Productivity @ Home

10 Ways to Accomplish Your New Year's Resolutions

On Wednesdays, I share my thoughts on Learning and Professional Development.  Today's guest post was written by John Bishop of GoalSettingforStudents.com. 

Successfully completing your New Year's resolutions can be difficult, but with a little planning and determination you can greatly improve your chances for success.

The ideas below should help you stay focused, positive and motivated.

Ten ways to improve your chances for success:

1. Be realistic. - Make sure that the resolution(s) is realistic. Set yourself up for success by setting one or two reasonable and attainable goals that stretch your capabilities.
   
2. Write down your goal and action steps. - Break down the goal into achievable parts called action steps. With the completion of each action step you are moving closer to accomplishing your goal.
   
3. Set a time table. - Without a specific completion date, your resolution is only a wish.
   
4. Read the resolution(s) each night before bed and again when you wake up.
   
5. Determine what you will sacrifice. - Accomplishing your resolution will take time and effort on your part. What habits and behaviors are you willing to change in order to reach your goal?
   
6. Be determined and minimize excuses. You will face some hurdles as you strive to be successful. Avoid making excuses that stop you from reaching your goal.
   
7. Use the positive “I'll Make It Happen” words like: yes, I can and I will.
   
8. ”Minimize the Bummer Words” words. - Bummer words include - “no, can't, won't, never, maybe, and if.
   
9. ”Ask yourself each day, “Did I give my best effort today's activities?” An honest answer will help you stay focused and move you closer the successful completion of your New Year's Years Resolutions.
   
10. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

Good luck! This is your life! Your goals! Your success!
You are a WINNER!

New Year Parenting - Forget the Pounds - Go For the Happy Sounds This New Year's

On Tuesdays, I share my thoughts on Family Life. Today's guest post was written by Alyssa Johnson from http://www.RemarriageSuccess.com.

Now that the new year is upon us, it's time to reflect. You're another year older and so are your children. What does that mean for you as a parent? With getting older, the kids are probably moving into new stages of development. Rather than make resolutions you know you won't keep, I suggest taking a new - more worthwhile approach to the New Year. How about focusing on ways to be a better parent?

This is an area all of us can improve upon, no matter how great a parent we think we are now. What do you want to do differently as a parent this year? This can be answered in many ways, but to get you thinking I suggest looking at the amount of time you spend with the kids, how your time with them is spent, the way you speak to your children, and what your expectations for them are.

Are you happy with each of these areas? If not, why not sit down and make a detailed list of what you think can be improved upon. Be sure to be realistic about these changes. There's no sense in beating yourself up over wanting to spend more time with them, if you have to work 60 hours a week just to keep food on the table.

Now that you've evaluated possible areas to change, don't forget to celebrate this past year's successes. What were your "super parent" moments? When do you feel like you were really able to connect with the kids and enjoy them? Did anyone compliment you on how your kids act or the job you've done with them? Take a moment to really reflect on this. These are the memories that sustain us when we're ready to rip our hair out and scream at the top of our lungs out of frustration!

Finally, talk to your kids about ideas they have to make this next year better. What input can they offer about things to do together? If they're older, you can ask them about the ways that the two of you interact together. Don't forget though, you are the parent!! That means YOU have the final say in all of this. You're just looking for their input - they aren't make the final decisions.

So throw out that idea to lose 10 pounds. If it happens great, but I suggest a more productive use of your time and energy is to focus on creating a closer family and relationship with your kids. A house full of laughter is better than a smaller pant size anyday!

Now that you're ready to make some changes, I encourage you to visit, http://www.HowToBecomeABetterParent.com to build that family of your dreams! Get power parenting tools to help you create the strong and fun family you're wanting in 2009.

By Alyssa Johnson from http://www.RemarriageSuccess.com  Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alyssa_Johnson

Get Organized! Time Management Strategies For Online Business Owners

On Mondays, I share my thoughts on Working @ Home.  Today's guest post was written by Rosamunde Bott. 

In many ways time is far more precious than money. While money circulates and flows in and out of your life, time, once spent, never returns. There is no limit to how much money you could potentially earn, but time always has a limit. There is usually a monetary value on the way time is spent, hence the saying: "time is money". If you are an employee, often get paid an hourly rate. The time you spend on your online home business however, is rather different. Time spent now may not bring in immediate riches, but it does have a direct effect on the money you will receive in the future, so it is important to get organized and spend your time well. The time management strategies below will make sure you do.

