I will be doing a revamp to this site. I am going to have more improvements on this site so that everyone will benefit as much as possible. So watch out!

Let Blended Living help you maximize your personal investment in the 21st century. So what do I mean by Blended Living?

Firstly it means blending together the different aspects of your life rather than having the silo approach. ie This is work. This is family. This is fitness. The philosophy of Blended Living™ is ‘to kill two birds with one stone’ which has efficiency/time optimisation advantages but also enables you to reap the rewards of synergy between the different aspects of your life.

So here are a few examples to be thinking about.

One of my clients is a busy consultant (young free and single) who had a conflict between long hours at work and one of her prime goals to get to the gym and keep fit. The solution for her was to train as a fitness instructor. She took a mini sabbatical from work - 3 weeks to do her fitness exams. And chose to specialise. As a fully trained instructor she is now in demand from her local gyms. She instructs her beloved body pump class 2-3 times a week on a contract basis. So she now gets paid for doing the exercise she was trying to cram in each week. Not mega bucks but she doesn’t have to pay gym fees either. Plus the weekly commitment she makes to the gym to deliver the class puts a bit of pressure on her to organise her other work commitments round it.

There are lots of other examples. The possibilities for Blended Living™ are limited only by your imagination. There’s loads of family scope here. Finding activities that the family can go together, providing quality family time but also achieving one or more of your other priority areas too. Family sports activities. Cooking holidays (partners and/or families). I’m always looking for opportunities to combine kids and my career. For example, taking them into the office on Saturday morning (unbelievably exciting for under 10s, especially when mum sets off the security alarm and 10 police cars roll up). I’m not talking trying to get to grips with a heavy report here but using the time for less demanding but equally necessary routine task like admin, emails etc.

But there is another element to Blended Living™ too. It’s about ease of living. Finding the easiest, maybe quickest, most efficient or most satisfying way of doing something. The best way to illustrate this is to talk careers. It’s the round peg in the round hole syndrome. I’m not suggesting choosing an undemanding career which doesn’t give you personal stretch and embeds you cosily in your comfort zone. I’m talking aligning your personal swot to the required competencies of your role. Ensuring that your inherent strengths are fully exploited, while your ‘weaknesses’ (and we all have them) are not fundamental to doing your job. Plus aligning your personal vision and stakeholder needs with the working environment and culture.

You may be lucky enough to have fallen into a role where this all comes together naturally by accident. But in many cases it doesn’t and I see lots of clients were they are square pegs for that particular career-hole and their life is made so much harder because their core weaknesses are so fundamental to the role. All this focussing on weakness is very energy draining.

So max out that career fit!

Carol McLachlan is a chartered accountant, professional and personal development coach and NLP practitioner. Working with accountants and other professionals, she helps individuals and groups to set and achieve their goals at work and at home in order to attain the results to which they aspire. Carol’s unique coaching philosophy has been developed from her long experience working in a blue chip corporate enviroment and her firm belief that coaching is not necessarily about turning your personal or professional life upside down but about making the best of opportunities you already have and creating small changes that can really make a big difference to achieving your potential and maximising your success. Read more at http://www.worksmartplayhard.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carol_McLachlan

Here are my eight top time management tips for all moms working from home:

To Do List: Having a detailed to-do list is a must. Almost every business women I interviewed said that they cannot complete all tasks on a day without adequate planning. And the first step towards planning is to make a to-do list.

A Couple Of Hours Make A Huge Difference: Waking up an hour or two before your kids wake up sets a good pace for your day ahead. The phones don’t ring and your concentration is at its peak. You can get a lot done in these two hours. Let’s not forget that it is also an excellent opportunity to have a cup of coffee without any interruptions.

Have Family Time And Work Time: Don’t ever try to mix them up. Work time is work time and family time is family time. When you are with family try not think of work. Don’t pop in to check your emails half way through cooking dinner. Switch off the computer at the end of your work time and this way there are no temptations.

No Procrastination: When you start your day, try and finish the hard jobs first. This way you know you have got the hard stuff out of the way and can then concentrate on the rest of the jobs.

Brain dump: Our mind is always full of ideas. These hundreds of ideas can actually be quite distracting. Take a notebook and empty all your ideas in there. This way you know you will never forget them, you can always refer to the notebook when you have spare time but most importantly you can concentrate on the job at hand.

Don’t get distracted: These days it’s quite easy to get distracted while at work. Internet is the number one distraction. As work at home mothers we all have limited time in our hands and so always try and make best use of your work time. Have a razor sharp focus and finish the task at hand.

Systems: Have clear and well defined systems. Document all the routine tasks. This way the next time you have to do it you can just look at your notes. It’s much quicker plus you will also not make a mistake (as you have the notes in front of you).

Accept help: If your partner or a friend offers some kind of help in your daily chores (if you are lucky), please accept. Most women prefer to do everything themselves. Not a good idea. Accept help and remember that others can also do as good a job as you can.

Here is the most important tip of all - don’t ever forget why you are working from home. You made a choice to work from home so that you can spend more time with your kids. And hence your family always has to be your number one priority. Work comes next.

