Even if you don’t have exams (in which case, lucky you), I’m sure you find one or two examples below that you can apply to your work life and make yourself more productive.

1. Know What You Want

In my experience, things in life are much easier if you start with the end in mind. “Why am I studying?” is a question you should ask yourself; the answer will invariably encourage you.

For me, I was studying because I’d be handing the results of these exams to prospective US colleges. To encourage myself, I printed off some pictures of the college I planned to apply to – New York University-  and tacked them to the wall above my desk. I also researched the classes I’d be taking (this info is available on most good college websites) and immersed myself in it.

Know what you want and plan accordingly — how else will you know if you’re on the right track? Instill a sense of purpose in yourself.

2. Know What Works For You

Mind-maps, Cornells, charts, flashcards, there are lots of little tricks that work for people studying. The important thing is to know what works and what doesn’t.

I had a teacher who insisted we use mind-maps. Not being remotely artistic, my drawings always sucked and, by extension, I wasn’t studying well. Instead, I found that if I wrote out notes, they stuck in my head much better.

What works for one person may not be effective for someone else, so you need to “shop around” and see what works for you.

3. Don’t Fall Into Traps

As you get tired and your willingness to study starts to wane, recognize that and compensate accordingly. Vary the subjects you’re studying and the techniques you’re using.

Above all, bear in mind that any amount of study, no matter where or for how long, is worth it. I’ve studied History in a hospital room and Spanish vocab in a grocery store queue. Any amount is always better than none.

4. Have A Release

A good study:break ratio, I find, is 50 minutes for studying and 10 minutes for a break each hour. You can (and should) adjust this to fit this to suit yourself, but you should find a good work/rest balance and stick to it.

When you’re on a break, definitely get away from your desk and from concentrating heavily on something (like reading or checking Facebook). Go for a walk, as this both clears your mind and is exercise (the perfect rest from sitting and studying).

If you have an instrument — play it. I’m a drummer, and sitting behind the drums and playing to one of my favorite songs was the perfect release.

5. Plan Ahead

Get a calendar of some description, whether it’s a physical one on the wall or on your computer. Decide what you have to do for the next week and divide it between the different days.

Maybe you have soccer practice on Tuesdays — plan around it and make up the time another day. For me, that meant giving myself two hours off on Mondays and Thursdays, so I could go play chess at my local college club.

The beauty of this is not just that everything gets done, but also the fact that once you’ve completed everything that you’ve scheduled for that day, you can stop studying and go off and do something without feeling guilty that you’re not doing enough.

6. Do Exam Questions

Strictly an exam based tip, I think it’s safe to say that active study is better than passive study in all aspects. In the same vein, the best way of doing well in an exam is to know the format of the exam papers. At the end of the day, all the exam is in an exam paper, so if you can do ten other ones and get 100%, the eleventh one should come easier to you.

Hopefully, these tips will help you get buenas notas in your exams or will give you ideas as to how you can manage your work load better  - good luck!

GetGlue

take the check-in idea used by Geo-Location services such as FourSquare and apply it to entertainment. You earn stickers for checking into your favourite songs, movies and shows and can request a physical copy of your stickers to be posted out to you. GetGlue have iPhone, iPad and Android apps, so you can check in on the go wherever you are watching/listening to something. One of the most useful features for me is, being able to subscribe to other users feeds. This is a great way to (re) discover new and old movies and shows that you may not have heard of. You can also read people’s reviews of these movies to see if it’s worth your time.

FFlick

A site that I’ve started using more and more for people’s views, Fflick aggregates Twitter posts about movies and gives each movie a rating from these posts. It’s a really quick way of finding out the general online sentiment about a movie without having to thrall through your feed, or do an extensive search. It’s a pity that Fflick don’t have an app as yet. I’d expect that this will be changing quite soon though.

