Category: Small Business Information

What Are You Afraid Of?

A coaching client emailed me this question:

Good Morning, Coach Colleen!
Just touching base…
Not very successful in meeting last weeks’ goals.

Today I am asking myself –
What am I afraid of… if I was to let go of something?
I know what papers I want to toss or move – but I am holding on to something.
Hopefully we can move past this block.

My response (edited for confidentiality and content):

“Hmmmm….. what ARE you afraid of?”

We set goals because we want to achieve a certain outcome. We’re also aware there may be side effects from achieving those goals.  The fear of those side effects weighs us down.

  • This client has boxes of old papers to review and purge. She wants to wrap up the paper project before starting another. She has done great work in many ways, but reviewing and purging the papers in these these last few boxes feels scary, like she might let go of something important.
  • I heard the story of a client secretly afraid of an empty in-box. It seemed that if the in-box was empty, she wouldn’t have any more excuses for not doing the other harder, more emotionally painful tasks she’s been putting off.
  • A friend is worried that she’ll lose too much weight and then she’ll have to buy new clothes and it will be expensive. So she doesn’t even start.
  • I alternate between wanting to be super-busy and then freaking out because I’m so busy and can’t do all the things I want to do.

We all have fears, it’s how we face them – what we do with them – that matters.  If you ask yourself what you’re afraid of, your mind might not produce an answer.  If you’re feeling blocked, you can instead ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen?”

As in, “I’m conflicted about a possible outcome. It could be good, and it could be scary. So what is the worst that can happen if I achieve this goal?”

Using the weight loss example, what’s the worst that can happen?

  • We feel some discomfort with being hungry or sore from exercising, until our body adjusts (we can survive that, no biggie).
  • We lose weight and then have to buy new clothes (not really so bad).
  • We lose so much weight we look like one of those crazy skeleton people on the news (not really very likely, now is it?).
  • We work out so much we look like those freaky body builders (also not too likely).
  • There is the unlikely event that losing weight could cause other health issues, but the list of health benefits outweigh the fears.

In the case of this client, what’s the worst that can happen if she let go of the wrong papers?

  • Someone may ask for the information (sometimes the answer is “No, I don’t have that paper anymore” and sometimes we have to go out and find the answer again. Neither is too scary).
  • She may forget about it (if the paper represents something important, she will be reminded in other ways).
  • Again, the benefits of completing this paper project, and freeing up space in her house and schedule exceed the fears.
    017

This afternoon I found this quote while working at a different client’s house, took a picture and texted it to my client. I loved her response:

“Wow, doing 365 things a year could make a person become ruthless [her goal is to objectively and ruthlessly purge her papers]! And then nothing will scare them!”

So face those fears, and make those lists. I bet what you fear isn’t so scary after all!