There are so many different tasks and distractions that all vie for your attention in internet marketing that it is very easy to be tempted into time wasting activities if you are not careful. By focusing on three main time-management strategies, goal-setting, to-do lists and delegation, you will ensure that your precious time is spent effectively.

Goal Setting

Most of us know about goal-setting, but not everyone sets goals in the most effective ways. Before you set a goal for your business you must be very clear about why you want to achieve it. If you goal is to make a certain amount of money, then having a vision of what this money will be used for is far more motivating than the money itself. Ultimately, you need to get in touch with what success will mean to you, and how it will make you feel. What will it mean for your loved ones, or for the world? Having a powerful vision for you goal will help you have the commitment to keep to it.

Once you are clear about your "why" and your vision, you can then set long term, medium term and short term goals that all fit in with your mission. You goals should be specific, stated in the present tense and with a positive focus, not a negative one (e.g. "I now earn $100,000 a year", rather than "I am now out of debt") Once you have defined your goals, you will then write a series of mini-goals which will serve as stepping stones to the larger ones. Visualize your goals every day, and don't forget that they can be flexible. Review them regularly and make changes if necessary.

To-Do Lists

Your goal plan will clarify the steps you need to take and these need to be organized into to-do lists. These are essential to help the busy person stay on track and not get distracted by things that come up arbitrarily. How you organize your to-do list is up to you, and you might need to experiment until you find a system that works for you. The important thing is that you have one and that it is in line with your goals and vision.

To be effective, your to-do list should be prioritized and organized into categories according to urgency. My own to-do list is separated into daily, urgent and non-urgent. I make sure the daily tasks are done first, then the urgent tasks and then the non-urgent tasks, if there is time.

Anything that does not contribute to your ultimate goals should be dropped. Also, get into the habit of allocating anything that comes up during the day to one of your to-do lists so you are not distracted by it and taken away from a more important task. It is a good idea to set aside half an hour or so a day for dealing with emails or post, deleting anything unnecessary, dealing with anything urgent and allocating to to-do lists if they are not, so the rest of your time is spent doing prioritized work.

Delegation

So many of us like to feel in control by trying to do everything ourselves, but in fact by doing this we are not in control of our precious time. By delegating of your more time-consuming tasks you are then able to concentrate on essential productive work and keep control of what is important.

With an online business, this might mean outsourcing some of your tasks such as website design, article writing and article submission and so on. There are also many online tools that will automatically send out regular emails to your list and submit your websites and articles to directories and ezines. Although most of these will require a small financial investment, it will leave you free to carry out the tasks that are more enjoyable and productive.

These three time-management strategies will help you to get organized, focus on what is important and reduce time wasting activities. In turn this will enable you to achieve your goals quicker and build your business smoothly to ultimate success.

Ros runs her own online business and is also a successful writer and life coach.  Find opportunities at her website at Achieve Financial Freedom Online.  Ros's career and home business coaching site is at The Career Coach.   Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rosamunde_Bott

20 iPhone Productivity Apps

Thanks to Kelly for the heads up on a great post entitled 20 iPhone Apps to Increase Your Productivity.  The selected apps include choices for organization, money & business, travel, and home/personal tools. 

Having tried a few of the suggestions on this list, I can vouch for Jott and the Mobile News Network, but am looking forward to trying several of the other suggestions.

20 iPhone Apps to Increase Your Productivity - Web Design Schools Guide

Lisa Likes: Vaseline Intensive Rescue Clinical Therapy Skin Protectant Body Lotion

Another entry in an occasional series on things Lisa Likes.

I was recently able to review samples of Vaseline's new Intensive Rescue Clinical Therapy Skin Protectant Body Lotion in conjunction with a wonderful promotion they are running.  I found the samples I tried to be great on my winter-worn dry skin.  As someone who's particularly sensitive to heavy fragrances in products, I found the "lightly fragranced" version to be very acceptable and the unfragranced version to be perfect for me.  Both versions are non-greasy, hypoallergenic and do a great job in moisturizing even the dryest of skin.

