The Success Report

Is it possible that you can still get something from nothing? Well on the Internet, there are hundreds of sites that have really cool products and services that you can use free of charge.

I'm including a list of sites that I came across recently at http://www.theworkathomewoman.com

I've had a look at quite a number of these sites myself and the once I had visited look fantastic. I suggest you take a moment (in your downtime) to have a look at some of the sites and see which ones might be of interest to you.

Developing your "work smarts" also means that you use technology to your advantage. Just because something is free doesn't mean it is going to be any good. However, from time to time you will come across a website that is going to be very useful and allow you to increase your personal productivity.

Whether you are able to manage your time more effectively, or simply do things in a more efficient manner, developing your work smarts is important in order to you to get ahead.

Enjoy the sites and do let me know if you come across something that you find particularly useful.

1. Productivity Flourishing: Free planners, month action, productivity heatmap, productivity planner series, productivity jumpstarter, blog post planner and calendar and freelance worksheet.
2. Cozi: Free online family organizer.
3. SCORE: Free business templates: business plan, financial forecast, supporting documents, business planning tools for non-profit, projected balance sheet, bank loan request, cash flow statements, financial history, competitive analysis, profit & loss projection, sales forecast and startup expenses.
4. Practical Spread Sheets: Free spread sheets for personal and business use. Personal budget spread sheets, income statement and grocery list.
5. Open Office: Productivity suite, including word processing, spread sheets, presentations, graphics, database – all free of charge. No need to purchase Microsoft Office.
6. Google Docs: Create documents for free, word processing, spread sheets and presentations.
7. Dim Dim: Free webinars and conferences.
8. Free Conference: Free conference calls, up to 96 people for free.
9. Hot Recorder: Record calls for free, great for phone interviews.
10. Vista Print: Free business cards, 250 for free, just pay for shipping and handling.
11. Cute PDF: Create Portable Document Formats (PDF) for free.
12. PrimoPDF: Another site to create Portable Document Formats (PDF) for free.
13. faxZERO: fax documents for free, up to 3 pages, two times per day.
14. Dafont: Free fonts, over 9000 to choose from. Great for creating e-books and website and blog logos.
15. Snap Pages: Free 5 page website, 1GB storage, contact from, customizable themes and free hosting.
16. Skype: Free call, video call  and instant message for Skye to Skype members.
17. Gravatar: Free globally recognized avatar, helps to create brand identity.
18. Shrink Pictures: Resize pictures for free.
19. Random.org: Randomly choose winners for your giveaway and contest.
20. MadMimi: Free email marketing up to 100 contacts.
21. Free Press Release: Submit your press release for free.
22. Craigslist: Free advertising.
23. My Own Business: 16 free online sessions that provide the basic do’s and don’ts for starting a business.
24. Small Business Administration: Free resources for planning, starting, managing and for getting out of your business.
25. Mikogo: Free desktop sharing tool, ideal for web conferencing, online meetings or remote support.
26. Google Chat: Talk with family and friends over the internet for free.
27. Dreamstime: Free stock images and photos.

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According to a report that I was reading recently, one in every three adults suffers from moderate to high levels of personal stress. With so much bad news in the papers and on television, uncertainty about the economy and the pressure of daily life, is it any wonder more of us are feeling stressed.

• Every year nearly something close to 50,000 Australians are admitted to hospital due to stress-related disorders.
• Stress requires more people to take time off work than any other health condition or disease.
• The total cost of Australian workplace stress is more than $1.2 billion per year.

Most of us experience some level of stress in our lives, especially from our work. The stress of urgent deadlines, demanding clients, meetings, families and bills all add to stress levels There doesn’t seem to be any end to the modern day disease of personal stress. So, what can you do to overcome stress?

Simple strategies for reducing your stress

1.0 Take a 3 minute holiday
Learn to ‘chill’ for a few minutes when you’re feeling under pressure. Find somewhere quite to sit, close your eyes and just relax. It sounds like a simplistic idea, but it does work!

