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Project Management Tools That Every Small Business Needs by @TracyVides

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Back view of businessman drawing sketch on wall

Back view of businessman drawing sketch on wall

by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor

Managing a project is never easy. There are so many factors you need to consider, and even if one or two of them slips your mind, it can be devastating for your business. Project management responsibilities are in fact unavoidable; you will face them at various points within your organizational operations, irrespective of your domain or size of the business. How you use your resource to deliver projects within the budget and timeframe and collaborate with your team members and clients typically determines the success of your business.

But this is easier said than done. A lot of challenges lie in the process of delivering a project without a proper framework. Things are especially challenging for small business as they usually have constrains on budget and resources. They need appropriate project management tools to face these challenges.

The project management tools available in the market at the moment can be broadly classified into three categories and small businesses need all of these functions to effectively execute their objectives.

Types of Project Management Platforms

1) Task Assignment System:

task

This is perhaps the most basic type of project management tool that every small business needs in their arsenal. Using this type of systems, businesses can:

  • Break down bigger and more complex goals into more manageable, smaller tasks.
  • Assign tasks to individual employees with the team.
  • Demonstrate workflow visually, indicating the order your team needs to follow to accomplish a task.
  • Assign a deadline/due date to each task.
  • Mark projects/tasks as “complete.”

On a more simplistic note, you can accomplish these tasks on Excel-like spreadsheets or even note apps. But these won’t provide you the features of more advanced project management software.

2) Collaboration Environment:

collaboration

Task management tools, albeit important, do not provide the full scope of needs associated with dynamic project management environment. You cannot simply assign tasks to your team members and expect them to complete them properly without any supervision or internal discussion. It only shows your short sightedness and can be downright disastrous for your business.

Collaboration is key to successful project management. This allows your team to:

  • Communicate seamlessly with clients, stakeholders and others within/outside the company to discuss project requirements throughout its life cycle. This brings remote employees and large workforces working in multiple locations closer to create a better end result.
  • Discuss time-sensitive tasks so that managers/clients can respond to queries without interrupting existing work schedules.
  • Store and share ideas, notes and documents to facilitate better and efficient project completion.

Again, at its simplest, Google Apps and other file storage and communication systems can help you create a collaborative environment. But for more complex projects, you need something that combines task assignments with collaboration to address the diverse needs of a business with more than a single ongoing program.

3) Time Tracking Utility:

tracking

Finally, there are platforms specifically designed for tracking the time invested in a particular task. Proper time tracking is an essential part of good project management; simply delivering the project within the time-frame is not enough. You would also want to know how long it took your team members to complete a given task to see if you can find new efficiencies that you can put to use in future.

A time tracking tool is what you need for this purpose. It helps you track the time spent by every employee on each task/project, so that you can get a better overall idea of task sizes, as well as bill clients accurately for hours spent. A good time tracking tool allows you to switch between projects and tasks seamlessly.

These days, most project management tools combine time tracking with collaboration and task assignment. This allows businesses to leverage all features of a good project management from one single, robust platform instead of trying to pair or cross-integrate various standalone tools. It also makes the whole process inexpensive.

Based on these three categories of project management platforms, let’s consider three agile solutions that are great options for small businesses, both in terms of functionality and cost effectiveness.

JIRA

JIRA

Previously called GreenHopper, JIRA is a project management tool by Atlassian Enterprise. This is a great agile project management tool that provides a “flexible and scalable issue tracker for software teams.” JIRA features a Scrum board as well as a Kanban board so that teams can successfully collaborate and complete tasks within the given time-frame.

It allows you to:

  • Prioritize and plan your tasks so that you can take action on what’s important.
  • Remain updated with everything your team is doing throughout a particular phase.
  • Create milestones and assign tasks with due dates.
  • Get real-time visibility of the progress and status of an upcoming/ongoing release via the Release Hub feature.
  • Collaborate through real-time communication in HipChat.
  • Generate reports.

Nutcache

home_collab_highlight_EN4

A cloud-based collaborative project management, Nutcache allows you to “TEAM UP. ORGANIZE. TRACK. GET PAID.” It is the perfect solution for businesses to organize and track their work in a collaborative environment.

Nutcache has flexible boards that you can use to apply the Kanban model or the Scrum methodology of project management. Additionally, you can assign tasks as well as manage your project by phases or team. Nutcache allows for both internal and external communication from a single platform to enable better sharing of ideas, status updates, document sharing, comments, and so on.

Nutcache allows you to:

  • Create projects and assign tasks to individual employees or teams.
  • Assign hours to a specific project.
  • Attach documents such as files, videos and images to a particular project.
  • Create collaborative boards and organize it with lists and cards.
  • Track time spent on each assignment.
  • Create project estimates and invoices.
  • Bill clients with work hours directly from the project dashboard as well as invoice a whole board.
  • Select recurring frequencies for invoices.

