Achieving A Work Life Balance

Having a work life balance is your best bet to ensure happiness at work and at home.

Certainly, there is plenty of research that suggest that companies expect more work from fewer employees especially after the large layoffs and downsizings that have occurred over the past few years in many companies and industries.
You’ve probably heard the old adage that money can’t buy happiness but not having money certainly doesn’t buy happiness either. Your job obviously provides you with income but no job is worth throwing away your personal life for.
At the end of the day, if your job requires you to work long hours and/or weekends that disrupt your personal life, you might either need to figure out how to get the proper work life balance or decide if this is the right job for you.

Here are some suggestions to help you get the proper work life balance:

1. Improve your time management:-

Do you waste time at work that could otherwise be spent on productive tasks? If you spend 20 minutes per day in the smoking area, 20 minutes talking sports with colleagues and 20 minutes making personal phone calls, there is 1 hour you have wasted. Don’t procrastinate. Look for ways to improve your time management and organizational skills.

2. Ensure you are doing everything you can to remedy the situation yourself:-

Do you take work home with you even though you don’t need to? Is everything at work a crisis to you? If your manager seems to be less stressed about work than you are, then something is wrong. We sometimes have a tendency to make mountains out of molehills and make things bigger than they actually are. Not everything is a crisis and not everything needs to be treated as being critically important. Learn how to distinguish between tasks that need to be done now and things that just need to be done at some point and don’t require you to drop everything else.

3. Speak with your manager regarding your situation and possible remedies:-

A good manager will understand the need for a work life balance and will help you achieve it. Is there the option for you to work from home one or more days per week? Do you require an additional staff member to help you with your workload? Could some of the work you are doing be done by other staff members? Write down options that you and your boss can consider and discuss them together to figure out how to move forward.

4. Change jobs:-

Some companies work their employees harder than others, that’s a reality. Before looking for a new job, ensure you have done everything you can to achieve a work life balance and that your inability to achieve it is not your fault. It would be a disaster to switch jobs and then find out you face the same (or a bigger) problem with a new employer.

5. Change careers:-

Certainly this is drastic but some careers/industries are known to demand more from employees than others. In some cases even if you have done everything you can to achieve a work life balance, your career might simply prevent if from happening. I know some people who have changed careers and taken less money and responsibilities but are happier for it. Your priorities might determine whether or not this is as option. The balance between work and life can be a tenuous one but your long-term happiness and health depends on it. No job is worth ignoring your personal life for.
Before achieving a work life balance, you need to take stock of your life and see what you can do to make things better.
Look for ways to improve your time management and organizational skills and don’t procrastinate.
Don’t make things more difficult than they need to be.

Top Ten Smart Networking Tips

Smart networking is a major key to career success. Master it, and you master your destiny. The following tips will help you become a pro:

1. If unemployed, print your own business cards to use at networking events. Include your contact information with your target market. Example: John Q. Smith, Sales Management.

2. Put your resume on the web with its own web page. Most Internet service providers give you a free page for personal use. Then, add your resume page's URL to your business card.

3. When you collect business cards, follow-up! Note on the back of each card where you met the person and something noteworthy to help you remember him. Schedule a time to meet for coffee to continue building the relationship.

4. Consider networking as a process you do for the life of your career, not just something to do between jobs. Continue to grow your career by building and maintaining relationships.

5. When networking, offer first - take second. Determine what value you can provide others before asking for their help. This way you will leave a very favorable impression.

6. As an employee of "Brand Me, Inc.," act like you're self-employed when you seek a new job. Market yourself as your most important product.

7. For entrepreneurs, public speaking and publishing are critical to building expertise in the public eye. For job seekers, doing the same can attract attention to YOUR expertise, hopefully leading to meetings with potential hiring authorities.

8. Remember that everyone you meet has the potential to lead you to your target. Most people are only three degrees removed from the person with whom they need to connect.

9. Networking gurus have polished 30-second commercials. Practice your "elevator speech" so it sounds natural and conveys the right message in a concise way.

10. As you network, be authentic. No one likes a know-it-all any more than a wallflower. Be yourself and be real. Above all else, remember your manners. Thank those who help you.

Career Options

“Publication is to thinking as childbirth is to the first kiss.”

