Millions of people work from home. If you’re one of those people, is your home office working for you? What this means, is do you feel productive and relaxed and creative in your space? Even if you’re not involved in a truly creative field, you still want to have an office space that lets you work without adding to your stress.
Is Your Home Office Working For You?
Before you go to work in the morning, or before you leave your office tonight, look at your office space and ask yourself:
Does the color work? When is the last time you painted the space in which you’re working? If you grabbed the corner of a room or cleared out a closet, does it need a fresh coat of paint? Probably. Look for a paint color in the blue or yellow family will breathe new life into the office space. Blue is said to enhance productivity, yellows are know to invigorate the senses and inspire creativity.
How well lit is the space? Will you be on video calls? If so, you want to be seen in a good light, not looking like you’re in a dark forest with a flashlight under your chin.
How distracting is the space? Is it cluttered? Is there a television within eye sight that you will be watching during the day and not getting your work done? If you’re going to be on the phone or on video chats a lot, make sure the background behind you isn’t distracting to those you’re talking with. Hang curtains and offer yourself a great view out the window.
Is your desk and keyboard and chair ergonomic? You don’t want to have a backache or give yourself carpal tunnel because your desk, chair and keyboard set up are causing you strain.
When you’re working from home can you close the door if you need to? Does your family respect your office hours?
Take time today to give your office space a once over and plan a cleaning and reorganization if necessary t get it in work-from-home shape.
What is your social media strategy? Have you ever wondered how to have an effective social media strategy? Posting without a strategy is like throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks. Whether it sticks or not, it’s still a mess, right?
You don’t have to be a wizard to get the most out of the social media posts you’re sharing on your pages, but you do need to have a strategy.
Who is your audience
Why do they come to you? What’s your niche?
What do they want? Not what do you want to share, but what do they want… truly want?
How To Have An Effective Social Media Strategy
Once you’ve narrowed down what social media platform your ideal clients interacts on, you can put together an effective strategy to interact with them, connect with them and grow your business.
Here are a few different types of posts you will want to consider to up your social media engagement.
What would you do? Ask for advice.
Who could you refer for XYZ issue?
Share content from your blog
Make a graphic to highlight individual tips from a blog post
Ask for a referral for a friend or colleague
Fill in the blank questions, “The best day in my business was…” “The worst bit of business advice I received was…” “What’s your favorite ice cream…”
Share breaking industry news
Share an inspirational quote
Share a funny meme
Share “insider” information — something you’re only sharing with your followers. Offer a coupon or a beta test of a product.
Be authentic.
What kind of content do you gravitate toward when you’re on social media? Share that content with your followers. What kind of content do your followers interact with the most on your page? Share more of that. Ask them, “What would you like to see, or know or hear more about?”
There are as many ways to solve problems as there are problems and people to solve them! If you’re looking for how to problem-solve effectively and you just haven’t hit on the solution that is a great fit for you and your personality, here are ten steps I have found to be effective.
I urge you to check them out, try them on for size and see how they work, or don’t, for you. I’d also love to hear how you problem solve, what works and what hasn’t. Let’s share our secrets for success!
How To Problem-Solve Effectively
Every day we are faced with problems. We have to walk our way through challenges and find the light of a solution. You don’t have to struggle alone — and you shouldn’t. Find an accountability partner, a friend or colleague with whom you can connect and move from problem to solution.
Here are ten steps I have found to be effective for me.
Look at the problem from various angles. Walk around it. Think about it. Write down what you believe the problem is then expand your definition of the problem. Expand your view and ask yourself, “is there something more to this problem?” Oftentimes there is.
Put a precise definition to the problem. Do not be vague or your solution will likely be vague and not fully address the issue.
What is causing the problem? When did it start? Did something lead to its raising its head?
Write down every solution you can think of that may solve the problem. Don’t discard any potential solution even if you think it is not going to work.
Now that you have pinpointed the problem, you can get to work on its solution.
Assemble a team to help address the issue
Come up with tactics and strategic approaches to solve it
Give the solution a deadline
Implement the potential solutions you’ve come up with. Have a back up plan in case the original plan doesn’t fully solve the issue.
Circle back to the original problem. Write down the tactics you used to address it. Keep these notes in case the problem comes up again.
Always have a plan B
Don’t let problems linger. They will sap your mental and physical energy. An unsolved or unresolved problem will lead to stress, unhappiness and general dissatisfaction. Achieving inner peace will lead to serenity; this will help you face challenges head on and your experiences at having solved problems before will help you address the new ones head on.
Are you happy? Did you know that optimists tend to live longer than pessimists? Have you ever wondered how to be happier in life & in business? It isn’t hard, but it does take focus and it does take knowing yourself well enough to know whether you’re well and truly happy.
Happier people draw other happy people to them like flies to honey. Did you know that close to 50% of the happiness in your life is within your control? Think about that: 50%! If you take control of even only half of your waking hours, you can be happier!
Be Happier In Life & In Business
If you want to be happier… and truly is there any reason you wouldn’t want to be happy? Here are my favorite tips to make your life and your business happier.
Be thankful. It’s not enough to just be thankful. You want to express thanks. If someone has done you a favor express your appreciation. Say “thank you.”
Find and keep good friends. It’s great to have acquaintances, but good friends will make your life happier and that will translate to happiness in your business as well.
Pursue your goals. What do you want to complete in life? Do you truly know? Are you actively pursuing it? If not, why not? Get out and be active in the pursuit of your goals — that will make you happy!
Be happy with where you are and what you have. If you’re always wondering, “what’s next” or thinking, “Now that I have X I really want Z” you won’t ever be truly happy.
Know where your skills lie and do those things at which you excel. Yes, you do want to challenge yourself and push yourself, but why not enjoy where you are and what you’re great at?
Give back/volunteer. If you have gifts to give, volunteer them. If you have an abundance of money or other assets, donate to those in need. You will feel better and others will benefit from your largesse.
Know what the life you want to live looks like and take steps to make it happen and to live a happier life.
Being authentic. It’s become a buzzword in business circles. I have always been who I am. What you see is what you get. Being authentic is nothing new to me, nor in my business. You can grow your business by being authentic, but it needs to be honest as well as authentic. If you’re sharing a story, just to share a story or you’re trying to fit in because you’re now sharing a story — you’re not being authentic.
Why do people try to fit in rather than be themselves and be authentic, even if it means standing out?
We want to be accepted. We don’t want to be shunned for being “different.” Society pressures people to believe that conforming is the way to go.
If everyone thought the same way would we have seen the advances in technology and science that we have? Probably not. There might not be any significant differences or any people who stand out because they were afraid of being called “different.” It is those people who stand alone and stand up for their ideas and ideals that open our minds to possibilities!
Being authentic and unique is a personal goal of mine. Am I an introvert? Yes. Do I suffer from ADD — yes. I thrive on research and devour data. I spend a lot of time in introspection and it is then that I come up with my best ideas. I am empathetic to the emotions of others and that makes it uncomfortable for me to be in large group settings.
Grow Your Business By Being Authentic
I know myself well enough to be authentic while still being able to function and grow many thriving businesses. I speak at conferences many times a year and am out of my element, but I have enough information and knowledge to share and am my authentic self while doing so that my stage fright is negligible.
After I’ve been on stage or surrounded by people, I get away and hike through the mountains, I go sailing, I walk in the desert.
Being authentic means you’re authentic in business and in life.
