Successful Blog

How to Reset Your Brain When You’re Burnt Out

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Everything in Moderation

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Whenever my grandmother used to visit, she always brought the same advice. “Everything in moderation,” she’d say, and it would apply to basically anything I was doing at the time. Whether it was stuffing my gourd with mom’s superb cooking, or it was playing games with my friends, or it was rocking out on my guitar, she’d always advise me to take it easy. That advice works on two levels, though I didn’t realize that until later in life.

When I was younger I took her advice to mean that I shouldn’t overindulge in anything. Grandma reinforced this notion once I got to college and she continued dispensing this advice. Clearly she knew I was drinking, but continued her mantra of moderation. I can’t, in good conscience, say that I always followed her advice. There were times, albeit brief, when excess became the rule. But Grandma’s voice always reeled me back to moderation.

It wasn’t until she passed away, six years ago, that I started to think more deeply about her advice. I had just graduated college and was starting my first real job, so many of my past excesses were out of the question. Binge drinking ended with graduation; time to wail on my guitar became scarce; even eating heavily was less of an option, since I actually had to pay for my own food. Yet there was a new type of excess creeping into my life. Every morning I’d sit outside the office door, waiting for someone with a key to let me in. At night one boss or another would make me go home, so he, too, could lock up and go home.

This type of excess led to burnout.

Working more seemed great. I was making good impressions with my bosses, and I was sure to advance faster than my peers. It was what I had planned all along: the fast-track to a high-ranking, and high-paying, position. Yet I had not accounted for the burnout that would come with such strenuous work. Soon enough Sunday nights became a burden, because all I could think about was the terror of going to work Monday morning. Getting out of bed became more difficult with each passing day, and it took longer and longer to fall asleep. Excess had begun to rule my life.

Thankfully, I still had Grandma’s advice to fall back on. Something needed to change, or else I’d realize full burnout. That probably meant quitting my job and might have meant seeking psychiatric help. After deciding that I wanted neither of these things, I decided to take action. Using a single vacation day, on a Friday, I got away for a weekend. It wasn’t a tropical beach, or ski slopes, or any typical kind of weekend getaway. It was to a simple bed and breakfast a few hours away. In this time I developed a plan to help avoid burnout. It has been my blueprint ever since.

Here is a full course menu on how to avoid burnout in your own life.

1. Sleep in. Getting to the office at 7 a.m. and not leaving until 6:30 or 7 p.m. definitely took a toll on me. Thanks to stress, I wasn’t even getting to sleep at a decent hour. The first change I made, then, was to pick one day a week and sleep in. This was usually on Wednesdays, which allowed me to recover a bit from Monday and Tuesday, and left me a bit more refreshed for Thursday and Friday. Getting to the office at 9 a.m. just one day a week wasn’t going to negatively affect my work. In fact, it only stood to improve it.

2. Leave early. Again, this is a term relative to my previous habits. Staying late every day might have made a favorable impression upon my bosses, but it was killing me personally. Everyone needs to unwind for a bit after work, and that just wasn’t happening. Getting home at 7:30, getting dinner, and then sitting around for a bit meant I wasn’t going to bed until around 11 — and not falling asleep for a while after that. Leaving early one day a week would provide some relaxation. This usually came on Tuesday or Thursday, which went well with sleeping in on Wednesday.

3. Get away, Part 1. Changing our environments can help change our mindsets. After going on a business trip, I found that spending time in a place other than my apartment provided a therapeutic effect. A new environment also brought new stimuli, which helped keep me fresh. Most surprisingly, I found that the plane ride, especially on the way home, was a great time for redefining my focus. Signing up for more business trips proved immensely helpful in avoiding burnout.

