We will delve into some common characteristics of such individuals and discuss ways you can potentially reach that stature.

Excel as a Designer

Producing high-quality work is the primary key to becoming a leader in any industry, particularly in the design field. Your work should essentially speak for itself. No one will heed a designer whose work lacks quality. While not everyone may agree that your design solutions are the best for the problems you address, almost everyone can acknowledge a high-quality design when they see one.

The significance of this trait cannot be overstated. Designers can be a very discerning, highly critical group – it’s part of the job. Getting unanimous agreement that your work is “good” may never happen. However, they can concur that you’re a seasoned professional who is proficient in tools like Photoshop or Illustrator.

Mastering your craft and honing it to perfection is crucial if you aspire to lead others in the industry.

Be Visible

To be heard, you need to be visible to others in the design world – not just within your specific niche, but anywhere your ideas can make an impact.

If you’re a web designer, this means print designers, software designers, product designers, and anyone else related to your industry should also be aware of you and able to engage with your ideas.

Strive to spread the word about yourself and get people talking about you. This could be through blogging, social media, or even going viral on YouTube.

Promoting yourself is a constant challenge that every designer could do more of, but it’s particularly crucial if you want to be a thought leader. If no one knows who you are, then your words will only matter to you. And perhaps your parents.

Be Accountable

Your credibility as someone worth listening to is built on how accountable you are for your words. If you voice opinions anonymously and never respond to challenges to your ideas, people will notice, and at best, you’ll be ignored in the design world, or at worst, ridiculed.

This doesn’t mean you have to disclose every single thought you have on every topic. In fact, that’s likely an imprudent strategy if you’re trying to build a reputation as someone worth listening to. However, you should aim to own your ideas and make it clear to others that you can support and defend them if necessary.

Continually strive to raise the standard, not just with your work, but also with what you communicate to fellow designers. Once people recognize you as someone who always fosters engaging conversations, they will be inclined to participate and respect your ideas.

Have an Opinion

This is a given. If you don’t have any opinions about design or designers, or if you never express them, you’ll remain in obscurity.

It doesn’t matter if your opinion is controversial or even upsets some people – the design community needs to be continually challenged and introduced to new ideas for designers to maintain their “edge”. Even – no, especially – if those ideas provoke them or make them think.

As I mentioned earlier, designers can be judgmental and somewhat harsh at times. And honestly, you wouldn’t want it any other way. If the design community passively accepted every idea with equal regard, the quality of the designs being created would significantly decline.

Designers need some resistance for their ideas; constructive criticism makes youa stronger and more innovative designer. As a thought leader, when you voice a controversial opinion, designers will either strive to prove you right, or they’ll attempt to prove you wrong. Either way, they won’t remain idle.

Be Patient

Lastly, remember that becoming a thought leader in the design community is not an overnight process. It will take years of building your reputation and becoming widely recognized enough to not only be heard but also respected by your fellow designers. Remember, being an exceptional designer comes first, and everything else follows.

The post How to Establish Yourself as a Leader in Design Thinking appeared first on Hongkiat.

If you’re looking to get your hands on a book like that, take a look at this list of best and latest personal development books. These books focus on different themes and take varied approaches, so pick the one that relates to your situation and may prove helpful to your cause.

“Girl, Wash Your Face”

Author: Rachel Hollis

An amazing book that talks about several lies and misconceptions that keep us from living a happy and fulfilling life, Girl, Wash Your Face is written by Rachel Hollis – the co-founder of the lifestyle website TheChicSite.com and CEO of her own media company – in which she opens up about the problems of her own life and how she coped with them.

Packed with honesty, motivation, encouragement, and humor, this book inspires women to deal with life issues with determination and find their own true happiness.

“Unfu*k Yourself”

Author: Gary John Bishop

Unfu*k Yourself is a handbook of simple and straightforward motivational statements by Gary John Bishop. Focused on people who always find themselves in the worst circumstances, the book endeavors to strengthen your confidence and self-esteem by discouraging self-pity and negative attitude in order to achieve your goals in life.

“Get Over Your Damn Self”

Author: Romi Neustadt

If you’re a victim of negative attitude that over-complicates even the simplest tasks in your life, then this book is the one you should read. Written by personal development coach Romi Neustadt, the book will guide you in making direct sales and network marketing that’ll ultimately lead you to greater financial freedom and more time for yourself.

“I Am That Girl”

Author: Alexis Jones

Being a woman with layers of responsibilities towards family and household, we often tend to forget our true ambition or things that we’re passionate about. In this book, Alexis Jones encourages girls and women to rediscover their passion and unlock their potential to live a life of their dreams.

The writer tells girls to stop allowing other people’s negative energy to flow into their own lives and don’t be bothered about how they look, where they work and if their relationship is perfect or not. I Am That Girl has been reviewed and endorsed by many famous Hollywood actresses and successful women in business as a great, funny, and helpful guide for girls about their lives.

“100 Days to Brave”

Author: Anne F. Downs

The writer Anne F. Downs was faced by many difficult challenges in life that kept her from living life to the full. 100 Days to Brave tells about her journey of overcoming fears and inspires readers to take similar steps of courage and confidence in the face of most troublesome times.

Through humor and honesty, the book will help you experience a fearless, productive and joyful life in thickest of the times.

“The Virgin Way”

Author: Richard Branson

Richard Branson, founder of the British Virgin Group containing more than 400 companies such as Virgin Media and the Virgin Atlantic Airways is probably one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our times.

He lives a vivid social media life, and he has also published some great books in which he shares his unique and unconventional views on management, entrepreneurship, and business.

The Virgin Way: If It’s Not Fun, It’s Not Worth Doing is his latest book on management and entrepreneurship in which he gives an inside look at his insanely successful style of leadership that is primarily driven by the art of listening and keeping people engaged.

Branson has such an out-of-the-box personality that he even dares assert that "you’ll never have to think outside the box if you refuse to let anyone build one around you."

“The Essential Drucker”

Author: Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker was a legendary professor and management consultant, or a “social ecologist” as he described himself, who founded the theory and practice of modern management. Although he died in 2005, his books have stood the test of time, and you can gain a great amount of knowledge on economics, business and leadership by reading them.

The Essential Drucker is an insightful collection of the best essays by the prominent business philosopher, published over a span of more than 60 years. In this book, you can learn about the basic principles and concerns of management, its best practices, main challenges, core problems, and most promising opportunities. For samples of his writing, follow this link.

“Work Rules!”

Author: Laszlo Bock

Laszlo Bock, the author of this amazing book currently works as the head of Google’s People Operations team that is basically responsible for the Human Resources of the company. Work Rules! published in 2015 is his first book that quickly became a bestseller of The New York Times.

Work Rules! gives many thought-provoking insights into the human resource and talent management of Google, including topics such as giving more power to employees over managers, avoiding a dehumanizing company culture, transparency, the best usage of data, how to calculate more motivating, performance-based salaries, and many more. It’s a must-read to everyone who manages humans and wants to take leadership seriously.

“The Alliance”

Author: Reid Hoffman

The Alliance is authored by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of Linkedin, Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh, all of whom are successful entrepreneurs and mentors. The Alliance analyzes the problem of the employee-employer relationship that has become broken in our fast-changing and insecure modern world.

If you run your own company, or you work as a manager, this book can give you excellent tips on how to recruit, manage, and retain amazing people at your company in a connected world where companies can’t afford to offer lifetime employment anymore.

The book has many interesting ideas, such as how employees should be treated as an alliance between independent players rather than a transactional relationship, and many others. To learn more about this awesome book, download the first chapter for free, and check it out for yourself.

“Thinking in Systems”

Author: Donella Meadows

Donella Meadows was an influential environmental scientist who became famous with her first book, Limits to Growth which was about the consequences of an uncontrolled growth on a finite planet. She researched the feasibility of sustainable systems at all levels of society, from local to global.

Thinking in Systems, a later work of hers describes how to develop system-thinking skills critical for dealing with the complexity of the 21st century life. Donella Meadows thinks that the biggest problems in the world such as poverty, hunger, and war are system failures that cannot be solved in isoation from others.

This book is not only theoretical though, as it provides you with useful methodology to help you improve your problem-solving skills, which is one of the most important areas of personal and professional development.

“Nonsense”

Author: Jamie Holmes

Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing is a fascinating book that claims it’s not IQ, willpower, or self-confidence that matters the most in today’s increasingly unpredictable world, but how you deal with new things you don’t necessarily understand.

The author, Jamie Holmes approaches the subject of uncertainty from the aspect of social psychology and cognitive science and introduces you into the upsides of ambiguity such as creativity, empathy, personal development, and inspiration for learning.

Not only that, but he also teaches you new skills to use uncertainty to your own advantage. He uses awesome real-life stories throughout the book to make you engaged and entertained.

Performing Under Pressure

Author: Dr. Hendrie Weisinger, and Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry

Have you ever had to deal with high-pressure situations such as job interviews, hard exams, sales presentations, price negotiations with clients, and the like? According to Dr. Hendrie Weisinger and Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry, the authors of Performing Under Pressure, people don’t perform better at all under pressure, as it’s frequently claimed by many.

This brilliant book introduces you into the intriguing concept of pressure management and offers both short and long-term practical solutions tested on over 12,000 people to help you overcome the paralyzing effects of pressure and stress.

“Disrupt Yourself”

Author: Jay Samit

Disruptive innovation is a quite successful strategy in the contemporary business arena, just think about companies like Uber, AirBnB, or TaskRabbit. Disrupt Yourself, written by Jay Samit serial entrepreneur describes the unique method he has used to invent new products and launch, grow, and sell businesses in industries such as e-commerce, social media, digital video creation, mobile communications and software development.

If you have a big idea but are not sure how to apply it, or just got stuck in your life and seek personal transformation, you must read this engaging and perspective-shifting book.

“Losing the Signal”

Author: Jacquie McNish, and Sean Silcoff

If you like rise and fall stories told in an engaging, juicy way, you need to check out this fascinating book about Blackberry’s rise and fall, written by the two prominent business writers of the Canadian The Globe and Mail, Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff.

Not so long ago Blackberry was the favourite gadget of high-profile professionals, CEOs, and presidents. In 2009 the company controlled about the half of the smartphone market. By 2015 this number fell to less than 1 percent.

Losing the Signal investigates the story, and presents the reasons of the rise and the fall in the form of a modern tale. If you want to understand how to avoid failure in a superfast, information-ridden, innovation-hungry business world, and want to acquire this knowledge in a really entertaining way, this book was written just for you.

“The Organized Mind”

Author: Daniel J. Levitin

In his new book, The Organized Mind, Daniel J. Levitin, bestselling author, neuroscientist, and professor at McGill University shows you how to handle the constant flow of information your brain encounters in today’s insane deluge of data.

