Wasted time

Previously written Jan 18, 2015

On to Day 4 challenge of Natalie Sisson’s 15-Day Blog Challenge…I have heard this before, that our bodies are tuned into, really geared, to be distracted – I believe it has something to do with our ‘old’ brain (the amigdula?), the part that deals with life and death situations, survival.  We are made to sense things that are pulling us from our focus, to avoid unexpected dangers.

I’ve also been impacted by how long it takes to get that focus back once distracted.  Natalie mentioned it takes 15 minutes to get back on track after every distraction, and I would almost argue that it is even longer, especially when it comes to social media – once you get sucked into one thing, it can lead to hours of wasted time.  This is my weak area, especially since I am not working right now, and am starting my own business but have yet to secure any contracts!

I have to say that LinkedIn is where I ‘live’ currently, and I have been trying to increase being noticed through liking and making comments on others’ posts, posting interesting articles I’ve read, and snooping people’s profiles (NOT anonymously which drives me crazy on my own profile!) with an occasional invite to connect.  Unfortunately all this takes time, and I feel I need to schedule this in rather than randomly look at things.

In regard to FB, I only used to periodically check that, as I only use it for personal/family posts and keeping up with some relatives’ activities.  Most of my email notifications have been shut off forever.  Of course, with this blog challenge, I now have a whole new slew of email updates pouring in every hour of the day it seems.  I may need to alter that somehow…hmmm.

My other problem area is that over the past year, I have signed up to various webinars, tele-summits and podcasts on branding, leadership, entrepreneurship, online presence, etc…all of which had tremendous benefits and lots of free learning and interesting perspectives from some well known people.  I love it all and have obtained some great resources from this – the issue is that in signing up for any sort of free stuff, I now receive a lot of e-newsletters, offers of training programs, coaching and other such things.  I have been slowly unsubscribing to the ones that I really have not taken a liking of, which has helped, but it can still be a bit overwhelming having to weed through my inbox to sort what I want or have to read or not.

So the answer to the challenge – they thing for me to stop doing to make myself more productive, and give myself more time, is of course, opening those emails associated with e-newsletters, and LinkedIn or Facebook posts!  This would also mean not actually opening LinkedIn or Facebook in any way, except for scheduled periods of time, AFTER all my MIAs are complete.  I realized this before the blog challenge started – it was just reinforced once I started getting sucked into reading everyone’s blogs!

My Favourite Tool

Previously written Jan 17, 2015

Today Natalie Sisson shared a few of her favourite tools for managing her business and life.  I think I’ll check out Asana, as I have heard about it from a few people now…

For my favourite tool, I also suggest the tool Evernote.  After using it for quite a while just for the purpose of capturing notes and ideas, and organizing things under common themes, as Natalie uses it for, I found that it can also be a great tool for organizing all useful information on projects, sharing full notebooks or individual notes with others, and even giving permissions to others to edit them outside of the account (if you upgrade and pay a minimal amount per month or per year).  Apparently entire companies are using this tool for all their project teams to store information and collaborate on their common projects, including sales (with another add-on) and marketing.  Other great things:

– In one note, you can clip web images and articles, write your own text, record a conversation, and take pictures…my daughter and I experimented with developing/recording a walking journey, where we took a walk, snapped pictures of what we were talking about, and shot a couple videos too.  It would be easy editing later to put this all together from the one note.  This would also be great for meetings you attend, where you want to record the conversation AND take notes at the same time.

– You can use it to give a presentation to others, right from the app – just make one note with all your content and it divides it into slides – press play to share onscreen, or via wifi connection to a projecting system.

– You can copy multiple notes into a new notebook, if pulling together a new project using common bits and pieces from the past – and it can be shared with others in this form.

– There are so many other apps that ‘talk to’ and sync with Evernote, not just including the ones they have developed.

I really recommend listening to some of the webinars they have on their website to learn more of its capabilities.  There are also many people who have various tips and uses for Evernote, like James Burchill, who wrote a book called ‘Evernote Exposed’ and has a fabulous notebook in Evernote that has all kinds of tips and secrets on uses (copyrighted, so must be shared by him!), and like Michael Hyatt, who uses it for tracking goals and targets through the year.  I believe his tips are on his website somewhere!

Oh, and I thought I’d add a quick mention of the Toggl app – I just started using it to track my time during the day.  If you are consistent in entering new ‘projects’ or activities when you change tasks, you can quickly start to see on what you are spending the majority of your time throughout the day…and when, to help tackle the times when you need to motivate yourself to stay on track, or realize you need to limit your social media time!

Which One to Choose?

Previously written Jan 16, 2015

Day 2 of Natalie Sisson’s 15-day Blog Challenge is this: share the one MIA (most important action) that needs to be accomplished over the next 15 days to get the most leverage in my business.  ONE!  HOW?  There are so many things to do….