(Friedrich Von Schlegel)

Career Options

To begin with, you might find it easier to find a job in an office that is not a publishing house. Here, you could work on company newsletters, help write advertising copy, layout various publications, proofread their website, or more. This kind of a job will give you the skills to move into book publishing or to a literary review. How do you know what kind of publishing is right for you? I’d say, try a couple of places until you find the right fit. In general, popular magazines & periodicals that come out monthly or more often will be the most bustling places to work. For-profit magazines are driven almost entirely by advertising revenue, so this can be a stressful environment if the revenue is not high. Book publishing is driven by season—usually fall & spring, sometimes summer or winter as well—& is generally busy in waves with some lulls in between. Scholarly journals are busier during the academic year or for shorter periods of time, as are literary magazines. With all this in mind, explore the various ways in which you might contribute to publishing.

Periodicals

f you work for a periodical, your office depends on the nature of the publication—whether it is a popular magazine, academic journal, or literary magazine; whether it features advertising or not; & whether the periodical is four-color, all text, or somewhere in-between. Here is a list of the different possible jobs, what you might do in each position, & what kinds of periodicals would offer these positions.

Marketing & Advertising: For any for-profit periodical, advertising is key. Look at the masthead of any major magazine & you will notice that the number of people working to secure advertisements is at least equal to those in any other department, if not larger. If you like to sell, this is the place for you. For limited-audience or specialty publications (e.g., academic journals or trade magazines), not a lot of resources are invested in marketing, especially if no ads are run in the publication.

Copyediting: These days, few copyeditors work in-house at periodicals; instead, many periodicals use freelancers. They work on the language of an article to make sure there are no mistakes (grammatical or factual), make it consistent, & ensure that it conforms to the magazine’s editorial style.

Design: Designers can make or break a publication in the for-profit world. Next time you’re at a newsst&, look at the differences between Architectural Digest & Publisher’s Weekly. Designers work with marketers to create the look that marketers think will attract buyers. Many designers have art degrees & training in computer design/graphics.

Production: People who work in the production department monitor & determine the physical results of the magazine/journal. They work with the typesetters & designers to layout the text & images, & they work with printers directly to ensure high-quality work. Those who work in production often also monitor the editorial aspect of the manuscript—copyediting, formatting, & contacting authors.

Books

Book publishing requires the skills of marketers, designers, production managers, editors, those who run the day-to-day business, & others, to make sure that the book is available to readers. In most publishing houses, there are a few key departments. Note, however, that not every company will use the same term for the same job.

Acquisitions: The job of acquisitions editors is to seek out books to publish in assigned fields. Usually they are given a set number of books that they must acquire per year. They consider a book from all angles: Is it well-written? Will it sell? Will the author be able to complete the book on time? Can we afford the author’s usual advance? They may also direct developmental editing, should their press use this process. Many editors also have assistants, especially at larger publishing houses.

Editorial & Production: The goal of this group of people is to produce the physical book. They include copyeditors, proofreaders, designers, & typesetters. Each of these specialists works with the other to create the product that the marketing & acquisitions have decided will sell, conducting quality control at every stage. Production receives the manuscript & works with it until there is a book in their h&s, which can take from six months (for camera-ready books, books that need no copyediting or layout) to over a year (for books that need to go through the full process).

Copyeditors & Proofreaders: It takes very specific skills to copyedit. You must know the rules of the style manual you’ve been asked to follow (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press Style) & be able to follow them; know the rules of English grammar; be able to thoroughly underst& the subject (e.g., if you worked at JAMA, you would have to know about medicine); & have patience, among many other things. The best copyeditors do not alter the writer’s meaning or style. Instead they make the piece clearer & ensure that it conforms to the house style. Proofreaders are checkers. They compare the proofs of the manuscript with the clean edited copy to make sure that no text is missing & that everything is correct. The more electronic publishing becomes, the more proofreaders become necessary.

Marketing: Their job begins after the book is manufactured. To work in marketing, experience in a bookstore can be as important as an editing class. Any kind of selling requires ingenuity. People in marketing are constantly wracking their brains trying to figure out who would read a given book & how to reach the market for it. They also try to catch the media’s attention at all times. From publicists to exhibit managers & envelope-stuffers, marketing is full of action.

Find a Health Job That's Right for You

What's your work personality? Are you someone who thrives in a team environment, or do you prefer to work alone? Like working in an office? Or would you rather be outside, active and moving around? No matter what your style, with over 200 types of health jobs -- far more than just doctors and nurses -- you're bound to find something that's right for you. Here are a few options:

Health Educator

Are you the first person your friends turn to for advice when they're in trouble? That says a lot about your skills as a communicator: You're probably someone who's good at listening attentively and helping people work through their problems -- without judgment -- which helps you gain their trust. Great communication skills and a strong desire to help people are key traits for health educators, who work at public hospitals or community health organizations, educating people about how to promote healthy living and prevent diseases.

Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)

If you thrive on adrenaline, you may love working as an EMT. But there's more to it than just the rush. You also need to be able to remain cool, calm, and collected in a crisis. EMTs are typically first responders on the scene of an accident or emergency along with police or fire departments, performing CPR, giving oxygen, administering drugs -- often while people's lives hang in the balance. They need to practice good judgment under pressure and communicate quickly and clearly with others on the emergency team. And they have a very real opportunity to save lives.

Medical Transcriptionist

Does the mere thought of blood and guts send you running for the door? That's OK! Jobs in health administration, such as medical transcriptionist, offer a way for detail-oriented people who prefer to work in a quiet, controlled office setting to join the growing health care field. Medical transcriptionists listen to recordings dictated by physicians and process them into documents such as hospital discharge and examination reports. Many medical transcriptionists work as independent contractors from home a plus if you prefer to work solo.

Medical Laboratory Technician

If you like technology, medical laboratory work could be for you. Medical lab workers test and analyze tissues, cells or fluids using microscopes and other equipment to help diagnose or treat a disease. They don't typically work face-to-face with patients (the people who actually draw blood and collect samples are called phlebotomists), but rather work alone in a lab setting behind the scenes. Precision is the name of the game, both for the safety of the lab worker (who may be handling biohazards and dangerous chemicals) and for the health of the patient, whose treatment depends on the lab results' accuracy.

Certified Nursing Aide (CNA)

For some people, nurturing and caring for the sick and injured comes as second nature. For Certified Nursing Aides (CNAs), that instinct is what makes the difference between a job and a rewarding career. CNAs typically work at hospitals or other nursing care facilities, providing around-the-clock care for patients -- serving meals, making beds, taking patients' vital signs and helping them get into and out of bed. For CNAs, "How can I help you?" isn't a question. It's a calling -- and a potential stepping-stone to other careers in health care.

Extra! Extra! Read (and see) all about it!

