Books on my mind

Those are some of the books that are a part of who I am.

It's interesting to notice how it shows my evolution from pure software development to the world business, marketing and presentations.

I guess that you can tell a lot about a person by the books on the person's bookshelf.

And what about you? Any books on your mind?

Search 2.0 - Find the information that matters

We're living in the Information Overload Era.

Let's face it: there's no way you can keep up with the rate of new information that knocks on your door every day.
New e-mail messages, new RSS feeds, new podcasts, new blog posts, new Twitter messages, new Digg submissions, new LinkedIn updates, new Flickr photos... you name it!

Being able to find the real interesting stuff is the real challenge.

Search engines, like the almighty Google, have definitely provided answers to this problem.

However I believe that today we have resources to enhance the quality of our search results.

Enter Search 2.0.


The real interesting information in the world spreads like a virus.

It works like this: You've found a cool site and you tell 5 friends about it. Each friend talks about the site to another 5 friends. And it goes on and on.

In Marketing, this behavior is called Viral Marketing.



The Dark Knight Marketing Campaign has used this technique to promote the movie. So has Cloverfield.

So the point is: the cool and interesting information travels from people like you to people like me, and vice-versa.

How can you leverage this?

Today there's so many social networks where people trade photos, links, experiences... One of the most popular social networks is called Twitter.

Image via CrunchBase

Because every message that you sent via Twitter is public: you can search all conversations via twitter to find the real cool interesting information!

Just go to http://search.twitter.com and start searching for the topic of your interest!

But I already got my list of RSS Feeds!

You have to free your mind! RSS feeds are cool! I also have a list of RSS feed of my favorite authors. However, there's a lot more going on in the web besides your favorite author's articles.

You can't imagine the list of great articles that I've discovered using search queries like http://search.twitter.com/search?q=business+model.

And guess what: you can subscribe to your search queries via RSS and get notified every time a new result appears. Top that!

Why should you care?

If you're an entrepreneur:
- Time is a critical resource. Find the cool interesting stuff as soon as it is found!

If you're a company:
- Monitor what customers/fans say about your brand
- Check what the competition is doing

If you're in the marketing business:
- Be notified every time someone searches for a product or service that your company sells and make the call to action.
For example: Monitor search queries for management software and reply directly to your potential customer. This way you will instantly find yourself talking to an interested customer.

Guy Kawasaki has written a great article about how you can use Twitter as a tool and has online magazine rack” of popular topics called AllTop.com.

How are you using the Search 2.0 to find new cool stuff?

How bodybuilding can improve your productivity

You are interested in increasing your productivity?

Congratulations! You've completed the first step to achieve that goal!

Every day you try to be more productive, but somehow you're not achieving the level of productivity that you want.

You finish your day thinking: "How could I've only finished these tasks?".
Or worse: "I haven't completed anything! How is this possible?"

Well, I would like to share with you an activity that improved not only my productivity but my overall health: bodybuilding!

I will show you how bodybuilding can help you:
- Increase your focus
- Fight procrastination
- Achieve your goals
- Go beyond your limits
- Improve your self confidence


Increase your focus

If you focus on one task at a time you're increasing your chances of completing it. The quality of your work will also benefit as you start to make less errors and delivering a great product to your clients.

Spreading your focus on several tasks at a time (multitasking) is usually a bad idea. Studies show that you take about 30 minutes to focus on a task and another 30 minutes to remove your focus. (reference?)

Bodybuilding can help you control your focus. Here's how:

- Focus on one exercise at a time. Don't worry about what you're about to train next. Visualize what you're about to do and do it.

- On every exercise focus on the muscle group that you are working. Take your time. Isolate the muscle group with your mind. Everybody can pick up weights but very few can focus each exercise on a specific muscle group.

- When you are training with weights that use more than 80% of your strength you need all your focus to handle the weights. One small distraction and you can end with a weight in your chest or worse.

When you are absolutely focused on your exercise you will stop listening what happens around you.

As you continue training you will learn how to enter the, what I like to call, the Maximum Focus Mode.

This technique alone will boost your productivity levels! Money back guaranteed.

Fight procrastination

One of the major enemies on your quest for productivity is called procrastination.

You procrastinate when you choose to complete a task a later time because some other "important" task appeared. Other times you're simply too lazy to even start or care to finish it.

