Accidents happen. The accidental things in life are sometimes the moments you should be paying the most attention to.

I can tell you without hesitation that I am a night person. I love the late-night clickity clack on the keyboard as my mind races towards the next project. I love sleeping in until 8 or 9 before heading into the office. I also love how the Universe kindly puts me in my place whenever it doesn’t agree with what I love.

This late-sleeper and my wife got a puppy four weeks ago. This puppy, for the first week at least, had no concept of time. Day, night – it made no difference to her. It whined to go outside every hour or two – all day and all night. I’m not going to pretend like this was worse than people who have babies. I’m sure it’s nothing in comparison - but this was a BIG deal to me. My schedule was completely thrown off, I was tired every minute of every day, and I hadn’t accomplished anything really worthwhile since she arrived.

By the way, the puppy is a female Shih Tzu and Terrier mix. Her name is Beta, she’s 15 weeks old, and weighs about 6 or 7 pounds. She probably won’t get over 12 pounds full-grown. She absolutely loves people and chasing anything that moves – even wind.

Four weeks without a full blog post or completing a project is like an eternity for me. I had to figure out a way to “fix” this.

Beta is at the point now where she can sleep at night for about 5 or 6 hours without having to go out. She’s so tiny that I don’t think this will ever get to be much longer – at lease by much. So, at least for now, I decided to analyze my current out-of-flux life:

I’m still up late, because that’s what I’m used to. However, after about 8pm, I’m completely worthless I’m so tired. I essentially spend the next 5-6 hours letting the dog out and wishing I was in bed. Many times, my wife gets up with the dog to let her out in the morning. However, I end up waking up, going back to sleep, waking back up for the next 3-4 hours until I would “normally” get up.

I’ve noticed, though, that when I get up to let the dog out in the morning at 4 or 5am, I have a hard time going back to sleep right away — once I’m up, I’m up.

I decided to use my body’s new schedule to change the way I do things.

I was up at 4am this morning to let the dog out. I put her back to sleep for a little while while I got ready. Took her back out at 5am and played with her a little bit, got her some food, put her back to bed and left for the office.

After a Starbucks stop, I was here by 6am with a much clearer mind than I thought I would have. After mail-check and news updates, I was writing by 6:30. I’m not sure yet how I’ll feel the rest of the day, but I know that it can’t be much worse than what’s been happening the last several weeks. I’ll at least have a few more hours of productivity than I normally would.

Should You Change Your Schedule?

Without being forced into this by some external source (ie, a dog or baby), I’m not sure how easy this would be to do – especially if you’re the type of person who loves to be up late or up early and have always been like that.

I would challenge you to look at your schedule for a day. When are you the most productive? When are you the least productive? Is there a certain time of the day you typically spend doing nothing except sitting around, watching TV? If you have goals that you want to reach in life, those goals and dreams should be enough to get you to at least evaluate your current schedule.

If it’s not working, change it. If I can get 4 extra hours per day just by waking up early and not continually going back to sleep, then that’s what I need to do. If you’re spending the late evening hours forcing your eyelids open to watch some primetime summer series or, heaven forbid, Daisy of Love – maybe it’s time you ask yourself what’s more important?

Maybe you’re one who gets up early, but doesn’t accomplish anything. Have you thought that maybe your body just wants to be productive at night? I’d say it’s worth trying. Forget the “early bird gets the worm” stuff, this is about your unique body and energy. Who knows, maybe you need the moonlight to feed your creativity. Creepy ;)

The bottom line here is that we need to stay aware of our productivity cycles. If we aren’t as productive as we’d like to be – there are likely times of the day that we COULD be productive, but are just doing other things at those times. Adjust accordingly and let’s watch our productivity sore!

Being part of the world as we know it sometimes forces one into certain habits.  Our grandfathers would be ashamed, our great-grandfathers would wonder, “wtf is email?”  And yet, many of us – including myself – allow ourselves to be sucked into the trap of email UNproductivity.

I’d like to cover 5 methods I’m using successfully to stop wasting so much valuable time dealing with emails.  There’s bound to be at least one that will help you become more productive.

