I was thinking about how busy I've been lately, sacrificing many of my joys and hobbies for a year as I try to become the best student and invest this time for the future. As an A Level student, my current years are critical- a poor university application or grades below A*AA in my 3 subjects will ruin my chances of entering medical school. And for me, this means the collapse of the future I've always wanted to pursue.

Background 

This is a thought which always plays on my mind. Contrary to the key idea of a 'work-life balance' that recurrs throughout my work experiences and chats with both medical students and doctors, I have for now given up on my drawings, video editing, reading books, playing games and so many other means of relaxing, apart from a convenient few. I have entire lists of new things I'd like to draw and create, and summer bucket lists for after my A Levels, but all of these lists had built up from things I had wanted to do, but had delayed as there is always revision to be done.

Investing Time Or Sacrificing Time?

Now thinking about it, I had the same attitude even before this stage, at GCSEs. I have one half empty sketchbook from year 9, and many creative projects that I had stopped doing from after year 8.I am now on the verge of 18, but looking back at 14, 15, 16 ... I didn't make the most of my free time, didn't enjoy studying as I could have, didn't make the most of those years.Continuing in the same way now would just mean my all my years are just a run up to when I get a job and make a salary. I will begin living my life after the age of, say, 35. Which defeats the purpose of everything.

I am tired of wasting my early life in this way, especially knowing that I'll never get these days back. Writing this at 1am in the morning, I am determined to stop procrastinating. I'll do the maths notes that I set myself to complete last week, but I'll also follow that art tutorial and start that anime that I wanted to watch. I'll make the most of this time given to me, and make every minute rewarding, whether mentally or academically.I will stop burning myself out to the point where I procrastinate and force myself to take a big break, but utilise and actually complete my to-do lists.

A Reminder

If you are in a similar situation, I hope this is useful to you as writing it has clarified my thoughts for me.Overall, there is no point working towards a long term goal if I am not going to enjoy the process and live too, especially if it costs my precious time. The main fault is with my demotivation, mixed priorities and unfit time management, which I will address and try to improve!Take life slowly and by minute instead of living a rushed and harried day which becomes weeks and then years, like for me.

A Fresh Beginning?

As the year is ending and all my homework, revision and university application commitments are piling up, I took a moment to reassess my priorities and lifestyle before 2022 commences!

career

Career

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

education

Learning & Education

timemanagement

Time Management

How do I not waste my youth?

The odds are high that you’ll create some kind of content today, with the majority of it likely being on social media. Will it last?Seth Godin recently <a href="https://seths.blog/2021/12/cultural-half-life/">shared about the “cultural half-life” of ideas</a>, and how our world is moving increasingly toward vaporous ideas that come and go as the social media algorithms move on to the <a href="https://www.mickmel.com/retweeting-the-click-of-the-day/">next click of the day</a>.There’s really two aspects to what Seth is trying to say: systems and content.

Making content that lasts

For systems, I’m talking about sharing your ideas on a platform <a href="https://www.mickmel.com/news-websites-are-starting-to-realize-they-should-have-worked-to-own-the-conversation/">that you control</a> so that they don’t fade away. With my site, I can easily reference back to posts from years ago (like <a href="https://www.mickmel.com/ive-changed-to-wordpress-and-i-love-it/">discovering WordPress in 2004</a>), which is much more difficult with social media. Using Facebook as an example, they weren’t even open to the public until 2006, and it’s likely that people will move on to other platforms over the next 17 years.

Systems

The other side is content. I linked back to my old WordPress post, but it’s really not of much value today. It’s neat to point to it, but that’s really about it. The key on the content side is to write content that matters and will be valuable in the future, which is another issue altogether and is something I continue to work on for myself.