You can learn new practical methods about how to organize your personal and professional life in an environment more complex than ever before, through entertaining real-life examples, such as how not to lose your car keys, how to manage your kitchen junk drawer, how to establish a productive office workflow and many others.

The recommended methods are backed up with the latest research on the cognitive neuroscience of attention and memory.

The post 15 Personal Development Books to Read For Self-Improvement appeared first on Hongkiat.

Luckily, it’s not that hard to keep your design files under control. Some common sense, with a dash of self-discipline, and repeat. Just like brushing your teeth: once you get into the habit of doing these things, you won’t even notice it. You’ll just naturally keep your computer and design files under control.

Alright then, here are the 5 effective ways to keep your files under control.

1. Ruthlessly delete unnecessary files

This one might seem forehead-slapping obvious, but sometimes the most common-sense steps are overlooked. Forget any productivity software, and file streamlining workflows, and any other pat-on-the-back productivity nonsense: simply delete old and unnecessary files.

It’s the same as cleaning your room or organizing your physical files. You go through your stuff, and when looking at an item, you decide: is this relevant to something important? If not, you ruthlessly throw it away. That’s how you stay organized: by minimizing the number of stuff you have. No tricks or secrets.

Similarly, when you’re going through the files on your computer, decide if each one is still relevant or important. If it isn’t, ruthlessly delete it – you won’t need it again, and it’s just cluttering up your digital workplace. Usually, these files are old project files such as earlier drafts or outdated designs.

That’s nice and all, but when should you ruthlessly delete old and unnecessary files? After all, practically everyone hates cleaning their room.

Well, just like the way you can minimize having to schedule cleaning your room is by taking care of an object as soon as you encounter it, so too should you decide if you need to delete a file when you encounter it. This leads us to #2…

2. Take immediate action on files you encounter

The best way to avoid having to schedule sorting and cleaning of your computer design files is to not have it be necessary. Each time you encounter a file, take immediate action on it.

But no doubt you’ve got things to do, places to be. You can’t drop everything you’re doing and take care of each file you encounter. So how do you decide when to take action? Use the 5-minute rule: if taking immediate action on the file will take 5 minutes or less, take care of it as soon as you encounter it.

Sound familiar? It’s because this is “influenced” by David Allen’s popular book GTD: Getting Things Done. In it, he says you can avoid accumulating a long to-do list by immediately taking care of a task you encounter as long as it’ll take no more than minutes.

This applies to your computer design files as well:

• Found a half-finished logo? Wrap it up and send it off.
• Almost done with a piece of code? Finish it.
• Have a group of files you’re not sure you need anymore? Go through them, decide, and delete if necessary.

3. Consolidate files when possible

This is a simple one. If you can somehow consolidate two or more files into one, then you’ll naturally have fewer files. And fewer files equals less clutter.

The other benefit of consolidating files is it becomes easier to find what you’re looking for. Your files become more organized. How? You’ll naturally have relevant content all in one file, so no need to hunt multiple files that pertain to the same project.

How do you go about consolidating your files?

• For text, simply copy/paste related content from multiple files into one main text file.
• For visual designs, you can copy/paste different elements and variations into one main graphic file.

Every major and minor graphics app supports layers and the labeling and grouping of them, so take advantage of that. It can be variations of a logo, or multiple aspects of a bigger design – all in one graphics file.

Granted, not every type of file or content can be consolidated. Code, for example. So that’s why the above is titled “when possible” – do the best you can, and any amount that helps to reduce the number of files is a net gain.

4. Have as few folders as possible

Create only a few folders for your type of work, and be as general with the category as possible. Instead of getting a niche with countless folders being broken down, just have things like ‘logos’ and ‘websites’. Or you can have folders for each project, and any type of file that’s related to it goes in there.

Why do this? Two reasons:

1. No indecision paralysis: is the file a logo, website stuff, or part of a project? Just throw it in the respective folder and be done with it.
2. Anti-too-many-files filter: when you see the folder filling up with too many files, you’ll be more inclined to delete old and unnecessary ones. Similar to seeing too much stuff in your room, rather than hiding it in drawers and other rooms.

Avoid getting too specific with folder names and categories. The more specific you name a folder, the more categories you’ll have. And with more categories, you’ll have to decide where the new file goes.

Chances are it won’t neatly fit into just one of them, so you’ll arbitrarily pick one. Then when it’s time to organize more files, you’ll think back to which category you choose with a similar file last time. Not to mention not clearly knowing which category each file belongs to.

Why not just use some tagging system? Then you can do away with folders altogether, right? While in theory, this should work, in reality, it’ll encourage you to create and keep way too many files.

Here’s what will happen:

1. You tag your initial files, feeling good that you’ll be able to easily find them later by searching via tags.
2. You become liberal with tags by creating too many tags that are too specific – this is due to indecision paralysis since you couldn’t choose between two tags and decided to create a new one specifically for that one file.
3. You end up having too many tags which become overwhelming to find stuff with.
4. What’s worse is since you didn’t feel the need to keep your file count low, you now have more files than if they were constantly visible in a general folder you looked in.

5. Ditch auto-organizing features

Auto-organizing features (think iTunes’ auto-rename-and-sort feature but applied to all files) are the nemesis to keeping files under control. They encourage liberal file creation and saving. While it seems fine at first, the more files you have, the less you’ll know where everything is.

Why not just delete files when they’re old or unnecessary? The auto-organizing feature will encourage you to not delete. Sort of like Gmail’s never-delete-just-search feature. But unlike email, where you only have one type of content (text) and thus easy to search, your files are hard to search this way.

There’s no simple way to search inside the content, especially for visual and audio files. So the only thing you’ll have to work with is filenames and maybe some meta description tagged onto it. That’s a recipe for file overload.

By not using any auto-organizing features, you’ll be accountable for every file you create. You’ll see it and pay attention to it at least once, so you’ll be more conscious of each file on your computer. This way, you’ll get a better feel for when your files are getting out of control – and when you need to ruthlessly delete them.

Conclusion

Hopefully these 5 ways were more than just productivity tips: things to read to avoid doing actual work that gets you desired results in your life. No, these were written with the intention to be actionable things you can start applying now to keep your computer and design files from getting out of control.

No one actively wants to organize and manage their computer and design files. So these 5 ways will help you to form habits that’ll avoid needing to do that. And as with any habit, the most important thing is to just start doing them.

Your turn: what other ways have helped you to effectively keep your computer and design files under control?

The post 5 Ways to Keep Your Files Under Control appeared first on Hongkiat.

In the last 45 years alone, global suicide rates have increased by 60% and some 350 million people worldwide suffer from some form of depression. Is it really that hard to be happy? Or are we looking at all the wrong places?

Consider this: whenever we get the recognition, achievement, material possession, etc. which supposedly are the things that can make us happier, it wouldn’t be long before our satisfaction fades and we go about setting new goals to strive for in our lives. This in psychology is known as the happiness treadmill.

We work hard in the hope to lead happier lives, but only to realize that we are still at the same spot on the treadmill. To be truly happy, we need to know how to get off this treadmill.

Hedonic Treadmill or Adaptation Theory

Coined by Brickman and Campbell in 1971, this theory suggests that people adapt quickly to circumstances in life and eventually return to their baseline levels of happiness.

In a study by Brickman, the happiness levels of lottery winners and paralyzed accident victims were found to be no different than the general population after some time from the event.

The treadmill actually acts like a set-point for our happiness level. Whatever we encounter or experience in life, after a brief moment of happiness or sadness, our emotions will return to the baseline.

While this protects us from being overwhelmed by negative events and getting stuck in depression mode, it is also the reason why we won’t be able to get our happily ever after.

Our initial happiness and excitement will dissipate, and off we go looking out for the next opportunity which we believe will make us happy again.

Prepping To Be Happy

The Easterlin Paradox (proposed by economist Richard Easterlin in 1974) revealed that people in wealthier countries were no happier than those in less wealthy countries. A recent US research also found that beyond an annual income of US$75,000, any further increase in salary has no significant impact on our happiness level – at least for the Americans.

Does this mean that money and other materialistic pursuits do not serve any long-term purpose in achieving happiness? Of course not. Having more money can make you happier.

"The human animal is incapable of being satisfied except for brief moments. Once satisfied, it moves to the next need it needs to be fill."

More often than not, money is particularly helpful at the bottommost two layers of needs in Maslow’s pyramid.

Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs

Psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed in his hierarchy of needs theory (what you see below) 5 levels of fundamental needs. At the bottom of the pyramid is physiological needs, what we need to stay alive: air, food, water, sleep etc. Above that, safety, which includes personal security, financial security, health and fitness, etc.

With our two bottom layer needs answered for through monetary means, we gain a greater sense of control and certainty over our surroundings. Beyond these two needs, we would attain the right frame of mind to look for and have happiness.

Such peace of mind sets the stage for us to enjoy life’s moments and connect better with people, both of which are crucial components for beating that tricky treadmill.

Going higher up the levels, money may not have the same impact on our well-being much longer. We can’t really fulfil love/belonging, esteem and self-actualizing needs with money, can we? But at least now, we are ready to be happy.

The Secret To Being Happy

According to University of California Riverside psychology professor Sonja Lyubomirsky‘s bestseller "The How of Happiness," a good 40% of how happy we are actually depends on what we choose to think and the activities we engage in on an ongoing basis.

This is where what we choose to pursue in our lives matters and has the potential to help us escape the treadmill phenomenon. Depending on what we prioritize on in our lives and the decisions we make on a daily basis, our happiness set-point can change.

Trapped Like Rats

There was a second part to the Easterlin’s findings in that what we earn actually is linked to our happiness. To be specific, Easterlin concluded that the relative income between us and the people around us is what determines our happiness.

For example, if you earn $60,000 a year, you are happier in a country where the average annual income is $20,000 than if the average is $80,000. Sounds like a case of keeping up with the Joneses? You bet.

What You Can Do To Be Happy

Well, first of all, we should experience the present moment in our lives rather than focusing too much on the future or ruminating on our past. The present is what we truly possess and it is those activities which we choose to engage in that’s going to make us happy beings.

So what can you choose to do today?

1. List Your Blessings

In a psychology experiment by Emmons and McCullough, a group of participants were asked to write down 5 things which they are grateful for, once a week. After doing so for 10 weeks, the group ended up feeling better and more optimistic about their lives, and experienced fewer physical symptoms of illness.

Check this benefits of gratitude list out to see what science has to say about the power of gratitude.

2. Physical Exercises

This one also has some scientific truth in it. Exercise has been found to improve your mood, sleep and is a great stress reliever (as it reduces cortisol levels in the body).

Exercising also releases endorphins and dopamine, the "happy chemicals" or neurotransmitters in our brain that allow us to feel pleasure and induce in us a sense of well-being.

