December 22, 2011

Be Still

Liz published this at 7:49 am

A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

“Still, still, still…one can hear the falling snow…” That’s the opening of my favorite Christmas carol.

It speaks to something buried deep inside us that craves absolute quiet and solitude. Picture a midnight snowfall, before the footprints. Picture being alone on the beach in the early morning. It doesn’t matter what your spiritual beliefs are, or your religious tradition, we all need to withdraw occasionally from the heat of battle and restore ourselves.

How does this relate to our online selves?

Here are some ideas:

• White space on the website
• Pause between questions in the conversation
• Room to breathe
• Remove one popup window
• Say no to animated gifs
• Clear every single thing off your desk
• Offer a single button
• Don’t pitch in every communication
• Stop keyword stuffing
• Think for a moment before typing a response
• Don’t hold yourself to a 5 minute turnaround on all emails
• Turn off the social alerts for part of the day
• Cut back on the multitasking

And now that you’ve read this, sit up straight in your chair, close your eyes, and breathe in and out slowly five times. Be still for a moment.
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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out their blog. You can find her on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Filed under Motivation-Inspiration, Productivity, Successful Blog | 2 Comments »

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