Successful Blog

Is Social Noise Unraveling Your Quest?

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Social Noise Steals the Fuel to Do Extraordinary Stuff

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When I was a kid, I wasn’t looking for my direction. No one said to follow my passion. I was a kid. I was on a quest to be extraordinary.

When I was a kid, I wasn’t bombarded with information from every dimension. My social circle was small. Now I have more social network passwords than the number of connections I had when I was kid.

Everyone seems to doing more than I am. Everything seems to be growing faster than anyone could manage to follow. Conversations bifurcate, trifurcate, and splinter off in bit and pieces. Sorting value from spam isn’t always a case of checking whether it came from a friend.

Ideas get kicked around like a soccer ball on the field where I hang out. I’m following echoes down trap of social media noise and deafening conversation straining to hear what my friends are saying.

In the process, I’m losing my own voice.
And the social noise is unraveling my passion one thread at time.
Sheer exhaustion steals the inspiration and the direction that I had when the day began.

Is Social Noise Unraveling Your Quest?

It’s a challenge to stay calm when the screen is always updating and we’re always chasing the next link or headline that shows up. Curiosity takes fuel to run. And every generous spirit who does a good turn or sends a good wish seems to be calling us to return a good one now then. Do you find that after some time on Twitter or Facebook, your head needs a long, cool transition? It only makes sense that all of that fragmented data makes a brain want some time to sort.

The social interaction can undermine the strongest determination we have to move forward by using it all just to keep up with what’s going on. Is social noise unraveling your quest?

Do you lose track of the kid in you who wants to do extraordinary stuff?

Here’s my recipe for getting past the noise and distraction and back to doing extraordinary stuff.

I turn it off.

In a minute of silence, I remember my quest.
When I look out the window or stand and stretch, it gets easier to tune into my resolve.
Knowing where you’re going is irresistibly attractive.
It also fuels the noble cause.

Passion needs direction, or it gets lost.

How do you keep the social noise from unraveling your quest?

Be irresistible.
–Me “Liz” Strauss

Thanks to Week 348 SOBs

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muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Is an HP Folio13 Ultrabook as Business Friendly as They Say?

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Would the Ultrabook Fit into My Business Life?

Working Plans logo

As I headed down to a final check on the room for SOBCon this year, I also picked up a package delivered to site by HP to me. It was a new HP Folio 13 – offered without strings if I’d take it for a test drive. The poor light-weight little machine was going be “baptized under fire.” I opened it in a hotel room while preparing the last details of the biggest event of my year. And from that event and that hotel, I’d be moving north to CMSExpo

Now I’ve had the Ultrabook with me for about 6 weeks. It’s time to report on whether the HP Folio 13 actually was as business friendly as they said.

5 Business-Friendly Features and How I Experienced Them

When the folks asked me to try the Folio13, I was leery about taking on another gadget in my life. If for no other reason than we’re running out of power strips, I didn’t want something else that needed plugging in.

But I got no pitch. What heard was a personal invitation to see whether I agreed that this UltrabookTM would make small business life easier, faster, and lighter.

Specifically I heard about 5 business-friendly features HP had built in to serve the small business niche. Here’s all 5 features, what HP says about them, and my experience with each.

  1. All-Day Battery Life
    What HP says: With more than nine hours of battery life, mobile business professionals don’t need to worry about jumping through hoops to keep their notebook’s battery from dying halfway through the work day anymore. The Folio’s battery life will last through the entire work day on one single charge.

    My experience: I turned the machine on, did what I needed for up to 2 hours and sometimes only five minutes. The machine was fast, agile, and sleek. The backlit keyboard is intuitive with great feedback. While I was at my event, I let a few people play with it. I’m not sure how long they had the battery working, but I know that I forgot to turn it for four days and still had battery left. Since then, I’ve used it up to 6+ hours (I’ll never learn to watch a clock) and love that I can fly coast to coast without having to worry about battery life.

  2. TPM Embedded Security Chip
    What HP says: Business users who go to great lengths to keep their notebooks secure will love the Folio’s Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip. It acts as an extra layer of security for all of your personal information, including documents on your hard drive and even email.
    My experience: Sounds nice, but from what I can tell. This is slightly better than a bank saying your money is safe. Lots of vendors use TPM and TPms may not be deployed some countries including China, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, where the government might think your data access should be open to them.
  3. HP CoolSense Technology
    What HP says: Whether you find yourself working from a desk or on the road, HP CoolSense technology keeps the Folio’s surface temperature at the perfect level. This technology uses advanced hardware and intelligent software to keep the Ultrabook noticeably cooler.
    My experience: They’re right on this one. It’s not only cool, but it’s quiet. As someone who works in a variety of locations that don’t include desks, a laptop with a cool temperature that isn’t always making noise is a pleasure.
  4. Intel Rapid Start Technology
    What HP says: The Folio’s Solid State Drive (SSD) not only increases speed and reliability, but it also enables Intel’s Rapid Start Technology, allowing on-the-go users to boot up and log on in a snap! The SSD means the Folio13 will be ready to go to work when you are, wherever you take it.
    My experience: I open the lid and within 8 seconds I can type my password and be in — right on the line of the email where I left off! Very different from my experience this week with a friend waiting long minutes for his laptop to start up so that we could discuss a document.
  5. Ultra-slim and ultra-light
    What HP says: The Folio13 makes mobile computing ultra-easy. It’s less than 18 millimeters thin, making it the perfect travel companion for short commutes or long flights. The Folio13 can go anywhere you need it to go, and the nine-hour battery life means you won’t have to lug around extra batteries or charging cords, making it even more travel-friendly.
    My experience: How light is that? Let’s just say I no longer worry out whether to bring my laptop or my iPad. It’s so light I can bring them both! The power pack doesn’t add a huge load.

