Weekly Round-Up: Top 5 posts of the week from around the web (Dec 15th - 21st)

Friday returns, as does another eclectic assortment of awesome articles which have made their way into my bookmarks over the last week.

• Refer to Your Annual Review Throughout the Year to Make the Next One Easier
  Melanie Pinola of Lifehacker.com explains why it makes sense to keep an eye on your annual review and not simply cast it aside from one year to the next. Whether it's a review at your job or your personal annual review, Melanie's advice is well worth taking on board.
  
• When Everyone Has an Opinion About What You’re Doing
  One more geared to the females, this post from Stephenie Zamora nonetheless offers some good advice on what to do when everybody seems to think they know what's best for you.
  
• 10 Creative Rules Of Thumb
  Bobby Owsinski of the Music 3.0 blog offers us some great tips on how to keep our creative juices flowing.
  
• 5 Ways to Communicate More Clearly
  'Miscommunication costs you time and money. How to make sure what they heard is what you said.' writes Peter Cohan in an awesome read that we can all take something from.
  
• 8 Kickstarter Alternatives You Should Know About
  Go fund yourself. Most of us know about crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and how they can help us generate the necessary income to fuel our creative projects, but if you're looking for an alternative, Mashable has you covered.