Put your positive thinking caps on!
I couldn’t think of a better post to start your week than this one: positive life changes. Mondays are universally a downer (even though they don’t have to be!) but how about starting your week with a completely holistic upper instead?
I want you to think of five things that went wrong last week. Drove you batty. Incited you to strangle choke, scream or open your eyes wider than they’ve ever been.
Now, make a list of five things that went right last week. Brought you joy, made you laugh or just made your day in any old way.
The second list was harder to make, wasn’t it? Well, it shouldn’t be!
Here are five positive life changes you can make today that will have that second list rattling off your tongue like that first list of frustrations. No need to be frustrated: looking onward and upward is always a more enjoyable task!
Wake up each morning with a “thank you.”
It’s your first thought of the day – why not make it one of gratitude? From birds outside your window to the sound of the coffee pot, there’s a long list of things to say “thank you” for each morning.
Rain or shine – it’s a good day.
If it rains, you don’t have to water the lawn, which keeps your water bills down (and your shoes dry). If it’s sunny, plants will thrive and you can feel the sun on your face. You can also use fewer lights inside during your work day and keep electric bills down. Either way, it’s a good day.
Out with the downers.
They creep up on us at the store or while we’re out and about. They’re the Poopy Penguins with the sad faces and nothing good to say. When someone around you tries to bring you down, think of how you’d turn the situation around (whether it’s your situation or not). Frowns look better upside down!
Start with a smile.
When you’re sideways, it’s better to start with a smile. First, it’s a pause. It takes a moment to put that smile on. And in that moment, you can change your attitude. Forget about the mad and start with something positive when something doesn’t go right. When your teenager spills something on the carpet after tearing through the house, why not try, “I see you’re a shoo-in for the cross country team next season. In the meantime, can we keep the speed limits below 5 MPH while in the house?”
Related posts you might enjoy:
Three Ways to Beat Stress When Nothing Goes Right (aka There’s No ‘I’ in What the Hell?!)
Why I Love Being Wrong
Is your home office a bunny slipper environment?
You roll out of bed, put your bunny slippers on, flip the switch on the coffee maker and fire-up your laptop. You’re now in your office. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?
We were all new to the home office at one time or another. Maybe you’re brand new to it. Perhaps you now consider yourself an old hand. But either way, have you ever sat down and established some rules for your home office? Working from home is a gift – a pleasure – an indulgence and quite honestly, the biggest opportunity we have to fail at what it is we do for a living. Without some rules, we’re destined for distractions that will damage not only our time management but our bottom line, too.
Work From Home Rule #1: Treat Your Home Office Like an Office
There are no excuses for food wrappers on your desk or empty glasses stacked up to eternity. Keep your desk clean and give yourself a dedicated workspace. The Sofa Desk is comfy, but you’d be surprised what happens when you build a place in your home that is meant for work!
Work From Home Rule #2: Get Dressed
I know – I’m a fan of the bunny slipper days, too. But here’s my argument: three days a week, get dressed. I’m not saying suit-and-tie or dress-and-heels kind of getting dressed, but put some clothes on and get yourself ready as if you were going to a regular office and had to be (gasp) presentable for someone other than the UPS man. I always feel better when I’m dressed for the day!
Work From Home Rule #3: Get a Business Line
In the day and age where our cell phones are primary numbers for many of us, you owe it to yourself to have some privacy. Get a landline installed in your home office and use that as your work number. You can also use services like Phone.com (for only a few bucks a month) to have a virtual number complete with extensions, call handling rules and call forwarding (to your cell phone). You’re a business, not a 24-hour hotline. When the work day is done, people go to voicemail. It’s that simple.
Related posts: Work-Life Balance – Who’s Owning Who?
Is multitasking helping or hurting you?
OK – reality check: how many windows do you have open on your desktop right now? Are you a multitasking wiz or overburdened by doing too much at once? (Frankly, how on earth do you tell which one you are?!)
We always hear the multitasking mantra – it’s good. It’s great! It’s productive! But here’s my tough question for the day: what are you sacrificing for multitasking’s sake?
When we spread our attention across too many things, it’s a pretty decent bet that none of them are getting our full attention (nor the attention they’re due). Every now and then, there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of a situation to get a few things done at once but today’s post is about stopping the madness and honing your focus. Multitasking isn’t always grand, so here are some tips for making the most of your opportune situations (and getting everyone the attention they deserve).