If anyone has noticed, I’m posting via Penzu, a diary app that Natalie suggested, and that already I’ve taken a liking to – it helps me document what I actually accomplished each day, which sometimes can feel like nothing until I actually write it down.  So regardless of what happens next, I think I’ll continue using it.  However, this leads me to what most of you might be thinking is my ONE thing – to create and launch a blog site, or better yet, a whole business website, with glorious content pages and service offerings.  And believe me, this is on my list since I did just launch my business.

The thing is?  I don’t have any contracts yet, and to pay for things like logo design and branding, building a really nice website, and even to take potential clients to lunch or coffee or provide a free proposal to, I need some income.  And that means gaining contracts in any way possible.  Catch 22?  Sure, but what do I do?  I’m in a market with a target audience that I won’t likely gain a ton of business just from having a website, even a really great one.  It’s more likely that I’ll get my start, and growth, through contacts I already have and my personal reputation.

So, my MIA over the next 15 days?  GAIN SOME CONTRACTS, pure and simple.  Search out opportunities to meet potential clients, look online for potential contracts and submit proposals, reach out to people I know in the industry, and maybe beg a little.  Ha ha!

Do I really have a 1-routine fits all?

I’m loading up a few of my first blogs, shared only with Natalie Sisson’s 15 Days to Freedom Blog Challenge participants – until now.  This was Day 1…Jan 15, 2015

“Well, here it is, my very first blog post, not yet on a blog site.  Haha.  I’ll get there. 

I have to say that I started out reading a few of the posts for this Day 1 challenge and decided that was a BAD idea.  A lot of folks seem to have it together, with a nice structured, daily routine to introduce calm and structure into their schedules.  Me?  I have too many ‘influencers’ that can regularly put a dent in any routine I might want to set up for my mornings.  Those being: 

1) my 11-mo old puppy, Rain, who is usually the first to wake me, with a few licks to the face letting me know she wants to go outside in the freezing cold (as it is here is Saskatchewan!) when I am barely able to open my eyes yet…

2) my husband who may or may not sleep in and opt out of his regular schedule, which can throw my entire schedule out the window and cause me to rush around catching up to stay on track!

3) my two beautiful children, aged 6 and 9, who sometimes wake up in a great mood, but often not.  If not, it’s up to me to make sure they still get pushed, pulled, and coerced into getting up and ready, and out the door on time so they aren’t late for school.  My husband will have left by the time I’m out of the shower usually.

In an ideal world, my best and most productive days start out actually the day before, with making note of the must-do’s for the morning, those MIAs that Natalie was mentioning.  I actually schedule them into my calendar as meetings if they are critical.

Then a good night sleep is mandatory – if I don’t, such as those nights after I play soccer (especially late games), I might as well write off at least half of the next day.

In the morning, I get up and let my dog out, then feed her so she is not poking at me every 2 seconds (including while showering).

I shake and start to wake my children before going for a shower – otherwise it is really a bad morning!  They need their slow rise to the day.

Get dressed, poke children some more and get breakfasts going (and that usually-necessary coffee going that others have mentioned!)

Prod, prod, prod, take the kids to school, come back and finish my coffee and eat something if I haven’t already.

Then, get to it! (work-wise…)

If, by chance, there were no major fights and I’m not proclaimed ‘the worst mom in the world’, then all of this goes pretty smoothly and I am set for the day without having to re-set my mind and intentions when I get home.  It’s just that daily question mark that can turn calm into chaos.  

Anyone else share these challenges?”

15 Days to Freedom

To kick off my adventure into the blogging world, I decided to get some help – I’ve never done this before, so I felt a little guidance and some encouragement might be necessary… 

I’ve been following Natalie Sisson for a while now, and when she announced her 15 Days to Freedom Blog Challenge, I knew it was that extra push I needed!  What a better way to start blogging than with a daily challenge to share some words on a page with complete strangers, and as an added benefit, be lead through some key steps to getting a business up and running!  Fabulous!

Well, fast forward and we are currently on Day 8 of the challenge already, and I only just kicked my butt into gear to get a blog site up and running.  For now, I went with a free option to test things out, but will research some more (with all the great recommendations rolling in from our group) for my business website, which is next on my list!

Anyways, I’ll be retroactively adding a few of my previous posts to this site as I thought I should capture them all in one place, to be able to review my progress later on.  I hope you enjoy my journey into the land of blogging, as well as into the launch of my new business.  In the long run, I hope to connect these two online worlds – business and blog sites, but that is yet to come.  Maybe after a bit of practice and feedback first!

A new world!

Today marks the first day of my blog site!

Special call-out to Natalie Sisson’s 15 Days to Freedom Blog Challenge to introducing me to the world of blogging and getting this up and running – thanks Natalie!

I will endeavour to write entertaining, thought-provoking and maybe sometimes controversial materials for you, should you decide to become a follower.  I would like to develop an engaged audience that is open-minded, willing to dialogue, and a believer in the same cause as myself.

I encourage feedback, both positive and negative…however, should you choose to comment, please keep it clean, respectful, and if at all possible, constructive! I’m a continuous improvement kind of gal!