Building Productivity with Time Blocks

In the interest of time management, I’ll start this article with my conclusions:
  • Blocking out time to get important work done ensures intention and attention to that important work.
  • Transition times, like school days to summertime for me, provide an opportunity to reassess our time management practices.
  • Summertime can make us lax when it comes to productivity, but that doesn’t have to be the case!
  • We make appointments for other things, why not for specific tasks?
  • Strategies that work in one area of our life often can be used to improve other areas, too, if we just pay attention.
I complete important tasks daily, and you do, too.  I manage my business, family and home, and a number of volunteer roles in my Parish and Community.  I’m grateful every day for the gift of organization, both as a concept and as a skill I am blessed to possess.  And yet, I struggle with time, just like everyone else. We’re all trying to complete our important tasks, and also, occasionally, do things that we WANT to do, and not just NEED to do.
Last week, I was struggling with a particular volunteer commitment.  It seemed that, after spending client and business hours, and family and home hours (plus occasionally eating and sleeping), I couldn’t find time to work on this important category of tasks.  During a meeting, one friend suggested Time Blocking to another friend, as a way to move forward with productivity during the summer months (Thanks, Jill!).  I use time blocking all the time in other ways, so I grabbed onto the idea to help with my volunteer commitment.
Time Blocking is a simple and obvious concept:  We block out time on our calendar, 30 minutes or a whole day, to address specific tasks or types of tasks.   Time blocking means: 1. you know your high priority tasks and projects; 2. you set aside time each week to work on those specific tasks and projects; and 3. then you actually keep the commitment.
Consider this: I make appointments to work with my clients and we keep those appointments, because I am committed to my clients and my livelihood.  I find time for family and home because we have set hours for things, like school time and summer camp and meal times.  I’m invited to parties and events at specific times and for specific duration, and I make those parties and events happen, because I’m committed to the people involved and don’t want to let them down.   These are great examples of Time Blocking.
The real magic of time blocking comes from being specific about what will occur during the block of time.  Set blocks of time aside for a specific purpose.  I’ve blocked out an hour a day this week for business maintenance tasks, and each day has a specific category attached: bookkeeping and bill pay; client follow-up and emails; presentation preparation and booking, etc. Being specific, and working with intention for even a short period of time will move me towards my goals faster than unfocused wanderings. We don’t have to complete a project in our block of time, but we can at least make progress.
A client mentioned the bills didn’t always get paid on time because she hadn’t set aside time every week to pay the bills. I suggested Time Blocks, making an appointment with herself to pay the bills.
The plumber was coming to install a new laundry sink, so I blocked 20 minutes to de-clutter the laundry room before he arrived.
Applying Time Blocking to my challenge last week allowed me to just pay attention solely to one project, one category of tasks, for the allotted time.  It was quite a relief, actually, and I completed the tasks.
How can you use Time Blocking this week to be more productive?  Give it a try!

Small Business Week: Run Your Business (and Life) Like A Boss

The first full week of May is National Small Business Week.

I respect and admire my fellow Small Business owners.  We’re small but mighty!  Yet, for every day that we are doing great things in big and small ways, we also struggle. You know it’s true:  if you have a small business, very often you are all departments – bookkeeping, accounting, IT, marketing, manufacturing, legal affairs, strategic planning – rolled into one (or perhaps a few) busy and occasionally overwhelmed individual.  It’s the same on the home front, too – we fill many roles in our homes and families.

This week, as a busy woman and Small Business Owner, I am reminded, and also challenge you, to Be the Boss.  To Be The Boss, we need to:

  • Stick with our strengths – Know what SPECIFICALLY WE ARE GOOD AT, and focus on that;
  • Know what department / individual / outside source can help us with the other areas in our life or business listed below; and
  • Be willing to ask for help / delegate.

To Be the Boss, We need to know and stick with our strengths.  Professionally, I am great at Organizing, and teaching others how to be organized, too.  That’s where I need to spend my time, in the areas where I am an expert.  Consider this, if a client required plumbing skills or financial planning, we would call in other experts.  Having me do tasks I am not good at would be frustrating all around, a waste of my time and my client’s time and $$.

To Be the Boss, we need to realize that as a huge corporation or a solo-professional like myself, We all need support in certain expert areas, like:

  • Accounting
  • Financial Planning
  • Bookkeeping including Payables and Receivables
  • Legal Affairs
  • Marketing
  • Graphic Design / Printing
  • Web Site Design / Maintenance / Social Media
  • Advertising
  • Manufacturing
  • Distribution
  • Sales
  • Customer Service
  • IT / Tech Help
  • Administrative duties
  • Human Resources
  • Strategic Planning / Board of Directors

Consider this: a few years ago, I spent too many hours researching and considering the pros and cons to the different types of legal structure for my business – S or C corporation?  LLC? Sole proprietor?  An hour with an expert, namely my attorney, cleared up my confusion.  I didn’t have to become an expert, I could just ask the expert.  Since I started my business, I have learned a lot and met some really amazing people. Looking at the above list of support areas, now I can say I have experts working with me – a CPA, lawyer, financial planner, graphic design house and printer.

Be the Boss, and know when to ask for help.  Maybe you are good and even great in some of the support areas above. But if you spend time on these support tasks instead of the Expert tasks that only you can do, it’s time to Be the Boss, and find others to help you.  What tasks are you willing to let go of completely, or delegate to others?