Basecamp

basecamp

This project management tool helps small businesses, entrepreneurs, small groups and freelancers collaborate with different people in order to achieve the common goal of “finishing a project together.” It facilitates easy communication between team members and associates to deliver projects successfully within the predefined time-frame and budget. Little need be said about Basecamp, because it is easily the most widely used project management tool in the small to medium sized business segment.

This popular collaboration tool allows you to:

  • Eliminate messy emails from your project management process by allowing you to post messages to its interface directly.
  • Assign tasks and mention deadlines.
  • Create multiple to-do lists and add sub-tasks.
  • View the whole thread of conversation on a topic in a single screen.
  • Share files with internal and external collaborators.

In Conclusion

What project management tools suit your business depends on your particular requirements. You can incorporate a standalone task management tool or a combined, agile solution that does it all for your business, depending on the complexity of your projects, the size of your business and number of employees who need to use the system. Irrespective of the tool you use, remember that managing operations with a project-based system is the key to a successful business.

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Image credits:

Task assignment – http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s.casual.pm/blog/posts/5%20Principles%20Of%20Creating%20A%20Task.jpg

Collaboration – https://www.marketopia.com/wp-content/uploads/bfi_thumb/Screen-Shot-2015-04-23-at-10.37.13-AM-2yyle7n97wf51dji1k4lxc.png

Time tracking – http://teamviget.com/images/uploads/tracktor-1.png

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Tracy VidesTracy Vides is a content marketer and social media consultant who works with small businesses and startups to increase their visibility. Although new to the digital marketing scene compared to her illustrious She Owns It counterparts, Tracy has started off well by building a good online reputation for herself. She’s now a “serial blogger” with posts featured on Sprout Content, Steamfeed, Soshable, and elsewhere.

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

The Key to Creating Great Killer Content Efficiently by @faithfulsocial

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by Cristina Trinidad | Featured Contributor

Let’s face it, we are all struggling with balance, time and constantly keeping the creative fires burning. Content creation is not a one and done enterprise. In fact, your entrepreneurial success depends on how well and how often you feed that content monster.

The Key to Creating Great Killer Content Efficiently with Cristina Trinidad for She Owns It by @faithfulsocial @

I work a full time corporate day job, a wife and  mother to two boys, run a blog and social media coaching business, guest post frequently for The SITS Girls, have a podcast and I am working on a branding e-course. To add even more pressure to that? I am in the middle of a house move. How can anyone manage to create solid content amidst all of that? Where do you keep your head, or is it always a fog of SEO, blog posts, the latest social media trends, tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s report deadline?

Come sit by me and I will share all of my secrets. Well, it’s just one secret, the one to rule them all (if you’re into The Lord of the Rings you’ll be even more intrigued).

Multitasking is your downfall.

Sure, smartphones allow us to access email, respond to a tweet, share a Facebook status and snap a gram, but are we really focused? Studies show that heavy multitaskers are less competent at doing several things at once than light multitaskers. So what does this mean for blogging?

Simple. We batch. You wouldn’t bake just one cookie would you? No. You bake a dozen or two. You get all of the flour, and all of the baking soda, extra chocolate chips (maybe that’s just me) and all of the ingredients and bake up that one batch to create the perfect cookie. Batching your work is similar. Here is how I do it broken up by each day of the week.

Monday: Writing. Because it’s the start of a new week, this is my day to stare at a blank screen and create. If I only have an hour, that’s ok. I spend that entire hour writing blog posts. There are times I use this block to craft the messages around social media posts if I am launching something that’s bigger than a blog post.

Tuesday: Scheduling. I manage multiple social media accounts and that takes focus to share the right content to the appropriate platforms. Personally, I use Buffer, Tailwind and Hootsuite to get all of my scheduling done. This also includes reading my Feedly to share content I think my followers would find useful, helpful or timely.

Wednesday: Brainstorming. The middle of the week, the middle of everything and I want to live in the eye of that storm and brainstorm all of the posts that I want to write for my blog and pivot those titles to share as guest posts (That’s another tip. Why re-create the wheel, right?).

Thursday: Images. I usually work on image creation on Thursdays. Why? Because it’s close to Friday and I like to get the party started early. Creating images is fun for me, especially now that I use Canva. I have pre-set templates optimized for Facebook and Pinterest. Lately I have been including pull quotes from the post itself so that I can share my blog posts on Instagram, too.

Friday: Newsletter. This is the day that I connect with my readers via an exclusive email to them. I share a social media or blogging tip, and a little bit about what’s going on with me personally. I am a big advocate of fostering real, authentic community with those people who sign up to my VIP list. I think we forget just how personal email is. It’s just you and the other person, completely captivated by what you’ve written. Ditch the RSS feed driven email, and get personal.