Content

This came up for me recently when a friend published a great post about the future of WordPress. Myself and a few others left comments on his blog post to start some discussion, but most of the discussion happened on Twitter. The ease of discussion there is great, but it’s already essentially gone. Finding old threads on Twitter can be tricky, but finding that post on his blog will be easy to do into the future.If someone looks back on how this particular WordPress issue was resolved, they’ll find his post (and our few comments there), but almost certainly miss the deeper discussion on Twitter

The odds are high that you'll create some kind of content today, with the majority of it likely being on social media. Will it last? Seth Godin recently shared about the "cultural half-life" of ideas, and how our world is moving increasingly toward vaporous ideas that come and go as…

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Making content that lasts - Mickey Mellen

<ol><li>At wake up, try to remember your dream.</li><li>Make your bed. Our brain loves order. Spatial disorder is a sign of mental disorder</li><li>Brush your teeth with your opposite hand</li><li>Take a tall glass of water</li><li>Cold shower (if you can)</li><li>Some tea with honey</li><li>Put something on your journal. Don't touch your phone</li><li>Brain foods to include some in your breakfast: avocado, blueberries, broccoli, coconut oil, eggs, salmon</li><li>Read a book. This is the best moment where your brain is alert, so sharpen your knife first.</li></ol>

9 morning routine steps to have a better brain

Make the most of your most important asset: your brain

Do you want to stay up to date with every new episode and get my brand new Kwik Brain Accelerator Program? JOIN 👉 https://kwikbrain.com/ Check out the full interview here! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkfFLU4h9cc  SUBSCRIBE for more Kwik Brain tips:  https://www.youtube.com/kwiklearning?sub_confirmation=1  FOLLOW JIM:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimkwik/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jimkwik Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jimkwikofficial/ Website: https://KwikBrain.com/

health

Health

Do you want to stay up to date with every new episode and get my brand new Kwik Brain Accelerator Program? JOIN 👉 https://kwikbrain.com/ 

Check out the full interview here! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkfFLU4h9cc

SUBSCRIBE for more Kwik Brain tips: 
https://www.youtube.com/kwiklearning?sub_confirmation=1

FOLLOW JIM: 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimkwik/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jimkwik
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jimkwikofficial/
Website: https://KwikBrain.com/

Jim Kwik, founder of Kwik Learning and NYT bestselling author, is a renowned brain performance and memory improvement expert. As a brain coach, his clientele includes CEOs, athletes, celebrities, and high-achievers. Kwik overcame a traumatic brain injury at age 5 and personal learning struggles, developing methods to unleash the limitless potential of the mind. He has been sharing these methods for over three decades.

As a sought-after speaker, Kwik presents to a quarter-million people live yearly. His accelerated learning academy, Kwik Learning, has students across 195 countries. His esteemed clientele features Google, Virgin, Nike, Zappos, Wordpress, SpaceX, U.S. Air Force, Cleveland Clinic, Caltech, Harvard, and Singularity University.

Jim also hosts “Kwik Brain,” one of the top educational podcasts on iTunes with 50+ million downloads.

Follow his mission: “No brain left behind” @JimKwik.


Jim Kwik

Use This TRICK To 10x Your Learning SPEED!  | Jim Kwik & Lewis Howes

COVID-19 caused millions of people to leave the workforce, leading to the Great Resignation. A secondary wave of reevaluation has hit the workforce, causing more workers to quit their jobs and creating labour shortages, especially in IT, software engineering and healthcare. Economists are still trying to understand the full impact of these issues. What has been overlooked is that conditions are ideal for a remote, freelance revolution.

The volatile labour market and economy

<ul><li>In a 2019 survey by SAP Fieldglass and Oxford Economics, 48% of executives said they need contingent workers to conduct their business. Non-payroll workers made up almost one-quarter of their human resources spend.</li><li>Internal data from Toptal shows that requests for contingent sourcing grew by 70% from 2019 to 2021. The shift toward fully remote work fueled this growth.</li><li>56% of human resources and C-suite executives plan to shift more roles to freelance, project, or contract work.</li></ul>

What the data reveals

<ul><li>Disruptions and black swan events like COVID are catalysts for forcing change that has been simmering for a while. COVId-19 accelerated changes that were gradually growing.</li><li>The biggest benefit of contingent labour is cost savings as hiring, training, and providing benefits for full-time labour can be costly.</li><li>The agility and flexibility of contingent workers are essential to sustaining businesses.</li></ul>