4. Get away, Part 2. It was still early in my career, and I felt as though taking a week’s vacation, even though it was available, wasn’t a great idea. Still, as the business trips proved, getting away could help a lot. Getting away while not working sounded even better. The solution: repeat my weekend trip to the country. It required just one day off every couple of months, and it provided a real motivation boost. With so many cheap hotels(http://www.orbitz.com/) available on travel sites such as Orbitz, I was always able to find a reasonable rate commensurate with my entry level salary.

5. Keep a journal. Maybe it’s because I’ve been writing since high school, but I’ve always found that keeping a written record of something helps ease my mind. Every day before I left work, I’d create a journal entry documenting the day’s work. It actually helped me pick up inefficiencies, which, once corrected, led to a less stressful workday.

Overindulging in anything, whether it be alcohol, a creative pursuit, or more traditional work, can leave us overstressed and burnt out. That’s not to say that these aren’t worthy pursuits — well, alcohol really isn’t — but the over-pursuit of them can have negative effects. It’s just as Grandma said so many times: everything in moderation. It took a while for me to realize that by everything, she meant everything. But once I did, I learned to manage work and stress. It has led to a clearer mind, and a continually budding career.

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Author’s Bio:
Joe Pawlikowski writes about prepaid wireless services at Prepaid Reviews. He has also started his own resource for telecommuting workers at JoePawl.com

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Five Delegation Thinking Traps that Trip Almost Everyone Who Wants to Scale Up

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Scaling Up Requires Pushing Down Lower-Level Tasks

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In the companies I worked with and for, product development schedules were cyclical, with seriously tight deadlines at certain times of the year and a more relaxing pace when those deadline had been achieved. To even out this ebb and flow of deliverables, we would hire freelancers, off-sire staff, and development groups. Even the most entry-level full-time people were managing and influencing the performance of someone else.

The ability to influence another person’s performance in positive ways affected how quickly employees could grow in their individual roles. The ones who scaled up most quickly were the ones who understood that to take on higher-level tasks, they would have to delegate effectively the lower level tasks that they’d already mastered. They delegated well.

Those who couldn’t scale were often tripped up by five thinking traps.

  • We wait too long to get help. The thinking trap is I have to keep my eye on the ball, bite the bullet and get this done. When finally we look up, we still have three weeks worth of work to do and only 1 week to get it done. That thinking risks your reputation and the quality of the work. Solution: Track the time it takes to do one unit of work. Do the math to see how many units you can in a normal day and lower your that projection by 20% — to allow for the unforeseen problem or new project that comes your way. Asking someone to help when you start gives that person time to have a learning curve on the project.
  • We think can’t afford the training time. The thinking trap is It will take too much time to teach someone else. That thinking is a great way to stay stuck. Think you’ll have more time 3 days, 3 months, or 3 years from now? Solution: Take a look at what’s currently on your desk. What the work any intelligent person can do? Do it now and in three weeks the person you delegate to will be taking things off your desk.
  • We hand over the work too fast — without clearly communicating the scope of the task, expectations, or its importance. The thinking trap is A qualified person will know how to do this. A qualified person can’t know what we don’t tell. Solution: Carve out more time than you need to explain how the piece you’re delegating fits within the bigger project and to let the person know that you’re counting on him or her to do it well. Have the person do a small chunk and review it early to catch any miscommunication.
  • We keep doing the work even after we’ve assigned it someone else. The thinking trap is It’s faster if I correct this myself. We have to hand over accountability with the work. If we constantly rewrite and correct their work, the people we delegate to will figure out that no matter what they send we’ll be changing it. Solution: Clearly define and communicate the specifications of the work. Check the work against those specs. Send back the mistakes and missteps for correction. For example, when you hire a professional inputter, take your hands off the keyboard. Check for errors, but let the person make the corrections.
  • We think different is wrong. The thinking trap is I need to check and change this work because this person doesn’t have the ___ (dedication, experience, expertise…) It’s delegation critical to understand the difference between wrong and different. Someone else might do the work differently than you, but that difference may not make it wrong. Before you mark a correction, ask yourself Is this truly wrong or just different from how I might do or say it?.