For example, I need to focus on delivering Organizational Services and Presentations (what only I can do).  And I like running the business of my Business. So I’m considering what personal / home tasks I can streamline or outsource to professionals, while I focus on my strengths personally and professionally.  Support services for our home life could include:

  • Lawn maintenance
  • House cleaner
  • Laundry service
  • personal shopper / concierge service / errand running
  • child care
  • occasional pet care / dog walking
  • The list is endless, and there are people to do all sorts of tasks for us!

So, whether you own your own business or not, you, too, can run your Business and Life Like A Boss by sticking with your strengths, knowing what you need, and knowing when to ask for help!

7 Solutions to Get My (and Your?) Morning Back on Track

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This is not the blog I planned to publish this week.
But as I drove home from a very early morning client, I considered what I need to focus on today to make tomorrow morning run more smoothly.  We have simple and wonderful systems in place.  Our mornings typically work really well, and all 5 of us know our parts and make the essential stuff happen.
However….. This week…  we could improve.  Let’s just leave it at that.
So here is part of my plan for today.  Maybe one of these solutions will resonate with you, too?  If your morning is a scramble, give them try!
Solution #1: Put ALL the laundry away.
There was a scramble for pants this morning.  Sounds funny when I spell it out. Other days, we scramble for clean socks or a favorite hoodie, but today it was pants.  I occasionally entertain the idea of buying more of certain items to lessen the chance of running out, but we really don’t need more of anything, we just need to maintain the established system, and put ALL the laundry away.  It’s clean, its just not where its supposed to be.

Solution #2: Another set of keys.
A family member has misplaced his keys.  This one little foible has complicated things, by necessitating other family members having to come home to let the lost-key family member in the house, plan around them, etc. We used to have a back-up key, but a winter garage break-in caused us to change our ways.  And Yes, I know, the real answer is for lost-key son to find his keys.  But today’s solution is to suck it up and get another set of keys made.

Solution #3. Stock the Mom-Envelope.
The Mom-Envelope, with $40-ish dollars in small bills, is sadly empty.  A trip to the bank will solve the emptiness, and the Mom-envelope will be able to again solve morning scrambles for a few $$ here and there.

Solution #4: A Full Tank of Gas.
Luckily, I gassed up the other day.  But as I did, I recognized how having a full tank of gas eliminates a lot of worry (or conversely, worrying about running out causes a lot of stress.)

Solution #5: Fully charged technology.
The strategies are having multiple chargers and just one place to charge stuff (the kitchen counter).  Mysteriously, last night we discovered some of the chargers have wandered off, so a goal for today is to round them all up and keep them where they belong.  I have also started carrying an extra charger in my car.  A recent quote from the Minimalists reads “If your phone is constantly ‘about to die,’ then maybe it’s not the phone that has a problem.” (click here for the full article)

Solution #6: Communications.
My youngest is a rock star when it comes to reviewing the plan for his day.  Before going to sleep, and again in the morning, he reviews out loud what’s in store for his next 24 hours or so.  “Ok, Before-Care, then Band and Boy Scouts, right?  And I already packed my lunch.”  This helps us both to plan ahead and remember the details.

Solution #7: A Clean kitchen counter.
A quick way to de-rail movement in my morning is a messy kitchen.  Can’t make my coffee, eat breakfast, make smoothie, work on breakfast for the little guy, etc.  We left early and in a hurry, but that is the first thing on my list after I publish this!

So look around, and see where you can get your morning back on track!  Whether with these solutions or some of your own!

Our Brains Get Tired. Help Yours With Better Schedule Management!

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My brain has been very busy lately (At a recent presentation, the speaker said we average 60,000 thoughts in a day!).

At brainhome, we’re adding two sport team schedules to an already busy schedule, plus potential summer activities.  Professionally, I have more clients now than I ever have before.  These are wonderful challenges to face, but they’re a lot to juggle!  So we’re reviewing and re-vamping our schedule management to accommodate.  I recommend periodically reviewing your scheduling practices, at work or at home, to make sure your own process is working as well as possible.

Why? Because

  • We’re all are busy people.
  • Our brains gets tired sometimes, thinking all those thoughts.
  • New tools come out all the time to help with scheduling, and to do tasks better with less hassle.
  • We need to make sure that the important (family, school and work) commitments are accounted for before we add anything else to the schedule.