Saturday: Photography. If the weather is nice, I’ll go for a walk and snap photos that I can use in my blog posts. It makes my blogging experience that much better because I never have to worry about copyright issues. Of course, there’s always morguefile.com and unsplash.com. Heck, I’ve even used Canva’s paid images. But the personal ones are always better and with a smart phone, they’re usually better than the paid ones anyway.

Sunday: To-Do List. I spend time thinking about the week ahead and write down all of the things I’d like to get accomplished. Sometimes, that list is long. I just let myself free write here to get it all out on the paper. Then I go back and categorize the list by type. For example, “My blog”, “The SITS Girls”, “Blessed Is She”, “She Owns It”, “Branding ECourse”, “Email”, “Family”, etc. After prioritizing each category, I skim the top one or two and that’s my “must get done” for the week.

That still doesn’t mean that there isn’t a post it note pad on my nightstand to catch all the ideas  that could (and do) spill out in the middle of the night.

Lately, I’ve added meditation to my weekly routine. Just 10 minutes everyday via the Headspace App. I can’t tell you how it’s totally energized and calmed me at the same time. It’s a must have in your content creation arsenal.

That’s how I get it all done, every week.

What do you think about this batching thing? Could you start it this week? Let me know how you progress. Keep me posted!

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Cristina Trinidad Cristina Trinidad is full-time all the time. A wife and working mother of two children, she recently launched a blog and social media coaching business centered on being social without losing yourself in the process. Cristina enjoys helping other bloggers get noticed, or providing just the right prescription to manage their brand online.

What gets more eyebrow raises though, is that she is also a classically trained opera singer from the age of 13. It was all Madonna and Whitney Houston covers before that! She is of Puerto Rican descent and grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn – so she’s got just enough edge to keep her safe.When not blogging at Faithfully Social  you can find her on Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Why You Should Be The First One In The Office by @mwqpr

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by Michelle Quinn | Featured Contributor

Don’t hit that snooze button!

Recently I discovered the benefits of being the FIRST one in the office. Granted, by team may be a bit frustrated by my early am productivity, my clients and analytics both notably happy!

Retro black alarm clock show 6 o'clock in the morning for wake up.Background is a bedroom.

Instead of getting those extra minutes of sleep, get up and get yourself in the office. Arriving before most of your coworkers allows you time to work completely uninterrupted. No ringing phone, no barrage of emails, no talkative coworkers knocking on your door. Instead you have a block of time to focus on the really difficult tasks, plan your day in advance, and respond to the emails already in your inbox. You’re able to clear your inbox and set yourself up for a successful day. And according to Eileen Adler, chief human resources officer at PeopleFluent, starting the day “with a fresh, clear mind is more conducive to sound judgment and creative problem solving”.

Speaking of creative problem solving, the lack of interruption isn’t the only benefit of being the first one in the office. In fact, researchers Mareike Wietha and Rose Zacks recently wrote about the importance of starting the day prior to 9 am. In an article published in the journal Thinking & Reasoning they stated that starting work first thing in the morning can promote greater insight and creativity. Their reasoning is that you’re still groggy before 9 am, allowing you to think differently than when you are fully awake and alert. So tackle that pesky problem right away – the answer might come easier at 8 am than 10 am.

Angry businesswoman sitting at the table with trash paperArriving early also makes you readily available to communicate with coworkers and clients around the world. In today’s global economy it’s important to be available outside your time zone’s basic 9 to 5 structure. If you’re the first person in the office you could become invaluable to your company by becoming the point person for those overseas clients.

Beyond that, your office may also offer the option to leave early if you’re coming in early. Instead of working the typical 9 to 5 you could find yourself working 7 to 3. Think of how much traffic you’ll avoid with that schedule, not to mention the free time you’ll have for yourself in the evenings.

And if your office doesn’t allow you to come in early? That’s no excuse to sleep in! Use that time for yourself by exercising or other personal development. Otherwise you might be spending what could be your most productive hours in bed.

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Michelle QuinnFounder of Lifestyle Public Relations & Marketing Agency, MWQPR. A seasoned marketing, public relations and social media professional, she leads highly effective global marketing, communications, strategy and customer advocacy campaigns. She has experience across diverse industries, particularly Luxury, Retail, Technology, Travel, Hospitality, Financial Services and Consumer Goods in both corporate and consulting roles. Michelle has acquired a deep understanding of the affluent global consumer.

Michelle resides in San Francisco, CA  running a successful Marketing & PR firm. Holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Development & Global Communications from the University of California Los Angeles and received a certification from University of Business Marketing in Bologna, Italy. Michelle is fluent in Italian and currently studying French. A quick wit, New York sense of directness and superstar Auntie, Michelle also volunteers with Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, supporting their Race Across America Campaign.

