … just don’t find it. Six Ways to Find Quiet During a Busy Day

Do your days feel like a manic dash from start to end? Does it seem like, however hard you work, there’s always more to do? For many of us, that’s just how life seems to go. When we do take a break from the busyness, we start surfing the internet, watching television, listening to audio books or flicking through a magazine. We’re afraid that if we slow down, we’ll crash.

3. What do you do if you really love your job, but you really don’t love your boss?  What to Do if You Don’t Get Along with Your Boss

What should you do if you really cannot get on with your boss at work?  Maybe there has been a breakdown in trust, in communication or in respect.    In any event it is ruining your time at work and making you frustrated and unhappy. Let’s call your manager “John” and see how we can approach the situation.   (The advice here works equally well whether your boss is a man or a woman).

1. I never got a good explanation why, doing things in a faster way, for many people means productivity. But now, I found it. “Why reading faster doesn’t increase productivity”.

The post’s argument was based on the idea that every project involves a lot of reading – background materials, books, blog posts, notes. It didn’t mention emails but that’s another area where reading faster might seem more productive. [...] But productivity isn’t about speed, even if we’ve been led to believe it is. It’s about being effective. It’s about accomplishing things — and that’s about doing the most important things, not the most things.

2. Do you know how to manage your projects? If you don’t, then you should read this:  A quick guide to GTD & projects

Some of the most common questions we get are about managing projects.  Here is how one of the Coaches replied when a new GTD’er was asking how to manage projects and all of the related steps.

3. Why are we giving up to our projects? Why are we letting go to some of our expectations and dreams? What Are You Putting Off? How to Get On With It in 3 Steps

Most of us put things off. Sometimes, we put off getting started or making progress on big projects… and other times, we put off small tasks that sound simple on paper but seem like a big effort to do.

The problem is, the more we put something off, the harder it is to get going on it.

For today, I have prepared for you some interesting links about Happiness Books, Motivation and some simple lists.

1. Marelisa proposes to us a list of 27 Jubilant Happiness Books.

2. Dustin Wax, from LifeHack is talking about Motivation!

3.The same Dustin Wax made us a list of How To Get Things Done . I very much like this list, because it’s very simple.

4. The last link for today is “  The Short but Powerful Guide to Finding Your Passion “. If you have an inner passion, and you want to improve it, or to discover something about how you can use it, you will find this article useful!

I wish you all to have a nice and relaxing Week-end!