Take a look at your inbox. Yup, right now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
You probably don’t remember signing up for half of those emails or newsletters. Am I right?
So is it any wonder, really, that we’re often so careful about where we submit our email address? Every blog, every website, every freebie we’re interested in downloading… they all want our email address. And then, we forget to unsubscribe. Before we know it, we have hundreds of emails in our inbox, and we feel overwhelmed just looking at it.
Here are tips for managing your Gmail inbox. They’ll help reduce the chaos: (more…)
Working from home – it must be a lovely dream, right?
Yes and no.
I absolutely love every minute of working from home, it’s no secret to anyone who knows me. I feel blessed every single day (even the crappy days!). But I would never say it’s easy, not at all.
Setting boundaries and routines are key when working from home. This goes from limiting family interruptions (regardless of your work hours) to ensuring clients know your availability (and sticking to it!).
Here’s how I stay productive: (more…)
Is there anything more frustrating than a lack of clarity to complete a job?
In my “working for the man” job days, I often came across this, especially when I was learning my job. I was given a set of instructions to follow (and made notes for myself so I could do it on my own for next time), and after doing this task for a few weeks on a regular basis, suddenly, I was called out on missing an important aspect of the task. What was being brought to my attention made sense, but when I referred to my notes, that aspect was, indeed, missing. There was a lack of clarity in the initial instructions and I was reprimanded for it.
Then the silent but definitely present, “You’ve been doing this for weeks, why are mistakes happening?”
How unfair. If only there was clarity involved in the initial delegation of tasks. (more…)
Updated October 2020.
Things have definitely changed since I first wrote this blog post. Freelancing and working from home weren’t quite as normal as they are today. Thanks to Covid-19, many more people are working from home than ever before. And I’m sure many can attest to the fact that it’s not as cushy as some might believe!
If I’m being honest, though, while it IS great.. there are definitely some downsides to it, at least until a routine is put into place:
(more…)
Client Challenge: Social Media Profile-Building
November 2016 – January 2017
This client was a published author and well-established businessman in the food and spice supply industry. His published book was not in relation to his industry.
He was struggling with visibility for his book and was looking to get more eyes on it. This, in turn, would hopefully boost sales. It would also pave the way for the second book he was writing, during our time working together. (more…)
Is there anything that Google cannot help us with?
A little while ago, I wrote a blog post about backing up your files. You can read it here if you missed it.
I thought I’d share a story about my own situation. As a VA, it’s doubly important that files are backed up.
In my naivety, I thought that having files backed up to an external hard drive would protect those files for life. Suddenly, the hard drive couldn’t be read by any computer in our house. I was devastated because the majority of the photos on that drive were photos of my second son. Baby photos.
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