Connect with Michelle: Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram

6 Neat Pieces of Tech for a More Productive Workday by @TracyVides #VZWbuzz

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by Tracy Vides | Featured Contributor 

Citius. Altius. Fortius. Meaning “Faster, Higher, Stronger” in Latin. These are the words that pretty much represent our everyday lives, not just the Olympic Games, anymore.

The quest for a quicker, more efficient way to get things done has led to a whole lot of interesting innovations. We’re familiar with apps that make our lives easier like Evernote or Flipboard. Here’s a selection of apps as well as gadgets that make for a more efficient and productive day at work – at the office, in a retail setup or even in home-offices.

Smart Shelves

powershelf

Supermarket shelves that carry the price and unit price for each item are so passé. Smart shelves are all set to take over the boring old and extremely limited utility store shelves of the past. These smart shelves are not paper and plastic tags anymore. They’re electronic labels that allow retailers to update product prices instantly with no manual intervention at each shelf. The shelves notify store managers when a product is running low on stock or is out of stock so the store does not lose sales due to stock outs. Some of these shelves even come equipped with Apple’s iBeacon technology which allows them to send customized offers to users’ smartphones as they pass by the shelves in the store.

Wrike

wrike

Projects typically require teamwork and inputs from various individuals at different stages of completion. Keeping track of individual pieces of the project, staying on top of who’s accountable for what and making sure that timelines are adhered to can all be real stressors with just email. A tool like Wrike takes the legwork out of project management by bringing together all members of the team on the same account where everyone can share their work freely with the rest of the team, team members can collaborate with ease on the same piece of work, one can even open up access to parts of the projects to outside vendors or clients as per the project manager’s discretion. Instead of a million emails back and forth regarding every aspect of the project, teams can store all their communication, files, comments and to-do lists in one place with Wrike.

USB Cup Warmer

usb cup warmer

America is a country of coffee drinkers. Why we even have coffee chains that claims that the nation ‘runs on’ its coffee. While coffee is indispensable to the average workplace, too many coffee breaks can definitely eat into your team’s overall productivity. So what do you do? You can’t obviously monitor or regulate coffee breaks. Any admonishments will definitely backfire and spoil your work environment. Why not approach the problem from a completely different point of view?

Invest in coffee mug warmers for your team. These devices as their name suggests, keep your coffee warm and piping even hours after your initial coffee run. You don’t have to worry about replacing batteries or finding a wall plug for this neat gizmo. With its standard USB port you can get your hot caffeine fix at your desk, on your couch or even outdoors. No more dillydallying at the coffee machine!

NeatDesk

neatdesk

In spite of how modern and digitized life has become, a lot of things at a workplace are still based on paper filing and recording. Things like receipts, bills, agreements, business cards and more are all still largely paper based and can be a real pain to keep track of.

Enter NeatDesk. NeatDesk offers a high speed desktop scanner that converts all your paper documents, receipts, visiting cards and more into digital form. By digital form I don’t mean that it simply scans the documents. NeatDesk’s intelligent text recognition system understands what is written on your documents and transfers key data from the documents into digital files that can be edited or worked on at a later date. It also comes with free limited period cloud storage for your data to make life easier in terms of data accessibility.

Walkstation

walkstation

Long hours of sitting have been proven to be bad for your body and for your mind. Efficiency drops and postures get affected when people sit for over two to three hours at a stretch at the same desk. Many offices have adopted standing desks or even adjustable sitting / standing desks for improving employee health and productivity. However, reports show that standing desks may not be all that they are vaunted to be.

A Walkstation is essentially a desk with a treadmill attached to it. Instead of making your employees spend the entire day sitting immobile at their desks, Walkstation is a good way to get them moving and healthy, without sacrificing their productive. You don’t have to convert every desk into a Walkstation obviously. However, consider installing a section in your office with four or five of these where employees can exercise and work at the same time. These Walkstation zones can turn into de facto meeting rooms with employees exercising their grey matter as well their bodies all in one place. The best part is that since Walkstations do not replace regular desks, they do not pose a threat to comfort and ease of work at the office.

Focus Lock

focuslock

According to Salary.com’s annual survey of workplace timewasters, 2014 saw 89% of all surveyed employees admitting to wasting time at the workplace. Time wasters typically included search and social media, with Google, Facebook and LinkedIn taking the top honors. Social media, online shopping, gaming and more offer employees the option goofing off while at work without even bothering to budge from their seats. The net result? Thousands of lost man-hours.