I wanted to share the following promotional information from this campaign with you - be sure to read the entire article below to learn about your chance to win a trip for four to Alaska.  If you win, I'm available to come along!  Check out the details at www.prescribethenation.com

      SMALL TOWN ALASKA HELPS HEAL NATION OF ITS DRY SKIN

      Residents of Kodiak Star in National Campaign for Iconic Skin Care Brand Vaseline® and its New Prescription-Strength Product

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ (October 17, 2009) -- Can one person living in a small town in Alaska help people across the nation find relief for their dry skin?  The Vaseline brand thinks so and turned to Petal Ruch, mother of four, vocal instructor and resident of Kodiak, Alaska (population:  6,000) to start a word-of-mouth campaign for new Vaseline Clinical Therapy Lotion, the most efficacious lotion in the Vaseline product line.  Vaseline Clinical Therapy is a prescription strength moisturizer available without a prescription, so people can “prescribe” it to themselves and others. 

The Vaseline brand is so confident in the effectiveness of new Clinical Therapy Lotion, clinically proven to be 60% more moisturizing than a prescription lotion, it went to one of the harshest skin environments in the world and gave the lotion to one person to try.  If she liked it, she could then freely “prescribe” it to anyone else she thought needed it.  Nearly 1,000 members of the community were prescribed in the first two weeks including a family of 39 first cousins, a Russian music group, a knife maker, a police detective, and more.  Many of these people’s stories are featured in television and print spots and online at prescribethenation.com, a site that encourages the rest of the country to prescribe the lotion to themselves and others with dry skin.  

Vaseline Clinical Therapy Lotion sought to put the spotlight on Alaska well before the state became top-of-mind.  That is because Alaska is iconic for extreme weather conditions including blistering cold weather and high wind chills.  Kodiak residents face daily fluctuations in temperature and their skin is in a constant battle to hold on to moisture and can become bone dry.  
 

“The concept behind the campaign was to let the product’s efficacy speak for itself.  We wanted to see what would happen if we gave one person the new lotion to try and invited her to prescribe it to anyone else she thought would benefit from it,” says Fernando Machado, Global Brand Director, Vaseline.  “Our belief was if people who live in extreme weather conditions could find relief for their dry skin, then who better to inspire the rest of the country to prescribe new Vaseline Clinical Therapy lotion to themselves and others.” 

For months, in reality TV style, small towns across Alaska were scouted and casting calls conducted with their residents in an effort to uncover their personal skin stories and find the best person and town to be featured in the national campaign. Kodiak was selected as the final town due to the stories shared, its beautiful scenery, and its tight-knit community, making it ideal for a word-of-mouth campaign.

Petal Ruch, a nine-year resident of Kodiak, was selected to try the product and begin the prescription chain. Petal was selected because she has extremely dry skin, is very active in the community and exemplifies the values of living in a small community.  After Petal tried and liked Clinical Therapy on her own dry skin, she “prescribed” it to her friends and family, ultimately reaching nearly 1,000 people in the town.  

“I was very pleased to discover that the new Vaseline Clinical Therapy Lotion worked so well on my dry skin and even on my two sons,” says Petal.  “I was utterly shocked and amazed when I learned that just from my initial prescriptions, I had passed the lotion on to literally hundreds of people in the town,” says Petal.  “We are such a tight-knit community and it reinforced to me that in one way or another we are all connected.”

The Vaseline production team learned about the residents of Kodiak by spending 19 days in town and capturing nearly 200 hours of footage.  The crew shot documentary style spending days with the residents to get a real look at their lives as told through their skin.  The footage of townspeople trying the product, prescribing it to others and sharing their skin stories is featured in the television and print campaign and online.    The advertising spots were produced by Bartle Bogle Hegarty New York in partnership with Radical Media.  Derek Cianfrance directed the shoot and Elinor Carucci was the photographer who shot the print campaign.

To learn more about the residents of Kodiak and how you can keep the prescription chain spreading throughout the country, log on to prescribethenation.com.  At the site, you will be able to view more than 100 videos of Kodiak residents and track the spread of the lotion across the nation via an interactive map which will be on the site in the coming month.

Vaseline Clinical Therapy prescription-strength lotion is available over the counter at supermarkets, drugstores and mass merchandisers nationwide.  The Vaseline brand introduced Clinical Therapy because it knows that skin is amazing.  Healthy skin naturally repairs itself but when skin is not healthy it can’t perform optimally.  About 45% of people are concerned about or actively tackling chronic dry skin with symptoms including redness, tightness, cracks, scales, flakes and soreness, skin’s way of signaling proper functioning has broken down.  New Clinical Therapy Lotion helps make skin amazing again by providing instant relief, long lasting protection and sustained recovery to dry skin. 

