Career

10 useful things you can do in the next 5 minutes

Sarah · Oct 23, 2017 · Leave a Comment

One of these days is none of these days. – Mark Twain

How often do you have small pockets of time that seem to disappear on you? What if you had a list of easy AND useful things you could do in 5 minutes per day (or less!)?

Lucky you, it’s right here! After all, it’s always easier to have an idea ahead of time what you will do that’s useful or productive in your pockets of time than to try to come up with ideas in the moment.

1. Write a status update of your written goals.

If you’re already reviewing your written goals every day, take once a week or once a month to write down a written progress report. This can be as simple as 1-2 sentences, and can be written anywhere easy. The purpose is two-fold: To have a record of your progression and to reinforce the value of your goals by physically writing down the current status of each goal.

2. Review your calendar for upcoming meetings, events or appointments.

How many times have you looked at your calendar only to realize that you have a meeting coming up that you forgot to prepare for, forgot to plan childcare for, or wanted to do a few things before it happened? Taking a quick glance at your calendar for the next day (or few days) can make a dramatic difference in how you prioritize your immediate time.

3. Read an article relevant to your professional or personal life.

I use Feedly and keep a list of news sites and blogs categorized by type of information (Business, Parenting, Food, Friends, etc). When I have a few minutes, I can quickly scan categories and/or headlines and read where I need the most encouragement.

4. Do a short workout.

There are a number of different apps with short workouts, or you could simply jog in place or walk up and down a few flights of stairs.

5. Drink a glass of water.

They say it’s good for your heath.

6. Take a series of deep, calming breaths.

I’m no expert, but taking a long, deep breath in and slow-exhale out really does relax and ground me, especially in the midst of busy or stressful times.

7. Text or email three friends.

So easy, and yet one so many of us (myself included!) don’t do if it’s not a conscious thought.

8. Clean out your handbag, desk drawer or any other single surface/drawer/cupboard.

This always takes less time than I think it will. Having clean, uncluttered surfaces is an instant mood lift.

9. Read a few pages in a book.

I keep physical books at my desk and bedside, as well as the Kindle app on my phone to that reading a page or two in pockets of spare time

10. Secure your passwords.

I started using LastPass several years ago, and it’s saved me more time than I can count not having to re-look up or reset passwords. Signing up for a LastPass account is quick (less than 5 minutes!), and you can add passwords as you go, a few minutes at a time – no need for a massive project.

Which useful idea will you take action on today?

Need more ideas? Read 10 more tips here.

How to not get overwhelmed by bundle sales

Sarah · Oct 2, 2017 · Leave a Comment

You’ve seen the ads floating around the inter webs. Buy this bundle sale! Short time only! Incredible resources!

You look, think “That’s interesting, but holy cow, that’s an overwhelming amount of information.” Then you shut down that browser window as fast as you can to avoid the madness.

I’m a huge fan of bundle sales and have found some of my favorite personal and business resources through bundles. Since I like to read and devour information (see StrengthsFinder: Input), I especially love having all the information I could ever want about any given topic readily at hand.

As we talk about making it easier to get life and business done, buying a bundle of resources – literally a whole grouping of books, courses and bonuses – might seem like the opposite of making life easier.

And it can be.

If you’ve ever bought a bundle, you’re likely to have sat there at least once, dumbfounded, staring at a list of resources, not having the faintest clue where to start.

So why buy a bundle?

By definition, a bundle sale is a chance to buy a whole group of books, courses, worksheets and bonuses together at a massive discount compared to list price for all the resources. Typically it’s also a limited duration. You’ll see these marketed as “$5,000 worth of resources at 97% off!” or “99% off this amazing bundle go 67 resources!”

Who has time for 67 resources?! You may be tempted to write off the idea entirely as too much to even know where to start. Don’t. You may just miss out on some incredible, life-changing information.

What you need is a framework to remove the overwhelm so that you can use and apply the right resources that you got for a steal.

I wish I had this guide when I bought my first ebook bundle! Thanks @strategysarah

Lucky you, the Strategy Sarah framework works perfectly to take the overwhelm out of a bundle sale.

