Category: Lifestyle

In an attempt to become successful and reach the highest ranks in your respective working field, neglecting personal well-being is the new norm. Considering the effort required to stand out from your peers and competitors, the imbalance between your work life and personal fitness is bound to happen.

However, during the process of marching towards glory and dominating your field, you need to maintain your work and stress balance to ensure your mental well-being remains intact. For this reason, we have developed a simplistic guide that will provide you with expert tips to improve your mental fitness.

Importance of Acknowledging Change in Your Psychological Health

The stigma of discussing and seeking help to preserve and take care of your mental health is extremely powerful and influential in our society. A wide majority of people tend to reject the importance of maintaining psychological wellness and deem it as something artificial or useless.

However, to ensure you maintain your inner peace, you need to acknowledge that mental well-being is important and observe any changes if they occur. Certain activities can serve as trigger flags for you to observe your psychological wellness and take proactive measures to improve your well-being.

Activities such as the development of abnormal eating or sleeping patterns, observing a decrease in energy in performing regular tasks, increased rate of forgetfulness and confusion, and rising feelings of helplessness can be signs of deteriorating mental health. Let’s discuss the measures you need to take to improve your psychological fitness.

How to Improve Your Mental Health

Improving your psychological and mental state is essential to ensure your other routines are not affected and the people and tasks dependent on you do not face any difficulties due to your inabilities. Here are a few tips to help you enhance your psychological well-being.

• Acknowledge Your Stress

The foremost thing to do when dealing with your psychological well-being is to acknowledge the amount of stress you are in. As soon as you become aware of the level of stress you are in, you can easily transition into ways that can help you deal with it.

• Discuss Your Feelings

Discussing your thoughts and feelings with a loved one or a professional is essential to provide freedom to your bottled-up thoughts. Many people think that talking about your feelings makes you weak. However, it helps you look through your problems from a different perspective and helps you identify ways that can fix your situation.

• Have a Chat with Your Manager Regarding Your Workload

The increase in stress at work can be both emotionally and mentally draining for most of us. In such a situation, the psychological injury lawyers advise you to try claiming stress leave from your manager or workplace to ensure you get a hold of yourself and recollect your strength. Most organizations today support their employees’ well-being and their concern for personal mental health. 

• Improve Your Connections and Increase Your Social Life

Maintaining good relationships is key in your attempt to preserve your psychological fitness. Take some time out every once in a while to communicate and hang out with people you like. The existence of an active friend circle is important to keep you sane in this fast-paced world that demands a robotic level of productivity from humans.

• Ensure the Maintenance of a Healthy Diet

Just like the other organs in your body, your brain also needs a set of nutrients that help it to nourish itself and stay healthy. This is why you need to make the maintenance of a healthy diet a priority for you. You should have a 3-meal routine with lots of water to ensure your brain receives the required amount of nutrients to keep it functioning optimally.

• Never Hesitate to Ask For Help

We all can be vulnerable and we all require external help to support us in our inner battles. This is why you should never hesitate to call for help from a professional or a close person and keep your loved ones in the loop to make sure they are there when things get messy.

Why is it Important To Take Care of Your Mental Health?

Now that you know the expert tips to enhance your mental health, it should be easier to implement them and keep a check on your psychological state. However, people who’ve been lucky enough to already have a stable psychological balance must be wondering, why is it important to take special care of your psychological well-being? This is why we have listed some of the most common benefits of improving and caressing our mind’s stability.

• Enhances Your Quality of Life

Anxiety and stress are two very real components of our life, yet we tend to ignore them without giving them much thought. Since both excess or absence of work can be triggers for either of these, it is essential to know how to manage them. For this reason, maintaining your psychological levels is important to ensure you’re in control of your stress and you can manage your anxiety levels.

• Ensures Better Physical Health

It is a common fact that people tend to provide more weightage to their physical fitness compared to their psychological well-being. However, physical fitness is directly proportional to your psychological fitness, and failure in maintenance of either result in a decrease in the other.

• Improves the Health of Your Relationships

The relationship that you have with others is only a subset of the relationship that you have with yourself. You can’t expect to be reckless in the maintenance of personal well-being and have healthy relationships with others. So, to develop and improve your relationships with people around you, you need to work on improving your psychological wellness and ensure that your relationship with yourself is stable and strong.

