About four years ago I had the pleasure of seeing an interview with Carnegie Mellon Professor, Dr Randy Pausch. I  instantly had so much admiration for this man and found him to be incredibly inspirational, wise and entertaining all at the same time.

Sadly, he has since passed away from pancreatic cancer.

This video is his last lecture – Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. I realise that at just over an hour it’s a bit long for busy business people, but it’s really is worth making the time to watch this. When this lecture was given, Randy was terminally ill … but if he didn’t make mention of it at the start of his presentation, you’d probably never know. He truly is an amazing man.

So if you need a boost, motivation or an excuse for some time out, do yourself a favour and watch this.

Randy Pausch – The Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

No matter how well organised you are there are always going to be times when things go wrong, take longer than planned or the unexpected crops up. Sometimes – especially if this happens over two or more consecutive days – it can start to overwhelm you. This is when you start to realise that there’s no way any human can do everything that needs to be do at the moment (e.g. today, this week, before a deadline) and you start to worry, stress and perhaps even panic.

I had 3 consecutive days like that last week. On the first day, where an unexpected technical issue cost me 7 hours from my day, I just rearranged the rest of the week to make up for this. Then some extra, urgent work cropped up the following day – a day where I was already overloaded trying to catch up from the day before. Then on day 3, another unexpected ‘challenge’ occurred and I was starting to stress.

Day 3 was last Thursday. Although I made up for lost time, I also realised that I was now way behind schedule with what I wanted to achieve that week and it was time to take drastic action if I was to avoid a breakdown before the end of the day.

Here’s what I did to ensure I caught up on Friday – even finding time for an impromptu interview with a national newspaper. Hopefully these tips can help save your sanity too.

1. Make a cuppa. I know this sounds crazy to some people, but when you’re feeling overwhelmed with the amount of things you need to get through, the first thing to do is to ask yourself, “What is the best thing I can do right now?” And if you’re particularly stressed, it may be that by taking some time out for yourself first, you’ll actually function better throughout the rest of the day.

So in my case, I made a cuppa and sat down with a pen and paper and my to-do list and started planning how I was going to handle everything.

2. Next, make a list of everything you need to do today (or this week or by your deadline) – this is what I did while enjoying my cuppa

3. Go through that list and cross off or reschedule anything that can wait until later.

4. Then decide if there’s anything you can delegate. In my case, I called in the pros:

• My darling son took over cooking, cleaning, pet care and all ‘house’ duties for the next couple of days – is there anyone else in your home who can look after these tasks … or at the very least help you with them? That freed up more of my time so I could focus on the things that only I could do.
• I called my assistant and offered her some extra work helping with general admin type duties, not just for the business but also some personal paperwork and phone calls that needed taking care of. If you aren’t blessed with a wonderful assistant like I am, look at hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) for a few hours or a couple of days. They will really help to take the pressure off. Or if you’re in Brisbane, give Kay at Hectic Helpers a call (just program her number into your phone as ‘HELP!’) Kay loves doing all your running around for you
• Look for other areas you can save some running around. In my case, I had to do some grocery shopping as my hectic week meant I hadn’t had a chance to shop for ages! So I went to Coles Online and ordered our groceries in about 10 minutes. They were delivered the following morning. Next, I went to Officeworks and ordered my office supplies … again, all delivered the next day.

By now you should really be getting used to delegating, outsourcing and finding ways to save some time.

• Okay, so next – after all this re-organising, delegating, saving running around, etc – you should have a much shorter to-do list with a greater chance of completing your tasks. So now, wherever possible, estimate how long each task is going to take. Then allocate chunks of the time you have available to the various tasks to be come.
• This next step isn’t always as easy as it sounds, yet it’s extremely important. During those allocated time chunks … FOCUS on the task at hand. If you’ve allowed 1 hour to catch up on emails, start with the most urgent and get through them without letting yourself be distracted. If an email is going to require more time to research or consider your reply, where possible, you may be able to reply just to let the sender know you’ve received their message and that you’ll reply in detail on Monday (or whenever you feel you can reasonable allocate more time to this).

