APP SPECIAL ...............WORK SMARTER WITH WEB APPS

WORK SMARTER WITH WEB APPS   Believe it or not, but there are some superb productivity tools on the internet that you probably didn't know you needed. Savio D'Souza and Ashutosh Desai tell you about `free' web apps that will help you save time at work, streamline basic tasks, collaborate better with colleagues, and even create professional multimedia presentations in a jiffy... TAKE FIVE Do you spend too much time checking your Gmail, Twitter feed and Facebook page every morning? Take Five is a tool that allows you to create a `self-destructing' browser tab. Go to the website, specify the number of minutes for your browsing  activity , and click on the `Set the timer' button. Take Five opens a new time-bound tab. Here you can read your e-mails, watch YouTube videos or whatever else you choose.When your time is up, the browser window closes, letting you get back to the work at hand. Take Five is also an ideal tool for those times when you want to give yourself a short break between work. http:www.takeafive.com HEMINGWAY APP If you have to regularly write official letters, e-mails, project reports, or even  if you are in the business of writing, then you need to ensure that your copy  is simple to read and easy to understand. Well, Hemingway App to the rescue. This web resource is named after Ernest Hemingway who is known for his minimalist writing style that got straight to the point.  Type in the space provided on the website or paste the text you have written. The service marks adverbs, passive voice, wordy sentences, and dull,  complicated words. Follow the suggestions onscreen and see it do wonders  for the readability of your copy  .http:www.hemingwayapp.com HACK CHAT If you're working with a team that's spread over a large physical distance, you can try using Hack Chat for an impromptu conference. Creating a chat  room does not require any sign-in, registration, or the download of any software.All you need to do is type https:hack.chat?your-channel in your  browser, where `your-channel' is the name you want to give to your room. Then share the link with your colleagues so that they can join. Hack Chat works wonderfully for private discussions between as many users as you choose ­ and is ideal for group discussions and quick daily planning meets.hack.chat APPEAR Hack Chat is good for no-nonsense text chats. But if you need to host a quick video conference with colleagues, then try Appear. Just open a web browser (Chrome, , or Safari) on a device that has a webcam or front camera, create a chat room by entering a name into the provided box and invite users to  this room. There is no need to register, the connection is secure and you  can have up to eight chatters in a group at no cost at all.appear.in FILE PIZZA Need to share a huge file immediately with someone? Try File Pizza. Just upload a file to this website ­ no registration required ­ and File Pizza will generate a shortened URL. Copy this web link and share it  with friends and colleagues. Recipients get access to the file as long as the sender's browser tab remains open. Chrome allows uploads of up to 500MB while Firefox does not pose any restrictions on file size. The documents are not saved on File Pizza's servers and data transfers are carried out over a secure connection. All those using the same link can see the number of connected peers. As soon as the original browser tab is closed, nobody will be able to download the file again.File.Pizza SWAY Sway lets you create interactive reports and presentations, which you can directly share on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and even embed  into websites. You will, however, require a Microsoft account to sign in. Browse through Sway's tutorial and examples on the site and you will be  able to create interactive presentations in no time, complete with videos  from your YouTube account, posts from Twitter, images from Flickr, PicHit and more. Sway also suggests searches to help you find images, videos, et al that you can then drag and drop right into your creation. Create a narrative, add the multimedia you want and Sway's built-in design engine does the rest. If you're not satisfied with the first design it pops out,  hit its “Remix!“ button for more alternatives. The best part: When your presentation is played back, Sway recognizes the device, whether tablet, phone or desktop, and adjusts the layout accordingly . sway.com TEAMREPORTER If you manage a team, you will probably need to prepare daily progress reports. But group huddles and meetings for status updates can be time consuming. Teamreporter automates this chore with e-mail reminders. The free plan lets you create a team of up to four members. After you register with the service, you can set three questions for each member  of your team (for instance, “What did you accomplish today?, What will you do tomorrow?, What obstacles are slowing your progress?“). Your team's answers are then sent back to you by e-mail at a time you specify . Now, all you have to do is collate the replies into a status report. It's as simple as that. Over time, you can also visit the website to see all the  status reports listed one below the other. http:www.teamreporterapp.com GLURU Gluru is a service that gives you a daily summary of scheduled events,  meetings and e-mails that need your attention. Just sign in with your Google  account and Gluru will create an index of your e-mails, calendar events, and most recently accessed files in your Google Drive account. The more you use Gluru, the smarter it gets in recognizing important events and correspondence for you. The result is a “daily digest“ which lists e-mails that need to be dealt with on that day . A search bar lets you do a keyword search to look for files and events stored in Google Drive and Calendar. Click on the lightning bolt symbol and  Gluru will list the e-mails and documents you have been working on recently .  Double click on them and Gluru will open the e-mail or document in a new tab. It can also connect to your Box, OneDrive and Evernote accounts to give you an all-round view of important notes and files that may need your attention. What's more, there's an Android app that lets you access all of this data on the  smartphone.gluru.co NEED TO MEET Here's a hassle-free way to setting up a meeting with a group of people without making phone calls or e-mailing everybody individually .  In Need to Meet, enter meeting details like agenda, duration, location, and mark your available dates and time. Add the e-mail addresses of the folk you want to meet and send the request. Recipients do not need to register for this service. They just need to visit the calendar you created and select the times that work for them. You can view your calendar to see the common time  slots chosen by everybody and accordingly fix on the final time. You can create multiple events for free without registering with Need to Meet, but you get greater control over your calendars if you set up an account. And if you are coordinating with people from different time zones, the service will automatically adjust the meeting timings to their local time. http:www.needtomeet.com TOI 24OCT15 