Check out more about this with regards to runner’s high, how moderate aerobic exercises can elevate moods, why physically active people experience more enthusiasm, and how exercise helps with depressed patients.

3. Performing acts of kindness

Research has shown that performing random acts of kindness makes you happy. Actually, "altruism" should be the one getting the praises but in both cases, the key is to do random acts, not scheduled ones (which would dilute the effects).

It’s probably no coincidence that most, if not all major religions endorse kindness and forgiveness as one of their core teachings.

The best part about all this is that research has also shown this to be some sort of self-perpetuating loop: doing kind acts make us happier which makes us more inclined to do even more kind acts! Check this post out for ideas for random acts of kindness

4. Make Social Goals

If you are working hard for a pay raise only to make it a materialistic pursuit (do you really need another smartphone?) then you are still trapped, but if you are aiming for it to spend on day-to-day activities or to build social relationships then research says that you are on the right track.

Research has shown that people are happier when they make purchases to acquire life experiences (e.g. traveling, dinner with friends, etc) as compared to material possessions. The shared experiences embedded in our memory bank have a longer-lasting effect compared to one triggered by materialistic pursuit.

Don’t Go Looking for Happiness

Despite all the research findings and tips by experts, saying goodbye to that cunning hedonic treadmill for life remains a herculean task. We may find ourselves never finding a good answer to what life and happiness is about, and in turn, find the pursuit of happiness a lost cause.

To that end, psychologist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl has this to say:

"Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself."

In the 3 years as a POW in nazi concentration camps, he discovered that inmates who found meaning in their suffering and maintained hope of being released were the ones who eventually survived. After his liberation, Frankl went on to establish that the "will to meaning" is critical in attaining fulfillment in our lives.

Happiness Should Happen

The emphasis lies not on oneself, but that of finding meaning in the day-to-day demands. It means taking responsibility in our actions and fulfilling our duties to the fullest. It means living in the present and answering life as it unfolds.

Happiness is not to be seen as an end itself, but rather as a byproduct from having meaning in life through the choices we consciously made. If all that sounds too philosophical for you to digest, here’s another take by a politician on how happiness should "happen" rather than be attained:

"Happiness is like a cat, if you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you’ll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap."

The post The Pursuit Of Happiness (& How To Be Truly Happy) appeared first on Hongkiat.

The good news is that there are also several other scientifically-proven activities which, when done habitually, can help us in our quest for happiness.

After looking through many of these suggestions supported by studies and experiments, I want to share the following 8 with you. Feel free to share your comments in the comments section below.

1. Practise mindfulness

In a comprehensive research to study the level of happiness of 2250 participants, Harvard psychologists contacted the participants at random intervals during the day to find out the activity they were engaged in, their feelings and their thoughts.

The responses revealed that half of the time, the participants were not paying attention to what they were doing. Those who daydream, and thus are not concentrating at the task at hand, were reported to be less happy. It is this wandering of the mind that is causing them to be gloomy.

Rather than focusing on what was happening right at that instant — living in the moment — some of the sadder participants were thinking about the past or something that had yet to happen.

Mindfulness living

Mindfulness living is about living consciously, and according to Jon Kabat-Zinn, “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.”

The ability to concentrate well requires repeated practice. One way to do that is to practice mindfulness meditation: sitting down with our eyes closed and observing our physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions from a distance without judgment. Label them as an “itch”, a “thought” or anger, for example, as they come and go in our consciousness.

When we can do this 20 minutes a day, often enough, we will start to realize that we are not our thoughts or emotions, and we will be less affected by them. That’s when we’re able to stay focused on what we do at any moment and become more present with our lives.

More: Apart from engaging in daily mindfulness meditation, here are 10 steps suggested by Reader’s Digest on how you can start living mindfully as well.

2. Have sufficient quality sleep

Most of us are aware of the importance of sleep on our health. After all, it’s a fundamental “physiological” need under Maslow’s hierarchy.

Yet, many of us are still stubbornly putting off going to bed early in the name of productivity. Some of us may actually consider “adequate sleep” as a luxury, thanks to our tight work schedules and project deadlines.

However, psychologist Norbert Schwarz from the University of Michigan had found that getting just an extra hour of sleep every night will make you happier than earning a $60,000 raise for the year!

Considering how the lack of sleep can negatively affect our mood the following day, it perhaps makes more sense to get enough of it every day, become happier, and consequently increase our productivity at work.

But that doesn’t mean you need more sleep. An analysis of the lifestyles of some 4,000 adults found that the happiest of the lot get an average of 6 hours 15 min of uninterrupted, quality sleep each night.

According to another study by Cornell University, happy people tend to sleep better as well. It’s a loop: resolve to get more quality sleep, become happier, sleep even better!

More: To kick-start, this awesome habit, check out this great list of 33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep by Dr. Mercola.

3. Buy some experience

In my last post, I wrote that money is better spent on acquiring life experiences rather than for material possessions. Well, another study from Cornell University reaffirmed this, by proposing that acquired experiences are less tangible (compared to physical pursuits) and hence, harder to subject to social comparison.

The result is that our happiness level doesn’t adapt to such personal experiences as quickly as we habituate to purchased goods.

Aside from strengthening social relationships, the experience also becomes more and more memorable as time passes. Our minds naturally reinterpret our experiences retrospectively and holistically in a positive manner.

For instance, each time we revisit our cherished memories of the last vacation trip we took with family or friends, the hassles and frustrations experienced during the trip are conveniently forgotten.

So, go ahead and plan your next trip on some tropical island now. There is already research showing that anticipation itself will give you a boost in your happiness, as mentioned by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, authors of Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending.

They even found one study which pointed out that not only does delayed pleasure increases your excitement, it can even make it more pleasurable when you’re finally experiencing it.

4. Cut down on traveling time

Previously, I have also mentioned that certain events in life could permanently lower our happiness baseline. Chronic long commutes are one such event.

Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert puts it succinctly: “You can’t adapt to commuting, because it’s entirely unpredictable. Driving in traffic is a different kind of hell every day.” No wonder daily commute has been ranked last among all daily activities.

A telephone survey conducted on about 170,000 employed adults showed that a third of those who took over 90 minutes to travel to work are more likely to have high cholesterol and chronic physical symptoms such as back and neck pains.

40% of the same group were also found to experience worry for most of the day, as compared to just 28% of those who commute to work in less than 10 minutes a day.

Before accepting a new job offer, take into account how much time you need to take to get to work each day. If, however, you’re already stuck in one which requires you to drive for an hour or more each day, you might want to consider other available means of commute.

In Portland, Oregon, it was found that bicycle commuters are the happiest lot, followed by people who walk to work. Lone drivers are the least happy of all.

5. Smile!

According to one of the earliest research on the effects of smiling on our mood conducted by psychologist Robert Zajonc, who had participants say out the vowel “e” to make them smile, and the German vowel “ü” to make them pout. Those who “smiled” reportedly felt good while those who “pout” felt worse!

Numerous similar studies claim that smiling relieves stress and anxiety. Like one from Michigan State University, found those city bus drivers who “smile for the sake of smiling” throughout the day had their mood worsened and withdrew from work. The effects were found to be especially true for women.

When we smile, there are some biological processes that somehow trick our brain into thinking we’re happy. For this reason, our moods are lifted reflexively.

Of course, this is just a brief intervention that is only effective momentarily and not something that can make you happier as a person in the long run.

Nevertheless, if doing something as simple as smiling could help us feel a wee bit better about our lives and get other people to smile as well, I don’t see why we shouldn’t do it more!

More: Curious about the science behind smiling and how it makes us happier as well as other interesting tidbits? Check out this refreshing post by Leo Wildrich of Buffer.

6. Get a pet

Most pet owners would agree that their pets have brought them joy and good memories. Amazingly, researcher Allen McConnell has even found that social support provided by pets is comparable to that from a fellow family member.

McConnell also showed that among other benefits, pet owners tend to have greater self-esteem, are less depressed and less lonely — they even exercise more!

However, don’t go rushing to buy one from the pet store if you know you’re using it as a substitute for your less-than-perfect social life. Further observations made by McConnell indicated that the effects of pets on our health and happiness are stronger when we already have a good social life.

After all, having a pet will not change things much unless we build a positive relationship with it.

If we are already on good terms with people we care about, it probably proves that we have the necessary traits to have good relationships with pets as well. It’s a two-way street: The amount of happiness that they can bring into our lives depends very much on our commitment level.

7. Know and spend time with happy people

Happiness is contagious. The Framingham Heart Study that followed 4,700 people over 20 years revealed that a person’s happiness level can influence up to three degrees of separation, which means our happiness is partially affected by our social network (not the Facebook kind) of up to the level of our friends’ friends’ friends!

Specifically, we are 15.3% more likely to be happier when we know another happy person directly (1st degree), followed by 9.8% and 5.6% for 2nd and 3rd degrees, respectively.

Moreover, it was also found that physical distance matters, particularly when a friend of ours who resides within a mile from us becomes happy, the probability that we are happy increases by 25%. Interestingly though, such effects are not reflected between co-workers.

Happy people are often the center of social networks that comprise of similarly delighted people. The reasons why positive emotions trickle down from the happiest people to others are not determined in the study.

However, it’s suggested that this group of people could have a tendency to be more generous, friendlier, and nicer as a whole, cascading positive feelings down the levels and inducing those affected to act in the same positive manner to others.

8. Have at least 10 good friends

In order to be happy, we will first need to have at least ten good friends before reaching the minimum “happy” level.

After surveying over 1,700 people on their satisfaction with their lives and their friendships, a study from Nottingham University found that those with five friends or fewer were more likely to be unhappy than to be happy. Those with 5 to 10 friends were equally likely to be either.

The good news is that the happiness of the participants did not depend on whether the friends they had were childhood friends or those that came into their lives much later. This means to say that we’re never too late to make new friends become happier!

Making new friends isn’t all to it, though. If taking care of our pets requires commitment and continuous effort, friendship would logically requires much, much more.

As Dr. Tunney puts it, “Whatever the reason, actively working on friendships in the same way as to maintain a marriage is a prerequisite to happiness.“

Having too many friends poses the danger of having “surface friendships” since it will be quite challenging for one to maintain close relationships with all of them.

If you are somehow able to find the time and means to manage them, you’ll probably be like the happiest participants in the study who had dozens of friends!

The post 8 Proven Ways to Increase Your Happiness appeared first on Hongkiat.

Each year, more than 1.5 million MBTI personality tests are conducted across different individuals to help them explore various goals.

It’s usually employed by companies to assess the job-fit of a potential candidate, improve their communications with their colleagues, and to enhance team unity in an organization. This is achieved by increasing one’s self-awareness of his or her strengths and weaknesses through personality type identification.

