There is a lot of talk these days about work-life balance. Now, more than ever, people are not satisfied with working long hours and sacrificing their home life for their work. At the same time, we want to find work that engages us and that we enjoy. So how do we find a balance?
Enjoy Your Work
As much as you can, enjoy your work. To varying degrees, this is where most people spend much of their week. If you can enjoy your work it will have a ripple effect to the rest of your life. I have found that when I really enjoy the work I do, my life feels much more balanced as I like this part of the day. This may mean a change of attitude or mindset if you are used to not liking your job. Sometimes making new friends at work or taking on a new project can help you feel differently about your work. You could meet with your manager and ask if there is a change of role or responsibility that could help you enjoy your job better. If you really are not enjoying your job and feel like you have done everything you can, it might be time to move on.
Spend Less
Spend less than you earn. However much you enjoy your work, it is nice to have some room to move. The better you are at managing your money, the more flexibility and options you will have which in turn will make you feel better in all areas of your life. For example, if you can only work part time to look after a child or want to leave your job to freelance, you will have more options if you have a safety net and are used to living within a budget. Spending all that you earn will leave you reliant on your job and at the whims of any external changes. Getting used to managing what you earn will empower you and help you to feel in charge of your life at work…and at home.
Learn To Say No
A big issue for many people with regards to keeping a good work-life balance is knowing how to say “no”. You don’t want to let people down (or appear unwilling), so you continue to do unpaid overtime or take on more than you can handle. Of course, sometimes there may be situations where you need to step in and help out — but if you are consistently finding that your work is creeping into other areas of your life, it’s time to learn to say no. This also applies to taking on work. People often feel overwhelmed with work or out of balance if they are taking on too much. Remember, you don’t have to say “yes” to everything.
If you are not used to saying no, start small and keep practicing. It gets easier each time you do it. If people are used to you saying yes to everything then it may take a little time to adjust to your new approach, but give it time. They eventually will and, as a result, get used to your new boundaries. Be clear and value your time and others will, too.
Create A Good Life Outside Work
Often the reason work creeps into other areas of our lives is because our life outside work is lacking. It can be easier to throw yourself into work if you feel like things are not going well at home or your social life feels empty. I don’t think this is always a bad thing; sometimes work can take our mind off things or be therapeutic for a while. However it is important to be honest with yourself and if you find that you are using work as a crutch for the rest of your life, it could be time to look at creating new habits. Joining a new class or exercising are two examples of ways to keep that balance and create positive experiences outside your work life. Start with one thing and build on these experiences.
Remember That No One is Indispensable
No one is truly indispensable. It can be nice to feel that you are needed or that you are the only person that can do something, but ultimately it’s not true. If you are finding that you are relying on that feedback to feel good about yourself, it’s time to take a step back and see the bigger picture. In my experience, when you feel this way it can be a sign that your approach to work is becoming unhealthy. Realize that you don’t have to do everything yourself and that it is okay to delegate work to other people. It can take a bit of adjustment and will involve letting go of some control, but taking a step back will result in a better experience for you and the people you work with.
Conclusion
This is the time of year when goals and resolutions start to go off track, and achieving great work-life balance is a familiar one. Hopefully by trying some of the above tips you’ll be able to stay balanced when going off kilter isn’t all that uncommon.
(Image courtesy of SashaW under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic license.)
On this week’s episode of the WorkAwesome podcast, Mike Vardy had the pleasure to speak with Shaun Blanc, known for his elegant posts at his own site, shawnblanc.net.
During the interview, Shawn discusses the different tools he uses to stay productive, how he works at home in comparison to working in the office and offers some insights into his productivity software of choice, OmniFocus. If you’re looking to jump into OmniFocus as your productivity tool of choice, Shawn’s website is a highly valuable resource.
Enjoy the podcast!
Subscribe to the podcast
Play in podcast in new window
You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here.
Related Posts
-
The Netsetter: SEO Writing Tip #3: Rock Your On-Page SEO
-
Why I Stick to Pen and Paper for Goals and Tasks
-
Word Tips: Customize Your Workspace
Add a Comment
For the majority of us, the “desk jockey” habits of office life consume our body’s health as we consume the dozen donuts left absentmindedly at the communal kitchenette. Our typical office day can last around 8 or 9 hours, leaving us sitting in a chair staring at a computer screen or paperwork. This lack of physical activity can take a huge toll on our backs, our wrists, our eyes, and even our legs. The many of us who are lucky to have these nine to five jobs are the ones stuck in such daily working routines of ill body health. Though office life can be blissful, it can also spell out a literal pain in the neck.
