Whether you agree with the President and the Congress or not, you probably have a check coming soon. Retailers and “W” want you to spend it to stimulate the economy. However, I would contend that too much spending ( and too much house and too much car and too much STUFF! ) is what got us in trouble recently. So the money gurus are recommending that you PAY DOWN DEBT! Do a debt snowball and pay off your smallest balance credit card if you can and start working on the next one. If you do not have credit card debt, then put it in savings and work at getting your emergency fund going, if you have not already done so. If you do not need the rebate at all, give it to your church or other deserving charity and help others. Please, think carefully before you act. So, what are YOU going to do with your rebate check?

My friend Donna Robinson has written a great OP-ED on the mortgage bailout. http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/12212007_Mortgage_Rate_Freeze.asp

So you got your new iPod or you may have already owned one for awhile. After you imported all your CD’s and favorite tunes and spent some big bucks on iTunes, you might want to increase the return on your investment with these 7 tips.

1 Safety copy for your pictures - Protect those memories!

It can never hurt to have a spare copy of your photos. When people run into a burning house or asked what they would carry out the answer is always “my pictures”. Here’s a way to carry your back up wherever you go.

Set your iPod for disk use my checking the “Enable Disk Use” box on the Summary Tab in iTunes. Click on the Photos Tab and click on the “Sync Photos from:” box and browse to your “My Pictures” folder or wherever you store your photos. Click the “Include Full Resolution Photos” box at the bottom of the page. Go ahead and sync now by right clicking on your iPod under “Devices”. You now have a great digital photo album of your pictures and can share with family and friends - wherever you go!.

Tip - buy the A/V cable for your iPod so you can run a sideshow over any TV with A/V inputs.

2 Missed church? download the sermon!
Podcasts are now available from many sources - one of which may be your local church. Go to iTunes and search under Podcasts for your church’s podcast. Subscribe and never miss a great message! If you are a serious “sermon note take” it is good to have the audio to review.

3 Go to school on your iPod
In iTunes, check out “iTunes U”. This service is a partnership with universities and colleges to provide the traditional student with a non-traditional source of educational material. This is a wonderful of example of technology and the times meeting at a sweet spot.

4 Podcasts
There are podcasts on every imaginable subject and from every imaginable source. Finances and investing, religion and philosophy, managing and leading, sales and marketing. You can start with iTunes and search by subject or Google for podcasts on your interests. It is astounding how much great content is out there - and most of it is free!

5 Sync your contacts and calendar from Microsoft Outlook
You can sync your busy schedule with your iPod. From iTunes, click on the “Contacts” tab and click the “Sync calendars from Microsoft Outlook” box. You can choose “All Calendars” or select just the one from your personal folders file.

If you want your contacts information handy click on the “Sync contacts from:” box and choose either your Microsoft Outlooks contacts folder or the Windows Address Book.

6 User your iPod as a back up drive
When you enable disk use, you can use your iPod as a portable drive just like any other USB flash drive.

7 Turn your iPod into a voice recorder
Using a couple of inexpensive devices, the iPod makes a great voice recorder. Take a look at the Belkin F8E462 Voice Recorder or the Griffin iTalk devices. These gadgets add value to your iPod by enabling you to record voice. Both of these have a small speaker built in, so you can use that to play back audio books and even take advantage of the alarm feature when traveling.

Oh, yeah, it plays music, too!
After you have exhausted all of these uses, you might want to relax to some music. I’ve heard the iPod is a great music player, too. If you have a suggestion on another use for an iPod, let us know!

I was working out this morning in the gym at work listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Jay and Sterling’s “Internet Business Mastery” when much to my surprise, they read the review I had left on iTunes!

It was an interesting feeling - though I realize my “handle” was not really MY NAME!

However, I knew who it was! It reminded of my teenage days when I called the local Top 40 radio station to make a request and got put on the air. This is just more evidence that the podcast is the new media radio of today.

You know, there might be something to this “social networking” thing….

Years ago I was working a retail job and realized that a philosophy degree was probably NOT going to get me into a position with a decent salary. So, I went to the library (pre-internet days!) and researched career paths. I looked at the growing fields at the time - two standouts were (and STILL ARE) technology and healthcare. Having fainted once at the sight of blood, I figured technology was the way to go.

At the time, the Novell CNE certification was a hot ticket so I did some informational interviews and set out to get certified. About the time I was finishing up my classes and self-study courses for my certification, the retail company I was working for “downsized” me out the door. After the shock wore off (10 or 15 minutes later) I called the training center and booked the final course I needed to complete my CNE. Over the course of three weeks, I took the class, passed the test and found a new job by networking like crazy. Certification and credentials helped land that job.

Flash forward a decade ….

NOW I am going through a similar process, except my classroom is a seminar and my teachers lecture on my iPod.
The library is on the bookshelves behind me and research is now a google away. My informational interviews are emails, comments on blogs and IM.

What a difference! Hey, but guess what?

IT IS STILL HARD WORK TO START SOMETHING NEW!

Get over it! Be determined to pursue constant and continual life-long education like a hound dog on a fresh trail. Remember: It is no longer “Education is the key”. Instead, how about: “Education is the keyboard?”

“and the internet”
“and the podcast”
“and the seminars”
“and………………..”

Please share with the class: HOW and WHERE are you getting your career training these days?

As I have researched material around the web, I “stumbled upon” many of the “Life Hacks” sites.

Danny O’Brien coined the phrase and this interview gives a good history of this buzz word (from Lifehacker.com).

Wikipedia says “The term life hack refers to productivity tricks that programmers devise and employ to cut through information overload and organize their data.”

I see the term as evolving to include any and all tips on streamlining and shortcutting through the clutter of our current constantly connected culture.

Do YOU have any tips and tricks to share?