Teaching Kids About Money For Life-Long Healthy Financial Habits

On Thursdays, I share my thoughts on Family Finances.  Today's guest post is written by Laura Nelson-Smith.

Kids catch onto the importance of money in life pretty quickly as they watch us use it. The way to show your child the value of a dollar is by teaching them the different ways a dollar is used.

Begin When They're Young

Begin explaining to your child how money works from a young age. It's important for kids to know you get money by earning it. Items (or services) in life are given in return for money, and the value or worth of that item varies according to the seller. If you do not have enough money, you can not purchase the item.

A follow-up to this is talking about saving money. A child with a couple dollars could go buy a piece of candy (that'll be gone in 10 seconds) or an inexpensive toy (that will be broken in 10 minutes or completely forgot about the next day). However, if that child decides to save those dollars, a better item can be purchased that may have more meaning and last longer.

Have A Savings Plan

One way to teach children about savings is setting a percentage they should save every time they earn money. Ten percent is an easy sum to learn; simply move the decimal point one space to the left. For every $1.00 earned, $0.10 will be saved ($23.48 earned, $2.34 saved).

This savings isn't for a better short-term item, but for a "rainy day" or even a car or college fund. The remaining $0.90 can be used for the candy or "better item" as mentioned above. This principle can teach the child self discipline for very long-term savings (i.e. a house or retirement when they're an adult).

Sure, a six-year-old won't understand the "rainy day" concept, and driving in ten years may be discouraging. But after saving 10% over the years, it'll add up. This teaching is especially helpful when they get their first job and are already in the habit of saving that 10% for long-term use.

You might also set aside a certain percentage for charitable giving, so kids can also learn about this important aspect of managing money.

As Your Child Grows

When your child is more mature, take him or her to the bank with you and open a line of savings in their (and your) name. Once or twice a month, take your child to the bank so they can deposit their money into their account. Let them see the bank statement and watch how their money is growing with the help of interest.

Interest is a huge part of using money. Either it'll make you pay more than what your item was originally worth (credit) or it can help you make more money. Teenagers need to understand that unless you can pay off that debt within 30 days, you'll actually be paying more for your purchased item.

One way to show how detrimental or great interest can be is by doing some role-play. Pick an item your teenager currently wants to purchase on a credit card. Make a chart showing how making only the minimum payment affects the total debt (you'll also need to explain APR), how long it takes to pay off the debt with minimum payments, and how much interest is paid in total.

On that same note, take the number of months it took to pay off the credit card and show how much interest he/she'd be making in a savings account while putting money away to save for that item. The amount of interest isn't much, but the point to make is if you save money to purchase the item, you will only pay that sum without the additional cost of interest.

When children understand how money works they'll (hopefully) be more inclined to use responsibility when making money decisions.

Laura Nelson-Smith is the resident editor of Career & Finance at Schmoozins - an online magazine for women that gives all women a voice. Join us as a contributor, schmoozer or just hang out a while.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_Nelson-Smith

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from my home to yours!  I wish you and your families the warmest of memories and time treasured with your loved ones.  May this be a time of closeness, peace and love in your home. 

With prayers and best wishes for a blessed holiday
and a prosperous and productive 2009,

Lisa Hendey
Productivity @ Home

Christmas Tree Activities

On Tuesdays, I share my thoughts on Family Life.  Today's guest post is written by Christina Marks.

Decorating the Christmas tree is an event that most members of any family look forward to. It not only is a time to reflect and remember where the various ornaments came from or who made them, it is also an exciting time that really brings Christmas right into the home.

There are a variety of activities you can incorporate into bring the Christmas tree into your home. Some families enjoy singing "Oh Christmas Tree" as the tree is brought into the home. Make a fun activity of this whereby everyone has to come up with an original verse to the song (since few know the actual words). This can keep everyone entertained while someone else works to get the tree standing up straight.

Once the tree is in a stand and ready to be decorated, make a game out of the ornaments. Put all the homemade ornaments aside and work with those first. Start with the first family member and ask them who made the ornament, where did it come from? Once the details are out of the way, ask the crafter (likely a child) if they remember making the ornament. If you're the parent, tell the child what you thought when you first saw the ornament. This is fun, since it reminds children that the things they make and bring home are meaningful to the parents.

There is always one ornament that is just ugly, or plain silly. Play "hot potato" with that ornament. Whoever gets stuck with the ugly ornament has to say one nice thing about it, such as "well, there's a lot of glitter on it and that's pretty", or "Dougie made it, so I like it". It's a silly way to remind children to find good in everything. It might even remind them that things are just things. This is a good lesson for this time of year.

