Wouldn’t it be great if you could find everything you needed to learn in ONE place?

Get the benefit of advice, brainstorms and business shortcuts from global business consultants and coaches, who are bringing their ‘best game’ to the table.  There are 20 experts lined up to help you fire up your business – and reclaim your life – in 2012.  Seekers of organization and productivity wisdom can go to Fire Up Your Biz and Enrich Your Life  and sign up free to hear over 20 global experts share specific strategies and tactics that helped them gain control and purpuse in their business.

Thanks to to organizer of Fire Up Your Biz – Enrich Your Life, Stephanie Calahan, starting on January 18th, you can listen in on interviews with 3 experts a week for 6 weeks.  You can listen to our own Debbie Rosemont discuss productive meeting techniques on January 25th in We’ve Got to Stop Meeting Like This: How To Run Meetings That Actually Get Things Done!  Each interview will deliver practical, actionable strategy and tips.  You can join in on one call or all of them!  The more you listen in, the more you will learn…and, if you attend live, you just may win a great business boosting prize.

Join us for this amazing interview series and you will:

Fire up your personal performance

Unleash your profit potential

Discover new strategies to manage the demands of running your own business

Have a profitable business and more time to focus on what’s important to you

Simply Placed is honored to have been asked to serve as a Featured Expert for this series. We look forward to sharing valuable information to help you have more productive meetings. In addition, we look foward to listening in on the other expert calls, where we don’t doubt we’ll learn and benefit as well.

Join us, won’t you?

The post-holiday slow down is here. Can you feel it? Does it seem hard to get things done this week? Lacking of motivation? Maybe you’re ready to check some things off your list, but you can’t reach anyone or get calls or emails back.  Difficult to focus on “normal business” this week when it seems as if everyone else is on vacation, taking the week off, or just ”kinda working”? Check out this article from Fast Company for some ideas on how to utilize the rest of this week productively and position yourself to start off 2012 strong. You’ll tackle some things that are best done during more “quiet” down time anyway, or that are often put off when things are moving quickly.

Let us know how you use your downtime or take advantage of  your quiet office this week. Oh, and if you’re one of the ones truly on vacation, then relish in the rest, relaxation, recreation and rejuvination that are sure to result. Enjoy!

Do you know of someone (or maybe it’s you) that has a ”unique”, “special” or “different” relationship with time? Some people notice (or don’t notice) the passage of time differently. Sometimes people run late, not because they mean to upset those who are waiting for them, but because they didn’t plan properly or time “slipped by”. Other people get “lost in time” when doing certain tasks, especially those that are electronic (because its so easy to get lost down the “rabbit hole” of the internet and “link chasing”. Still others have deadlines and want to set boundaries of time, but find that “time flies” and before they know it, they’ve gone past the amount of time they intended to spend on something, or the deadline has passed. Many children (ok, adults too) have a hard time conceptulizing “how much time is left” or “how much longer” we have to do something, or to wait.

This can all be a source of frustration. Traditional clocks help to a degree, but don’t solve the problem completely. With digital clocks, it’s easy to see what time it is, but what about how much time has passed?  It can be easy to lose track when you can’t see how much time has progressed. Enter the Time Timer.

The Time Timer solves the problem of lost elapsed time by providing a visual measurement of the passage of time.  The user sets the timer by sliding the disk to the amount of time they would like to “use” or “indicate” is left. That amount of time is shown in red. As time elapses, the red disk dissapears, creating a graphic image of the passage of time.

Check out all three sizes of the Time Timer, each counts down up to one hour and has a optional sound when your desired time has elapsed. Additionally there is an software version for your computer, to help you track your online time, and an app for your iphone or ipad. Lastly, there is a Time Timer watch, for those who want to “wear” their timer and alway have it with them.

Applications for using the Time Timer are endless. We use them for client sessions, to keep Debbie on time during speaking engagements, to stay on task during project work, to let kids know “how much time left until I can __________”, etc.

For what purpose could you use the Time Timer? We’d love your ideas!

We know stress can influence productivity.  The next time you’re experiencing counterproductive stress, consider using Christina Marie’s suggestion below.  Please enjoy her guest blog post: A Simple Tip – Save Yourself from A Stressful Melt-Down. 