Focus Lock is an Android app that allows you to proactively lock time waster apps and get attention back to the long list of tasks at hand. This can prove to be a godsend for freelancers and work from home employees who don’t even have the office environment to regulate their productive hours. By selecting the apps that need to be locked away and choosing the duration for which they will be inaccessible, Focus Lock ensures that workers spend less time dawdling and more time being useful.

In Conclusion

Near-perfect productivity is an elusive goal that every company chases but few are successful in attaining. While down-time is necessary for all employees it is a huge problem when the ratio between downtime and productive time is reversed. Keep a rein on how you and your coworkers spend time at work with some of these fun tech ideas and let us know how it goes!

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Tracy VidesTracy Vides is a content marketer and social media consultant who works with small businesses and startups to increase their visibility. Although new to the digital marketing scene compared to her illustrious She Owns It counterparts, Tracy has started off well by building a good online reputation for herself. She’s now a “serial blogger” with posts featured on Sprout Content, Steamfeed, Soshable, and elsewhere.

Connect with her on Twitter @TracyVides for a chat any time!

Eat lunch at your desk? You have to read this.

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by Cheryl Clarke

Photo Credit: mrlerone via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: mrlerone via Compfight cc

If there is one New Year’s resolution that’s super simple to keep it’s to stop eating lunch at your desk. This one simple action can have profound effects on your health, well-being and your business.

It’s so easy to do, and it’s something I’ve fallen victim to many a time. When it’s cold outside, maybe even raining and the kettle is just around the corner it can be difficult to force yourself to break away. Whether you are working from home, in a shared office space or have your own, taking a break for lunch is absolutely fundamental for your health and your business, here’s why.

Sitting down is as bad for you as smoking

Several recent studies have found that sitting for too long more than doubles your risk of diabetes, it can increase the risk of heart disease and is as bad for you as smoking. Dr Emma Wilmot a researcher from the University of Leicester says, “When we sit for long periods of time, enzymes changes occur in our muscles that can lead to increased blood sugar levels. The effect happens very quickly and regular exercise won’t fully protect you.”

Taking a break from your desk for an hour in the middle of the day is the best habit you will ever get into.

Clearing your head leads to better ideas

You’ve probably found this already, I know I have. The best ideas come at the most random moments, whilst you are queuing up to buy a croissant or, quite oddly for me, on a trip to the toilet! Weird that I know, but the principle is the same.

Creative ideas are hard to come by sitting down in the same worn out spot you’ve been working in for the last 6 months or more. Getting up and out, breathing in some fresh air and changing your environment can work wonders.

Plus fresh air has been scientifically proven to improve brainstorming, do you need another reason to go outside?!

Having lunch with friends is good for your health

If you are starting up a business on your own (and I know this from experience) loneliness can be a nightmare. If you are used to being surrounded by people in a busy office all day and then suddenly you are in your front room with just your laptop and Jerry Springer or Jeremy Kyle to keep you company, it can be tough!

Loneliness is very, very bad for your health. It effects your mental wellness and can have a knock on effect on your productivity and business. As entrepreneurs we have to be doubly strong minded and something as simple as having lunch with friends, arranging a working lunch or signing up for a networking lunch can be hugely helpful in keeping your mind fit and strong and where it needs to be.

I hope this has convinced you of the huge benefits you can get for you and your business just by going out for lunch. If there is one New Year’s resolution that’s super simple to keep it’s this! We all have to make the effort to prioritize our own health and well being alongside our business goals and aspirations.

For more simple tips about incorporating health and well being into your everyday life check out citycalm.org.

Time Savings Tips to Keep Your Social Networks Lively by @sociallysavvy4u

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5 time saving tips

 

by Manon Leroux  | Featured Contributor 

Once you begin finding some success with social media for your business, it’s common to come up against resourcing challenges and to discover an increasing need to spend more time cultivating social conversation online around your brand. Sometimes when this happens, companies lose steam and their content creation drops, along with their audience engagement.

Other times, companies hire external talent to come in and manage their brand’s reputation.

Whether you are managing your social content yourself, plan on hiring internally or finding someone outside of your organization to help you with your social media, there are some time-saving tips that will help you to be more efficient with your posting and responding, keeping you focused on your objectives at hand so you can garner more favourable results.

Have a Plan

This may seem obvious, but surprisingly many companies don’t have a plan. They spend time aimlessly posting and commenting on their social sites but don’t have an overall strategy or approach with the type of content they post. When you have a plan in place, you can measure your results against your objectives over time to really understand what works and what doesn’t. Also, you will train your staff and representatives to think more strategically rather than just being a mouthpiece for your company.

Use Them.

There are a variety of excellent social media tools available to help you manage your posts and comments.  There are tools for managing all of your social activities in one place with one login, there are other tools that help you automate and schedule your tweets, and there are tools to help you with your listening and social media monitoring. And let’s not forget reporting; lots of great tools for that too. With all of the available social media tools at your disposal, you should be able to save yourself a significant amount of time and a few headaches.

