Archive for the ‘Guest Post’ Category
5 Home Office Organization Tips: Your gateway to productivity
Today’s guest post comes from Angela Taylor, a staff writer for Apron Addicts, a blog about kitchen fashion and home style. Angela also likes to write about mobile technology, business, productivity, and anything else that catches her attention.
As a writer who telecommutes full time from a home office, I’m constantly battling what I like to call “productivity suckers”. You know what I mean, those little, every day distractions that can suck your will to work virtually dry?
Sure, as a person who works from home, we don’t get sucked into to the usual culprits—such as office water cooler gossip, distracting coworkers, disrespectful coworkers, and controlling bosses. However, our distractions come from other places, mainly needy kids, friends who casually call or drop in while we’re working, and the mounting laundry or pile of dishes that’s just begging to get washed.
5 Ways Looking at Funny Websites During Work Will Make You More Productive
Today’s guest post comes from ex-nanny Heather Smith.
When you open up your internet browser you’re probably immediately redirected to some sort of news site that is primed and ready to flood you with all sorts of impending perils around the world, and maybe a sweet baby animal picture or two if you’re lucky. That’s assuming that you’re like the majority of people online and not one of those people that is motivated enough to actually change your homepage to something cool.
Landing on the news page every time you open your browser serves as a pretty constant reminder that the world we live in is in shambles and that people, in general, pretty much suck. Which is why having websites like Happy Place and I Can Has Cheezburger?, and other sites of that type offer such a refreshing change of pace.
How Culture Measurement is a Lot Like Flossing
Today’s guest post comes from David Youssefnia, president of Critical Metrics, a Seattle-based consulting firm, that helps clients understand what drives employee and customer success by focusing on employee and customer measurement and analytics.
Culture measurement and flossing? Really? Do they have anything in common? Well, we think they do, based on our recent culture measurement study with 236 management and HR professionals from U.S.-based companies across multiple industries.
First, like flossing, findings revealed that although most employees and senior leaders think that measuring corporate culture is important (and we’ll support that hunch in a moment), few companies measure it, and even fewer do it well.
6 Practices of an Extraordinary Teammate
Kate Matsudaira writes a guest post today. Kate is the CTO of decide.com, and an inspiration to me. Follow these links to read Kate’s blog and subscribe to her Technology and Leadership newsletter.
Over the years I have worked with a lot of amazing people. I have also worked with a lot of not-so-amazing individuals. One of the things that have consistently separated the good from the great has been one’s capacity to work as part of a team. You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your coworkers, so learning how to work really well with others (even those you don’t agree) can make a huge difference to the culture and company.
In fact, learning to work well with others can make the difference in achieving wild success in corporations and industry.
What It Really Means To Be a CTO
Guest Post Week concludes with Dan Shapiro
Dan Shapiro is a friend who I’ve come to know through the Seattle startup community. Dan founded the mobile software company Ontela, which he merged with Photobucket, and is now in stealth mode with a new startup named SparkBuy. (Follow them to get an invitation to their beta.) When I asked him to write a guest post, I wasn’t expecting what I received—an ode that humbles me.
I was talking to a CTO candidate some months ago. He seemed terrific and came highly recommended, with only one concern – he hadn’t been at a single job for more than two years. To his immense credit, he knew that was a yellow flag and, when we were talking about his resume, brought the subject up.
He did it in a great way too. He pointed out the strength and depth of his experiences, and then said, “the one thing I regret about my career so far is I haven’t had an opportunity to really build a long term relationship with a company”. He then explained the course of his career arc, and proceeded to dispel all my concerns. There was a few acquisitions, a bankruptcy, and similar circumstances that explained everything. Except one thing.
Politics, this current election, the whole system…
Guest Post Week continues with Danny Thomas
Danny and I first met as 3-year olds in preschool, and I haven’t stopped looking up to him ever since. He is an intellectual, an artist, a musician and a dreamer. Although, I suspect if you asked him what he is that he’d say, “I’m a Father”. When I asked him to write a piece for this blog, he sent me this note which—in his usual way of having his finger on the pulse of humanity—expresses exactly how I feel.
Politics, this current election, the whole system…
It’s got me feeling pretty disillusioned…
Stress And The Physiology Of The Mind Body Connection
Guest Post Week continues with John Helm
John Helm is pretty much the smartest person I know. I’m a pretty smart person, and can keep up in conversation on most topics, but John is consistently operating at level of sophistication and intelligence that blows my mind—it’s like playing basketball against Michael Jordan. When I asked John to write a guest post I had no idea what I would get, and I was nothing less than delighted!
Stress, as a state of mind, can affect our physical health and well being. It’s real and it has a physiological basis. Being constantly pumped throws your endocrine system out of balance and affects the levels of an important class of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.
Much of the emotion-hormone connection resides in the limbic system, which is involved with emotion, motivation, and behavior. It is connected to the the autonomic nervous system which is the body’s “automatic control system”. While this system functions largely below the level of consciousness, we can be aware of it when we get butterflies in our stomach, cold sweats, and so on. When stressed, our brains tell our bodies to release adrenaline and corticosteroids (and most notably glucocorticoids). The levels are determined by the Pituitary Gland, which is connected to the hypothalamus, which is part of the limbic system. This defines a direct connection between our basic emotions (i.e. animal emotions) and how we feel; it’s a very significant part of the mind-body connection. Many believe that our emotional well being affects things like posture, weight, and sicklyness through this connection. In any case, it operates largely without our conscious awareness–it’s why professional interrogators are trained in reading body language–most people cannot train themselves to fake it because it’s automatic (actually, autonomic :^)
The Life and Times of the Great Bug Catcher
Guest Post Week starts with Eddie Rehfeldt
My friend Eddie is an amazing spirit with a seemingly endless amount of energy. Currently working on interactive design, previously Eddie made award-winning music videos (for Pearl Jam, Cypress Hill and others) and films—most recently Avatar.
The love affair started with a bee. We met our black beauty in the back of dingy concrete courtyard in a suburban pound. Katie was unleashed from her cage for a momentary viewing. She was instantly warm but not overly jumpy. Katie looked like a small lab with Rottweiler markings. We both wanted something different. I wanted an Aussie blue heeler. Lisa wanted a Lab.
Right away Katie came close and she was affectionate especially with Lisa. Something grabbed Katie’s attention, she pulled away suddenly, then out of the blue she snatched a bumble bee out of the air. She swished the bee around in her mouth then as if to say “blah” she spit the bee carcass in front of her. We both laughed and thought: This dog is so ours.
I am Psyched to Present “Guest Post Week”
I thought I’d try something fun, and it’s turned out to be just terrific! I am so excited that I’m giddy.
I sent an e-mail to a handful of friends…
Will you write a guest post for my blog? You can write about anything you want. About 500 words minimum.