Wednesday, October 12, 2016

The William ValeAn architecturally striking property in central...













The William Vale

An architecturally striking property in central Williamsburg, Brooklyn, The William Vale is a destination in and of itself.

Stylish and contemporary, its rooms and suites come appointed with glass-enclosed rainfall showers, original art, and private balconies with sweeping skyline views.

Dining destinations include an elegant restaurant specializing in coastal cuisine from Southern Italy and a spectacular rooftop bar serving global street food and sophisticated cocktails high above New York.

Another notable feature is the hotel’s seasonal swimming pool, which, at 60 feet in length, is the longest in town.

TripAdvisor

The Okura Prestige BangkokA swanky, high-rise hotel in the heart...

















The Okura Prestige Bangkok

A swanky, high-rise hotel in the heart of Thailand’s absorbing capital city, The Okura Prestige Bangkok features grand interiors, lavish amenities, and sensational skyline views.

Bespoke touches, panoramic windows, and state-of-the-art technology complement the stylish contemporary decor of its rooms and suites, all drenched in soothing, natural colors.

Dining options include Japanese haute cuisine at award-winning Yamazato; French fare with a Japanese twist at stylish Elements; and a selection of Asian and western dishes along with refined cocktails and stunning vistas at Up & Above.

The luxurious spa offers amethyst infused massages, and the professionally equipped fitness center nearby comes with fabulous views of Bangkok’s skyline. Also here, perched on the 25th floor is the hotel’s most spectacular feature - a suspended 25-metre infinity-edge pool gazing across the horizon.

TripAdvisor

Walk through “Your Rainbow Panorama” in Denmark

Now reaching the rainbow became possible with the new installation named “Your rainbow panorama” of the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. The new project was opened on the 28th of May 2011 on the top of the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum in Ã…rhus, Denmark. Permanent circular vivid walkway of a 150 meters long, 3 meters wide by 3 meters high, gives a 360° colorful view of the city. Eliasson’s creation is 52 meters in diameter (approximate weight of 140 tons), mounted on the 12 columns which are resting on the steel construction on the roof level (around 100 tons). This artistic work stands over 50 meters above the street level and 3.5 meters above the renovated roof area, it is also available for recreational purposes with a spectacular city view, all interested can reach both roof terrace and panorama via stairs and elevators.















3 Essential Mac Hacks That Will Make You 10 Times More Productive

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Do you sometimes wish that your Mac would read your mind and organize all your business notes properly? Do you sometimes waste valuable time, looking for important screenshots and files in your computer? Then try out these three technology hacks for quick and effective solutions to your problems in a jiffy.

1. Boost Your Efficiency With Hotkeys, Keywords And Much More With Alfred:

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Do you often spend a lot of time searching for apps or websites you often use? Then check out Alfred – an award-winning productivity app designed exclusively for Mac OS X that gives you greater control over your computer and makes life much simpler. After making some settings, you’ll be able to open what you want within a second.

Here are just some of the many things you can do with Alfred:

  • Find apps and files without even removing your fingers from the keyboard
  • Browse the web with default and custom search keywords
  • Use the Shift key to preview contents of a document without opening it

2. Manage Your Clipboard History With This Handy Tool:

 

Tired of switching tabs again and again when copying and pasting a list of things? Clipmenu allows you to do so just all at once!

If you’ve been using clipboard, is your clipboard history too cluttered? Are your work notes always disorganized?

Then here’s ClipMenu to the rescue – a free and highly efficient clipboard manager for Mac OS X which allows you to record 8 clipboard types, including image, plain text and much more.

3. Find Your Precious Screen Shots In A Sec With This Quick Hack:

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credit: idownloadblog

All your screenshots are saved to the Desktop by default but if you take lots of screenshots, finding a particular one might be a difficult task. Fortunately, you can use this trick to change the default screenshot location on your computer. If you make them be saved to Downloads folder, then you can drag the screenshot as the latest download file from the folder in the tool bar.