BOOK SPECIAL.................... 10 Great Books All Leaders Should Read

10 Great Books All Leaders Should Read 

It's said that every good leader is a reader. With that in mind, here are 10 new books that will help you step up how you show up as a leader. This list includes wisdom about well-being, culture, human-centered leadership, being a values-based leader, and even why we work.

1. Everybody Matters (Portfolio/Penguin) by Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia

Bob Chapman, chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, teams up with the phenomenal author Raj Sisodia to deliver a compelling book about why businesses need to have a people-centric way of doing business to thrive in the 21st century. While businesses need to make a profit, it doesn't have to be at the expense of its people. Chapman is best positioned to deliver this method; he's successfully brought to life truly human leadership in his highly successful company.

2. Leadership BS (Harper) by Jeffrey Pfeffer

Jeffrey Pfeffer proclaims in this new book that "much of the oft-repeated conventional wisdom about leadership is based more on hope than reality, on wishes rather than data, on beliefs instead of science." In this enlightening book, Pfeffer shifts the conversation about leadership away from drivel to insights that can help shift your behaviors to effectively produce results. If you're tired of hearing sentiments without facts like "We need authentic leaders" or "Leaders need to build trust," then Pfeffer's book is a must read.

3. Disrupt Yourself (Bibliomotion) by Whitney Johnson

Whitney Johnson is a rising star in the space of leadership thinking. Her message of disruption helped her career as an equity analyst, making her one of the best in her field. Johnson now shifts disruption to human behavior, and she does so effectively in her new book. If you want to be the best in unexpected ways, then read this, take notes, and apply your insights in heaping amounts.

4. Contagious Culture (McGraw Hill) by Anese Cavanaugh

Leaders who are effective understand how their presence influences others. If you want to create a contagious culture greatly shaped by how you show up as a leader, then you need to read Anese Cavanaugh's first book. It's rich with insights to help you do the personal work to become your best.
 

5. Why We Work (TED Books) by Barry Schwartz

We don't work merely for a paycheck. There's a richness in answers to the question "Why do you work?" And Barry Schwartz delivers a powerful message in this short book exploring why we as humans spend so much time working. I found myself taking lots of notes and underlining many passages in this book.
 

6. Weology (Harper Collins) by Peter Aceto with Justin Kingsley

Peter Aceto is the CEO of Tangerine Bank in Canada. I've know Peter for several years and have greatly admired his ability to create one of the top places to work. He brings his passion for leadership and compassion for people together in his first book. The message is deeply human. The insights are business-relevant. This is a book for all who want to unite people and business for mutually beneficial outcomes--for the company's employees and the bottom line.

