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According to Sleep Health Centers chief medical officer, Lawrence Epstein, M.D., it is possible to make the right associations to sleep well even though the brain does not have a button for deactivation. The following are the ways that can help you do it:

Know that Sleep is Important – Sleep is the best form of rest that you could ever give to yourself. However, if you are deprived of it, you will face various issues such as anxiety. It will also hinder you from functioning at your best whether at home, in school or at work. According to experts, lack of sleep can also pose several health problems such as diabetes, stroke and hypertension.

Regular Sleep Schedule – The key to have a good sleep quality is through going to bed and waking up early. Dr. Epstein also points out that the best promoter of being able to sleep well is being synchronized with the body’s inner clock or circadian rhythm.

Winding Down prior to Bed – Along with regular wake/sleep schedule, one of the most ideal ways to get your sleep schedule back on track is through winding down prior to bed. You need to let go of all the negative thoughts you have in mind in order for you to enter dreamland quickly.

Make a Pre-sleep Routine – By simply creating an ideal pre-sleep routine, you will be able to establish association between your sleep and certain activities. By simply doing relaxing things such as taking a hot shower or reading books before bedtime, you can set your body in the mood to sleep. Apart from that, it will also give you the energy you need the moment you get up the next morning.

Write Down All Your Worries – If you are disturbed by racing thoughts before you go to bed, you need to write down all the things that make you worry during your free time. In doing so, you can at least let them go. However, don’t do this just before you go to bed because it will heighten your worries.

Use Your Bed for Intimacy and Sleep – You also need to make a clear association between your sleep and bed according to Dr. Epstein. He also advises that when you have some troubles sleeping, you can read your favorite books or magazines but not in the bed. Similarly, he also discourages using the PC, watching TV and doing paperwork in bed.

Are you wondering why? Well, according to the doctor, these activities will just stimulate the brain, instead of making you relaxed. Create the Right Environment- To create the right environment for sleep; you need to keep the room dark, at a moderate temperature and quiet.

Perform Some Mental Exercises – Having the ability to distract yourself from the things that keep you worried is enough to help you fall asleep more quickly. By simply performing a mental exercise, your brain will be able to concentrate away from all worries. Why don’t you think of a beautiful beach resort with white sand, crystal clear blue waters and tall coconut trees, a wide green field, or a beautiful mansion with your favorite wall paint?

Concentrate on Positive Things – When you are in bed and notice that you keep on thinking negative thoughts, turn to more positive ones immediately. Obviously, negative thoughts will not do anything good to your entire well-being. Why don’t you just focus on romantic or happy memories? Actually, this is the trick in having a good quality sleep.

Perform Relaxation Exercises – By regularly performing relaxation exercises, your racing thoughts and anxiety will be reduced. Two of the most common relaxation exercises that will give you refreshment are deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. Take Part in Physical Activities – Performing regular physical exercise is also a great anxiety-reducer. However, ensure that you perform exercise a few hours before you go to bed, since it can be very stimulating.

What Boosts Your Anxiety or Steals Your Sleep? – If you find it hard falling asleep, you need to ask yourself on what habits interfere with your sleep of fuels your anxiety. In accordance with Dr. Epstein, the greatest sleep disruptors are alcohol and caffeine. The former acts as a sedative but it fragments the sleep cycle, making it less restful. On the other hand, the effects of the latter can last from 4-7 hours.

Consult a Sleep Specialist – If you feel like everything you have done is to no avail, you should start looking for a sleep specialist in your local area who performs cognitive-behavioral therapy. This is by far the most cost-effective treatment for any kinds of sleep disorder, as it only requires a few sessions and does not require any medication. There are specific sleep treatments, so it is crucial to see someone who is a certified and experienced sleep specialist.

These are just some of the best ways on how to shut off your brain before bedtime. If you are suffering from any sleep disorder like sleep apnea, insomnia or narcolepsy, why don’t you try following them now?

