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Simple Tricks To Appear Smarter In Work Meetings

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While intelligence is useful and important for doing most things in life, it’s not the same as appearing to be smart. Whether on Zoom or in person, how we come across in meeting determines success.  So here are some simple tricks to appear smarter in work meetings.

Appearing smart is a talent that demands a little bit of bluffing and a little bit of confidence. You don’t have to know the answer, you just have to look like you know the answer. This trait is especially useful in work meetings, whether these are held in a professional office or virtually.

Author Sarah Cooper wrote an entire book about this called “100 Tricks To Appear Smart in Meetings”, which provides helpful tricks for when you’re put in the spotlight and aren’t feeling like the smartest person in the room.

Draw a Venn diagram

Who doesn’t love a Venn diagram? These helpful little charts are cute, easy to understand and instantly make you appear a lot smarter. They also help you to draw conclusions, which is kind of their purpose. This trick works if someone asks your opinion, you suggest a Venn diagram, draw it and just watch as your coworkers struggle to land on the most appropriate labels.

Pretend to take notes

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RELATED: Here’s Why Answering Your Boss’s Late Night Email Is Not A Good Idea

Notepads are very helpful nowadays, especially since it makes it obvious that you are, in fact, taking notes and not scrolling through social media. Write down bullet points and key words. This trick, aside from making you look smart, will also help you focus on the task at hand and keep you from thinking about random things.

Ask the speaker or presenter to go back a slide

For some reason, this makes it look like you’re the person who’s paying the most attention out of everyone else in the room. It’s also a perfect opportunity to know what’s actually being discussed. Two birds, one stone.

Repeat what the speaker said

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RELATED: 5 Tips To Help You Get Work Done When You’re Working Remotely

Repetition is a useful tool. It helps you to remember things and also makes you appear like you’re interested. Or that you’re slow, it all really depends on the context. For this technique to work, you have to sell the part, repeating the phrase back to the speaker as a question or as a way of highlighting the fact that what they’ve just said is important.

Be honest and laugh at yourself

If someone asks what you’re thinking and you were just day dreaming about your dog, try to be honest and humorous, explaining that you missed the last question or that you’re very stressed out by the state of the world. At this moment, there’s nothing more sincere and relatable than that.

Hope you enjoy the simple tricks to appear smarter in work meetings, good luck!



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5 Key Things To Check On A CBD Label

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Science and the public have been good to CBD.  It helps with the ever popular issue of sleeping and it can help reduce anxiety.  Discreet, convenient and semi fast acting – it can be a help mate for first dates, stressful family events, or just rough days. The CBD/cannabis Epidiolex has been proven to reduce seizures and is the first cannabis-derived medicine approved by the FDA.  So lots of benefits, but since it is still a bit of a newbie on shelves…you need to be careful of what you buy.  Here are 5 key tags to check on a CBD label.

RELATED: How To Use CBD For A Better Night’s Sleep

Reading product labels is often confusing, overly technical and filled with materials no one understands. Add to the mix the fact CBD is still in FDA limbo, and you need a list like this to point you in the right direction. Here are 5 things to check when reading a CBD label.

Make sure CBD is in on the label and in the product

First thing’s first: make sure there’s actually CBD in your CBD product.  Today’s CBD landscape is filled with products that claim to contain CBD while really containing just hemp oil, or lie about the amount of CBD they contain. Look for either CBD or cannabidiol and be wary of products containing hemp seeds, cannabis sativa, hemp seed oil, etc. Although these ingredients sound weedy, they’re not the same thing as CBD.

 

The FDA's Relationship To CBD Is Confusing Everyone
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Check the dosage and ingredients

Dosage in key in how effective it will be. Be understanding it you time the amount you need then time out when you might want to take it again.  Additionally, look for a full list of ingredients, including the carrier oil used. Check for any potential allergens or additives you want to avoid.

RELATED: 5 Uses For Hemp Besides CBD Oil

Keep an eye out for COA

COAs guarantee the product you’re looking at has been tested by a third party facility that has no relationship to the maker. Their results are unbiased and thus trust worthy. Reputable companies should feature this information on their labels, which should come in the shape of a bar code and should be easily accessed via smartphone. If this isn’t the case, the COA should appear on the product’s website.

Here's How Long It Takes To Feel CBD's Effects
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Look for the CBD oil source

One of the first red flags of fake CBD products is a label that’s vague or doesn’t state where the CBD oil was sourced. CBD can be sourced from cannabis plants or industrial hemp, and most quality products tend to be “full spectrum,” “broad spectrum,” or “CBD isolate.”

Know your cannabis state laws

This is important since CBD label requirements vary by state, with the best labels being from products sold in areas where marijuana is legal. If you’re purchasing a product from out of a legal state, these packages should at least imitate how regulated products look.



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How To Manage Warring Political Conversations

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The presidential campaign is in full swing – but why should it interrupt friend and family gathers…here are the best tips to managing different political perspectives.

With the presidential race heating up and the country seemingly divided, how can you hang with the people you have known who might have a different political perspectives. Patience, grace and planning can make it a bit easier.  Here are some tips on to manage warring political conversations at events.