7. Beyond Happy: Women, Work, and Well-Being (ATD) by Beth Cabrera

Beth Cabrera delivers a meaningful reading experience in her new book. What makes it meaningful is that the message isn't pie-in-the-sky drivel about well-being. It's rooted in social science research that helps make sense of human behavior. While this book is written with women in mind, I found much of the insights and actions relevant to men, too. If you want to develop a richer sense of well-being in your work, then read this. I'd say everyone needs to pick up this book and devour its message.

8. The Silo Effect (Simon & Schuster) by Gillian Tett

There's little that's more infuriating in work than the stifling impact of silos on progress and breakout thinking. In Gillian Tett's latest book, she not only examines the negative impacts of silos but explores how to scale them and render silos useless. This is a must-read in today's bureaucratic, hierarchy-rich organizations that rely on tradition rather than progress to remain relevant.

9. Life Is Good: How to Live With Purpose and Enjoy the Ride(National Geographic) by Bert and John Jacobs

I'm a sucker for books about purpose. Without purpose, life, which includes work, is aimless. People wonder without intent when purpose is absent. The founders, and brothers, of Life Is Good give us a thoughtful and passionate exploration of purpose and its role in our life. The book is beautifully designed, adding to the reading experience.

10. Becoming the Best (Wiley) by Harry M. Jansen Kraemer Jr.

In his follow-up to From Values to Action, Harry M. Jansen Kraemer dives deeply into the role values play in organizations. Going beyond the obvious insights, Kraemer really helps leaders understand how to build a values-based organization. We need more of this in light of the corporate scandals that have become ubiquitous in today's 24-hour news cycle.

BY SHAWN MURPHY

WWW.INC.COM

CHINA / INNOVATION SPECIAL ..............Gauging the strength of Chinese innovation

Gauging the strength of Chinese innovation

The events of 2015 have shown that China is passing through a challenging transition: the labor-force expansion and surging investment that propelled three decades of growth are now weakening. This is a natural stage in the country’s economic development. Yet it raises questions such as how drastically the expansion of GDP will slow down and whether the country can tap new sources of growth.

New research by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) suggests that to realize consensus growth forecasts—5.5 to 6.5 percent a year—during the coming decade, China must generate two to three percentage points of annual GDP growth through innovation, broadly defined. If it does, innovation could contribute much of the $3 trillion to $5 trillion a year to GDP by 2025. China will have evolved from an “innovation sponge,” absorbing and adapting existing technology and knowledge from around the world, into a global innovation leader. Our analysis suggests that this transformation is possible, though far from inevitable.

To date, when we have evaluated how well Chinese companies commercialize new ideas and use them to raise market share and profits and to compete around the world, the picture has been decidedly mixed. China has become a strong innovator in areas such as consumer electronics and construction equipment. Yet in others—creating new drugs or designing automobile engines, for example—the country still isn’t globally competitive. That’s true even though every year it spends more than $200 billion on research (second only to the United States), turns out close to 30,000 PhDs in science and engineering, and leads the world in patent applications (more than 820,000 in 2013).

When we look ahead, though, we see broad swaths of opportunity. Our analysis suggests that by 2025, such new innovation opportunities could contribute $1.0 trillion to $2.2 trillion a year to the Chinese economy—or equivalent to up to 24 percent of total GDP growth. To achieve this goal, China must continue to transform the manufacturing sector, particularly through digitization, and the service sector, through rising connectivity and Internet enablement. Additional productivity gains would come from progress in science- and engineering-based innovation and improvements in the operations of companies as they adopt modern business methods.

To develop a clearer view of this potential, we identified four innovation archetypes: customer focused, efficiency driven, engineering based, and science based. We then compared the actual global revenues of individual industries with what we would expect them to generate given China’s share of global GDP (12 percent in 2013). As the exhibit shows, Chinese companies that rely on customer-focused and efficiency-driven innovation—in industries such as household appliances, Internet software and services, solar panels, and construction machinery—perform relatively well.

However, Chinese companies are not yet global leaders in any of the science-based industries (such as branded pharmaceuticals) that we analyzed. In engineering-based industries, the results are inconsistent: China excels in high-speed trains but gets less than its GDP-based share from auto manufacturing. In this article, we’ll describe the state of play and the outlook in these four categories, starting with the two outperformers.