Why there is a shift

Freelancing is an opportunity for people to restructure their lives.<ul><li>The pandemic showed that flexibility and continuous learning is important for job satisfaction.</li><li>Contingent work allows people to scale their workload, give them control over their work hours, income, career paths, and enable them to build client networks across geographies and industries.</li><li>Freelancing can help diversity income and provide cash flow for undertakings like building a startup or writing a book.</li><li>Another attraction is the flexibility to relocate to more livable areas and away from overpriced metropolises.</li></ul>

Why the shift is happening now

<ul><li>Digital labour platforms help to build efficiencies that drive strategic recovery and success.</li><li>Contingent talent networks can give skilled freelancers as much or as little work as they want and offer a range of projects.</li><li>Global staffing companies can give businesses access to the best talent worldwide.</li></ul>

The role of contingent talent networks

Toptal’s Chief Economist believes now is the time for top talent to go freelance and for even more businesses to embrace contingent work. Thought leaders from the Fortune 500 consultancy JLL, BMO Financial Group, and more agree.

remotework

Remote Work

Work As We Knew It Is Ending. The Remote, Freelance Revolution Is Starting

Pay gaps are a huge problem in companies around the world. On average, women earn less than their male counterparts. Women of colour may earn over $1 million less in lifetime earnings due to unequal pay. Some companies are starting to address this problem. However, organisations often only identify the symptoms and fail to correct them: low starting salaries for people from marginalised communities, discrimination during promotions and appraisals, and other factors.

Pay gaps

Many leaders still encourage secrecy related to compensation. Line managers can play an important role in changing this culture:<ul><li>As a line manager, you are between your direct reports and the leadership team. You know how compensation and appraisal decisions influence your team's motivation and performance. </li><li>A survey found that when employees understand how salary decisions are made and can freely discuss their pay, they feel valued and more likely to trust their organisation. As a manager, you can normalise these conversations by learning how to talk about them with your team.</li></ul>

Taboo pay conversations

<ul><li>Create clear salary ranges for different positions on your team. Work closely with leadership and your HR department on setting benchmarks. Make this information public so that your direct reports have clarity around where everyone stands.</li><li>Be transparent about salary while hiring. Include the salary range when you advertise for a role. Evaluate compensation based on skills, expectations, and responsibilities for the role.</li><li>Conduct quarterly or annual reviews with each team member. Discuss and review their compensation and ask if they feel they are fairly compensated for their tasks.</li></ul>

How to talk about equal pay with your team

Talking about fair compensation shouldn’t be a taboo.

Managers, Here’s How to Advocate for Pay Equity

Anyone who is paid to write content that encourages readers to take action is a copywriter. Copywriters write the words used for marketing products or services for things like sales pages, email funnels, landing pages, blog posts/articles, social media posts, white papers, case studies, advertisements, and video scripts. Copywriters are also salespeople and behavioural psychologists. A good copywriter learns to master all these elements.

The copywriter

You don't need any formal education to become a copywriter. The most sought after copywriters never took a writing class. Copywriting salaries vary depending on the work setting.<ul><li>In-house. Working for a company or marketing agency.</li><li>Freelance. Working as a freelance copywriter.</li></ul>

Copywriter's education and work setting

Learn how to write persuasively. You can learn this by studying others who've done it.<ul><li><a href="https://growthlab.com/copywriting-books/">20 copywriting books you need on your shelf</a></li><li><a href="https://growthlab.com/how-to-write-copy/">How to write copy</a></li><li><a href="https://growthlab.com/best-sales-pages/">The 6-part outline every good sales page has in common</a></li><li><a href="https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/guides/ultimate-guide-to-remarkable-content/part-0/">The Ultimate Guide to Remarkable Content</a></li></ul>Practice writing, and build your portfolio.<ul><li>Write the copy for your newly-formed copywriting business.</li><li>Offer to write for your friends or family if they have small businesses that need copy.</li><li>Offer your copywriting services on sites like Upwork and Fiverr. </li><li>Write a pitch email to your dream client.</li></ul>

