there is a fundamental difference in the mindsets of employees vs. entrepreneurs, and the following sentence, found in the latest chief home officer entry, describes it perfectly: Work is a task to be done, NOT the place it gets done.
amen.
so i was scanning one of those articles about how to not let stress get to you. it had many common (but good) suggestions. however, one technique made me laugh out loud, so i decided to share it: take a weird break.
the author noted: I do something a little weird like take a short walk and hang from a tree branch. I find that it’s tough to worry while hanging from a beautiful tree. Plus, my creativity almost always starts flowing again.
splendid idea!
i find that i do a similar thing with my dog. if i find i’m not making much progress on something, we’ll go play fetch in the back yard for a bit. it’s not particularly weird, but it is hard to be stressed when playing with your pup, and i typically get back to the laptop ready to work.
i’ll definitely try hanging from a tree. maybe sitting at the end of the dock and let the sunnie nibble my toes. or skipping rocks. or any suggestions that people pass along.
enjoy.
i came across a thoughtful article on the simple dollar. the author presents the concept that a career is like a brick wall (that you can stand upon). i couldn’t agree more.
some pondering points include: the idea that seemingly separate careers do have common threads, and you can patch the space between them with this commonality; the notion that a project is a brick, a relationship is a brick, learning something is a brick, and they will make your wall more solid in the future*; the transferable and bridge-building bricks are ways you can continue to build your wall without tearing down your existing wall.
hail the mighty bricklayer.
*this one in particular makes me feel better, as i spend a lot of time doing stuff that doesn’t make me money right now, but (hopefully!) will someday.
seth godin’s latest blog article hit home. he compares mailing a package at the post office vs. fedex. at the post office, he’s met with people trying to create a reason he can not mail a package (”no” men), whereas at fedex, he gets people trying to help him mail the package (”yes” men). i’ve had similar experiences. both ups and fedex have good customer service, in my experience; the people are friendly and the environment is positive. but my local post office has a negative vibe; i get acceptable service, but i never leave feeling better than when i went in.
in tight times such as these, one should look at every opportunity to give their customers a yes. rather than give a reason things won’t work, put forth the effort to make things work. i bet the customers come. and stay.
it’s hard to not be captured by a story that reads, When I wear red underwear, I can do anything.
if you’re interested in creating triggers to increase your productivity, not to mention a chuckle, read this little zen habits article about neuro-linguistic programming.
found the following on the sistasense blog. here is one of the reasons you may not be making any money with your online venture. i resemble this remark. :p
“You are running in place and you don’t know it. Some people call themselves entrepreneurs, but they are really just full of ideas. They think about their businesses and talk about them so much that they feel like their working, but they are not. Turning a potential business idea into an actual business plan is the most daunting task for the average entrepreneur. An idea does not make money, but a good business can.”
it’s thanksgiving week. that means many people take a few days off and enjoy a well-deserved holiday. however, if you don’t have any specific plans, this is a great time to catch up - or even get ahead - on a few things.
since the phone isn’t ringing as often, and fewer coworkers are around to interrupt, conditions are good for getting things done. not the i-need-to-collaborate type of things, but other tasks, like: catching up on e-mails; organizing your desk; updating your web site; creating action plans for the rest of the year; or taking a leisurely lunch. :)
have good thanksgiving.
if you’re like me, you don’t want to wait around after you’ve plugged in your flash drive - you want to use it. now.
so, if you have a flash drive and want to improve its performance, try removing u3 launchpad, if it’s been installed. u3 launchpad is harmless software that gives your usb drive some smarts, rather than being just plain ol’ disk space. that’s nice, but if you delete the software, you’ll reclaim 6mb of storage and…drumroll…reduce startup time from over 10 seconds to about 2 seconds.
nice.
a while back i read an article in dlm that i felt would be good to share. it introduced the concept of an achievement book. the author suggested taking just 15 minutes every month to mark down in a nice notebook a few key things you accomplished over the past month.
what a terrific idea.
an achievement book can be a boon in many ways. it can be a way to hold yourself accountable; who wants to write down nothing at the end of the month? it can be a way to keep yourself motivated; it’s always encouraging to look back and see the progress you’ve made. it can be a useful tool to achieve goals; you can write down goals in the front of the book to keep focused on what’s important to you and to track if you’ve been going the direction you want to go.
enjoy.
well, this is just one of the most helpful things i’ve ever seen.
you can now sync any desktop calendar with any other across platforms using gcal as a go-between.
hallelujah!
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