1. Customer-focused innovation: The Chinese commercialization machine

China benefits from the sheer size of its consumer market, which helps companies to commercialize new ideas quickly and on a large scale; even a relatively small market like online gaming is bigger than the auto industry in Turkey or Thailand. Chinese companies have learned how to read the requirements of their rapidly urbanizing country and to scale up new products and services quickly to meet them.

Manufacturers of appliances and other household goods dominated the first wave of customer-focused innovators in China. Their innovations were “good enough” products such as refrigerators and TV sets. But these offerings no longer suffice to gain a growing share of consumers. Companies like smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi are responding with cheaper and better products designed to offer hardware features as good as those from global brands but priced for the Chinese market. Like other customer-focused innovators in China, Xiaomi also uses the massive consumer market as a collaborator, rapidly refining its offerings through online feedback. Internet service providers are another hotbed of customer-focused innovation. Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent have become global leaders in online services, largely thanks to their success in the enormous Chinese market.

Customer-focused innovation could reshape large swaths of China’s service sector, where productivity lags behind that of its counterparts in developed economies. The government already is pushing to modernize traditional businesses through its Internet Plus initiative, announced in early 2015. Innovations are needed to expand access to services (for example, remotely monitoring the health of rural patients), to improve the quality of offerings (greater choice and customization in financial and educational products), and to optimize operations (crowd-sourced logistics). Chinese companies will also have opportunities to use their skills in customer-focused innovation to take a lead in selling to other emerging markets.

2. Efficiency-driven innovation: The ecosystem advantage

In manufacturing, China’s extensive ecosystem has provided an unmatched environment for efficiency-driven innovation. The country has the world’s largest and most highly concentrated supplier base, a massive manufacturing workforce, and a modern logistics infrastructure. These advantages give Chinese manufacturers a lead in some important knowledge-based manufacturing categories, such as electrical equipment, construction equipment, and solar panels.

Today, Chinese companies improve their efficiency with a variety of cutting-edge approaches, including agile manufacturing, modular design, and flexible automation. The apparel manufacturer Everstar, for example, uses automated equipment and online design and e-commerce systems that help consumers to customize designs for clothing and receive finished goods within 72 hours. China is also pioneering the use of open manufacturing platforms.

The challenges are mounting, however. As wages rise, the country becomes less competitive for the most labor-intensive work. At the same time, a worldwide transition is under way toward a new kind of manufacturing, sometimes called Industry 4.0: a much more intense digital linkage of manufacturing components, processes, and logistics. As a result, Chinese companies will face pressure to improve their performance in utilizing assets, matching supply with demand, and controlling quality. Success will depend on how well China can exploit the scale of today’s manufacturing ecosystems and clusters to extend their benefits beyond individual factories through digitally linked networks.

Some efforts are under way to mobilize rapid, flexible manufacturing. In Guangdong province, for example, manufacturers have set up joint platforms to share the benefits of R&D and operations among companies in the same clusters. Elsewhere, companies are looking at ways to mass-customize products by combining flexible manufacturing with the aggregation of a huge Internet consumer base. New manufacturing gains may also emerge from the aggressive use of robots, which could make China’s huge pool of semiskilled factory workers more effective.

Entrepreneurs are poised to play a bigger role. In Shenzhen, a rich ecosystem of component suppliers, design services, business incubators, and outsourced assembly capacity has helped start-ups prototype products and scale up global manufacturing businesses quickly.

3. Engineering-based innovation in ‘learning industries’

China has had mixed success with engineering-based innovation. The best performers are found in Chinese markets where motivated domestic industries are nurtured by national and local governments that create local demand, push for innovation, and facilitate the transfer of knowledge from foreign players. China has used this formula successfully in high-speed rail (Chinese companies have a 41 percent share of the global railroad-equipment revenues, according to McKinsey estimates), wind power, and telecommunications equipment.

In 2008, the Ministry of Railways launched a major program to develop a new generation of high-speed trains—a top-down, nationwide effort that has been China’s equivalent of the Apollo space program in scale and complexity. We estimate that the country has accounted for 86 percent of global growth in this market since then. Using technology transfers from overseas partners as a knowledge base, Chinese companies tailor their offerings to local requirements, such as terrain and temperature conditions, through incremental innovation.