By the end of the day hopefully you’ll be in a much better place – you will have achieved so much, but also be more relaxed knowing that everything is being managed and under control.

Now the last step in this process … grab a nice cold drink and sit back and relax

What To Do When Your Workload Overwhelms You is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

There are many reasons why you might need a solicitor, lawyer or professional legal representative during the course of business.  You may need these services for advice on how to structure your business, to draw up contracts and legally binding documents, to help form business partnerships, or to resolve issues with clients and/or government agencies.

Whatever your reason for needing one, it’s important to choose the right one.

Solicitors, lawyers and attorneys are highly specialised professionals.  The laws of the modern world are so complex that it is difficult for one person to see to all legal matters, and so they normally will choose one area of law to focus on.  A solicitor might specialise in family law, business, criminal law, or any of a number of other areas of specialty.

So for your business you need to find a legal professional who is an expert in business law. Even then, you may find some professionals that specialise in various areas within business law, such as patent or intellectual property protection.

The first step to choosing the right professional is in narrowing the list down by their specialty.

That short list still will be quite long though, and so you will need a way to really close the field.  For this, determine your specific needs and the type of solicitor you want representing you.

Consider factors such as:

• Expertise
• Experience
• Personality
• Philosophy
• Legal interpretation

In addition, it’s a good idea to:

• Ask other business associates for referrals
• Check with legal societies
• Ask for referrals from trade, commerce or industry associations you belong to

Once you’ve narrowed this down to a few prospective representatives, it’s time to ask for some specific details, such as:

• Their area of expertise and experience dealing with cases such as yours
• Quotes, rates and additional service fees
• What is and isn’t included in quotes provided, and how the cost may alter depending on various factors

By now, you should have one or more prospectives that you feel comfortable working with; if not, continue your search until you do.

How To Find A Lawyer, Solicitor Or Other Legal Professional is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

One thing I noticed when starting this business back in 1998 was that when you’re shopping around to find the best bank account for your business, as soon as you mention ‘business’ most of the fees suddenly increase. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re a sole operator with less business transactions than some personal accounts or a major company with numerous daily transactions. As soon as you mention ‘business’, that indicates more money for the banks.

So in choosing the best business bank account it’s extremely important that you shop around with various banks and credit unions. In addition to your current requirements, consider your plans for business growth and how they may affect your future banking needs. It’s much easier to set up the right banking structure now rather than changing in a year or two.

For example, you may not need a merchant account to allow you to accept credit card payments now, but you may want to add this service later. If so, make sure you consider merchant account provisions, costs and requirements when making the initial decision on which bank to choose.

What about convenience … much of today’s banking can be done online but there may be times when you need to visit the branch. Do they have a branch that’s convenient for you to get to?

What’s their service like? This includes general teller service, online service (e.g. site security, ease of navigation around their site and reliability). Can you easily make an appointment to speak with the bank manager or business manager if required?

Over on the Habit Breaking Facts blog, Andrea Jordan shares 17 Everyday Tips For Saving On Bank Fees.  There are some great suggestions that are sure to help you manage  fees on your personal bank account as well as your business bank account.

Most importantly, compare different accounts with different banks and don’t be afraid to ask questions. The time you spend doing this now will no doubt save you a lot of time, hassle and fees over the years to come.

How To Save On Bank Fees is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

While many people – hopefully most business owners – realise the importance of backing up computer data and doing it regularly, many people don’t realise that some files, such as emails, may require a different back up technique.

If you needed to install a new email program and wanted to still have access to the emails in your existing in-box, sent items, drafts, etc, would you know how to transfer these files over? And your contacts?

Or if your computer died and you had to rely on your backups, would you know how to restore your backed-up emails?

Truly, I’ve lost count of the number of times clients and friends have phoned me because they can’t find or can’t restore their emails. Please don’t leave it until you NEED to do these tasks before figuring it all out. If you don’t already have this figured out, I encourage you to allocate 30 minutes or so this week to ensure your email backups are in order.

The method used varies a little depending on which program you use to access your emails.

