Today is Valentine’s Day. Happiness and joy are all up in the air, people post pictures of kisses on social media, flower shops make a handsome profit. All in all – a great day 🙂 We, your friendly neighborhood Nerdify, have created a short list of various ways you can spend an unforgettable Valentine’s Day with someone you love. Enjoy!

No, wait! Put this unforgettable song on, to set you in the right mood, and then start reading. Lets roll:

Number 1 – Gordon Ramsey style

You’ve probably seen lots of ads of cooking masterclasses, where you’ll be taught how to cook exquisite meals by a professional staff. Use Valentine’s Day to lure your loved one into one of those! It’s incredibly fun – you spend time together doing something exciting and you get to eat some delicious food. If you don’t feel like going out – you can just as easily cook at home. Doesn’t matter if it’s a cake in the shape of a Heart, juicy steak or classic caesar salad – the important thing is that you do it together! Have fun 🙂

Number 2 – Game night

One advantage of being a couple – you can play co-op games 🙂 Our personal favorite – Portal 2 Co-op mode. It’s an incredibly fun game, with tonnes of humor. It will test your brains and patience.

Alternatively, if you feel a bit old-fashioned, why not play a board game? The great thing is that there are almost an infinite amount of choices available to you. Roll the dice this Valentine’s Day!

Number 3 – A love Quest

If your partner loves brain teasers – why not create a quest for him/her? Write down questions on your valentines and put them around your apartment. Set a series of questions in such a way that it creates a small journey. Lead your loved one to a special place (where you first met, had your first date etc) where you’ll treat him/her with a special gift. Valentine’s Day “detective mode – on”!

Number 4 – Movie marathon

This one is easy – put on your PJs and start a movie marathon lying on your bed and cuddling together while watching romantic classic 🙂 Whether it’s comedies (“50 first dates”, “Valentine’s Day”), drama (“The Notebook”, “One Day”), or something a bit more spicy (“Nine and a half weeks”) – it’s up to you. If you do insist on going to the cinema – “Fifty Shades Freed” is up right now, so get cracking!

Number 5 – Valentine’s… year!

A great way to extend the romance for the whole year! Set up a typical romantic dinner with wine and candles, strawberries and heart-shaped cookies. But, to spice things up a little – get a marker and some paper. And for the whole evening – write down small whimsical wishes. That can be anything from romantic to comic ones: “do a foot massage”, “adopt a puppy”, “parody Jim Carrey” – anything 🙂 Put that in a jar and set aside. Then, for the whole year – one by one, pick them out of the jar and make them happen. The rules say that you HAVE to make it happen – so make sure you talk some “boundaries” before actually committing to this game 🙂

Nerdify reviews team strikes again! 

If you haven’t tried educational podcasts yet, it’s high time to choose podcasts to ease your learning. With your academic success in my mind, Nerdify reviews top-10 podcasts that raise learning to a whole new level! So, fasten your seatbelts, and we’ll start!

For those of you who do not have a clue what a podcast is, we strongly recommend consulting a dictionary, where you’ll learn that podcast is “a broadcast that is placed on the Internet who wants to listen to it or watch it.” Sounds boring? At all! These ten podcasts will change your perception of learning as a tiresome process!

1. TED Talks Daily

It’s probably the best podcast one could ever imagine! Every weekday, a new episode is waiting for your attention! What are these episodes about? Well, I can’t imagine a topic that hasn’t been discussed in TED Talks! Social problems, zoology, archeology, artificial intelligence…The whole vibrant world is just a click away!

2. School Psyched!

In the upcoming study year, Anna, Rachael, and Rebecca will be your best friends! Reasons? No doubt, they are enormously cool!!! Just imagine three ladies discussing a myriad of educational topics, starting with time management and to ADHD strategies. Willing to join the conversation? Then, be ready to find yourself in the company of outstanding personalities like Dr. Richard A. Cash. You’ll definitely like Dr. Cash for he’s got a wealth of experience as an international education consultant.

3. The Knowledge Project

What is the Knowledge Project about? Well, it’s a pretty tricky question; so, I’d better tell you what it is not about. The Knowledge Project is not about…boredom:)

The Knowledge Project is ready to introduce you to dozens of great people, and they are waiting to share the secret of their success with you!

Test the coolness of the Knowledge Project by starting with:

• Life Lessons from a Self-Made Billionaire: My Conversation with Ray Dalio
• Getting Better by Being Wrong, a conversation with Annie Duke, former professional poker player and an author of the book Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts
• The Science of Doing Good with William MacAskill, the co-founder and President of the Centre for Effective Altruism.

4. Back to Work

I can bet that the talk show with Merlin Mann and David Benjamin will completely grab your attention! So, be aware that conversations about productivity, communication, and time management are so exciting that you can easily lose track of your time when listening to them:)        

5. WorkLife with Adam Grant

Good conversations are never enough, and Adam Grant is ready to discuss a bunch of interesting topics with you.! Did you know that people spend around a quarter of their life at work? Some of them are happy with the fact, while others are not. If you are one of those unfortunate, you’ll want to learn about things that make a workplace great. By dissecting the world’s coolest workplaces, Adam Grant comes up with a series of worthy suggestions:

• trust people
• don’t be afraid of criticism
• understand your hidden personality

Everything that makes one a happy worker is at your disposal in WorkLife with Adam Grant podcast!

6. Revisionist History

History is terra incognita, but you’ll definitely enjoy discovering hidden events or reexamining misinterpreted ones if you have Malcolm Gladwell as a guide.  Gladwell is the author of the bestseller Outliers, so he’s probably the best companion in your travel along intricate historical trails!

