Twitter Search Tips

March 29, 2010

Twitter is a wonderful tool and platform to share your message. We all know that! What most people don’t know is that Twitter has a magnificent search engine. Almost everyone (including me) is using Google, but if you want the latest trends or events, you’d better use Twitter. Why? Twitter is a real time search engine, while Google indexes everything and that takes time, sometimes up to 6 weeks before a site is included in Google. So, if you are looking for live input on a certain event, Twitter is more likely to find it.

In order to help you find stuff quicker, I am sharing a number of Twitter Search Tips with you. How does it work?
You first go to http://search.twitter.com. Of course, if you just want to use the regular search, you can type in your keywords and find anything right-away! Now, it becomes even more interesting if you would use the advanced search. Here is an overview if you want to use advanced search operators:

Operator Finds tweets…
Genius Shortcut containing both “Genius” and “Shortcut”. This is the default operator.
“happy hour“ containing the exact phrase “happy hour”.
black OR white containing either “black” or “white” (or both).
Belgian -beer containing “Belgian” but not “beer”.
#ff containing the hashtag “ff” (followfriday, interesting people to follow as indicated by others).
from:bertverdonck sent from person “bertverdonck”.
to:bertverdonck sent to person “bertverdonck”.
@bertverdonck referencing person “bertverdonck”.
“happy hour” near:“London” containing the exact phrase “happy hour” and sent near “London”.
near:London within:15mi sent within 15 miles of “London”.
lifehack since:2010-03-26 containing “lifehack” and sent since date “2010-03-26″ (year-month-day).
lifehack until:2010-03-26 containing “lifehack” and sent up to date “2010-03-26″.
movie -twilight :) containing “movie”, but not “twilight”, and with a positive attitude.
movie :( containing “movie” and with a negative attitude.
fun ? containing “fun” and asking a question.
fun filter:links containing “fun” and linking to URLs.
news source:twitterfeed containing “news” and entered via TwitterFeed

Additional easy Twitter Search Tips:

1. Click on the Advanced Search link and save yourself from typing the operators!
2. If you want to search in a different language, use the language switch in the advanced search : “Written in:” and choose your language in the dropdownbox.
3. If you specifically want to search for retweets or you don’t mind that retweets are shown in the search results, then check the box: Include Retweets.

If you want extra Twitter Search Tips, you know where to find me :-)

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ICD Scraper

January 4, 2010

In this blog I’ll explain you the link between Windows 95 and deicing my car.

It’s wintertime. Fun with snow and ice. Yeah! Unless you need to use your car and it is covered in ice and/or snow. Ice scraping!

Of course, when you don’t need stuff, you give it away or sell it or place it somewhere else. I have placed my ice scraper so well, that I don’t recall where it is. Yes, very handy in these winter conditions. :-)

So, I came up with a Genius Shortcut for this situation. What happens if you don’t have an ice scraper? I took out an old cd, which happens to be one of my Windows 95 licenses. I don’t use it anymore, so I started to use it as an ice scraper. I must confess, it worked perfectly well! Of course, I used it upside down, so if it gets scratched, it’s only on the printed side, but it didn’t.

The cd (and you can use any (old) cd or dvd) is still usable if I want to. On top of that, I invented a new word : the ICD Scraper (eye-sea-dee scraper), it’s simply a cd that is being used as an ice scraper.

So, enjoy ice scraping next time with an ICD Scraper instead :-)

image source : http://ow.ly/SA90

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Tired of Roomservice?

August 15, 2009

Yes, a lot of travellers are using roomservice. Many of them are sometimes shocked by the overpriced and underdelivered meals they actually get. Now, it’s amazing what you can do in your hotelroom if you want to cook for yourself. British comedian George Egg demonstrates some hotel survival tips for cooking an impressive meal in your hotelroom.

It’s both funny and inspiring what you actually can achieve in your hotelroom! Enjoy your meal :-)

Source :  Learn to cook in your hotelroom

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Write a book

May 1, 2009

My latest challenge is to write a book in 3 months! Can it be done? Sure! Would you be interested in how to write a book in 3 months for yourself? I think so. That’s why I decided to openly communicate about this exciting project. My goal is to share with you this lifehack on writing and publishing a book, but not in the traditional way (1, 2, 3 years?), but by using several genius shortcuts to get it done in less time and with more results. Of course, if you wish, you can create an e-book as well :-)

Why? If I can do it, so can you. Too many people think too low of themselves. Everyone has a set of talents. Unfortunately, not everyone is using this set in the same way. Most people are not even using 10% of their potential. So was I. Knowing what I now know, I can easily achieve anything I want. And that is to learn and to share how to write a book in 3 months. I already wrote a blog on how to publish a book in 1 month, including a case study (in Dutch) last year on Lifehacking.nl. So, now its time to do the whole process from an initial idea to a published book.