By the way, unpacking and starting it up for the first time was a breeze, even in a hotel room with hotel wifi to contend with.

I did get caught up short when I was ready to present and realized that the Ultra in Ultrabook meant that I didn’t have the appropriate port to connect to a projector which left me borrowing a laptop to run my presentation. I’ll be finding out whether to get an HDMI cable or an adaptor for that.

In the end, the HP Folio 13 Ultrabook is indeed a business-friendly small business friend. AND I haven’t even mentioned yet, that HP is letting me give one away to someone who buys a ticket to SOBCon NW!! Thank you, HP, for the opportunity times two! (more about that soon.)

Oh, yeah, I hardly ever have to plug it in. I love stories that have a happy ending.

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Kick in Peak Productivity Immediately to Win

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Great Weeks Reek of Productivity

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Ten days ago I offered a Productivity Checklist for the best way to end a Friday. Key to the process was setting up things at the end of day — ordering tasks by priority, putting things where you most often use them, and planning the first thing you’ll accomplish on Monday.

Did you try it? I thought perhaps not, but even if you set a plan that ended your Friday neatly and optimized Monday for productivity, take care that you don’t walk in to your workspace and undo all that you’ve set ready to start this week in a great way

Start with Peak Productivity

Being able to kick in peak productivity on a Monday or any other day is function of focus and few steps found in this checklist.

    1. Start your “real work” a hour later on Monday. Most folks don’t want to interact with you first thing Monday. Invest in yourself and your own productivity. Make a commitment reward yourself as soon as you accomplish the simple steps of this checklist. When possible, avoid setting up meetings before 10a.m.

    2. Allow yourself 10 minutes for an office check. Organize everything on your desk. Put things away. Lay out things that still need attending to. Are the things you use most closest to where you use them? If not, move them, so that they will be. Are the files you access most on your computer only one click away? If not, as you work, move them so that they will be.

    3. Allow 10 minutes more to scan your incoming email. Look long enough to know whether a dire emergency is waiting your response. Schedule a time in your calendar to answer the rest.

    4. Make a realistic plan for the week. Plan no more than 3 important tasks per day. Schedule no more than 5 hours of independent work. Leave 1 hour for your social networking investment. You’ll have the other two hours for the inevitable interruptions, phone calls, emails, and meetings that steal time during your day. If you find extra time at the end of the day, you can use it get ahead on tomorrow.

    5. Order tasks what you can get done fastest first. Two reasons support this: It starts you with a quick sense of accomplishment and you’re able to pass on what you’ve finished –which means that someone else can be starting on what was your task one as you move to your task two.

    6. If your habit is to get in early to stop by the water cooler or spend some time on Twitter, keep your investment working for you. Put fences around the time you’ll be spending getting inspired by socializing or you might find that it undoes your performance energy.

The biggest part of kicking in productivity is knowing what we want to do and when we want to get it done. Taking time in the morning to plan a productive day immediately can put us in the mindset to our world flying high for the win!

Whether your workspace is in another building or in your kitchen, you’ll find that peak productivity will kick once you’ve outlined the tasks you want to accomplish in a realistic fashion that fits that time you have to do them. Once you get into the habit, you might find that a 30-Minute Strike Force Strategy may be enough to keep you going.

What’s your best tip to kick in peak productivity immediately?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Work with Liz on your business!!

How Does It Get Better than This?

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CHANGE THE WORLD

What’s in a Question?

Change the World!

You wake up and you find everything you had is gone.
Your computer is crashed. Your house has collapsed. Your beautiful puppy has run away with the local hound.

Everywhere you turn something else seems to be falling apart.
You try to make sense of it.

Your choice between two questions will affect whether you move forward or get stuck more than you might realize.

Will you think …

How do things get any worse?
or
How does it get any better than this?

Whether your world is falling apart or the universe falling into into sync with the life you want to live, things can always get better.

Moving toward the better is raises our positive brain chemistry. That fuels our minds and hearts, keeps us smiling, and keeps us investing in the world as a better place. With that outlook fueling us, we keep building dreams and we keep attracting positive people who want to help us. Without it, we start pushing the positive off.

Just the right question — How does it get any better than this? —
in times of stress or happiness is that powerful.

Try asking yourself that question every day for a month.
See what happens.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there back to your blog and write your own.

Thanks to Week 347 SOBs

by

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

Purple SOB Button Original SOB Button Red SOB Button Purple and Blue SOB Button
and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

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