2.  Drink plenty of water
Your body is 80% water - so keeping it hydrated is essential. You’ll notice that when you haven’t been drinking enough water your attention starts to wander. Keep a drink bottle on your desk and drink at least a litre of water every day, more if you are exercising.

3. Take a lunch break
Getting away from your desk for thirty minutes can reduce your levels of stress and change your outlook. Don’t say that you don’t have time for lunch; that is a cop-out!

4. Get up every 50 minutes and stretch
It can be so easy to get caught up in what you’re doing that all of a sudden you’ve been at work for 3 hours and the only muscles you’ve moved are in your fingers. Stretching will get the blood flowing around your body again - you’ll feel invigorated, awake and your quality of work will noticeably improve.

5. Relax your eyes (and wrists)
Constantly staring at a computer screen will give you eye strain. Every 15 minutes or so look away from the screen, or close your eyes briefly.
Allow your eyes to have a power nap. While you’re doing this, face your palms away from you, grab your fingers and pull them back towards you very gently. This is a great stretch for your wrists and will help to battle carpel tunnel syndrome and other conditions caused by the overuse of your wrists.

6. Breath slowly and deeply
If you’re feeling tired, grumpy or frustrated it could simply be that you’re not getting enough oxygen to your brain. Most people don’t breathe correctly. A few times a day (perhaps when you’re having your 3 minute holiday or getting up to stretch), take the time to breath deeply and slowly in through your nose, into your diaphragm (the lower part of your abdomen) and then out through your mouth. Each breath should take you about 6 seconds. Breath in, hold for a second or two and then let it out.

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Whether you’re the CEO of a multi-million dollar business, a manager of a large team, a supervisor or a hard working employee, chances are there’s someone in your working life who will try to load extra things onto you. These ‘extra tasks’ are often called the ‘monkey on our back’.

Even in your family or personal friendships you can probably think of people who are good at trying to throw monkeys onto your back!

Meet the monkey!
Monkeys can often seem harmless enough. But in reality they are distractions and occurrences where extra work or additional tasks are given to you by someone else. These distractions, or monkeys, if not managed will stop you from achieving your own important goals or objectives.

A ‘monkey’ is transferred to us the moment that we accept the responsibility for its care. The monkey could come in the form of a crashed computer, an angry customer, a document that needs to copied or a seemingly simple request for help from a friend.

Individually, each monkey thrown onto your back might seem harmless enough, but imagine the results if you were to take on a couple of new monkeys every day… that’s a lot of bananas!

Here is a simple monkey test to see if you could be inadvertently attracting  monkeys from other people.

1. Do people often drop things on your desk and ask you to do them?
2. Do you find it hard to say “no” to other people?
3. By the end of the week, do you realise that you have overcommitted your time?
4. Do you feel like you are a magnet for ‘things to do’ from your manager?
5. Do you find yourself volunteering for things only to regret it later?
6. Do you know that you are just too nice to people?

If you have answered “yes” to 3 or more of these questions then you are in serious jeopardy of damaging your back by carrying too many monkeys. In all seriousness, you need to find a way to get rid of them.

How to manage your monkeys
One of the first things you will need to learn about training monkeys is to use the word “no”. If you feel like you are a monkey magnet then you should start to be more assertive. When someone asks you to do something, rather than just accept their request, ask them to explain a little bit more about the task or what’s involved. If you feel that you can do the job without being overwhelmed then give them a timeline that suits you.

Rather than say, “Sure leave it to  me”, say something like “I have a lot on at the moment, so I can have this done for you by Friday afternoon.”

Final thoughts
Don’t flinch even if you feel you want to. Hold your ground. If it’s your manager asking, you might also want to explain what you are already doing. There are many other techniques that you can learn to master your monkeys. Just remember that being assertive is not only the first rule of monkey management, it is also the most important.

