| How to Get Things Done Fast Posted: 16 Sep 2018 05:00 PM PDT When you have a lot to do in a short amount of time, it's easy to get overwhelmed and procrastinate on easy tasks. Luckily, you can accomplish tasks quickly by staying organized with a schedule, focusing on one task at a time, and planning your tasks in a logical order. You can even accomplish big projects in a short amount of time if you stay focused and work hard! EditWorking More Efficiently - Focus on doing only one task at a time. When you're trying to get things done fast, it might be tempting to multitask. However, doing multiple things at once will only slow you down. Pick one task and work on only that task until you've run out of time or finished it. Then, you can move on to the next thing that you need to do.[1]
- Even if you have multiple similar tasks to do, only do one thing at a time and don't jump back and forth between them.
- For example, work on only sending emails or finishing a report. Don't finish a page of the report and then send a few emails before working on the report again.
- Group tasks based on where or how you do them. Try to accomplish multiple tasks in a row in the same spot, like by your computer or on your phone. Then, you can get all of the things done that you need to do in one place without wasting time by starting and stopping tasks to move from place to place.[2]
- For instance, if you have to look up the phone number for a few local businesses and buy something online, you can use your phone to look up the contact information, and then place the order through an app. Then, you can put your phone away and focus on completing other tasks.
- If you have a few phone calls to make, make them consecutively, and then take a break from using your phone while you finish other tasks.
- Do your most challenging tasks in the morning. Try to get your most difficult tasks out of the way in the morning when you have the most energy and motivation, which will help you work through them quickly. Aim to finish all of your difficult tasks before noon, leaving the second half of the day for less important tasks and planning for the next day.[3]
- For instance, if you have a term paper to finish and a few calls to make, you should plan to finish the paper in the morning, and make the phone calls in the afternoon. That way, the paper will be completed and you can knock out the smaller tasks quickly.
- Put on a pair of headphones to block out distracting noise. When you're trying to work quickly, distractions can throw off your schedule. Wear a pair of headphones and listen to music, an audiobook, a newscast, or a podcast to block out distracting noise.[4]
- This is especially helpful if you're working around other people who are talking or generally being loud.
- Reward yourself with frequent, short breaks to refresh your energy. Avoid burnout by giving your mind and body time to rest throughout the day. Some experts recommend 10 minutes of rest for every 50 minutes of work, but you can adjust this as needed. On your break, check your text messages, grab a cup of coffee, go for a walk, or have a snack.[5]
- Even if you don't feel like you need a break, take a short one anyway. Stand up and stretch, or take some time to drink some water. Your body will thank you!
EditReducing Time Spent on Household Tasks - Make a cleaning bucket or "tool belt" for deep cleaning. Fill a bucket with all of the cleaning products that you need, or repurpose an old tool belt by filling it with brushes, towels, and cleaning supplies. Then, carry the bucket or wear the belt around the house while you clean to keep you from running back and forth to your cleaning supplies.[6]
- When you use an item, remember to put it back in the bucket or replace it with a new one for the next time you clean.
- Ask the rest of the people in your house to lend a hand. Have your kids or a roommate help with doing laundry, or create an assembly line for putting away the dishes. Delegating different jobs to different people means that one person won't end up doing all of the work, and everyone will feel like they contributed.[7]
- If your house or apartment has multiple floors, consider having a bucket for each floor to avoid having to carry all of your products up and down the stairs.
- Focus on completing one room at a time. Start working on a room and don't stop until you've finished everything that needs to be done in that room. Avoid moving back and forth between rooms, and plan your cleaning so that you can work your way through the house in order.[8]
- For instance, in your bedrooms, focus on gathering dirty clothes, putting away clean clothes, making the bed, dusting, and vacuuming.
- Once you finish the bedroom, move to the bathroom to spray down the surfaces, clean the toilet, clean the mirror, scrub the sink and shower, wipe down the surfaces, and mop the floor.
- In the kitchen, do the dishes, load the dishwasher, clean the counters, wipe down appliances, and mop the floor.
- Save the living room for the last part, and remember to clean up clutter, dust the room, wipe down surfaces, and vacuum the entire room.
- Vacuum and mop from the farthest corner of the room to the doorway. When you need to clean the floors, start in the farthest corner away from the door, and work in long, straight lines to cover as much area as possible. Try to avoid overlapping rows, and don't be concerned about missing a small strip of floor in between rows.[9]
- Once you're done mopping or vacuuming, you can pull the vacuum or mop out of the doorway and move on to the next room.