When most of us got involved in the office life, we thought it would be awesome to sit in a chair for the entire workday. We laughed at the unwise blue-collar workers and their labor jobs. “Hard work is for suckers,” we said. Yet we were so unaware of the benefits that the labor jobs bring and the disadvantages of the monotony of a desk job.
Though it does feel great to sit restfully at a desk, we human beings were not meant to remain immobile in that manner for such long periods of time. We are active beings, not meant to sit in one place. Our bodies are like machines with moving parts that need maintenance and use. They require physical activity to maintain their health and balance.
Sitting at a desk (even if it is in an ergonomic chair) for long hours can result in obesity and many other health problems. Here are 5 desk exercises to help you exert some energy and bring athletic activity back to your office life.
Lower Back Desk Exercise
A sore lower back is a very common problem for desk jockeys. It can be difficult to practice good posture for long hours. This leads to some relaxed slouching, which inevitably causes lower back and neck pain. You can do a simple stretch to help alleviate this discomfort. You can do this stretch either sitting in a chair or standing up:
- Place your hands, palms down, on your lower back.
- Point your fingers down and lean back.
- Push your breastbone up towards the sky, keeping your elbows pointing straight back.
- Hold for 15 seconds then relax.
- Repeat the above steps twice.
This stretch will help you relieve the tension that builds up in your lower back. To avoid injury, remember not to bounce or jerk your muscles while exercising or stretching your back.
Calf Stretch and Quadriceps Desk Exercise
This exercise will help relieve the tired and lethargic feeling that invades your leg muscles due to inactivity. It will assist in eliminating leg cramps and muscle spasms. In addition, the quadriceps exercise will actually strengthen the muscle itself through an isolated isometric flex at the top.
Before attempting this exercise, ensure that you have enough space to fully extend your legs. Do the following exercise with your back straight and your feet planted flat on the floor in front of you.
- Place your hands flat on top of your right leg.
- Lift your right leg from your hip flexor and fully extend it straight from the knee.
- With your leg fully extended flex your upper leg muscle and hold for 10 seconds.
- Lower your right leg slowly, once again placing your foot flat on the floor.
- Repeat exercise with the left leg.
- Repeat the above steps twice.
You can also stretch out both legs under the desk for a minute. This exercise will enhance the blood flow to your legs and alleviate muscle cramps. While doing the above exercise you should feel a solid stretch in your calf muscle and a firm tightening of the upper leg quadriceps.
Shoulder Stretch and Desk Exercise
A simple exercise that can be done from behind the desk is the shoulder stretch/roll. This exercise will help you when those cases of copy paper and archived record boxes get a little heavy. It is also good for those with aching shoulders. Remember to sit up straight with your feet firmly planted on the floor when doing the following exercise.
- Stretch your right arm in front of you and across your chest, as if you were grabbing something on your left side.
- Bring your left arm under and in front of your right arm.
- Gently hug your right arm in towards your chest.
- Repeat with the arms reversed.
- Relax your arms, letting them hang down loosely at your side.
- Slowly roll both shoulders backwards ten times.
- Slowly roll both shoulders forward ten times.
These movements will help relax the shoulders and neck, as well as add flexibility and strength. In addition, they both can easily be done as a desk exercise.
Abdominal Crunch Desk Exercise
Even though no one likes to admit it, sitting for long hours at a desk can lead to a bulging waistline. This can be a cause of stress for many. You can combat this enemy with a simple crunch desk exercise done directly from your office chair.
- Sit on the edge of your seat.
- Lean back from the waist, keep your back straight.
- Hold the seat of your chair with both hands.
- Lift both legs up, keeping your knees bent while tightening your abdominal muscles.
- Straighten your legs holding your heels a few inches off of the floor.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have completed 10 repetitions.
For most of us, abdominal exercises are not fun. However, if you can master this one you will be well on your way to developing a stronger and leaner midsection. This exercise will strengthen your core and help promote better posture.