Personal well-being should be a priority, no questions asked. You might be allowed to slack in the maintenance of your physical fitness, however, your mental health always needs to be on point. This helps you streamline all of your activities and enjoy both your work and social life without any unwanted regrets. Moreover, successful people are likely to retain their spot on top if they channel their dedicated focus towards restoring and caressing their psychological health.

TikTok has taken the world by storm and has become one of the most popular social media platforms. Since the start of the pandemic, people have stayed at home and looked for something entertaining to watch, and they discovered TikTok. Since then, its popularity has increased rapidly, and many content creators and influencers have created accounts for their followers on TikTok. New influencers have emerged from this catchy platform for their creative content. We hear about the serious money those influencers earn from TikTok, and the numbers are huge. If you dance, sing, do comedy sketches or have any creative talent, you can make money on TikTok. However, it is not only about creating an account; you can easily make money following these tips below.

Growing and Selling Accounts

We have heard about people who grew accounts on various social media platforms or and then sell them for a huge amount. TikTok is not an exception, and it is becoming more and more popular by the day. This strategy is typically easier when you are growing a themed account and not a personal one. Followers get attached to the person, and they may even unfollow if the account owner changed. Themed accounts, on the other hand, are easier to sell, as followers may not even notice the change of ownership. For example, if you grew a themed account around food, you could easily find buyers to purchase the account, such as food chains, restaurants, or other food enthusiasts. Typically, the more followers and engagement ratings you have, the higher the price you can sell the account for.

Collecting Donations

Similar to Twitch, Tiktok has a fantastic feature that allows viewers to donate to their favorite influencer or content creator. However, the only way to collect donations is by going live on the video-sharing app. Viewers can purchase coins and then buy gifts with these coins, and when a creator goes live, their viewers can send these gifts. After receiving those gifts, the creator can turn the coins into diamonds (not real ones, unfortunately!), and then convert those digital shiny diamonds to cash through PayPal or some other supported payment channel. Keep in mind that your TikTok and PayPal accounts must be verified to be able to transfer money. However, not every TikTok user is allowed to join the app’s Livestream program, as only selected users are chosen to have access. If you want to qualify for the program, you need to create quality content consistently, increase your followers’ number, and increase the engagement rate on your videos through likes, comments, and shares.

Publishing Sponsored Posts

Creating content with sponsored products or services is an efficient way to make money on TikTok. On average, you can make $0.01 to $0.02 for each sponsored view, and if your video got 100,000 views, you can earn around $1000 in sponsorship. However, you need to have a large number of followers and a specific niche to pursue sponsorship deals. Creators who had such deals had to increase their exposure on TikTok first before contacting sponsors. The good news is that you don’t need millions of followers to seek sponsors, but what you do need is a few thousand engaged followers. Once you have achieved this target, look for brands that are interested in building their TikTok presence, and contact them. Check competing creators and reach out to those brands. After gathering a list of brands, pitch to them your idea through an email, and tell them about yourself, what you offer on TikTok, your followers count, engagement rate, your expertise in your niche, and your achievements, whether in the industry or from previous sponsorship campaigns. If you are relatively new to sponsorship deals, it would be a good idea to contact small brands to build up your portfolio.

Managing Creator Campaigns

Instagram has influencer agencies that act as the middleman between the influencers and the brands. The same can be done for TikTok. You can create an agency that can help brands strategize, execute, and manage campaigns with TikTok creators. You can help brands reach the best creators for their products, and help creators to contact the brands that fit well with their content. You can work on various social media platforms, not only TikTok. However, as a TikTok agency, you have to identify the best creators with a high track record, contact and create a relationship with them, have experience in running marketing campaigns for creators and brands, and diversify your campaigns to build a strong portfolio. Take into consideration that TikTok has its built-in creator program, but brands, especially smaller ones, prefer to use agencies as they are more affordable.