If you could benefit from a scheduling review, too, here’s what to do:

  • Get buy in from all concerned parties (we’ll call them stakeholders). Why?  We (children and parents, co-workers, teammates, etc.,) all need to be part of the process.  Giving all the stakeholders a say in the schedule encourages ownership and responsibility, collaboration, creativity – getting lots of brains working on a challenge can be a great way to generate new and better ideas!
  • Consider how stakeholders prefer to communicate. In our family and in my business, some people prefer phone calls and others prefer to text.  Facebook is a chosen method for some people, and still others prefer email.  If a client or family member reaches out to me via phone, I try to respond in kind, at least until I can convince them to text me instead (my own personal preference!).
  • Have stakeholders commit to the new system and keeping their info up-to-date.
  • If you have more than one schedule to manage, use technology.  Why?
    • Technology is portable and pervasive.
    • We all can have access to the most current updates.
    • Technology allows accessibility from many devices.  For example, I can invite my teenagers to events via GoogleCalendar, and they can manage the invitations and their calendars from their IPods or tablets.
    • J.T., try Doodle.com for scheduling those meetings with fellow professionals
  • As with any new strategies, allow time to move along the learning curve.  For example, I am learning Google Calendar so my family can use it, but I fumble around sometimes.  Accept that you may have to run two systems – like paper and MS outlook, or MS Outlook and GoogleCalendar – at the same time for a while.
  • Sometimes the best way to establish a schedule is still face-to-face.  We just had a family meeting yesterday morning, to check in with upcoming travel, events and school projects.  We used GoogleCalendar and brought our devices to the table, but we still need to actually speak.

So look at your own scheduling strategies, and try one of these if it’s time for a change!

Powerful Questions to Build Decision Making Muscles

Recently, a coaching client asked for Powerful Questions to ask herself, to increase her motivation to get rid of paper clutter.  Below are questions I ask my clients (and myself!) as we work, to clarify the paper decision-making process.  In my experience, we all keep too much paper – I am rarely called to help someone because they got rid of too much!  Therefore, these questions will nudge you to purge your papers.

In addition, we often tackle our paper management in little pieces of time, and not big blocks. So we need to get in the organizing and purging zone regularly, and that takes practice!  These questions help you build your decision-making muscles, so you can hit that organizing / purging zone more quickly.  Here’s another tip – the questions can be tweaked and used to review every type of clutter!!

  • Now is not the time to ask Why?  As in “Why on earth did I keep this?”  Not why, then, but “What am I going to do right now?”
  • What can I do today to help future Me out? (Purge, unsubscribe, etc.)  What can I digitize, or subscribe to online?
  • If you keep paper for “Just In Case”, ask these:
    • Will anyone ever ask me for this piece of paper / information?  (If no, toss it.)
    • Does this information exist elsewhere?  (If yes, likely can toss it.)
    • Do I need to be the keeper of this information?  (No.  It’s called the internet.)
    • Is this information still correct, or pertinent?
    • If I purge this paper, what’s the worst that can happen?  Can I accept that “worst”?
    • Are all these papers worth the mess?
  • If you feel that “I can’t purge my papers because they will somehow change my life”, ask these:
    • Does this paper represent a reasonable expectation of myself or someone else?
    • Does my happiness really hinge on me having this piece of paper?  (No.)
    • Does this paper hold the secret to life? How likely is it that I hold the secrets of the universe in a dusty box of papers from 10 years ago?
    • Wouldn’t a better change come from clearing the clutter?
  • If you know you “Don’t want it, but don’t know what to do with it”, ask these:
    • Do I need to recycle it or shred it?
    • Does someone else need it more?  (Pass it on!)
  • If you keep paper for Nostalgia / Sentimentality / Guilt, ask these:
    • Who am I keeping this for?  (I ask this question of parents who keep every school paper their child ever brought home.  Because they are keeping those papers for themselves.  In 20 years, the kids will NOT want old boxes of school papers.)
    • Charitable donations / solicitations:
      • Do I make decisions regarding charitable giving based on mail or phone calls I receive?  (Personally?  No. So I can let those go.)
      • Did I ask for this information, or did someone else decide I need it?  Do I agree?  (Use this to review the unsolicited greeting cards / address labels / stickers that non-profit organizations send us so that we feel obliged to send them money.)
    • If I’m keeping these old papers in respect for a loved one who passed away, would they really want me struggling under all this clutter?
  • If these papers reminds me you that you need to do something, ask these:
    • What action does this paper represent?  (Go ahead and act, or at least add the task to your to-do list, then let the paper go.)
    • What nugget of information on this paper do I really need to keep?  (For example, a business card represents contact info for a person.  Log the info into your address book, either paper or digital, and then toss the card.)