Here, we go through the basics of the MBTI assessment and highlight some careers for selected personalities among the 16 possible MBTI types.

We will look at a brief introduction to the comprehensive personality tool that can help you with a career choice. There are plenty of free online MBTI assessment tests (like this one), although you can get more accurate readings from the real thing itself.

What is MBTI assess?

The MBTI is based on the idea that our personality is made up of 4 dimensions, which have two opposites (dichotomies). We can be:

• Extraverted (E) or introverted (I)
• Sensitive (S) or intuitive (N)
• Thinking (T) or feeling (F)
• Judgmental (J) or perceptive (P)

The MBTI test requires the test-taker to answer 93 forced-choice questions (choose 1 of 2 possible answers) to determine which of the two sides we lean more towards in each of the four aspects.

In the end, each individual receives a unique profile set type out of the 16 possible combinations, such as “Introvert-Sensing-Thinking-Perception” or “Extravert-Intuition-Feeling-Judging”.

Our “type” helps us understand our preferences, strengths, weaknesses, and compatibility with others and thus can affect the career path we choose to undertake.

Breaking down the aspects

Let’s take a look at what these aspects mean.

Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I)

“Outward-turning” (extraversion) refers to the tendency to be sociable and energized by action and people, while “inward-turning” (introversion) refers to the tendency to be more thoughtful and preferring to have deep conversations with fewer people.

It is a case of either focusing on the internal world of ideas and reflections, or to experience life through the external world of behaviour, action, people, and things.

Perceiving: Sensing (S) – Intuition (N)

How do we perceive and make sense of the world around us? Sensing people prefer precedents, facts, and details. On the other hand, intuitive people love to explore relationships, patterns, and imagination.

Being dominant in one area significantly affects how we habitually see things.

Judging: Thinking (T) – Feeling (F)

This part of the personality predisposes us to how we make decisions on a regular basis. Scoring high for thinking (T) means that one is able to stay consistent, logical, and objective during the decision-making process while people who prefer feeling (F) will consider the emotions and the needs of other people.

Put simply, thinking people emphasize tasks while feeling people are more into social relationships.

Judging (J) – Perceiving (P)

The last dimension of personality involves our preference for either Judging (Thinking – Feeling) or Perceiving (Sensing – Intuition) when it comes to dealing with the outside world (i.e., behavior, action, people, and things).

A judging individual will want things to be settled quickly and will exhibit either thinking or feeling styles in their decision-making process, whereas a perceptive individual will be more open and flexible to views and less interested in coming up with conclusions.

He or she is more interested in perceiving the world through either sensing or intuition.

Personality types & career choices

Upon identification, the individual’s personality profile is presented as four-letter acronyms such as “ISFJ” or “ENTP”. Here is a distribution of MBTI Types (based on U.S. Population in 1996).

Everyone falls into one of these combinations, and the resulting personality that arises from their interactions creates the 16 unique profiles we see from the table above.

The following are just a couple of career descriptions and the specific personality types which I believe would fit them.

Do check them out after you’re done with the actual MBTI or the online version. If not, try having a look to see which of these descriptions resonate with you.

ISTJ & INTJ – Software Engineers / Computer Programmers

Dealing mostly with codes, software engineers and computer programmers tend to work alone. Therefore, Introverts would probably fit well.

Depending on the nature of their work, they can lean to either sensing or intuition, each with their own benefits.

For work involving maintenance and enhancement of software systems, a tendency towards sensing is advantageous since they generally favor working within pre-existing structures or systems and coming up with practical solutions.

For those who do more research and developmental projects, an intuitive mind is key as they typically provide the innovations required during the early stages of a fresh project.

They also have to be technically oriented and stay logical and objective in their work. Individuals who function independently and are adept at regulating their internal emotions are often in demand.

This is because they need organized and decisive people who are disciplined enough to see through laborious projects.

Individuals who score high for Judging often desire achievement and strive to seek closure to any projects through comprehensive planning.

ESTP & ISTP – Computer Technical Support Specialists

The important thing for a computer tech support specialist is to have a liking for hands-on experience. They must be able to sense what technical problems are occurring and troubleshoot it in the quickest possible manner.

Because the problems they face are typically immediate, what is imperative to them is the here-and-now and how they actually resolve urgent issues.

As most of their workplace problems are solved through their logical and objective diagnoses and analyses, computer tech support specialists are less concerned about their own emotions or other people’s.

Even when asking clients questions while investigating the source of the problem, their focus stays on the accurate interpretation of the issue.

For the computer tech support specialist, they just need to maintain their objectivity in their communication.

Since there is usually more than one method to troubleshoot an error, computer tech support specialists also have to maintain a Perceiving frame of mind and consider multiple problems causes before coming up with a variety of potential solutions.

ENFP & ENTP – Marketers

Excellent social and communication skills are a must for any marketer as they meet with various individuals within the company on a regular basis and typically engage in persuading existing and potential clients. Hence, people with an extraverted outlook who can make conversations with different types of people are ideal.

As marketers are responsible for forecasting demand, they need to be insightful enough to set their eyes on the future and recognize opportunities for the organization. They’re expected to unleash their creativity and think out-of-the-box when it comes to marketing strategies and advertising. Therefore, individuals would preferably have an intuitive mindset.

In decision making, there are two possible kinds of marketers: one who listens to their emotions and pays attention to the feelings of others, and another that relies on their sense of objectivity and practicality. Both are equally competent.

Marketers as a whole are expected to be highly adaptable to the changing business landscape. They should be flexible with their thinking and habitually keep an open mind.

ESFP & ISFP – Artists

Artists love to observe and interact with the world using their senses and are hence very perceptive to their environment. Such sensory acuteness is a testament as to why they favor hands-on experience.

They prefer to enjoy life as it unfolds instead of leading a structured and routine life. Just as how a painter embraces each and every stroke of his or her brush tip on the canvas.

Their keen sense of aesthetics and beauty is rooted in their deep self-awareness of their own emotions. It even extends to the feelings of the people they interact with, so much so that artists are capable of picking up the subtlest emotions conveyed through body language.

This inclination towards sensory perceptivity and their heightened awareness of emotions leads them to create expressive art pieces.

As artists, they are very creative and innovative individuals who often choose not to conform to societal norms and experiment with new experiences and/or ways of doing things.

ENFJ & INFJ – Designers

Introverted or extraverted designers have their own communication methods when dealing with clients and creative directors to determine the requirements of their end product.

More importantly, though, designers of any field need to understand the relationships between information and data and connect the dots before they can come up with good designs.

While graphic designers need to grasp what appeals to the intended audience and effectively deliver the messages that their clients wish to convey, a fashion designer is also expected to be skilled at discerning existing fashion trends and making future fashion predictions.

All in all, they need to see beyond what is already out there and imagine new possibilities, and this is done through their intuitive sense. They also need to understand the emotions and needs of their end-users as it gives them an edge in their designs.

Designers have to consider the clearly-defined goals involved in different stages of the design process before they can even begin their work. Their work performance is, therefore, highly dependent on their judgment and decision-making abilities.

INFP – Writers & Editors

A lot of reflection and thinking happens in a writer’s head before they can express themselves adequately with words. To do that, a writer spends time alone with his thoughts and ideas. Without a propensity for introversion, it might be hard for someone to enjoy the writing process.

At the same time, writers tend to be idealistic and forward-looking people. They’re always looking for ways to inspire others with their writing. As abstract thinkers, they’re very interested in what their subconscious mind is telling them.

Writers tend to be in touch with their own emotions as they normally write their pieces with the intention of arousing the reader’s emotions. Their great sense of self-awareness of their own feelings helps them relate to how others feel.

They would rather not jump into conclusions too quickly, preferring to stay curious and to indulge in their imagination.

Since they don’t make decisions hastily, they would rather not work under deadlines and have greater autonomy for their work. Such open-mindedness facilitates their generation of ideas in their mind to help them write better.

The “INFP” profile is notably known as the personality type for many of the greatest writers in the world. Some famous individuals who’ve been said to be INFP are George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, Edgar Allan Poe, and J.K. Rowling.

Here are the ESTJ, ENTJ, ESFJ, INTP & ISFJ career profiles.

I’m an INTJ. What About You?

Personally, I think that even though the MBTI does speak volumes about our individual tendencies, we are still influenced by our peers, the media, and other cultural and social factors. It’s easier for us to pursue careers that are best suited to our temperaments, but only if we actually love the work we do.

Fortunately, we have the conscious choice to do things differently from what our personality dictates.

Just as a leopard never changes its spots, one’s personality may be harder to change, but you can work hard to align yourself to the expectations and demands of your dream career and remind yourself to cultivate the right habits.

Take these words from the ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, as parting advice:

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become a habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

The post Maximizing Career Choices with MBTI Personality Type appeared first on Hongkiat.

In this article, I’m going to talk about how we are turning into machines without realizing it, the impact this has on our global society, and a potential solution to break out of this. My goal is to help you to take charge of unnecessary machine-like demands that modern computer technology has been imposing on us.

Hi, I’m Luis. First off, I don’t hate technology. In fact, I make a living teaching it to my students. I am a Professor of Communications Media at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and I study the impacts of technology in learning.

I gave a TEDx Talk titled, “Breaking Free From Technology” at TEDxPhoenixville in the United States. In it, I presented research results on the impacts of technology on human behavior along with a provocative thought that when you use computers excessively, you won’t be free of side effects.

Not safe from turning into computers

The human brain wasn’t made to process large amounts of information continuously without rest. Our brains have limited capacities, will get tired, and break down over time if we continue to abuse them. It isn’t rocket science or science fiction; it is plain common sense. The idea that we can emulate the machine, without experiencing side effects, is dangerous.

In reality, societies are already emulating the pace of living of the machine and setting societal norms based on computer behavior. We are using smartphones and iPads at the dinner table, tweeting about an emergency first before calling for help, and working not from 9-to-5 but 9-to-forever.

We are constantly being bombarded by email alerts, Facebook notifications, tweets, texts, etc. and working during vacations and almost always well into the night. And we let that happen to us.

Man and computer are different

If you haven’t noticed, the human brain wasn’t made to work on a constant flow of information overload. It is a major error to comparatively measure the speed and processing power of modern computers with our working brains, especially as a means to dictate work productivity levels and expectations.

Man and machine, they are very different. When our computers don’t perform to our expectations, we put in more RAM or simply get a faster computer. But when we’re talking about humans, we can’t be working 60 hours a week, even though this is the accepted reality of our times today.

Being connected is actually forcing us to work longer and faster than before. Thus we force our brains to work constantly like a computer. Ironically, computers must function logically to work. Humans often behave illogically, but amazingly, we “work” even under these circumstances.

What’s in store for us?