Make a Plan
Get Organized
Take Action

Step 1: Make a plan: Decide whether or not a given bundle is worth your time.

If you’re a nerd like me (and you should be in this instance), you’ll do the math and determine how great of a deal a particular bundle really is.

For me, the threshold for a deal is any bundle that has one or more resources I would pay full price for that cost more than the total value of the deal.

For example, Bundle A costs $47 and has a course I’ve been eyeing that regularly costs $67. Sold.

Bundle B might cost $27, but I’m only truly interested in one resource that costs $15. Pass.

Action Step: When you come across a relevant bundle that’s a deal while it’s on sale, buy it.

Bonus budget tip: I keep a stash of cash (not literal cash, but the electronic version that I track in YNAB) at hand for those hot deals that come up unexpectedly but are too good to miss out on. FOMO, anyone?

Bonus bonus tip: FOMO is NOT a reason to buy a bundle. I repeat. Do not buy anything, bundle or not, simply because of FOMO. You’ll regret it. So will your YNAB account. #affiliate

Step 2: Get organized.

You’ve already scanned the list of resources in enough depth to determine if there are resources that make the bundle a good deal. Now it’s time to dive deeper.

Print the list of resources (or copy into your favorite tool like Evernote).

Quickly scan the list of resources and highlight all resources that look potentially interesting. You likely mentally did this while you were making your purchase decision, but this time make it concrete.

This step should take less than 5 minutes. Don’t spend a lot of time, but scan the titles and descriptions and see what fits. For some bundles, not as many of the resources are immediately applicable and this first step provides an easy list to prioritize. For others, most of the resources are appealing and this may feel like it didn’t narrow down much.

Side note: One of the many reasons I love and am an affiliate with Ultimate Bundles is their focus on making bundles accessible in a non-daunting way. Every bundle comes with a Getting Started guide that lists out all of the resources by type (book, course, printable, etc) and by level (beginner, intermediate advanced). This makes it so much easier to review and prioritize!

Rank order your highlighted resources. Review your list of highlighted resources. If you have five or fewer, rank order them in order of importance and move on to step 3, Take Action.

If there are more than five, review the entire list again and ask yourself, “Will this make an immediate positive benefit on my life?” Place a 1 next to those resources.
Next, ask “Will this make a positive benefit in my life in the next 6 months?” Place a 2 next to those resources.”

Place a 3 next to all remaining highlighted resources.

Review your list of items marked with a “1” and rank order them in order of impact. That’s where you start!

Action Step: Prioritize resources you’re going to use and get ready to get started!

Step 3: Take Action

Download the bundle.

Download the individual resources you listed in step 2 as once you will use.

Many bundle sales have an easy “Download All” button. If you’re interested in more than 3-4 of the resources in a bundle, this is usually faster than downloading individually. However, I highly recommend that you immediately delete any resources that didn’t make your prioritized list. You don’t need more reasons to be distracted! Digital clutter is just as real as physical clutter.

You have a clear plan of what resources you’re going to use, and they’re safely downloaded and filed on your computer. Yay!

Review your calendar and block off time specifically to work through these tools.

Failure to plan is planning to fail. Cliche, but true. Identify specific time to work through bundle resources, clear your calendar to make it happen, and don’t let amazing resources gather dust.

Action Step: When the scheduled work time pops up on your calendar, you have a clear plan of action and are ready to focus on taking the next step forward!

How to save hours each month with Evernote Web Clipper

Sarah · Sep 25, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Have you ever tried to copy and paste information off of a webpage only to find that the formatting was super wonky or that it copied everything except the piece of information you truly cared about? Even worse, you didn’t realize it until you went back to use the information later. So frustrating!

Do you wish there was a way to ensure that the information you want is saved just the way you want it? Even better, to do it with two clicks?

There is!

Enter Evernote Web Clipper.

I’ve used Evernote to capture and organize essential information for several years, and I continue to be amazed at how easy the interface is to both store and find information. (Don’t have an Evernote account yet? Sign up for your own Evernote account now. #affiliate)

The Evernote Web Clipper is exactly what it sounds like – a tool that copies (clips) information from any web page and saves it to Evernote.