Learning and innovation have been slower to come in automotive manufacturing. To date, most domestic Chinese carmakers have relied on platforms from their global partners or on designs from outside firms to bring products to market quickly. Thanks to exploding domestic demand and strong profit streams from joint ventures, they have felt little pressure to innovate.

Deregulation, a rapid increase in China’s base of engineering talent, and continued high levels of government investment promise to make engineering-based companies more motivated and effective innovators in the future. In some sectors, such as nuclear power, explicit state support will continue to be critical. China has an ambitious government plan to build nuclear plants resulting in a total installed capacity of 58 gigawatts by 2020, which can support its goal of obtaining 20 percent of its energy from non–fossil fuel sources by 2030.

In other industries, such as medical equipment, the private sector will drive innovation. Mindray, United Imaging Healthcare, and other smaller new Chinese players will continue to make inroads in market categories (for instance, CT scanners and MRI machines) that foreign suppliers now dominate. Government programs to subsidize purchases of Chinese-made equipment by the country’s hospitals are providing a boost even as a new generation of medical entrepreneurs draws from global knowledge and partnerships.

4. Science-based innovation: Novel Chinese approaches

A massive government push to raise R&D spending, train more scientists, and file more patents has yet to give China a lead in science-based innovation. The slow progress has a number of explanations—not least that this type of work takes a long time to pay off and requires an effective regulator to protect intellectual property. Huge investments by government and the private sector to shepherd projects from the lab to commercial deployment are needed, as well. What’s more, despite the large number of Chinese students trained in scientific and technical fields, companies struggle to find capable talent.

The government is addressing some of these obstacles. For example, recently launched reforms to the drug-review process could reduce the time to get a new drug to patients by two or more years. Efforts such as the Thousand Talents program bring overseas Chinese to the country to launch their own companies and work in scientific organizations and universities.

Even as these reforms play out, Chinese innovators are adopting novel approaches—for instance, using the country’s massive market size and huge pool of low-cost researchers to industrialize and speed up experimentation and data collection. One such innovator, BeiGene, gained ground in the biotech industry by developing drugs to treat cancers and other diseases. The company has accelerated the drug-discovery process by deploying a large-scale drug-testing team, testing compounds on human tissue (such as cancerous tumor samples) during the preclinical phase to get early indications of issues that might arise in human testing, and capitalizing on access to China’s large pool of patients. In genomics research, another company, BGI, is deploying massive scale (2,000 PhDs and more than 200 gene-sequencing machines) to power its way through biotech problems.

The extent and speed of China’s advances in innovation will have significant implications for the country’s growth and competitiveness and for the types of jobs, products, and services available to the Chinese people. They will also have powerful consequences for multinationals (competing at home and abroad with Chinese companies), some of which are now using China as an R&D base for global innovation. Fortunately, that isn’t a zero-sum game: a more innovative China ought to be good for a global economy that seeks new sources of growth.

byErik Roth, Jeongmin Seong, and Jonathan Woetzel

This McKinsey Quarterly article is based on the new McKinsey Global Institute report The China effect on global innovation.

PERSONAL /ROUTINE SPECIAL................. 5 Steps to a Better Morning Routine

5 Steps to a Better Morning Routine

Routines are described as sets of behaviors that are regularly repeated, usually in the same time and place. They're steeped in habit, vigorously reiterated throughout the course of our lives. Most of our routines have been part of our daily rituals for years, if not decades.

The quality of our lives is very much derived from the same routines that we repeat daily. But of all the routines that we might posses, it's our morning routines that are quite possibly the most important. What we do in the morning helps to set the pace for the day.

And, while we would all love to have empowering morning routines that might include 30-minutes of exercise, eating a healthy breakfast, and writing out our gratitudes, it clearly doesn't always work out that way.

In fact, most of our routines at the outset of the day can't be described as empowering; they can only be labeled as chaotic. Because usually, it's a frantic rush to get ready for the day, multi-tasking our way out the door.

Sound familiar?

If you have children, then your morning routine is probably even more jam-packed. It likely involves getting the kids ready for school, making them breakfast, and ensuring they have a healthy lunch packed. Usually, this leaves little time for much else.

