It's my Birthday!!

I woke up to some joyful, singing birthday messages, and am already excited at what today is going to bring. Pretty soon I'll be meeting some friends for banana pancakes- YUM! I also have a fun lunch meeting followed by a reflexology appointment scheduled as a treat to me, by another friend. I am so looking forward to this, though I have no idea what to expect with that. This evening I'll be getting picked up in a motorhome by my family, to head off to Lake Powell, one of my top favorite places in all the land! Pretty much- happy birthday to me!
On this subject- are you the type of person who remembers people's birthdays and sends them a card that arrives in their mailbox on their exact birthday? Or are you like my friend who three days before my actual birthday- wished me a happy belated birthday?
Even as a very organized person, I'm just not good when it comes to tracking everyone's birthdays, especially with enough time to actually send them a birthday card. It's actually been bothering me lately, so I'm going to start, TODAY, (ok, realistically when I get back from Powell), to capture all of my friends and clients' birthdays, (I'm on top of it with the family), and begin a system to keep on top of their special days. Are you with me?
Here's what I'm going to do...

• Send out a blast email to a list I make up ahead of time of people's birthdays I want to remember, asking them to send me their current address, and birthday.
• As the responses come in, I will click and drag their email into my calendar section of Outlook, and schedule a reminder one week ahead of their birthday. By doing this, the calendar automatically has the email info contained with it- including their address.
• At the beginning of every month, I'll look ahead and see what friends' birthdays are coming up, and schedule a small chunk of time to write cards and address their envelopes. I'll have a folder for "birthdays" set up where all the current month's cards will go, and as I get the reminder in Outlook one week ahead of time, I'll mail off the cards accordingly.
  
• For clients, I'm going to set up a few generic birthday greeting messages using SendOutCards. At the beginning of every month, I'll take a monthly look at what birthdays are up for the month, and schedule a half hour to add any necessary personal touches to my generic card message, and then I'll flag in Send Out Cards, when I actually want the card to go out. (Just because I'm writing them at the beginning of the month, doesn't mean I have to send them out then. I can set the date I want the card mailed off).

Now if you're not using Send Out Cards, you have two options. Sign up for an account with SOC, (and I can refer you to great people who represent this business), because it's a fantastic business tool. Option 2 is handwrite the cards for the month, and then drop them into the birthday card holding tank, (file folder), and mail off when Outlook reminds you to do so.

Wow there are so many directions I could go off and write on within this blog, considering all the different tools I'm talking about, but I'll save it for later. Ok- are you with me? This will be a painless, simple enough way to make everyone in my life feel special, as well as stand out a bit, help the ol' marketing efforts and continue building on those relationships... all by sending out birthday cards!

Don't be a slave to your technology

I had a fun Sunday by the pool at my friend's housing complex yesterday, but I witnessed something that really disturbed me... In the pool were two sisters, I'd say around 8 and 12, with their dad- just laughing and playing in the water. They all had goggles on and were having a contest to see who could hold their breath the longest. It was just a sweet little sight... After what was roughly an hour, a lady comes in through the gate around the pool and the younger of the two sisters lights up, saying, "oooh mommy, you look so pretty!" The woman did look glamorous, with her big sunglasses and a scarf tied like a headband, with a long dress-like swimsuit cover-up. Get this though, the mom said nothing, and didn't acknowledge her little girl! I was thinking, she must not have heard her daughter enthusiastically compliment her because there's no way those words wouldn't bring a smile to the mom's face! The little girl says it again, this time a little louder, "wow, mommy, you look sooo pretty!" I am not kidding, I honestly didn't notice an inch of a reaction from the mom. And here's where I got annoyed- the mom just walked right by her family, and sat at the patio table, propped behind her laptop, the entire time. That's right- she didn't play, she didn't dive in the water and splash around with her daughters, laugh with her husband, build some quality memories on a nice summer day, but instead, worked on something that was clearly, "more important."
It just breaks my heart to think that we can be too busy, too controlled by our 24/7 society, that we miss out on incredibly wonderful, important and special life moments. Turn off your blackberry. Turn off your computer. Just turn off from work once in a while, and dive in and play!

Organizing Checklist: Leaving the Office for Vacation

Hopefully you're looking forward to a fun summer vacation this year! Remember, taking vacations is actually great for our productivity... Here's a checklist of some key points to take care of before leaving the office on any kind of trip...

1. Delegate any upcoming tasks that you are not going to be able to complete. Be sure to discuss in person, not through email, what needs to happen for the tasks to be completed successfully. Be sure to take care of any necessary preparations, so no one can say, "well I can't do that because he never gave me the information I need."

2. Create a new voice message on your phone that says when you will return to the office, and leave an alternate contact for people to call if they really need something.

3. Set up an auto response for your email, that way everyone who sends you an email will quickly learn that you are away from your desk for however many days. This comes across much better than having to wait well over twenty-four hours for a response.

