Work Better, Not Harder

A cool little online app that you can use to coordinate decision-making among a group of people... and it's really simple! You can ask for available dates for a meeting or ask for input to a decision. www.doodle.com (Thanks to Joan for this handy tool!) Click to Tweet this Article

Reactionary Workflow – reacting to what’s coming in rather than being proactive. It’s a new term but a familiar feeling… and it sure did resonate with me. Being constantly connected means that it’s really easy for people to contact us. As a consequence, our ability to prioritize is crippled by the unending flow of communication. It has become harder to direct our work with intention. We’ve relinquished control over our focus. One of my own personal focus areas last year was to be, well, more focused. What I found was that just focusing on being focused didn’t cut it. I needed tactics… and discipline. Here are some things that I found useful: Blocking out time for specific tasks , especially tasks related to developing my own business. Turning off email for certain periods during the day – need I say more? Taking time to create , rather than just responding to emails. Yes, I might be suggesting taking more time. Adding value to my communications has resulted in many ben

February 14th kicks off Random Acts of Kindness Week. I found these cool printable calendars that give suggestions for each day of the month. Try them out on your clients, friends and family! Source: The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation Click to Tweet this Article

Take a few minutes to refresh your knowledge about the most popular keywords in your industry and area of specialty. You can use this handy Google Insights for Search tool to find out what the world is searching for. Or you can narrow it down to country or province. Here is the link: www.google.com/insights/search/ . Click to Tweet this Article

Sometimes things are easier if someone else will just tell me what to do. That way of thinking especially applies to our websites and newsletters. Your call-to-action is critical – it’s the reason for people to contact you. Use your website and newsletter to convert contacts into leads. Once they click on your call-to-action, they fill out a form… and then they become a lead. Simple, right? How do you get your readers to take action? Use action verbs. Start your line with a verb that requests action. Create a sense of urgency and tell people what to do. Make sure images and text are clickable. Don’t just say what to do, say how to do it. Instead of saying, “Buy now,” say, “Phone this number to buy now.” Give visitors something of value for free. Offer relevant, informational and non-promotional items for free to readers and website visitors. Possibilities include: e-books, how-to videos, tips and tricks, best practices, free trials. Make your call-to-action stand out.