Fasting tips

If you spend a lot of time typing the same answers to questions you get repeatedly, create Quick Parts to insert that text into email replies in just a few clicks. No need to keep typing the same thing over and over again or having to find an old response to copy and paste. When you’ve finished typing a response that you expect to need to send again, follow the steps below to save the text as a Quick Part:

• Highlight the text you want to save in the email, and click the "Insert" tab.

2. Within the "Insert" menu, click "Quick Parts," and select "Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery."
3. Give your new Quick Part a descriptive name, and click "OK." With this Quick Part saved, you can now add that text to any email with just a couple clicks. With your cursor in the body section of the email, click the "Insert" tab. Click "Quick Parts," and then select the Quick Part you want to insert. The prewritten text will automatically appear in the body of your email, and you can edit and customize it as needed for your new response.

Unfortunately, not all emails in the workplace come with an unsubscribe link. Day after day, emails arrive in your inbox that are just a distraction. Some common examples include:

• Automatic Notifications: If you’re assigned to a team on one of the platforms you use at work—such as customer relationship management (CRM) software—that platform may send an email every time a change is made in the system.
• "Fun" Emails: Sometimes a team leader or department will send daily/weekly emails with trivia, memes, or jokes designed to make work feel more fun.
• Threads You Shouldn’t Have Been Included On: Occasionally, someone will send a mass email that gets dozens of replies—none of which have anything to do with you or your job. These emails keep you from focusing on your important work. Use Outlook’s rules function to skip the inbox and send those emails straight to the trash—or to another folder for review. You can also use Outlook rules to automatically sort incoming emails to the appropriate folder, such as always sending emails that are from your boss with a certain subject line to the To-Do folder and emails from a newsletter you regularly read to the Someday folder.
• Right-click the email, hover over "Rules," and select "Create Rule."

2. Choose the criteria for the rule:

• "From [Sender]" will execute the rule any time you receive an email from a specific email address or contact.
• "Subject contains" will execute the rule any time a specified subject line is used.

3. Select what happens when the rule runs. To sort emails out of your inbox and into the appropriate folder, check "Move the item to folder," and select the folder where you want the emails to be sent. You can choose the "Deleted Items" folder if you never want to see them, or you can create a separate archive folder if you may need to review the emails in the future. Click "OK" to apply the rule. Want to prevent getting future emails on a specific thread? In that case, instead of creating a rule, you can just use Outlook's ignore function. Right-click the email, select "Ignore," and confirm the action. Ignore automatically sends future replies to that thread to your "Deleted Items" folder so you don’t receive them in your inbox.

Taking time off is wonderful until the moment you open your email after returning to work. If you work in an email-heavy company, you may have received hundreds of emails while you were out of the office, and now you’re faced with the difficult task of sorting through each one. With Outlook’s clean-up function (introduced in Outlook 2010), you can drastically reduce the number of emails you have to deal with in just a few clicks—whether you're coming back from vacation or you just have too many emails piled up. The clean-up function removes all email replies that are duplicated in a later thread, allowing you to read a single thread instead of dozens of individual emails. To clean up your inbox quickly:

• While viewing your inbox, click the "Clean Up" button, and select "Clean Up Folder."

2. Click the "Clean Up Folder" button in the popup to confirm the action. Outlook will automatically remove all duplicate emails, leaving you with significantly fewer emails to sort through. The clean-up function can be a little disconcerting to use initially. What if it deletes something important like a reply that contained an attachment that was removed in a later thread? Rest assured: the tool is sophisticated and will not delete any emails with attachments or text that aren’t exactly duplicated in later threads, and you can always review deleted items in the trash folder if needed.

Some emails don’t require an immediate response, but they do need to be handled before the time you have scheduled to review items in your to-do folder. These items can still be moved to your to-do folder so they’re not clogging your inbox, but you’ll want to make sure that you have a reminder to take care of them before a deadline. Create a reminder by adding these emails to Outlook’s task list:

• Drag the email and drop it on Outlook’s task list icon.