Total Film

My second favourite magazine in the world, and a site that I visit daily for film news, but also their excellent features. They’ve just released their iPhone app and it’s very impressive. Costing just €2.39, the app gives you access to all of their reviews, features and news. It also has a nice extra. A cinema finder. It seems that this will be of more use to UK users, but it’s a nice add on. Essentially, it finds the cinemas that are nearest to you. I can’t wait for the iPad version!

Empire

My favourite film magazine, this would be another regular stop daily. Empire released their own iPhone app a while back, but rather than being an app version of their site, they’ve given us an extensive database of movies reviews and info. It’s a really impressive app. I can guarantee that if you can think of a movie, the app has a review. This would be an app that I use frequently when I’m looking for a movie to rent/download/see in the cinema and again it doesn’t cost the earth at a reasonable €3.99. Again, an iPad version would be very welcome!

IMDB

Everybody’s favourite movie database is even better on iPhone/iPad. What is largely agreed to be the most extensive movie database on the planet is my go-to resource for anything film related. Using it on the iPad in particular is a treat. On opening the app, you’re met with an up-to-date screen of the most viewed movies and stars on IMDB. And of course you can run your search for any movie you like. It’s smart and clean and a fantastic resource.

The Ticket

Looking at something more specific to Ireland, Irish Times have really embraced app technology. They’ve released two apps for iPhone this year in the Irish Times News and The Ticket apps. Although The Ticket app is only updated once a week, it has plenty of content to keep you going and can save you the weekly fee of buying the newspaper just to get that section (which i have been prone to in the past). Again this app would be even better on a tablet like the iPad as in it’s current form, it’s all a bit squashed for my liking, but kudos to the Times for embracing this technology.

RunPee

We’ve all been in that situation. You’re in the middle of a movie and feel the call of nature. If it’s in the cinema, you’ve paid for your ticket and don’t really want to miss anything…but God, you gotta go. With the Run Pee app (which is a watered down – excuse the pun – version of the website), you can see all the bits in the latest movies that are safe to miss. A very useful app altogether, and…it’s free!

Wikipedia

This is an obvious choice, i know, but it’s still the quickest way to find info on any film star or movie on your mobile. I find myself regularly going to it to find out actors filmographies and another thing that it is amazing for is listing TV series and their seasons/premiere dates etc. It can be hard to find extensive lists like these elsewhere.

The Must List

This is an app that I came across via an ad on US site, Slate I think. Entertainment Weekly have released it as an iPad app that lists their must see/hear/buy top 10 each week. It’s a really cool app, and very useful for seeing what’s cool and current in the world of entertainment. You can download this on iPhone too and…it’s also free

Rotten Tomatoes

Finally, I’ve included this as a site that I think badly needs to embrace app technology. I’m sure that it’s something that they’re looking into, but they have an amazing community and base of content on Rotten Tomatoes and it’s a site that many people use as a barometer for how good a movie is and whether they’ll bother going to see it. Fingers crossed we’ll be seeing some apps soon!

So, we want to hear your suggestions of apps and resources that I’ve left out here. Where do you get your news, reviews, features and info from? What are your thoughts on my suggestions here? Leave your comments below
–

]]> http://www.simplyzesty.com/lists/ultimate-list-online-tools-movie-buffs/feed/ 6 http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/blogging/50-blogs-improve-blogging/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=50-blogs-improve-blogging http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/blogging/50-blogs-improve-blogging/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:43:29 +0000 Niall Harbison http://www.simplyzesty.com/?p=4760 Blogging is largely a self taught art where newbies pick up tips and secrets from more established bloggers who share their experiences with the next generation. There is no official guide to blogging as so many people have so many different opinions but we thought we would bring together some of the better resources here in one post that people can use as a reference in the future. Luckily there is a huge community around blogging and people are more than often happy to help with any questions that you might have so if you are not sure about something just fire us over a question or ask anybody listed here to help you out, you’ll be surprised at how many times you get an answer, everybody loves to help. You may not use all these resources but you will I am sure find some good little nuggets of information, I know I did…

Problogger

A professional blogger who writes about professional blogging and how you can increase your traffic and make money from your blog. Gives practical examples and has some great ideas for posts that you can use as well as having forums and a community that help each other to write better blogs.