Yet, the mornings are the single most important part of the day. What we do in the morning helps to shape the trajectory of our lives, defines our priorities, and helps determine our likeliness to achieve our goals. Small wins and a little bit of momentum in the morning can push us a long way.

But if you feel frustrated with your morning routine, and are filled with a general sense of anxiety, fear and stress when you leave the house, then it's time to make a change. These five steps to a better morning routine will help to drastically improve our lives.

Step #1 -- Get Organized

When chaos ensues in the morning, it's usually because we lack organization. When we're organized, we can leave room for personal development. But, when we lack organization, just the opposite happens.

Yet, getting organized is easier said than done. Often, it involves a complete overhaul of our homes and our schedules. However, if you've heard the saying, "clean house, clear mind," then you know just how true this is.

Recent studies have even confirmed that clutter creates chaos. Researchers at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute determined that clutter prevents the mind from focusing properly, and usually ends in frustration. When we're frustrated, we often opt for silent resignation, allowing things to control us rather than tackling them offensively.

Specifically, they stated the following: "Multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time compete for neural representation by mutually suppressing their evoked activity throughout visual cortex, providing a neural correlate for the limited processing capacity of the visual system."

Start by organizing your home one section at a time so you don't feel overwhelmed. Pick a drawer and organize it, or pick a small space such as your cupboard and organize that. Go out and buy a cork board you can pin items to or even a chalk board you can write on. When you can visually see the things that need to get done, it's far easier to follow through.

By organizing small spaces, one at a time, we don't feel overwhelmed and we build momentum, slowing gaining more confidence.

Step #2 -- Manage Your Time

Time management is a skill that some might even call an art form. But if you're juggling multiple responsibilities all at once with little room for "me time," then you need an effective time management system.

The most popular one is the Quadrant System, initially introduced by President Dwight D. Eisenhower but later popularized by Stephen R. Covey in his book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People."

The system categorizes all of our activities based on two factors: urgency and importance. Things are either (1) both urgent and important (short term crises and problems), (2) not urgent but important (long-term goals), (3) urgent but not important (distractions or interruptions), or (4) not urgent and not important (time-wasters).

Take one week to audit your time. Jot down every activity you do in the day and next to it write the quadrant it's associated with and circle it. How much time did you spend on things that could have been avoided (quadrant 3)? How about on your long-term goals (quadrant 2)? And, how much time did you waste with quadrant 4 activities?

This should give you a strong sense on where your time is going, and allow you to better manage the little amount of time that you do have. By better managing your time, you can remove some stress and anxiety, and better prepare for an empowering morning routine at the start of your day.

Step #3 -- Wake Up Early

It goes without saying that in order to develop a better morning routine, you need to wake up early. Simply crawling out of bed at the last minute won't cut it. You need to train your body and your mind to wake up early.

How early? That's entirely up to you. But you should leave yourself with at least one hour of quiet time before things get hectic. Don't know how you'll manage to wake up at least one hour earlier? Try starting with 10 minute increments.

For example, you could set your alarm clock 10 minutes back for the first three days, then another 10 minutes the next three days, and so on. Habits build slowly over time. And if you want to instill the habit of waking up earlier, you might not want to do too much too fast.

If you increment slowly by waking up earlier by 10 minutes each time, you can rewire the neural pathways in your mind over time. Even if you're not a morning person, this process will still work for you.

Think about strengthening the tension on a guitar or piano string. By doing too much too fast, the string can snap. But, if it's slowly tightened little by little, that tensions sets in, making the string slowly adapt. And the mind works very much in a similar way.

Step #4 -- Set Goals

If you've set some goals in your life, then waking up early should become a priority. But you can't just set goals in your mind; they need to be written out before you. The act of actually writing out your goals makes a significant difference in your ability to achieve them.

Set goals that are specific, measurable, and time-based. Come up with some strong enough reasons on why you must achieve those goals. As long as your reasons are profound enough, you'll do what it takes to follow through.

Building your empowering morning routine, then, should involve tackling things that can help to advance those goals forward, also known as quadrant 2 activities when it comes to effective time management.

As long as you can organize your space and manage your time, you'll leave room to work on the things that will matter most to you in life. Strong goals will help inspire you to move forward and slowly build momentum over time.

