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GNWritings
Written by Laura
Steward Atchison |
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I have had a
serious case of writers block this month. It is not that
I have not had some great ideas for this column, rather
it is that I got all those great ideas while driving or
sleeping this month, and they were promptly forgotten as
soon as I had pen and paper in hand or keyboard to write
them down. I never used to have that problem. I could
easily remember the ideas until I could write them down
before. So what has changed this month?
Some of you
may think it is because I turned 47 in June, but I just
refuse to believe that is the cause, also not the cause
of my needing reading glasses almost all the time
either! Regardless of the reason, I have this need to
figure out a solution so that all those great ideas of
mine get captured. Feel free to grin over that line!
I thought of a
few ideas but I cannot seem to figure out how to make
them work while I am driving. If I use the voice
recorder in the phone I have to remember to listen and
then transcribe it. I guess I could put a daily reminder
on my calendar to listen to voice recorder. I have also
called and left myself voicemails. That has definitely
bailed me out a few times. Especially since the office
voicemail appears in my email inbox as another reminder
to listen.
Ideas in the
middle of the night are easier as I always keep an idea
pad near my bed. The only time it does not work is if I
don’t wake up and write it down. Sometimes the notes are
hard to read as I write them down without turning on the
light. I think I should keep a small flashlight handy so
I don’t use the bedside light and wake up my husband.
Slowing down a
little might help and blocking out some time each day to
debrief myself is another possibility. My mom and dad
always said to try to remember what you were doing when
you had the thought you forgot so sitting down and
trying to mentally recreate my day could also be a good
exercise. I used to do that each year when I wanted to
figure out how the year went in business. It would often
give me great information on how we did, what we did and
what we should or should not be doing in the future.
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Quote of the Month |
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By the time a man realizes that
maybe his father was right, he
usually has a son who thinks
he's wrong.
Charles Wadsworth
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Just for Laughs |
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Social Media for
Business:
Grass Roots to Meaty Connections |
by David Riss, Art Director, Greyskye.com (david@greyske.com)
used with permission
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 There
are many Fortune 500 businesses out there - 500 to be exact. They all
have many employees, a lot of market share, and a lot of "buzz". So do
they need to get into social marketing? You might not think so, but they
are - in droves.
According to U-Mass at Dartmouth's Center for Marketing Research,
http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch/2009f500.cfm, nearly 39
percent of today's Fortune 500s are blogging.
Should you, too? Couldn't
hurt, but here's the rub: a Blog (short for web log) is not a blog
unless it's constantly updated. And we mean a lot of updates...whew! So
what to do?
There are over a dozen more
well known social media apps out there. Most are people driven, while
fewer are positioned for business. While Facebook and even Twitter are
being adopted successfully by many of the big corporations, there are
others that smaller businesses can get a better grasp on, and with far
less "maintenance".
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Breaks For
Champions |
used with permission from David Russell
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www.managetowin.com
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In my book,
Success With People, I recommend taking regular
Sanctuary breaks during your workday because studies have
proven this makes you more productive (and healthy). Here
are four quick examples:
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1. |
When
SAS Institute was only #20 in the ranks of the 100
Best Companies To Work For (August
17, 2009 issue of FORTUNE Magazine) they were
still very popular. (In 2010 they become #1 on the
list.) SAS employee Mary Simmons, principal software
developer, shared one reason she works there: "At
lunch I will go out and bike 20 miles. Then I'll get
back and all of a sudden a thought comes to my
brain, and I solve something I was struggling with.
(Jim) Goodnight (the founder and CEO) understands
the innovative process, and there's time built in
for it."
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2. |
When I
am stressed out one of the best things I can do is
swim laps. Because I count the laps and do different
strokes, my brain cannot focus on work anymore. This
clears my mind, removes my stress and occasionally,
opens my mind to a new inspiration.
NOTE: I do
pray daily and often do small prayers throughout the
day, however, except in rare situations, prayer
alone does not clear my stress. I wish it would. I'm
confident this is a flaw with me, not the practice
of prayer.
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Five Red Flags of Resistance
and
Why Resistance Keeps You Stuck |
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used with permission from Marlene Chism
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www.stopyourdrama.com
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 Your boss doesn’t
listen to your ideas. Your spouse refuses to try to
understand. Your employees resist your leadership, and
secretly you know you keep doing things you don’t really
want to do but you feel stuck and don’t know how to tip the
lever to change. What we are talking about is resistance.
Until you are
trained, resistance is nearly impossible to spot because
often it can be subtle. Good listening is one way to
uncovering resistance in yourself and others. Why should you
care? If you want to shift your current circumstances you
can do so more quickly if you can spot the pockets of
resistance. If you lead others, knowing where there is
resistance will help you to coach that person toward
positive change. There are many signs that a person is in
resistance. In this checklist here are five of them
1. Justification
2. Know it all
3. Need for Approval
4. Living out of the zone
5. Complaining
Read
More
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Vacation Checklist: Prepare
Your PC |
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used
with permission from
Microsoft at Work |
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 Whether you're
leaving the office for the holidays, going on vacation, or
taking a business trip, there are a number of things you can
do to prepare your computer for your time away. Canceling
appointments and letting people know you'll be gone are just
a few of the things you can do to make sure your
responsibilities are covered and people aren't trying to
meet with you. Here are some best practices to make sure
your work goes on smoothly, even when you're gone.
Decline
upcoming meetings
Decline or cancel any upcoming meetings that are scheduled
while you're gone. Co-workers will not expect you to be at
meetings and will know not to attend recurring meetings you
run. To decline a meeting using Microsoft Office Outlook
2003 and 2007, simply complete the following:
1. Open
the meeting occurrence and click Decline.
2. If you're the organizer of the meeting, either
send a cancellation or arrange for a co-worker to run
the meeting.
◦To cancel the meeting in Outlook 2003, open the meeting
occurrence and in the Actions menu click
Cancel Meeting.
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Better Together? Better
Believe It! |
used
with permission from the
Microsoft Small Business Center
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 When
I was much younger, I had a 1971 Mustang fastback I
nicknamed "Sleek." I loved that car, so much that I hung
onto it way past its useful life span. I became my local
mechanic's best friend, bringing my treasured wheels in
every few months for yet another repair.
I finally wised up
and traded it in for a brand new Mustang. As soon as I drove
off the dealer's lot, I kicked myself for not having traded
up sooner. My new ride was built better and had standard
features that weren't even available as options on my
previous car. I could count on it to start up on even the
coldest Chicago mornings (and trust me, they can be very
cold). What's more, it had more acceleration than old Sleek,
an important attribute when trying to pass someone on the
Dan Ryan Expressway.
So, here's the
question for you: Have you hung onto your business software
for too long, as I did with Sleek? If you're still running
Windows XP or an older version of Windows, it's time to take
a good look at the options for upgrading. See what new
features, new speed, and new reliability can mean for your
workplace.
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