How to get into copywriting

When you have done some writing practice, you can get a feel for the niche you want to pursue. Pick a role you want to own.<ul><li>Emails / Sales funnels</li><li>Social media / Community management</li><li>Search engine optimization (SEO)</li><li>Digital advertising (PPC)</li><li>Blog posts / Articles</li><li>Video / Podcast scripts</li></ul> To find your target market, ask yourself:<ul><li>What industry are your prospective clients in?</li><li>What are their services?</li><li>How do they use copy currently?</li></ul> For example:<ul><li>Email funnel copywriter for SaaS companies</li><li>Social media manager for nonprofits</li><li>Blog posts for personal finance websites.</li></ul>

Find your copywriting niche

Finding your first client may be somewhat tricky, but once you find your first few clients, they're likely to refer you to their network. Go where your clients spend time online, such as message boards, forums, and websites your client might frequent.<ul><li>Are you a writer for a niche industry? Start answering questions on Quora regarding your niche.</li><li>If you're a video editor, find online groups for bloggers wanting to expand their content media.</li></ul> Consistently provide value at these places to develop a steady reputation.

Find your first copywriting client

There are four main pricing models:<ul><li>An hourly rate is ideal for the beginner. It prevents clients from piling on work without paying you and help the client to mitigate their risk.</li><li>By project. You'll know exactly what you're getting paid with concrete deliverables.</li><li>By retainer. Your client will pay you a set amount monthly.</li><li>Commission/bonus. This model can work in conjunction with the other ones. For example, your client promise an added amount for attaining X amount of leads.</li></ul>

Define your price as a freelance copywriter 

<ul><li>Focus on the reader. Great copywriters write about what their readers care about.</li><li>Focus on learning more. Good copywriters invest in themselves. They read books on copywriting and marketing. They invest in courses and read other copywriters' stuff to stay in the loop.</li><li>Be humble. Good copywriters are always looking for feedback as it can improve their writing.</li><li>Use simple words and stories that read the way people talk when they feel relaxed.</li><li>Write to your reader. Don't use "my" and "I" Instead, use "you".</li><li>Use specifics to bring your writing to life.</li></ul>

Tips for improving your copywriting skills

Becoming a copywriter can earn you a lot of money. This post will help get you there FAST (+ show you how much you'll make)

writing

Reading & Writing

How to Become a Copywriter: From No Experience to Sharpening Your Skills

Near the middle of December, many offices slow down. Energy and motivation drop and many stop their work for the holidays.  When it's time to go back to work in January, it can be difficult to get back into work mode. There are many reasons for this post-holiday funk, but you can do things to get out of it.

Post-holiday funk

Many people start the year by looking back at the past year. Getting out of the office gives you an overall view of your past contribution. You're likely to notice the things you are proud of, but also your failures. Around the new year, you may end up with thoughts about what you should've done differently in the past, leading to feelings of depression and lack of motivation. When you get back to work, it's important to look forward to the new year instead of back on the past one. Focusing on finding new opportunities can help to energise you.

Focus forward

Your reflections on the past can also lead to New Year's resolutions. This can be good if your commitments are not abstract, such as "get a new job", or "be more productive". Turn your goals into specific actions. Break the general goal down into tasks and attach a time frame to each task.

Get specific

People don't evaluate things on an absolute scale but rather assess success through social comparison, where we compare ourselves to other people. <ul><li>Upward social comparisons mean comparing yourself to someone better off than you and can result in feeling bad about yourself.</li><li>Downward social comparisons make you feel good about yourself but don't motivate you to continue pushing forward. Instead, it leaves you complacent.</li></ul>Instead, use social comparisons to motivate yourself to reach new heights.

Social comparisons

productivity

Productivity

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

The Post-Holiday Funk Is Real

The network effect in marketing is where an increase of users or people change the increased value proposition of the service or good. For example, as Instagram Reels, inspired by TikTok's idea of short-form entertainment content, grew in popularity, so the value of Instagram to share content and communicate new ideas increased. However, it can also create a false reality of effective customer relationship management.

The network effect

Media reports state that 80% of B2B buying decisions were based on direct and indirect communication. Only 20% were based on pricing and other logistics. In business, it's about building relationships. Yet entrepreneurs who get involved in social media marketing often forget to retain their business relationships in the real world efficiently. Millennials still prefer communication outside of your Instagram or LinkedIn story updates.

