Time Management

Does time seem to slip through your fingers?  Are there not enough hours in the day to accomplish all you want to?  Does that frustrate you to no end?  You are not alone.  Time management is one of those skills everyone would admit to wanting to improve.  But even if someone who struggles with time management knows how to go about budgeting their time more effectively, will they have the time to do so?

From a professional standpoint, the ability to effectively manage one’s time can make or break a company.  One key method in learning how to make better use of your time is by simply recognizing “time wasters.”  KnowledgeCity’s Time Management course takes a look at how to avoid wasting time and make more effective use of the time you have. 

One of the resources highlighted in the course is Alec Mackenzie’s book The Time Trap, in which he groups the thirty-five most common time wasters into five main categories:
 

• Lack of Planning
• Being Disorganized 
• Staffing Issues
• Directing
• Lack of Control
• Poor Communication
• Ineffective Decision Making

Some of the specific time wasters include: a lack of objectives, priorities or a daily plan, a lack of deadlines, attempting too much at once, duplication of effort, multiple bosses, confused responsibility and authority, ineffective delegation, a lack of motivation, wanting all the facts before making a decision, etc

Check out three FREE previews of this course today!  It will be well worth your time.

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Getting the Job you Want!

Searching for employment can be an intimidating process.  In today's economy, when unemployment rates often seem daunting, it is important to focus on standing out among the competition.  In order to shine throughout your job search, you must understand each part of the process—from writing an enticing and informative cover letter, to knowing what types of questions  to ask in an interview and how to follow up appropriately.

In Working to Get Hired, instructor Michele Jones explains the ins and outs of finding and getting your dream job.  She will give you the tools you need in order to: pinpoint your skills, discover your ideal career path, utilize the many different job search methods available to you, write an effective cover letter and resume, pick the proper interview attire, and prepare for your future interviews. 

In Chapter 1: Discover Your Skills, Jones will lead you through several exercises that will help shape your job search.  She will help you identify skills you didn’t know you had and as a result, discover career paths you have yet to consider.  In Chapter 4: Job Interview Process, you will learn how to effectively plan for your interviews.  Jones will advise you on the different interview techniques and how to approach them appropriately.

If you are looking to improve your chances in this competitive job market, then Working to Get Hired is the perfect course for you!  Taking this course will give you the knowledge and confidence necessary to be successful in your job search.

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Personal Financial Planning

Financial anxiety is one of the most common stressors in life.  Whether it’s not having enough money, not knowing how to manage the money we have, or worrying about having money in the future, the unknowns of finances can grip us unlike anything else.  And unless you were one of the lucky few to have received sound financial advice from an early age, money management can be extremely intimidating and confusing.   

This is especially the case when facing major life changes, such as marriage, moving out, taking out loans to go to school, buying a new or used car, retirement, etc.   Even the terms themselves can be daunting to a newcomer!  Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, term vs. whole life insurance, estate planning—all concepts that are vaguely familiar but commonly misunderstood. 

What if I told you there is a course you can take that covers all these topics and more in a comprehensible and entertaining way?  In Personal Financial Planning, instructor Frank Paiano discusses important concepts such as: setting financial goals, money management, savings and checking accounts, credit, managing debt, mortgages, transportation costs, buying a new vs. used car, all the different types of insurance, stocks, and more!

An example of the useful advice you’ll find in this course involves determining when you should use credit.  In one of his lessons, Paiano divides credit purchases into “good” and “bad” credit.  Examples of good credit would be: the purchase of a home, paying for higher or career related education or making home improvements.  All purely entertainment-based purchases, made with “consumer credit,” would be considered “bad credit” in that they can interfere with effective money management and lead to bad financial habits.

If you’re feeling lost when it comes to budgeting or financial planning, check out KnowledgeCity’s free preview of Personal Financial Planning.  I can feel my blood pressure lowering already.

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All your organizational needs, in one place!

What if I told you there was an easy way to synchronize your calendar, contact list, address book, to-do list AND your email account?  It’s true.  Introducing Microsoft Outlook—a staple program for businesses around the world for this very reason.  Yet many users fail to capitalize on Outlook’s vast number of features, limiting themselves to email and meeting appointments.  Last year, Microsoft released Outlook 2010, a new and improved Outlook with even more features to help make users’ lives just a little less complicated.  So why not see for yourself what this popular program is capable of? 

Our course on Outlook 2010 will guide you as you go beyond emailing.  Learn how to customize your calendar to fit your schedule, and how to create meeting appointments, including optional and mandatory attendees.  There are also lessons on using reminders, the difference between your task list and your to-do list, as well as tips and short cuts such as how to create meetings, new contacts and tasks directly from your emails.

Preview our first three lessons for FREE by going to our course page!

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Spring Cleaning Pays Off

The coming of warmer weather and increased daylight often brings a renewed motivation to get rid of all that has accumulated over the winter months (or years).  Garages everywhere are purged of items gathering dust—that old bike that you always thought you’d use again, or the unopened Christmas presents from well-intentioned relatives.   What if I told you there was an easy and safe alternative to hauling loads to the dump or donation center, one in which you would actually make money?  No, I’m not talking about garage sales.  I’m talking about selling your items on eBay.  Now, I know that might sound intimidating to some, it really is quite practical and intuitive. 

For over 10 years now, eBay has continued to grow as one of the most popular auction sites in the world.  Yet, as with many online forums, there are definitely things to be wary of when selling or purchasing a product, making it essential to educate yourself beforehand.   Instructor Jim Orr’s courses in eBay Buying and eBay Selling give you an in-depth glimpse into the world of eBay.  These tutorials take you step-by-step through the process, addressing topics such as: setting up an account, finding the best pricing option, creating an appealing product description, researching sellers, sneaky bidding strategies, safe payment methods, packaging and shipping, and more!  In addition, you will learn what to watch for in seller ratings, as well as scam emails.  After these courses, you’ll realize there is nothing to fear if you know the ropes- that you really CAN get amazing deals on those coveted items. 

So give eBay try and experience for yourself the satisfaction of profiting from your productivity—in more ways than one!

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Gmail: Email with Intuition

For those of you remaining faithful to your non-Gmail email accounts, you probably see no reason to make the switch.  My Hotmail or Yahoo works just fine, thank you very much.  Now, while KnowledgeCity’s course on using Gmail might not send you running to set up an account, it will present some of the many features unique to Gmail you won’t find in other places.

To all you current Gmail users out there- chances are you have only begun to tap into all Gmail has to offer.  For example, Buzz.  Yes- Buzz.  What is it?  Essentially, it’s Google’s version of Twitter, available to you and other Gmail users.

Or another fun feature is “Labs” (described by Gmail as, admittedly, “some crazy experimental stuff”).  Here, users create gadgets for other users to download and try out.  For example, users can download a gadget that automatically translates emails, or one that expands your selection of emoticons.  There’s even a gadget that, when enabled, helps prevent you from sending reckless emails late at night by forcing you to perform semi-complex math problems before hitting “Send.”

Of course, it’s also important to learn the essentials, such as:

• Creating folders
• Labeling emails
• Setting up your vacation responder
• Creating and sharing Google Docs (or even publishing them as a webpage!)
• Reporting Phishing
• G-Chat

And this only scratches the surface!  Learn more at KnowledgeCity.com.

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Achieving Financial Freedom

More often than not, finances are the largest source of stress for both new and expanding businesses.  Keeping track of vendors, customers, invoices, bills, and receipts can quickly and easily become overwhelming.  Unfortunately, when it comes to finances, there is little room for error and a little disorganization can have devastating consequences.  For this reason, Quickbooks, the leading accounting software, is popular among businesses from all industries.  The systematic simplicity of this program relieves a world of stress, organizing all that a business could need when it comes to finances and managing accounts.  KnowledgeCity’s Quickbooks 2010 Introduction course takes you step-by-step through the process of customizing your financial record-keeping to best fit your industry.  This course teaches you to navigate Quickbooks’ multiple organizational databases, generate reports and print necessary bills, invoices, and paychecks.  So eliminate those stacks of paper, files and directory books and consolidate your business’ transactions into one all-inclusive program!  (Also, for you job-seekers out there, mastering Quickbooks is highly marketable to potential employers!)  Learn more at KnowledgeCity.com.

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Mac Mania!

With the release of Apple’s latest iPad, more and more people are being introduced to the Macintosh interface.  Even die-hard PC users have found it hard to resist the siren song of the slim, sleek and portable touch screen with all those intuitive applications.  For anyone looking to purchase a computer for the first time or to make the switch and go Mac, KnowledgeCity’s Introduction to Macintosh course is designed especially for you!  This course provides an engaging overview of the various features and fundamentals of using a Mac.  You’ll learn about programs such as: 

• Safari:  The Internet browser for Macs, featuring the easily accessible Top Sites—a convenient home base showing places you have browsed or bookmarked.  This way, you can see what is on your favorite web pages without having to fully load them.  In addition, any sites with new content will be starred. 
• Spotlight:  A fast way to open programs and the best way to search for documents—just a click away.  (For example, a search for the word “mail” will show: email, a definition for the word “mail,” the system preferences that have something to do with mail, documents featuring the word “mail,” email messages that mention “mail,” etc.) 
• Time Machine: A backup system that automatically stores: hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months.  This way, almost anything “lost” can be tracked down and restored.

You’ll also learn how to organize and search for documents, set up energy and security options, and to use programs such as iChat, iPhoto and iTunes.  The course concludes with a section on Windows vs Macintosh, highlighting key differences between the two operating systems—something subject to much debate!  Go to KnowledgeCity.com to see what all the fuss is about.

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Calling All Designers!

Take your marketing materials to the next level with AdobeInDesign!  While InDesign might be one of the lesser-known programs of the Adobe suite, it offers some unique features that combine programs like Photoshop and Illustrator to create professional-looking fliers, newsletters, brochures, and more.

Learn how to enliven your documents with drop caps (those large letters that often begin the paragraphs in magazines), and how to create and save your own object styles to frame images.  Here’s a sneak peak at just some of the important lessons covered so you don’t have to learn the hard way…

Essential Reminders for Working with Images:

• Pay to download high resolution graphics or images:  If you want to do any kind of printing with images you get off the Internet, you’ll need to make sure they are high resolution.  Images are measured in DPIs, or dots per inch.  The quality of the image, or the number of dots per inch, is evident when you go to print out that image.  Your computer monitor displays everything at 72 dots per inch, and so most images you get off of the Internet are also 72 DPI.  BUT digital press uses more DPI than that—like 300 DPI.  So if you try to enlarge a 72-DPI image on Photoshop, it will have to randomly come up with 228 dots that will not be consistent with those in your image! 
• Know the image resolution your printer requires:  Once you know this, you can go into the program you’re working with and appropriately size the image.  This will save you time and money.  One of the biggest mistakes people make when working with images in Photoshop is not checking and changing the resolution. 
• Convert colors from RGB (Red, Green Blue) to CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key, or black): Anything going to the press has to be in CMYK
• Understand the difference between digital zoom and optical zoom:  If you have ever tried to buy a digital camera, you probably have seen two different zooms being advertised.  Digital zoom represents the camera’s ability to enlarge the image on the display screen, while optical zoom represents how much the camera can actually zoom in on the image.  With optical zoom, the picture quality remains the same, allowing you to later enlarge or crop the image without losing quality.

Check out KnowledgeCity to learn more design tricks and features to jump-start the creative designer in you!

Butterfly image from:

http://gotprint.net/g/showStaticPage.do?page=preparing_files.html

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Sustainable Business: Why Being Green Matters!

We have all been subject to the rise in “green” propaganda.  While this increase in environmental awareness has lead to positive changes in business and commercial practice, it is often depicted as a sort of overly-obsessive fanaticism.  What practices should businesses really be responsible for, and why should we care?

Instructor Lisa Shapiro addresses these concerns in her course Sustainable Business.  One of the biggest obstacles facing businesses today is the threat of limited resources, so it is essential for businesses to be aware of their impact on the environment.  This course challenges businesses that produce a product to evaluate their answers to questions such as:

• Where do the raw materials come from?
• What kinds of working conditions go into production? 
• How much waste takes place during production?

Another way businesses can promote sustainability is by operating in “green” buildings.  No, not like that color (though that would be kind of cool).  Green buildings not only minimize their impact on the environment, they also save money by incorporating energy-saving lighting, heating, and cooling.  Some green buildings consume up to 50% less energy than traditional buildings!

Businesses should not just adopt a sustainable stance for their ethos, or because it would save or make them money.  They should do so because it is their responsibility—just as it is our responsibility to be aware of current practices threatening the environment, such as deforestation.   

To learn more about current environmental issues, business practice, and what you can do to help, go to KnowledgeCity.com and preview Sustainable Business.

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The Language of Computers

If you’ve ever atempted to learn a new language with little or no success, there's hope for you yet! Forget the flash cards, audio CDs, and concerns over your pronunciation, and step into the dynamic world of computer code. Whether we’re aware of it or not, there are hidden languages at work in the computer programs we use on a daily basis. When we input certain commands (as in, typing a certain word or clicking certain keys), that action is translated into the computer’s language, activating a series of on/off switches that produce the effect we see on screen. Each instruction is specific to each action, which the computer can run at a rate of millions of instructions every second!

Computer programmers are people who “write” the software, breaking down the actions into their individual parts. Jobs for computer programmers include things like: coding, debugging, maintenance, software testing, compilation, etc. Programmers not only think about how they want the end product to look, but also how all of the components fit together. By knowing certain computer languages, they are able to create complex and creative software.

Two of the most popular computer languages used today are C++ and Java (http://www.langpop.com/). C++ is used largely in systems software, application software and entertainment software, such as computer or video games. Java is more general-purpose and is able to be run almost anywhere.

So if you’ve ever wanted to branch out into the software industry, make yourself more marketable to employers, or even to just find a new hobby, check out KnowledgeCity’s free preview of its exclusive courses in C++ and Java Programming.

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Succeeding in the Business World

Have you ever considered starting your own business? Or thought about going back to school for your MBA? Or perhaps you are already employed, but want to better understand the principles that drive the economy and how to navigate changing market trends.

Regardless of your industry, job title or the state of the economy, there are certain principles that remain true for businesses of all kinds. KnowledgeCity’s Introduction to Business illustrates the fundamentals of any thriving business. This dynamic course gives you a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes look at the various types of businesses, what drives economies and global markets, how to analyze the competition, marketing strategies, business ethics, and more. Instructor Lisa Sharpiro explains key terms and concepts, teaching you essential strategies for avoiding common pitfalls.

For example, one of the tools covered in the course is something called a SWOT analysis.

A what?

A SWOT analysis is way to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats facing your business. Here is a small sampling of the types of questions that can help you reflect on how you can improve your business: 

• Strengths
• What does your business do well?
• What resources are available?
• Weaknesses
• What can you improve?
• What should you avoid?
• Strategize to overcome weaknesses
• Hire talent
• Get training
• Outsource
• Opportunities
• Be aware of:
• Positive trends
• Favorable technology
• Changes in regulations
• Threats
• What is the competition doing?
• Does the business have cash flow problems?
• Are regulations becoming stricter?
• What dangers can threaten the business?
• Environmental
• Social/Political
• Economic
• Consumer behavior

By better understanding these principles, you can enter the business world with more confidence and a firm foundation.  Check it out at KnowledgeCity.com.

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