As usual I am posting my fake carnival of carnivals which have used my posts in their editions. You have guessed right, it's just about rewarding them with a backlink.

In previous posts about blog carnivals I have mentioned that I feel the quality of carnivals seems to degrade over time. More and more blog carnivals have become almost automatically created collections of links without much editorial effort. And I had to throw out a number of carnivals for todays post, because they simply did not meet their schedule.

Here is the list of reliable carnivals, that used my mind mapping post this month.

Right before the weekend I have some sound tips for you. I keep it very short, because everybody's time is very valuable. The tips are for the areas:

• Personal Development
• Search Engine Optimization
• Getting Paid by Clickbank

I thought also, it is finally time to use that rainbow photo I had taken several weeks ago. It was sitting idle on my server for quite some time. Do you share my association between that rainbow and those tips?

A friend told me about an online mind mapping tool that helped him to organize the 1,000 ideas in his head. So let me pass on this little productivity tip to you.

Without further ado, here is the tool he recommended to me.

MindMeister.com (↑)

Mind mapping allows you to lay out your ideas and thoughts kind of visually. Related items are close together. Therefore, you don't need much space and keep the overview easily. I am not going into the details of mind mapping (sorry), but some advantages of using an online tool like the one my friend recommends.

Advantages

• It's easy to rearrange items. You don't run out of space, like you would probably on a sheet of paper.
  
  
• Major advantage: You can share your maps with a team easily.
  
  
  
• Your data is accessible from anywhere.
  (Check terms of service, etc. and make your own decision about the risks of outsourcing your sensitive data that way.)
  
  
• MindMeister.com (↑) offers a free basic version, besides that the rates are very reasonable.

I have signed up for a free account today. I just started to check it out myself. I am not affiliated with MindMeister.

Have a nice weekend.

Yours
John W. Furst

Update: Vic Gee left a comment pointing to his extensive, great resource about various mind mapping tools. You definitely should check it out.

• Web Based Mind Mappers (↑)
  
  
• The master list of mind mapping & information management software (↑)

Thanks Vic

As usual I want to say, “Thank You”, to the folks, who featured my posts in their Blog Carnivals. Check out those carnival editions, there are really some valuable posts collected in each of them.

Some of you have already noticed that I am blogging very little those days. Well, something bigger is in the works that requires all my attention.

• Time Management & Goal Setting - Mar 5, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• A Make Money Blogging Carnival - Mar 7, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• Working At Home Blog Carnival - Mar 7, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• Carnival Of Sales & Management Success - Mar 8, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• Carnival Of Business & Entrepreneurship - Mar 9, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• Carnival Of Making Real Money - Mar 9, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• Internet Business Blog Carnival - Mar 9, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• Freelance Income Blog Carnival: March 10, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• Carnival Of Network Marketing - Mar 11, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• A Beginner Success Workshop Carnival - Mar 12, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• Electronic Commerce - Mar 18, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• A Make Money Blogging Carnival - Mar 14, 2008 Edition (↑)
  
  
• Working At Home Blog Carnival - Mar 14, 2008 Edition (↑)

Yours
John W. Furst

Nobody can win all the time, every time! Facing obstacles is the norm when walking down the road of life

I just discovered this motivational, timeless video with Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple and Pixar Animation) telling 3 stories of his life.

Take the 15 minutes that it takes to watch this video, sit back, relax, and enjoy.

“Don't live other people's life…
Have the courage to follow your heart ...
Stay hungry, stay foolish!”

Yours
John W. Furst

A couple of days ago I have written, “Your Business Needs To Grow Continuously”. Today I want to combine that important fact with a very easy to do management or personal development practice, that helps you to achieve your goal, tune out distraction as you learn to focus on what's really important.

You will see it's not about time management or life management as some call it. You still have to come up with a way to use your time efficiently. Of course you can refer back to my original series of articles about Productivity and Time Management, “Touch It - Do It - Get More Done”. I wrote a total of 4 articles on that subject and they are available combined into a single PDF report in the download area for my newsletter subscribers. Actually the PDF contains some extra content that is not released on my Blog.

Might be the right time to sign up to my newsletter, right now. (To my existing subscribers: I'll send you the download info as soon as I have finished this post.) Sorry for the little detour.


Let's get back to productivity issues. The little, but nonetheless important advice I'll give you fits almost everybody.

This is the second part of my Tit For Tat Carnival February 2008. It's a short one. I just apend to the list. In Part 1 I wrote about the advantage of participating in Blog Carnivals. You might want to read it (if you haven't already).

• Carnival of Sales & Management Success - February 16, 2008 - Sales Management 2.0 (↑) by Brad Trnavsky.
  
  
• Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship #9 (↑)
  
  
• Electronic Commerce - Blog Carnival (19th February 2008) (↑)

Thanks to the editors.

Yours John W. Furst