Why would you want to do that? Clearly this will hurt your productivity levels because your leaving your path to the finish line. Imagine what happened if a 100 meters athlete suddenly left in a middle of a race to go to the swimming race.

Bodybuilding can help you prevent procrastination. Here's how:

- Your chances to escape procrastination increase as your ability to focus on a task increase; In bodybuilding you are trained to focus on a exercise at a time. One repetition at a time.

- You will learn how to follow a plan. Each muscle group needs 3 to 4 sets of (ex: 10 repetitions). Every bodybuilding instructor will teach you that switching, for example, from the triceps to the biceps training if you hadn't finished your triceps training set, is a bad idea.

- Bodybuilding brings discipline to your life. Like every sport bodybuilding has some guidelines that you must follow to achieve optimum results. From gaining muscle mass to losing weight: every goal needs self-discipline to get the work done!

Achieve your goals

You will increase the chances of achieving your goals if you start with one in mind.

The athletes that run the 100 meters race only look at the finish line. They always run with that goal in their minds. The finish line.

Again, choose one goal and use all your focus and will to win to achieve it.

Bodybuilding can help you achieve your goals. Here's how:

- Learn to set achievable goals. The weights don't lie. You can try to lift 200 kg but if you're not ready for it you will not lift it. If you're not careful you will hurt yourself too in the process.

- Learn to create a plan to achieve your goal. Create an exercise routine to achieve your goals, use your self-discipline and focus on achieving your goal!

- You will feel with more energy. It's easier to accomplish your goals if you're feeling great and with lots of energy. Many people say that they are already feeling tired... so why would they want to go to the gym?

Well I know that it's strange but... as you continue training you will start to feel less tired! Especially if your sitting in a chair 8 hours a day.

- It will improve your brain power: "According to recent research in the field of neuroscience, bodies that exercise regularly stimulate brains to have higher levels of brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF); brains with higher levels of BDNF have greater capacity for knowledge."

More about this subject at entrepreneur.com.

Go beyond your limits

Imagine that your exercise routine included a bicep training exercise. The goal was 4 sets of 12 repetitions.

You've chosen a weight (i.e: 20kg) for the first set, you did the 12 repetitions successfully.

Now you've picked 25kg for the next set.

When you're reaching the 9th repetition you're brain starts to play games with you:

"Hey you! Are you sure that you need to do 12 repetitions? Maybe 10 are enough. Why don't you put down those weights for a minute?"

Now this is a critical moment and here's why:

How many times you've set up a goal and you didn't achieve it? How many projects you've started but never completed?

Bodybuilding is a great way to train yourself in the art of achieving your goals.

In this case, your GOAL was making 12 repetitions. When you've reached the 9th repetition you can choose to say: "No! I can and I will achieve my goal!".

You do the 10th, the 11th and the 12th repetition.

Now you have gone beyond your own limits and improved your goal achievement skills.

Every single time that you overcome your own doubts/laziness/fears/weaknesses you are improving yourself. It also improves your self confidence which is critical in every aspect of life.

In this sport your only opponent is yourself. That's why there are mirrors in the gym, so you can look your opponent in the eyes and say: I CAN DO IT.

Conclusion

From losing weight to gaining muscle mass. From increasing productivity to improving your goal achievement skills. Body building can help you go beyond your limits and take yourself to next level.

Do you have the will to win?

The Developer's Work At Home Guide To Happiness

Everyone that works at home to:
- finish a personal project
- improving software development skills
- learn a new language
- update on a new technology

Well, the following article will help you find the balance that you need between your personal and work life.


I've just discovered Ryan Farley's blog and his great post The Work-at-Home Developer’s Guide to Happiness.

Welcome to my new blog!

Hi everyone and welcome to my new blog!

The goal of the this new blog is still the same as the old one: knowledge sharing!

I am a strong believer in the power of knowledge sharing. Think about it: we have been sharing knowledge from the beginning of times.

First we've discovered how to create fire... and then we started to tell everyone how to do it and how it could help you stay warm or keep you safe from wild animals.

From there we have discovered or invented great things like the wheel, electricity, phone... you name it! And now we can even send the Man to the Moon.

The power of sharing knowledge has enabled us to evolve beyond our own boundaries and beyond our own individualities.

I invite YOU to become a part of this revolution and start sharing your knowledge TODAY!

This includes not only sharing your ideas or suggestions about my posts but also write your own posts and see them featured right here!

Thank you!