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Jay Whitenoreply@blogger.com2008-06-17T09:57:21.324-05:00How to Keep Fit While Traveling</h3><content type="html"><div id="write"><h7 class="write">Written on 6/17/2008 by Jason Womack, who writes about travel, exercise, and productivity at his blog <a href="http://jasonwomackblog.com/">jasonwomackblog.com</a>.</h7></div><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fearless_craig/69997066/"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_dH0q9hvpVHg/SFfN-S3csgI/AAAAAAAAB1o/tPSgFHHU3Wc/s400/workout.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212861563804627458" border="0" /></a>After flying across the country for a business meeting or a sales pitch, one of the<span style="font-weight: bold;"> last </span>things a road warrior wants to do is exercise. More likely is a glass of wine, an expense-account dinner, and a comfortable hotel bed.<br /><br />After a flight, some leisure time is too enticing to pass up, right? Maybe not.<br /><br />For those that are dedicated to fitting a workout into their schedule and their posterior fit into their jeans, there are a few ways that you can use your travel experience to boost your exercise commitment. I travel more than 200 days per year and without a routine, I'd never be able to participate in triathlons or for that matter, remain in shape at all.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Here are a few tips from my arsenal. </span></span><br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Create a routine that you can mirror on the road.</span> Pick a time to exercise and a type of exercise that will be easy to pick up no matter where you go.<br /><br />Running is obviously the best. If for no other reason, all you need is shoes. However, many hotels have well-equipped gyms of their own. In fact, if they don't have a gym, many hotels will offer you a day pass to a workout facility near them.<br /><br />If you call ahead to find out what equipment the hotel or its partner offers, you can even transform your workout at home a few days before you go in order to pick up a familiar routine on the road. You can also adjust the length of your workout at home to mirror the time you will have available on the road. However, it's best to schedule one long workout per session when you are traveling. Besides meetings, you may not have much more to do. So, instead of sightseeing, you can fit in a two-hour or longer workout, which will inspire you to do smaller tasks to prepare for it.<br /></li><br /><li><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> Look for ways to capitalize on your destination. </span>If you have been to a city before, keep the same running route on each visit. This will enable you to visualize your workout before your plane even arrives at the destination. If you are already thinking about your workout as part of your travel experience, then it is more likely that you will follow through with it.<br /><br />Also look for competitive events that fall within the time of your visit. If you can stay over for a Saturday, could you find a 5K in the city your visiting? Or even a marathon or triathlon? Competing in an event keeps your fit, makes you even more familiar with the city and creates more contacts in the cities you visit. Check the internet for listings of running clubs in the city you visit.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">If you are visiting somewhere new, incorporate some of the sights you want to see with where you run. </span>Use your run as a way to scout out the area around your hotel. Many morning runs can be used as a way to look for a restaurant that evening or figure out the quickest way to a big attraction. With the mapping technology now online, it's easy to plan ahead.<br /><br />If you don't have time, ask the hotel concierge to create a running route for you. Be specific with what you want — a six-mile route with rolling hills or a 10-mile run that's flat. This also gives you a connecting point with the concierge as soon as you arrive at the hotel.<br /></li><br /><li><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> Bring the clothes that will make your workout easier.</span> If all you need to do is change your clothes, you can trick yourself into working out. Lay your workout clothes on your hotel bed before you leave for work. When you return, they will be there waiting for you. What you are wearing after meetings will often dictate what you do. Stay in your suit and you'll be steered toward martini lunches and more work in your room. But if you change as soon as you are done with your business, you'll have no excuse for avoiding your workout. </li></ul>What other ways can you think of to keep the motivation levels high while you travel?<br /><br />-Jason<br style="clear: both;"/> <img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=af40c42427cab63fdb53cd460b758f98" height="1" width="1"/> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=af40c42427cab63fdb53cd460b758f98" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/DumbLittleMan?a=FpJ69z"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/DumbLittleMan?i=FpJ69z" border="0"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?a=wyNFKi"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?i=wyNFKi" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?a=L7kSai"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?i=L7kSai" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?a=DDxVri"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?i=DDxVri" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?a=OFURoi"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?i=OFURoi" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?a=Jn8MAI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/DumbLittleMan?i=Jn8MAI" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DumbLittleMan/~4/313849473" height="1" width="1"/></content><author><name>Jay White</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email></author></entry><entry><updated>2008-06-16T13:09:35.434-05:00</updated><title type="text">4 Power Tips To Make Your Blogging More Productive</h3><content type="html"><div id="write"><h7 class="write">Written on 6/16/2008 by Abhijeet Mukherjee, of <a href="http://www.jeetblog.com/">Jeet Blog</a>.