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Do you ever sit in traffic on the way to work listening to the radio, only to be bored by a over-the-top DJ rambling on about something stupid? Or maybe you find yourself staring out of the window of a train or bus wishing it would hurry up so that you can get to the million and one things you need to do today?

According to some interesting statistics that I was reading recently, the average worker spends at least an hour a day travelling to and from work, with some people spending more than 8 hours a week commuting. That’s an entire work day every week! Believe it or not, commuting on public transport or travelling to and from work can actually be one of the most productive times of your day.

Listen to podcasts on your mp3 player
The rise in popularity of podcasts and audio books makes it easy to learn just about any topic while commuting. You can now get a great deal of career-building information on almost any topic for free, by simply subscribing to any number of podcasts. iTunes is a great place to download free podcasts. For a few dollars a month you can purchase any number of audio books from websites like www.audible.com. Listening to professional development material while you travel won’t just get you through your transit time, you’ll also find yourself hours ahead of your competitors and perhaps your colleagues who might be sitting on a train staring off into space.

Read industry magazines
Travelling on public transport (not while you are driving) is also a great opportunity to catch up with what’s going on in your industry. Subscribe to the most important magazines in your industry (or borrow them from work) and read regularly. If you want to do something a bit left-of-centre, try subscribing to a magazine in an industry you know nothing about as well. You may be surprised with the new ideas you’ll get when you read about an industry that is completely different to yours.

Send text and email messages
If you don’t want to learn a language, or listen to professional learning materials, then your Blackberry or iPhone can be an effective mobile office. If you have a backlog of emails, try respond or checking emails, texting your colleagues or clients, or generally prepare for the work day ahead before you even step foot in the office.

Do you fly or travel interstate or overseas?
While there is a limited amount of time on a plane, you can use your computer to catch up on work. If you can’t be bothered pulling out our laptop there is nothing to stop you from reading memos or proofing printed documents.

When you know you’re going to be flying, spend some time the day or evening before leaving printing off any documents that need reviewing or work that can be done by hand. By managing your time effectively, you’ll save time either side of your trip.

There’s always a book or newspaper
Yes, when all else fails you can always read a book or catch up with the news (if there’s room on the tram, bus or train).

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Do you ever find it hard saying “no” to colleagues? Sometimes saying “yes” seems like the easier option, however by saying “yes” to extra work, you could be setting yourself up for added stress and possible failure. There are only so many hours in your day and you can only get so much work done. Saying “yes” when you mean “no” can be dangerous. Who would have thought that “yes”, that little three-letter word could cause such trouble?

Learn to ignore the guilt

Guilt is a huge part of why many people say “yes” to colleagues or clients when they really want to say “no”. Guilt is not a pleasant feeling so we all try and avoid it as much as possible.

Perhaps you think that if you say “no” to someone else will have to do the work and that may make you feel guilty. Did you ever stop to think that other people might not have as much to do as you? Maybe you are the best person for the job, but are you the best person for the job when you don’t have the time or energy to put 100% effort into it?

Maybe you’ll feel like you’ve let someone down, but you’ll let them down even more if you say “yes” and then fail to deliver the task or project on time. According to the famous Mayo Medical Clinic, it’s important to let go of the guilt and not let it influence your decisions. Their medical research suggests you “Do what you’ve set out to do and don’t veer off that path because of feelings of guilt or obligation, as it will only lead to additional stress”.

“Yes” or “No”?
A good idea to limit the stress and challenge of taking on too much work or committing yourself to additional projects is to “Weigh up the ‘yes’ to stress factor”. Take time to think about what you’ve been asked to do and what impact it will have on you if you do say “yes”. Is it going to cause you extra pressure? If it is, the answer is simple. Politely say “no”…

Ask yourself a few simple questions before you say “yes”:

• Do I have the time for this extra work?
• Will it affect my other work?
• Could it affect my personal life because I will be working late?
• Will I regret saying “yes” later?
• Is there anyone else who could do this task better than me?