How the Network Effect impacts your business operations

Call, message or have an in-person meeting with your existing clientele. Ask them if they need assistance. Show interest in them. A chat can have a more profound effect than saying hello through your social media stories.

Reach out to your existing customers

Webinars are popular and have become the new normal.  Go to various meet and greet events in your city to network with people and use these events to reshape your existing clientele.

Show up to various networking events

If you had an interesting conversation at a networking event, send a follow-up message. Show them that you are really interested in having another discussion with them and ensure that you can add value.

Follow up with new connections

Add a personal touch to most of your social media content. Reflect your values, beliefs and mission to your community with your LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram profile.

Make your social media reflect your brand

Have a real interest in what your customers are saying. Listening can build closer relationships with your networks. Talking regularly to your customers can create a voice effect. Your customers will be able to hear your voice when they read your social media profiles.

Listen to your customers

Grow your  CRM with and without social media.

How do you build a strong CRM with and without social media?

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

startup

Startups

Is the Network Effect Impacting Your Efficiency as an Entrepreneur?

Many entrepreneurs say that working for themselves for too long has made them unemployable. Yet, many still decide to transition back to corporate. While you may have more skills and talent to offer a company, reporting to someone else is a major change and you may be concerned that you won't be able to fit in seamlessly.

Becoming an employee

As a current entrepreneur, you already have a steady income and may afford to take longer to find the right fit. Write down what your ideal career situation looks like for you. It takes an average of five months for a person to find a new role, so there is nothing wrong if you're still struggling after a month or two.

Focus on finding the right fit

A coach can assist in finding out the kind of role you're looking for. You may be out of the loop for a while and may have an outdated idea of the typical hiring process. A coach can bridge this gap, help get you up to speed on the latest interview techniques, and give you valuable feedback that appeals to companies. Coaching programs can also help you improve your skills.

Consider finding a coach

Most entrepreneurs are proud of creating their own companies successfully. Still, some employers might be concerned that your background and attitude mean you're not a team player and may struggle to follow instructions. Your background could give you an edge. A recent survey found that the most sought-after skills include taking the initiative and being able to adapt. Try to frame your background as experience in becoming adaptable and self-sufficient, and emphasize that you're excited to work in a team.

Don't over-emphasize your entrepreneurial experience

If you've found yourself wanting to transition back to corporate, take the proper steps.

How to Go From Entrepreneur to Employee Again

We may feel that we are not smart enough to do what we do. One explanation for this is the Dunning-Kruger effect: when you are incompetent, you can't know you're incompetent and can't properly assess your own competence. Research shows that incompetent students think they are much better than they are and top students underestimate themselves.

Feeling insecure about what you know

When you start on a learning path, you may feel confident in learning, but the better you get, the more self-conscious you become of what you can't do or understand. When you delve deeper, you'll find some ideas that get sharpened and others that get more complicated and nuanced. It can cause you to start doubting yourself. This feeling of self-doubt is a feature of learning and arise from two causes:<ul><li>The structure of knowledge and skills</li><li>Social comparisons with experts</li></ul>

Delving into knowledge

Knowledge structures. The more knowledge you learn, the more subtle patterns appear. Consider learning English. The word "good" may be sufficient until you know words like "fine", "excellent", "stupendous", sublime."
Social comparisons. When you start, you may compare yourself to your peers. But the more you learn, the more you compare your quality to experts. Unfortunately, this is not always helpful.

Knowledge structures and social comparisons

There are two approaches:<ul><li>"Leave it to the experts." While it is true that the most informed speak the clearest, it is also true that fields of expertise can develop closed intellectual cultures where certain assumptions get ingrained.  The best answers come from open and deliberate processes.</li><li>Try to be honest but humble. Do your best, and be open to changing your mind if some people who know more than you disagree with you.</li></ul>

Dealing with intellectual insecurity

How do you cope with feelings of intellectual inadequacy? Are the stupid really cocksure while the smartest are full of doubt?

What if You Don't Feel Smart Enough?

Find 100+ Career Tips & Insights - Curated from inspiring sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!