Sit and Stand Up Straight
Many people are surprised when they hear that sitting and standing up straight is an exercise. Good posture itself is probably one of the most effective core strengthening exercises out there. This is due to the amount of muscles required to stabilize the upper body when keeping the back straight and the tummy tight. Here are some tips for better posture.
- Adjust your chair and keyboard to promote a non-slouching sitting position.
- Always sit with both feet firmly flat on the ground in front of you.
- Stand up tall, with your shoulders back and your chin raised.
Practicing good posture will usually alleviate lower back and neck pain. It will help you feel more confident and in control of yourself. Sitting and standing up straight will continually build strength in your abdominal and lower back muscles.
Conclusion
These office exercises are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to developing a healthy lifestyle. Make sure you get up and walk around a few times a day. Start taking the stairs instead of the elevator. If the commute to work isn’t too long, riding your bike or walking to work a couple of times a week will do you some good as well.
Trying to exercise at your desk might feel a little awkward at first, so try the routine at home until you get it all figured out. Don’t worry about what Bob might be thinking when you begin to practice them at the office. As he watches your confidence and health improve, he might even be motivated to try the desk exercises for himself. You could end up creating a much healthier office life for all of your colleagues.
(Image courtesy of emdot under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic license.)
Where can you catch up on some great iCal tricks, get attuned to your own internal clock and learn when procrastination is a good thing?
This week’s Awesome Links, that’s where.
5 Superb iCal Tricks To Streamline Your Productivity
The Guiding Tech blog has a pretty useful post that could help iCal users enhance their daily productivity and help manage their schedule in a more efficient manner. Some of these tips aren’t that uncommon but as with any common tips, they are seldom implemented. There’s a nice “easter egg” at the end of the list, too.
How to Hone the Accuracy of Your Internal Clock and Better Understand Your Time
Lifehacker has an interesting post on resetting your internal clock. The idea is that doing so can stop you from underestimating the time you take to finish tasks, understand what your best work hours are and how to use small chunks of time during the day to streamline your work.
9 Ways in Which Yoga Changed My Life … And Could Change Yours
I am a yoga fan. I may be living in the country where it originated, but that’s not the reason. Yoga is actually a great way to rejuvenate your mind and body each morning, and I practice it time and again (though not as consistently as I should). So, while I was not surprised by Claudia’s post at the FeelGooder blog, where she talked about the positive changes that yoga brought about in her life, I thought maybe I should share the piece here so that some of you could also get started with it.
How to Be a Purple Cow Among Designers
If you are someone who’s recently started with designing and wondering how it to stand out in a crowd of hundreds of thousands of designers around the world, this post at the Six Revisions blog can help you. The writer has some useful advice on how you could do things differently and become “the purple cow” (i.e remarkable in the field of web design).
When Procrastination is a Good Thing
Lastly, we have Mark Shead from the Productivity 501 blog offering an interesting perspective on the benefits of procrastination. He focuses on the value of the activity that forces you to procrastinate on the task at hand. Most of the times it is of lower value but — at times — its value is higher than the task you were about to begin.
Related Posts
-
Awesome Links #12: Laptop Touchpad, Time Tracking, Decluttering
-
Fast Recipes for Work #2: Cup o’ Chocolate Cake
-
21 Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block
Add a Comment
You leave things to the last minute, find yourself at every red light on your route to work, never have enough time to eat breakfast or comb your hair, and you are perpetually late. Friends and co-workers expect it from you and your boss (if you’re so lucky) tolerates it on the basis of the entertaining excuses you come up with.
Running late sucks and it’s mighty embarrassing to show up last. You admire the person who arrives polished and early, coffee in hand and wonder just how they do it. It’s not magic; it takes effort, forethought and a genuine desire to be on time to do it.
While genetics and upbringing certainly have an impact on your ability to use time productively, they are not the “be all end all”. As much as I adore my parents, they are forever late. I have grown to accept it, but relatives and co-workers alike have started telling them dinner starts an hour earlier than the true time. Sneaky? Yes. Functional? Absolutely.
Remember the Golden Rule
Organized people prioritize and focus on being prompt. Not only do colleagues and their career depend on this, but it is the best way to show others ‘Hey! I’m on the ball’. When you arrive late you are basically saying to someone that you do not respect them or that their time is just as valuable as yours.