Time blocking.

Rather than compulsively checking your accounts a hundred times a day or bouncing between tasks and Twitter, block your time off. Schedule time two or three times a day in fifteen or twenty minute increments to reply and engage with fans and commenters. Schedule time to create content as well. You should have an editorial calendar with your content mapped out each month. Of course you can always leave room for flexibility, but doing the groundwork first and then blocking off the time to create your content will help you tremendously.

Don’t be an aimless drunken sailor wandering the open seas of social media without a plan. Think about what you are doing, employ best practices, and save time by being efficient. You will be so glad you did.

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Manon Leroux Social media manager by day, mother of two and dog lover by night, a well-dressed fashionista all the time – Manon Leroux is founder of Savvy Social Solutions, a social media manager directory helping small business owners find freelancers and social media manager attract clients.

As a serial entrepreneur, Manon brings a great deal of energy, passion and enthusiasm to every client opportunity.  After years of working with companies to deliver effective and strategic social media programs she turned her focus to launching and growing Savvy Social Solutions.  She works with social media managers and small business owners to understand their social media outsourcing needs, the goal of the directory is to provide a resource of credible SMM’s for small business owners.  Social Media managers can help small business owners efficiently use social media marketing to build their business by creating brand awareness, building online communities, increasing audience engagement and more.

When she’s not making the social media world a better place – one “Like” at a time – Manon is trying to coral her two sons, aged 13 and 15.  She benefits of more than 20 years of customer service experience: she understands the power of strong customer relations.  Her professional portfolio includes multiple Fortune 500 companies.

To connect with Manon:

Via email: manon@savvysocialsolutions.com | Twitter | Facebook | Google+

Bah Humbug: How to Be Productive and Enjoy the Holidays, Too by @WSRapport

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by Karima Mariama-Arthur | Featured Contributor 

SOIXMASWhen the holidays roll around, it’s pretty difficult to think about work. Generous offers to celebrate good tidings and cheer are everywhere. Vacation days get ramped up and half days become the norm. The problem, however, is that the work doesn’t go away.

What to do? Don’t fret. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Use these tips to balance your work obligations against your social engagements this holiday season:

1.  Plan your calendar in advance. The way to effectively get your projects completed and enjoy the pomp and circumstance of the holidays is to plan for both. Yes, I said both. You can have your cake and eat it, too! Figure out which major items require your attention and then prioritize them. But, only choose significant ones. If you get bogged down in the muck and mire of insignificant tasks, you’ll quickly find that free time will be elusive.

Once you’ve prioritized key tasks, chunk out their execution. Chunking is a proven, strategic way to guarantee their completion. Then build in nice periods of downtime to enjoy holiday fare like cooking, shopping, parties and of course relaxation. Once things are scheduled, they become real and that’s exactly the point.

2. Don’t overbook. You’re likely already exhausted by all things you’ve “gotta do.” So, don’t lard your plate with unreasonable and unending work-related projects. Think “light fare.” The incessant deadlines resulting from a plate that’s far too full will only stress you out. Again, only pick a few key items that make sense. Focus on them entirely.

By the same token, don’t say “yes” to every single invitation to celebrate. You’re going to need time to yourself with everything else going on, so only pick 1-2 events per week (perhaps a week or two absent of outside activity would be nice, too!) and space them put 2-3 days apart. It’s absolutely ok to say no when you need to. Plus, you’ll enjoy celebrations far more when you’re well-rested and both physically and emotionally vested in having fun.

3. Work hard, play harder. Work and play are two completely discrete activities. Treat them as such. Don’t attempt to draft your cocktail party play list while compiling your expense report. Mistakes are likely to occur and moreover, you’re defeating the purpose of completely immersing yourself in the featured activity. Don’t attempt to run errands during your lunch hour that only frustrate progress. If you truly need a half day to complete your holiday errands—take it—outside of work. You get the point.

When you fully embrace the task before you and avoid attractive nuisances (like opposing priorities), you get a better result. Remember the goal is to accomplish your work-related projects and enjoy holiday festivities at the highest level.

Commit to this result and jettison the humbug!

Want a few more key tips on how to add productivity to your holiday routine? Life Hack offers 11 additional complementary tips!

To your success this holiday season!

Photo Credit: Serge Bertasius Photography, via Freedigitalphotos.net

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Karima Mariama-Arthur, Esq.Karima Mariama-Arthur is a corporate attorney and the Founder and CEO of WordSmithRapport, an international consulting firm specializing in professional development. For helpful tips on increasing confidence and solving performance challenges, connect with her on Facebook, and for a quick dose of #Leadership inspiration, follow her on Twitter, @wsrapport.

