Monday, February 28, 2011

Hongkiat.com: 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work

Hongkiat.com: 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work


5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work

Posted: 28 Feb 2011 05:26 AM PST

Here is an occurence you see too many times before – you start of your day by telling yourself that you will get (insert amount) of task done today. As determined as you are, you might end up having blunt conversation with your friends, replying and sending out e-mails and of course, get really busy on social outlets – just like most of us here.

stay focus 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work
(Image source: ihtatho)

So how do we avoid all these evil attention seeking, unnecessary task and make sure we accomplish what we should be accomplishing on the day itself? Our minds are easily wavered and affected and it becomes extremely hard to realign your focus with goals at job task. Today we are showing you 5 ways to improve your focus at work and how you can possibly discard activity that can divert your attention. Now these tips can be subjective but it may be effective for you!

1. Work in chunks

It’s a scientific fact that our brains can only be attentive on a limited amount of information for a limited amount of time. Making sure the appropriate information in mind is the one that lines up with our duties at work is where the difficulty is. To lighten the load on your brain, it is better to segment your work into small manageable pieces. The idea is you do not want to spend an entire day working on one task non-stop. Breaking it up allows your brain to ‘breathe’ and it will reward you later with effective work. So work in small portions then leave your desk and if your lucky go outside breathe in mother nature.

break into chunks 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work
(Image source: Shutterstock)

2. Reward yourself for your determination

It’s not really a bad thing to visit sites like Facebook, Meebo, or Twitter to get your social updates, but it’s important to not spend huge amounts of time on them, especially when your work is not complete. What I tend to do is create a set of tasks that I need to complete before I can visit any of those sites or leave my desk. I will work awhile, complete a task, then reward myself with some time catching up with a friend. This strategy relies on sheer perseverance and strong will. If you cant stick to goals that you set try another one of these methods.

reward yourself 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work
(Image source: Shutterstock)

3. Find the right Music

As for me there is no way that I can push through an entire work day of coding or designing without the appropriate music to keep me motivated. For me its either intense techno or alternative music that sustains me throughout the day. I can be wrong about this but I believe its important that whatever genre you decide to listen to, to make sure its music that can be easily filtered out while keeping the work ethic at full throttle. For myself I can not listen to music that makes me think about the words or sucks me into wanting to fall asleep, both of which becomes a distraction. Finding the happy medium will increase your drive immensely and will make the day fly right by.

listen to music 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work
(Image source: Shutterstock)

4. Go Incognito

If all else fails and you just cant seem to get away from the Facebook and pesky co-worker emails, you have to hide yourself. Go invisible on the instant message clients, set the away message to “BUSY, DON’T BOTHER ME”. And for those workers who love to stop by your desk, throw on those head phones so they dont feel inclined to spark up a conversation. I often have to hide from being annoyed from others. It seems the moment one person starts talking to me that the floods of people come. I’ve learned to never put myself in conversational positions while trying to be focused or make sure that i’m in control if I am in those situations.

do not disturb 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work
(Image source: Shutterstock)

5. Be interested/passionate about your work.

Finally the best way to be productive is to truly enjoy and be passionate about what your working on. We go to great lengths and hours of work for things that interest us. Yet we lose focus instantaneously if what we are doing is not important. It might take sometime finding interest in the work you do, you might have to just think about the big picture or maybe focus on impressing those around you (possibly a boss) to stay on track.

passionate about work 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work
(Image source: Shutterstock)

(bellefoong)

Friday, February 25, 2011

Hongkiat.com: Winners of: TemplateMonster Premium WordPress Themes

Hongkiat.com: Winners of: TemplateMonster Premium WordPress Themes


Winners of: TemplateMonster Premium WordPress Themes

Posted: 25 Feb 2011 06:01 AM PST

template monster contest Winners of: TemplateMonster Premium WordPress Themes

Here’s a little re-cap before we go ahead to announce the winners. Two weeks ago, we ran a contest in collaboration with TemplateMonster – one of the best collection of web templates and themes on the net.

We picked eight winners in total, of three will get the template of their choice (free or charge) and remaining five will receive a 50% discount to any TemplateMonster templates. Without further ado, here are our eight lucky winners!

Free TemplateMonster themes Winners

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TemplateMonster 50% Discount Code Winners

  • Djhuan
  • Chacha
  • Couleur vive
  • Peter J
  • Joel Emberson

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Congratulations to all winners!

More giveaways coming up!

More giveaway contests are coming right up. Here are several ways to keep yourself updated with Hongkiat.com. Stay tuned!

  1. Facebook
  2. Subscribe Newsletter
  3. Twitter
  4. RSS Feed

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Hongkiat.com: 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia

Hongkiat.com: 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia


40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 05:59 AM PST

HDR, also known as High Dynamic Range, is a set of techniques that when applied carefully, magically transforms your photographs into really stunning ones. It has been widely used by photographers to record a greater range of tonal detail than a single aperture and shutter speed. HDR photographs are generally achieved by capturing multiple photographs (taking one photograph for the sky and one for the ground), merging them together in Photoshop, and then modifying it with an image processing software such as Photomatix.

preview 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia

Though it is frequently use to create dramatic images of landscapes and scenery, photographers have also creatively applied HDR onto photographs taken in the interior of buildings to capture the magnificent architecture. This post is a quintessential example. Below are 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia. Yes, the following photos may look like artist illustrations, but in fact all of them are developed out of usual photos. Enjoy!

Changi International Airport – Singapore

changiairport1 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Lipjin)

changiairport2 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Studioku)

changiairport3 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Life in AsiaNZ)

changiairport4 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: GeeBee)

changiairport5 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: GeeBee)

Kuala Lumpur International Airport – Malaysia

KILA1 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Trey Ratcliff)

KILA2 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Trey Ratcliff)

KILA3 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Grant Cameron)

KILA4 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Christopher Chan)

Suvarnabhumi Airport – Thailand

suvarnabhumi1 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Surrealize)

suvarnabhumi2 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Trey Ratcliff)

suvarnabhumi3 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: DanielKHC)

suvarnabhumi4 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Grant Cameron)

Dubai International Airport – U.A.E

dubai1 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Shenghung Lin)

dubai2 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: azrEYEn)

dubai3 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Shoeven)

dubai4 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Neimon)

Incheon International Airport – South Korea

incheon1 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Bongo Mike)

incheon2 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: R.K. M)

incheon3 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Selwyn Yeo)

incheon4 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: R.K. M)

Taoyuan International Airport – Taiwan

taoyuan1 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Kent)

taoyuan2 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Gilles Marcil)

taoyuan3 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Joseph Brent Lardizabal)

taoyuan4 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Thomas)

Beijing Capital International Airport – China

beijing1 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Christopher Chan)

beijing2 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Alebi)

beijing3 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Christopher Chan)

beijing4 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Jerome Yau)

Shanghai Pudong International Airport – China

shanghai1 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Sandra)

shanghai2 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Sirintira)

shanghai3 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Rex M Photography)

shanghai4 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Ben Lee)

Hong Kong International Airport – Hong Kong

hongkong1 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Anne Roberts)

hongkong2 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Kah Wai Lin)

hongkong3 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Christopher Chan)

Tokyo Haneda Airport – Japan

tokyo1 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Takau99)

tokyo2 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Altus)

tokyo3 40 Exceptionally Beautiful HDR Photos Of Airports In Asia
(Source: Cafecico)

More photos of Places & Landmarks