</h7></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nez/1920046306/"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_dH0q9hvpVHg/SFabHP19M0I/AAAAAAAAB1g/BHySXOrrjqY/s400/blogging.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212524167542158146" border="0" /></a>If you are a blogger whose blog is read by a lot of people, you'd agree that it's always a challenge to be productive and consistently maintain the blogging flow. Apart from writing posts, there are other tasks which a blogger needs to accomplish if he wants his blog to reach a wider audience.<br /><br />Since I am a full time blogger too, I face such challenges everyday and I am always in search for ways to improve my blogging productivity. Today I decided to share some of these no nonsense tips which have helped me and which can help you too to make your blogging more productive. Instead of making it a redundant list of 8-10 tips, I have decided to collate those tips and group them under 4 major headings so that's it's simple and easy to understand.<br /><ol><li><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:130%;" >Organize Your Information Sources</span><br />The internet is a sea of information and there could be multiple sources to help you to get ideas for you to blog about. However, the key is to effectively manage these multiple sources of information so that you are never perturbed by <a href="http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/03/work-smarter-for-better-time-management.html">information overload</a> and you can easily fetch the required data.<br /><br />You should know how to <a href="http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/06/8-useful-tips-to-manage-and-avoid-rss.html">manage RSS feeds</a>, <a href="http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/05/7-ways-to-manage-your-email-like-expert.html">deal with loads of email</a>, manage your various social networks and organize all these sources in a way that you can get the maximum out of them. You can group the various sources under 3 or 4 major groups and decide the time you will devote to them each day. For example you could consider social media as one information source group and devote 2-3 hours to it everyday. So whether you are digging, stumbling, twittering, plurking, sphinning or redditing, you should do it for certain number of hours and then check your activity and see what you have gained in terms of networking with friends, getting ideas, etc. Similarly you can deal with other such information groups.<br /></li><br /><li><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Capture and manage ideas</span></span><br />If you are able manage the information sources as I mentioned above, then you shouldn't have a problem obtaining ideas. But again, how you manage those ideas is more important. Moreover, ideas can strike us at any time, even when we are not in front of our computer. Here is an article which tells you how to <a href="http://www.jeetblog.com/manage-new-ideas/">capture and manage such ideas</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/">Read Write Web</a> writer and well known new-media consultant Marshall Kirkpatrick describes his days as a writer for <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/">TechCrunch</a> and how he was able to break news through the <a href="http://marshallk.com/open-sourcing-my-techcrunch-work-flow">effective use of tools to capture ideas</a>. <a href="http://marshallk.com/open-sourcing-my-techcrunch-work-flow"></a>He was able to do it even though he lived far away from San Francisco Bay Area, the technology hub. Hence it;s all about how you organize your information sources, capture ideas and manage them effectively.</li><br /><li><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> Manage Time-wasters</span></span><br />All work and no play makes you a dull blogger. Hence you should engage yourself in activities which may not directly help you in your work, like playing games, twittering a lot, etc., but you should make sure that you are not addicted to them.<br /><br />In fact you should first identify the <a href="http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/08/20-biggest-online-time-wasters-and-6.html">time-wasters in your daily life</a>. A time waster for one person may be a productive tool for another. Hence once you identify where you are spending most of your time without gaining anything out of it, you can work towards managing that activity so that it doesn't hurt your productivity.<br /></li><br /><li><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:130%;" > Write when there's no one around</span><br />Writing, without a doubt is the most important part of blogging. No matter what you do, if you are not able to create compelling content, then you will lose readers in the long run. Organizing information, managing ideas, and managing time-wasters are all to make you more productive as a writer, so that you can churn out excellent posts for your readers.<br /><br />Hence make sure that when you write, there are no distractions. Turn off those IMs, twitters, plurks, etc. If you live with your family, tell them not to disturb you. Use writing tools, which help you stay focussed. <a href="http://www.doshdosh.com/darkroom-helped-me-to-write-better-content/">Maki describes</a> how Darkroom helped him write better content. You can also follow certain patterns, like Darren Rowse <a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/06/12/how-batch-processing-made-me-10-times-more-productive/">writes in batches and produces great content</a>. It's all about how to find more time for writing quality content <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">and</span> it's about efficiency and writing more in less time.<br /></li></ol>I hope these tips help you to improve your productivity as a blogger. 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