Learning to delegate well is critical to growth. Anything we do ourselves limits the time we have to get to higher-level tasks. Want to scale up? Avoid these five thinking traps and you’ll be better equipped to recognize great candidates who can contribute to your success.

You may wonder how to find great delegation candidates, especially if you have little or no budget to begin. Look to the people around you — those who want experience in what you do. Talk to local colleges to find interns. Ask your friends. Finding the people to delegate to isn’t nearly as hard as learning to delegate well. It will also be easier to attract temporary help, the best VA, or volunteer interns, when you know exactly what the job specs are and how to communicate your needs. the people we delegate to will be more interested in making the same great choices we would make.

What else do you find critical to scaling up?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Does Your Business Style Connect or Make People Cringe?

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Get Serious Attention

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In Amanda Valenti’s recent guest post here about Common Writing Mistakes, she made many important points that I encourage small businesses to take to heart.

If spelling, grammar, and homophones are not your strong suites, find someone who can edit what you write. It IS worth it because Amanda is absolutely correct – these types of errors will cost you visitors and business.

There is something more serious you must be aware of as well and that is what kind of image you are presenting to the world. Specifically, what you consider acceptable regarding profanity, off-color humor, suggestive images, etc. may be anything but appropriate to your potential customers.

Most people over fifty will know exactly what I mean, but those who are significantly younger may not realize that what is normal to them – whether that is dropping the f-word, cursing God, piercings or tattoos or pink or green hair – may cause many to not take them seriously.

One day I was at my ISP when an intelligent, clean cut young man walked in and asked for a job. He didn’t know anything about computers so there wasn’t anything he could do there; however, I did make some suggestions to assist him in finding work.

He was wearing shorts, sandals, and a backpack but what made me cringe was that he had a ten penny nail in each ear. I explained to him why my immediate reaction was to cringe inside (possibly visibly) and think “ouch, that must hurt”. I suggested he dress as though he was going to work there when inquiring about opens and especially to lose those nails before asking for work.

I ran into him at a local coffee shop later that week. He had found work – and I almost did not recognize him without the nails. While his peers might find that normal, the owners, managers, and customers where you might seek work may not.

That applies to tattoos, hair styles, piercings, what you wear, etc. While I am not saying you should not have your own style, I am suggesting that you consider what is truly important to you and that you ask yourself, is this REALLY me or am I doing this for some other reason.

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Author’s Bio:
Gail Gardner writes about why small businesses and bloggers should collaborate to improve the economy and create a better world for all at GrowMap.com (). You can find her on Twitter and other major social media networks as @GrowMap.

Thank you, Gail! You’re irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Thanks to Week 329 SOBs

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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.

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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.

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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

Finding the Right Talent Mix For Your Start-Up Enterprise

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A Mixture of Key Personality Traits

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For the entrepreneur, the early months of developing a start-up are some of the most hectic and arduous: you need to secure financing, explore legal limitations, and forecast your financials for the years ahead. You need to take your idea and turn it into a product or a service, along the way keeping a close attention to quality, profitability, and logistics. You may even need to start thinking about your personal financial future; you may want to open an IRA, for example, or conversely consider how much of your funds you can afford to allocate to the venture.

Amidst all of this commotion, moreover, you find yourself in the position to make one of the most important decisions a new business can make – the decision of hiring employees, in the process surrounding yourself with the best talent possible designed to help your start-up grow.

While different businesses and different industries have a wide variety of talent needs, the most successful start-ups usually share several commonalities. They possess drive, motivated individuals. They hire people who are truly passionate about their work. And they assemble a diverse mixture of several key personality traits and personal attributes.