I always find myself running five minutes behind and am so fed up with forever fretting about finding parking, racing to make it and coming up with excuses to appease my boss, friend or colleague. Some people consider one minute after the designated time late — but you know when you’re late, and that sinking feeling doesn’t sit well.
So how does one alter this behavior for the better? Truth be told, it takes 21 days to change a habit. Set four separate alarms and get in the routine of waking at 7 am every day so you don’t oversleep Monday’s 9 am meeting. It is essential to plan your route prior to leaving for a scheduled appointment. This means incorporating and expecting traffic delays, catching every single red light and finding zero parking nearby and still managing to arrive on time.
Another option is to ask an “early bird” friend to give you a morning wake-up call. Even if you are long past the teenage years, having someone ‘mommy’ you long enough for you to get your act in gear may be the kick start you need! Friends are fantastic for giving blunt advice. Just ask your friend what trick they use to arrive early.
Enjoy the Perks
Reward yourself! Being the first person at the office has a refreshing and vitalizing feel. Not only do you feel composed and ready to take on the world, but you get to chuckle at the late people fumbling with their briefcase, coffee, and paperwork as they race to prepare for the day. I get a kick out of making to-do lists — limiting myself to six tasks. Why six? It’s been said that six is the maximum number of things a person can retain at any given time.
Setting your clocks ahead by 5 or ten minutes can help create a buffer. If it’s better for you to visualize a benefit of arriving on time, think of work as a celebration of your merit. If you weighed as heavily on the importance of arriving early to work as you would to accept a fat cheque or scholarship, chances are you’d be there with bells on.
Be your own mentor
Rushed folks race around looking stern and self-important. It doesn’t exactly radiate a ‘come chat with me’ kind of vibe. Colleagues appreciate and prefer to work with level-headed peers. And bosses certainly notice who’s able to maintain their composure under pressure. When it comes to setting deadlines, those who recognize that a task takes double and a half the time you might expect, will find themselves most effective.
Slip on your boss’s shoes. Would you prefer to choose the ‘early’ person who meets deadlines or somewhat of a mixed bag as an employee? Give your peers and supervisors only good things to say about you. Communication is imperative if you are running late. It shows respect if you call or email (as embarrassing as being late can be) to admit your fault and accept responsibility. People can expect the worst, and giving them the consideration makes your lack of punctuality slightly less offensive.
Value your professional image
Your career is what you spend the majority of your time doing, so it is imperative that you do it well. Purchase a sizable day-planner that can help you accurately outline your daily tasks and actually use it. Mine does wonders as a vault filled with contacts, emails and deadlines, and I would be simply lost without it. Punctuality is the number one thing you can accomplish to allow people to perceive you as effortlessly composed, organized and resourceful.
Become the person you admire, if only so someone else can consider you a role model.
(Image courtesy of manwithface under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic license.)
After a two week break, the WorkAwesome podcast returns, featuring an interview with Michael Sliwinski, creator of Nozbe and founder of Productive Firm.
Nozbe is a cloud-based tool that Sliwinski designed for his own personal use at first, but released it to the public a few years back and has been growing steadily ever since. It was one of the first well-known productivity web apps, and has since been incorporated into mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad to allow you to keep getting things done even when you’re on the move.
Productive Firm is the hub where you can find Productive Magazine and The Productive Show. Productive Magazine has been around for well over a year now, and features articles and interviews with productivity experts from around the world. Those who have been faetured include Leo Babauta, Michael Hyatt, Stever Robbins (The Get-It-Done Guy) and the creator of GTD, David Allen.
WorkAwesome readers — and listeners — can take advantage of an exclusive offer that gives you access to Nozbe at a 10% discount on all yearly plans (Personal, Family, Team and Business). Nozbe has monthly and yearly plans and this coupon code works for the yearly plans. Just enter the special discount code WORKAWESOME to receive the discount when signing up for a yearly plan.
Subscribe to the podcast
Play in podcast in new window
You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here.
Related Posts
Add a Comment
It’s not easy being the intern. Let’s face it—they get a bad rap.