Our relationship with computers will take us through three phases:

1. Process of transformation

We are living now in the middle of what I call the process of transformation. It is a period where humans are starting to become robotic in behavior due to high frequency and extended exposure of computer use – the higher the frequency and exposure, the quicker the transformation.

In this phase, humans are more humans than the machine (in behavior).

3. Computer Robot Syndrome

After the transformation process, the global community will exhibit computer robot syndrome. It will also be a temporary phase, but different from the process of transformation, humans will behave more like machines, resulting in high levels of logic, immediacy, and quick behavioral responses.

During this phase, creativity will take a significant dip.

3. Total burn out

In about a decade, computer use will accentuate to a level that the human brain won’t be able to catch up, resulting in a total global burn out era. I call this phase the human reversal phase. 

As soon as our society experiences a mass epidemic of anxiety, millions are going to burn out and realize that computers are not an extension of man, but a tool that reminds us how human we are.

In the end, machines will end up reinforcing our humanity – making us realize our limitations, and how human we are. It is in this phase that humans will behave more like humans as we understand and question machine behavior.

The bad news is that until the human reversal phase arrives, we are temporarily going to behave like a machine and see no wrong with it, working ourselves to death, and accepting it as a fact of life.

Final words

Thanks to God, I experienced my technology burn out. As a consequence, I have personally experienced the human reversal phase. I am not a machine, and no computerized device is an extension of me. I am now 25 pounds lighter, still, work long hours but will take breaks in between, honor my wife, and can even find time to go to Church on Sundays, and exercise.

You don’t want to be an extension of anything, especially of a machine, trust me. Taking a step back from using the computer is like taking an aspirin when having a fever. It helps, but it doesn’t solve the problem. It only fixes the consequences.

It is only after a total technology burns out from mental exhaustion and fatigue that folks will stop their computer-like neurotic behaviors. Brace yourselves; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

The post Man to Machine: How to Reboot Your Humanity appeared first on Hongkiat.

This interesting group of people who blow their nose loudly in the class and show their gratitude to the teacher by knocking on the desk when the lecture ends, also possess sharp self-organizing skills embedded in their personalities.

Coming from a ‘go-with-the-flow’ kind of culture, I was initially irked by their disciplined demeanor. But with the passage of time, I saw in them these little things that helped me get my life together, not just during studies but later in personal and professional life as well.

The following is a summary of my observations and experiences regarding self-organization that I learnt from my fellow German students.

Read Also:  15 Examples of Obsessively Organized Photography [Photos]

Never mess with Mr. Uhr

Punctuality is actually one of the most important aspects of self-organization that vouches for a person’s credibility, trustworthiness and his level of commitment towards a task.

Although everything and everyone in Germany observe punctuality, German students follow Mr. Uhr (Mr. Clock) with almost religious fervor. You would not expect them to be late in reaching the class. Even for parties and dinner invitations, they would reach right on time.

Inspired by my German friends, I started taking punctuality quite seriously. Initially, it was hard, but with the passage of time I devised my own method to avoid being late.

For instance, for each appointment I make mini-timelines that don’t just include when to leave the house, but smaller milestones like when should I be dressed already, and by what time should I be finished with breakfast, etc.

This way I am seldom late in reaching somewhere and never have to mess with Mr. Uhr again.

Life has no meaning without a pocket planner

One thing you will find in every German student’s bag is a pocket planner. From classes and sports activities to family gathering and even dates, these small colorful diaries carry all sorts of appointments and upcoming engagements.

They even put in recurring tasks in their pocket planners so one appointment never converges another.

I personally adopted this habit a little differently. As my bag is already pretty stuffed, I don’t opt for a pocket planner but prefer to do all the scheduling through my phone’s calendar.

This small habit has saved me from embarrassment and panic of overlapping appointments so many times, and the blank spaces in the schedule remind me about all the free time I have for myself and my family.

The word ‘laser focus’ was invented for them

We read the word ‘laser focus’ a lot these days, in management articles and motivational speeches etc. But if you want to see an embodiment of this word, then German students are the right specimen. They have a strong tendency to fix their focus on one goal and seldom look sideways.

Today’s world is full of distractions and keeping a sharp focus can get pretty grueling. But through observation, I realized that with certain small practices can help you focus better.

• Set realistic goals for your tasks. If your goals are realistic and achievable, you’ll be more focused towards completing them successfully.
• Putting your mobile phone on silent mode can do wonders with your concentration.
• Take short breaks during a task. You will always come back to work with a fresh mind and a focus reload.
• A simple habit of list-making is a killer focus technique that not only eliminates stress and anxiety, but also gives a boost to your memory.

Recommended Reading: 5 ways to keep yourself focused at work

Coordination is the ‘Hauptsache’

During the student years we often had to do group work with our German counterparts. I didn’t mind it, but the thing that annoyed me to the core were group meetings.

No matter how trivial an assignment is, my German classmates always insisted on frequent group meetings, and after each meeting one of us was required to send ‘minutes of the meeting’ to the rest of the group.

Irritated, I once asked one of my German friends why they hold so many meetings, some of which last no more than five minutes. He replied, "Koordination ist die Hauptsache" (Coordination is the main thing).

His answer made total sense, that it’s not the meetings or emails, the purpose is to keep everyone in the group on the same page.

The lesson I took from it was that apart from group work, coordination also has a big role to play in a person’s self-organization. For instance, I found that when it comes to a task or assignment, staying in communication with your teacher produced better results.

Similarly in the professional life, keeping your boss or manager in the loop of communication on a certain project makes sure that you’re going in the right direction.

To sum up

Who doesn’t like a clutter-free organized life? The problem however comes when people actually try to get their life organized but don’t really know where to start.

I was once like that, lazy and demotivated. But when I started observing my German classmates around me, I realized as how much I was missing.

From this article I certainly don’t mean to suggest that German students are the perfect specimen of super human beings. In fact, some of their attributes are totally bizarre on so many levels.

However, if you see something good in someone, always make it a point to appreciate it and if possible, try to integrate it in your personality.

The things that I have mentioned above are seemingly minor activities, but if taken up seriously, they have the ability to turn the tables in your life. In today’s interesting world there are a hundred tools and tactics to keep yourself organized, however they all require you to first take control of your life.

The post Self-Organization Lessons You Can Learn from German Students appeared first on Hongkiat.

Be inspired and have a look at some of the stories behind historic freelancers who changed the world.

Ray Kroc

Sales & Marketing Freelancer

Believe it or not, the Czech-American creator of the largest fast food restaurant chain in the world, McDonald’s Inc., was at one time just a struggling freelancer. He was a paper-cup salesman, an ambulance driver, a real-estate agent and a freelance salesman, offering multi-mixers for blending.

The mixing tool he sold was a machine capable of making 5 milkshakes at a time. It was his own product, sold only by him. He worked directly with clients and personally managed them. Ray Kroc was a sales freelancer with a knack for knowing how the future would unfold.

Image Source: mcdonalds.com/ourstory

Creativity is a highfalutin word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.” – Ray Kroc

Over-night success? Ray himself said it best, “I was an overnight success all right, but 30 years is a long, long night.”

You could say he was a freelancer from 15, when he joined the Red Cross as an ambulance driver, up until his 53rd birthday. He then started the Big M, after selling his multi-mixer to the McDonald’s brothers before eventually going into business with them.

Ray later bought them out and single-handedly built the brand represented by the golden arches.

Walt Disney

Photo & Design Freelancer

When Walt was 4, he was already selling his drawings to a neighbor, a retired doctor named “Doc” Sherwood. The usual subject was the doctor’s horse, Rupert. Walt Disney (D’Isigny, before the anglicization of his French ancestor’s name) was a cartoonist for the school newspaper when he was 15.

He dropped out of school at 16 to join the army, but being underaged was turned away. He chose to join the Red Cross and become an ambulance driver in post-war France.

Image Source: diytheme.com

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney

After moving back home, he struggled to sell his drawings, political caricatures and comic strips to newspapers, magazines and movie theaters. Sadly for Disney, there weren’t a lot of ways to make money as a designer back then.

Eventually he got a job as a designer for Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, where he met Ubbe Iwerks and started “Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists”. The business failed. And so did the next, Laugh-O-Gram, which was meant to sell cartoons at local theaters.

Image Source: Ed Black

Walt was freelancing his drawings from this garage turned studio. Frustrated but persistent, Walt became a freelance photographer in order to scrape enough money to get to Hollywood. With the help of his brother, on his third business attempt, the Disney Brothers’ Studio was born.

Alfred Nobel

Product Design Freelancer

Alfred loved writing poetry and inventing things. His Freelancer Profile would probably say: “Always experimenting with product designs.” He is best known for creating dynamite, after years of trial and error. He became interested in nitroglycerine after meeting Ascanio Sobrero, the chemist who invented it.

Image Source: wikipedia.org

If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.” – Alfred Nobel

He went on to try and sell the substance, to be used for controlled demolitions. After failed sales attempts, he went back to the drawing board. He finally patented his invention in 1867 and started selling it immediately.

During his life, Nobel possessed three hundred and fifty-five patents in the fields of physiology, electrochemistry and biology. Some of them were used by his clients, some were under license agreements while others were sold. He was always looking for people to work with on his patents to commercialize them.

Most of his product designs remain unchanged even today, from the dynamite to the rocket propellant. The Nobel Prizes, instated after his death and funded by him, are usually awarded to freelance writers, scientists or world leaders such as the Dalai Lama.

Ernest Hemingway

Writing Freelancer

Hemingway is a Classic American Author. But this wasn’t always the case. His first freelancing experience started with him submitting different pieces to ‘The Trapeze’, his school newspaper. In 1916, he got his first published article under the pen name, Ring Lardner Jr.

At 18, he served on the Italian front as an ambulance driver, just like Ray Kroc and Walt Disney. Perhaps predestined, he would later win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Image Source: wikipedia.org

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” – Ernest Hemingway

During his 2 years as an ambulance driver, he experienced his first love with Agnes von Kurowsky (who later rejected him), won the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery and almost lost his legs due to several shrapnel wounds. After coming back home, he returned to freelance writing and got his articles published in the Toronto Star Weekly.

Hemmingway eventually started working as a hired foreign correspondent for the publication, after moving to Paris. Below is Hemingway’s parisian apartment from where he wrote his first book.

Image Source: eatingbender.com

In Paris, he started networking and became friends with the likes of Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Ezra Pound and other established writers. He became a full-fledged writer, after freelancing his first book “Three Stories and Ten Poems”, which was eventually published by “Contact Publishing”.

Charles Dickens

Journalist/Writing Freelancer

Dickens is known as one of the greatest novelists who ever lived. But you couldn’t possibly envy him for his early years. With his parents and brother imprisoned when he was 12 because of unpaid debts, Charles was left to fend for himself.