1.) Unsubscribing from Newsletters and Lists
This could be a topic all it’s own – on top of that, I could go off on a rant about how I seem to always get an email stating how I’ve successfully been unsubscribed, when I swear I just clicked a box saying stop sending me emails.  Ugh.

Most of us who are interested in a wide variety of topics across the web typically end up on dozens of email lists at some point.  Some of these are from newsletters we initially wanted information from, some of them are from purchases we’ve made, or social networking sites we joined — but in my case, almost 90% of what comes in from these email lists is total junk to me.

My tip:  Take a week or two to simply open up all these emails as soon as you see them, click unsubscribe, and be done with it.  Most emails are simple to unsubscribe from, and if they’re not, they’re probably illegal emails.  I think you’ll be surprised at how much your inbox clears up from just this one step.

2.) Using Filters and Folders
I’m a hardcore GMail user, and have dozens of filters setup to make things easy and organized.  Sure, it takes a few minutes to set one up – but the long-term time saving from doing this can be priceless.  Filters and labels in GMail is similar to setting up folders and rules in programs like Outlook – I have filters setup for receipts (from sites with certain subject lines I buy from frequently, like Amazon) – so I never have to sort these emails when they come in.  If I ever want to review them, I just click on that label.

Another powerful way to use filters is to use auto-replies.  GMail, for instance, has a “Canned Response” feature (make sure it’s enabled under Settings->Labs) where you can compose emails to automatically send to people based on certain criteria.  This would be helpful if you’re responding to the same types of emails all day long.  You could create canned responses based on keywords that would appear in the emails, and let the users know if this didn’t answer their question, that you’ll get back to them soon.  You still need to go through these emails, but you’ll know if they’ve been responded to – and if the response should’ve satisfied the person, then you can simply archive it instead of having to respond.

3.) Scheduled Email Checks
This one has always sounded easier than it’s been in practice.  I’d love to have 30 minutes a day I just do email and be done with it, but there are many people, including myself, who simply can’t get by with not checking email on a regular basis.

I’ve come to realize that my best case scenario is spending about 5 minutes per hour or so.  Setting this up can be difficult for someone who lives in their inbox, but by using some of the other methods in this article, you should be able to get to the point where it’s comfortable.  Of course, you could always setup a rule or filter to notify you of important emails.  I do this by setting up a filter based on several criteria that forwards email directly to my cell phone.

If you can pull off checking email only once per day – by all means, do it!

4.) Use Only One Email System
Again, for some people this won’t be possible, but if you have several email addresses (I have 10 or so that I need to receive at along with 3 or 4 primary ones), you should have them all coming into a single program.  GMail is perfect for this, or you can use many other programs like Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, or Mozilla Thunderbird.

I prefer a web-based mail application because I can access it wherever I am, as well as on my phone.  I’m not downloading mail every time I open my desktop or laptop or work computer – it’s all right there, online, and ready to go.

You can setup POP3 accounts, forward your other mail accounts to your new primary email account, and setup different email addresses you can reply from in case you have private email addresses as well as business email addresses.  I have one GMail account with 3 personal accounts and 12 business email accounts forwarding to it.  I’ve setup all of these email addresses as possible replying addresses so I can send email using any of the email addresses.

5.)  Skip Email Alltogether.
Twitter started a craze.  People are communicating quicker than ever by using text messaging, Twitter, and instant messaging systems to communicate faster than ever.  I’m not going to touch on IM services here, because I don’t think they’re a healthy alternative to email – they’re actually even MORE distracting, however there is one tool that I have noticed considerably cut down on the number of emails I receive.

Yammer.
Yammer is a Twitter-like tool that’s made for businesses and groups.  I use Yammer to communicate directly to the marketing department I work with.  These messages are posted to a private board that only other marketing department members can read.  We can reply and chat about the topics in a way that’s just not as convienient with email.  In fact, it actually makes us much more productive because now the entire team is automatically privy to all the important subjects being discussed.