So, next time you are struggling with piles of paper, keep some of these in mind. Make little index cards or post-its of the questions that resonate with you most, and stick them up where you can see them!  Let them be your mantra as you review your papers and let some go!

4 Things I Love and Despise About Working From Home

According to a productivity blog I follow, this week is the UK’s National Work From Home Week (ours is in October, I’ll have more to say then!)

The very things I love about working from home are also my biggest challenges.  If you work from home, like me, or are considering a change this year, understand there good and bad in the following points:

Flexibility in my schedule.

Working from home allows me to attend school events, day-time doctor appointments, re-arrange my schedule when my kids get sick, and other freedoms if needed.  Professionally, I can take clients or speaking engagements almost any day or evening.  I love doing 10 different things in a day.

But that means a choppy schedule, and perhaps completing work late at night or early in the morning in exchange for those day-time hours.  And, as flexible as I may be, my schedule is dictated by client and family needs, so there is a lot of juggling most days!  I secretly envy those who go to work at the same place for 9 hours, and can focus on just work there.

Don’t make excuses, as you make appointments.  Try this: “Thursday morning, no, I can’t do Thursday (or whatever).  Do you have another suggestion?” Period.  People don’t need to know why you are busy Thursday afternoon, whether with a client, appointment or pre-school program.

Working from Home is a misnomer.

I may not work in a traditional downtown office anymore, but I also don’t always work from home.  This week, I may work in other peoples’ homes and offices more than my own.  And many other “Work from Home” professionals do the same, completing their work in other people’s homes, offices, in the car, at Starbucks. The rough draft of this was written in my car, sitting in the garage, because that is where inspiration struck.

Working from Home needs a new name, one that reflects the myriad of professions and awesome work that we do in new and independent ways and places.  Since I use tech in my work, I often say I work Virtually, but I often have to explain that. Any suggestions? 

Some people will just never understand.

For 12 years, I’ve Worked From Home, and in that time, my choice of workplace has become commonplace.  But some people will just never understand what it means to work from home.  I’m not in my jammies, watching TV – like ever!, and I can’t chat for hours. I may be at home, but I am still accountable to my business.

Just as we practice our 30 second elevator speech, practice the explanation of how you spend your day. Don’t fumble.  Assert.  And then get over it and move on, because they may never understand.  And that’s ok. 

Quiet and Alone.  Noisy and Lively.  You Choose.

I love my quiet empty home.  I am easily distracted by other peoples’ noise and conversations, so working from home is ideal for me.  And yet, too much quiet can also kill my focus.  Pandora and my local library are lifesavers some days.

I love when my family comes home, but then I miss my focus.  I wake up early.  I’ve made phone calls from my closet, and may write blogs in my car.

Working From Home gets lonely. I miss co-workers, birthday lunches and water-cooler chats. If you work from home, make sure to keep regular routines and get out in the world at least a couple times a day.  Keep in contact with your co-workers, or join networking or professional groups. I guess that’s where that flexibility comes in, to make it work.  Know yourself, determine if Quiet and Alone work today, or Noisy and Lively.

We who work from Home are productive, flexible, awesome, and still figuring it out some days, just like everyone else. Celebrate the benefits of Working from Home the next time you face the challenges of the same!