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Setting your goals through the SMART approach could provide you efficiency. What is a SMART approach? This approach is actually the way you will create or establish your goals. SMART, stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable or Achievable, Realistic and Time limited.

The first factor you should consider when setting your goals is for it to be specific. As you may observe, this is quite related to the first principle of goal setting. Of course, your goals have to be specific, so it will be clear what steps are necessary to attain it. A clear goal is the one that is measurable, leaving no room for any misunderstanding. Your goals should be very explicit when it comes to the desired behavior. Continue asking yourself a helpful question like “what does it look like when your goal is finished?” Your answer to this question will probably assist you in identifying specific and clear goals.

M is for Measurable. Your goal should definitely be measurable, which is in connection to the first factor of the approach. Say for example, you want to be good on computers. What is exactly meant by the word “good” in such a goal? Instead of having this goal, you may want to change it into a measurable one like being good at encoding or programming. You should simplify them, so it will be easier for you to measure them. Creating measurable goals may not only help you to achieve your goals, it may assist you in beating your personal targets as well.

A is for Achievable or Attainable. This one is quite self explanatory. This factor of SMART approach is quite too associated with R, which stands for realistic. By their individual definitions, you may eventually think that the goal you wish to set should be realistic or possible to attain. Don’t get yourself stuck with the fancy ones because they may only give you some sense of disappointment. So, be sure that the goal you would want to establish is attainable and realistic.

The last letter which is T stands for Time limited or time frame. Just like what is mentioned in the principles of goal setting, your goal should have its specific time frame. Consider the length of time you wish to spend in order to reach your objective. Similar with any other tasks, it should have its own limit. This is important because setting a goal without the accurate time frame may only lengthen the process, probably leading to its failure. Therefore, you need to make sure that you set a precise time allotment possible for you to achieve your goal. Keep in mind that you should consider your capability when setting the time allotment.

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Even though instant gratification is practiced by most people, it has its number of disadvantages. First of all, it allows us to believe that we don’t need to work hard in order to achieve what we want and it also takes our mind off the things that are important for us and as a result we don’t value these things. Let’s make this concept clear with a very common example of Gambling-

Gambling is one of the greatest examples of instant gratification. You pick some cards, you bet some money and after a roll of some dice you win a bunch of money.

Sometimes people do win big money in gambling, but as you can see, they are very likely to use the same money to gamble again. We all know what happens at the end of game. They walk home either with little money or loose more than they won. Why? Because there was no hard work behind the winning and the person value the money enough and used it to continue to gamble.

Now imagine someone who is saving money for a particular thing or a lifelong dream. Do you think anyone who is saving money would give this less importance to money? No, they would spend their money carefully according to a plan and would pay great attention to how they are using the money because they gave their time and efforts to save this money and delayed their urge to buy something immediately to make sure they use it wisely.

People who practice instant gratification make a theory that high rewards can be earned with little amount of work. And this is the thought that keeps them from achieving greater rewards. This thought has high impact on practicing people their entire life.

Eating junk food instead of cooking healthy food for you results in increased probability of heart diseases and diabetes. If you just complete the assigned work with no quality at work to get the month’s salary, then you can have it but you also miss the chance to gain some recognition and possible promotions or salary raises.

While on the other hand, people who practice delayed gratification knows the value of hard work and high rewards. And if you compare the similar life styles again, you can see that they will choose to cook healthy meals for themselves instead of just eating out every day at some fast food joint to keep them healthy. People who practice delayed gratification would work hard at their jobs to get higher paychecks and possible promotions.

With delaying the rewards you also learn to learn to value the outcome of the wait since you have made so many efforts for it and you have waited for so long for it. That is why you know the result should be worth all this wait and efforts.

For example, imagine a kid who bought a new phone from his own savings and another kid who got the same phone from his parents. The first kid will make sure to take good care of his phone while the second kid doesn’t care at all. Now we can easily assume who is going to take better care of his phone.