Selling Your Own Merchandise

Similar to other social media platforms, you can sell your own merchandise on your TikTok account. The good part is that you don’t need millions of followers for this to work, but the more the better. You can create short videos, post them on the app, and add a promotional frame by the end of the video to allow customers to reach you. The more creative and interesting the video is, the more engagement you will have. Alternatively, after amassing a large number of followers, you can create merchandise that has your name, logo, face, or even a catchphrase you say, and sell it through videos or a link in your bio. Viewers get attached to creators and want to get something personal related to their favorite creators.

TikTok has a lot of interest and not a lot of content, which makes it a great opportunity for making content and earning serious money by monetizing your social media. If your content didn’t get enough views, it doesn’t mean you should stop trying, as the TikTok algorithm can push your content to the “For You” page even after months of posting it. There are various ways to make money on TikTok, no matter how experienced you are at it. Invest in yourself and your camera if you want to create high-quality content on TikTok, but it would be all for nothing if your videos are not engaging or entertaining.

Smartphones have become an integral part of human existence. It is totally correct to assert that humans have become one with their smartphones to such an extent that it’s difficult to live without them.  Our world has gradually evolved into a smartphone culture. Think about it, you use your smartphone for almost everything.

In the UK and US, two thirds of people own smartphones, and all of them consider their phones to be a necessary device for connecting with the world.

Here, we will identify some ways to efficiently use your smartphone, iPhones, and Android alike. These tips will work for most recent smartphones, though Android models and brands will differ.

1. Get a Case

This is the first thing to do. Nothing is more frustrating than dropping your phone and breaking the screen. It happens sometimes, and there’s no assurance that you’ll be able to repair it. The solution is to use a case to cover your smartphone. Adding a case may add to the weight (depending on the size), but it will be worth it.

2. Update your apps from time-to-time

Most smartphones come with a collection of applications pre-installed by the maker. You may not use some of them, and the more applications you have open, the shorter your battery life will be. It also helps to disable or remove any apps you don’t need.

Be sure you’re running the most recent update of the software you already have. App developers upgrade their software regularly to add additional features, reduce resource consumption, and protect against malware and security threats. Set your apps to update automatically or manually regularly.

3. Take care of the battery

To care for your battery, follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Depending on the age of the smartphone and the battery it uses, this could include using the phone until it runs out once in a while. Restart your phone regularly to let it cool down, especially if it overheats.

4. Listen to text messages and emails

Most smartphones have a feature that allows you to listen to content instead of reading it. Texts, emails and website content can all be read aloud.

5. Use your phone’s camera to read small text

Squinting is no longer necessary. You can turn your phone’s camera into a magnifying glass to make the small print on forms, labels and documents easier to read.

6. Get rid of old pictures

If you use Google Photos (on Android or iOS) or iCloud Photo Library (on iOS), you can delete local copies of photos from your phone and free up some disk space to back up your photos and videos to the cloud.

7. Clean up the home screen

Android and iOS handle home screen icons in very different ways, with iOS adhering to strict rows and columns and Android allowing you a lot of flexibility. On both operating systems, however, you can organize the icons by moving them into files.

To make a list, simply tap and keep an icon, then drag it on top of another (on iOS, you need to wait for the icons to start jiggling after tapping and holding before you move them). You can rename a folder as Social, Productivity, Games or whatever you want after tapping to open it. Your home screens could be a lot easier to use this way.

8. Arrange the widgets in order of importance

You can add widgets to your home screen to gain quick access to useful information and apps. You can get the weather forecast, traffic conditions or the search bar for a particular app.

9. Access key features faster

You can access key features faster by bringing them to locations where you can easily reach them. These are phone functions you might use often, such as the flashlight, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or airplane mode.

You don’t have to stick with the default interface and range.

10. Recognize individuals based on their ringtone

Consider this scenario: your phone is ringing on the other side of the room; do you get up from your incredibly cozy couch and attempt to figure out who it is, or do you let it ring? You’ll never have to abandon the warmth of your couch if you know who is calling you from across the room.

You can assign personalized ringtones and text messages to specific contacts on your account, so you can tell if the person calling you is someone you want to talk to without even looking.

11. Mirror your phone screen

Getting your phone screen up on a large screen can be useful at times. This is something that both Android and iOS can do, but they do so on different platforms. Open Quick Settings on Android by dragging down from the top of the screen with two fingers, then swipe left and select Screen Cast to mirror the monitor on any Chromecast computer.

