Banner Day....

Ok, so here is my banner day...
1. Great weekly networking meeting
2. Awesome meeting with my Life Insurance Broker—she aligned her company with a bigger outfit and the services she can offer are extraordinary. I can't wait to see her office next week.
3. Finally made it to the pottery studio to copy the plastic tray of my mom's, so she can have a ceramic version. It has a design to it, but since she reads my blog (thanks, mom), I will not share it now.
4. Got to work on my Personal Productivity workshop—with the aid of Google Docs and voice dictation.
5. Baked dessert for a dinner party Saturday night and made the dough for cookies for brunch on Saturday morning (I already made a batch of different cookies for the brunch).

Now you see why I call it a banner day. Was you day a banner day? If not, try and have one soon.

The world wide web...

Today, I set-up a Yelp page for my business because a local solopreneur told me that she got the bulk of her clients through her business's Yelp page and when I signed up I saw that I could put up my 2 session special (now for back-to-school) as a "deal", so now I am putting me and my business out there.

Life Management Pros of Yelp

I forgot....

I forgot to practice what I preach and didn't write down the sites I needed to visit on the internet and now I can only remember one of the two, which makes me more convinced of writing your to-do list at night for the next day.

Tip: Traveling Sandbox Toys

With the plethora of collapsible kitchen items and travel accessories, you can make a flat pack sand toys kit for that family trip to the beach

1-2 collapsible bowls
1 collapsible colander
2-3 plastic cookie cutters
2 collapsible travel cups
1 set collapsible measuring scoops
1 small plastic shovel (optional)

And you are good to go!

Business Norm......Ditch the standard

Today I decided to file away the business cards I had collected over the years through networking, doctor's visits and a love of beads, but when doing so I noticed several had to be trimmed (too tall) to fit in the protector page which assumes each card is a standard 2" X 3.5 " and I realized in the age of technology and flash graphics on websites, the business card is yet another way to standout especially when you do a size that is not the standard and so in my opinion business is going the way of standing out and not fitting into the standard.

(P.S. One of my favorite business cards came from a financial planner whose card was 2" X 1.25" and said on the front, "The lack of orders from you has made this economy size card necessary.")

Neat and clean

I hired a professional organizer to help me make sense of my office which is now also my craft space and from the picture you can see we did good work, so I am thrilled and loving my neater bookshelf.

    

Wednesday's words...Red light, Green light....

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me." —Ayn Rand

Wednesday's words on Productivity

"Besides the noble are of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone." —Lin Yutang

Tuesday's Tip: to-do list

No matter what you have to do, writing it all down will make sure you don't forget anything important and the back of an envelope will do if you don't have pad or paper handy.

Connections, Networking and LinkedIn

Every time I go to the LinkedIn page "people you might know",  I look at the pictures wondering how I know the person and realize that I don't know him/her; it is just that I have seen his/her photo so many times on this page that I feel I should know them and wonder what would happen if I sent an invitation.

Well, it's a saturday night...

The kid is sleeping over at Grandma and Grandpa's house and I am cleaning house, organizing, doing laundry and even making mac n' cheese for a family dinner tomorrow night (yes, homemade) and wondering why I am not taking this time to do for myself rather than for my household (I don't count doing my laundry as self care).

Tuesday's Tip: For the New Year...

Be sure to print a hard copy of your address book on your computer and your contact list on your phone, so that you can recover the information should you need to do it.

Tuesday's Tip: Travel essentials

Whether you are staying at a hotel, a friends house or a on cruise ship, here are a few essentials you should pack—flashlight, small first aid kit and disinfecting wipes.

Wednesday's Words on Cleaning

"I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes—and six months later you start all over again." —Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers Biography

Tuesday's Tip on Freezing

To freeze fresh fruit or veggies, wash, cut into pieces and place on cookie sheet (preferably rimmed), spread out pieces and freeze several hours. Then remove cookie sheet and place pieces in freezer bag and you will be able to get out as much or as little as you need.

Wednesday's Words: Avoid Disorder

"It is best to do things systematically, since we are only human, and disorder is our worst enemy."
—Hesiod

Bittersweet moment

Today I donated my violin to an instrument drive that will refurbish it and give it to a public school student who can't afford one and while I was happy to see the dust collector go for a good reason, I was also sad, since Orchestra in high school had been one my favorite extra-curriculars due to all the laughs because I (and some fellow players) wasn't very good—hopefully the student who gets it is better than I was at playing a violin.

Desk organization

Before....

After.....

Enough said (Sylvie would be very proud, especially if I kept it this way.)

Tuesday's Tip on writing...

Back when I (and you) were in school we learned the outline method to mapping out a paper/essay, well use it for that memo, presentation or article (as I did for my upcoming newsletter article for March)

Tuesday's Tip: Keep track of your finances

If you made a New Year's resolution to spend les,s then you need to do more than make a budget, you need to track what you spend in all your accounts (savings, checking and credit cards) to get the most accurate picture of your money habits (Hint: doing it online makes it easy; I know first hand).

For more on creating a budget....Truly Useful Budgeting