Squirrel! How To Stay Focused in a Distracted World by @MonicaRicci

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Squirrel

by Monica Ricci | Featured Contributor

In 2009, a Robert Half study found that 51% of CIOs prohibited social media surfing at work. However, in 2011 a mere two years later, another Robert Half study found CIOs prohibiting social media at work dropped to 31%, as more companies cited social media use by employees to be “good for business.”

Whether you’re self-employed or you work for a company, odds are you battle self-imposed distractions all day long. Some days you win. Some days they win. Here are three easy ways to strengthen your attention muscle so you can be victorious over distractions and more productive at work and at home.

 

Get A Clue
Many of my clients struggle to feel accomplished because on any given day, they aren’t clear on what is truly most important. Heck I struggle with this some days too. I think most people would admit they do. The trouble with unclear priorities and a long task list is that everything seems equally important, so it’s easy to jump back and forth from task to task never really completing anything.

To boost your effectiveness, give yourself something to focus on. Each evening, look at your task list and identify the three and only three highest priorities for the next day. Write them in HUGE TEXT on a piece of printer paper, hang it where you can see it while you work, or make your list a temporary screen-saver on your computer or device. This a constant reminder of your three focus points for the day helps you avoid feeling overwhelmed by the (literally) hundreds of other things you could be giving your attention to. Your Top Three List is there to be your silent cheerleader and get you back on track when you do get derailed.

 

The Early Bird Gets Things Done
Quick! What’s the first thing you do every morning? If you answered “check email” that could be the beginning of the end of your productivity for the day. When you begin the day by checking email you’ve put yourself in reactive mode, responding to the requests of others rather than beginning your day focused on your own priority items.Checking email first thing in the morning sets you down a path of distraction for the rest of the day.

Begin your day PROactively. For the first thirty minutes of each day, avoid email, Facebook, Twitter, other social media and Internet news sites. Instead, hit the ground running by working on high priority items on your list. Once you hit the 30-minute mark, continue working on your projects for as much longer as you can bear it before giving in to checking email. Make it a game. The more you practice this distraction avoidance habit, the easier it will become and you’ll feel the the positive difference at the end of the day.

 

Imagine Your End Result
In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Stephen Covey’s second habit is “Begin with the end in mind.” Covey said when you know what you want your end result to be, you can use that as a filter of sorts, for choosing today’s tasks and actions. I believe you can use the same philosophy to help you stay focused on a daily basis.

Any time you’re feeling tempted to give in to distractions and interruptions, quickly think about the end result you’ll achieve if you can resist the interruption and continue to work on your current project. More specifically, focus on how great you’ll feel when you’ve remained focused. Sure, you could think, “I know I’ll be happy when this project is done.” However, vividly imagining the positive emotional feeling you’ll have can be a more powerful motivator than logical thought. Whether that emotion is pride, happiness, or plain old relief, as long as it’s positive, conjuring up the emotion before it happens can be just the ticket you need to keep you on track.

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Monica Ricci – Productivity Pro and Speaker – Atlanta GA

Monica Ricci - Productivity Pro and Speaker I believe life and business should be as enjoyable as possible. Since 1998 I’ve been speaking, writing, creating content and offering one-on-one organizing & productivity training. I’m a fan of spending time with friends, board games, travel, amazing food, great wine and helping people create lives they love!

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Confessions of an Entrepreneur with a “Designer Lifestyle” by @DIYMFA

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Portable "office" in a tote bag.

Portable “office” in a tote bag.

by Gabriela Pereira | Featured Contributor

By all accounts, I’m living the “designer lifestyle.” I run an online business and have the flexibility to fit my work schedule around my  life. Forget about packing a suitcase, most days I run my whole business out of my purse. And as a mom who squeezes her work hours around the schedules of my toddler son and newborn daughter, my workweek sure seems like it only has four hours in it, and I can’t say it feels all that glamorous.

There’s lot of hype on the internet about entrepreneurship, location independence and running a business where you want, when you want. A lot of people think this means sending out your newsletter while hiking through a rainforest or checking email from a lounge chair on a white sand beach. Well, last time I checked, the rainforest doesn’t have WiFi, and if I tried doing email from the beach all I’d end up with is sand in my laptop.

Here’s the truth no one tells you about this entrepreneurial “designer lifestyle.”

1) Be prepared to defend your time with your life.

Does this sound extreme? That’s because it is. You must defend your time because no one else will defend it for you. Since you can work anytime, other people will automatically assume that you have all this extra “free time” during the day. The truth is, we all have the same twenty-four hours to work with but no one sees the hours you work early in the morning, late at night, on the weekends, or whenever else you get things done. This makes it all the more important for you to protect those precious work hours from interlopers. Also, because you can work anywhere and anytime, you may be tempted to work all the time, no matter where you are. Do not give in. Just as you must protect your work hours from interruptions and distractions, you must take care of your non-work time as well.