Think of it like a big, limitless notebook that everyone can look at simuataneously all day long.  It’s an amazing tool for businesses and small groups to communicate more effectiently.  Using a tool like this for groups who regularly need to communicate can cut down on dozens or hundereds of emails.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Are there any other tools or advice you have to save time on email?  I’d love to hear about your experiences!

Starting a Gratitude Journal

The things you could be grateful could range from the courteous service at the car wash, the help of a friend, to the love of a family member, to the hand of god rocking you gently, anything counts really. Of course, writing in your gratitude journal is much easier after you have had a great day. If you have had a bad day, you still have to write five things down that you are grateful for. It’ll be a lot tougher, but you still have to find some and write them down.

But that’s the point.

You start a gratitude journal to help yourself find the positive things in life. It teaches you to look for the positive in an otherwise dreary day. So it’s on the terrible and depressing days that the journal does its work. Even though times have been tough, you have still been able to find things about your life that you are grateful for. Though they may only be small things like dew drops and kittens, you still forced yourself to find a silver lining in a dark cloud of a day. On a good day, it still teaches you to be grateful for all the good things that have happened to you. It’s a win-win situation.

A gratitude journal is such a wonderful and needed thing. There are few things in life that force you to regularly look at your life and be thankful for all the good things that you have been given.
Start one today, to remind you of all the great and positive things in your life.

How are YOU journalling?

I have a million favorite expressions when it comes to being stressed out, but I wouldn’t bother naming all of them. When it comes down to it, I think it comes down to how we work – or even relax for, that matter – that triggers stress. Ever been stressed even when you’re well relaxed and bored? I know I have.

Since errors are unavoidable in life, it is important to find ways to decrease and prevent stressful incidents and decrease negative reactions to stress. Here are some of the things that can be done simply – since life is basically a routine to follow like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast. You can do a few of them in a longer span of time, but as they say– every minute counts.

Managing time

Time management skills can allow you more time with your family and friends and possibly increase your performance and productivity. This will help reduce your stress.

To improve your time management:

- Save time by focusing and concentrating, delegating, and scheduling time for yourself.
- Keep a record of how you spend your time, including work, family, and leisure time.
- Prioritize your time by rating tasks by importance and urgency. Redirect your time to those activities that are important and meaningful to you.
- Manage your commitments by not over- or undercommitting. Don’t commit to what is not important to you.
- Deal with procrastination by using a day planner, breaking large projects into smaller ones, and setting short-term deadlines.
- Examine your beliefs to reduce conflict between what you believe and what your life is like.
Build healthy coping strategies

It is important that you identify your coping strategies. One way to do this is by recording the stressful event, your reaction, and how you cope in a stress journal. With this information, you can work to change unhealthy coping strategies into healthy ones-those that help you focus on the positive and what you can change or control in your life.

Lifestyle

Some behaviors and lifestyle choices affect your stress level. They may not cause stress directly, but they can interfere with the ways your body seeks relief from stress. Try to:

- Balance personal, work, and family needs and obligations.
- Have a sense of purpose in life.
- Get enough sleep, since your body recovers from the stresses of the day while you are sleeping.
- Eat a balanced diet for a nutritional defense against stress.
- Get moderate exercise throughout the week.
- Limit your consumption of alcohol.
- Don’t smoke.

Social support

Social support is a major factor in how we experience stress. Social support is the positive support you receive from family, friends, and the community. It is the knowledge that you are cared for, loved, esteemed, and valued. More and more research indicates a strong relationship between social support and better mental and physical health.

Changing thinking

When an event triggers negative thoughts, you may experience fear, insecurity, anxiety, depression, rage, guilt, and a sense of worthlessness or powerlessness. These emotions trigger the body’s stress, just as an actual threat does. Dealing with your negative thoughts and how you see things can help reduce stress.

- Thought-stopping helps you stop a negative thought to help eliminate stress.
- Disproving irrational thoughts helps you to avoid exaggerating the negative thought, anticipating the worst, and interpreting an event incorrectly.
- Problem solving helps you identify all aspects of a stressful event and find ways to deal with it.
- Changing your communication style helps you communicate in a way that makes your views known without making others feel put down, hostile, or intimidated. This reduces the stress that comes from poor communication. Use the assertiveness ladder to improve your communication style.