4 steps for getting your “yes” under control

Step #1 – recognise that you have just as much right to say “no” as anyone.

Step #2 – be polite but very clear about your answer. Say, “I’m sorry, I’d love to help but I need to focus on what I’m doing right now. Perhaps I can help you towards the end of the week?”

Step #3 – if you can, consider offering an alternative. For example you could say, “I can’t do it today, but I can work on this later this week. Would that be alright?”

Step #4 – do you know someone who could help instead? Offering an
alternative solution will help allay any guilty feelings. Remember, you should never just say no. Always offer a reason and a possible solution.

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You are on the phone talking to a customer when your manager walks into your work area. He needs you to do something for him. Now the fun starts as you desperately start searching for a piece of paper to start scratching down notes. In my travels I am always amazed when I observe so many managers and employees still using paper scraps and sticky notes to write down important information.

I suspect the ‘hunting and pecking’ for something to write on is a common scene in so many workplaces. Jotting notes on loose pads of paper, using sticky notes for phone numbers and scrawling a customer reference on the back of an envelope or business card are all symptoms of poor personal organisation.

The cost of not being able to find information quickly is high and very stressful. How will you explain to your manager that you forgot to write down the critical information from the recent phone call? H

ow will you explain to the client that you need them to repeat that request they wanted to you follow up? Surely there must be a better way to keep track of all the things you need to do? Of course there is!

The powerful spiral notebook

Keeping an A4 or the smaller Quarto size spiral notebook with you at all times gives you a central repository for your information. By keeping it open on your desk and using it as a day book, you can keep all of your To-Do lists, meeting notes, requests, ideas and thoughts in one place. Your spiral notebook is something you can easily refer back to when you need to access the information.

How to get the most out of a spiral notebook

Idea #1: Start each day with a new page. Draw a horizontal line through the middle of the page. At the top of the page write the date and day. You can use the top half as a to-do list and the bottom half for your notes and other information. Remember, you can use any many pages as you like for each day. Just start every new day with a new page.

Idea #2: Carry your notebooks with you… almost everywhere. Meetings, catch-ups with colleagues or your manager. It’s something that comes in very handy when your mobile rings and you need to write down some information from a customer.

Idea #3: Finally, don’t begin using a new spiral notebook until you have completed the first. It’s a good idea to write the start and finish date of the book on the front cover - that way, when you are searching for information later on, you won’t need to search through the entire book to determine what’s in there and what isn’t.

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“A meeting is an event where minutes
are taken and hours wasted.”
James T. Kirk

Somebody recently said to me, “I used to dread every second Thursday at work. That’s because it signalled the torture of our staff progress meetings”. They went on to say, “Those two hours each fortnight were physically challenging and mentally draining. If I wasn’t nodding off , I would be pinching my own skin under the desk in an effort to look alert”.

This person when on; “At least I wasn’t as bad as one of my co-workers John. He had the habit of continuously looking at his watch during the meetings, impervious to the stares of the manager”. Is this a sort of meeting that you are used to? Have you ever been to a meeting that started late, finished late or failed to accomplish anything of substance? This question I have to ask is, are these types of meetings really effective? Who is getting the most out of this sort of meeting, or are you and your colleagues wasting your time even having a meeting?

While many workplace meetings are productive and useful, some are a complete waste of resources and time. I believe that’s possible to slash hundreds of hours a year from your organisation’s meeting time by thinking differently about your meetings.

Poorly organised and ill-prepared meetings can bring out the yawns in the best of us. In addition to this, they are costly in both monetary and time terms. If you really think you need a meeting, or you have been invited to attend a meeting then ask yourself (or the person requesting the meeting) a couple of questions first.

1. Has a specific purpose or goal been set for the meeting?
2. Is there an agenda and will it be distributed ahead of time?
3. Will only the people who need to be attending be there?
4. Could the same information be covered in an e-mail, memo, or telephone conference call instead?