Open Control Center on iOS by dragging down from the top of the screen and tapping Screen Mirroring—you can use any AirPlay-enabled unit, like an Apple TV, in this case.

We all know the feeling of trying to get some work done – especially when there is a deadline for it – only to find that our laptops are running slowly. Even having to wait just a few extra seconds can cause problems since we’re all so used to having anything and everything we want immediately. With around two-thirds of the adult US population stating that slow-running computers are one of their biggest modern-day frustrations, at least you’re not alone with this problem, but that still doesn’t help to do much about it. 

Luckily, there are some useful techniques to put into practice if you feel your computer has started running slower than usual. In fact, even if you haven’t noticed any difference, there might still be things happening that will eventually slow the device down, and taking note of and using these strategies before that happens can save a lot of time and, of course, frustration. Read on to find out more. 

Stop Programs From Auto-Starting 

One of the biggest reasons for a computer to become slow is that several different programs are running in the background, taking up memory. This in turn means that everything you do will take longer. You probably aren’t even aware that most of these programs are running, and perhaps you’re not aware of any of them, as they are programmed to start up once you log in. 

Some of these programs will be necessary and include firewalls and antivirus software which would be potentially dangerous to remove or shut down. However, there are sure to be many other programs that are simply not needed, at least not needed in terms of running in the background; they can stay on your computer, but if you need them, you can choose to run them. By disabling the automatic start-up function on these non-essential programs, you will find that your computer becomes much faster. 

Uninstall And Delete Unused Programs 

Have you ever opened up the uninstall dialog box to see just what is on your laptop? If not, you should try it; you might be surprised at the results. You’ll find a plethora of programs you either didn’t install (because they came with the computer when you bought it) or that you did install but now don’t use or need and had forgotten all about. 

Before you uninstall anything, make sure you know what it is and are sure you don’t require it on your computer. If you don’t, you can uninstall it and not only free up a lot of space on your computer, but help it to run more quickly too (especially if some of those programs were auto-starts, as mentioned above). 

Clean Up Hard Disk Space 

You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes to the smooth running of your laptop when you clean up some space on its hard drive. The less free space you have, the slower your computer will be, and if you have under fifteen percent free space, you will have some serious problems to contend with – your laptop might even freeze or stop working entirely, causing you to lose work and become even more frustrated than before. This could be an expensive problem to fix, as the ultimate solution will usually be a new laptop. 

Simply cleaning up the disk space and ensuring that large files are compressed and temporary files are removed when they are no longer required can be enough to not only help your laptop run faster but also prevent you from having to buy a new one when your current one is perfectly fine. Of course, if your storage isn’t full or even nearly full and your computer is running slowly, then you may have more significant operating system issues, and that could result in a new computer – however, it’s best to check your storage first, as this could save you a lot of money. 

Use An External Drive 

We know that when your computer gets full, it will slow down. We also know that you are sure to want to store your digital photos, videos, and various documents – more so if you use the computer for work and your personal use – on the hard drive. This means that, over time, the drive will fill up, and you won’t always be able to delete unused and unwanted items because they are all important to you. In this case, rather than filling your computer’s hard drive with photos and other items, use an external drive. In this way, whether you choose to plug a separate hard drive into your computer or you intend to use cloud storage instead, your personal items will be kept safe and secure, and you won’t use up any of your computer’s space, meaning that it will continue to run quickly at all times.

It is safe to say that every internet user has come across a streaming service at least once. This is because a variety of reputable companies such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have adopted the core concepts of online streaming and integrated them into their platforms. So, a technology that picked pace from its popularity on YouTube, is now a defining feature for a variety of social media platforms and serves as a significant factor in their revenue generation.

This is why young and aspiring content creators need to jump on the bandwagon and become part of this transition in the early stages. This will only help them accelerate their careers and create a bigger audience.

Online Streaming – How to Prepare for it?

Since the origin of online streaming, the dynamics of content consumption over the internet have changed dramatically. For all the young online creators who are planning to start their streaming journey, here’s a myth-buster for you. Live streaming is not always about being impromptu. While the literal meaning might seem like you can afford to go impromptu, but all your popular streamers, whether they are gaming or showing whatever skills they’re showing, are not always impromptu.

