Archive for work/life
Tame Those Voices In your Head
Posted by: | CommentsTony over at Success From the Nest has a great post on the Playlist of a Successful Mind – where he gives some tips on how to get that inner soundtrack to say what you want it to say. For those who need to be walked through the process a bit more, Sharon Melnick has a great video – Be The DJ of Your Inner IPod- on her site.
This is powerful stuff — but also much more difficult than it sounds. Maybe, it is because there is more than one soundtrack. The soundtrack that you hear the loudest is usually the easiest to control. You can hear it loud and clear… The one that is tougher is that one that whispers to you — are aren’t quite sure what it is saying — but generally it is full of doubt — are you sure you can do this? One of the ways that I quell the inner whisper is to recognize it for what it is — just some healthy self doubt bubbling to the fore. Then, I go ahead and do whatever it was that I thought I might not be able to do. The self-doubt helps me push harder and to grow.
Five Tips for A Peaceful Working Vacation
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the reasons I decided to start my own virtual business is so that I could spend more time with my family which is flung across the western United States. Last week, I actually had a chance to put my resolve to be "moible" to the test. My mom and dad very generously rented a beach house for a week on the Oregon coast. My daughter and I got a chance to spend time with them, my sister and her children and take in some ocean air. But, I also felt like I was on a bit of a roll with my business so I didn’t want to take a break at this point. So, I took my show on the road. Here are five tips for making it work (hint: communication is the key).
1. Let your clients know that you are going mobile for the week, but still working. Give them your cell number to contact you if needed. I actually didn’t get any calls. This is especially critical if you are travelling to a different time zone 
2. Let your travel companions know that you need to work — and what your working hours will be. I did this with my family. They planned to be back after my work hours so that we could play together in the afternoon.
3. Scope out the Internet situation in advance. Do some research and locate nearby Internet cafes, etc.
4. Have a plan B. The Internet connection at the beach house was down. Luckily, I can use my laptop to access the Internet from my cell phone. The nearby internet cafe was also a nice place to work.
5. Remember to make time to have fun!
I really enjoyed my trip…. and working with an awesome view of the beach.
A New Years Mind Map?
Posted by: | CommentsSo, how do you decide what you are going to tackle for New Years? This year, I’m trying a mind map. You know, one of those huge colorful diagrams that lets one idea flow to another. I am very optimistic that next year is going to be a great year for me — but only if I buckle down and systematically go after my goals (starting a new business, losing weight, and concentrating on helping other people)
How are you defining your goals?
New Years Resolutions
Posted by: | CommentsIf you try it, let me know if it works for you.
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This is a great way to get started on your plan for a great 2007 — enjoy!
Is this the end of the Industrial Revolution?
Posted by: | CommentsIn the past week or so, Best Buy has gotten a lot of attention for it’s results based evaluation policy. Under this plan employees can work whenever and pretty much wherever they wish as long as the work gets done. This is being hailed as a big advancement in work/life flexibility. In New Mexico, where I live, I know quite a few people who work from home full or part time for out of state companies. In my case, I moved but I am still working part time in the same job I had in Virginia. I think I actually accomplish more working part time out of my home that I did when I was in the office full time.
But I wonder, if virtual working arrangements might be the norm in the future. Is work transitioning back to where it was before the Industrial Revolution when most people worked essentially for themselves using their own equipment. In fact, there are all cadres of virtual professionals who work for clients throughout the country over the Internet as independent contractors. Is this a good thing? I think offering flexibility is a good thing — many jobs can be accomplished during non-traditional business hours. However, a regular salary does give a certain amount of security about how much money is coming in. I’m not sure that going to a pay by the page method is really in the best interest of workers.
What do you think?
Never Eat Alone: Book Review
Posted by: | CommentsOn the surface, Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi is yet another networking book. However, digging deeper the book is more about how, in the end, it is our connection to people and our ability to help others that matters. From humble beginnings in rural Pennsylvania, Keith, with the help of his father and countless others who took an interest in his success managed to graduate from Harvard Business School, have a successful career in corporate marketing and finally start his own marketing consulting firm. By following the plan he outlines for us in his book, Keith Ferrazzi has built up an impressive network of thousands of corporate leaders, celebrities, politicians and other influential people.
In Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi lays out a plan to “win friends and influence people” based on today’s technology. He exhorts readers to come up with short and long term goals and figure out who can help them to reach those goals. However, the idea is not just to find people to use, but rather to find people that you can help. Everyone has something to give – by helping others you cement your relationships and doors open to you because of these relationships. Ferrazzi is a big believer in keeping in touch systematically by remembering birthdays, calling people when you are in town and trying to use your network to help others. He is also a big believer in asking for what you need. A lot of times we are afraid to ask – but if you don’t ask you will never know if someone is in a position to help.
Never Eat Alone also tells you how to work a conference. Silly me, I always thought that the point of conferences was to hear the speakers. Well, no… the point of the conference is to meet new people. One of the best ways to do that is to hold your own dinners for folks that interest you.
In truth, I am a bit of an introvert and I am also pretty terrible at keeping in touch. Although I don’t see myself being quite as systematic in doing pre-research or keeping prioritized lists of contacts, Never Eat Alone has inspired me to reach out and “ping” some of my friends that I haven’t heard from in awhile. Even if I don’t end up getting a new job or landing new clients for my efforts, at least I’ll keep in touch better with some pretty terrific friends.
Calendars… like magic!
Posted by: | CommentsI think I’ve finally managed to get all of my calendar ducks in a row. I currently live in New Mexico and work for a local government in Virginia. My work email is set up on an Outlook exchange server. Back when I was actually living and working in Virginia – I started forwarding all my Outlook mail to my gmail account so I didn’t have to worry about the very small mailbox limits imposed by the IT department. I discovered a cool thing… meetings that are set up in Outlook and forwarded to gmail end up in your google calendar. Just yesterday, I set it up so that my iCal subscribes to the google calendar (this is very easy — in google calendar under the information on sharing there is an ical button. Push the button and you get an address to subscribe to the gmail calendar. Go to iCal -paste it in and you are done!
The cool part of all of this is a) this all syncs to my Treo and b) meetings that are scheduled in Eastern time somehow get converted to Mountain time when they show up on my iCal! Now I’m just waiting for spanning sync to start the public beta so that I can try bidirectional syncing between gmail and iCal.
My husband thinks this whole thing is “really geeky” — I was just excited to get all the different parts of my virtual work life to work together.
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