3 Some basic meeting rules

#1: Always start a meeting on time. Unless you’re waiting for a senior manager, make sure the meeting starts at the scheduled time.

#2: A good chairperson will use the agenda to direct and guide the meeting. The role of the chairperson is to ensure that the agenda items are discussed in order of importance and that no single agenda point goes over time. This way you will guarantee your meeting will finish on time.

#3: Create a “parking lot”. Before your meeting starts, create a parking lot! A parking lot is a flipchart placed in the corner of the room. Whenever someone raises an issue which is not part of the agenda, ‘park’ the idea for later. By parking any ideas that are not on the agenda you will guarantee the meeting will not go off on tangent or lose traction.

At the end of the meeting whatever is on the ‘parking lot’ can be used to create an agenda for the next meeting.

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Do you ever feel like your work area is being bombarded by files and folders, surrounded by sticky-notes or getting pummelled by overflowing in-boxes and in-trays?

Will you wave the white flag of defeat or are you ready to take on a messy desk in some serious hand-to-hand combat?

A recent study in the office habits of workers and the associated costs to companies conducted by the Butler Group stated that employees are suffering from both information overload and information underload. As a result, a typical worker now spends up to one-quarter of his or her day searching for the right information to complete any given task.

In other words, many professional people are finding themselves overwhelmed by the amount of information they need to deal with, yet unprepared or perhaps uneducated about how best to deal with it.

Lost time spent looking for files, contacts or the right piece of information is your enemy when trying to work productively.

Nobody is asking for perfection – but a bit of organisation and good presentation can make all the difference in how quickly you can find things on your desk, how you feel about your work and of course, the way you are perceived by others.

Here are some simple, yet effective ways to win the war over your work area and information overload.

1. Get an simple index file. Use this for important contacts, client information and notes of previous conversations.

2.  Clean your desk and work area once a week. It will not only feel and look better, but dust, dirt and germs can also effect your health.

3. Throw away those sticky-notes! A spiral notebook is all you need; it can be referred back to with ease and does away with all those bits and pieces of scrap paper!

4.  Use a paper diary. Whether you choose to use an online calendar system or a paper version, a paper diary holds information that needs to be accessed daily such as appointments, meetings, deadlines, contacts and personal details.

5.  Colour Code your projects in order of importance.  For example, red is urgent, blue is in progress, yellow is to be done later. Then keep these files within reach. By the way, the colour-code system could just as easily be replaced by numbers, letters or anything you find works for you!

6.  Get rid of any excess personal items. Junk, free promotions from companies and all that superfluous stuff covering your workspace. If you do want to keep a few personal mementos, put them away from your main work area. After all, that’s where you should be keeping your critical files and things you are working on.

7.  Finally, sort your old papers using a ‘D’ Box recycling system. File any unwanted papers in a cardboard box, which is kept under your desk. When the ‘D’ box gets full, seal it up and recycle it. This way if you do ever need a piece of paper from a week ago, you’ll know where to find it.

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Contrary to popular opinion, good time management is not about cramming every second of your day full of ‘stuff’. In fact, it is quite the opposite! Realise that even the best plans can fail and sometimes, despite your best efforts,  hings will go wrong. Be prepared to adapt and change when you need to.

The Three Rules of Adaptability

Rule # 1: The most important rule of being adaptable is deceptively simple – don’t expect everything to go right Do you ever feel frustration when you are delayed or when things don’t turn out right? Why is that? It’s because your expectations of the situation were different to the way the situation actually turned out.

Let me give you an example. Have you ever been in a situation where you’re packing up to leave on a Friday afternoon and just as you’re turning off your computer your manager comes in with an urgent job? How did it make you feel? Was there some sense of frustration?

Now, imagine how you would have felt if you had of gone to your
manager and said, “I am heading off in a few minutes, is there anything you need me to do before I go?” What’s the difference between these two situations?