Even writers like me can get stressed even though we’re just using our hands to do the talking, but having to sit for 7 or 8 hours is already stressful enough and have our own way to relieve stress. Whether you’re the mail guy, the CEO, or probably the average working parent, stress is one unwanted visitor you would love to boot out of your homes, especially your life.

Learning to successfully plan your time and follow the plan is the most important key to structuring our life. But many people resist the idea of tracking their time. Maybe it seems like just “another thing to do” in an already harried schedule. I urge people who feel this way to try this system for one month. I tell them that if it doesn’t work, pitch it. Most people I have worked with are willing to make the one-month commitment, and over 90 percent continue to use the system.

Let’s get started with your own system to take control of your life and your time. As you glance through this section, you might be tempted to skip a step or two. I caution you that this is like a recipe. Skipping one step is the equivalent of leaving out an ingredient. For maximum success use all the ingredients.

Step One: Take stock of how you currently use your time. Perhaps the most tedious of all the steps is to figure out exactly where your time is currently going. The balance wheel provided an overview of where you are. If possible, try to get even more specific. Many time management experts suggest carrying a planner and writing down everything you do for a week in fifteen-minute increments. I personally wouldn’t recommend it because I could never find the time to do it, and each time I tried, I lasted about an hour. What worked for me was to divide a piece of paper into the following increments: Before Work, Morning at Work, Lunch Hour, Afternoon at Work, Evening with Samantha, After Samantha goes to Bed. In each square I wrote a few brief notes as to how I spent this time. I was able to maintain this method for the full week to get an accurate inventory of how I spent my time. Whatever method works for you is great; just try to gather some sort of weekly summary.

Step Two: Evaluate your week, simplify expectations and identify common time wasters. Recording a week’s worth of activity can be an eye opener for many. In the hustle and bustle of life we often overlook how much time slips away that could be better utilized. As you look at your week, ask yourself the following:

How much time is spent spinning your wheels? Could positive planning help free up this time?

How many times do you make the same trip twice? (i.e. running errands in the same area of town, going to the store more than once.) How much time could positive planning free up if these trips were consolidated?

How much time is spent doing extra-commitments? (Helping church, school, friends or organizations.) If you budgeted a comfortable amount of time each week to others, but made a promise not to exceed it, would that help balance your life?

Do you really have to do everything? What on your list could be delegated or become a shared responsibility? Are there any items kids could help with? Could you pay a baby sitter a little extra to help clean or grocery shop? Could you start a car pool with other single parents to eliminate the constant demand of driving?

Do you have to do everything so often? If you are cleaning your home once a week, top to bottom, could that be done once a month and spot cleaning be done weekly? If your time is being devoured by items that are low or nonexistent on your balance wheel, consider deleting or simplifying those tasks. Could you go to the grocery store monthly for the bulk of your food and just drop in weekly for perishables? If financial considerations prevent monthly trips to the grocery store, consider making this a goal to work toward.

What areas are simply getting too much time? Are the mornings devoted to too much dawdling and not enough doing? Are phone calls taking away from work time or family time?

What about you? Often the first thing to be eliminated from a schedule is time for one’s self. How much time did you devote to yourself last week — without children? Did you take a walk alone? Relax for a while in peace and quiet? If you know that you aren’t making time for adequate rejuvenation, sleep, exercise, diet or other self-maintenance, make this a starred priority. You need energy and self-care in order to nurture your children. Try and block out at least two hours a week for time that is completely devoted to you. The energy that you collect from two hours of focused time will easily recover those hours and more.

Step Three: Make an inventory of responsibilities and goals. As you went through Step Two, you most likely pinpointed where your time is escaping and remedies for correcting it. You also probably figured out what tasks need to be done and what is done more out of habit than need. Step Three involves listing out all your responsibilities and goals. Once we have them all on the table, we can begin to insert them into your life management system.

On a fresh sheet of notepaper list all the responsibilities you can think of. You may want to divide these into three columns — personal, family and work. The weekly inventory from Step One offers a good starting point of responsibilities. Keep this list handy, since more responsibilities may occur to you throughout the upcoming days.