He lived in the house of Elizabeth Roylance, a family friend, and later in a back-attic. He left school to work at a boot-blacking factory, in order to help with family debts. Eventually, the family got out of jail, thanks to an inheritance of £450, bequeathed by the death of Charles great-grandmother.

Image Source: Wikipedia.org

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.” – Charles Dickens

His only option was to become a journalist freelancer, a job he had seen practiced by Thomas Charlton, a distant relative of the family. He reported on different legal proceedings at a society of lawyers called Doctors’ Commons. At 21, he submitted his first published story, “A Dinner at Poplar Walk” to the London periodical, Monthly Magazine.

From then on, he became a real journalist freelancer, traveling Britain, reporting parliamentary debates and freelancing his articles to the likes of the Morning Chronicle journal.

He also wrote short sketches in different periodicals, and was eventually approached by publishers Chapman and Hall to write short paragraphs for a set of engraved illustrations.

Image Source: wikipedia.org

This was Charles’ first publishing success. The resulting novel, called The Pickwick Papers, sold 40,000 units. He went on and accepted a normal job as an editor at a literary magazine. But secretly, he became a freelance writer creating Oliver Twist and four plays while working for the magazine.

The post 5 Historic Freelancers Who Changed The World, Vol. 1 appeared first on Hongkiat.

Yet we know so few about who is behind it – key developers, whose names sit in front of the Photoshop splash screen we stare at every single time we launch the software.

And now, driven by curiosity and gratefulness, it is my obligation to unfold the stories of 10 unsung heroes who forged and polished the Photoshop we rely on to make a good living. It’s time we celebrate them.

Recommended Reading: 40 People Who Changed the Internet

1. Thomas Knoll

Photoshop, a mega software that shaped the world of digital imaging today, started from one person, Thomas Knoll.

Knoll started Photoshop as a hobby to create code that displays grayscale image, and the initial success led him to create more image editing codes, which eventually became primal features of the now legendary Photoshop.

His humility is legendary too. When he was inducted by NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals), he responded with ‘Why would you want to induct me? I didn’t do anything special. Writing Photoshop was just something we did for fun back then.’ It is this attitude that culminates the selfless spirit of the Photoshop team, thus shaping a product built on awesome teamwork.

Thomas is still active in the Photoshop team until now, which is a rare path for most co-founders. He led the team until CS4, and his most recent work (at the time of this writing) is the Adobe Camera Raw plugin that processes raw image formats from digital cameras.

His passion for Photoshop and digital imaging is unmatchable to this day.

2. John Knoll

Although the name doesn’t appear in most versions of Photoshop’s splash screen except 1.0.7 and 2.0.1, John Knoll is another co-founder of the Photoshop.

, In fact, he was the one who persuaded Thomas Knoll to turn his personal program into a commercial image editing software.

At the time, John Knoll was surprised at how similar Thomas’s program was to image processing software that charges $300/hour for basic photo retouching. He saw a future in affordable image editing software and started to push Thomas to develop more features in spite of him still trying to finish his Ph.D. study.

While working with Industrial Light and Magic, the company which develops visual effects for George Lucas’ motion picture company, John also created some image-processing routines, which later evolved into filters (lens flare!).

3. Russell Preston Brown

No complex product can soar without the escort of the passionate evangelist, and for Photoshop, it’s Russell Preston Brown. Same with the Knoll brothers, Russell is one of the pioneers of Photoshop.

On the Photoshop 1.0.7 splash screen only 4 names were listed at the time: Thomas Knoll, John Knoll, Steve Guttman, Russell Brown.

As Adobe’s Senior Creative Director, Russell Brown is the most devoted user of Photoshop, and he even evangelized the software with his mastery of design and Photoshop skills. He has been restlessly showcasing Photoshop’s potential in grand events like the Mac Summit, and offering his own tips and tutorials in his website.

If you have ever seen his showcase, you could probably sense his passion (and a bit of insanity!) for Photoshop.

4. Seetharaman Narayanan

Although he could probably retire and enjoy his life on a certain tropical island, Seetharaman Narayanan chose to continue his work in Adobe.

His name appears after the No.1 Thomas Knoll in the splash screen, so I’m sure you stared at his name a lot, particularly when your Photoshop is launching slowly.

And he truly deserves the honor, as Seetharaman Narayanan is the man that dedicated his best to make the Windows version of Photoshop possible, then made it multi-threadable.

Now the Lead Adobe Photoshop Engineer, he also ported Adobe Lightroom to Windows. He doesn’t claim all the spotlight though but the benefit of having long names is that it is simply too unique to be ignored.

5. Russell Williams

Russell Williams joined the Photoshop team right after its 4.0, and he was surprised with how small the team behind Photoshop was. But he soon realized that they were brilliant and exceptionally good at their work. They had a clear direction, making Russell believe that the product will eventually ship which is after all the thing every developer wants.

In Russell’s regular days, he sits with other principal scientists such as Seetharaman Narayanan and does the most important thing in his career: decide what’s next for Photoshop. That said, for now, Russell Williams is looking forward to image forensics, where the traits of intentional image modification by criminals could be detected more clearly through images.

6. Jeff Chien

If you have used the Healing Brush to remove the wrinkles and blemishes of your photo, you need to thank Jeff Chien. He’s the principal scientist in Adobe that help achieved the Healing Brush effect, which could fool your perceptive eyes with its blending nature.

The effect is in fact rather complex when it comes to implementation. Nonetheless, he didn’t even know what RGB was back then!

Jeff Chien’s background is motivating for young computer scientists in developing countries. He was raised in a country without GameBoys and other fancy home entertainment equipment. But he did have access to a mainframe computer which everyone shared for very limited periods of time. Even in this limiting environment, he spent a lot of time learning, developing a solid background in math, which in the end helped score him a job in both Apple and Adobe.

7. Maria Yap

Maria Yap trained as a professional and started her photography and design study before the birth of Photoshop, thus she truly appreciates the amount of hectic work that is saved through the aid of Photoshop. After several years of cruel industrial training (aka freelancing), Maria finally joined the Adobe team offering her expertise.

She now leads a team of product managers and evangelists to develop innovative applications for design, such as Adobe Revel. Maria volunteers herself as a judge for the Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards, and part of the reason could be the immense inspiration that radiates from the event. It is apparent that her life is all about Photoshop, design, and family.

8. Sarah Kong

Ever heard of the name, ImageReady? Well, you must be as old as me then. Back then we designed our graphics in Photoshop, then optimize it for the Web in ImageReady!

And the switch button within the software is the work of Sarah Kong, an engineering manager who also worked on some helpful automation plugins like picture package and Web photo gallery.

Sarah thinks of Photoshop as an awesome product, made possible with exceptional teamwork. She also foresees a strong future of Photoshop in this social media driven world, with community features such as lens profile sharing for lens correction features.

9. Bryan O’Neil Hughes

One requires courage and determination (and a bit of luck!) to succeed in life, and Bryan O’Neil Hughes lived up the quote by joining the Photoshop team in 1999.

Making his debut as a Quality Engineer, Bryan contributed by doing his best to destroy Photoshop internally with intensive testing. Besides, if you have tasted the juiciness of Liquify feature before, that also came from Bryan.

Bryan cares about users. During Photoshop’s 20th anniversary he did a survey with both Photoshop users and NAPP members to discover specific new features, or current user interface issues that were bugging them. Based on the data, they improved Photoshop CS5 and make it dominate the world of digital imaging again.

10. John Nack

John Nack a.k.a Tiny Elvis is the true composer of Photoshop. His role, Adobe Photoshop Senior Product Manager, ensured that he oversees the development of many distinctive features such as Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw, Vanishing Point, and Smart Object which I use every day on my graphics and shapes.

He is inducted by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals in 2008, which is one of the highest honors you could ever receive in the industry. Nonetheless, his humility still shines on top of his achievements, with his friendly and informative Adobe’s blog as solid proof of his down-to-earth nature. Clearly, humility is the core culture for Photoshop team members.

Reflection

In my search for information, the most common word I caught in the interviews was ‘teamwork’. And what’s even more amusing is, most of the time the interviewee pushes the credit to someone else in the team! I believe it’s that humble nature and cooperative spirit that keeps both Photoshop and its innovation going for more than 20 years and probably a lot more in the future.

Also if you’re reading this article, there’s a great chance that you’re a Photoshop addict like me! What would you like to say to these Photoshop pioneers and engineers? For me, a simple thank you is probably not enough! Let us know your words then, and tell us how Photoshop transformed your life!

The post The 10 People Who Helped Shape Adobe Photoshop appeared first on Hongkiat.

There are some glaring issues that we’re going to discuss in today’s post which I’ve noticed over the years, that I believe should be addressed by the design community as a whole going forward.

Recommended Reading: How To Become A Design Thought Leader

1. Integrity, Integrity, Integrity

With the advent of the internet and its huge role in today’s design industry, it’s become far easier for designers to share their work with one another. This is mostly a good thing, but sometimes, designers can become slaves to the trend bandwagon they’re seeing at the moment, and they’ll begin doing everything they can to stay abreast of it.

Making your work look like everything else out there because you want to be more popular with clients or because you want more likes on Behance is never a good idea. Firstly, clients who push you to make designs that look like everyone else’s are not good clients.

That would be fine if that were truly the extent of the problem. But many designers, mostly inexperienced ones (but not always), will take things a step further and actually outright copy large portions of other designers’ work. This goes beyond merely keeping up with trends, and lands squarely in the land of intellectual property theft.

Read Also: Crimes Against Content Makers In The Digital Age

2. A Thick Skin

Ego has a legitimate place in design. After all, you’re being commissioned specifically for your creativity, and a designer has to have at least a basic level of self-confidence in order to believe that he or she is capable of such a task. Similarly, a designer will want to do the best quality work that they are capable of, and often that means noodling with tiny details that ordinary folks wouldn’t notice.

Your attention to detail makes the entire project look better, and your client will be happy with your dedication.

However, it’s important to remember the bottom line: no matter how creative you are or how good you make your designs look, you, the designer, are essentially a commodity. You’re being hired as a designer to make the company money, not to showboat your beautiful designs around for praise and compliments – that’s what your personal projects are for.

Read Also: How You Are Getting Your Work Seen (Or Not) By The Right Clients

The feedback given to you by good clients is to help you help them make more money, not to tear down your creative work of art. Hurt feelings are a byproduct of ego that needs to be put to the side while you’re working professionally.

3. Pleasing Clients First

This phenomenon is part of what I like to call the Dribbble Conundrum. Many designers are valuing form over function, and forgetting the actual point of design, which is to solve a problem for your client. Even when the client is yourself. Posting work online and having others gush with praise over it is enough to give anyone the wrong idea about what design is all about.

“Creative” is good, but so is “usable” or “functional.” Before polishing the outside of a car, it’s important to make sure it has an engine first.