National Clean Off Your Desk Day and The 80/20 Rule

Now The Real Work Begins!  Now it’s time to get down to business, and what better way than with National Clean off Your pile of mailDesk Day, the second Monday of January!  Think about it – Cleaning Off Your Desk makes room for motivation, clarity and focus.  What are your Goals for this year:  Clear the clutter; get a handle on your money and finances; read more; stress less; do / get a better job?  It all starts with cleaning your desk!

Let me (re)-introduce you to the Pareto Principle, a.k.a. the 80/20 Rule.  The Pareto Principle says 80% of what you need is in 20% of what you have. Say it a couple times out loud until it sinks in.  The 80/20 rule applied to Paper management says we need about 20% of our papers, and we can probably get rid of the rest.  As an example, a client returning from a trip mentioned collecting 2 inches of mail from her mail box, and keeping… 4 items.  That’s it.

Let’s clear that cluttered 80%, so we can work on the 20% we need to act on and keep.

Here’s What To Do:

Grab a recycling bin and shredder, a letter opener, and pen and paper.

Grab the first pile of papers on your desk, and get started. With the most recent pile of mail, open it all.  Yes, really, Standing at your work space (standing is better), open it all.

  • Recycle immediately the ads.
  • Start piles for Common Categories, like these:
    • Bills to pay
    • Action Items (notes to send, reminders of phone calls to make, forms to complete and submit, etc)
    • Items to Read Later: magazines, articles
    • Errands to Run (coupons, receipts for returns, etc)
    • Papers To File
    • Tax Related Papers 2 years ago
    • Receipts
  • Recycle all the catalogs, but first tear off the back page off and set them aside.
  • Open every envelope, and toss / recycle / shred anything you don’t need for action or filing.  Recycle outside envelopes and inside inserts for your bills, etc.,
  • Set the bills-to-pay in their own pile, and the action items (same pile for me)
  • Grab a magazine holder and start a reading pile for your magazines and articles you plan to read later

Make some magic, and STOP MORE MAIL FROM COMING!

  • Low Tech: Call the 800 #s on the back page of the catalogs, and request to be removed from their mailing list.
  • Go To http://www.catalogchoice.org/, create an account and “Unsubscribe” from catalogs
  • Using your catalogchoice.org account, Get the Mail Stop app for your smart phone and get rid of unwanted mail in your mail box, too
  • Contact and create an account with the Direct Marketing Association,  http://www.dmachoice.org/, to get off of mailing lists and stop unsolicited mail
  • Another option is the Paper Karma app for your smart phone, to unsubscribe from mailing lists.
  • Unsubscribe from Magazines you no longer need or want, and digitize your subscriptions, so they come via email or on your IPad or Tablet.
  • Make a regular appointment to get to your reading pile (mine is early on Saturday morning for an hour or 2)

I’ve blogged extensively on setting up the actual Paper Management structure, the files and things, so please check out those, too, as you proceed to the next step:  http://colleencpo.wordpress.com/?s=paper+management

Here are related blogs, too, from past National Clean Off Your Desk Days:

You Can DO This!  Now get to work!

Conquer Email Overload:  Do This, Not That

A coaching client asked for email suggestions last week, so I thought I would share with all of you! email

I’ve been researching a lot about email this week, in preparation for writing this article.

There are the “don’t open your email in the morning” people, who work on their chosen work for a few hours when they get to the office, and then check their email.

There are the “check your email all the time on your smart phone or device” people who do just that, too.

I’ve read about the “zero inbox” movement, but I don’t agree with it.  It uses sophisticated filters to move messages to folders, but folders don’t work for everyone, and just moving email around doesn’t actually complete the work.

There may be people like me, somewhere in the middle: I work virtually. I wake up and check emails just to make sure there are no schedule changes for the day or major crises to handle, then step away from it as I get my family and self and home ready for the day.  Then I step back to it when I can focus on working through what is in my various in-boxes.

Here are some strategies to help you conquer your own email overload!