Step #5 -- Focus on Health Wellness

Your morning routine should also be focused on health and wellness. You need to ensure that you're targeting a sound mind, body, and spirit. There should be an exercise component involved, no matter how small it might be. Even 10 minutes of brisk walking is enough to develop the deeper habit of more strenuous exercise over time.

Another component of your morning routine should involve gratitude. Find everything you can be grateful for in your life, and write it down in the morning. Have nothing to be grateful for? There's always plenty to be thankful for when we truly search.

The act of writing out our gratitudes for even 5 minutes in the morning helps to shift our focus from what we don't have to what we do have. That move from a state of lack to a state of abundance translates into everything that we do because our thoughts are that powerful.

Other things like eating a healthy breakfast, meditating for 15 minutes, and creating a massive action plan for the day should take center stage. But none of this can be done without waking up early, and in part ensuring that you get enough sleep.

Building an empowering morning routine doesn't happen overnight. But, over time, with the insertion of small changes, it does evolve into something wonderful. The biggest hurdle is not to allow bad habits to creep back in and to revert back to our old ways.

R.L. Adams  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rl-adams/top-5-ways-to-improve-you_b_8278346.html?ir=Healthy%20Living?ncid=newsltushpmg00000003

GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL..................Phones vs Cameras

GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL Phones vs Cameras   The best camera is the one you have with you -it's a famous quote. Deciding between carrying a smartphone or a digital camera is a question that has always confused photo enthusiasts. What's Better For Everyday Photos?’ Digital Camera Advantages Optics & Sensor Size Even an entry level digital camera has 5X optical zoom -more expensive ones can go up to 30X. While there have been a few attempts at phones with optical zoom (Samsung S4 Zoom, Samsung K Zoom), they haven't caught on since this makes a phone bulky. In addition, smartphone sensors are way smaller than digital cameras -his affects overall image quality. Quick access Hardware Controls Some smartphones offer pro-level settings like ISO, exposure and shutter speed. But unlike a digital camera, there are no one-touch, quick access buttons on a smartphone to adjust these settings.Each time you want to change something, you'll be fiddling through menus on the touchscreen. Macro Shots Smartphone cameras have come a long way when it comes to capturing macro photos -some even offer a dedicated macro mode. Irrespective, a digital camera fares better at macro -even the midrange camera models are capable of focusing as close as 5cm. Plus a physical aperture allows for a more natural shallow depth of field that gives a better overall macro effect. Battery Life For still images, battery life is not much of an issue. However, when it comes to video, a smartphone's battery drains much quicker. Digital cameras fare better -many can record up to two hours of video on a single charge. Low Light Photography Even the best camera phones can't match a digital camera when it comes to low-light photography.It all boils down to sensor size -larger sensors capture more light. There's no getting around physics! Digital cameras offer higher ISO range which also helps in capturing low light images. Powerful Flash Most smartphones have a tiny LED flash. Compared to that, a digital camera has a xenon flash which is many times brighter and has a better range. Smartphone Advantages Faster Editing Digital cameras offer basic editing options for a photo but for advanced effects you will have to transfer the photo to a computer and use image editing software. On a smartphone, there are apps that offer quick photo editing. Easy Sharing and Backup Again, with digital cameras, you have to first ransfer photos to a computer or to a smartphonetablet to share them on social media. With smartphones, you can instantly share via mail, social media or chat software -using your phones' data connection. Photos can also be auto-uploaded to a cloud service for backup. Better Display Smartphone screen sizes have been steadily increasing: 5.2-inches and above is common now.This makes a phone more convenient to view, share and edit photos. In-addition, the touchscreen of the phone makes it easy to zoom-in or rotate photographs for better view. Convenience Your smartphone is always with you -it's just more convenient to use it for photos. With a digital camera, you need to typically carry it in a bag. When a photo opportunity suddenly appears, your smartphone will be a lot faster than any digital camera. Easier Selfies No matter how bad the front camera on a smartphone is, people still want to take more selfies.You just bring out your phone, start the front camera,  view a live preview of the image and tap to take a selfie. Most digital camera don't support selfies -you will have to make random attempts to  take a selfie as you can't see a preview. Some cameras have tilting or flip out screens that will offer a selfie preview, but you'll realise that using phones for selfies is a lot easier.

Karan Bajaj ET21OCT15