The person who is practicing delayed gratification takes the outcome of any event seriously and values the result in the best possible manner. Therefore upon receiving your paycheck, instead of just spending the money on random things that seem important momentarily, you save the money for a bigger event. And sometime in that week you will realize that the first thing you thought of spending the money on was not even worth buying. Now since you didn’t make any stupid decisions with your paycheck money, real soon you will find yourself with a big amount of money to do something meaningful with. You can even take this delayed gratification one step ahead by investing the money into something like bonds, bank accounts, share market stocks, etc.

You can now see the benefits that you get when you start practicing delayed gratification. And all that was required was to take a step back from the trees to get a look at the bigger picture. Instant rewards blind you from seeing further in the future and you can see only the things that are available to you at that time while delayed gratification allows you to see through every possibility and to choose the best one possible. It also allows you to see how every action that you take is going to contribute to your path of reaching the desired goal. The same practice also helps you to improve quality of your actions in every aspect of life.

Once you start with the delayed gratification you find out that it was never really that hard to apply and you possess everything that you need to leave the affection for immediate gratification behind you because we know very well that everything in this world worth having comes with effort.

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CLEAN SWEEP: STEP TWO

Surfright's “Second Opinion” philosophy has been part of my approach to cleaning viruses all along.

Without seeing the figure of 32% on their website, I've always known that viruses can slip through the fingers of almost any of the most popular anti-virus software. I used to run Symantec Endpoint Protection (business version of Norton, my old favorite) and it failed to prevent infections many times. I've seen viruses overtake systems with several other popular anti-virus programs first hand as well.

The second step is to simply download and run Malwarebytes to double up on what Hitman Pro did.

I won't walk you through the installation, but go ahead and activate the free trial upon running if you like (no registration required).

This will enable real-time protection and some other features for 30 days, totally up to you.

Choose “Perform full scan” and let it run:

Malwarebytes will likely take some time depending on how much data/how many programs you have on your drive since we're doing a full scan.

Once it's finished, if viruses or other malware is found, be sure to select all items in the list of results and continue.

You'll be prompted to reboot to finish up, click Yes:

Okay – that's that for step two.

Just simply running Hitman Pro and Malwarebytes once will do the trick for most situations. As I said before, these are the “big guns” in my opinion. I remember several years ago looking for a solution to a particular nasty virus my machine picked up and I had already known about and used Malwarebytes, eventually I ended up stumbling upon a thread where Hitman Pro was recommended. It worked – and worked again and again, every time I was faced with another virus infected PC.

With that said, step three is basically the knock out punch that will clear off any leftover files that viruses use to reinfect the system. There have been countless times where I've cleared off all viruses (or so I thought) and sure enough there'd be a random fake anti-virus software popping right back up within minutes of rebooting - seriously. So the next step is a combination of step one and two along with the use of a feature that's built into windows for troubleshooting – Safe mode!

Amazing (haha).

CLEAN SWEEP: STEP THREE

Again, this method in it's entirety is not groundbreaking.

The logic here is to first run both software while all Windows features, Startup items, services, etc. are active so they can more easily detect and remove whatever is infecting your PC. Safe mode strips down Windows to run with minimal drivers, services, and startup programs, so it prevents the resilient viruses from running their installers or “hooks” again at boot. It's not the same in every situation, but for the most part that's why safe mode works.

For those of you who are “tech guys” or consider yourself to be computer savvy, I would have simply given you these instructions:

Step 1: Download & run Hitman Pro.

Step 2: Download & run Malwarebytes.

Step 3: Reboot into Safemode, run Hitman Pro &

Malwarebytes again - Reboot normally, run again.

This method is basically all about double checking and it works every time. If you have a virus, those two software combined will most definitely detect and get rid of it. Sometimes you may have to repeat the process several times depending on the situation.

Okay. For every version of Windows except Windows 8 (surprise surprise), going into safe mode is as easy as rebooting and pressing F8 on the keyboard right after the full screen logo of your PC's brand or the list of hardware that's initializing (POST).