Here are some responsibilities that may be on your list:

Carpool Vacuuming
Education Yard Work
Volunteer Work Finances
Cooking Exercise
Pet Care Work
Grocery Shopping Helping at School
Sweeping & Mopping Laundry
Church/Temple (or Synagogue)

Step Four: Prioritize with the A, B, C method. People have a tendency to create to-do lists and give each task equal billing. Most of the time, not everything needs to be done immediately. Listing everything together can create a false sense of urgency and unneeded stress. Try identifying each item with a priority tag as shown here.

A – For items that must be done out of prior commitment or because they are part of your goals, priorities or value system.

B – For items that you hope to get done if you can complete all of the A-Priority tasks.

C- For items that need to be done at some point.

Many people find that when starting to prioritize, they have mostly A’s and few B or C items. Since many of us don’t practice regular planning, this is quite common. After a few weeks of planning and maximizing your time, you should begin to see a better balance of A, B, and C items.

Once each item is prioritized, compare your list to your balance wheel. Are you heading in the direction you want your life to take? Many people find that just recording these items on paper leads toward a more balanced wheel. If it doesn’t for you, look over the list again. Is there anything else you could change or do to take you one step closer to your balanced goal?

Step Five: Create a monthly plan. A monthly plan is similar to a balance wheel in that it serves as an overview for where you are. Sketch in responsibilities and appointments on a monthly calendar.

As you write each item on your calendar, ask yourself—Does this coincide with the plan I have for my life? If not, why am I doing it? Sometimes these are items that we must do, but other times they might be things we do out of habit. For example, one woman, Cindy, reported that she cleaned her house thoroughly every Sunday and wished she could hire a maid. With her high devotion to cleaning, I asked her if this was a priority in her life. She replied that it wasn’t.

After a few moments she said that her mother had always kept a very tidy house, and she felt that was part of her “expectations.” Cindy switched from a thorough cleaning once a week to a monthly thorough cleaning and touch-ups on weekends. This created close to fourteen extra hours for her each month.

Step Six: Create a weekly plan. The weekly plan sheet will serve as your primary tool for life management. I find that filling out a weekly plan sheet each Sunday afternoon or evening makes my weeks much more effective and helps to maximize each day. Here’s how it works: Each Sunday look at your responsibility list and your monthly calendar. Jot down any appointments or commitments on your weekly planner. Next, look at the time you have left and get out your balance wheel. Look at the ideal wheel you made earlier. Glance at your goals. Fill in the remaining spaces with those items. Your schedule might be so hectic that you only see a few 30-minute increments over the course of the week. Don’t let them slip away!

Step Seven: Create a daily plan each night. Each night before retiring, jot down a plan for the following day. I find that using the same increment schedule I mentioned for tracking time works best for me. I simply divide a piece of paper into morning responsibilities, afternoon responsibilities and evening responsibilities. Others report great success with a system documented by hours. Find a method that works for you and you’ll see how the daily plan accomplishes several vital functions:

1. You don’t have to “store” everything in your mind. You can jot it down, plan it and then let it go. This helps to alleviate stress.

2. You can eliminate spinning your wheels and wondering what to do next since you simply follow the plan.

3. It offers a sense of accomplishment as you mark off each item you have accomplished.

Note: On your daily list you may want to name your top three priorities for the day. These tasks should contain three things that no matter what would allow you to feel good about your day if you accomplished them.

Step Eight: Utilize to-do lists. To-do lists offer a great release. I keep a spiral notebook in my purse at all times. I use this to jot down anything I think of that I need to do. At one point, I tried to have just a master list at home, but soon noticed that I never thought of anything that needed to be done until I was stuck in traffic, playing at the park or at some other location equally far from my pen and paper.

By jotting down these items as they occur to you, a person doesn’t have to continually focus on them, be preoccupied or try to remember them.

