Can I Unclutter My Life In A Week?

I just purchased the book Unclutter Your Life in One Week by Erin Doland.  So I decided to test it out and report my progress on this blog.  Perhaps this will help make me accountable as I have bought countless organizing books which really do nothing but collect dust on my shelves in an unorganized mess.  I think a week is really pushing it, but I’m going to give it my best shot!

Here’s my schedule for next week based on this book:

Monday

Morning – My Wardrobe
Afternoon – My Office
Evening – My Home Entrance

Tuesday

Morning – My Bathroom
Afternoon – My Files
Evening – My Chores

Wednesday

Morning – My Bedroom
Afternoon – My Work Communications
Evening – My Kitchen & Dining Room

Thursday

Morning – My Living Spaces
Afternoon – My Work Productivity
Evening – My Home Office

Friday

Morning – My Scheduling Strategies
Afternoon – My Routine
Evening – My Life With A Clutterer

Saturday

Morning – My Personal Care
Afternoon – My Emergency Plans
Evening – My Hobbies & Personal Time

Sunday

Morning – My Vacations & Time Off
Afternoon – My Social Life
Evening – My Celebration!

Publicity Specialist Niche

My friends Cindy Greenway and Tina Forsyth are offering the first ever Publicity Specialist training program via HotSkillsVATraining.com.  Lead by publicity expert Diana Ennen, this 3 week program has been designed to provide Virtual Assistants with the skills, understanding and strategies needed to execute effective publicity campaigns.

Submitting articles and press releases here and there isn’t enough and contacting the media, when you really don’t know what to say or how to present yourself can be intimidating.  However, master these skills and develop a plan, and you (and your clients) will be sure to be rewarded with great results.

To date there are very few Virtual Assistants who specialize in the area of publicity, yet business owners everywhere are desperately searching for support in this area.  A Virtual Assistant that can provide this support is sure to have clients knocking at her door who are willing to pay a generous rate.

In addition, a Virtual Assistant who can provide this service to other business owners, can certainly build on her own publicity!  All strategies can be applied to a VA business as well!

This program starts Monday, January 25th — learn more at http://xrl.in/4ae5.

A Chip Off The Old Writer’s Block

As I am sure is true of most people, I write best when I am inspired and not when forced to do so.  Adding a deadline only makes it worse.  Obviously, stress is not conducive to getting the creative juices flowing. So suffering from a serious case of self-inflicted writer’s block, I decided to take my English teacher’s advice and write about having nothing to write about.

Whenever my fellow classmates would complain about the inability to think of something to enter in their journals, she would dryly remark “then write about that”. I recall having numerous pages with “I have nothing to write about” scrawled repeatedly across the page.  Before I resort to anything quite that drastic and monotonous, I have decided to share some suggestions I found on how to cure writer’s block.

Write about something personal – Hmm, I could talk about the mysterious new growth on my foot.  Maybe not… so on to the next tip.

Relax, take a bubble bath or go for a walk – Sounds like good advice.  However, right now I am in the midst of another typical summer thunderstorm.  Otherwise, this could be an excellent way to get rejuvenated and ready to put ink to paper.  (It was summer when I originally wrote this post.)

Practice EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) – EFT is really popular these days and has been known to help in such circumstances.  EFT is an emotional version of acupuncture which uses fingertips (not needles) to stimulate certain points on the body. However, my children’s snickers and bursts of laughter were too distracting for me to continue my first attempt at EFT.  If you’re interested, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHCjxdKbHvM to watch the YouTube video of a writer who demonstrates this technique.

Pretend it’s Wordless Wednesday and post only a photo – Maybe I could start something new and call it Thoughtless Thursday.  Until then, I need to keep researching ways to bring forth a writing Muse.  FYI – Under the premise that “a picture is worth a thousand words”, participants post a photo at http://www.wordlesswednesday.com without any additional comments.  Amazingly, no one on the Internet has stepped up to take credit for this popular site.

Ask others for help and inspiration – Okay, so I put out a desperate tweet for blog suggestions in the hopes that some famous novelist might take pity on me and come to my rescue.  Sadly, I did not receive a single response.  Perhaps I need more followers who are also copywriters. As you probably already know, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform and right now the need to come up with only 140 characters sounds very appealing to me!

Look at photos for ideas – Now that seemed like a very good idea so I visited some of my favorite stock photo sites. One such site that I like in particular is http://www.sxc.hu. The problem was I kept finding all these wonderful looking pictures of food and decided it was time for dinner.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t write when I’m hungry.