What subject? There are so many interesting subjects to write about. Nevertheless, a choice has been made, but let me tell you the story behind it first. At our last mastermind I could not believe how narrow people are searching on the Internet. Guess what? Everyone is using Google. Guess what? 90% of the people I talk to ONLY use Google. Then I told them Google is ONLY about 3% of the Internet! GoogleThey all freaked out! :-) It was really funny to learn that there is a significant difference : Most people search for stuff on the Internet and sometimes are disappointed that they don’t find it. Others are overwhelmed by the amount of results, but it feels more like an avalanche where the real treasures are buried somewhere deep in the Google basement. It can take a while to find what you are looking for. Of course, most people indeed find most of their stuff most of the time, but I am talking about those precious treasures. Where and how to find them? Most people even search in all the wrong places…so how can you expect them to find it then?

Out of that brilliant conversation a natural question arouse: “Why don’t you write a book about it?” Everyone present at the meeting agreed they could use some help on finding stuff on the Internet and that they would buy such a book. So, it got me thinking… Intrigued by the reactions of the others and I decided to digg a little deaper.

Actually, most people never got a formal training or education on how to find stuff on the Internet. I realised that during that mastermind meeting. Nobody ever told them how easy it is to find stuff. Anywhere. And where all the goodies and secrets are kept. Really impressed by the amazing feedback from that meeting I started to ask around in my network too. And it seems that indeed about 90% agree they actually want (need?) extra insights in searching (and finding!) on the Internet.

Now, my question to you is:  Would you be interested in saving time to find everything you need? Or even find it on the Internet after all? Be it text, pictures, audio, video, pdf, ebooks,…whatever? Would you be interested in learning the shorcuts to impress your friends you could digg up amazing stuff no one else can find? Would you like to learn the best kept secret strategies that I use to find the hidden treasures on the Internet?

Let me know what topics you would like to see covered in this book? Or do you have specific tools you are using that might serve others? Or do you have amazing search-find stories to share? You might have a chance to be mentioned in my book :-)

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck

Lifehacker & Life Coach
Genius Shortcuts

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Cork removed from bottle

March 9, 2009

How to remove a cork from a wine bottle?

Ok, I know, this is a classic lifehack, but when someone asked me about this last week, I realized that there are still a number of people out there who don’t know how to get a cork out of a wine bottle. And of course, this also works for other bottles too (olive, vinegar, …)!

Instead of explaining it myself, I have found this great video from Entr200 for you :

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker

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Heart-shaped Paperclips

February 14, 2009

Heartshaped ClipsToday is Valentine’s Day and many people have a little note they want to give to their loved one.

How to stick it together? Or how to put together candies or presents?

Heart-shaped paperclips are the answer!

This is very easy to do it yourself :-)

Thanks Jess for sharing this lifehack!

Heart-shaped paperclips

And yes, I did try this at home and it works very well…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker

PS : Use round-shaped paperclips (like illustarted) to start from, otherwhise your heart will look squarish…

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T-shirt Lifehack

February 13, 2009

Most men don’t have a clue how to fold a t-shirt. Some women as well :-)

To help you out, here is a shortcut on how to fold a t-shirt in 2 seconds :

A special thanks to Nathaniel Stott for sharing this lifehack!

Have fun, always,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker

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London Calling

February 9, 2009

Today I am in London to participate in my boardroom club. I’ll explain this in a future blog, because I am thinking of creating my own similar club in the Belgium as well…

In the afternoon, I will be participating in the XL Power UP meeting, a classic (not quite :-) ) gathering of London’s XL Life Members.

And tonight I’ll be co-presenting the infamous XL Momentum session, together with Tracy Julliard. In the footsteps of worldclass speakers like John DeMartini, Mike Harris and Roger Hamilton, Triumphant Events set the stage for a fantastic evening! Our goal is to bring clarity on why XL World was created. On top of that, we’ll share insights in social media and shortcuts (lifehacks!) to help all members achieve more online through XL World.