From now on, be more productive when you switch on your Mac. Share these tips with your friends today!

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5 Online Courses To Equip You With Knowledge You'd Only Get After Years At Work

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Do you want to get ahead in your career, but need to bring your skills up to date? Thanks to the power of online learning, you can give your skillset a boost in just a few weeks. These courses are convenient and free, meaning that your learning can easily fit into your life.

If online learning sounds good to you, why not check out these five courses from Coursera, a hub connecting you with the best online courses provided by world-renowned universities and training organizations.

Learning How To Learn: Powerful Mental Tools To Help You Master Tough Subjects

Rating: 4.8 stars out of 5

This course will teach you how to learn. Why is this so important? Well, before you can hope to expand your knowledge in any domain, it’s useful to understand exactly how your brain picks up, stores and makes sense of new information.

You will learn how to overcome procrastination and make the best use of your memory along, with other cognitive skills that will be useful in any line of work. The course is interesting and engaging, with users reporting that the presenters are likeable and that the activities (including quizzes) are fun.

Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills

Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5

This negotiation course has helped many people pick up the basics of positive negotiation. Even if your job role does not officially involve much negotiation, we all have to work with other people on a daily basis, in such a way that means we need to work out how to make sure everyone’s needs are met.

This course includes plenty of helpful video materials that demonstrate the skills vital for successful negotiation. As part of your learning, you will undergo a live negotiation process with a friend or online partner. This course really allows you to put what you have learned into practice.

Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making

Rating: 4.1 stars out of 5

Whatever your job, you will need to undertake some degree of problem-solving and decision-making on a regular basis. Those who can think critically and use the information they have at their disposal to make well-informed, balance decisions will always be popular in the workplace.

Master this skill and not only will you be respected, but you will be seen as a reliable individual with leadership potential. The course contains real-life case studies that will help you appreciate the importance of critical thinking in day-to-day situations.

Successful Presentation

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

There are few forms of communication more persuasive than a high-quality presentation, but many people find public speaking to be a daunting prospect. In this course, you will learn how to overcome your fears, put together a great presentation and make use of verbal and non-verbal cues in getting your message across.

This course is essential if you are looking to obtain a leadership position or wish to learn how to influence others in the workplace.

Influencing People

Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5

If you want to make an appreciable difference within your organization and ensure that your ideas are heard, you need to learn how to influence other people. This course will equip you with the skills you need to share your ideas with others in such a way that they take notice.

You will discover how you can exert your own personal influence over your managers, those you supervise and other stakeholders. Once you learn how to influence other people, you will find your work much more rewarding, because you will be able to see the firsthand effect of your own personal power.

Online courses are increasingly popular as a cheap, effective way of broadening one’s set of work-related skills. If it’s been a while since you took steps towards your personal development, why not sign up for one or more of the above courses today?

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The One Hack You Need To Stop Procrastination And Achieve Your Goals

photo-by-amanda-jordan

Accomplishing goals is challenging. To many people, the most common scenario is that they feel excited when setting goals and stick to their goals for a while. But as time goes by, they find the process of achieving their goals stressful and try to procrastinate with all kinds of excuses like being too busy, lacking the resources, discouragement from people around them etc. Have you ever wondered why procrastination and even giving up are the usual endings when pursuing your goals? It is not about you being not perseverant enough, but you setting your goals with the wrong approach.

The problem of focusing too much on numbers

When it comes to career planning, many people like linking their goals to numbers. I wish I can proceed to the management level in 3 years. I wish I can break the sales record of the company next quarter. I wish my salary can increase by 30% in one year. No doubt these numbered goals are concrete and easy to visualize so they are able to motivate you in the beginning.

But let’s face the fact: whether we can achieve our career goals is not only determined by how much effort we put in our work. There are many factors we cannot fully control. So setting numbered goals is like a double-edged sword. On one hand, it gives us a clear direction; on the other hand, it traps us in a rigid boundary. Once we cannot proceed to the management level or break the sales record when the preset deadline is approaching, most likely we will feel overwhelmed and procrastinate what we are supposed to do. Worse still, we may feel deeply frustrated and deny our self-worth.

