Productivity @ Home

A Fraud's Advice on Protecting Your Finances

Every Thursday, I share my thoughts on Family Finances.

For those of us who work @ home, we often rely on other professionals to aid us with financial advice, bookkeeping, tax preparation and other financial transactions that are the lifeblood of our family or small business. A recent article at CNN entitled "Confessions of a Con Artist" spells out just how easy it is for us to unwittingly be sent into financial ruin if we're not paying attention.

In the article, convicted felon Diann Cattani spells out just how easy it was for her to start ripping off her employers:

It was a startup, so the owners relied on me to take over the company's business functions. I automated the bookkeeping systems, contracted with all of the vendors and basically did everything that it took to set up the company's infrastructure. I never established systems with the plan to steal from them, but the fact that I implemented everything made things a lot easier.

Cattani's story and her warning to "trust, but also verify" is an important reminder in times when many small business are simply a few bad transactions away from financial ruin. 

Do you employ a contract bookkeeper or business advisor in your small business or family finances? What steps have you taken to ensure oversight of those services?

Unfreeze Your Brain with Kahn Academy

Every Wednesday, I share my thoughts on Learning and Personal Development.

Sometime in the early first grade, I came to the conclusion that I was "bad" at Math. I attribute it both to my own personal attitude and to a teacher who perhaps herself didn't like math and wasn't too great at teaching it. I managed to survive those elementary school years, high school math, and even barely scraping by in Pre-Calc my first semester at Notre Dame before landing in the "dummy math" class second semester. My classmates there, largely members of various Fighting Irish sports teams, were also bright people who just didn't "get" the whole math thing.

In our home, the division of parenting labor found me squarely in charge of helping with most homework except anything related to math. Once the boys evolved beyond memorization of times tables, I was out of my league.

So imagine my surprise when I recently discoverd the amazing Kahn Academy and found myself voluntarily watching videos of Math lessons! The Kahn Academy, a not-for-profit educational endeavor launched by Salmon Kahn in 2006, is truly revolutionizing the way people learn using technology tools and a systematic approach to teach not only math, but also science, humanities and even test preparation. It's a terrific resource not only for the students in our lives, but also for "grown ups" who -- like myself -- gave up all hope of learning math years ago.

A quick visit to the Kahn Academy website is sure to inspire you to spend ten minutes per day learning something new -- whether it's simple equations or a history lesson, this style of learning offers us the ability to go from "bad" at something to proficient in no time!

Have you used Kahn Academy for yourself or a student in your life? What other types of online services help you and your family to learn and grow?

The Pre-Fab Food Debate

Every Tuesday, I share my thoughts on Family Life.

I found myself fascinated recently by the article "Serving pre-prepared food doesn't mean you're a bad parent" over at CNN. Maybe I'm simply looking for ways to assuage my personal guilt and not cooking from scratch every night of the week -- and I'll freely admit to using Chipotle as a personal productivity crutch far too frequently...

That being said, I think the debate in the comments section of the CNN article points to not only the great divide moms feel over this topic, but also the amazing stress something as vital as feeding our families can create in our homes.

As the CNN article states, many families are seeking shortcuts when it comes to meal preparation:

Nearly half of all Americans use partially prepared foods or ready-to-cook foods to feed their families, according to a 2010 Mintel survey.

Now that there are only three of us living in my household, and frequently only two of us at the dinner table due to my teen's practice schedule and my husband's eratic work schedule, I find myself more concerned with sitting down to the dinner table together than with what's actually being served. I'm not stating that this is a good thing -- I'm just confessing to my personal reality at the moment and seeking your suggestions and ideas for making "easy" more healthy.

I tend to do a great deal of our shopping at Trader Joes and Whole Foods these days, combining fresh produce with partially pre-prepared items. We're also blessed to have a bevy of Farmer's Markets in my home town and ample access to beautiful fruits and vegetables. 

How do you cope with busy meal times? What time-savings strategies do you employ to cut down on prep time? What helps you to keep a healthy balance in your family's meals?

 

Preparing Your Heart and Your Home

Many of my readers will be celebrating with me as we begin the liturgical season of Advent today, counting the days and weeks until Christmas. As P@H is not a religious blog, but one that emphasizes "getting things done where it matters most", I'll simply share that even if you don't celebrate Advent spiritually, this time of preparation can be a wonderful way to focus on being your best this holiday season.

Unfortunately, we've heard all the stories and read all the statistics on the myriad ways in which Christmas has become a secularized, commercialized "me" fest. News programs show us rabid shoppers macing each other to get to the best deals. Our kids are taught to make wish lists that inevitably lead to disappointment. Our calendars are so overbooked that the season which should be most focused on family time passes us by with a whirl of social obligations.

But it doesn't have to be this way. The Christmas season is also filled with opportunities for great joy and service. We are reminded of the neediest in our communities and given ample opportunity to serve them. We write letters (with stamps!) to friends and loved ones and gather for lingering meals. And we focus on giving, a virtue that's always in season.