Even better, it has a smart feature that guesses which Notebook the information should be saved to. And it’s accurate about 95% of the time! (This is the point where I intentionally don’t insert a slightly inappropriate sarcastic comment about real life humans I wish were accurate 95% of the time.)

How to use the Evernote Web Clipper

Download the free Chrome plugin. If you’re not already using Chrome as your web browser, stop right now and download Chrome. I’ll wait.
Sign into your Evernote account. You do have LastPass saving all your information securely, right? If not, I’ll wait again.
Browse the web as usual. I hope this one is self-explanatory.
Come across information that you need to save. If you’re not sure what this might be, keep reading. That’s next.
Hit the handy dandy Evernote Web Clipper button on your browser toolbar.
Review the information auto-populated and make adjustments as needed.
- Title: auto populates based on the title of the webpage you are viewing
- Clip: There are several options to determine exactly what you information off the page you want to save. I find the auto selection is accurate about 90% of the time, so it’s worth a quick glance. You can also easily see on the page itself what is selected.
- Organize: Evernote selects which Notebook the information is most likely to be saved to.
- Tag: You can manually add any of your existing Evernote tags, or add new tags as needed.
- Add remark: Include any additional notes you want to remember on the page or why you saved the information.
Hit “Save.” That’s it, you’re done!

At this point, you might be thinking, “Sarah, that’s great and all. But what would I need to save? I’m reading it online, aren’t I?”

Why yes, yes, you are. Excellent question. There are three primary types of information I find super useful to save using the Evernote Web Clipper.

Three types of information to save using the Evernote Web Clipper:

Payment and purchase confirmations. You know, the utility bill, the credit card bill, travel confirmations and the endless endless school communications. I always, always save payment and transaction confirmations using the Evernote Web Clipper. This ensures that all my payment confirmations are saved in the same place, and eliminates any risk that an email confirmation didn’t come through. Two clicks and I can save it with Evernote web clipper.
Articles to read later. I read a lot of articles and blog posts online. Often, I either don’t have time to read the full article, or I know that I want to go back and reference it. With the web clipper, any article is instantly available for me to read later on my terms. Bonus Tip: Tag all of these with a “to read” tag to find them easily!
Limited time-only pages or offers. This is especially useful when you’re not sure if you want to take advantage of the offer in the limited time frame, but know you might want to purchase the next time it’s available for sale. Saving the sales page while it’s available gives you time to study it in detail and make a decision on your time.

Using Evernote Web Clipper has saved me countless hours of headache trying to save information consistently and then finding that information when I need to use it. If you haven’t already, what are you waiting for? Download and start using Evernote Web Clipper today.

How to eliminate digital information overload

Sarah · Jun 10, 2017 · 1 Comment

How many times have you looked at something, thought “That’s just way too much information to digest” and ignored the entire thing? Or sat down to complete a specific task and realized that you don’t even know where to start because there is so much to focus on? Do you wish there was a way to eliminate information overload? It happens to the best of us.

Don’t let it happen to you! (Or if you’re already there, let’s dig out together).

Six Easy Steps to Eliminate Information Overload

1. Grab your beverage of choice, and power up your computer (pad, or smartphone, or whatever device you’re working off of).

Personally, I’m a fan of coffee or kombucha, depending on the time of day. Everything is better with coffee. And if you’re overwhelmed by a large volume of information, you’ll likely start off a little less overwhelmed working off a computer rather than a pad or phone.

2. Download everything and save it in one place.

Create a “dump folder” and sweep everything that’s overwhelming you in there. This is equally applicable for email clutter as it is for any other digital clutter. I like to title this folder “All the Things.”

3. Do a quick scan and delete anything you know you won’t use.

Is it something you will realistically ever use? If not, delete it now and forget about it. If that’s too hard, create a sub-folder titled “Delete.” Then set a reminder for 90 days from now to delete that folder. (If you’re not already using a task management or project management tool, an easy way to set a reminder is to send yourself a digital calendar meeting invite or mark it on your printed calendar.) If you haven’t used any of the files in 90 days, the chances you ever will are slim.