Interns mean “free labor”, “low man on the totem pole”, or any other negative expression. Years ago, interns were the gofers, the “gal Fridays”, and the errand boys. They’re the ones who will gladly take on everyone’s grunt work with a smile. They spend their time at the company hidden away in a broom closet slaving away behind stacks and stacks of paper. Once in a while, they’ll staple something.
But the reality is that internships are highly coveted positions for college students—especially in an economy that has forced businesses in nearly all sectors to reduce or cut their internship programs. Today’s college students are much more savvy than many of us were—they have a much clearer idea of where they want to go and how to get there. They view an internship as a necessary first step into the real world. It’s likely that they simply won’t settle for merely making coffee for an entire summer or semester, and they’ll challenge you as much as you challenge them. Are you ready for the commitment?
If your company still hires interns, below are a few tips to make the experience as productive (for you) and educational (for them) as possible:
Know how to work with interns. The first step to building a positive relationship with an intern is choosing the right person. Interview the student just as you would any other applicant. And get ready—these students are willing to work and want to learn all they can about your business. Use their enthusiasm and interest to your advantage. Stay in touch with them regularly. They will most likely be coming to you for the work, so have work for them to do. Make them feel comfortable coming to you with questions but encourage them to find their own way in your business.
Give them a project. Your intern can handle more thought-provoking work than making endless copies or running errands, although those small tasks are all part of the internship experience. Give them some actual projects, as well. My college internship was at an arts organization that staged one of the largest music festivals in the country. A big part of my day was maintaining their archive library. I also wrote press releases, interviewed staff for newsletter articles, assembled media kits for press conferences, and worked with the press when they arrived at the festival. I felt like I was actively involved in the festival goings-on, and I was using those communication skills I was building up in college to boot.
Ask for their input. Include them in staff meetings or other decision-making sessions. Remember—your intern is viewing your company and procedures with fresh eyes and can be a little more objective than you can. Most of us are too close to many of our projects and need that unbiased feedback. Above all, listen to their ideas. Nearly every segment of business is looking for new ways to attract young customers—why not pick the brain of your target demographic while they’re working for you? You’ll likely be amazed at their ideas and insight.
Expose them to other departments. If your department has landed a great intern who wants to learn as much as possible, why not give them the total experience of working for your company? Don’t keep them in your department all the time. Give them the chance to speak with other folks in your office—IT, human resources, marketing, sales, even upper management if possible. This will give your intern a better understanding of your company as a whole, as well as give them a stronger idea of how business works overall. I was a communications intern, but I also worked with the programming director, sponsorship director, and the community relations director who managed the volunteers. It gave me new appreciation for how much manpower and organization it takes to put their events together.
Show your appreciation. Several large-and mid-sized companies have started employee recognition programs for various accomplishments—attendance, days without injuries, meeting sales goals, etc. Who doesn’t like that pat on the back now and then? Your intern is no different. Tell them when you loved one of their ideas, or if your boss was impressed with their problem-solving skills. Interns do handle a lot of those projects that have fallen to the wayside or were too time-consuming for any one person to tackle. By the end of their time at your company, you might have an impeccably organized software library or a completely updated database. That’s easily worth a farewell lunch or small cake as a “thank you”. Even unpaid interns like to feel that they’re making a difference to a business—show them that they have.
What about you? Any other tips for working with interns?
(Image courtesy of US Mission Canada under a Creative commons 2.0 Attribution generic license.)
With 2011 kicking in, this week’s Awesome Links focuses on how to get your year started on the right track. Between getting exercise during the winter months, ridding yourself of those lingering bad habits and getting your finances in order, you’re sure to find some — if not all — of these awesome links useful.
The 100 Best Lifehacks of 2010: The Year in Review
Lifehack.org is a well-established and trusted productivity blog which has published some great productivity content over the past few years. Their roundup of 2010 shows that last year was no different for them, and the flow of amazing productivity hacks from their writers continued unabated.
FeelGooder Fitness Tweak: Winter Running
There’s a line in this post from the FeelGooder blog which goes like this: “Winter running requires a strategy.” If you agree, raise your hand. I’d have raised both hands, but it’d make it difficult to write! Bottom line: running, especially during winter, is essential. And you certainly need a strategy to ditch the laziness and overcome the lack of motivation to run in the bitter cold. That’s exactly what the post is all about.
