How To Get The Most From CCS

How To Get The Most From CCS WITHOUT Getting Completely Overwhelmed!

 

These days, because of the amount of stuff going on on CCS, it’s simply impossible to follow everything.

 

But still sometimes we may feel we have to join every new group or keep up with every discussion. Then what happens? We get completely overwhelmed and stressed, and inevitably give up on the whole thing. Which is exactly the OPPOSITE of what I want members to feel!

 

Instead, imagine CCS as a large town full of wonderful restaurants.

 

When you want a meal, don’t go racing around grabbing a handful of food from one before dashing off to another and another. You just feel dizzy, sick and exhausted!

 

Instead choose one restaurant you like the look of, then go inside, take in the ambience, enjoy the company and savour a relaxing and delicious meal.

 

Maybe once in a while you can try a new restaurant, but remember to return to your favourites.

 

With that attitude in mind, here are:

5 top tips for getting the most from CCS, WITHOUT being totally overwhelmed:

 

1. Always visit the Main Page first.

 

The Main Page looks like this:

 

The address (URL) is http://www.coachcreativespace.ning.com.

 

Here you’ll find the key to following the activity on CCS in the Latest Activity box. It's just below the pictures of all the Members, in the centre column of the page.

 

Here, you can see who’s replied to which discussion threads, blog posts and so on, as well as see photos posted, comments on people's pages, new members joining, and other activities.

 

The most recent activity is at the top. Click on the links underlined blue to take you to that page to read more, for those parts you’re interested in.

 

Clicking on the title of the Discussion Thread (or other item) will take you to the first page of that Discussion Thread.

 

To go specifically to the Reply that someone has just left, click on where it says replied. For example: Dan replied to Dan's discussion How To Be Creative...

Click on the big blue More button to see older updates...

 

If you only visit your own Profile Page (which you get to by clicking anywhere you see your photo, or on the My Page tab at the top of any page), you’ll not see what else is happening on CCS, so the Main Page is a better place to come to see the overall activity.

 

Wherever you are on CCS, return to the Main Page by clicking on the main CCS header at the top of every page.

 

You can also see in this picture the row of Tabs that you can click on to go to various sections of CCS.

 

The Main Header, and the Tabs, are visible on every CCS page, so you can always navigate easily to where you want to go.

 

Just below the Latest Activity on the Main Page, you'll also see the most popular discussions of the week, in the box called Top Discussions. Click on the title of any of them to go to that thread and read more.

 

Just below that, you'll see the Groups. 

 

The ten groups with most recent activity are shown in two rows. So, in other words, the most active five groups on CCS are on the top row of the group section here. Click on any of them to see more.

 

Speaking of which...

 

2. Pick two or three groups and focus only on those.

 

Currently there are around 40 groups on CCS, some are ongoing, others are one off projects that have now ended. New groups appear now and then, started by myself and other members.

 

Click on the Groups tab (just below the Main Header on any page) to go to the Groups main page.

 

You can click the little drop down “Sort By” menu to choose how to display the list of groups. Browse through, see what takes your interest, join a group or two and enjoy the activities and discussions. Better to thoroughly enjoy two to three than dip your toe in 15 and never really get into any of them!

 

Thirty Days Of Creating is one of the most popular, and longest running groups on CCS.

 

Many of us use this group as a kind of creativity journal to post what we've been creating each day. 

 

Though we sometimes do specific Thirty Days Of Creating challenges altogether, feel free to begin at any time here. 

 

Visit the group here: Thirty Days Of Creating

 

Scroll down past the group's Discussion Forum and click on the + Add a Discussion link. You can now begin your own discussion thread in the group, and use it as your own creativity journal.

 

Visit other people's threads to see what they've been creating too. Go to the main group page again, scroll down and take a look at the discussion threads. Click on the View All link at the bottom right to see more.

 

3. Use the Forum main page.

 

The Discussion Forum is the central interactive part of CCS where all manner of creative discussions take place.

 

Go the main Forum page by clicking on the Forum tab just below the Main Header on any page of CCS. Like on the Groups page, click on the “Sort By” drop down menu to choose how to display the list of Discussion Threads. Browse through, see what takes your interest, click on the heading and you’ll go to that Discussion Thread.

 

Within any Discussion Thread, click on one of the Reply To This links where you want to leave your thoughts and comments. Type your comments and click the Add Reply button.

 

To start your own Discussion Thread, click the + Start a Discussion link at the top of the main Discussion Forum page.

 

4. Get to know other CCS members.

 

CCS is nothing without its community of members. You can click on someone’s photo/avatar wherever you see it to go to their Profile Page, or click on the Members tab just below the Main Header to go to the main Members page, then click on someone’s photo to go to their page from there.

 

Read their profile, Add as a friend, leave a comment on their page in the Comment Wall section, or send them a message by clicking on the Send a message link just below their photo/avatar on their page.

 

We’re a friendly, creative and supportive group, so don’t be shy.

5. Use RSS Feeds.

 

RSS Feeds are simply like having reporters out in the field to bring you updates about your favourite websites.

 

Say you have 10 favourite websites/blogs you like to keep up with. Rather than visit each one yourself every day just in case there’s new content, use an RSS Reader (Google Reader is free and easy to use) to gather all the RSS Feeds in one place.

 

Then you become like the editor of a news network, sitting in your office while all your roving reporters bring back info to you when they have it, rather than you running around the internet trying to check everything yourself.

 

Different parts of CCS have RSS Feeds, including the Latest Activity box, Photos, Discussion Threads, Blog posts etc, anywhere you see the little RSS symbol:

It's often easier to follow a Discussion Thread using RSS, so you can see all the updates in one place, then decide which you wish to click through to and reply to. 
 

Bonus Tip: How to manage your email notifications.

 

On any page, over in the right hand column, just below your name, and just below Inbox, Alerts and Friends, click on Settings. Your Settings page will open.

 

Then, in the left column , click on Email. Here you can set which activity on CCS you'd like to be notified by email about, and the various boxes ticked below. 

 

This is most useful for receiving an email notification when someone’s replied to a Discussion Thread you’re following.

 

You can select or unselect different boxes to reflect which email notifications you wish to receive. 

 

If you'd prefer a daily summary, rather than instant notifications, make sure you've selected Daily in the Email Frequency section at the top.

 

If none are ticked, you won’t receive any messages from CCS to your external email, you’ll have to then manually visit CCS to find out what’s happening. 

 

These tips will help you follow CCS more easily without feeling overwhelmed. The key is to pick a few things you’re interested in and get involved.

Again, let's return to the restaurant analogy:

 

Imagine CCS as a large town full of wonderful restaurants.

 

When you want a meal, don’t go racing around grabbing a handful of food from one before dashing off to another and another. You just feel dizzy, sick and exhausted!

 

Instead choose one restaurant you like the look of, then go inside, take in the ambience, enjoy the company and savour a relaxing and delicious meal.

 

Maybe once in a while you can try a new restaurant, but remember to return to your favourites.

If you need help with any part of CCS, don’t hesitate to drop me an email:

dangoodwin@coachcreative.com

Don’t worry that your question is too “basic”, we all were new on CCS once and had exactly the same questions…

Enjoy the community!

Dan 

(You can return to this tips page whenever you wish by clicking on the <help> tab at the top of any page, just under the Main CCS Header...)

Back To Help Topics