  1. Do: Recognize that Email is our work, or at least part of it.  We cannot forgo email to do our work, at least not all the time.
  2. Do: Focus on Flow.  Work has flow, and email is part of your work.  So emails need to flow, too: Into your in-box, through your work process, and back out again, responded to or forwarded, then filed in a folder or trashed.
  3. Do: Be grateful for email.  I would never be able to do as much as I do, or communicate as fully with as many people, if I didn’t have email.
  4. Do: Decide when and how to handle your email.  Don’t be a victim of your email!  You. Decide.
  5. Do: Block time to process your emails.  And I mean to read, act and file them.  Here is my process, determine for yourself what types of emails get your attention first, second and third!
    • Log in, then delete everything you can, like all the ads or obsolete newsletters.  Better yet, un-subscribe from mailings lists you no longer need (I’m going to try something called Unroll.me).
    • Check for client correspondence, especially about today (usually important and urgent), which will impact my appointment schedule.
    • Check for presentation correspondence (important, not typically urgent).
    • If there are multiple replies to a conversation, read the most recent reply, which should hold everyone’s responses to date, and file or delete the rest.
    • Mark as urgent (a Star on outlook) the most important messages.
    • Move non-urgent reading items to their own folder, to be read later.  And carve out time every day or a couple of times a week to specifically read through that folder content.
    • Now that you have cleared the email clutter, go back and tackle the emails designated as urgent.
    • A couple of times a day, I also check my personal email, and my facebook messages, too, as FB is the chosen communication method for some of my clients.
  6. Do Not leave your in-box open all day, or have your devices set to send automatic notifications for new email.  DO limit your email-checking to fewer and more purposeful moments during the day.  I’ve changed my settings, and am working on the closing the in-box, too.  Remember, You. Decide.
  7. Do Not send an email message now to say that you will send an email message later.  Set an autoresponder, if you must, with an “email received” message.  “Respond immediately to your email” is one of the least useful tips I read this week in my research.

Take a deep breath, friend.  Think a little differently about your email.  Then get to work!

Taking National Preparedness Month to Work!

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Did you know?  September is National Preparedness Month!  The 4 steps, from www.Ready.gov, are:npm logo

  1. Be informed – Learn what protective measures to take before, during and after an emergency (from Ready.gov);
  2. Make a Plan – Prepare, plan and stay informed during an emergency (from ready.gov);
  3. Build a Kit – Build a Kit for disasters to be prepared (from ready.gov); and
  4. Get Involved – Find Opportunities to Support Community Preparedness.

We should have positive and useful conversations in our homes, families, workplaces and community to prepare for emergencies BEFORE the emergency actually occurs. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need to plan for emergencies, but as wonderful as our world is, it is not Ideal.  And so, emergencies and disasters may happen.  But family and community members of every age benefit from having and knowing the plan to activate in the face of an emergency.

I have written about NPM in the past, click here for information:  National Preparedness Month: Get your Kit

This September, I want to talk about preparedness in the workplace.   We spend up to 60 hours a week (or more) at our work place, or more than ½ of our waking hours.  It makes sense to have a plan for emergencies at work.

I work from home, or in other people’s homes.  We have preparedness plans for home, but I have one for my travel and organizing time, too.  Examples of my preparedness plan for my “workplace” are habits like:

  1. Keeping my cell phone fully charged;
  2. Carrying an extra charging cord, first aid kit and non-perishable snacks in my car;
  3. Keeping my car keys and phone on me at all times; and
  4. Keeping my gas tank always above a quarter of a tank.

There are lots of options for office workers, too.  A client who works in a high-rise building in downtown Chicago has an emergency kit in his desk, supplied by his company and building management.  I researched other kits on-line, and they may contain items such as:

  • a bottle of water and non-perishable snack (management comes around and refreshes these every year);
  • a foil emergency blanket;
  • a signal whistle and crank flash light; and
  • a small first aid kit, face mask and a pair of latex gloves.
  • My downtown client’s kit is in a small soft sided cooler bag, and other kits I have seen are in string backpacks or fanny packs.

If you don’t have a kit provided by your employer, please consider creating your own kit or a kit for a loved one, and keeping it close at hand for emergencies.  You can include any of the items mentioned above, and add others based on your own situation, for example, one kit that I researched included a poncho.  You can also buy pre-assembled workplace preparedness kits on-line or at most office supply chain stores.

Let me encourage you and your family, workplace and community to get involved and get prepared.  Focus on Preparedness now so you can focus better on everything else later!