About myself: Sandy Naidu is a work at home mother. She has two websites: http://www.ozkidsactivities.com and http://www.dotcommothers.com

Ozkidsactivities.com is a comprehensive directory of activities/classes for kids in Australia. On http://www.dotcommothers.com Sandy interviews successful small business women.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sandy_Naidu

How can a virtual assistant help me during this holiday season? What could someone half way across the country or halfway around the world do for me at this time of the year?

I have come up with a few answers:

Sending out holiday cards/letters - Do you have a list that rivals Santa’s for holiday cards and letters? Why not let someone else get this done for you. For businesses, this is a great time to send out something to keep in touch with clients and customers. Personally, it is a time to reconnect with friends and loved ones.

Shopping - You can find every product online now which makes shopping a whole lot easier. Have a virtual assistant find that perfect gift for that “hard to buy for” person in your life. Gifts can be purchased for you or your VA can locate that elusive CD, game, book, or technological gadget that you cannot seem to find and then tell you how and where to purchase it.

Party planning - You can throw a great Christmas or New Year’s Eve party this year without lifting a finger! Have your virtual assistant find the location, send out the invitations, hire the caterer, and get the entertainment to make your party memorable.

Travel arrangements - Whether you are going to see your Aunt Mathilda in Albuquerque or Cousin Donald in Dublin, a virtual assistant can help you with your travel plans. They can find you the best deals on flights and hotels so you don’t have to sleep on Uncle Joe’s lumpy pull-out sofa. Your VA can manage your emails and voicemails for you while you are away.

Appointment setting - How many parties and engagements do you have to juggle over the holidays? Have your virtual assistant manage your calendar and send you reminders to keep you on schedule.

Thank you cards - After you have been to all of those parties and received all of those great gifts, it is time to thank everyone. Handmade thank you cards are a wonderful way to show your appreciation. Your virtual assistant can order these for you and make sure they get to the right people.

I hope you have a happy, stress-free holiday season. Getting a virtual assistant to help you achieve this can be the gift you give to yourself.

Darrell A. Williams owns the multi-VA practice, Right-Hand-Man Virtual Assistant Services. Darrell has over 7 years experience in the administrative support field. He has worked for non-profit organizations in Canada, the US and the UK. He has also worked as an event planner and personal assistant. Darrell has not only been self-employed, but has also held management positions in several companies and has worked in private sales contracting. Through our commitment of constant educational upgrading, Darrell recently increased our company’s capabilities by completing a Legal Administrative Assistant training program. Darrell’s specialties include proofreading, calendar management, legal administrative assistance, editing, and document formatting. http://www.righthandmanva.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Darrell_Williams

Have you ever wondered why millionaires make more money than you while they also have 24 hours per day as everyone? Have you ever wondered why even when your co-workers have the same position as you, they make much more money than you. Why…

I learn this income formula from a young millionaire, Adam Khoo. He said his income formula derives from “Income = Time x Value x Scalability”, which means that one’s income is actually determined by three factors— time, value and scalability.

Let us examine the time and value factors here. First ask yourself how much of your 24 hours in a day are spent on high value activities. What do we mean by high value activities? These are activities that create high value or income to you and others.

For example, do sales and marketing, follow up with your customers, actively generate leads, writing and publishing etc. Do you spend most of your hours chatting, checking emails, and watching TV etc? If this is the case, perhaps you wouldn’t be a millionaire unless these activities can make you great money.
So, if you want to be rich, ASK…. How Much Time Are Am I Willing To Spend On High Value Activities? That’s the rule of thumb!

Then the 2nd factor is The Amount Of VALUE You Create— do you help your clients or company to reach their goals faster and easier OR do you help them to solve their problems faster and easier? The more value you create, the higher your income would be.

The third factor for the millionaire income formula is on how many people you can bring impact to? If you are good at public speaking and sales, then when you combine these two, your income will be multiplied.

For example, if the product you sell is $100, and you only do individual sales rather than group sales, assuming you approach 4 people in 2 hours and close 1 sale with 25% conversion rate. You make $100 in 2 hours.

On the other hand, a person good at public speaking and sales would speak for 2 hours to a group of 500 people. With the same 25% conversion rate, the latter make $12,500 in the same 2 hours! Now, between $100 and $12,500, which income would you prefer?

I once attended a 3-day workshop by a billionaire in Asia with his excellent public speaking and sales skills. He kept up selling his product and services, which ranged from $50 –$18,000 throughout the 3 days. It was estimated that he made at least six-figure income from the up selling activities alone!

So do you see the power of scalability here? It’s the number of people you can impact that matters the most apart from the time and value factors. So besides public speaking, start to write, publish and training, leverage on books, video, movie, CDs, TV programs and seminars to get the scalability that you need to make big bucks!

Now, after learning the millionaire income formula—“Income = Time x Value x Scalability”, it is time to examine your own income formula, check if your income maximize all these 3 factors! Do It Now! Perhaps you find that there is still a lot of room for improvement in your income.

By: LeeMen

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