4. Make sure to process as much paperwork and as many emails and phone calls as you can before you leave. This will ensure that you return from your trip refreshed, rather than the opposite because you were unable to relax just thinking about all you have left to do at work. When you get back to the office, you'll be ready for action!

5. Set people up to handle things without you, versus, "I'll have my phone whenever you need me." You are going on a well-deserved trip to revive and enjoy life away from work, so tell them to simply pretend you are dead!

6. David Allen, author of, Getting Things Done, says we should integrate the motivation and attitude that we have the day before we leave for vacation, into our daily work lives. I think this is an excellent concept and couldn't agree more!

Here's to wonderful vacations where you are able to completely "turn off" from work and fully enjoy your trip!

Crazy Busy? Help is on the way!

Do you have a Ferrari-engine powered brain?

I recently attended a seminar called, Success with Sanity, with Dr. Edward Hallowell, the top ADD psychiatrist in the country. He wrote a fantastic book which I highly recommend, called, Crazy Busy, and I’ll tell you what, the man understands what it’s like to operate in a completely fast-paced, high-stress society better than anyone I’ve read or heard speak. He explains that those of us with ADD have a Ferrari-engine of a brain, which is a powerful gift, but the problem is-we have Chevy brakes!
Dr. Hallowell has created a complete vocabulary to describe some of the modern-day situations that are all too familiar to us crazy-busies. Here are a few of my favorites along with some suggestions for coping in this crazy busy world:

• Screensucking: mindlessly wasting time in front of your computer screen…often occurring long after your work for the day has been done

• Doom Darts: when an obligation or a to-do pops into your consciousness out of nowhere, like a “poisoned dart,” creating an instantly-anxious response

• Leeches and Lilies: leeches are people or projects that steal your time or energy, leaving you wondering how in the heck you were in the position to be dealing with the [insert your own noun] in the first place. Lilies are those people, activities or projects that feed your spirit, energizing you and leaving you feeling happy

So what do we do about these frustrations?

• Well for one, recognizing that you’re screensucking is the first step to recovery. Think moderation, people! Know that every time you log onto your computer, you’re susceptible!
• Doom darts can be avoided if you create a specific “plan of attack” as soon as the thought enters your brain. For example, stop and write on your to-do list, that you need to buy an anniversary card, or return a phone call.
• Cultivate lilies and avoid leeches! This means scheduling a golf day with your buddies, (not just talking about it), and saying no to the random sales guy who wants to meet for coffee to “get to know more about your business.”

Take back control! Just because everyone else is crazy busy, doesn’t mean you have to be!

BEST Productivity tip to try today!

Do Not Check Email Until One Large Task Is Completed.

Is it our activities, not our productivities that are actually the reason that we are staying at the office well past the time we should be going home? Often times, checking our email is not a top priority, but instead, our clever way of looking for something more interesting than the task at hand or delaying the start of something more important. It is easy to spend thirty minutes here and twenty minutes there on email, but how much is actually being accomplished when we're doing that? We all know the eighty/twenty rule, which states that twenty percent of our efforts produce eighty percent of our results. It's important to consider that twenty percent of an eight hour day is ninety-six minutes, which is time that easily gets spent clicking around our inbox with our morning cup of coffee. This week, when you get to the office, knock out one of your biggest to-dos for the day before checking your email. You will thrive off of the accomplished feeling in knowing it's only 10:00am and you already finished one large task!

If you're interested in reading a whole book on this topic, and other productivity concepts, check out: http://www.juliemorgenstern.com/Products_Books.php.

Or you can always check my blog for more great tips to help you get better control of your time!

Time Management equals Life Management

How in the world do you manage time, when it feels like you just don't have any? Clone yourself? Maybe... though I think it comes down to figuring out what's MOST important to you. Sure, I have some great time management, or what I call, time maximization tips and tricks that are extremely effective for helping squeeze out more time in your busy days, (check out http://www.essentialorganizing.com, to learn all kinds of info now), but at the end of the day, what do you want your tombstone to read? RIP Jim: Dedicated 90% of his life to his business, never missed a meeting and had a large database. RIP Susan: A multi-tasking queen who worked 12 hour days and still kept a clean house. Come on! We need to plan our life first, and fit our business around that. Too many of us are postponing our lives and what's truly important to us, because we're too busy with work!! Before we dive into simple ways to save time in our businesses, we first have to establish what we want our time to look like. Let's take back control of our time, our blackberries, our staff and even our clients, and make a promise to quit enabling everything and everyone to take our time away from us! Your homework is to write down your purpose for being here on this earth... if it's easier to think of what you want your epitaph to say, then approach it that way.... Why don't I see you writing? Seriously, grab a pen and get writing... then stick this on your wall right above your computer monitor and begin to plan your time around that!