2) There is no such thing as work-life balance.

It’s impossible to find this balance because the scale constantly tips from one extreme to the other. Our brains are not built to multi-task. All we can do is shift our attention from one thing to another. This means that in any given moment, either work or life will demand ALL your attention and you can’t give it to both at the same time. The best thing you can do is accept that there is no balance and embrace this crazy roller-coaster ride.

3) It’s not about discipline, it’s about force of will.

When I tell people I run my own business from home, the most frequent response is: “Wow, you must be so disciplined.”  I will tell you right now I am one of the least disciplined people ever. If I relied on discipline to run my business I would probably fritter my days away eating bonbons and watching bad TV. Instead, what gets me through my day (and my to-do list) is sheer, bullheaded stubbornness. I don’t have a secret system that makes my business magically run itself. I don’t have some magic bullet solution that will somehow make entrepreneurship easy. I’m just unbelievably stubborn and I refuse to give up until everything gets checked off the list. And when that happens, I make another list.

The truth is…

The designer lifestyle is much less about style as it is about life, and by life I mean real life, with all the mess and muck and magic that goes with it. And there IS a magic to it that I wouldn’t trade for anything: like sharing a mid-day snack with my toddler son, or having an afternoon cuddle with my baby girl, or knowing that I can go on vacation and still “check in on the office” because that office is my purse. All you need to make this magic happen is a little appetite for chaos, and a really sturdy handbag.

 

GPereira-AuthorPic2Gabriela Pereira is the Creative Director and Instigator of DIY MFA, the do-it-yourself alternative to a Masters degree in writing. Gabriela earned an MFA from The New School and is the author of several articles on the process and craft of writing. She has taught writing at various organizations throughout New York City.

 

How to Recover After Being on Vacation by @blogformatting

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by Delia Rusu | Featured Contributor

After reading the title of this post, you may be like: What? Recovering after vacation? What’s she talking about?

Yes, you heard me right… This post is about you going on vacation, having a wonderful time, relaxing and feeling just great being unplugged for over a week.
…And then coming back home to lots of things to do and the feeling that you need to do them all. Like you must absolutely do everything that you “missed” while you were on vacation.
Ever felt this way after coming from vacation or simply taking some time off to relax and recharge?

It happened to me as I have recently returned from a beautiful Caribbean vacation. I came back home to lots of emails to read, things to complete, comments to reply to on my blog, customer emails to respond to, social media updates to look at…

And the list could go on and on, just as long as we allow it to.

So listen up because I have just the tips for you to make this recovery smooth and painless.

Tip #1. Responding to emails
I know, there are tons of emails in your inbox.
Take a look and delete absolutely everything that’s coming from email subscriptions. Unless you’re really waiting for an important sale for a really cool program that you’ve wanted for so long.

But the ones that are just tips and information, you know, what’s been happening lately type of emails, please select them all and press Delete. Yes, you have my blessing to delete even the emails you got from me, if you’re a subscriber 🙂
Now go through the remaining emails and answer to any important ones.

Tip #2 Replying to blog comments
I know you are replying diligently to each and every comment you get on your blog. It’s the nice thing to do, right?

Well, after vacation though, just scan through blog comments and pick and choose the ones to reply to.
Maybe a short reply to questions from your readers. By the way, tip for you: it’s better if you create a blog post from a question rather than replying to just that single commenter.
Other than that, no need to reply to any of the other comments to say thank you. People have already forgotten or if they check for an answer, they mostly do the first few days, after which they go on with their life 🙂

Tip #3 Keeping up with social media updates

Oh, so much you have missed from all the groups you’re in, your busy Facebook page, not to mention the Twitter stream, agh!
Stop right now, there’s help for you!
Scan quickly through the notifications to see if anything is really critical for you to reply. In groups, other people may have helped each other, so no need for you to overdo it.
Just start clean with today’s updates and don’t worry about how much you’ve missed.

There you have it, all set to start nice and fresh, all relaxed and recovered after your beautiful vacation!

Your turn!
Have you been on vacation yet and on what is your plan to recover when coming back?
I’d love your tips, so please comment and share if this post was useful!

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Delia Rusu – Guarding your blog genius at Blog Formatting – Toronto, Canada, and worldwide

Delia Rusu Blogging Coach

Wanna blog confidently, get online visibility, and get more traffic to your blog?
I’ll teach you strategies and tools!

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Choose the learning method that works best for you: 1-1 help, group coaching, or workbooks, plus access to a supportive community to get all your blogging questions answered!

Visit my website, Blog Formatting to download one of the cool freebies available.

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