How to Break Bad Habits
A nice guide by Lifehacker on ways to break a bad habit. Oversleeping, overeating, lack of exercise – these are just some of them. We want to break them but we tend to fail each time. One of the tips suggested in this article is making them a public affair and let people evaluate and encourage you. (I might just give this one a shot to break one of my bad habits!)
12 Fantastic Finance Tracking Management Apps
Our sister site, Web.Appstorm, lists a bunch of cool apps to help you track and manage your finances. The list includes usual suspects like Mint and Buxfer, and some little known apps as well. Check them out and see which one suits you the best.
How To Use Mind-Mapping Software To Organize Your New Year Resolutions
The MakeUseOf blog explains how you can keep up with your new year resolutions using a mind-mapping software. It’s good advice because mind-mapping software will help you get a clear picture of your resolutions and how can you go about achieving them.
Related Posts
-
What’s Your Favorite Communication Channel?
-
The Netsetter: Interview with Nancy Nally
-
Problem Solvers vs. Opportunity Creators
Add a Comment
The previous two keyword research tools I covered were extremely powerful for finding keywords and checking their competitiveness on a large scale. They allow you to accomplish in hours what would amount to days or weeks of checking by hand.
But you don’t need industrial strength tools to find good keywords. Even if you can easily afford $50 one-time cost for Keyword Tool Dominator, or $33 per month for Niche Refinery, I would recommend holding off on spending the money until you get familiar with running individual keyword searches with free tools. Even now, with the power tools at my disposal, I still use the (mostly) free research tools I’m about to recommend, since they’re often faster when I need to get information on a single keyword. Let’s have a look at them.
Before going further, I want to stress that the tools I’m showcasing here and in Part 1 aren’t “tips” I’ve compiled to fill a list; they’re the tools I actually use on a daily basis.
SEO for Firefox and SEO Quake
SEO for Firefox and SEO Quake add a wealth of infomation under each Google search result, such as the PageRank, the number of links to the page, the number of links to the page’s entire domain, the Alexa Rank, the number of links from various social sites (Twitter, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg), the last cache date, and a host of other metrics.
I have most of these parameters disabled. For my methods, I’m only interested in the PageRank, the number of links to the page (called “L” in SEO Quake, “Y! Page Links” in SEO for Firefox), and the number of links to the site (“LD” in SEOQ, “Y! Links” in SEOFF). As mentioned in my coverage of Niche Refinery in Part 1, the objective is to check the competitiveness of each keyword by assessing the PageRanks of top four results in Google.
While Niche Refinery allows you check PRs for entire keyword lists (i.e., the PR for the top four results of each keyword in the list) as a batch process, don’t underestimate your ability to do this analysis by hand. Before using Niche Refinery, I could check 200-300 keywords per hour using SEOFF alone. You could probably outsource the process on Elance or Amazon Mechanical Turk for a very low cost—perhaps between $0.01 and $0.02 per keyword.
I prefer SEO for Firefox’s less cluttered information layout, but the extension is as limited to Firefox as the name implies. SEO Quake is available for FF, IE, Chrome and Safari.
The Google AdWords Keyword Tool
The Google Keyword Tool makes up for its many limitations by its sheer speed for simple queries. Suppose I wanted to write a blog post on the top 10 must-have browser extensions, but recognize that “extensions” are sometimes referred to as “plugins” or “plug-ins”. The “correct” terminology matters less than identifying which variant gets the most search traffic.
In the Keyword Tool, I can put all three keywords—”browser extensions”, “browser plug-ins” and “browser plugins”—into the “Word or phrase” field and compare them in about five seconds. The winner, “browser plug-ins”, not only get 3.5x the search traffic of “browser extensions”, but has a CPC of $1.57 compared to the latter’s $0.05, which is significant if you’re monetizing your blog with AdSense. Even if you’re not keen on letting keywords dictate the content you write, you should at least be aware of what people are typing into search engines to find your article’s topic.
Promediacorp Suggester
As you enter your search into Google, you see a short list of “suggestions” that you can select to autocomplete the query. These are actually weighted in descending order by search frequency. If you highlight one of these suggestions without pressing Enter, Google will offer more suggestions if they have any significant search volume. Google search suggestions are a great way to find long tail keywords. They’re also a great way to infer the search intent behind the primary keyword.