Some people use an advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas, and this is how it's traditionally done, but there is one fun activity sure to be a hit with children. Similar to the concept in Germany (where the advent calendar originated) this involves providing one small gift for children every day until Christmas. In Germany, it's only done for several days before Christmas, but you can do it for the 24 days of the month until Christmas arrives.

Buy tiny handled gift bags at the craft store. Buy 1 for each of your children. Have the children decorate the bags, and on each of the 24 bags, have them place a number as well, 1 through 24. As you decorate the tree, find space for each of these little bags. Because they have handles, they can hang right on the tree like an ornament, or you can tie ribbon on the handles so they have a more graceful swing. Each night, fill the right bag with a tiny prize or gift. So if it's the night of December 14, you'll take bag #15 (all the bags with earlier numbers will be gone) and put some little trinket in it. It might be a piece of candy, a tiny ornament for your child's own tree, a tiny car or small eraser. The idea here is that it's a small gift, but come morning, that's the first activity your children will engage in - discovering what little treat you left for them the night before.

Christina Marks is the author of this article and runs the blog http://funchristmaspartygames.blogspot.com/.

An Author's Christmas Wish List

On Mondays, I share my thoughts on Working @ Home.

Most of the authors I know work at home, carving out niches of time between naps, loads of laundry and cooking or after a full day of work at the job feeds their family so they can feed their souls by writing.

So when I came across this post today on the website of my cyber friend and prolific author Karina Fabian, it caught my attention.  The post, An Author's Christmas Wish List, is a great and very practical list of gift ideas that any author would love.  Many of the items on Karina's list are relevant to anybody who wants to be productive working in an "@ home" setting.  I particularly love Karina's suggestions under the "Gifts of Time" category, which won't cost a lot but will be priceless for the recipient.  In a time when budgets are tight, we can definitely all appreciate the gift of time.

As an update for those of you who've been wondering about me for the past few weeks, I am undergoing a recent diagnosis with a very treatable form of breast cancer.  You can read more about it here.  I am also at work on my first book, due May 1, 2009.  I am doing my best to keep up with everything on my lists, but you may see less frequent blog posting in the next few months as a result of my radiation treatments and work on writing. 

I hope to continue to blog through this experience in the hopes of encouraging all of you out there to seek regular health screenings and to care for yourself physically and emotionally.  The fact that my cancer was caught very early gives me great hope for a complete recovery.  Several of my friends have given me an early Christmas gift this year by scheduling their own mammograms - if you haven't had a doctor's appointment lately, would you please schedule that this week?

In the mean time, please check Karina's post and the other great stuff on her blog.  What would you put on a "Productivity @ Home" wish list?

Fabianspace: An Author's Christmas Wish List

TaskWriter.com

Hi everyone and sorry for the two week blog break - I've been dealing with some personal health issues and another major project, but am happy to back online here and starting off a whole new month of personal productivity @ home!

Today, I thought I'd share some information about a cool new GTD application called Task Writer.  Katy from the Task Writer team wrote me to share the following news about this up and coming online resource for those of us looking to Get Things Done:

TaskWriter is a new approach on online getting things done web applications.

What fully differentiates it from the other applications is its speed and simplicity. TaskWriter is designed in such a way that 95% of user interactions get instant response. And this is not bragging, just try it for yourself :). Simplicity is the other key factor of TaskWriter.  We aim it to both experienced GTD users and beginners in the GTD field. We are working now on developing interactive tutorials and user guides which will allow everybody new in the field to both learn about GTD and use TaskWriter at the same time.

On the development path, we are dedicated to "user driven development". We've come online with the first working version, and we are directing the current development based on what our users need
from us. At this moment, we are still working at full speed on the development.

We should have ready a basic HTML user interface for generic mobile phones in the next two months. Dedicated IPhone application should be ready in about 4 months from now. Alarms by SMS should also be ready in the next two months.

We will also have iCal integration very soon, we are already working on that. This will bring Google Calendar one way integration, in the sense that you could see all your tasks in Google Calendar.

Offline support is going to come in the medium term, somewhere in the first quarter of 2009. The application is going to work no matter you are online or not, and all data is going to sync transparently once you get connectivity.

I'm testing TaskWriter for myself now, but would love your opinion if you've used it or want to check it out.  During this busy month of December, we need all the tools we can find to Get Things Done!