There is a possibility you might miss it and if you do no biggie, just reboot and try again. I do sometimes on unfamiliar PC's.

So, usually I have my finger ready on the F8 key and press it repeatedly right before Windows boots.

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Usually when what you do is what you are passionate about, you will really excel in that area. When a student does not do good in academics in school, it does not mean that person is stupid. It might just be because that person’s passion is elsewhere.

There are students who excel in school because that is where their passion lies. That is why you should follow your passion because it will come easy for you. On the other hand, if you are passionate about challenges then go do something that you find hard, and you will still be following your passion. If you want to be an artist, then follow your passion and paint.

But if you are not making any money at what you're passionate about, you should also get a regular job. This does not mean that you are turning your back to painting; it just means that you need a little help. We all need help sometimes and, for this, there should be no shame.

If your New Year’s resolution is to quit smoking, you have to be passionate about it. You have to feel strongly about quitting otherwise you might not succeed. Although you know it is the right thing to do; but if you cannot find it in yourself to change, there is a big risk that you will always revert back to it.

So passion about the change you want to do is very important. When you want to lose weight, it should not be because a guy dumped you for your weight; although that can be a motivation. But if you do it for somebody else there is a big chance you might also not succeed. What if the next guy likes chubby women; are you going to gain back the weight again?

Do something because you want the change; not because somebody wants it for you. The secret to sticking to a New Year’s resolution all year round is the passion you have for it. The overwhelming desire to be changed and to improve... with emotion this strong you can definitely succeed.

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Stress in general is the reaction of the body by releasing a sudden energy burst which causes hormones to shuffle and this can be draining if it becomes too much. Eustress is giving you a positive effect since it makes you relax and allows you to feel positive such as bungee jumping, going out on your first date with a long time crush or just simply having a quick speedy slide down the ski slope. Anything that can make you feels the rush and makes your adrenaline pump.

Episodic acute stress on the other hand is the type that drains your energy with no positivity in it. Dwelling on an unfortunate event of your life or worrying about unpaid bills is one of them. If you are smart enough how to turn all these negatively causing issues into something that will become beneficial to you, you will be free from the stress that eats you up causing you to become unproductive.

Once you realize how to determine the type of stress you are in, you can easily find ways to remove or at least minimize the effects it will do for you. But in order for you to do that, you need to have a healthy mind to come up with working ideas. Living a healthy life is the key to this. Eating the right kind of food and doing exercise will allow you to live in this state of health.

Remember that the reason why you are in a stressful situation is because you were not able to foresee the events that caused it. If your mind is clear from worries and useless concerns, you will have a backup plan to solve it in case it arises. The smart way to deal with stress is absolutely having a relaxed healthy life. There will be times that you will be affected by it because that is normal, but being resilient is something that you can be. A healthy mind will give you ideas to bounce back and get back on the race again.

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Outsourcing has several advantages to a certain business. First, it helps any business entity save a high amount of money. But how? Well, several companies providing this kind of service can do the work for less money, as they no longer have to offer benefits to their employees and have a small amount of overhead expenses to think about. With this, companies will have a chance to keep everything on the right track, as their funds will be a hundred percent safe and secure. In turn, they can also allocate the funds on the other operational aspects.

Apart from saving money, outsourcing will also lead to reduction of staff problems, better quality control, short system development cycles, expert resources and staffing and enhanced service and performance.

Plus, this will also enable businessmen to buy more time, which in turn will help them to manage their business well. Considering the fact that business operations must be done on a 24/7 basis considering the stiff competition in today’s market, outsourcing plays a significant role. Due to the different time zones, the wisest thing a company could ever do is to outsource its services to companies located in other countries. This way, there would be someone else to perform the operations of the company when the staff is sleeping. See how ideal outsourcing is when it comes to time management? No wonder it is very high in demand in today’s industry.

A businessman who is looking forward to greater productivity must resort to outsourcing. This process will help any kind of business continue its operation on a 24/7 basis. So, why don’t you buy time through outsourcing now?