Here are some sites that provide a good, detailed run down on how to export emails and contacts from three of the most common email programs:

• Outlook
• Outlook Express
• Windows Mail for Vista

For all other email programs, please refer to the software’s documentation or support area for instructions.

You’re sure to have some peace of mind once you know your emails are also being included in your regular backup procedures.

How To Backup Your Emails is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Brett McFall is an Australian marketing expert who has a particular skill for using a simple 10 minute process to help turn businesses around.

In this video you’ll see Brett demonstrate this process – one he performs all around the world,  getting the end result he’s looking for every single time … without fail.

It truly is amazing to watch as the process evolves.

You can learn more about this strategy on Brett’s blog or see him demonstrate it live on stage at the World Internet Summit.

Just 10 Minutes To Find Your Business’ USP is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Last year I came across a HTML editor that’s really easy to use either for creating web pages from scratch or editing existing HTML pages, such as website templates.

I’ve been ‘playing’ with PageBreeze for a while and have been quite impressed by how easy it is to use. You can create and edit pages in the HTML or ‘normal’ (WYSIWYG) view, preview how it will look when published to the internet, easily add page title, description and keyword details and publish with FTP.

It also has a form editor which makes it easy to create forms if necessary.

Best of all … there’s a free version or a more advanced ‘cheap as chips’ version.

The basic Pagebreeze software is free for personal, not-for-profit and educational use. Or the more advanced version for business (or ‘for-profit’) use is only a one-off payment $29.95.

Free HTML Editor

If you don’t really need web development software with all the bells and whistles, it’s worth giving PageBreeze a try.

My Latest Great Find – Free, Easy HTML Editor is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

I get a lot of people asking me how they can watch online videos without them stopping and starting all the time.

First, it helps to understand why they stop and start. Depending on various factors, including your internet speed, it can take a while for videos to download. Often you’ll start to watch a video but you’re viewing it quicker than it can download.

So … simply press ‘play’, then pause and give it a minute or two (longer for very long videos) while it downloads.

Then press ‘play’ again and you should be able to watch it nice and smoothly.

How To Watch Videos Online Without Them Stopping And Starting is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

If you’re anything like me, life just seems to get busier every year. Yes, you could slow down a bit… do less… be less involved in your various activities, business groups, children’s sports or whatever, but do you really want to cut back?

I lead an extremely busy life but in all honesty, that’s the way I like it.

I enjoy being able to take part in so many events and activities, meeting and building relationships and lifelong friendships with so many people.

Just how do you keep doing everything you want to, plus everything you HAVE to and still keep your sanity?

I’d like to share with you some planning techniques I use to keep me organised and on track.

1. Write lists. When you lead a busy life it’s so easy to forget things. I have lists galore – I should probably even keep a list of all my lists! There’s my daily to-do list, my list of birthdays for the year, my list of household jobs I want to work my way through, my list of Christmas presents to buy, my list of 50 people I want to meet during my lifetime, my list of goals and my shopping list. What’s more important than writing lists is that I actually USE them; I refer to them daily and cross things off or re-adjust them as I go.

When you’re adding tasks to your list, focus on WHY you’re writing them on there. Why do you want to include, ‘Go for walk,’ on your daily jobs list? Is it so you can cross it off at the end of the day? I doubt it. Is it to help in your overall goal to lose weight or to be healthy?

Focus on the big picture and your reasons for wanting to do this task; focus on how you’ll feel once you’ve achieved your goal.

2. Delegate, delegate, delegate! Do you really need to do all these things yourself?

Let’s work with household chores as an example. Grab a blank sheet of paper and write down a list of chores to be done. Now, cross off all those that don’t really need doing, or asterisk those that can be done fortnightly instead of weekly.

Next, what can other members of your household help with? Can you afford to hire a professional cleaner once a week or fortnight? These little things can make a huge difference to your schedule.

If you run a business or are self-employed, look at employing staff or ways of outsourcing tasks. Your main duty is to manage your business, not to do absolutely everything to do with your business yourself.

3. When it comes to planning for your year ahead, begin by looking at the big picture.

Imagine the date today is December 31st 2010; you’re sitting here, looking back at what you’ve achieved over the last year. What are you thinking of? What did you achieve?