EditManaging Your Time - Write down all of the tasks that you need to accomplish. Planning ahead will help give you a realistic idea of how much you can do in one day. Think of all of the things that you need to do, and write them down in a to-do list, or keep an ongoing list on your phone.[10]
- For some people, having a written list is more helpful because they can cross of each task as they finish it.
- If you won't get distracted by your phone, you can use a reminder or to-do list app to make a virtual list. Then, you can remove each task as you finish it, and you don't have to worry about losing your list.
- Estimate how long it will take you to do each task. Give yourself enough time to finish the task, but don't overestimate how long it will take. Try assign each task a 15, 30, or 60 minute block of time to accomplish that task. All of your estimates should correspond with the amount of work that goes into each task.[11]
- For example, vacuuming the house might take 15 minutes, depending on how many rooms you have to vacuum.
- Writing a business report might take longer, like 60 minutes, because it requires research and writing.
- Set a 5 or 10-minute time limit on smaller tasks. Things like making phone calls or sending emails can become very time-consuming. When you're making your daily schedule, devote a short period of time to accomplishing as many small tasks as possible in that window of time. This will prevent them from taking up the majority of your day.[12]
- For example, if you have a lot of phone calls and emails to send, devote 10 minutes to making as many phone calls as possible, focusing on the most important calls first.
- If you have a lot of emails to reply to, set aside 10 minutes to respond to the most pressing emails, and then leave the rest for a day when you have more free time.
- Use a timer to ensure that you're staying within your time limits. Set a timer on your phone or use a stopwatch to remind you how long you're taking on a task. If you allotted 30 minutes for a task, set the timer for 30 minutes and check your progress when the timer goes off. If you're close to finishing, use an extra 5 or 10 minutes to get the task done.[13]
- If you're less than 3/4 of the way finished with the task, consult your schedule to see which tasks can be put off so that you can finish.
- Alternatively, you can stop working on the task if it doesn't need to be completed that day
- Get back on schedule after a distraction. If you do happen to get distracted during the day, don't worry! Consult your schedule to see how much time you spent, and get rid of tasks that aren't important. Give priority to tasks that need to be completed today, and put off anything that can wait.[14]
- If you need to ask for an extension on the deadline for an assignment, be sure to explain the situation. Don't expect to be granted an extension, and don't use the extension to procrastinate until the new deadline!
- Pay close attention to your calendar and deadline. Sometimes, having a deadline can make you work faster in order to "beat the clock." This will also help you organize your work to get it done in a timely manner.[15]
- If your deadline is far away, you can split up your work over many days. However, if it's closer, you may need to devote a few days just to working on completing the project.
- If you do get distracted or off-schedule, don't give up! Focus on the next item on your list and keep moving forward.
EditSources and Citations= EditQuick Summary
Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found
|
| How to Make Oxygen and Hydrogen from Water Using Electrolysis Posted: 16 Sep 2018 09:00 AM PDT The process of splitting water (H2O) into its atomic components (hydrogen and oxygen) using electricity is known as electrolysis. This experiment has significant implications in terms of what these 2 gases can be used for in their own right, with hydrogen being one of the cleanest sources of energy we have access to. Although it may sound complicated, it's actually easier than you think if you have the right equipment, the right knowledge, and a little bit of know-how. EditSetting up the Equipment - Fill a glass with warm water. You don't need to fill it all the way to the top, so leave a little bit of room. If the water is warm, it will conduct the electricity more effectively but it will also still work just fine with cold water.[1]
- You can use either water from out of the tap or bottled water, it doesn't matter which.
- Warmer water has a lower viscosity and allows ions that conduct electricity to move more freely.
- Dissolve 1 tbsp (17 g) of table salt in your water. All you need to do is pour it in and then stir it around a little bit to help it dissolve. This turns it into a saline solution.[2]
- Sodium chloride (which is table salt) is an electrolyte which helps aid the conductivity of the water, as water by itself isn't particularly conductive.
- By making the water more conductive, the current from the battery flows through more easily which results in the water being split into hydrogen and oxygen more effectively.
- Sharpen both ends of 2 #2 pencils so the graphite is exposed. Make sure to remove the eraser at the top of the pencil. You need to sharpen the pencils enough that the graphite is fully exposed at both ends.[3]
- These graphite shafts that are encased within the pencil are your electrodes and will conduct the electricity that comes from the battery.