Well, in the first situation your expectation was that you were going to go home. Your mind was ready to switch off and you were out of the building (mentally) even if your body hadn’t quite caught up yet.

In the second situation, you expected there will be more work. You actually went and asked for it. Remember that your expectations of a situation completely determine how you will react to it.

Rule #2: The second rule of adaptability is to leave yourself time
If you’ve crammed every second of your day full of stuff, you’re going to find it much more difficult and stressful to move things around.

For example, if you’ve planned 8 back-to-back meetings on Tuesday, what’s going to happen if on the way to an appointment the most important client calls you and says they’ve been delayed by an hour? The stress of shifting appointments of moving your whole day around could quite seriously cause frustration, disappointment and stress.

However, if you know that the most important thing for you to do that day is to meet that client, try leaving a couple of hours available on the off chance that the client might be running late or there could be a delay.

Rule #3: The third rule of adaptability is to be is adaptable
The things you say to yourself constantly determine the person that you will become. If you find yourself often saying things like, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. or “I don’t like change. I’m set in my ways”. Stop it! If you tell yourself your not adaptable, you’ll behave in just that way.

While being organised and in control of your time is an important skill, realising that things can go wrong and Murphy’s Law will apply to some situations, is the sign of person with a healthy level of adaptability.

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“I have a ‘carpe diem’ mug and, truthfully, at six in the morning the words do not make me want to seize the day. They make me want to slap a dead poet.” Joanne Shermani

Are you a morning lark or a night owl? Regardless of whether you wake up early or stay up late, these patterns of  waking up and sleeping are governed by your personal internal body clock; your Circadian Rhythm. What is a Circadian Rhythm? The Latin terms ‘circa’ and ‘diem’ is literally translated to mean ‘around a day’. Studies have shown that humans have a Circadian Rhythm of roughly 24 hours.

Your Circadian cycles affect your biochemical, physiological and behavioural processes. Throughout each period of day and night (ie. a 24 hour cycle), your body temperature, hormone secretion levels, bowel movements, coordination and levels of alertness are all affected by your Circadian Rhythms. By better understanding these daily rhythms and using them to your advantage, you can get more done and feel better in the process. On the following page are some useful strategies for gaining a better understanding of these daily energy patterns and for using your daily Circadian Rhythms to your advantage.

1. Keep a Personal Body Clock Journal
If you aren’t sure of your own Circadian Rhythm, keep a journal noting the times of the day when you feel most energetic, calm, stressed, productive or simply tired.

Do this for 7 days. Look for obvious trends or habits that point out whether you may be a ‘night owl’ or a ‘morning lark’.

There’s not much point trying to match your lifestyle and working life to an energy pattern that is contrary.

2. Use Your natural energy
Someone who loves staying up until the wee hours may be well suited to doing their creative work in the evening. A morning person is much better adapted getting up early and doing their creative work.

At work, if you can concentrate better on big tasks early in the morning, assign them to this time. Similarly, if mornings are a bit of a chore, why not leave the important work for later in the day. Perhaps it sounds radical, but isn’t that the main point of being productive and effective?

3. The Spanish are right!
Siesta! We’d all love to have a siesta but for most of us it isn’t always possible to go home for a few hours and come back later. Just remember that 1pm to 3pm is usually the most challenging time to keep focused. Go easy on the heavy food at lunch time and, if you can, find a patch of grass and have a rest over lunch. Just closing your eyes and relaxing for 10 minutes can do your mind and your body a world of good.

4. Get more natural light
The majority of people who work indoors are familiar with the fluorescent glow of artificial lighting. Recent research has shown that current levels of office lighting do not replicate daylight and as such can affect levels of melatonin production in our bodies. It’s melatonin (or the lack of it) that can disrupt our wake and sleep cycle.
One idea is to get out into the sun and absorb some natural sunshine each day, rather than sitting in a stuffy office.

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