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Get more lives in Candy Crush saga

// May 17th, 2013 // No Comments » // games, gaming, Play

So many friends are playing the game Candy Crush Saga by King Games. It is one of the biggest hits at the moment. It is a simple connect 3 bejeweled type of game, that has been expertly linked to people’s social profiles for enhanced engagement.

In Candy Crush [it's very addictive], you only have a max of 5 lives at a time. These are given based on the amount of time that has passed since your last life was used up. Of course completing a very difficult level may require more than the 5 lives. Once they are up, you can wait 20 minutes, but a new life for or if you connect to Facebook, ask friends to send you lives.

Now I have about 16 lives [11 over the max] at anyone time waiting for me to use up in completing the hard levels. And I don’t spend any money on them. Here is my technique.

Tip #1:
Get in the top 3 ranks on the early levels.
While you are playing the early levels, try and get onto the top 3 high scores. This way people will see your profile more often, as well as the send a life button. Most players stay in the early levels of the game [under level 50] This will make sure you get lots of lives coming from friends because they see you there more often.

Get in the top 3 list.

Tip #2
Don’t accept all at once!
In the game you can select to accept lives. Don’t accept more than 5 at a time. The game seems to have a limit of 6 lives at a time. Don’t waste those lives. Keep those messages containing lives unread until you need them again when you run out. This way I tend to have lots of lives stored up in my messages.

Don’t accept all lives at once.

Tip #3
Out of lives? Switch devices.
If you are playing on an iPhone or iPad and you run out of lives, simply goto your computer and play the game through the browser on Facebook. For some reason the Candy Crush servers are not fast enough to remove those lives. So once all 5 are gone on the phone, bam! On the desktop [Facebook browser open] there are 5 lives again. Woohoo!!! As you can see in the pictures below, it works in the reverse as well!

No more lives on the desktop? Switch to the phone and play.

See, now there are more lives on the phone again.

I hope you enjoyed these tips. If you liked them please share them with your candy crush friends.

How to be more productive? Top 3 things

// May 13th, 2013 // No Comments » // Work

Many of us struggle with how to be more productive with our schedules. How can we make sure that we get our work done efficiently so we have more time to goof off?

“Wait goof off? That’s not the way to get more productive!”, I can hear you say. By goofing off I mean play time. I and many others believe PLAY is the essence to innovation. When we play, and play hard we are being very productive and effective in rapid prototyping of ideas and training our natural inspiration to come forth. It is an essential trait that is often being knocked out of us by the dogma of what good work habits are.

Recently I received an e-mal from Jamie Lindell who has written a very nice blog post about productivity. There are some very interesting observations from studies in this post. How everything from multiple monitors, diet, exercise and sleep affect our productivity.
Have a read here: Psychology of Productivity.

However for me the most important rule in productivity is simply the 20-80 rule. Simply stated, it seems that 20% of the work results in 80% of the outcome. To make a perfect 100% means “wasting” 80% more work to achieve only 20% more affect.

The top business managers and achievers use this rule everyday and are able to “filter out” the non-essential work. But trying to figure out what is essential is the hard part. What is most important? What will bring the greatest effect? How do I choose?

I do the following as a guide. If I could do only 1 thing today, what would that 1 thing be? Usually it is the one thing I am dreading the most which will achieve the greatest result. Sometimes, it’s just a phone call I really need to make and am dreading.Other times it may be writing a script or editing a film, or just getting a design finished for a developer.

 image via http://chetztogom.com/

By concentrating on doing only that 1 thing, I make sure it is the most important thing that has to be done, with the greatest possible outcome. After accomplishing it, my mind sends lots of dopamine to the brain for a reward, saying “Way to go! You did it! Let’s do it again!” This is the way the brain gives a natural motivational boost. The crazy thing is the bigger the challenge, i.e. the more I was dreading it, the bigger that dopamine kick I get. It’s addictive. You want more! This gives me that boost in motivation to get the second most important thing done. So I keep going. But by the 3rd major task that is completed, there is less and less dopamine released.

It’s like being a drug addict. When you get a big dose, you keep striving for that same high. Lower doses seem to work less, so in the end to get the same feeling you start to look for harder and harder challenges. It can spiral right out of control, and next thing you know you are kite boarding behind a jet with Richard Branson on your shoulders. To make sure this doesn’t happen to me, I keep it at the 3 dose per day. But then in my day I have completed the 1-3 most important tasks to achieve success. The rest of the day I have to explore, play, goof-off and learn new ideas, skills, etc. to help me for the top 3 tasks that I have to do tomorrow.

What is your most important task for today?

Here is also a list of some great TED Talks on the subject of productivity and working smarter.
TED Playlist Work Smarter

Some great books on the subject to help you get motivated as well:
Living The 80/20 Way: Work Less, Worry Less, Succeed More, Enjoy More
Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Related blog posts: Psychology of Productivity

Bitcoin Explained in 3 minutes Video

// April 10th, 2013 // No Comments » // gaming, Technology, Video

There is a lot of buzz nowadays about bitcoin. Some people are saying it is a good investment. But I’m sure you are wondering how it works. I’ve been following bitcoin on and off for a couple of years now, and it seems it is starting to tip into the mainstream media with lots of rumors running around it. Before you get caught up in the rumors, have a look at what bitcoin is. This is a great video that explains how the system works. Many people are switching due to the distrust that is forming around defaulting and corrupt banking systems. Could bitcoin be the answer, or just a stepping stone to a new type of currency?

How to hack a former employee’s LinkedIn account

// March 25th, 2013 // No Comments » // digital lifestyle, life, Technology

This is a surprisingly easy way that employers can hack into a former employee’s LinkedIn account. They can change anything they want, including password and the former employee wouldn’t know until it is to late. This was a discovery I made today when…

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