- The graphite works really well as it doesn't dissolve or get damaged in the water while you conduct the experiment.
- Cut a square piece of cardboard that is big enough to cover the glass. Use cardboard that is thick enough to maintain its structural integrity when it has some holes punched through it. Try cutting a square portion out of a shoebox or some other kind of thick box.[4]
- The purpose of the cardboard is to suspend the pencil graphite in the water without allowing it to touch the walls of the glass.
- Because cardboard has no metallic properties to it, it can sit on top of your glass without affecting the outcome of the experiment.
- Punch 2 holes in the cardboard using the 2 pencils. Use the actual pencils to do this as you need to snugly fit the pencils into the holes so the pencils don't move around or slip. If the graphite touches the walls or the base of the glass, it will interrupt the experiment.[5]
EditConducting Your Experiment - Connect one end of each alligator clip to the terminals of the battery. The battery is what actually produces the electrical current and so the alligator clips provide the pathway for transporting that current to the water. You need to attach one clip to the positive terminal and one to the negative terminal.[6]
- Use a 6-volt battery but if you cannot find one, use a 9-volt battery.
- You can find this size of battery at pretty much any convenience store or supermarket.
- Connect the other end of each alligator clip to each pencil. Make sure that the metallic part of the alligator clip is connected to the graphite of the pencil. You may have to shave down a little bit more of the wood from the pencil just to make sure that the alligator clips are completely connected to the graphite.[7]
- Doing this completes the connection to the battery and allows the current to be transferred from the battery all the way through into the water.
- Place the cardboard on top of the glass so the pencils are submerged. The way you cut the cardboard earlier means that it should sit nicely on top of the glass. Try to do this gently so that the pencils that are stuck through the cardboard don't get disturbed from their position.[8]
- For this experiment to work, the graphite of the pencils needs to not be touching the side of the glass so just double check that here and adjust the pencils if need be.
- Watch the separation of hydrogen and oxygen occur. At this point, bubbles start to rise from the submerged points of graphite. This is the hydrogen and oxygen gas being split. Hydrogen gas will be bubbling from the pencil connected to the negative terminal and oxygen will be bubbling from the pencil connected to the positive terminal.[9]
- Once you connect the alligator clips to the battery and graphite, the current begins to flow immediately.
- There will be more bubbles coming from the hydrogen pencil because there is twice as much hydrogen as oxygen in each water molecule.
- If you can't find graphite pencils, you can use little pieces of wire instead and just wrap them around the battery on one end, and leave the other end in the water. This has the same effect as the pencils.
- Try using a different sized battery. This will affect the size of the current that goes through the water which will, in turn, affect the speed at which the water molecules get split.
- Do this experiment under the supervision of an adult as you are working with electricity and gases which, although unlikely, do have the potential to be harmful.
- Once you add an electrolyte like salt to increase the conductivity, just be aware that there is a small amount of chlorine by-product that gets created. This isn't enough to be dangerous, but you may notice a subtle smell of chlorine.
EditThings You'll Need - 2 #2 pencils
- 1 6 or 9-volt battery
- glass
- 2 alligator clips
- Pencil sharpener
- Table salt
EditSources and Citations
Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found
|
| How to Cite Wikipedia Posted: 16 Sep 2018 01:00 AM PDT This wikiHow teaches you how to create a proper citation for a Wikipedia article. The easiest way to do this is by using Wikipedia's built-in citation generator that links to the version of the page you're viewing, though you can also cite by hand if necessary. Before using Wikipedia for research, check with your teacher, professor, or editor to make sure that they will accept a wiki as a reputable source. EditUsing the Wikipedia Citation Generator - Open the article you're citing. Go to the Wikipedia page for the article that you want to cite.
- Click . This link is in the "Tools" section of the column of options that's on the left side of the page.
- Find your citation style. Scroll through the list of blue citation headers until you find your preferred citation style (e.g., "APA style"). The citation will be listed below the style heading.
- Select the whole citation. Click and drag your mouse from left to right across the entire citation below the style heading.
- Copy the citation. Once the whole citation is highlighted, press either (Windows) or (Mac).
- Open a rich-text editor. "Rich-text" just refers to the ability to maintain formatting (e.g., italics) when pasting in content; common rich-text editors include Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, and Google Documents.