WordPress Themes

If you are not already using WordPress you really should be. It is free, incredibly easy to use and has a ton of great plugins that will enhance the quality of your blog in a huge variety of ways. Click on the link above to see a huge variety of themes to get you started.

Dreamstime

Using stock photography will not be for everybody (it also costs) but we use it at certain times here to make our blog look better you can find an image for pretty much anything you are looking for. This is of more use for professional bloggers than casualy personal bloggers.

Flickr Creative Commons

This is pretty much the same as the option above with the difference being that you can use any image, don’t have to pay anything and simply have to link back to the person who posted the photograph.

Remember The Milk

This application allows you to make the simplest lists you will ever see. You don’t need to be in any way technically minded to use this site and it’s simplicity is perfect for capturing one line blog titles to write up at a later date.

Google Apps

Again this is probably suited to a business blogger or a team blogging professionally but the tools within Google Apps are perfect for keeping your blog organized and collaborating en masse. You can use everything from the Calenders to simple documents and even presentations or drawings for diagrams.

Polldaddy

There are 100s of different poll and survey options out there but polldaddy is head and shoulders above the rest due to it’s simplicity and ease of use. YOu can have a poll or survey designed and up on your blog within a matter of minutes. Adds great interactivity to your blog.

Google Analytics

You’ll need to see how your traffic is doing on an ongoing basis and Google Analytics lets you do that in great detail. You’ll be able to measure where you blog is doing well, how to improve the areas it is not performing well in and increase the traffic accordingly.

Learning Google Analytics

Learning Google Analytics can take time but luckily there are some great videos on Youtube that will allow you to play around with your own analytics and set goals and increase conversions. You can walk through the full Google course here.

Chris Brogan

One of the most forward thinking “social media experts” on the web Chris’ blog is great reading and provides some simple and insightful tips that you an use and transfer to your own blog ensuring you end up with a better end product.

YouTube

I wouldn’t recommend having videos on your blog just for the sake if it or as a space filler when you just can’t think of something to write but if used correctly and as a compliment to your blog posts they can be a great resource and really bring your blog to life.

Tubemogul

This tool is only going to be of use to video bloggers and if that is you and you are not using it yet you need to have your head checked! You can upload your video to Tubemogul and it will be distributed to over 50 partner websites with the click of a button thus spreading your word far and wide.

Daily Blog Tips

Pretty much does what it says on the tin with a series of daily tips that will help you to improve you blog no end. Everything is covered here including SEO, writing great content and how to get more visitors to your blog.

Press releases

There may be times that you have something on your blog that you think is newsworthy enough to have a press release around. PRweb will give you good international reach and if your story is good enough hopefully it will be picked up and covered.

Hosting Rackspace

There are lots of good hosting providers (and some not so good) out there but one that stands out and that you should use no matter where you ae in the world is Rackspace. Easy to use and scalable for when your blog starts to get really big.

Gary Vaynerchuk

One of the most upbeat video bloggers in the world shares his tips on video and will often not only leave you with lots of great posts to write but leave you full of inspiration to make your blog/business/life a bigger success than it already is.

Stock Flash And Fonts

This site offers great flash elements, logos and fonts for your blog for as little as $1. Have a browse around and start improving the design of your blog by adding some colour and design elements.

Feedburner

One of the key elements to your blog is the RSS feed which a large portion of your readers will use to find your blog. We recommend you use Feedburner as it is pretty much the standard used among bloggers, is easy to use and provides good reporting.

Technorati

Perhaps not as relevant as it once was but this search and ranking engine for blogs can still have it’s uses including the ability o see the ranking of certain blogs, finding the latest news by subject from blogs and listing your own blog.

Stumbleupon

This recommendation engine will help you find all the best and most relevant content within your niche if you have it set up correctly. Can provide great inspiration for posts as well as sending you some good traffic if you feature yourself.

