Here are 5 things to do in 5 spare minutes that you might encounter during your day: 1. Call a friend or a relative Is your bus running late? Have you called your grandmom this week? Now is a great time to pick up your phone and make that phone call. 2. Snap some photos Is your bus running late? Snap some photos of objects/streets/stores around you. Can’t see anything conventionally ‘beautiful’?...

1. Set Some Goals Goals might not sound that awesome, but they are a great way of sticking to your priorities. With just under six months to go until 2014, now is the time to take those ‘someday’ goals and turn them into ‘today’ goals. Whenever you create goals in any context, it’s important to make sure they’re SMART: specific, measurable, achievable (and attractive), realistic and timed. For example, “Read more” is a goal, but it’s not a very helpful goal....

Don’t be afraid to go bold In the past, we as plus sized women were expected to wear clothing that didn’t draw major attention to ourselves. I can remember reading tips that suggested plus size women should only wear dark colors, especially encouraging black because it was slimming to the eye. Those days are long gone, and it’s time you embrace all the beautiful hues your fashionable heart desires! Try that beautiful deep orange that’s perfect for Fall, or that hot pink shade you’ve had your eyes set on for this upcoming Summer....

The fact is that parental skills are often taught in a supposed “one-size-fits-all” paradigm. How can parents figure out how to guide their children with special needs when so much of what they’re taught or shown either doesn’t work or is just plain ridiculous in the context of neurodivergence? How can parents help kids with special needs thrive in a world that often refuses to see, understand, and value them?...

While having a shy personality might appear to put you a severe disadvantage, you can overcome your nerves and shine in an interview. The trick is to know the right interview tips and techniques to make the situation seem less intimidating. Here are 5 interview tips for introverts to help them land the job they want and deserve. 1. Pretend you’re talking to an old friend. While it might be difficult to make friends as an introvert, it becomes easier to talk to the people you know....

1. WordPress.com WordPress.com is the number one platform for creating websites. It powers 25% of all websites today or more than 80 million blogs worldwide. The reason I like WordPress is because 1. it’s highly customizable and 2. it offers plenty of useful features like options to choose a personalized theme and the ability to increase the website’s functionality using plugins. WordPress also offers a comment section and a feedback form which helps a lot when you want more reader engagement....

“It’s easy to assume that a chandelier only belongs right in the middle of the ceiling in a formal dining room,” says Kari Lloyd, editor at Rent.com. “The truth is, a chandelier can be an amazingly cool decorative piece. Try hanging a colorful, smaller chandelier in a corner for a splash of color or rig it to a tall floor lamp instead of a boring lampshade.” Here are some other ways to style your chandelier to match your home....

Some people have learned how to deal with stress more effectively than others. Those who haven’t need a quick and effective way to calm their nerves. Fortunately, there is a way. It’s called mindful breathing. You may have already heard of mindful breathing, but maybe you’re not sure how it can help, or how to practice it. In this article, I’m going to share with you 5 ways mindful breathing can calm your nerves and help you relax....

1. Meditate Daily Spending just 10 minutes unplugged from Facebook, Twitter, and your email gives your brain the opportunity to organize its thoughts. More than 3,000 medical studies have been completed to fully validate the actual positive impact that meditation has on our mental and emotional state. Personally, I don’t try to control my thoughts during meditation. I spend my entire day trying to amp focus, and that means shoving thoughts to the side....

As if that weren’t enough, college freshmen also have the daunting task of choosing what they want to study. Some of us are lucky enough to have known years before we got to college, but most of us are less sure, and some of us even switch multiple times. Having been through college myself, these are five of the things that I would have liked to hear at orientation....

Exercise Your Body (and Imagination) Outdoors You’ve probably heard this all before: Go outside, experience nature, get some sunshine, and work out. Let’s take it to another level and give your mind a healthy stretch, too. Grab a portable music player and make a playlist of some of the most epic music you have. Think movie and video game soundtracks, orchestral masterpieces, or whatever else inspires motivation and vigor. The idea here is to make physical outdoor exercise more accessible and interesting....

Many times it can be beneficial and helps us broaden our points of view and ways of completing the same task or project. During the actual process of working together, though, sometimes our differences can lead to heated discussions, hurt feelings, roadblocks, and could even potentially jeopardize a project. There’s a lot of ways you can choose to deal with conflict in a team setting. You can ignore it, be passive-aggressive about it, get angry and upset about it, etc....

Install a flashlight app In the event of a disaster, one of the first things to be affected is the electricity that powers the lights, knocking you into the dark. A flashlight app can cover the bases in case this situation happens. Two amazing apps are are Apple’s Flashlight App and Android’s Flashlight SOS Code. Both offer several types of light which can be useful. Aside from the multi-colored lights, you can utilize both the LED for high-power light, and if necessary switch to the dimmer light of the phone screen in order to save battery....

For me the time that I spent on iPod over 90% of the time are listening to music and audio books. Nevertheless, very fun to read. 50 Fun Things To Do with your iPod – [kottke.org]

The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of failure is simply “a lack of success” which actually isn’t as hard a definition as we humans seem to translate it into. We seem to think that the definition of failure is being a let-down, unworthy, or useless. Just this fact alone highlights to me that “failure” isn’t as bad as we think, but is it any good for us? Over the years I have failed at many things: passing my driving test the first time, my AS levels, a business venture with my dad, the cheesecake addiction and I could go on and on....

Who knew tennis balls had so many incredible uses beyond sports and pet entertainment? 6 Unconventional Uses for the Tennis Ball | Mental Floss 2. MOUSE HOUSE – If you bore a small, mouse-sized hole in a tennis ball, it can make a great safe haven for species of rodents like Eurasian harvest mice. 3. HOUSEKEEPER – Felt is a great material for dusting, because the thick woolen fibers cling well to dust and cobwebs....

I believed it to be true for the majority of my career — and only recently did I realize how much this perspective limited my personal growth and career development. Maybe you’ve also fallen for the myth that leadership is a skill reserved for an elite few, and in the process, cheated yourself out of a powerful opportunity for growth. While all of us do have talents and traits inherent to the personalities we were born with, some of the most important components of a successful career can be learned, including effective leadership skills....

Did you know that only 10 percent of your happiness comes from external circumstances? At that time, I didn’t know that. When things aren’t going as well as you want them to, perhaps you aren’t getting the results you want or you feel like you are in a dip, it’s difficult to see how things are really going to turn out the way you want them to. Sometimes when we are so caught up in our “problems”, we are unable to see any solution ahead or we keep trying to fix everything on the outside, when in fact, it is the inside that needs a little tweaking as well....

1. You can complain to him about other people. He’s almost like an “agony aunt” you can go to him when somebody’s annoyed you and he won’t judge you, in fact he’ll even join in. You’ll even create little characteristics and nicknames for people when you’re speaking about them.. “So Amy came in today.” “The one with nice hair but walks a bit funny?” 2. He makes a hangover less painful....

Strategies to Stem the Flood and Clear Emails There are so many strategies we can use to organize email, weed out and trim down our email volume. With a little diligence, we can move a bit closer to an efficient, streamlined inbox that is a useful tool to share valuable information. Isn’t that what it’s supposed to be for anyway? Featured photo credit: Businessman with at signs flying from his hands via Shutterstock