A Simple Tip – Save Yourself from A Stressful Melt-Down 

We use vision boards as triggers.  Try a fresh spin of this idea….

Life can get stressful at times. When you get stressed, you will tend to focus intently on your stressor. (Person, place or thing) That focus can lead you to lose perspective on things that might be much more important.

Your Assignment:   Create a simple reminder that will help you regain your perspective. Choose something that is a personal memory and something that has solid emotional meaning for you. It can be the birth of a child, the loss of a loved one, or a major life event. It could be a simple phrase you’ve heard someone important to you use when they were stressed (e.g., “this isn’t rocket science.”). Just make sure whatever trigger you choose has deep personal meaning to you.

Once you’ve chosen that reminder, practice using it when things get stressful. If you’re having a bad day at work, remembering what’s really important in life can make your present situation less stressful. So go ahead – pick your reminder and start putting it into practice in stressful situations. It will reduce your stress, help you regain perspective, and improve your performance.

Leave a comment to share your special trigger to UN-STRESS.

Christina Marie Kimball, owner of Artful Thinking, has hosted retreats and round tables for 25 years. The use of round tables to gather several people together for a session(s) to explore ideas and projects has led her to studies that include; right and left brain processing, learning styles, leadership styles and the use of creativity in thinking processes, embracing the abstract and concrete. Her experiences include entrepreneurial adventures – founding and running five successful business ranging from a business consulting firm, a design firm, art studios and a restaurant. She also has extensive experience in leading organizations in institutional settings. She has also done executive level work in the hospitality and entertainment worlds. Christina has five grown daughters and lives a bi-coastal life with her husband Alex between Seattle and New York.

With the start of a new school year, that also means homework will be starting very soon!  Do you have a designated study zone in your home?  For older kids, it might be a desk space in their bedroom or in your home office.  For younger kids, we recommend having a study zone in a common area of the home like the kitchen.  There are so many great organizing products available today that you can create a portable study zone with a few simple products.  Here are 3 ideas to keep in mind when creating an efficient and organized study zone for your home:

1.)  Keep all supplies needed close by.  For those with a desk in a bedroom, we recommend having a few simple products on the desk top such as pencils, pens, a stapeler, a notepad and maybe a desktop file holder.   Also, you can use drawer dividers to organize other supplies in a top drawer like paperclips, extra staples, tape, glue, a calculator, etc.  Be sure to have a trash can and a recycle bin at an arms reach away as well.  For younger kids whose study zone may be the kitchen table, we recommend purchasing a plastic tote of some sort that will hold all supplies needed.  You can store this in a cabinet and pull it out each day during homework time.  This way the kitchen table remains free of clutter for most of the day, but will also be very functional as a study zone.

2.)  Always clear off your work space when you have completed your homework for the day.  This will help you stay organized and prodcutive!  When you have proper “homes” for all of your supplies, it is a breeze to put things away.  Take the few extra seconds or minutes each afternoon/evening to tidy up your space so that when you sit down to start your homework the next day, you have a clear work space, which will in turn help you be able to focus better. 

3.)  If distraction can be an issue for you or your kids, try setting a timer for 30 minutes and focus on your top priority task until the timer beeps.  After 30 minutes of hard work, take a break…grab a snack and play outside for a few minutes.  Then if you still have more homework to do, sit back down and get to work.  Another great idea for those of us with younger kids, is to work parallel with your kids.  For example, while your child is reading or doing homework, you can be paying your bills, making to-do lists, meal planning, working on a project for your business, etc.  This way you are being productive, but you are still available to help with homework or help keep your child on task if needed. You can also “model” for them strategies for staying focused and working “smart”.

What one essential item does your study zone have to have?  We would love to hear from you!

Some of you have heard me talk about one of our most popular classes or individual consultations, the Email Intervention. We know (and perhaps you agree) that a lot of people out there are addicted to email. Others may not feel addicted, but are stressed out by the sheer volume they receive and overwhelmed by the time it sucks out of their work day and even their leisure time. There are steps you can take to reduce your stress around email and reduce the time you spend in your inbox. Have a collection of hundreds or thousands (even tens of thousands? We’ve seen it!) emails in your inbox and want to know how to start down the path of enjoying some Email White Space? Please enjoy this guest post by fellow blogger and productivity consultant, Jan Wencel of Life Contained.