• Always plan your content strategy regarding your topic and your timing of hosting your live stream.
• Figure out the areas of interest in which you want to create content and approach the niche aggressively.
• You need to have realistic and short-term goals to keep the process intuitive for yourself.

How To Stream Your Content Online?

Since streaming your content online has become extremely common and is widespread now, it is about time that you be equipped with the necessary information to start your online streaming channel.

Establishing a Streaming Setup

1. Stable Internet Connection

Since a live stream purely depends on the internet connection of the host, you need to have a stable internet connection with minimum latency and ping to ensure you do not have a laggy stream.

2. Audio and Video Source

If you’re a beginner stepping into the realms of online streaming, you don’t need to dent your wallet with expensive purchases on your microphone and camera choices. You can afford to start with an ordinary camera that has the recording capability of 720P at least to ensure your video is crisp. However, you would want to invest in a good microphone.

3. Streaming Software

You can find a variety of free encoding software that can help you transmit the audio and video input to your desired streaming platform.

Step-by-Step Guide to Your First Live Stream

Step 1: Establish a connection between your Encoder and Audio/Video Source

If you’re using a free software-based encoder, you only need to connect your audio and video sources to your computer and launch the encoding software for it to detect the inputs.

Step 2: Your Encoder needs to be configured

You can easily configure the audio and video settings based on the capabilities of your input devices to make sure your streaming quality is in line with your preferences. The most important configurations to keep in mind are to keep a high frame rate and high resolution and maintain a balance between them. Having an outrageously high resolution with a ridiculously low frame rate can easily destroy your stream quality. So, find your balance.

Step 3: Configure Your Streaming Destination Settings

Now login to your streaming platform and set up the stream settings to connect your platform with your streaming software.

Step 4: Enter the required URL and Stream Key from your CDN into your Encoder

Upon setting up, you will get a URL and stream key from your streaming platform that can be entered into your encoding software to establish a connection between them. This will allow you to use your audio and video input for your live stream.

Step 5: Step into the world of Streaming by clicking “Start”

Lastly, after rechecking all of your settings you can finally hit start and begin your live stream with the huge load of creativity that you have gathered to share with your audience.

Where to Stream Your Content?

While you’re figuring out the essentials for setting up your live streaming setup and hosting your first live stream, you should also start thinking of a platform that you will be using. Although the internet is full of general CDN that provides fresh live streamers a starting point for their streaming careers, you need to figure out which platform suits you best. This helps you create a dedicated audience that will value your content and follow you in case you switch platforms.

Advantages of Online Streaming

For an online creator, the advantages of streaming online content can be hard to track with great publicity and a prominent platform to showcase its skills. However, there are a few benefits that help the creators gain and sustain a stable audience.

• Goodbye to Download Time

Due to the advancements in internet technology, streaming platforms can broadcast media on their platforms without having to worry about the download times. Unwanted and elongated download times were a major turnoff for many content consumers. So, platforms identified the issue and resolved it with online streaming.

• Instant Playback

Unlike the tedious cycle of downloading a piece of content and then waiting to start watching it, with online streaming, you can instantly watch your desired content. This not only saves you time but also saves you from the unnecessary irritation that was bundled with the tedious download periods.

• No Worries of Shortage of Storage Space

Since there is no need to download media on whichever device you’re using, the need to have vacant space for storing the downloadable content has diminished. Now, people can relax with the current storage capacities of their devices.

It must be apparent that live streaming is not a simple topic to be summarized with ease. However, the gist of the discussion is to emphasize the significance of creating online content and understand the essentials for streaming it on a specific platform, if not multiple. This will allow you to showcase your skills on an audience-ridden platform that is hungry for creative content.

As you spend years working hard to make ends meet, you’re also contributing towards your retirement benefits. This builds your financial safety net when you are preparing for retirement. Thanks to this Social Security, you can enjoy a monthly income after you retire.

It’s essential to know and understand social security benefits in detail. Different factors contribute to the estimated figure you are likely to receive as your benefits. Some of these factors include;

• Years worked
• Monthly payments

With a detailed understanding of the topic, it becomes easy to plan your retirement like a professional. 