I believe this problem stems largely from design schools, which manufacture designers who have been trained to seek the praise of their instructors and classmates, rather than a potential client. They design according to expectations that are unrealistic, and which almost no client would agree to.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that being a student is the best opportunity you will have to explore your creativity and be as crazy and experimental as you want. But the bottom line is, you’re going to eventually be working to someone else’s specifications. Otherwise, you’re creating art, not design – in which case, call it what it is.

4. Sketchbooks

Here’s a good one. Many designers today see their computers as all-in-one workstations where they simply sit down and leap straight into Photoshop or Illustrator and take a design from the idea stage all the way to completion. I’m not saying this method doesn’t work for some designers, or that it’s not a good way to save time when you’re really pressed to meet a deadline. It can be a hassle to scan in drawings or fiddle around with analog materials when your tablet is right there.

But it’s important to remember that software doesn’t have all the answers – technology doesn’t equal creativity. If you’re finding it hard to get real, quality work done completely on your computer, perhaps it’s time to take a break and dust off that sketchbook. I don’t really know any designers at the top level who don’t make tons of sketches and notes on paper first, before ever touching their computer.

Read Also: A Showcase Of Sketched Vs. Ready Icon Designs

The pen is mightier than the mouse

Working on paper forces you to actually think about your design before you just dive in. When you sketch, you have to slow down, let the ideas filter through your head, and spend some time going through the duds before you get to the right one for your project. 99.9% of the time, this results in a much better result, plus you actually save time on the computer because the majority of the work has already been done.

This is something that many, many designers, including myself, struggle with at least occasionally. After all, it’s much faster and easier to hop on the computer and start clicking away. But a lot of things simply fly out of the window when you design this way, including, sometimes, even basic rules of design. You forget about composition, details, color theory, and the purpose of each design element.

Read Also: 20 Design Books For Sketching, Typography & Getting New Ideas

5. A Look at The World Outside Design

Designers can get so caught up in the world of beauty and perfect functionality that is design that they forget they are designing for “regular” people who may not know as much, or care as much about design as you do.

Instead of thinking that these people aren’t as inclined in design as you are, this may mean that you aren’t spending enough time outside of your little design bubble to have a broad perspective on the human experience. As a result, your design ideas will eventually stagnate, and you will find yourself churning out the same uninspiring ideas for client after client.

Do me a favor: next time you get a new client, before you do any sketching or browsing through Design Served, just get up from your computer, go over to your bookshelf, and pick up a book. It doesn’t even matter which one – the more off-topic it is, the better.

Read about philosophy, science, history – whatever. Just sit down and soak in something non-design related for a moment. Do this on a regular basis, along with going outside and interacting with people, and I guarantee you will see an upsurge in the quality of your creative ideas.

Read Also: How To Keep Your Design Skills Fresh

6. Not Everyone Cares

This may sound harsh, but bear with me for a moment. I don’t mean that your clients don’t care about good design, just that they, and most people who will encounter your work, will be looking at it with an outsider’s perspective, rather than with the deep love and reverence that you have.

And don’t think you’re not just as guilty about other industries whose products and services you use. Most people who own a car don’t really care about the specifics of how the engine works. You just want the darn thing to get you where you need to go, and you want the mechanic to fix it if it’s broken. Nobody wants a long, boring explanation of how the human body works when they go to the doctor, either; just fix me and let me get out of here.

Do you agree that these 6 things are problems in the design world? What else do you think is lacking among designers working today? Or, if you’re an optimist, what are some things that designers are doing right?

The post 6 Key Things Lacking in The Design Community Today appeared first on Hongkiat.

Plus, no one loves working with a person who relays communication via tantrums and shouts. And of course, no one likes their work to be criticized, unfairly.

As much as everyone has an opinion and loves to give it, not everyone can take another man’s opinion. The advice strewn about everywhere has always been along the lines of "criticism will help you grow, if you let it" but rarely do people advise us on how to give criticism that is truly constructive – the kind that actually helps the receiver.

Recommended Reading: How To Turn Criticism Into Inspiration

What is constructive criticism?

Constructive Criticism is hard work. It is the responsible form of criticizing someone’s work. To deliver constructive feedback, you need to have respect for the person on the other end, play fair, do your homework, and help them get better.

It is different from just purely hating something because it didn’t work for you. That form of criticism is almost always as easy to do as it is as easy to hate.

Many people criticize just to let off steam, to get a point across in the most agitated form possible, or to flaunt superiority. One very common example is the customer’s complaint. They come in upset, scream into the phone, sometimes to someone who is not even responsible for their outburst.

Read Also: How To Handle These 9 Client Types Like A Pro

This may work in this scenario but not when you are the workplace. If you need to demand respect, that usually means you don’t know how to earn it.

Is criticism what they need?

Any form of criticism stems from the decision-maker’s dissatisfaction of a job done or delivered. It could be that it’s not up to an expected level of quality, or there are a few missing essentials. In any case, it doesn’t achieve a required objective or a set of objectives, which is why it needs to be rectified.

But before jumping in to criticize someone’s work, you have to play fair, and give them the benefit of the doubt. To be able to give constructive criticism, you have to first respect and acknowledge the fact that the receiver knows what he or she is doing, and that he had ample time to deliver satisfactory results.

Read Also: Common Problems Faced By New Freelancers: Tips & Solutions

Getting the right person for the job

For the former, if you find that the person-in-charge is not suited for the job at hand, there is no need for criticism – there is a need to redelegate the task, or find someone else who is more suitable.

Suppose you do have the right man for the job, but his work isn’t up to par. Take into account if he had enough time, the right resources, all the up-to-date information required for him to carry out his task well.

If not, it’s not criticism that you should give, it’s the resources he needs to further improve the job at hand. Remember that sometimes you need to ask them point blank in order to get to the root of the problem, and this helps you understand the situation better.

Read Also: 5 Effective Communication Tactics/Tips For Designers

How to give constructive criticism

So you’re sure the person-in-charge is at fault, which is why you’re still reading this. There is no avoiding the dreaded "talk". But first, here’s what you need to prepare:

1. Identify the problem

Yes, constructive criticism is hard work, and part of it involves identifying the problem. No one likes being told that what they’re doing is wrong, without being given the specifics of what the hell is wrong. Adopting the "Because I said so," attitude is not only child-like, it also shows how little you think of other people’s time.

If you find that the issue is with the person’s carelessness, or them focusing on a wrong area or aspect, or a terrible misunderstanding of the specifications, tell it like it is. Get the person on the same page before proceeding to what you think is a proper solution.

Read Also: Common Problems Faced By New Freelancers – Tips & Solutions

2. Provide a solution

Yes, you also need to provide a solution. If blue is not the color you want, identify what is, and why. Don’t give people that "reddish blue but not purple" nonsense. Unless a specific color has been specified in the client’s brief, a designer has the freedom to pick a suitable color for your design.

If you don’t like it – which is totally fine, since you are paying for the design – give them a ballpark color and your reasoning why it is better suited for your purpose. This applies to all forms of feedback. Alternatively, you can share your expectations of the receiver’s future performances. Be clear with what you want, which leads us to the next point.

3. Provide examples

As an extension from #2, examples will help you and the receiver get the same visuals in both your minds. This can be in the form of what steps to take in order to fix the problem, what changes to make, or what new direction to follow.

Where possible, treat this like it’s the last time the both of you can sit down and discuss the task(s) and expectation(s), so lay everything out on the table and talk it out. (Seriously, how many times does this criticism talk need to happen? Unless it is completely necessary, once is enough).

Read Also: How To Manage Your Team With Praise, Incentives And Autonomy

4. Give them limitations they can work with

And because you aren’t a dictator, do provide the receiver with how much freedom he can work with, or the limitations he has to manage. This will allow him to exercise his creative license (it’s his job to have some input into the task, isn’t it?) while still delivering what you expect from him.

Read Also: How To Hire & Build An Awesome Team

Last reminders

In highlighting the pitfalls to avoid, the ultimate goal of constructive criticism is to help the receiver improve. The tone and attitude in relaying this information should be encouraging, despite the need to highlight the negative aspects of the situation.

Read Also: Don’t Be A Troll Magnet: Tips To Minimize Online Harassment

Also remember that, not everyone can accept your criticism with an open mind – constructive or not, be ready to receive a defiant backlash that may stem from wounded dignity. You might also want to prepare for harsh words bent on retaliation or attacks on your personality – things that make you question why you are doing this in the first place.

I’ll tell you why.

Criticism that is constructive is essential to the industry at large. Not only does it funnel experience from the seasoned players to new beginners, it also helps develop best practices for the whole trade. As it may take a while for a newbie to catch up in terms of experience, criticism can help accelerate the learning process, and don’t we love to have more professionals around to help us achieve our goals?

The post How to Give Someone Constructive Criticism appeared first on Hongkiat.

Technically though, millennials are a broader, much more complex group than the media likes to give them (us) credit for. Let’s look at some of the most common misconceptions about Millennial workers, and why these misconceptions do not paint a complete picture of the real world.

Recommended Reading: 5 Ways “Tech Addiction” Is Changing Human Behaviour

Calming Down

First, let’s address the media’s contribution to inventing what I like to call “Millennial Panic” among older generations. It’s amazing how the media can actually fabricate a cultural norm — everything from diamond wedding rings to swimming pools in the backyard. (You should see the Google Maps view above my neighborhood in LA — we live 20 minutes from the beach, people!)

No one wanted those things until some newspaper or magazine told them they should.

Similarly, no one saw Generation Y as spoiled, selfish, or flaky until the media (news, magazines, blogs, and television) started creating this false reality.

Who You Calling A Millennial?

The so-called “defining characteristics” of a generation are completely artificial. First of all, there are more people in the Gen Y age bracket than in any other generation. Even the so-called Baby Boomers weren’t as numerous.

Secondly, every generation has its own characteristics and stereotypes, partially based on the times and technologies available to them, and partially based on the mistrust and outright suspicion aimed at them by their parents’ and grandparents’ generation.

In the 1960s, the Baby Boomers were the young, wild generation, ready to protest and rail against the establishment at any cost. Generation X were rebellious and sullen, deemed too nihilistic to care about anything happening politically or economically.

Were these blanket judgments true? Sometimes. But certainly not always.

Young people are impressionable, and will begin to behave in ways similar to their peers . Not because they necessarily identify with the generational zeitgeist, but because they’re young, and they don’t really have much of a blueprint for their lives yet.

Typically, people grow out of that kind of behavior, and I believe that Millennials are in the process of doing so right now.

What Is A Millennial?

When most people hear the word “Millennial,” an entire truckload of ideas usually pops into their heads. Ideas about a generation of young people who are currently the darlings of human relations departments the world over, as people with master’s degrees attempt to figure out just what, exactly, this generation of young workers is all about.