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How does it make you feel to think about COMPLETELY EMPTYING YOUR EMAIL INBOX?

For those of you who use your inbox as a storage place…

 This may send you into a panic. Do not fret. You can do this.

Start by setting up two appointments: one in the near term & another in six months. In the first appointment delete by age, from the bottom, all the messages you know are extinct and you’ll not need to reference. Then sort by author & delete all the messages from people you know you can eliminate. Next rank by file size & delete the emails with large attachments that you no longer need. The last step may seem drastic, but there are great rewards. Create a folder called “Expired Email.” Choose a date to draw an imaginary line (I suggest no more than three weeks out), then drag all older emails into the expired folder. Any emails retrieved from the expired folder within six months should be incorporated into other reference folders. All others (with few exceptions!) should be deleted during the second appointment you arranged for six months out.

 For those who use your inbox as a to-do list…

 We suggest you break this habit. Although more effective than allowing 1,000+ emails to pile up, using your inbox to prompt on-time follow up can lead to mishaps & doesn’t allow for prioritization.

Start by setting up an appointment to create an action file to hold all the reminders you have. Then add reminders for tasks resulting from emails as well as other tasks you need to complete.

Ah…doesn’t the email white space feel peaceful?

____________________________

 Thanks, Jan, for your insights!

 Jan Wencel is a certifiable GTD/inbox zero nerd. She runs a business in Chicago, Life Contained, Inc., similar to Simply Placed. She has been my invaluable accountability partner since 2006. You can reach Jan at 630-803-6650, jan@lifecontained.com or www.lifecontained.com

If you don’t feel like this woman when you think about the emails in your inbox, let’s chat.

Have you or someone you know ever experienced a day like this? … You come into the office and open your email to see what’s come in since you left the previous day. You essentially stay in email and on the computer all day, trying furiously to keep up with the volume as it comes in, clicking links, reading interesting things, firing off intelligent responses, researching answers, perhaps even taking a detour to something fun, like Facebook. Suddenly you look up at the clock and realize it’s 5:00. End of the work day (or so you wish), and you can’t figure out where the time went. You look over your task list and wonder what you got done all day. If you know of someone like this (or if this is you), they (you) may benefit from an Email Intervention.

Suggest they seek help (or seek it yourself), beginning this Thursday afternoon. Simply Placed, in conjunction with Kreate Business Events, hosted by Julian Michael, will be conducting a FREE webinar for those who would like to learn how to handle their email more efficiently and effectively, saving them time, money and stress day after day. Sound like a good idea? Register here. Please help us spread the word by sharing this with friends, colleagues, family and others in your network. Put it on your Facebook page, tweet about it, include it in an email you send    …. you never know who you’ll help.

Feel free to comment here on the blog and let us know your biggest challenge around email as it relates to organization and productivity. We’ll be doing a couple of blog posts in the coming month offering some tips and ideas. If you share your challenge we may just solve it here.

“See” you on the Webinar tomorrow.

For many businesses the summer season brings a different pace to the office. Anxious to get out and enjoy the nice weather, spend time with kids out of school on summer break, and take a vacation, we seek ways to get our work done faster. For some companies, the summer months also bring a slow down of business. This can be an optimal time to employ some strategies that will both help you get out of the office earlier to enjoy those nice summer days, as well as put you in a position to be even more effective and efficient for when business picks up again. Here are a few tips that can help you leave the office earlier today, while still getting the important things done.

1. Clear the clutter – you know it should be done periodically, but do you know the benefits? You’ll eliminate distraction (those papers in front of you that you don’t really need) and make it easier to find what you need, when you need it (saving time every single day). Go ahead and take one of those slower summer days in your office to get rid of anything that’s getting in the way of your optimal productivity. Clean out old files, toss papers you no longer need, unearth your desk so you have space to work, take out trinkets you’ve collected over time that are crowding your work space. Breathe deeply and enjoy the space!