This Advent, I invite you to take stock of your personal commitments and to prioritize those that most closely draw you to your desired Christmas -- a time of faith, family and fun. Be realistic about what can fit into your schedule. Open your home a few times to friends, even if you simply serve a frozen pizza and a smile. Write long letters or make long distance calls to elderly relatives. Spend as much on food and clothing for those in need as you do on electronics purchases. And, most of all, take time to savor the season -- it will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Tis the Season for Productivity @ Home

As we prepare to enter the Christmas season, I'm pondering now more than ever the need to be organized and effective in running my home and business so that I can savor precious time with family and friends this year. I also want to place an increased emphasis on my personal, spiritual preparation for Christmas -- finding time to do this means being more intentional in my work and better about embracing free time to enjoy my loved ones.

It feels challenging sometimes not to approach Christmas as a series of "to do" lists. My particular faith background helps me to keep this as a sacred period of prayer and preparation, but even if you are not a person of faith, I hope you too will find time to embrace the weeks leading up to Christmas as a time for emotional and spiritual connectedness, not mass consumerism. I was reminded of the necessity of this in my own life yesterday when I spent a few mid-morning hours with my teen at the Mall on "Black Friday".  All around us were families and shoppers, intent on finding those ellusive bargains. What was I doing there? In fact -- crazy as it sounds -- I just wanted to spend a few hours with my son. Perhaps I should have dragged him on a hike or bike ride, but instead we spent some great time window shopping and chatting. So as counterintuitive as it may seem, we found a moment of peace and joy amidst that craziness yesterday.

My goal for the upcoming month and in leading up to new year is to reclaim a sense of the organization and control that has been missing in my world during the past six months when my busyness has led me to a feeling of disorder. Perhaps you've had these times in your own life: moments when you were so busy that you could barely keep on top of the basics.

I know the personal rules that help me to reclaim a sense of "wholeness" -- you likely know yours as well. Now, the trick is enforcing them.

'Tis the Season.

Will You Use GPS Tracker with Teen Drivers

As a parent of a teenage driver, this recent story on AAA's new GPS tracking device caught my attention. It promises to track routes driven by teens and alert parents when the teen driver exceeds the speed limit.

What's your take on this use of technology? Safety tool or "big brother" babysitter?

Keep Your Family Safe with a Carbon Monoxide Monitor

Out here in California, we're hearing a lot these days about the dangers of carbon monoxide and the importance of (and now a new legal requirement for) installing CO alarms. The new California law is designed to help protect families from what's often called a "silent killer". To help protect your family take note of the following steps:

• Install a carbon monoxide alarm on each floor and near sleeping areas.  CO alarms are the best defense against this silent killer. They are designed to alert residents before they are exposed to harmful levels, allowing them to exit their residence and get help. At less than $30, these alarms, which may look similar to a smoke alarm, are a smart investment in your health and the health of your loved ones.

Are You a Workaholic?

My name is Lisa, and I'm starting to think that I may be a...workaholic...

In truth, almost twenty years ago when I decided to step away from my career in Human Resources at the birth of my first son, it was largely because I realized my workaholic tendencies. I loved my job, but I loved my son more, and I wasn't sure about how to balance the giving of myself 100% to both of these competing interests. Our situation at the time enabled me to choose to be home full time, a decision I've never regretted for our family. I do know many moms though -- my sisters among them -- who work at amazing careers, making a true difference in our world and all the while giving the very best of themselves to their families.

Seeking Employment?

I seem to have a lot of friends these days who are looking for jobs. This economy is so difficult, and many people have been laid off, downsized or received major pay cuts. I also know a fair number of mom friends who are rejoining the workforce after having stayed home with children for an extended period of time.

Back in the day, I used to be pretty proficient on this topic. My Master's degree is in Human Resource Development and the first half of my career was working at Vanderbilt University at the Recruitment Manager, and then for Kaiser Permanente in that same capacity. When I "retired" in 1991 to stay home with little Eric, I had a corner office and a staff of eleven and spent my time managing my staff and recruiting for high level positions at the medical center.

Casual Friday: Slack or Shine?

It's hot in my office these days, so hot that I sometimes retreat to cooler parts of the home I also call "work" in search of a more bearable temperature to combat the heat put off by the laptop that is my most productive co-worker. This summer I've worked at the kitchen table, in the living room, on the couch and in the backyard.

While I've been galavanting around the house in search of cool, my home office has been falling into a pit of disrepair. It's been easy to put up with the stacks since I haven't been here this much, preferring instead to smash work into compact chunks and instead go play with my family. Summer's slightly slower pace has afforded me the luxury of cutting back a bit on work hours, and since I'm my own boss it's a blessing I've taken for granted. I find that those I communicate with in my work are also a bit more casual during summer, and that the pace of things is generally slower. Today, I'm thinking about how to best maximize upon that less frenetic tone of summer, and just how to take advantage of the roughly six weeks my calendar holds before things begin to get crazy again in late August. I have a few options:

1. Continue the way things have been going. Work enough to get by, but preserve the bulk of my time for family and fun.
2. Take advantage of the quieter pace to get organized and get ahead. Plan now for those crazy Fall months I know lie ahead of me. Get my office organized, get ahead on some financial records that need straightening, and stockpile some projects up front so that my pace will be more bearable in September.

I'm still pondering my answer, but I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Does your work or family life slow down during summer months, or are things as crazy in July as they feel in April? Is this a productive time for you, or would you prefer to go curl up on the beach with a novel? And do you find yourself struggling to balance family life and work this summer?