Inspiration is Everywhere!

One of the things my clients often ask when we talk about blogging is where to get ideas.  Everyone can think of a handful of topics that they might write about, but what do you do when you have gone through your initial list of topics? I like to answer that question with a quote from one of my VA colleagues, Andrea Kalli.  Andrea says, “Inspiration is everywhere!”  And it is true.

I challenge you to play a little game with yourself.  I call this game “That Could Be a Blog Post!”  Try to see how many things you encounter in a 24 hour day that can become inspiration for a blog post.  Make it fun and feel free to make loose associations (i.e., how making the bed in the morning is like cleaning out your email in box — you know it is going to fill back up but you do it anyway to enjoy the sense of order you have when it is newly cleaned out, or in the case of the bed, freshly made.)  See how many things you can find that can trigger a potential blog post.

I think you will find that Andrea is right — inspiration is everywhere! If you are like me you are often struck by inspiration when going about your day but then when it is time to write find it hard to summon the muse. Which leads me to the next step in making this fruitful — find a way to capture those ideas when the light bulb goes off so you can remember them when it is time to write.

There are many possibilities, both high and low tech.  I suggest that you find a couple that work for you.  The key is to not get stuck on fleshing out the ideas but to just capture enough of them to remember in the future.  It may be just the title of a post or an analogy you want to expound on (like the bed and the email box).  Here are a few tools to use to capture those strokes of genius.

• Keep a list in Word or Excel
• Record a “note to self” using the voice recorder on your smart phone
• Set up an email box — inspirations@yourdomain.com and email the ideas to it
• Call and leave yourself a voice mail
• Use a web-based system like JOTT or Evernote
• Keep a small notebook in your purse/pocket/briefcase just for blogging inspirations
• For those inspirations in the shower there is even a waterproof pad called AquaNotes!

Whatever your method of capturing ideas, just keep your eyes and your mind open and you’ll find that inspiration truly is everywhere!

Dropbox – A Solution to Many Problems

Remember when you were in school and you carried that big 3-ring binder with you from class to class and back and forth from home?  It contained all your notes and the papers you were working on.  Remember the panic you felt when you realized that you left it at home and all your homework for the day was stuck back on your desk at home. Or maybe you were the parent who got the frantic phone call to bring it to school.

Other than the occasional problem of not having the information with you, it was a pretty simple system.  You didn’t have to worry about whether or not you had the latest version of a document and you didn’t have to worry about making the change on the copy you had at home and the copy you had at school.

Fast forward to today. All that data is electronic now.  But, if you are like me, you work in several different places. I have a desktop, a laptop, a smart phone and an iPad and then there’s my husband’s laptop that lives in the family room. I store files on a home server that is wirelessly networked. That was my solution to keeping all my documents synced so I always had the latest version available to me. But when I wasn’t at home I had a problem. I tried various solutions to remotely log in to my desktop to access files on my server but that was expensive and slow. Then I tried using a portable USB drive but it quickly became a challenge to know which was the most recent version of a file and to be sure that when I made a correction on one file I made it on all the versions of that file.

And then the clouds parted, the sun shone through and (cue the angelic chorus) AHHHH! I found Dropbox.

No more questions about syncing! Dropbox allows you have a single copy of all your files which you can access from anywhere since it stores your files on line (or in the cloud).  You open an account and download the software to your various devices and it creates a folder that acts just like another drive on your computer.  You store files in Dropbox and every time you make a change it syncs up with all the your other devices. The files are always available from the secure Dropbox website so you can access them from any computer that has a internet connection. Once you have Dropbox installed on a computer you can access the files off-line and if you make changes they will be automatically synced across all devices the next time you go on line.

It’s easy to share information using Dropbox too. Simply invite friends, family or teammates to a folder and it will be as if you saved the folder to their computers. This is a great feature if you work with a VA.  Dropbox will keep all the files synced so they will see your changes and you will see theirs.  You can invite people to have access to only some folders. You can even put a file into a “public” folder and send a link to that specific file to anyone even if they don’t have a Dropbox account.

What about safety? One of my initial concerns was security.  Dropbox uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and AES-256 bit encryption. (I’m not sure what all of that means but my security experts tell me that it is all good.)  They also offer some security against “user error” — they keep a one-month history of your work and any changes can be undone and files can even be undeleted!

Sounds expensive – how much does it cost? This may be the best part of all! Dropbox has a FREE version with 2GB of storage.  If you signup using this link: http://db.tt/voX0ckX you will get an extra 250 MB of bonus space and I will too.  They have a premium account that is very affordable — $99/year will get you 50GB of space.

I’ve used it for sharing work files between my team members and our clients but I’ve also found some great uses in my family. I have a folder that we all share photos and my husband and I shared a folder when we planned our last vacation. I wish I’d had this resource when I was coordinating my PTA committees!  How do you think Dropbox could simplify your life?

Is Perfectionism Sabotaging Your Success?

The Value of Time Away

I recently returned from a blissful vacation to Kaua’i.  I did something that was a little bit uncomfortable for me — I completely “unplugged”.  I checked email and voicemails only occasionally for emergencies and because I spent time preparing to be away there were none.  As an entreprenuer who works out of a home office I tend to do something involving my business every day, largely because I love what I do and often CHOOSE to do it.  And because I work virtually, I tend to continue to work even when I am traveling.