The Blog Herald

Does exactly what the title suggests it would do..A news source for bloggers with all the latest news that would affect us from all over the blogging world all brought together in one central resource.

Twitter

You don’t need to be a genius to figure this one out but if you are looking for traffic, want to interact with people within your blogging community or want to get feedback about your blog then this is where you need to be hanging out.

Google Adsense

This is for the slightly more experienced blogger who is interested in making a little bit of extra cash from their blog. It will take a decent amount of traffic to even start thinking about this option but if you need to cover hosting or think you could make even more cash then this should be one of your first ports of call.

Google Adwords

If you are blogging for business and want to grow an initial audience it might be an idea to get some Google Adwords running around the keywords assosiated with your business. You won’t want to keep this running forever but it will help to get you off the ground traffic wise.

Chitika

Again if you do feel like ging down the money making route on the blog you may want to try Chitika which is used by many of the top bloggers and you can combine it with Adsense or simply test it out on it’s own.

delicious

This simple tool allows you to bookmark the best articles you see on the web so as you can come back and use them as a reference for your blog posts in the future. The real beauty is that you can log in from any computer to access your bookmarks.

Alltop

This service brings together some of the best articles on the web and neatly categorizes subjects by category so as you can both find all the best information and include your own posts so as they reach a bigger audience.

Google Blog Search

Find out what all the bloggers are saying around the world in real time on any subject you can think of. You can use the tool to find relevant stories in your own niche that you might like to cover.

Dosh Dosh

Another blog about making money from your blog through social media, affiliate marketing and SEO. You’ll find lots of interesting little tips on how to grow your traffic and all written in a very straightforward manner that anybody can understand.

SEO Tips

Although SEO will only play a small part of your overall strategy you will need to keep an eye on it to help grow your traffic and this is one of the best blogs for doing that with great tips, tricks and industry insights.

HTML School

I write most of our blogs in the HTML section because I took one day to learn HTML at a weekend and it really is the easiest thing you could ever do once you start and it helps you immensely with the formatting of blog posts and general layout.

Pingomatic

Lauren wrote recently about the importance of not just blasting out your message using this service but if you do feel like sending your blog posts to a few different sources then this is the tool for you.

FTP

During your blogging life you will have to get familiar with FTP if you want to take the blog to the next level. You will find countless tutorials and one of the easiest to start with using is Cyberduck.

Blog Directory

One of the places that you should list your blog but you can also use this directory if you are trying to find resources from any paticular blog on any subject of your choosing.

Squarespace

If for some reason you didn’t want to use WordPress we would recommend you go with Squarespace as it is a cheap and easy to use alternative that you can build blogs or websites on in a matter of minutes with little technical knowledge.

Photoshop

This is for the more professional blogger as a legal copy of the software costs over $600 but if you want to get really serious about the design elements of your blog then this is a great investment.

Vidly HD Twitter Videos

If you want to try something different and add HD quality videos to your blog at the click of a button you could do worse than use Vidly to do so. You have the added advantage of having a ready built audience on Twitter that should migrate over to your blog as well.

Seth Godin

Seth doesn’t give you step by step tips or manuals on how to blog but he is a chap who is full of ideas and inspiration and simply reading his short and inciscive blog posts will give you the inspiration you need to write a better blog.

Creative Commons

You’ll want to make sure that people are not ripping off your photos, text or videos and using them on their on sites. Creative commons are the guidelines that everybody follows and will also dictate how you should use the photos and content of others.

Paypal

You may need to accept some forms of payments for goods on your site or have people pay to attend events, make a donation or simply transfer money and using Paypal is your easiest, most secure and easiest to platform to use.

Basecamp

Again this is more aimed at blogs that have a few authors and need some collaboration. BAsecamp is quite simply the best organisarional tool on the web.

Facebook Fan Pages

You can see our Facebook fan page widget on the right hand side of this page and you should probably get one for your blog or website too so as you can increase the community feel on your blog. It can be embedded in a matter of seconds.