This brings us to the question of what, exactly, a “Millennial” is. No one seems to agree: to most, it’s the age range I mentioned earlier. But to some experts, Millennials are a generation defined by more than just age.

They are linked by the ease with which they navigate the digital world. This can include anyone from 30-somethings all the way down to children as young as 6. Of course, there are problems with this definition, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Managing Two-Way Expectations

The ideas of what a Millennial is have changed so many times, it’s not really worth dwelling on. What is important is that people in the workplace have expectations of younger workers that can be damaging to morale, output, and quality of work.

And younger workers also have expectations of their employers, which is a fairly novel concept in the workplace. It can be scary for an employer to suddenly have to deal with a group of workers who expect things like flexibility and creative freedom in jobs that previous generations simply shut up and did, no matter how unpleasant.

The Expectations Of Digital Natives

As we touched on earlier, the media has done more than shape everyone else’s expectations of Millennials. It has also shaped the Millennials’ expectations of themselves. People tend to act however they’re told to act, living up (or down) to others’ expectations of them.

But there are some other factors at play here as well, primarily in how younger workers have started to shift their priorities from simply following in their parents’ footsteps, to wanting a fuller, richer life filled with more diverse experiences.

Working at one company until retirement age? Being commanded by your authoritative boss and never being expected to have ideas or contributions of your own? Bequeathing your student loan debt to your children and grandchildren when you die?

More and more, these ideas are starting to look less appealing, especially as the world’s economy goes through such dramatic changes. No country has been spared from the brutal recession of the past several years, and the resulting fallout has left many people uncertain about the ways of the past that worked for their parents and grandparents.

The End Of Groupthink

In short, young people want options.

The ability to take any skill set and turn it into income, on your own terms, is appealing to young people. Their parents’ generation worked thanklessly at dead-end jobs. Millennials, they want the option to have a more fulfilling future.

The issue comes when older employers start to assume that young workers will be spoiled or demanding, and enact regulations to keep the unruliness at bay. But the good news is, media isn’t nearly as all-pervasive as it used to be. The channels are diversifying and groupthink is falling by the wayside.

What Do You Think?

How do you think the media is handling the current friction between Millennials and their employers? Do you think there is a better way to communicate the right ideas to everyone in the workplace? Share your thoughts.

The post Debunking Millennial Worker Myths: The Truth Revealed appeared first on Hongkiat.

Today, we’re going to examine what makes a designer look professional and desirable, rather than like one of the amateurish masses that clients dread. Spoiler alert: it’s probably not what you’re thinking.

Recommended Reading: 15 Project Types You Will Face In Freelancing

Invest In Your Business

You have to spend money to make money. Once your freelance design business begins to turn a profit, investing in things like proper equipment and professional-looking marketing materials just makes more sense than struggling to make do with supplies that are inferior. The goal is to improve the efficiency with which you are able to find and complete work – working smarter, as they say, not harder.

If your software or hardware is outdated, and it’s slowing you down, say by 30%, you’re actually making 30% less money per hour than you could be. In fact, you’re probably cheating yourself out of even more than that, if you’re a fast worker and have a decent number of clients.

Outsource Nonessential Tasks

No successful business owner does everything themselves. It’s just not physically possible. You have to outsource tasks at some point if you want to grow, even if you plan to remain the sole designer. It’s easy to find people to do repetitive things, like paperwork or bookkeeping, that have to be done, but that simply eat up too much of your valuable time as a designer.

Read Also: How To Keep Your Blog Going Without Burning Out

You can use online resources like oDesk and elance to begin delegating the daily work that goes into making your freelance business successful. However, it can be tricky finding just the right fit, and you’ll most likely have to go through the hiring process several times before you master it. Here’s a post on what to look out for when hiring freelance contractors.

It can be daunting to begin outsourcing tasks, but, again, it’s necessary to take you from tiny, struggling freelancer to fully professional outfit.

Work Like You Mean It

This is perhaps the most important component in making the transition from amateur to professional. In his book, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield outlines what distinguishes an amateur from a professional, in any creative field.

He argues that amateurs are dilettantes, people who don’t give their work 100% of their effort. Amateurs don’t show up every day to do the difficult work that will propel them forward.

Pros, on the other hand, work like they mean it. They work even when they don’t feel like it. They work when they’d rather be doing just about anything else. It’s difficult to adopt the mindset of someone who takes their work completely seriously, but it’s important to gain and keep the advantage over our own inertia and overwhelm.

Don’t Be A Flake

Having been a design client myself, I’ve worked with designers who simply dropped the ball when it came to communicating with me regularly. Sometimes this resulted in blown deadlines, budgets, or opportunities when I didn’t hear from them for days or even weeks. It’s extremely frustrating when a designer blows you off, and I’d like to say it’s a rarity, but unfortunately it’s not.

The reality is, flakiness is one of the key marks of an amateur. It signals to a client that you don’t value them enough to make an effort to keep them in the loop. Don’t just give endless excuses for your radio silence (I’ve heard it all, but "I didn’t want to bother you" is especially common). Your client needs to receive regular updates on your progress so that they can plan accordingly should something go wrong.

Do Top Quality Work

Finally, you should make it a priority to always do the best job you can with your design work. It seems obvious, but so many designers get bogged down with tight deadlines and jobs they feel lackluster about.

However, if you’re trying to grow your freelance business and draw in higher paying clients, you’ll need to make every project a potential showpiece for which a client will be eager to hire you. So, don’t take shortcuts or do anything halfway. It will come back to haunt you, trust me.

The post How to Quit Acting Like an Amateur Designer appeared first on Hongkiat.

If you don’t have any personal finance books in your collection, it’s time to start one. Reading personal finance books is considered a great return on investment. For the price of one ‘cheap’ article of clothing (which loses value as soon as you bought it), you can gain access to the lifetime wisdom of an expert, anytime, anywhere (and portable to boot).

Here are 10 books about personal finance books that we can recommend for the Millennial generation.

1. The Millionaire Next Door

Author: Thomas J. Stanley

Why should you read this book?

Quick, imagine a millionaire. How does he/she look like, in your head? For most people, no thanks to reality TV shows featuring the rich and the fabulous, you’d get images of blinged-up persons wearing designer clothes and accessories. There might even be a big mansion with fancy car collection in the background.

The Millionaire Next Door will shatter that image, once and for all. Thomas J. Stanley does a beautiful job in explaining why looking rich is not equal to being rich. The delivery of this message is second to none.

Best for: ‘Mind-blown, all you ever knew about the millionaire lifestyle is wrong’ reading experience.

2. You’re So Money

Author: Fanoosh Torabi

Why should you read this book?

This is the most Gilmore Girls-esque personal finance book I’ve ever read. Full of pop culture and trendy ‘in-crowd’ references, Farnoosh Torabi – a media personality and a journalist – promised readers that they can still splurge for what they want, as long as they significantly skimp on other expenses.

Best for: Image-conscious Millennials dipping their toes in personal finance for the first time.

3. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Author: Robert Kiyosaki

Why should you read this book?

This must-read book is a gem, simply because it emphasized the difference between assets (things that generate cash flow) and a liabilities (things that don’t). It’s relatable, easy to read and most importantly, inspiring. Robert Kiyosaki used two very clear polar examples – ‘Rich Dad’ and ‘Poor Dad’ – and broke down the differences between them.

Best for: Re-thinking how you’ve been using your money as what it technically is – a tool.

4. I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Author: Ramit Sethi

Why should you read this book?

If you like ‘loud and brash’ yet humorous writing style, this starter personal finance book is for you. Ramit Sethi’s delivery is one-of-a-kind, with a ‘tough love, dumbo’ elder brother vibe. It’s a fun read, as far as personal finance books go.

Best for: Millennials managing finances for the first time

5. The Behavior Gap

Author: Carl Richards

Why should you read this book?

Napkin sketches! About investing! This usually-intimidating topic was broken down to essentially this simple message: Forget about investment forecasts and recommendations by experts; at the end of the day, they can’t predict the outcome, too! Carl Richards talks about bad decisions people tend to make when it comes to investing, especially when they follow crowd mentality. The message is useful for most, if not all types of investment vehicles.

Best for: Investors at all levels, from beginner to expert

6. A Million Bucks by 30

Author: Alan Corey

Why should you read this book?

A book about extreme, sometimes borderline shrewd methods to save money while building wealth. Alan Corey achieved his millionaire goal via property buying and selling, so this is a good memoir for those who have the same inclination. Instead of ‘this is how to do x, y and z’ like most personal finance books, this book is about ‘this is how I did this’. Not all advice is useful for everyone, but you’re bound to be impressed by his ingenuity in some examples.

Best for: Millennials who enjoy thriftiness as well as Millennials who enjoy reading about property-buying experience

7. Warren Buffet Invests Like a Girl

Author: LouAnn Lofton

Why should you read this book?

The title is intentionally clickbait-y, but it does not overshadow the message in LauAnn Lofton’s book – that safe investments (favored by women) are better than risky investments.

Best for: Millennials planning for long-term investments.

8. Nickel and Dimed

Author: Barbara Ehrenreich

Why should you read this book?

There is no better way to understand how expensive being poor actually is than this book, in my opinion. Barbara Ehrenreich lived undercover as a minimum-wage employee, and wrote about poverty as she experienced, supplemented by accounts of other minimum-wage colleagues. Many of the books in this list assumes the availability of disposable income, but not this one. It’s about the pressure in addressing raw, actual needs like rent and food.

Best for: Millennials wanting to understand the effect of poverty

9. Emotional Currency

Author: Kate Levinson, PhD

Why should you read this book?

Even though it’s written as a woman’s guide, this book can benefit all genders. There is no shortage of practical money advice, so why do so many people still have money problems? Because humans are first and foremost emotionally driven creatures, that’s why, according to author Kate Levinson, PhD. By understanding why you choose to spend money the way you do, you’ll uncover emotional baggage that you can address in order to make progress.

Best for: Millennials who can’t seem to find money-saving tips that work.

10. The Rules of Wealth

Author: Richard Templar

Why should you read this book?

Divided into 100+ mini-chapters, each only two pages long on average, Richard Templar’s book was a joy to read due to its conciseness. In fact, it felt like reading a compilation of blog posts rather than a book. It’s also an ethical book, in the sense that some mini-chapters are dedicated to the importance of staying humble and giving to charity. It’s the type of book that you can just flip to any page and still learn something.

Best for: Millennials preferring straight-to-the point, concise and good advice

Conclusion

If you are new to personal finance books, get any of the recommended books in this list. We curated this list with the Millennials in mind, so you’ll find most of them highly relatable to you. Being good with finances is a desirable trait in this economic climate, wouldn’t you agree?

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