Boost Your Memory

Lots of stuff to remember!

Lots of stuff to remember!

As I get older, I am certainly noticing a loss of memory. Sometimes I walk from one room to the other and foget what I needed in that room. Don’t tell me you can’t identify with this!

BNET had a great post which both confirmed this is normal as we reach our mid forties and gave some suggestions for how to boost our memory. Now…if I could just remember where I saw the post?!? 🙂 Here it is!

A Yale University study recommends a combination of physical and mental exercise to stop the brain from shrinking. One of the best physical exercises is to do something aerobic. We are also to combine mental brain exercise with activity such as reading, visiting friends, going to the movies or restaurants. I’ve got some of the mental part down, especially talking and eating. No wonder I also need the exercise!

All kidding aside, this is getting to be a serious problem for everyone, including me. We can only put so many systems in place to write tasks down, record phone numbers and create lists. We need to be able to rely on our body to assist us and should be helping it to stay healthy and tuned. We must make the time and prioritize this in our schedules. If we do, the result is actually more productivity!

I’m off to the gym…what are you doing?

Say "thank you" to those who serve

As we celebrate Veteran’s Day here in the United States, it is a good time to reflect and show gratitude to those who serve, or have served, our country. It is SO easy to just walk by someone in uniform and not acknowledge them. No matter what we think about war, these people put their lives on the line for us. They should be told “thank you”. This video caught my heart and will show you how. It helped me to not only think again about those serving in the military, but to remember how important it is to show gratitude to anyone who is in service. It’s so simple. Watch…

My special prayers to those serving our country right now. God bless you.

Did this strike a chord with you? How do you let those around you who serve, know you are grateful?

Shutting down can be a blessing

Stress can cause you to shut down

Stress can cause you to shut down

One of the people I follow in the information marketing space is Perry Belcher. Yes, he can be crude and direct at times but you can still tell he has a big heart. His information about how to use internet tools to build your list and relationships with people is spot on. Perry openly shared his methodology in flowcharts and youtube videos. As a systems oriented person, I found them quite helpful.

I just found out today that Perry has decided to leave the business altogether for personal and business reasons. What I found most heartening is his focus on work-life balance. Things were happening in his work life that was ruining was personal life. He decided to take action. Drastic action.

Completely getting out of your field is not what most people would do, but if that is what he needs, I applaud him.

Perry has started over before. I suspect this will be a blessing for both him and his family. Now he can take some time to reconnect with not only his family but with himself. Not all of us could financially afford to switch gears as drastically as Perry.

Personally I walk the beach, journal and do a lot of additional praying to try and figure out what my next steps are. I have some wonderful coaches, like Beth Adkisson, and numerous friend to bounce ideas off of. Lately, I even found my husband to be a good sounding board!

When you need to “shut down” and figure things out, what do you do?

Decide on a Meeting Time for a Group

PROBLEM:

I recently started leading the Small Business Special Interest Group for my industry association, the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). [Yes there is such an organization!]

One of my first tasks was to establish a regular teleconference call with 20 people from across the world. How was I going to quickly and easily get input from everyone about when they could meet? I went about it the old fashioned way. I checked first to see when I was available. (Rule #1 – when you are the Leader it must be convenient for you!) Then I emailed out my options to the group and manually compiled the results. What a hassle! I did have better things to do with my time.

SOLUTION:

I should have used a great FREE online tool called Doodle.com. doodle-logo

You create a poll using your optional times to meet. Doodle generates a link for the poll. You send the link out to everyone in an email. Your group members respond to the poll and Doodle compiles the results for you. (Be sure to create a free account so it will store your results.)

You are done without a million email’s clogging up your inbox! What a simple to use tool. I got smart my second time around. I wanted to get feedback from my group on a training program, so I used Doodle to accept and compile the results. Fabulous! I estimate I saved about 2 hours or more of work plus I have the information I need much sooner.

Let me know what you think about the tool or any others like it.

Keep moving forward…