RELATED: 5 Morning Activities To Help You Feel Happier

First, think and understand people are different than you and rarely do people all have the exact same opinions.  Also think why you are gathering, what is the purpose and is it more about

When it comes to your boundaries, don’t mince words. If you know yourself and feel you won’t be able to engage in a discussion regarding politics without become heated, let other people know that you won’t be talking politics. If you want to have a discussion with someone, try to be the person you’d like to have a discussion with, taking turns to listen and talking while measuring your words and not being insulting.

Plan ahead

If you are organizing an event, think about why you are pulling people together. If it a birthday, to celebrate a happy occasion or a good catch up, think of the guests and how they will interact. Taking the time beforehand and sharing behavior no-nos like yelling, dominating a conversion, snide comments or bullying tactics will not be accepted.  Recognize people are being invited to something enjoyable, not a cage match.

RELATED: 5 Normal Emotions To Feel Ahead Of The Election

State your discomfort

If you’re having a conversation and it starts to get heated, state your discomfort. Try to avoid awkwardness and instead push for being as sincere as you can. Your response will vary depending on the person you’re talking to; if speaking to a coworker, try to change the subject or state that you’re not in the mood for politics. When speaking to friends and family, you can try a more honest approach.

Know when to end a conversation

The more you’re exposed to different kinds of people, the more you learn how to read their physical and verbal cues. Be aware of them, so when the conversation turns heated, change the course. Election eve might be too late to change someone’s mind, especially if they have strong political views. Save yourself the stress and try to preserve that relationship if it’s important to you.

Have an open mind

Photo by Christin Hume via Unsplash

 

It’s always important to have a discussion with an open mind; try to understand why this person thinks the way they do. This doesn’t mean that you have to agree with them, but it can help you have a more civilized conversation, ensuring that the relationship won’t be lost due to the heat of the moment. Empathy can go a long way.

Related: Rough Week, Here’s How To Relax

When it comes to your boundaries, don’t mince words. If you know yourself and feel that you won’t be able to engage in a discussion regarding politics without screaming, let other people know that you won’t be talking politics. If you want to have a discussion with someone, try to be the person that you’d like to have a discussion with, taking turns to listen and talking while measuring your words and not being insulting.



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The Best Activities To Maximize Your Weekend

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Sometimes you have a week of 5 Mondays and it seems a half of Saturday – here are some tips to make the most of your weekend and be ready for the next round of Mondays

Most people work 5 days then have a weekend – for some it is Saturday/Sunday for others it is more flexible. But what should be flexible is going to your mind and body a break so you can head back to work refreshed and energized. The better you are at relaxing and resting, the better you will be at working. Downtime is essential for increasing attention, boosting mood, unlocking creativity, and solving problems. It’s also necessary for improving learning and memory and restoring mental health at work.

A Stanford study demonstrates that over working has clear limitations, with employees showing a sharp decline in productivity when they clocked in more than 50 hours per week. People in the study who worked more than 70 hours per week managed to get the same amount of work done than people who worked 55 hours per week. Where does all of that time go?

RELATED: 5 Simple Tips To Increase Your Productivity

Studies like these highlight how important is to have time for yourself, where you can reflect, think, rest and do things that bring you pleasure. Downtime can significantly improve mental and physical health and personal relationships. One study, for example, found employees who unplugged and took time off reduced serious health issues like coronary heart disease.

Disconnect from work

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It’s important to remove yourself from work over the weekend, digitally and physically, so that you feel that you had some days off and were able to rest. This is easier said than done, especially if you need to get work done over the weekend. What you can do is make a weekend work schedule that allows you to check emails and make calls without the time you’d spend doing other more pleasant things.

Minimize your chores

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Chores tend to pile up over the week, resulting in weekends where all you manage to do is clean up and fix stuff around your apartment. To avoid this, try scheduling your chores throughout the week, making them a part of your day to day routine and giving you more time to relax over the weekend.  Laundry can be done in small amount rather than a chunk of a Saturday afternoon.

Work out

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Finding the time to exercise is taxing, especially on week days where you have to work and get other things done. Weekends are perfect for clocking in your workouts, giving you tons of time of fit in exercises that feel motivational and much less like chores.

Do something you’re passionate about

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Find time to do something you enjoy, be that drawing, writing, reading, or something else that makes you think and also makes you happy. By doing this activity on the weekend you’ll reap even more benefits because you’ll feel like you’re actually doing something instead of passing the time.

Try to wake up at the same time

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RELATED: 5 Products That Can Help Boost Your Productivity

This is kind of hard but it works if you’re the type of person who has a hard time easing yourself back into the week. Inconsistent wake up times over the weekend disturb your circadian rhythms, resulting in you feeling very tired and groggy despite the fact that you slept more than you do regularly. This uncomfortable feeling can also seep into your Mondays and throw the rest of your week off balance.

Use your mornings as your “me time”

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Your mind achieves peak performance two to four hours after you wake up, resulting in really gratifying morning activities where you’ll get to have better workouts and enjoy whatever it is that you’re doing.

Prepare for the week

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By planning some of your work ahead of time, your weeks will be much more productive. You’ll  skip the entire “set up” stage of your Mondays, jumping right into your work and making your week feel much more pleasant and easy going.

Resting during the weekend gives your body and mind a chance to recharge and recover from the stresses of the week. This can help you feel more energized and productive when you return to work on Monday. When you’re tired and overworked, it’s easy to become irritable and short-tempered but fully rested improves your mood and outlook.



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