2. Christmas in July – it may sound like a crazy idea, but what if you took care of the task of ordering and preparing your business holiday cards this month? You certainly can wait to send them until early December, but why not take the time now to do the legwork while you have it, and save the time for a busier season when there’s other demands on your time. Not thrilled about the idea of doing this task so early? If you really want to stand out from your competition (who also send out holiday cards in December), send “Happy Summer” cards or “Thank You for Your Business” cards to show appreciation and recognition right now. Consider printing address labels and postage with one of Dymo’s printers to save even more time on the job.

3. Review and revise your plan – If you have an annual business plan, marketing plan, or set New Year’s resolutions, the summer months are a great time to take a look, assess where you are, adjust your sails (if needed) and create a fresh action plan that will help you accomplish your goals for the second half of the year.

4. Eat a Frog for Breakfast – you’ve heard me preach this one before … if you really want to get out of the office earlier while still getting the important things done, then do the important things first.

5. Design a new system – have a process that you do repeatedly? Now might be a good time to see if you can train someone else to do it (helpful for vacation coverage or for ongoing delegation to free up your time for things that only you can do), find a way to automate it or simplify it, or create a system to support it. This might be a new filing system, documenting a process for a policy and procedure manual, or brainstorming with a team that all performs similar tasks on best practices or time-saving ideas to streamline the process. Slower times are perfect for tackling these types of projects that will save you time immediately, and most importantly, when business picks up again.

What do you do when business slows a bit to develop new business and/or to prepare you for the busier times that are right around the corner? What strategies do you count on that help you get out of the office a little earlier or take a break to play, vacation or get some R&R? We’d love to hear from you. Comment away!

Enjoy the lazy hazy days of summer!

Disclosure: This is sponsored content and we have been given nominal gift in recognition of our time to do this post. That being said, we do not blog about anything we do not believe in and Dymo did not edit our post or direct our content in any way.

We’ve been asked again to review a Dymo product. You can see previous reviews as well as get ideas for using labelers in your home or office here.

This time we were sent the Dymo LabelWriter 450 Duo. The features we like about this labeler are that it is compact, versitile, easy to use and fast.

This multi-function printer does not take up much space on your desk, yet it does the work of a number of tools. It has two slots from which you can print – one for postage labels and one for all other labels.  First a note about the postage printing capacity – this allows you to print USPS approved postage labels without paying a monthly fee and without a trip to the post office to mail something. Win win! There’s even an “AddressFixer” feature on the software included that will double check the mailing address for you from the USPS database to ensure it is accurate.

From the other label slot you can print close to 60 varieties of labels. Imagine being able to quickly (71 labels per minute!) print address, shipping, file, supply, or name badge labels, among others. The Dymo LabelWriter 450 Duo comes with the printer, a starter roll of address labels, a starter cassette of Dymo D1 labels, a power adapter, power cord, and USB cable, the Dymo Productivity Software, a quick start guide and cleaning card. It also integrates with and prints easily from many popular programs like Microsoft Word, Outlook, QuickBooks and CardScan.

While I found the “list price” of $299 on the web, I also saw this product selling on Amazon.com for $119.98. While you’ll need to purchase the label tape or roll to accomplish the project you have at hand (it prints both paper and plastic labels beautifully), you will not have to purchase or use ink or toner – as this tool uses direct thermal printing.

So if you need a multi-function device for printing a variety of labels and postage in your office, saving you time and increasing your productivity, this might just be the right tool for you. Again, we love how compact it is, especially for all that it can do.

A company in our industry, Get Buttoned Up, is having a contest for anyone who emails them a tip for labeling at info@getbuttonedup.com or on their Facebook page (just leave a comment with your tip). Do this and you will be automatically be entered to win one of these bad boys yourself!

We’d love to hear if you have a favorite tool that makes your office more organized and efficient. Leave us a comment here on the blog, or visit today’s Facebook Page discussion. We’ll see you there.

Disclosure: This is sponsored content as we have been given the label maker as a product sample to keep and review. That being said, we do not blog about anything we do not believe in and Dymo did not edit our post or direct our content in any way.