So instead of setting a fixed goal and thinking what concrete actions you need to take to reach the goal, you should ask yourself this more important question: What are the values behind the goal you set?

Why focusing on values is a better approach

If we truly understand why we’re setting specific goals, then we’ll be better at incorporating the goals into our lives and building habits for them, and so we no longer feel exhausted from rushing to reaching our goals within a certain time frame.

If your goal is reaching the management level in your career, you should go deep to understand the rationale behind it. If your ultimate goal is to make your ideas as the driving force of the company’s strategies, then what you do is not only limited to demonstrating that you possess the qualities to make a great leader or competing with your colleagues for the titles. Instead, you will build the habits of grasping opportunities for your company, contributing more valuable ideas in meetings and bettering the communication and coordination between colleagues. In this way, you will not confuse your values (increasing your influence and contribution in the company) with the means (reaching the management level).

Although setting numbered goals and coming up with corresponding strategies can possibly shorten your time on reaching your goals, the non-negligible side effect is that you do not enjoy the process and so procrastination keeps visiting you. When you try tweaking the approach to set your goals based on your values, you can see more options to realize what you want and by turning them into your habits, you’ll find the process more enjoyable and more sustainable.

Featured photo credit: Amanda Jordan via stocksnap.io

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Keeping Yourself Busy All Day Long Doesn't Mean That You're Productive. You're Simply Procrastinating.

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Many people like postponing challenging work tasks by completing the ones that don’t require much cognitive power first. Usually, they think it is better to fill in the time rather than stay idle when they procrastinate. At least, doing something means they are being productive. Does this situation happen to you often in the workplace? If yes, you’ve already fallen into the trap of mistaking the two kinds of tasks: “reactive” and “proactive”.

Reactive tasks are those tasks that are somewhat urgent and maybe even important but don’t have a high long-term value. Proactive tasks are those that we know we should do, that have a high long-term value but are often blocked by procrastination and reactive tasks.

Examples of reactive tasks and productive tasks at work

There are plenty of reactive tasks that need to be done at work, like replying to email, documentation and and repetitive tasks that maintain the operation of your company. But that doesn’t mean you should always use them as an excuse to postpone your proactive tasks, like coming up with new ideas for an upcoming project, thinking ways to improve the performance of your company’s products in the market, improving the communication and cooperation with other colleagues etc.

Typically, we spend 80% of our time on reactive tasks and only 20% of our time on proactive tasks. That explains why most of us are only busy but not genuinely productive at work.

To reverse the situation, first you need to clearly know where you are by taking the following actions:

1. Look at your to-do list and count the number of proactive versus reactive tasks

2. Calculate your ratio

  • Count the number of tasks (for example, 20 reactive and 5 proactive for a total of 25)
  • Divide by 100 (0.25 for our example)
  • Divide the number of reactive tasks by that number (eg. 20/.25 = 80%)
  • Subtract that percentage from 100 to find your proactive ratio (eg. 100% – 80% = 20%)

How to shift the ratio to make time spend on the right tasks

  • Reduce the number of reactive tasks : Are they all that important that they really need to be done? If not, take them away.
  • Create more proactive tasks : Think of the things you’re passionate about and the goals you want to complete. Add those things to your to-do list, regardless of whether or not you feel they’re urgent. It’s the things that are important, but don’t have a deadline that will make all the difference in our lives.
  • Learn to say “NO”! : Knowing when to say no to someone is a powerful thing. Remember that every “yes” is a drain on your time and energy and it keeps you from being able to say yes to something else – like your dreams!

Takeaway: Keep in mind that reactive tasks only keep you busy and distract you from genuine productivity. To ensure your time is fully well-spent, you shouldn’t shy away from doing more proactive tasks. Good luck!

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