But even those who love their work need to take some time away.  I find that I am coming back to work with a sense of purpose and focus that has been sharpened during my down time.  Looking at my business with fresh eyes has been a real opportunity to fine tune things.

How did I manage to take the time off?  I planned for it and set up various back-ups including other VAs to handle things that might come up during my absence.

If you have been considering working with a VA you can add this to the list of benefits.  Having a VA who can support you during times away will make it possible to have time away.

Cool tool to match colors

I’ve been using a cool little program called Color Cop to match colors for both on-line and in-print publications.  This comes in handy when working with a client’s logo or a photograph that can serve as a launching pad for the color scheme of an entire website or brochure.  I used it when developing this website matching the color scheme for the site to the colors in my headshot.

You can download it for free (although donations are accepted and appreciated) at www.colorcop.net.

Do you need help getting your story on paper?

I recently attended a writer’s conference focused on helping authors make this the year they complete their book.  The first speaker of the day spoke of just starting – doing whatever it takes to get the ideas out of your head and on paper.  He related the journey from idea to book that his wife, a successful writer and speaker, had taken.  He helped with that important first step by renting a recording studio and using it for two days to interview her.  Those tapes were sent to a transcriptionist and the transcribed interviews went on to an editor and the book was well under way.

It is this first step – getting the words on paper – that is the stumbling block keeping many people with a story to share with the world from becoming successful published authors.  Do you have a book in you?  Would you like to get it out of your head and on paper?  You don’t need to rent a recording studio.  A simple digital recorder will work.  If you have a hard time speaking directly into a recorder ask a friend to “interview” you.  You may even want to write out questions.

If you need a transcriptionist, know that AdminiSmith is ready to help.  We price our transcription based on the audio minute so you will know exactly what your investment will be.  It may be just the thing you need to move toward your dream of becoming a published author!

OOPS – Can I have that email back?

Have you ever had that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that you hit the “send” button just a little bit too quick?  I wish I had a dollar for every time I realized I had made a mistake immediately after hitting the send button on an email.  We have all experienced that — usually we only forgot an attachment or didn’t run spell check but sometimes much more serious errors — like realizing you hit “reply to all” when you didn’t mean too.

If you use Outlook there is a solution.  Just set up a rule to have all your emails sit in your out box for 2 minutes before they actually send.  This allows you plenty of time to “grab them back” and correct the error.

Here are the step by step instructions:

• In Outlook, click on Tools -> Rules and Alerts.
• Under the E-mail Rules tab click on New Rule.
• Choose “Start from a blank rule” and select “Check messages after sending”.
• Click the Next button.
• Select the condition “on this machine only” (you may have to scroll down to the bottom of the list).
• Click the Next button.
• Select “defer delivery by a number of minutes”.
• Click “a number of” in the bottom box and change it to the length of time you want to set for delay.  I use 2 minutes and find it is enough but use your own judgment here.
• Click the Next button.
• This screen gives you options for exclusions to the rule — just skip it by clicking the Next button.
• Finish the rule set up by naming the rule.  Mine is named “Don’t send stupid emails” .
• Be sure the box is checked to Turn on this rule and click Finish.

Now the next time you want to grab an email back just open the out box and be glad things aren’t instantaneous any more!

Can You Survive A Computer Crash?

Every year 43% of all computer users loose valuable data, irreplaceable emails, documents, photos and other files.

You may even have a plan to back up your data on a regular basis — but do you follow it religiously?  Most of us don’t.  It will be of little comfort to you if you meant to back up your computer but just never got around to it if the crash happens to you.

Maybe you have a good back up routine and back up to an external hard drive every day — would you loose your back up disk as well if you had a fire?  Even people who have good back up plans seldom store that back up off site.

I have solved all these problems by subscribing to an online backup service called Carbonite.  Carbonite runs in the background every time I am logged on to the internet.  After an initial back up (which can take quite some time to complete) it looks on my hard disk and finds files that are new or have been updated since the last back up.  It then automatically backs up those files.

Since the backup is stored by Carbonite (with several layers of encryption security) the files are available even in the event of fire or flood.  And best of all, the back ups are automatic and I don’t have to depend on my best laid plans to do that back up.

So if you are 100% faithful about backing up your data AND you store those backups off site the you don’t need this  (instead you need a superman cape!)  But if you are like most of us mere mortals check out Carbonite.

The cost is very reasonable — just $54.95 per year.  Click here to get a free 15-day trial and know that your business will survive a computer disaster.

Google Desktop – Find what you’re looking for

You know you had an email from someone that has just the information you are looking for — if only you knew who it was that sent it.  Google Desktop to the rescue!  This little application allows you to search all the documents and emails on your local computer just like you use Google to search the web.  It has saved me many times by helping to find long-ago emails!  Download it here.

Stop playing Meeting Roulette

I found a really cool webased service called “Meeting Wizard”.  This service will help you avoid what I call “meeting roulette”.  When you are trying to arrange a mutually acceptable meeting time with more than one other person this little application will save you lots of time with emails or phone calls.  Just enter several meeting time options and send out the invitation to everyone.  Each person indicates which times will work for their schedule and you just look for the intersections. Find it at www.meetingwizard.com.