So if I enter “brad pitt”, the first suggestion is “brad pitt movies”, then “brad pitt workout”, then “brad pitt and angelina jolie” (please excuse the frivolous examples!). I had no idea there was a “Brad Pitt Workout”, nor that it would be a more popular search than “Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie”. If I highlight “brad pitt workout”, the top results are “brad pitt workout for fight club”, “brad pitt workout troy” and “brad pitt workout routine”. The latter keyword might be useful in an AdWords campaign for an exercise information product, if highly relevant.
The biggest limitation to using Google suggestions is that only 10 suggestions are displayed at most. This is were Promediacorp’s Suggester tool shines. It gives you the complete list of top level long tail searches (the “Top Terms” in the left sidebar), as well lower-volume searches (the “Extended Google Suggest List”). You can click on any of the Top Terms to expand the long tails.
Suggester isn’t perfect. As of now, there’s no way to view suggestions before the keyword. In Google, you can enter a search, position the cursor to the left of it, and hit the spacebar to see what words people are putting in front of the keyword: e.g. “angelina jolie and brad pitt” and “how tall is brad pitt”. You can also add a space between two keywords in Google to see if there are any keyword-rich conjunctions or predicates: e.g. “brad pitt cheating on angelina jolie” and “brad pitt quotes about angelina jolie” show up when adding a space between the two actors’ names. Since the vast majority of Google suggestions happen after the keyword, Suggester gets the job done most of the time.
Market Samurai
A favorite keyword research tool of many professional internet marketers, Market Samurai slices and dices. Market Samurai is a suite of modules for just about every aspect of internet marketing: Keyword Research, SEO Competition, Monetization, Rank Tracker, and more. All modules are fully functional during the 12-day trial period, after which you’ll have to drop US $149 to access them. Fortunately, one module is an exception—Keyword Research, which remains unlocked after the trial. It’s very likely that the Keyword Research module is the only one you’ll ever need on a regular basis—it’s the one I use 90% of the time, even though I’ve paid for the full version.
While I’ve advocated looking at the PageRank of the top search results for doing competitive analysis, the fact remains that most internet marketers still evaluate keyword competition by counting (a) the number of pages indexed in Google and (b) the number of index pages with the keyword in the title tag. A high ratio between the two factors would suggest that the keyword in question has relatively low competition. This is based on the idea that if the vast majority of search results contain the keyword in the title tag, then the keyword is probably being professional targeted by SEOs, since they would be certain to include the keyword in the title tag.
Market Samurai can check for a huge number of SEO factors, but the most relevant in this context are SEOT, SEOC and SEOTC. SEOT stands for SEO Traffic, meaning how many visits a page ranked #1 in Google for a particular keyword would receive: 42% of the total search volume. SEOC stands for SEO Competition, referring to how many pages are index by Google for the keyword. SEOTC stands for SEO Title Competition, referring to the number of indexed pages containing the keyword in the title tag.
The idea is to scan through a list of analyzed results in Market Samurai to find the ones that have a relatively high SEOT, a low SEOC and an even lower SEOTC. The program’s “Golden Rules” preset provides a set of criteria for you: e.g. an SEOT of 80, and an SEOC of 30,000. With the SEOC set so low (many keywords have an SEOC over six figures), the SEOTC is less important. Keywords under this threshold are accessible with a modest amount of link building.
Any Others?
There are a ton of good research tools out there, but I tend to add new ones to my toolkit very conservatively. I spend most of my time using the tools, not looking for others. But if you any any to recommend, or know if any new ways to get more out of the one that have been mentioned here, let me know in the comments.
Congratulations on the promotion. You’re going to be a great boss. We’re going to love working for you. And the company will thrive…
You don’t look like you’re believing me.
All right…you’ve got me. I’m just trying to make you feel better. That doesn’t mean you’re going to be a bad boss. Look, I’ve been in your shoes — and your office. It’s not easy. That’s why I’m back in the trenches. You can do better, though, with a few management tips. I’m about to share the most important management advice I learned in my time as a manager.
Money is important — but not everything.
Yes, money is good and necessary. We often will work harder for more money. But we don’t always succeed. Perhaps it’s the narrowing of focus that gets in the way. Sales commissions work because the money is a handy way of keeping score. Sales reps own their accounts. Those contracts are achievements. Take away that ownership but keep the money incentive and see what happens.