The fact that this topic is broad and complex, this article will continue to share the most important things you ought to know about the topic. Enjoy reading!

What Are Social Security Benefits

People who benefit from such a program are retired, disabled, spouses, children, and survivors. The program is a federal benefit in the US aiming to provide partial income to those faced with difficulties or retired. It has a regulation that you need to meet for you to benefit.

Many people who meet the requirement to benefit from this program are sometimes denied. This happens mostly to disabled people. When such happens, you need to take legal action to file a lawsuit appealing to your claim.

It’s good when you know the process to handle your denied claim. However, it would help if you had an attorney specializing in the area. Legal practitioners at Terry-LawFirm.com often say that having an attorney will not only make things formal but can assist a long way when it comes to preparing your case. Attorneys in the sector understand the ins and outs of such cases, and this means that by hiring one, things will be solved sooner than you can expect. They are dedicated to helping you get full benefits that will support you and your family.

It is essential to pay into the Social Security program to gain 40 credits that qualify you for the benefits. Even a spouse can claim this based on the spouse’s work record. Please note that the service is taxable depending on your tax filing status.

When is the right time to collect your benefits?

When the time for your retirement comes, you qualify for your Social Security Benefits. Collecting the benefits can be done either before or after you fully retire. Whatever plan you consider has its pros and cons.

Suppose you decide to start collecting your benefits before retirement? Choosing this plan means that you’re likely to receive a 30% reduction of your benefits. This may seem like a perfect idea when you require cash early, but the benefits are less than when you request your benefits after retirement. 

After full retirement, you will get close to 100% of your benefits. According to statistics, only one in four retirees receives 90% of their retirement benefits.

Sometimes you need an increased retirement credit to meet your needs. You can get up to an 8% annual accumulation of your benefits when choosing delayed retirement credit. This is available after your retirement age is 70 years. The problem with this is that you will collect your benefits for a short period.

How to Calculate Your Social Security Benefits

A large number of the population in the US relies on social security after retirement. According to statistics, not many retirees get 90% of their retirement income from the program.

Although you may be depending on your savings after retirement, it’s crucial to have a rough idea of how much you can expect from the program. If you qualify for social security, your monthly benefit is based on two factors, which are;

• The amount you have earned during your working career
• The age you have chosen to start getting payments, as mentioned earlier

As hinted earlier, social security considers 40 credits over your working career for qualification. However, they use 35 years of your work history to calculate the monthly payment. So, if you worked for less than 35 years, the SSA will use zero for some years.

This, therefore, means that the higher your earnings over those 35 years, the higher the benefit you will receive. Unfortunately, getting the actual figure isn’t as easy as it may sound. So, if you are curious about the estimates, it’s better to request them from the SSA. This should give you an estimate at age 62 and age 70, depending on your work history. Additionally, you can make use of the SSA’s calculators to plan your retirement and find out the best age to start claiming your benefits.

How is social security taxed?

It’s essential to know how social security is taxed.

You should know that the taxation on your benefits varies with the income level. That said, it means that;

• If your income is between $25000-$34000 for an individual, or $32000-$44000 for a couple filing jointly, 50% of benefits are subject to taxation. Below that level, your benefits won’t be taxed.
• If your income is more than $34000 for both an individual and a couple filing jointly, 85% of the benefits are taxed.

If your child receives social security or survivor benefits, the payments aren’t subjected to taxation. That money can only be taxable if the child has enough income from social security or other sources to file a return on his name.

How does Social Security Spousal Benefit work? 

When it comes to social security, marriage brings couples an advantage. That is, your partner can take up to 50% of your security benefit (spousal benefit). Say, for instance, if your benefit is worth $4000, but your partner benefit is only $1000, he or she can collect benefits worth $2000. This will bring in $1000 more income per month.

Calculating and claiming your social security benefit is a daunting process. To overcome these circumstances, you need to consult your financial advisor with experience in Social Security benefits analysis. This will help you understand more about Social Security and the right time to claim. The above-shared ideas can also be of great importance when it comes to understanding the topic in detail.