Archive for May 6th, 2007

Here is the article I read last year and referred to yesterday. Simple ways to make yourself far cleverer. It’s based on research at the BBC. Here are the steps involved in training your brain to be cleverer in seven days.

Saturday

Brush your teeth with your ‘wrong’ hand and take a shower with your eyes closed.

Sunday

Do the crossword or Sudoku puzzle in your Sunday paper and take a brisk walk.

Monday

Have oily fish for dinner, and either cycle, walk or take the bus into work.

Tuesday

Select unfamiliar words from the dictionary and work them into conversations.

Wednesday

Go to yoga, Pilates or a meditation class, and talk to someone you don’t know.

Thursday

Take a different route to work; watch Countdown or Brainteaser.

Friday

Avoid caffeine or alcohol; memorize your shopping list.

As you can see, Wednesday is the day you are suppose to talk to a stranger. I actually try to do as many of these as I can each day. Some of them aren’t possible (like the second half of Monday).

If you want to improve your character, read Ben Franklin’s - The Art of Virtue. Franklin had a daily checklist he used to keep track of thirteen different virtues with a focus on one specific virtue each week. Each day he reflected on his success.

Now you can use the Do It Yourself Planner to create your own check sheet.

Giving a bad PowerPoint presentation is one thing. There are a thousand things that can result in what has become known as death by PowerPoint. At the other end of the spectrum is what I call suicide by PowerPoint.

Suicide is creating a PowerPoint and then not knowing how to control the presentation. Getting started is easy. You can click the slide show icon in the corner, select the slide show menu or press F5. Any of these will get you started. I have seen people that couldn’t get the PowerPoint started. It left me wondering exactly how many times they had rehearsed.

Once you get going, there are so many ways to go to the next slide, you probably won’t have trouble unless you skip a slide and need to go back one. This is where a lack of preparation will kill you (and your presentation).

Here is everything you need to know to control your presentation like a seasoned veteran.

Microsoft has a comprehensive list. I have listed all the ones I have used.

If you give frequent presentations, I recommend a wireless controller. It will let you move away from the keyboard and give you single click Forward and Backward control. You can pick one up for as little as $25.

TSPY=Could Save Your Life… or at least a lot of personal embarrassment.