Ali Bytes: Bullet-sized strategies for modern living

I can hardly believe it’s June already. Can you? In case you missed any, here are my favorite lists from May. What did you like (or not…besides that I sometimes fell painfully behind)?

1. 8 ways to boost your productivity
2. 7 issues critical to moms (and families)
3. 3 challenges shaping the future of online marketing
4. 5 lessons about consumer behavior
5. 6 reasons to give boxed wine a try
6. 4 marriage rights most gay people don’t have
7. 12 insightful pieces of advice
8. 5 engaging TED talks

In many instances (probably too many) your credit score can determine your entire human worth to parties who can access it including lenders, landlords, employers and utility companies. Here are many of the factors that impact your credit so pay attention to these, particularly if you’re looking to acquire property any time soon.

1. Make payments on time. Avoid delinquencies, late or missed payments, of credit cards, utility bills, rent, etc.
2. Keep a good mix of credit accounts and loans on your report. These can be in the form of a mortgage, different types of credit cards, student loans, etc.
3. Build a history of active accounts: While you shouldn’t open too many cards, opening a handful and using them sparingly makes credit available to you and increases your score.
4. Avoid having a large number of credit inquiries on your account as they send a message that you’re overextending yourself. So choose carefully when you are offered an extra 20% of at Home Depot or Banana Republic. Do what I do, wait until you’re buying a large appliance or piece of furniture.

Yes, you read that correctly: I’m featuring meat ads in a blog post. As you probably know, as a marketing professional, I like to pay attention to unique advertising (recent posts: 3 new and rather confusing Jet Blue ads and 4 innovative and interactive advertising campaigns).

I am fascinated by these three ads for two reasons: they seem to represent a trend of advertising meat as a product on its own and the extent to which they creatively represent the potential excitement of meat is impressive. While I doubt I will be having beef, pork or bacon for dinner tonight (or this week for that matter), they earn points for the effort.

1. “Discover the power of protein in the land of lean beef” brought to you by Beef: It’s What’s For Dinner. Is it just me or does this make you want to go hiking or skiing?
2. Pork & Jeans: “…As with my jeans, I also enjoy pork two or three times a week and never get sick of it.” Nice connection for a woman’s magazine advertisement.
3. If there were a prize, Oscar Mayer would win it with this ad. All they forgot was the syrup cascading down the bacon. I take back my previous comment, it might be breakfast for dinner tonight.

I am constantly on the lookout for new sources of information and inspiration. I carry a camera around everywhere I go, peruse blogs of all sorts and seek out discussions with passionate people. Recently a friend told me about one of the coolest resources I’ve seen in a long time: TED talks.

At the annual TED conference (an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design) which began in 1984, a host of fascinating thinkers and doers are challenged to give the “talk of their lives” in 18 minutes so as to share and discuss ideas and add to a clearinghouse of free knowledge and inspiration. “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world.” I have watched a handful of these and these are some really great ones.

1. Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club on Where does creativity hide?: A riveting talk on responsibility, intention, identity, luck, asking questions and embracing ambiguity. I doubt you’ll come away with many answers but perhaps a greater appreciation for questions.
2. Daniel Goleman, the father of emotional intelligence, on Why aren’t we all Good Samaritans?: An eloquent reflection of why we betray natural human empathy and don’t notice the “other.” Particularly interesting are his comments on the “you test” and being “pizzled.”
3. Sir Ken Robinson, “creativity expert,” asks Do schools kill creativity? I like this one because he makes a clear bold statement: that developing creativity is as important as literacy. He says, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original” and that only educating people progressively from the waist up is flawed.
4. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist, describes her own experience with a stroke in My stroke of insight, the same name as her book that was released just last week. It took her 8 years to fully recover.
5. Tony Robbins, a leadership psychology coach, on Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better: An interesting interpretation and engaging speech about why we don’t achieve what we try to (with clever input from “an” audience member), Robbins says “The defining factor is never resources, it’s resourcefulness.”