Could you imagine that: “Saigon, 1965 is the story of three people who got caught up in that effort: a young Vietnamese woman, a refugee from Nazi Germany, and a brilliant Russian émigré. All saw the same things. All reached different conclusions. The Pentagon effort, run by the Rand Corporation, was one of the most ambitious studies of enemy combatants ever conducted — and no one could agree on what it meant.”?

In case you couldn’t, just keep in mind that Malcolm Gladwell has many more historical discoveries for you!

7. The Guardian’s Science Weekly

Everyone is familiar with the British news outlet called The Guardian, but a few know that they produce The Guardian’s Science Weekly. It is, without any exaggeration, an awesome project that will show you the world of science from a totally unexpected angle! Heatwaves, biomimicry, radiophobia, killing asbestos, and e-cigarettes are just a small portion of discussions that won’t leave you indifferent!

8. Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Moving at the speed of creativity is all you need this study year! It is a truly awesome podcast where you can learn about “education, twenty-first-century literacy, blended learning, technology integration, and educational leadership.” Being part of a vibrant intellectual community is the best experience one can ever have!

9. Mixed Mental Arts

Mixed Mental Arts will teach you…stealing! But don’t be scared; you’ll steal “the best cultural software from everywhere and apply the core principle of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do. Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” In other words, Mixed Mental Arts will teach you to be an efficient personality in this turbulent world!

BTW, of all the mentioned podcasts, Mixed Mental Arts has the most extensive content. So, you’re guaranteed to have an exciting time browsing through it!

10. 101 Series – Innovative Language!

Good news for those who are waiting for Monday to start learning a foreign language! With 101 Series – Innovative Language! there are no more excuses to keep language studies on the back burner! Choose from hundreds of audio and video lessons, pdf notes and flashcards to notice progress from the very first lesson!  

Nerdify reviews team has piled dozens of podcasts here to provide all the information that you need to succeed. Learning is always fun if you have the right tools in your hand!  

Today we’ve decided to do something we’ve never done before. We are introducing a new type of content on the Nerdify blog – Nerdify Reviews. From now on, we are going to be reviewing books/podcasts/movies/ etc., that we think can add value to students and are interesting even to the general public. Nerdify Reviews is going to appear on our blog every month, so stay tuned, lot’s of great content coming your way!

For our first “Nerdify Reviews” we’ve chosen a brilliant book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. We think it’s a must-read for pretty much anyone, it’s in our company’s library and it has amazing reader-reviews online.

So, without further due, let’s jump into it. The book describes 7 habits that are aimed to boost your productivity and general motivation to achieve your life goals. These are the habits:

* Be Proactive

Imagine 2 circles in your life – one is the circle of concern (that’s the stuff you are worried about) and within that circle there’s a circle of influence (that’s the stuff you can actually have certain control over – your relationships, work, health, etc).  Being proactive means only be concerned about things YOU HAVE CAN INFLUENCE. That will save you a lot of time you waste worrying about stuff you have zero control over (no point about worrying about whether the Earth will be struck by an asteroid – there’s pretty much nothing you can do about it, mate). So habit number 1 – be proactive.

* Being With An End In Mind

Imagine you are at a funeral. At your funeral (ok, it’s not real, just bare with us for a sec). Ask yourself the following question: “What do I have to say about myself”. Do you want people to say that you were an amazing friend? A great boss? A business leader? But are you actually DOING things that will make people say all of that about you?

In the modern world, it’s really easy to get distracted. Always have the end in mind and CONSTANTLY do a reality check whether you are doing things that get you closer to the end goal?

Learn to say no. This is actually one of the Steve Job’s superpowers – saying no to things that do not get your closer to your goal.

* Put First Things First

This is actually about setting the priorities right. Look, life is FULL of events and opportunities. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to do everything you want. There are only 24 hours in 1 day. And your workday may be full of interruptions. So, learning how to set up your priorities right will go a long way. Answer to yourself “what is the most IMPORTANT thing I have to do right now and how URGENT I have to do that”. Based on that – construct your to-do-list.

* Think Win-Win

This is a very powerful mentality, especially if you want to work in business and be an entrepreneur. Our world is not a zero-sum game (meaning that in order for you to win, someone has to lose). By far in most cases, you can always find a win-win scenario. Usually, people who think that, have integrity, maturity and abundance mentality (meaning they actually believe there’s enough for everybody).

* Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood

This is the holy grail of any negotiations. You have the following “levels of listening” – ignoring, pretending to listen, selective listening and active. Now, you might think that active listening is the maximum level of attention you can dedicate to your counterpart. But it’s not true. The highest level of listening is Empathic listening. This is when you are trying to understand both the content and feelings of your counterpart. It’s as if you are putting yourself in “their shoes”. By doing so you can actually understand what the other person truly feels are really wants. It’s absolutely vital if you want to be a successful negotiator.

* Synergize

This actually is a natural extension of habit 4 and habit 4. When working in a team being able to negotiate and find win-win scenarios is incredibly important. But, being able to unite a few people who have skill sets in different areas – that’s what makes up a very strong team. Always look for opportunities where you can achieve an additional value out of the partnership due to synergize.

* Sharpen The Saw

Imagine a guy cutting a tree with a saw. He is exhausted, he has been working for hours. You approach him and say “Hey, why don’t you take a break and sharpen that saw – you’ll cut the tree down much sooner this way” and the person replies “I don’t have time for this, I have to cut down this tree”. See the problem here?

There’s no point taking on a task if you haven’t prepared for it! Make sure you spend an adequate amount of time PREPARING and planning how you are actually going to execute your task.

This is it, that’s our first review, we hope you liked it. If you want us to review some other books, please let us know in the comment section below 🙂 Nerdify is always trying to provide useful content. Check out our previous story about Secrets behind great success.