Daniel Pink offers a pretty good example of this in practice. He cites Australian software company Atlassian. A few times each year, employees get 24 hours to work on whatever they want as long as it has nothing to do with the projects that are part of their jobs. Then they present it to the company. They call them “Fedex Days” because you have to deliver overnight.
Give me something to be proud of.
You really want to keep me happy? Let me be proud of my work. That means I have to be able to use my skills to succeed. Let me work on projects that are my ideas. Don’t assign those ideas to other people.
And stop micromanaging. What you’re doing is telling me that you don’t trust me to do my job right.
I want something I can own. At the end of the day I want to point at something and say, “I did that.” I’m much happier saying that than, “My boss told me to do that.”
Set priorities.
I understand that I can’t do everything I want to do. If I didn’t, I would be on my own as a freelancer. You need me to do work aligned with the goals and mission of the company.
But I can’t do it all — even though you want to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of me that you can.
Be clear about what you want me to do first and what can wait. This sets clear goals which leads to a standard of productivity. Then we’ll know how I’m doing my job.
Try to catch me doing something right.
If you look to catch your employees doing something right — and acknowledge it publicly — you’re going to have an extremely motivated workforce.
It’s also one of the hardest things to do. When we’re doing what we’re supposed to do, we are pretty much on auto-pilot. You can forget about us. And you will because there is so much competing for your attention. It’s when we do something wrong that you really take notice. It’d be great for you to notice the good with the (hopefully, rare) bad.
It’s like exercise. Very few of us do as much as we should. But anything we do helps. Take small steps. Look for ways to recognize good work and make it a habit. Very small compliments and acknowledgments are subtle and help us feel like we work in a positive environment.
It’s a learning process.
A former boss told me that management is about making mistakes. The good managers learn from those mistakes and don’t make them again. Therefore, he looks to hire managers who have learned a lot from mistakes.
That means you shouldn’t be afraid to apologize and accept responsibility. This encourages us to trust you and accept your efforts to make it right.
Please don’t expect to be perfect. I know there are people below and above you on the corporate ladder who seem to expect perfection. That makes it tough. But it’s the managers who show that they learn from mistakes who are forgiven.
No one is irreplaceable.
You can’t let any employee hold the company hostage. Yes, it’s good to value good employees. But you can’t let them get what they want when they threaten to quit. Then you are no longer in control.
Sooner or later you’re going to lose every employee. We’re going to quit, retire or succumb to health issues (again, a hopefully rare occurrence). There is nothing you can do about it. To be less drastic, there will also be temporary losses called…vacations.
You should encourage us to move on to greener pastures. Be the boss who helps workers get promoted or find better opportunities. That will mean you’ll lose someone. But more people will want to work for you because you can help them improve their careers.
Once you accept this, you need to do something about it. That means having a backup plan for every job. Cross train everyone. Someone needs to be ready to step into a vacancy. And you need to know what tasks can’t be done while you’re down a worker — whether they’re gone for vacation, illness or for good.
Maybe the substitute isn’t a permanent replacement. But you can survive losing a valued worker. There’s a chance when you do that it becomes an opportunity to reward another valued worker.
You have a boss, too.
About now you’re tempted to forward this missive to your supervisor. But maybe that person isn’t as enlightened as you. So, you’re vulnerable to whatever mismanagement exists at the next level.
One of your most important jobs is to manage the dynamics between upper management and us. So if you’re getting conflicting priorities and negative feedback, chances are we will as well. I would prefer you to act as a gateway to that and spare us that misery. But it’s hard to do that. Some of it has to be passed along.
And if you contain it all, we don’t know what’s going on. We may blame you for strategic reversals or consider you to be two-faced when reality doesn’t match what you tell us. You have to decide if this how you want to live your life. This can be a major source of stress. If you can’t accept what your boss wants you to do, then you need to move on.
This is true for all of us. But it’s more important that you are good with it because your problems at work affect how we do our jobs, too.
Good luck.
We’re not your enemies. We want you to succeed. That means our jobs will be secure, we can be happy, and we will do good work. So let’s get to work.
By the way…can I have Friday off?
(Image courtesy of TheTruthAbout under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic license.)