Improve My Business

Today was the one week anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck Wenchuan. Latest statistics show that there are 32,477 confirmed dead, 9,500 confirmed buried under rubble; 220,109 injured and 36,563 pulled alive from the debris.

Statistics aside, being in a country that is mourning the loss of so many of its countrymen is a sobering experience. At 2:28 pm local time today, everything in the country was suspended for 3 minutes of silence to remember and mourn this loss. I am in Shanghai at Huawei giving a training, and we planned our class break around this tribute event.

As we approached this time, the class projection monitor was switched over to an atomic clock. At precisely 2:28 pm, all chattering stopped and, as one, the class of 30+ employees rose to stand in silence. Some heads were bowed, some not; but all stood in perfect silence for the 3 minutes with hands at their sides.

Our classroom had the windows open to catch the breeze. Everything was silenced for a second - then, every car horn in the city was held down for the 3 minute tribute. They weren’t being honked like when a local team wins a sports event - toot-toot-toot; but instead the sound was one long wail - to-o-o-o-o-o-o-ot. [Later broadcasts on television show that this happened throughout the country simultaneously.] The ache of the people was apparent; National Public Radio has likened it to the aftermath of 9/11, when all Americans were somber for days afterward… this rings true for me.

China will hopefully recover from this loss and move forward. Over $1.6B in relief money is flowing into the area, and the local military is working to get supplies to the small villages and towns as well as to the larger cities. Please keep those who have lost families and friends in your thoughts and prayers.

Sunday, May 25th - update:

Dead:  55,740; Missing: 24,960; Injured 292,481; 11.36M evacuated; $3.55B received

Technorati Tags: china, Huawei

How many times have you heard this tip “Lay out everything you’ll need for the next day before you go to bed”?  Obviously, not enough if you are not doing this easy task right now.  Organizing the night before allows you to get all those pesky ‘to-dos’ floating around in your brain out of there, before you go to bed.  It also allows your brain to continue working on that item like Santa - making a list and checking it twice - so that if you DID forget something, you’ll remember it (I keep a pad of paper next to the bed so if I remember something after I’m in bed, I jot it down/get it out of my head before trying to sleep.  So far, it’s fooled my brain enough that I can then doze off…)

The upside is that you can sleep 10 mins later in the morning [so now all of you who know me know why I REALLY do this...]

Blogging from Shanghai,

Mary

Technorati Tags: preparation

OK, so you found a newsletter you think may be interesting… or, you want the free report and agree to get the newsletter or ezine as part of the package… or, well, you get the idea.

And all of a sudden, a few months later, if you’ve signed up for a few free offers, you are getting DOZENS of newsletters. All of them may have one interesting article, or one new way of doing something, so you don’t want to stop getting them… or do you?

In preparation for my trip to Shanghai later this week, I am culling out my newsletters and ezines. And it’s amazing how many I get. You don’t really notice if you’re a skimmer like me how many come in since I handle them on a daily basis; but if you sit back and realize you’ll only have 30 mins/day for the next two weeks, and what do you want to spend your time reading… you look back over the past week and notice with shock and dismay that you’re getting a boatload of these suckers. Suddenly you’re looking at the bottom of those marginal ezines/newsletters for the ‘SafeUnsubscribe’ or the ‘opt out’ tag. And hitting it. And realizing that you can survive perfectly fine without their helpful tips. I think.

If you find you can’t live without them (or at live without them as well) you can resubscribe, which I’ve dubbed ‘opt out remorse’. Oh, and let me know how many you’ve unsubscribed from and if you’ve resubscribed to any after ‘opt out remorse’ has set in. I’ve unsubbed to nine so far and probably will double that number before the end of the month.

What can you live without?

Technorati Tags: email, newsletters

I came across this post today about decluttering your life - the author’s ‘epiphany’ occurred after a trip overseas. This reminded me of another friend who has recently radically changed her possession count after a trip to Central America - she’s downsized considerably and moved into a RV. The author also talks about moving as an impetus for change…

Does it take a trip to a foreign land or moving to get us to realize that we collect too much? Or, do you disagree with the ‘more is evil’ mentality?

Technorati Tags: de-clutter, downsizing, stuff-onomics

Paperwork is the bane of my existence - coming home from my weekly business trips, I am met with a mountain of mail; magazines that I ’should’ read are piled up next to ones I ‘want to’ read; and the amount of paperwork that kids’ schools generate can be overwhelming at times. [My kids' elementary school used to send home all important notices on Thursdays - a smart move since you knew to have your calendar, etc. handy that day, and you only had to worry about one day's notices - however, many parents would dread the "Thursday folder" more than a trip to the dentist!]

How to tame the paperwork beast? A few simple tips:

1) Sort your mail with a recycling bin beside you. When I sort my pile of mail, I sort into two piles - take action (calendar, pay, respond); and recycling trash. By sorting directly into the recycling bin you can eliminate the step of sort then recycle (take care to rip up the mail first, through your address, and if it’s a credit card application or other sensitive document, you may want to shred first).

2) Keep reading materials, mail to respond to, etc. in a bag with you at all times. I recently was stopped at a railroad crossing in my car, so I turned off the car, dove into my bag, and was able to get through a quick article I had wanted to skim before sending on to a client. By the time the signal arms were raising after the train had passed, I had ripped the article out of a magazine, skimmed it, written a note, and addressed the envelope [I keep post-its in the bag, as well as a pen and envelopes]. It doesn’t sound like much, but I felt ridiculously pleased with myself to have gotten a relevant article into someone else’s hands while ‘wasting’ my time in the car! [And, turning the car off during those 4-6 minutes saved gas and the environment... another bonus.] When I was driving the kids around more, I found that I had more patience if they were running late from practice, or dawdling with their friends, if I could also get something done while waiting…

3) Toss, Toss, Toss. A veteran pack rat like me keeps things ‘just in case’ - however, the impending move of my office has me rethinking that idea. I am culling through my files to toss out info that I also have electronically; I am getting rid of articles that are outdated; or simply saying ‘enough is enough’ and not keeping EVERY reference to a particular subject on file. After all, I only use 8-10 references maximum; why keep 40-50 on file? Pare down your files to keep it manageable.

4) Go electronic. Credit card companies, cell phone companies - the list of folks who are eager for you to receive your statements via email keeps on growing and growing… so consider going electronic and eliminating the paper at the source rather than have to recycle it at your office or house. Who do you do business with that wants to send you statements electronically?

Do your part - streamline your paper handling - and let me know how you make out!

Technorati Tags: organization, paperwork, streamline