That last point is an oft-overlooked one. Unlike Abraham Lincoln, who assembled a “Team of Rivals” in his Cabinet in order to maximize diversity and individual talents, few entrepreneurs hire their start-up team with such an outlook in mind. Don’t make this mistake if you’re starting a business, or plan to do so in the future. Instead, look to creative a mixture of the most important personality traits and personal attributes necessary to get a new company up and running. I believe that the most important of these are charisma, having a mathematical mind, creativity, and possessing the ability to network. Here’s a quick breakdown:

  1. Charisma: This person can be the face of your start-up and an excellent salesperson.
  2. Mathematical Mind: This person can oversee your budgets and all your financials. A good start-up doesn’t need a full accounting department – just one talented employee.
  3. Creativity: Whatever your product, this person is the one best equipped to turn it from an idea into a reality. They should be incredibly hard-working and driven.
  4. Ability to Network: Along with our charismatic leader, this employee has strong inter-personal skills. However, they operate more behind the scenes and use their connections and networking abilities to market the business and secure investors.

While you certainly may possess one of these traits, don’t lull yourself into thinking that you could do all of them better than a team of specialists can. To this end you want to diversify as you seek quality talent; even if you don’t end up with a team exactly like the one above, insure that a variety of strengths and capabilities are exhibited in your force. Your start-up’s long-term prospects will be much rosier as a result.

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Author’s Bio:
Alex S. writes about education and business at theeducationupdate.com

Thank you, Alex!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

How To Select The Right Shopping Cart For Your Online Business Store

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What Works for the Buyer

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Keeping an online shop is taking your business to a completely new level. Until you had your online store, your clients were walking up to you to buy your products or services. But now, with an online facility, you are offering them a totally different experience. You are stepping forward and taking the river to the thirsty child! It’s important that the quality be worth it.

There are two things that come into play here:

  1. Your existing clients buy online.
  2. New people come across your site and buy.

In both cases, the user experience has to be great.

Once again, there are two important factors here:

  1. You – the seller
  2. Your shopping cart – for the buyer

Both the factors need to appeal to your buyer. So, your website needs to look and feel authentic – in a way, that your buyer doesn’t feel he’s going to be rugged! And your shopping cart has to be user friendly, comfortable and convenient – to make the buying experience a pleasure!

Here’s how you make it happen by selecting the right shopping cart for your online business:

1. The Look

Your shopping cart should match your website layout, ideally. It should look like your cart, for your buyer! And it should be easy to use. Don’t have complicated tabs; settings features that make the buyer suspect your intensions!

2. The Display

It is important for the cart ot display all the information relevant and important to the user. Along with the products selected, the cart should show the exact price clearly. If you are offering discounts, they should be visible to encourage your user to buy.

3. The Compatibility

Server issues are the last thing you want on your online store. The user can not afford a transaction error or a compatibility problem. If you are launching on the virtual space, you need to take care of technical issues. There’s no cashier sitting on the web page giving out the change! Your server and your cart, hence, need to roll together.

4. The Payment

The above discussion brings us to payment and processing questions. The payment processor on your shop online – cart should support credit and debit card transactions. Checking whether the gateways are working right for you is almost mandatory.

5. The Support

There’s always going to be something that goes wrong! God forbid, but some unforeseen circumstances can lead to problems or concerns. How are you equipped to deal with it? This is an important question that should be answered before you plunge into the virtual shopping scenario. Plus, in case there is a problem, how soon can you resolve it? Support is, hence, something that influences the strength on your online store.

There are various open source shopping cart downloads available for you to select from and install on your website. One of the key features to note here is that the premade software you are planning to use should be easy to edit or should have a template format to suit your requirements. The look and feel should go with the perception that your website creates. So, take time out to evaluate the shopping carts and find the one that suits you the best. After all, turning your e-commerce business into a profitable one could be a matter of only a few ‘right’ choices – for you and for your buyer.

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Author’s Bio: Divya Rawat writes about e-commerce and Website Development at SEO Company inetzeal.com. Divya also writes ezinearticles and other resources.

Thank you, Divya!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!