- You can also just double-click the document to which you want to add the citation if the document is a Word document or similar.
- Paste in your citation. Once you've opened the rich-text editor (or your document), press either (Windows) or (Mac) to paste in the citation as it appeared on Wikipedia. The citation will appear in the editor.
EditUsing APA Style - Start your entry with the Wikipedia entry title. When citing Wikipedia in APA style, first list the name of the article. You do not need to use quotes or italics. Simply write down the article's title followed by a period. For example, if you were citing an article on Jimmy Carter the beginning your citation would look like this: Jimmy Carter.[1]
- If you want to lead with an author's name, Wikipedia suggests using "Wikipedia contributors" as the name.
- Include the date, if available. In APA style, it's customary to include the date an online source was published or last modified. The date of the last revision is at the bottom of the Wikipedia page; if you cannot find the date, you can simply write "n.d." in parenthesis after the entry title. After the date, add a period.[2]
- Returning to our example, your citation would look like this: Jimmy Carter. (n.d.).
- Write the words "In Wikipedia". In APA style, it's customary to mention where you found an electronic source. When citing Wikipedia, you would write "In Wikipedia," italicizing the word "Wikipedia", and then add a period.
- Our citation should read as follows: Jimmy Carter. (n.d.). In Wikipedia.
- Follow with the retrieval date. This is the date on which you accessed the information. Use the word "Retrieved" and then write the date. In APA style, the date is written "Month Date, Year." For example, if you retrieved your source on the 15th of October in 2015, you would write, "October 15, 2015." Add a comma after the date.[3]
- To illustrate, here is what our example would look like so far: Jimmy Carter. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 15, 2015,
- End with the URL. After the comma at the end of the date, write "from" and then include the full URL of the Wikipedia page. In our example, our final citation would read as follows:
EditUsing MLA Style - Begin with the article title. In MLA style, you would usually begin an online citation with the author's name. As Wikipedia articles do not have authors, you would simply skip to the article name. Put this in quotations and include a period inside the quotations. Using Jimmy Carter as an example again, you would start your article with "Jimmy Carter."[4]
- If you want to lead with an author's name, Wikipedia suggests using "Wikipedia contributors" as the name.
- Add the larger source. MLA style dictates you must include the larger source from which you found the article. If you pulled an article from the New York Times, you would write New York Times in italics after the article name. As you pulled your article from Wikipedia, you simply need to write Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Follow with a period. Using our example, our citation would not read as follows:
- "Jimmy Carter." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.
- Include the publisher. In MLA style, you're supposed to include the publisher. When working with online sources, this information is not always known. However, when working with Wikipedia, it's appropriate to write "Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia" as the publisher. Follow with a comma. Our example would now read:
- "Jimmy Carter." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.
- Add the date of publication, if possible. You should usually include the date of an online publication. You can find the date of the last revision at the bottom of the page. Write the day, the abbreviated month, and then the year. Using our example, we would now have the following citation:
- "Jimmy Carter." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, 25 Sept. 2014.
- You may find that it's best to simply write "n.p." to indicate the publication date is unknown.[5]
- Add the publication type. In this case, you'll type after the date. Your citation should now read as follows:
- "Jimmy Carter." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, 25 Sept. 2014. Web.
- End with the date you found the source. In MLA style, you would end citing a web source by listing the date you accessed the information. In MLA style, you write the date, then the month, then the year. You do not use commas, but you do abbreviate the month to three letters and end it with a period; for example, if you accessed the article on February 2nd, 2016 you would write "2 Feb. 2016." Our final citation would read like this:[6]
- "Jimmy Carter." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, 25 Sept. 2014. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.
- Wikipedia articles generally provide a list of citations at the bottom of the page. These citations may be more reliable than Wikipedia itself as a source.
- You can follow the links in Wikipedia articles to verify that the links' information is presented accurately in the Wikipedia article.
- Watch for warnings on the top of a Wikipedia article. Articles are sometimes flagged if they're unreliable or poorly sourced. You should not use these articles in an academic paper.
- Make sure your professor or teacher is okay with Wikipedia as a source before citing it. Many educators consider Wikipedia unreliable and expressly forbid it in academic writing.
- Wikipedia does not guarantee accuracy, offer medical advice, offer legal advice, or contain censored content, and is provided as-is.
EditRelated wikiHows EditSources and Citations
Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found
|
No comments:
Post a Comment