2. Add a due date and set a date and time to receive a reminder. Save the task. You can now hover your cursor over the task list icon to see a quick view of your task list, organized by due date. Click on the task list icon to open your to-do list and review the respective tasks. If you set a reminder, the task will pop up like a meeting reminder at the specified time. Once the task is complete, mark it as such to remove the task from your to-do list. Open the task by double-clicking it, and click the "Mark Complete" button—or just press the Insert key to quickly mark the item complete. Outlook’s task list is also useful if you’re in the habit of copying yourself on emails as a reminder to follow up, or if you’re emailing someone who is prone to ignoring your requests. Instead of keeping reminders as emails in your inbox, just move them to your to-do folder and add them to your task list.

Find a mentor, such as a friend or family member, who has exceptional control over their finances and pay attention to everything they do. If you do not have any friends or family that are enjoying financial freedom, then find a mentor online! There are numerous blogs and guru websites featuring the advice of many people who have reached financial freedom, and they exist primarily to let you in on how to achieve it for yourself. There are also plentiful forums available that share tips and tricks on how to best achieve financial freedom. Read as much as you can and start changing your habits for the better. Patience is the key of financial success. Being patient can be quite tough, especially when you’re struggling with your finances, but having faith is worth it. You’ll continuously be on the right track if you are taking the proper steps above. So don’t be discouraged, even if you are only saving a few dollars a month; it all adds up. Within just a few years you’ll look back proudly at your accomplishments and be glad that you had the patience to get there.

Whether it’s a cash gift or a work bonus, always try to save any extra money that comes your way rather than making unneeded purchases. If you get paid every other week, you’ll get an “extra” paycheck (three rather than the usual two) twice a year. Either save those paychecks towards your emergency funds or utilize the money to pay down other obligations, such as loans, credit cards or other debts. Make it hard to get your cash. Put your savings in an alternate bank, maybe an online bank that forces you to delay for several business days before transferred money hits your regular bank account.

There isn’t really a better way to invest in gold than to have the physical gold itself in your possession. You can purchase gold coins and bars from mints as well as from coin dealers and other private sellers. Another way to invest in gold is through ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). These are is similar to mutual funds but they are exclusively investments of gold. ETFs are great because they offer more liquidity; the ETF owns the actual physical gold, stores it, and retains the value of the shares. These shares can then be bought and sold in the stock market, and one big benefit is that the transaction costs of gold ETFs are much lower than the that of physical gold. With its consistently-increasing demand, investment in gold can be very wise long-term investment to make.

Consider investing in funds. Specifically, you will gain higher returns if you invest in different types of mutual funds such as Debt funds, Equity funds and Hybrid funds with a proper balance, although it absolutely relies on your personal preferences and sense of risk taking. To get the most of these benefits, make sure you are investing in a variety of assets. Another resource of investing in mutual funds is SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) where you invest some money every month in funds. SIP works by averaging the per unit price of the stock. Mutual fund investors are aware of the benefits of an SIP (Systematic Investment Plan). For one, it is the most secure way to invest in equity mutual plans so that wealth is created over a long period of time. This plan also helps you to gain a better sense of financial discipline, which will come in handy in all your financial endeavors.

There is no doubt that for a comfortable retirement you must accumulate satisfactory savings throughout your working life. It’s good practice to save up to 15% of your income. Start with your workplace 401(k), if you have one. If not, a Roth IRA (if you are eligible) or a traditional IRA (if you are not eligible for the Roth) are the next logical steps. Increase in longevity means you might be able to look forward to 25 to 30 years in retirement, or possibly even significantly more. Investing now in good retirement plans will ensure that you have a guaranteed a stable monthly income when the time comes to stop working. [1]

Perhaps you are the type of person who always pays your credit card balance in full before the end of your billing cycle, and enjoys the reward points you gain. If this is the case, then you’re already way ahead of the game. If not, you may want to consider ridding your life of the burden that credit cards bring. Many cards have strategies set up so that if you make a certain number of late payments, they will raise your interest rate much higher. This can really add up in the long run and you won’t be doing your financial situation any favors. If you’re prone to late payments or have a large balance due on your cards, cut them up! Without proper self control on credit card spending and payments, you are basically throwing your money away. To ensure that you have better control over your spending, use only cash or debit for all future purchases (and don’t forget to pay at least your minimum payment on your cut-up cards each month!).