Okay, now you can break each of those achievements down into bite size pieces. What can you do each day to work towards those goals?

4. What can you get rid of? Do you really need to do everything you write on your daily list? Remember: life’s too short to spend it doing things you don’t like. Sure, we’ve all got to do things we don’t want to but surely there are some things you can let go of.

I used to be the family ‘neat-freak’ until I realised how much time I was wasting ironing tea towels! (Bonus advice: the creases work their way out after you use them once and hang them up to dry).

A girlfriend of mine recently told me that she wants her children to think back upon their childhood remembering how much fun they had and how their Mum always had time for them, not remembering how clean the house was.

5. Buy a birthday book or use your diary, calendar or organiser to write in the birthdates of all your friends, family… anyone you would generally send a card or gift to.

At the end of each month, see what birthdays are coming up next month and buy cards/gifts as needed. Then you can keep them somewhere handy, where they won’t be forgotten, ready to mail a few days before the date.

6.Focus … and stop multi-tasking! You’ll find you’ll achieve so much more if you stop multi-tasking and focus on one main priority at a time.

Allocate a set time – 30 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours or however long you feel is required for a specific task. Turn off all other distractions and focus on the task at hand. Then make sure you stop after the dedicated time. If the task isn’t finished yet, allocate more time somewhere to complete it.

You’ll find that by spending this time totally focused and allocating a specific time-frame will help keep you on track.

7. And have fun! Don’t forget to reward your achievements and schedule time for living life and celebrating.

Hopefully you’ve found these ideas useful and they will be simple for you to implement into your lifestyle. Here’s to a wonderful year – your best year yet!

7 Easy Planning Strategies To Simplify Your Life is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

If so, it’s time to organise your email system before it takes over your life!

Email is an extremely convenient mode of communication; perhaps too easy, as it seems to invite people to contact you for sometimes barely any reason at all.  With all that email coming in needing attention, it can be hard to get anything else done.  So how can you get a grip on your business emails before it gets its grip on you?

Gaining Control Of Email

Success in small business relies on discipline and good time management. Often, however, necessary tasks like checking, reading and responding to emails can start to overtake productive work time and decrease your productivity – and in turn, your profitability.  That is why it’s important for you to be managing emails, rather than letting emails manage you.  Here are some pointers from the experts:

• Schedule time for checking emails; this can be once, twice, or three times daily at times that fit into your schedule.  Block out time and when the time is up, move on to other pressing matters.
• Do not use email for emergency contacts; inform clients and business associates that you are not available immediately via email, and that they should phone or contact you via instant message, etc, for pressing matters.  This makes it possible for you to handle emails in chunks rather than constantly dealing with them throughout the day.  Be careful who you give emergency contact information to, though, so that it is used for its intended purpose.
• Turn off automatic alerts – both audio and visual – so that you are not tempted to immediately respond every time a new message comes in. This breaks into your productive work time.
• Deal with emails during your ‘down time’; do not schedule your most creative and productive times of day for organising emails.  Put email management into your schedule where it makes sense – those times of day when you need to slow down, or that do not take away from more complex activities.
• Use tools for organising emails; get to know the features of your email client and use them to prioritise emails.  For instance, use the ‘rules’ or ‘labels’ function to automatically separate emails into folders according to priority levels, clients, or subjects.
• Respond to emails when read; many people will read all emails before responding, and then go back and start with the most important ones. But this only multiplies the time it takes to get through the lot.  espond to emails as they are read, and you will not have to begin all over again sifting through them.
• Separate business and personal emails; do not give out business email addresses to friends and family that do not have a business reason to contact you.

Email is a very useful and important business tool, but if you don’t learn how to efficiently manage your emails they will begin to take over your life.

Of course, everyone’s situation is going to be different and it may take a little while to find what works best for you, but if you start putting some of these tips into practise you’ll soon get control over your email. If not, perhaps it’s time to consider getting an assistant to help you respond to emails.

Are You Drowning In A Sea Of Never-Ending Emails? is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins