Bookmarked resources

From handy tips and tricks to fantastic articles, I have a habit of bookmarking all of my “To Post” ideas and then pretty much forgetting about them. Here’s a bunch of the best I’ve come across for about the past year.

Whatis.com: Our Favorite Cheat Sheets

You never know when a good cheat sheet will come in handy — bookmark this page to keep our treasure trove of useful information at your fingertips!

From blogging keystrokes to MS office tips and even spots for beginners, there are thousands of tips and tricks available via the hundreds of links on this page.

Profit Advisors: Business Process Improvement Book Reviews

Second only to the Personal MBA, this is a huge treasure trove of reviews of business books on Investments, Marketing, Business Improvement, Inspirational Ideas and Management Improvement books.

Life Reboot: 10 Articles that Changed My Life

Online articles that promote life-altering advice are like hidden gems of the Internet — they’re accessible, but they’re difficult to find because of the sheer abundance of everything else that’s accessible.

From retty well sums up why I do these lists. Great articles like Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement address, how to find what you love to do, 10 reasons you should never get a job, and more.

Marketing Pilgrim: 26 Free Social Media Tracking Tools

There are a lot of companies that will happily relieve you of your dollars, in exchange for buzz monitoring services. While many large companies will enjoy the peace of mind that comes from having a company track their reputation for them, the rest of us need something a little less expensive–or better yet, free!

A ton of quick, easy ways to track buzz for free online. Very cool from a company that has a tracking tool to do the same thing.

Lifehack.org: Throw a lifeline to your future

The purpose of a lifeline is to pull someone from where they don’t want to be – quicksand pit, raging seas, icy pond, the messy present – to where they want to be. In the movies, the brave and valiant rescuers provide the muscle to pull the limp victim to safety; this isn’t the movies. It’s going to be up to you, buckwheat, to throw that lifeline, hook it onto something solid and start pulling with all your might if you want to get into that really nice future.

Great tips on making sure you stay on task and setting your future-self up for success.

Life Coaches Blog: Inspiring Links – The Awesome Personal Development Blogs Edition

Tons of great sites here, a bunch of which I already subscribe to. If you want to be successful, associate with successful people. Or at least frequent their blogs.

The Simple Dollar: When Everyday Life Gets in the Way of Your Dreams – And a Plan to Get Past It

Main points laid out in the bold sections of this article, but lays down some concrete steps to get moving on your dreams and how to make it tangible enough to be actionable.

DailyBlogTips: Top 25 Web Design Blogs

Check out what the top folks are doing to get an idea of the best practices. Some of these folks are really amazing.

The Simple Dollar: When Everyday Life Gets in the Way of Your Dreams – And A Plan To Get Past It

From tips like how to make your dream more concrete by writing it down, never letting it out of your mind and refusing to care about what others think, this is a great post to get you unstuck if you’re lost on the path to what you really want to do.

Dumb Little Man: If You Want to Change Your Life, Change Your Thoughts

Focusing on what you want in a methodical way is a great first step to getting where you want to go. Here’s 9 tips from Dumb LIttle Man.

If you’re dissatisfied with some part of your life, know that you have the power to change it and it all starts with your thoughts!

Before I lose you, this article is not about “The Secret” and it’s not about “The Law of Attraction.” Instead it is about the undeniable fact that how you think and what you think about determines the shape and quality of your life.

Daily Blog Tips: Top 25 Web Design Blogs

Best way to get a professional looking design for your blog is to look at what the pros are doing. Here’s a list of some of the best.

Lifehack: Thirteen Tricks to Motivate Yourself

From enlisting a partner to overcome inertia by using the “go for five” trick, this is chock full of some great ways to get hopping.

Final Four

Woohoo! Just got this via email:

Dave:

Congratulations!

Your entry was one of the four (4) semi-finalists to receive the highest number of votes during the public voting in the True Value “Do-It-Yourself All Star Contest”, sponsored by True Value Company.

You are now a Finalist!

As a Finalist you are eligible for the Final Round of Judging. The Grand Prize winner will be determined by Sponsor from among the four Finalists using the judging as described in the Official Rules: (#1) helpful “Do-It-Yourself” role to others, (#2) relevance to Theme and (#3) “Do-It-Yourself” accomplishments.

The Grand Prize winner will be notified by telephone, postal mail, express mail and/or e-mail on or about October 29, 2007.

Additional information will be coming directly from True Value within the next week.

Again, on behalf of True Value Company, thank you for your participation.

Will keep you posted.

In praise of Craigslist

Part of keeping my home office in working order has centered around trying to keep the surrounding area, you know, the house, in order. Like a lot of folks, we’ve accumulated a lot of stuff, and I challenged myself to do something about it.

So, I put up the biggest things in our basement for sale: The exercise equipment I never use, an electric piano I’ve never used, an exercise bike we just upgraded, the SIX DVD PLAYERS we have sitting around, unused (we went through a spell where we won a DVD player at every function we attended — weird), etc. I even sold the toddler bed that our son used until a year ago, and had become bedrock for toy-stack in the basement.

One of the keys to motivating myself to do all the posting, photo-taking, etc. involved in CL-ing properly was that I planned to buy a toy for myself (of course via CL) once I had enough money. And now that most of the above has sold, I just picked it up (at right): A Burley Canto recumbent bike!
Now I get to exercise on the bike trails around here and take the kids for some rides, all while looking like a complete goof (albeit a comfortable one).

Some links:

• Help-Key: How to Buy and Sell on Craigslist without being an idiot – No-nonsense tips, including “use common sense” and how to spot scams easily.
• Xinsight: Painless Selling on Craigslist – Great tips on setting up an account, taking photos, controlling your contact info, and helping folks find you easily. Great advice on terms: “All sales final. Cash and carry. First come first serve.”
  
• eHow: How to sell on Craigslist – Great how-to, focusing on common sense, neutral thinking and street smarts.
  
• Unclutterer: Lots of ideas to unclutter your life
• Get Rid Of Things: Clutter post – Great ideas for getting rid of the junk in your life

Get a free college education online

Technophilia: Get a free college education online – Lifehacker

Digging way back in my “Review someday” bookmark list for this one: Lots of links to education all over the web. MIT? Check. Yale? You bet.

You can even use almighty Google to find courses:

Using the right keywords, find course syllabi (insert your own subject), lectures, tutorials, notes, podcasts, and various sorts of online books using Google.

The Lifehacker article doesn’t include a link to the Personal MBA, which is one of my favorites, but great stuff to be found out there nonetheless.

Welcome to BizzyBlog

Just switched to WordPress for blogging software — looks like a pretty nice setup. Should meet my needs nicely. Also setup a site on CLPN.net for the neighbors. Cool stuff!