Tomorrow I’ll be hosting my first workshop for women entrepreneurs in London. Gaia Gold is a brilliant new network, gaining interest very fast with several outstanding women taking the lead. “Genius Shortcuts for a Flourishing Life” will be focusing on how to work more efficiently, to create more time for yourself. I’ll share several tips & tricks, when applied, that will alter every participants’ life (forever?)!

Tomorrow evening I have a “next steps” meeting with Tracy Julliard. After a debrief from the XL Momentum event, we are definitely accelerating to second gear :-) Also several products are being created. Oh, by the way, did I mention that as an XL Life Member, you can already enroll for our first Webinar : XL World : Extraordinary Results Online! Book your ticket right now!

Stay tuned, I’ll be back for more :-)

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker & Life Coach
Create, Connect & Contribute

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Waste more time

January 22, 2009

“Waste more time…efficiently” is a message that may sound strange, but in fact it is a big step for a lot of people. Most people are good at what they do. If you are good at wasting time, I’ll help you to waste more time in a more efficient way. How? By using lifehacking techniques.

One of the activities we all spend an awful amount of time on is waiting. I know waiting lines are everywhere, not just when going to the bank, the airport or the supermarket. In order to optimize that waiting time, here are several tips to improve your time “wasting”.

The first thing to do is to start implementing a system where you sift all the info you need to process. Choose whatever system that suits you best. If you classify information before reading it all, you can take your efficiency to the next level. Martijn, a friend and fellow lifehacker, always tears out pages from magazines, papers, etc. He sorts it into different piles and according to his schedule works his way through those piles. When he is traveling for example, he takes one of those piles with him and after reading them, he throws away those pages that no longer serve him. Whenever he has to wait somewhere, he pulls up one of his piles and starts reading. Time that seemed wasted at first now gets recycled to do something useful. Because he filtered info upfront, it’s wasted in a more efficient way!

A second tip is to download audio books, interviews or just any knowledge you wish to acquire in audio-format. Put it on your mobile phone (memory card?) or on your iPod. While waiting in line, you can listen to it and probably learn something. My wife is learning Spanish this way.

A third tip is to automatically classify all the mailinglists you subscribed to, any short articles, RSS-feeds, etc. to a separate folder. The ones you don’t want to read, delete them immediately. If you are behind the computer waiting in a meeting room for the others to arrive, it’s a probably a great time to read those RSS-feeds. Most of them are short, so you can interrupt anytime. The more time is wasted by the others arriving late, the more up-to-date you’ll get…

Tip number four is about always taking a pen and paper with you (can be your PDA too!). While waiting, think about what you would do to improve the current situation you are in. (What would I do to shorten this waiting line? How can I improve my own products and services? Etc.) Just write down some ideas. Of course, an audio recording works just as fine too!

With any of these tips, your time will pass faster and you’ll get several things done in no time. In fact you did not have that time before and you considered it to be wasted anyway. So, you created time that was “lost” and reused it for the better. This also implies that you have created more time to do other (fun) stuff. Or you got more things done than anticipated. So, the choice is yours! There is only one thing I can recommend : Enjoy waiting in line while wasting more time efficiently :-)

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker & Life Coach
Create, Connect & Contribute

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David Allen

January 13, 2009

Getting Things DoneGetting Things Done was in 2008 what was the 4-Hour Workweek (Tim Ferris) in 2007 for me…probably the best book I have read last year :-)

So, David Allen is as you all know, one of the most sought after global experts in the field of productive work. He is one of the gurus for the lifehacking community and a great guy. How would I know? Well, I interviewed him lately!

And you can have a chance of seeing David Allen live as well, because he’s coming over to Europe. On the 17th februari, he’s in Dortmund (Germany) and on the 19th in Amsterdam (the Netherlands). I am definitely going to the Dortmund event: the Making it all work – seminar!

Would you like to go too ? Let me know and I’ll buy you a drink!

Would you like to have a chance at winning a free ticket? Or do you just want to give the organisers a helping hand? Then take 5 minutes to fill out this questionnaire about GTD. Yes, you’ll get it done in less than 5 minutes and they really, really need a 100 more people to take the questionnaire :-)

Of course, check my blog regularly, because I’ll be back with some great insights from the interview with David!

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker & Life Coach

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