This should take less than 2-5 minutes, unless you have a ridiculously large number of files (and by ridiculously large, I’m talking into the several hundreds or thousands).

4. Create a folder titled, “For Immediate Use.”

Do a second quick scan and move any files here that you know you want to use in the immediate future. Be ruthlessly honest with yourself about what you actually have time to use and/or truly need to use in the immediate future. In a majority of cases, this folder should not contain more than 3-5 items.

5. File any remaining items in your existing file structure, or create a folder titled “Save for Later.”

Do you have a robust file system in place? If so, file any remaining items accordingly. If not, create another general folder titled, “Save for Later.” Set a reminder for 60 days, and repeat the review process for this folder.

6. Close all folders except your “For Immediate Use” folder.

You have now prioritized what information truly matters right now. Take a deep breath, and dive in!

Have you tried these strategies to eliminate your information overload? What’s working for you?

You deserve to do work you love

Sarah · Jun 7, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Whether you jump in the car with a travel mug of coffee, battling traffic before you battle office politics…

Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom who hasn’t had a real paycheck in months or years (and yes, those moments with your children are priceless, but you still dream of having way to contribute to the family budget)…

Or whether you’re working from home and you’re wondering how to find focused work time so you’re not pulled in so many directions…

You don’t want to spend the next few years like this.

I get it (boy, do I ever!).

Check, check, check, I’ve been there…and I’m still figuring out what I want to be when I grow up!

Almost everyone I know is looking for work + life balance and how to be more focused so we can spend more time with our family.

If that sounds tough, I have something to make it easier for you.

What if I told you someone had already put together a carefully vetted package to get you up to speed on finding real work-at-home opportunities (AND making your work + life balance better whether you’re working from home or in the office)?

Well, you can stop looking! It’s here…

Introducing The Ultimate Work at Home Bundle!

For six days only, everything you need (and then some) is in one fabulous package, for the most affordable price ever. (Seriously, just wait until I tell you how much it costs.)

This brand-new bundle includes 30 eBooks, 14 full eCourses, 4 printables, and 1 audiobook!

These top-quality resources cover everything you need to give you the skills and confidence to do fulfilling work, at your favorite place in the world.

You’ll get a complete library to help you:

Manage your time efficiently (and never let anything fall through the cracks again)
Identify your marketable skills
Juggle your responsibilities and finally find work + life balance
Avoid the most common pitfalls of the work-at-home lifestyle
Understand the legal and financial implications of your business
Discover the secrets to getting into the business that most appeals to you, whether it’s a wholesale product, service-based, handmade, transcription, becoming a VA, or any other number of opportunities
and so much more…

Plus, it comes with over $500 worth of bonus offers from companies you’ll love – including a coffee subscription! (Seriously. They had me at “coffee.”)

You sort of need to see it to believe it, but the package includes 50 digital products and it’s worth over $2,300!

Besides being so incredibly helpful, one of the things I like best about the bundle is the price. By offering it for a short time only, the team at Ultimate Bundles is able to give you access to over $2,300 worth of amazing products for a whopping 98% off!

Here’s how it works:

Visit their website, take a quick look at all the goodness that comes in this package, then click the “Get my copy now!” button to go through their simple and secure 3-step checkout process.
You’ll receive an email with a login to their online access portal, where you’ll begin downloading your eBooks, signing up for your eCourses, and redeeming your free bonus offers.
Use their Getting Started Guide to pick the topic you want to tackle first and achieve your work-at-home dreams!

The most important detail, though, is that this bundle is available for just six days! After Monday night, June 12th, the sale ends and you’d have to buy all of these products individually.

I’d hate for you to miss out, so CLICK HERE to learn more or buy the bundle.

It’s even backed by a 100% happiness guarantee, so you can make sure it’s right for you.

You deserve to do the work you love. You shouldn’t have to wait any longer to finally find the work freedom you’ve been looking for, or the work + life balance you’ve been waiting to achieve.

Learn more or get your bundle HERE: https://us154.isrefer.com/go/UWAHB17SarahP/a2966

(Psst… the bundle goes away at 11:59pm Eastern on Monday, June 12th, so don’t wait!)

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