Reuse and repurpose other content – Many bloggers will use articles they’ve previously written as blog posts and vice-versa.  This is an excellent suggestion and one entrepreneur I know is a master at doing so (as well as coming up with fresh new content on the spot).  Erin Blaskie has managed to write an ebook in one hour and has also captured it on video.  Watch Erin’s video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nv_FcEvgJI

Now that’s inspirational!  If Erin can write an ebook in an hour, I should at least be able to come up with a blog post.  And I did – my English teacher would be proud.

Are You A Geek?

I remember when being called a geek was not a compliment (and wicked meant something bad).  Over the past few years the term “geek” has evolved into something many people today brag about being or aspire to be.  Long gone are the days when a geek was considered a socially inept nerd with pocket protectors and coke bottle lenses.  Today a geek implies being tech savvy and/or an enthusiast of things outside of the mainstream spectrum.  Because of their advanced technological skills and the ability to think outside of the box many geeks become successful entrepreneurs.

So back to the original question “Are you a geek?”  Here are a few clues and links to help you determine your geek factor:

• You dress geek chic by wearing witty T-shirts http://www.zazzle.com/geek+tshirts that proclaim your geekiness.  Babies even have several options in onesies http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/kids/9b07/ because as one manufacturer states “geeks come in all sizes”.
• You have a well diversified Geek chart. http://www.geekchart.com/ If you have difficulty competing the Geek chart, then you are not geek material.
• You know what it means to see the dreaded BSoD http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/blue_screen_survival_guide on your computer.  If you don’t, you’re definitely not a geek.
• You choose to wear eyeglasses http://www.geekeyeglasses.com/ even though you don’t require them.
• You are a Stephanie Pakrul http://people.howstuffworks.com/geek-chic.htm or Charles Ross http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/one-man-star-wars.htm wannabe.  (If you don’t know, don’t ask.)
• You’re truly upset by the cancellation of the reality show “Beauty and the Geek”. http://www.tv.com/show/32037/summary.html
• You attended DrupalconDC 2009. (enuff said) http://dc2009.drupalcon.org/

How did you fare?  Have you got what it takes to be a geek?  With the exception of the last bullet point, I think I’m on my way to true geekdom. Isn’t that totally wicked? But first, I need to make a stop by the reading glass display rack.

Have You Had Your Morning Coffee?

No, I’m not referring to that Soy Latte from Starbucks or even that crappy cup of grocery store generic brand that you brewed at home.  I’m talking about one of my favorite add-ons for Firefox.  (Sorry, Internet Explorer and other browser users, this post is only helpful for Firefox users.  If you are using IE, I could list several reasons why you shouldn’t; but I’ll save that for another day.)

I LOVE my Morning Coffee!  First thing when I connect to the Internet, I click on my little Morning Coffee icon and I am instantaneously connected to all the websites I need for work and/or visit for pleasure.  No thinking required — each site opens up in its own little tab.  I can do this when I am still half asleep and I haven’t even had my first cup of “real” coffee!

Morning Coffee can be configured in a multitude of ways.  Since not all websites are updated on a daily basis, you can pick and choose which days of the week you would like to upload your page of interest.  Knowing how important it is to blog and participate in social networks, I have each one of these sites open as a daily reminder to me. I belong to a forum that has a weekly seminar, so I have Morning Coffee load that page for me every Wednesday.  Morning Coffee can be set up as specific or as general as you like.  Another option is to have Morning Coffee load as your home page.  It’s still in Beta and I haven’t tested that feature yet.

Morning Coffee has been rated 5 stars and has been downloaded over 1 million times.  It was created by Shane Liesegang.  For more information about Shane and this add-on, you can visit his website at:  http://shaneliesegang.com/projects/coffee.php

If you have never used a Firefox add-on, it is really simple to do so.  On the Firefox browser menu bar, select Tools and then choose Add-ons. Next you will see a Firefox page of recommended add-ons.  Click on Browse All Add-ons.  Have fun looking through all the possible ways to enhance your Internet browsing while using Firefox.

Now if only there was an Evening Martini, I’d have it made!

Remember to visit the Firefox Add-ons page to find other ways to personalize your browsing experience at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox.Do you use Firefox add-ons?  Which one is your favorite?  If you are an IE or other browser user, is there a similar program to Morning Coffee available?  If so, please share your comments with me.

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