"Content is king" has been a catch phrase in the publishing arena since the early days of the online world. But your content can only be king if your users can find it at the very instant it is contextually relevant to them. Metadata are the means by which publishers of digital information can dynamically present additional content to their users, and therefore reap additional value from underutilized content assets. Of the many types of metadata that can be derived from digital content, geographic metadata offer unique value. For this reason, technology that recognizes and extracts geographic references from unstructured data, such as text on a Web page, is becoming a valuable addition to the platforms that digital content publishers and distributors use to serve their users. Software that identifies the geographic places mentioned in text content and matches those places to their specific latitude and longitude coordinates, commonly known as "geotagging," enhances the utility of the content for both the users and the publishers. In media and publishing, geographic references are typically not explicit. For example, there are many places in the world called Paris. When a Paris is mentioned in an article or on a Web page, effective geotagging software uses the context of the story to determine which Paris it is most likely to be. In the news business this ability to disambiguate becomes even more valuable when used to determine whether the Paris in question is a place or a person named Paris. (A Google search for Paris yields 451+ million results!) Geographic metadata will improve a publisher's ability to deliver the right content to the right user at the right time.To leverage the geographic metadata produced by geotagging systems, the metadata need to either be stored in a suitable database for later reference or used in real-time by an existing application. Many publishers do not yet have databases with the capability to store geographic metadata, or applications that can use such metadata in real-time. For those publishers there are geographic search solutions they can use to capitalize on the geographic information buried in their content.Geographic text search systems typically store the geographic metadata in a proprietary index, much like traditional key word search systems do, which enables rapid searching for relevant content. Such searching can be done either by actual users or other applications, such as content management systems.For online publishers who rely on an advertising business model for revenue, the value of geographic metadata is significant. Online advertising grew to over $16 billion in 2006, an increase of more than 31 percent over 2005. The growth of online advertising is coming at the expense of almost all other advertising media. Online sites that rely on advertising revenues have an opportunity to benefit from this growth. Here are five ways.
1 Display more ads on existing pages. This sounds easy but it can easily detract from the user experience and cause users to leave. No one likes to be inundated with ads, but if executed creatively and with sufficient respect to the users, the results can be quite profitable.
2 Charge more for advertising. This seems simple, but to do so an online publisher must increase the value of the advertising by either enhancing the demographics of the user base or improving the ability to target the ads (i.e., present certain types of ads to certain types of users). Effective ad targeting is one of the holy grails of Web media.
3 Attract more users to the website. With the ever-expanding number of websites from which news consumers can choose, this is a battle in which online publishers are constantly engaged, while simultaneously fighting to keep their existing users. To attract new users, publishers need to deliver a high quality and ever-evolving experience to readers. Unless the content is highly relevant or entertaining, users tend to quickly become bored with the "same old same old."
4 ncrease the average number of pages viewed by each site visitor. More page views per visit means more ads viewed per visit. Since websites typically get paid for each ad displayed, this directly translates to increased revenue. To get site users to view additional pages, a publisher must find ways to suggest additional content to users (much like TV networks that show ads for their own shows). Publishers can suggest additional content to users by either manually placing additional headline links on pages or by leveraging metadata to do it dynamically. Effective use of metadata is another holy grail of Web media.
5 Get users to return more frequently. To do this a publisher must constantly offer fresh content that is of value to users, and then become effective at informing their users of its availability.
These tenets of growth are nothing new to online advertising strategists. Exploiting them requires a combination of the creative deployment of suitable technology and good content. Assuming they already possess good content, both geotagging and geographic text search solutions provide online publishers a means by which they can exploit all five of these revenue-impacting techniques. Geographic text search solutions can be used to present users with geographically relevant search results from queries that input to an existing site-search utility. Geographic search results can be presented as a ranked list, much like traditional key word searches, which may also be accompanied by a map showing the places to which each listed result refers.Geographic text search solutions can also be used to present users with other geographically relevant content. Portions of the content on the page the user is viewing can be used to execute a query to the geographic text search solution. The results, or even just the first few results, can be presented on the page as hotlinks. This type of metadata-driven content presentation drives page views without the manual labor that is typically required. Additionally, such an implementation of geographic text search remains constantly aware of newly published content assets that are relevant to what the user is already reading. Geotagging or geographic text search can also be used to create mapping solutions that will enhance the user experience and increase page views and revenue. For example, you can offer users the ability to dynamically request a map of the places mentioned on a Web page, which can be displayed with an additional advertisement or sponsorship that is not simply crammed onto the page the user is reading.Another application of geographic text search is local news (or geographically focused) alerts. Leveraging existing user registration and email messaging systems, local alert services raise user satisfaction levels through enhanced personalization. Such a service will draw users back to the site more often, and can enable the delivery of geo-targeted advertising.The net result for publishers is an enhanced user experience, increased page views per visit, increased user loyalty, and more targeted advertising. That all adds up to more revenue and higher profits. The return-on-investment value proposition for geotagging and geographic text search systems is clear and strong in the online publishing industry. This is especially true in the online news business.There are approximately 1,400 daily newspapers in the United States, most of which have an online presence. Geotagging and geographic text search technology offer them a means to differentiate themselves from their competition, add utility to existing content assets, enhance user experience, and generate incremental revenue in the process - not a bad proposition in a dynamic, competitive publishing environment. The traditional news industry is consolidating, in large part, to trim costs and leverage economies of scale. The cost of newsprint, meaning hardcopy papers, continues to rise at a rate considerably faster than the cost to deliver online news. Advertisers are increasingly devoting more of their budgets to online. Most newspapers have realized that survival means learning to prosper in the online realm. Consolidation has brought the center of gravity of individual and smaller news organizations to a corporate group that sets the standards for the individual papers under its umbrella. Geotagging and geographic text search technology can be leveraged across multiple newspaper Web sites, enabling groups of online publishers to leverage each other’s content dynamically. News consumers are generally interested in both national and international news, as well as local news, and there are many places to find national and international news. However, it is difficult to retrieve news about your neighborhood from reliable large, global news sources. For this reason, geotagging and geographic text search technology are ideal for newspapers to process their content so that it becomes personalized and local to the reader. Geotagging and geographic text search technology have long been in use by government agencies, energy companies and other enterprises to extract valuable information from unstructured data. Now these technologies are also available to online media publishers and distributors as a means to improve their services, revenues and bottom line. The merits of technology have brought the quality of news and content a long way from the paperboy on the corner yelling, "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" Now, with geotagging and geographic text search technology, you can view targeted content, spatially displayed on a digital map, and publishers can enable their advertisers to maximize their advertising dollar by pinpointing their marketing targets.