Retweet Button

You will have seen these buttons appearing on more and more blogs as the retweet button becomes a more important feature in driving traffic to blogs. You can use this plugin to get a similar one to the one that you can see on this site.

Logo Design

Branding is an important element of your blog and getting the logo right is essential. 99 lets you put the project out to a bunch of designers and you get to pay for and select only the best one.

Blogging Tips

Again does exactly what it says on the tin with useful and insightfull tips on blogging from simple writing tips and SEO all the way through to how to increase comments and click throughs on your blog.

Back Up Your Blog

One of the biggest disasters that could befall you as a blogger is losing all the great content you have spent years slaving over. Backing up your blog is one of the smartest and most prudent things you could ever do.

About Blogging

One of the biggest sites in the world has an excellent section dedicated to blogging with a full set of resources, tips and quality links to some of the best blogs in the world that you should be reading.

Copy Blogger

Creating great content is one of the most important factors in writing a great blog and this site will teach you some great techniques in creating great content that will serve you well not just for blogging but for all writing you do.

Andy Wibbels

Andu has some great tips and tricks to help improve your blog and although he focuses on small businesses the tips he provides would apply to most people’s blogs.

Favicon Creator

A favicon is the little symbol you see at the top of the page beside the URL and in different tabs you open and it is amazing how something so small can help you with your branding. Use this tool to create your own little identity.

]]> http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/blogging/50-blogs-improve-blogging/feed/ 15 http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/twitter/crowd-sourcing-american-twitter-population/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=crowd-sourcing-american-twitter-population http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/twitter/crowd-sourcing-american-twitter-population/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:10:23 +0000 Niall Harbison http://www.simplyzesty.com/?p=4376 The idea is simple. We want to put new Twitter lists to great use by creating lists of every single person using Twitter in America. We want to do it in 72 hours and we want to use the power of crowd sourcing to do it. All you have to do is tweet the message below and we will collect all the tweets and add them to the lists for each State. We will then publish the results and have a full twitter list of users for each of the States as an incredible public list for the American public to use. Getting started really couldn’t be much easier, simply follow this simple tweet instruction…

What you need to tweet to get listed

I want to get listed #TwitterCalifornia add yourself here http://bit.ly/40ZL4M

*Replace California with the State you live in

Where To Find The Lists

You can see the full Twitter lists at Twitter.com/simplyamerica and Twitter.com/simplyamerica2 Twitter.com/simplyamerica3.
The reason there are 3 is because Twitter only allows you 20 lists per profile. The lists will be updated as the day goes on but will NOT be updated in real time so don’t worry if you don’t appear instantly on the lists, you will appear eventually!

]]> http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/twitter/crowd-sourcing-american-twitter-population/feed/ 13 http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/twitter/crowdsourcing-english-twitter-population/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=crowdsourcing-english-twitter-population http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/twitter/crowdsourcing-english-twitter-population/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:44:38 +0000 Niall Harbison http://www.simplyzesty.com/?p=4343 The idea is simple. We want to put new Twitter lists to great use by creating lists of every single person using Twitter in England. We want to do it using twitter and we want to use the power of crowd sourcing to do it. All you have to do is tweet the message below and we will collect all the tweets and add them to the lists for each county. We will then publish the results and have a full twitter list of users for each of the counties as an incredible public list for the English public to use.

What you need to tweet to get listed

I want to get listed #TwitterEssex add yourself here http://bit.ly/44DRZ5

*Replace Essex with the county you live in

Where To Find The Lists

You can see the full Twitter lists at Twitter.com/simplyengland and Twitter.com/simplyengland2 Twitter.com/simplyengland3. The reason there are 3 is because Twitter onlly allows you 20 lists per profile. The lists will be updated as the day goes on but will NOT be updated in real time so don’t worry if you don’t appear instantly on the lists, you will appear eventually!

Counties To Choose From

]]> http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/twitter/crowdsourcing-english-twitter-population/feed/ 32