Multitasking Tip 1: Close Those Web Browser Windows
You’ve got Twitter open in one, Facebook in the other, Gmail in yet another, three blogs, Overstock.com and…WOW! If you’re working on a report, proposal or other task that requires your computer-related attention, do yourself a favor and minimize the distractions. Close your web browser and hit mute on your computer’s sound. That’s way, you’re not distracted by other shiny, web-based things and you can get to the task at hand.
Multitasking Tip 2: The Wired Headset
I know you like your Bluetooth headsets, but the sound quality is unreliable. If you’re going to multitask on a conference call, do everyone a favor and minimize the “hallway” effect and static – get a wired headset. Oh, and find the mute button on your phone. Nothing’s more impolite than the clicky-clack of keys in the background of a call.
Multitasking Tip 3: Email Time!
Do you answer you emails throughout the day? Do you have desktop notifications or sounds that tell you when a new one arrives in your inbox? Give yourself a break. Set specific times during the day to answer your emails and turn off those notifications. If it’s in an email, it can probably wait and you can focus on other things that require your attention.
Related Posts: Email Etiquette Conundrum: Do I Have to Respond to Everyone?
What's the skinny on coworking?
When you run your own business, one of the classic benefits I hear about time and time again is freedom from the traditional office. We can go take calls in our bunny slippers and sip tea on the sofa while answering email. But if you’re anything like me, you can only look at the cat so long on any given day and you find ways to get out of the house to keep your sanity.
We asked for this – freedom from the office. But sometimes we get stir-crazy. What’s the solution? Coworking!
I recently heard about coworking via one of the many blogs I read. Here’s the jist: you pay a daily or a monthly use fee and prop-up at a desk whenever you’d like! Along with the desk in many locations are various amenities like wi-fi, quiet rooms, a conference room available for client meetings, a kitchen and more. But do you want to know what I think the best part of coworking is? The community. It’s community on-demand.
On days where the cat isn’t cutting it, coworking is the ideal solution for camaraderie, and exchange of ideas in a non-digital fashion and a great environment in which to get done what it is you need to do.
You can find local coworking spaces in your area (and granted, some areas might not be hip to it just yet, so be patient!) by doing a web search for “coworking (your town).”
Here are just a few that you can look at across the country as a primer on the entre cooworking concept:
Cohere Community (Ft. Collins, CO)
Blankspaces (Loas Angeles, CA)
Independents Hall (Philadelphia, PA)
If you have a local coworking fave, share it with our audience here. The more resources we share, the more we all can be as successful as possible as entrepreneurs.
Email Etiquette in Three Simple Steps
It’s the beauty of email: fast, simple, direct and you never get someone’s voicemail. But there’s a bit more to emailing than just point-and-shoot. There’s email etiquette that’s cause for confusion and enough to make your head swim. In this day and age of digital communication, what ARE the rules for email etiquette? Do I have to respond to everyone who emails me, every time? The answers might surprise you, but here’s my take on the world of email etiquette. It doesn’t have to be a conundrum – it’s email, for Pete’s sake!
Email Etiquette Tip 1: Be Concise
Don’t fire off a lengthy prose masterpiece for your business communications. Save those for the writing contests and updating your mom. Email should be short, concise and respectful of the receiving party’s time. How do you do it?
- Ask one question per email (but don’t send six emails with one question each in rapid succession!)
- If you must ask multiple questions, use bullet points and preface the list with: “I have X questions for you.”
- If you have a deadline, provide that.
Email Etiquette Tip 2: Indicate if You Need a Reply
I get HUNDREDS of emails each day – there’s no way I can respond to everything and email communication threads have to end somewhere. Don’t feel obligated to respond to every single email in your inbox. Here’s my list of rules for what needs a reply and what doesn’t:
- When someone asks a question or asks for something
- When they’re said something really nice and I would like to thank them
- When someone has shared something with me and I found it interesting
- When I need to confirm something.
Aside from that, it’s a case-by-case basis. Use your best judgment but every “thank you” doesn’t require a “you’re welcome!”
Email Etiquette Tip 3: Say Thank You
Whether you add it to your signature line or type it in at the bottom, show your appreciation for your recipient’s time. You’re glad they’re reading your email! It’s that simple.
Now – do YOU have any email etiquette adds for this list? I’d love to hear them!