Step Nine: Organize a time-management center. You will need to have a time-management center to keep track of your progress and schedules. If you don’t have a spare drawer, pick up an accordion file at your local office supply store. Stock your file with the following:

• Scratch paper or to-do list paper
• A monthly calendar
• Pencils/pens
• Weekly and daily calendars (Check into the many planners available today. There are several that can be customized to fit your needs. Or, if you have a computer,
• make your own forms, hole-punch them, and insert these papers into a three-ring binder. This allows you to customize your entire organizer.)
• A section to hold bills (folders that are three-hole-punched are excellent if you are using a three-ring binder)
• A section to hold important papers
• A section for receipts and other important items
• Stamps and different sized envelopes
• Note cards
• Frequently dialed numbers, doctor, etc.
• A list of immunizations for children or other important medical records

Step Ten: Evaluate your progress weekly or monthly. Sit down with your balance wheel, goals and schedules on a regular basis. Make a new balance wheel based on what you have done over the last month or week. Are you getting closer to your goals? If so, continue on the same track. If not, double back and look for steps you may have skipped in the process.

Article by Brook Noel
The Change Your Life Challenge
http://www.changeyourlifechallenge.com
Take control of your home, finances, relationships, clutter, time-management and more with this 70 Day Program. Sign up for the free Challenge Weekly Newsletter and the motivational daily Good Morning.

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Growing businesses are finding outsourcing is becoming a regular necessity to keep up with increasing demands. Over the past few years, a new resource has emerged and is gaining momentum as the word spreads; that is, the services of a Virtual Assistant (VA)

With the advances of technology, it is becoming easier for businesses to outsource some of their administrative tasks, without the need of having a person in house. No need to provide a desk and computer. A VA is able to provide administrative support to businesses all over the world. Distance is never an issue. VA’s communicate with their clients by email, telephone, fax, instant messenger or file transfer.

So what is a Virtual Assistant? Since 1996, more than 5,000 professionals around the world have become Virtual Assistants. A Virtual Assistant is an independent business owner who works from their home office environment. Many have chosen to leave the corporate world and start their own business, giving them freedom to better balance family and work time. VA’s are highly skilled professionals, who keep up to date with the latest software and trends. They provide a wide range of general administrative services but often specialize in areas such as Web Design, Marketing, Strategic Planning, Project Management or Real Estate Assistance.

Training to become a Virtual Assistant can be found through several organizations; International Virtual Assistant Association, Assist U, International Association of Virtual Office Assistants, and Red Deer College, to name a few. Through the intensive 2-year curriculum, a VA can obtain Certification or progress even further to obtain the status of Master Virtual Assistant.

Business owners only pay a VA for work performed, which is billed hourly. Being responsible for their own taxes, training, health care, insurance, and overhead costs makes hiring a VA an affordable option. Business owners often find they are doing many administrative tasks themselves, leaving very little time to devote to developing their business or planning for future growth. By hiring a Virtual Assistant and delegating daily routine tasks, you can free up time for higher priorities.

As an example:

You charge $75 per hour for your services.

You spend a total of 5 hours on administrative tasks.

$75/hr X 5 hours = $375.00 time value

Costs of hiring a virtual assistant to handle these tasks.

$40/hr X 5 hours = $200.00

$375 – $200 = $175 time value saved by enabling you to devote your time on revenue producing tasks, which could generate additional profits.

The second International Virtual Assistant’s Day was celebrated on May 19, 2007 to recognize this new profession. There are about 170 VA’s in Ontario and this number is growing rapidly. Two associations in Canada provide support to VA’s; the Canadian Virtual Assistant Connection www.cvac.ca and the Canadian Virtual Assistant Network www.canadianva.net These associations provide a Request for Proposal service for businesses looking to hire a VA through the association’s on-line directory.

As the Virtual Assistant industry profile increases through media coverage and word of mouth from satisfied clients, the face of outsourcing in the new millennium is changing.

Article by Erika Martlew
Erika Martlew is a Virtual Assistant offering professional administrative support and marketing assistance to small businesses and entrepreneurs. She has extensive training and experience in marketing and customer service. To see a listing of other services offered, visit her web site at http://www.erikamartlew.com Erika can be reached by phone at (905) 977-1657

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