It is rarely necessary to soak apples or use ingredients other than tap water or vinegar to wash them. Fancy waters that involve soaking apples can change their taste. Stick to tap water for the most part, and vinegar if your apples are very dirty. Elaborate washes will do little to clean apples. Many people think organic apples do not need to be washed. While organic apples use fewer pesticides, they are still prone to environmental bacteria and can be contaminated during transport. Even organic apples should be washed under tap prior to eating. Moldy produce does not have to be discarded if only a small corner is infected with mold. If you see a small part of your apple is moldy, cut away that portion with a knife. Unless an apple is completely covered in a layer of fuzzy mold, there is no need to throw it away.

Summary: Avoid fancy washes. Wash apples even if they're organic. Do not automatically throw out moldy produce.


It's easy to feel overwhelmed by a lot of little things when you're a teacher. Conquer this feeling by writing down a list of the key things that are important to you in your job and make them your focus. For example, instead of getting stressed out about preparing your students for a weekly quiz (that happens every week), put your efforts towards helping them prepare for the big term exam. Evaluating your goals also reminds you of what you've been able to accomplish. Your goals should be attainable or you'll frustrate yourself. If you're in a large school where several teachers teach the same grade, work together to come up with lesson plans, activities, or exams. Not only will this lighten your work load, but you can also discuss similar problems or concerns. You might even discuss combining your classes for some activities. You and the other teacher could trade off leading the class and using the free time for grading or more lesson planning. If your school offers professional development or ways for teachers to interact, you should participate. Teaching can be an isolating job. But taking time to engage with other teachers at your school can make you feel more invested and supported in your job. Just make sure to avoid spending too much time around other teachers who complain all the time or who don't enjoy their jobs. You can also communicate with other teachers through social media if you find that it's hard to schedule time to meet up in person. Check out blogs that other teachers manage. As the school year progresses, you might find that it's harder to be prepared for teaching. Give yourself a fresh start and plan to get to school early one week. Getting to school 30 minutes early can give you time to finish up any last minute details, respond to emails, or just focus on the day ahead. Try to plan out your week so you're not scrambling every day. Being prepared will keep you from feeling rushed which can lead to burnout. At the very least, spend 15 minutes every night preparing for the next day. If you feel burned out because you can't seem to catch a moment's rest or are always scrambling to get through the day, you need to organize. Organize your teaching materials so you can easily find things and get rid of unnecessary things that are just taking up space. Being organized will help spend your time making daily lesson plans and weekly schedules instead of searching for materials and files. You may feel like a combination of things is causing burnout, so try to confront your biggest cause of stress at school. If you struggle with difficult behaviors in your classroom, you may need to meet with parents or bring in school support staff to talk with the student. Running away from your stressors will only lead to burnout. It may take a little time and energy to resolve your problems, but it will improve your work environment.

Summary: Decide what's most important to you. Plan lessons with a teacher's aide or another teacher. Connect with other teachers. Spend time every morning to prepare for your day. Organize and file your teaching materials. Figure out what's causing burnout and face those problems.


Focus on your key areas of expertise, and display them professionally. Much like you would do when having potential employers contact references, put your best foot forward for potential clients. Include descriptions, where appropriate or necessary. Don't use jargon. If you are offering technical expertise, include descriptions that appeal to your client base, not your peers. For example, if you are showing that you can code with PHP and AJAX, don't say  "in this case, if the input field is empty (str.length==0), the function clears the content of the txtHint placeholder and exits the function." The person who needs you to work on their site will just scratch their head and say "huh?" Say, instead, "Start entering text into this field, and it will auto-complete." Whatever your business, whatever your venue, keeping your name in the air is key to internet success. Have a business account on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If your business is graphically oriented, have accounts on Flickr and Tumblr as well. Whenever there is news of any kind—a new contract, a new page, a new entry, a new photo—cross-post it to all your social media sites. Also make sure those sites link back to your main website, and that your website has links to all of them. There are many companies and webmasters who use affiliate programs to boost their online sales, and most of these affiliate programs are free to join. When you sign up for an affiliate program, an affiliate link with a unique affiliate ID will be assigned to you. The affiliate link is used for marketing the products of your merchant. When a visitor buys an item through your affiliate link, you earn affiliate commission. For example, if you are an affiliate marketer for Musician's Friend, an online musical instrument retailer, you can advertise their products on your site. If a person visits your site, and clicks on the link that takes them to the Musician's Friend website, and they purchase an instrument within a certain amount of time (24 hours or more, typically), you get a commission on the sale. Google’s AdSense is a revenue-sharing opportunity for small, medium and large web sites that places ads for goods and services that are relevant to the content of your site, targeted to the people who frequent your pages. In turn, you get paid a small amount when the ad is either displayed on your page, or clicked on.
Summary: Add catchy content to your site. Be social. Become an affiliate marketer. Add Google AdSense advertisements to your blog or website.