Improve My Business

As we are gearing up for back-to-school, sports, and activities, do you find that your child is having trouble getting all their interests, and homework, fit into the day?  Is it becoming a source of stress rather than a source of joy, relaxation, or accomplishment?

What can you do about it as a concerned parent?

We’ve heard this comment, time after time - some variation of “Little Johnny/Susie really enjoys his/her soccer/violin/dance lessons; but the days (s)he has practice, it’s just a madhouse! We are eating dinner on the go (or through the drive-thru), and (s)he’s up until all hours of the night getting homework completed…”

The good news is, with a little help, you can get your child’s calendar, and the resulting stress, under control. There are several solutions:

1) Limit your child’s involvement in after-school activities. I’ve heard many parents say that they limit their child to 1 sport and 1 other activity, such as scouts; or they are limited to 1 activity if that requires significant lessons/practice. The child is allowed to pick what the activity is; but they know that they are allowed to pick only one during the school year.

If this is your choice, consider enrolling the child in something different over the summer months, so they can experience something that they may be interested in, to find out if there is a passion there…

2) Identify projects, assignments, etc. that can be worked on ahead of time - and then help your child to block out time to work on the project in advance. I’ve found this to be particularly helpful for my procrastinating child… (s)he tends to wait until the night before for most assignments. To combat this (and the inevitable 3 am bedtime unless (s)he wants to get a failing grade), I’ve asked their teachers to let me know which websites, papers, or assignments I should be aware of. Then, if I know that the teacher hands out long-term assignments on Mondays, I can proactively query what that week’s assignment is, and have a relaxed discussion about what we can do each day to chip away at that assignment. Our weekly schedule may look like this:

- Monday - think about what we want to research and write down some ideas

- Tuesday - research our idea and start to capture sources. Cut/paste info into a document.

- Wednesday - do an outline of how the info should be organized, start writing a first draft.

- Thursday - write final draft including all spelling, punctuation, and source citing.

- Friday - hand in completed assignment

You can lay it out on the family calendar, a whiteboard, etc. - wherever it makes sense for your family. The important thing is to help them do what they want to do, without stress, or missing deadlines.

Technorati Tags: Family, managing your time, preparation

I recently gave a presentation at a well-known conference in my industry - something that I enjoy doing.  I get to share new ideas (or ideas combined in a different way), interact with folks, and get a conversation going.  Most gratifying to me was to hear a colleague whose opinion I admire and respect say, “Mary gave me such food for thought - I had never thought to combine these two techniques before, and she not only showed us how she did it, but gave us some ideas of how we can do it ‘back at the ranch’ “…

The presentation went well according to feedback (did it have anything to do with the fact that the presentation included lunch?), and I’ve been able to hear some interesting talks on diverse topics, as well as meet some great new business contacts.

What are YOU doing to improve your skills/business? Please comment on how you ensure that you’re staying on top of your particular market… is it

- reading trade journals?

- attending seminars? conferences?

- in-house training?

- online webinars? teleseminars?

- etc.

Do tell - I’d love to hear how you’re staying on top of your game!

And, if you’re not doing anything right now - take a minute to search online for some form of professional development; type some keywords into a search engine and read some relevant articles; find and bookmark / RSS some key websites or blogs and set aside 30 mins every week to read (may I suggest improveyourbusinessnow.com, blog.efficiencydr.com, or blog.sustainabilitydr.com ?)

Technorati Tags: Add new tag, Business, communication, mcdonald consulting group, preparation, training

here’s a link to Ganesh Iyer’s TechKLite site on Facebook, where he posts lighthearted cartoons about technology - today’s is especially cute for those environmentalists out there (like me)… but you may want to review all of ‘em!

I’m here to write about the importance of recharging.  Actually I’m not really here - as our office is closed for 2 weeks while we all take vacation (or continue maternity leave).  Usually we don’t close entirely, but the vacation plans all require a set week or two off (cruises, free lodging, significant other’s only vacation time, etc.) so closed we are.

When setting up an office closure, do a few things to make it easier:

- notify key clients that you’ll be gone - do this 4-6 weeks in advance, so there’s plenty of time to get last-minute assignments complete for them prior to departure;

- set up your phone and email to notify folks that you are stepping away for a few days and that you’ll respond when you return;

- try to well and truly “step away” - don’t check voice mail, don’t log on to email (unless you’re using it to chat with family, etc.); and even then, don’t give in to the temptation to just ‘peek’ at email.

The blog will be back in two weeks - until then, consider whether you’ve ‘gotten away from it all’ - whether that be in your own back yard or on a life-changing adventure - and if not, schedule it!

If you’re like me, a road warrior, you will appreciate this new traveler site from Chris Brogan entitled Man On The Go.  Although not every post resonates with me like his main blog does, I still find it useful to pick up tips (and disagree with enough of the posts to realize that I have my own definite travel preferences, as my blog comments indicate).

Chris provides reviews of places he’s gone (hotels, and the services like limos he’s used to get there); product reviews; and also helpful travel tips (in one post he shows you how he unpacks when he gets there…)

For the occasional traveler, there still may be nuggets that will interest you… but probably not as much.

Technorati Tags: travel