May, 2011

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Time Management Tips that DON'T Work -- Yet You Try Them All of the Time

Stephanie LH Calahan

What happens when you get a group of organizing and productivity pros together and ask them a goofy question?  Well. You get this post! Here is a bit of background:  Earlier this week, I shared a link on my Facebook Page called 10 Time Management Tips that Work.   A fabulously fun member of my community, Joseph Gier, replied " well this is much better than that article of 10 time management tips that don't work. "  I laughed and replied, but it got me thinking

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How to Ask for What You Want, Need and Deserve at Work

Eat Your Career

Here’s a hard truth that some of you will hate to hear: If you don’t stand up for yourself and specifically ASK for what you want, need and deserve in the workplace, you probably won’t get it. Most people (your managers, coworkers, clients, etc.) aren’t looking out for anyone but themselves. This shouldn’t surprise or anger you. Yet every day, I meet professionals who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own needs and desires because they’re afraid or embarrassed.

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Eco-Office Gals Green Web Hosting

Eco-Office Gals

Although EOG has been offering green hosting for years, it’s always been on the back burner – an after thought. Not anymore! Welcome to the brand new EOG Green Hosting site. With Eco-Office Gals Green Hosting you get: 130% Wind Powered Servers! We’re not just neutralizing our environmental impact, we’re reversing it! 99.9% Uptime – We PROMISE!

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The Long Tail. A Business Model.

The Small Business Blog

Not so long ago I was asked to give a keynote about how ‘cloud computing’ is changing the world. The keynote I delivered was on how the Internet had changed the world – or as Steve Jobs would put it, ‘made a dent in the Universe!

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The Memory Edge: Outlearn, Outperform, Outlast

Speaker: Chester Santos

Forgetfulness is costing you time, money, and a ton of missed opportunities. In the age of automation, it’s easy to underestimate the power of a well-trained human mind. But memory isn’t just a parlor trick, it's a strategic edge. Human memory is one of the most underrated business skills. Whether you’re managing people, leading sessions, or having high-stakes conversations, remembering names, details, and concepts can be transformative in building trust, absorbing knowledge, and driving perform

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Why Surveys Show Wide Differences in Small Business Social Media Use

Small Business Labs

You many have noticed that different surveys show very different small business social media usage rates. They also show very different views on how effective social media is for small businesses. For example, the Wall Street Journal article Facebook Tops for Small Business reported on a survey that found small businesses quite positive about social media.  Key quote on the survey results: "About seven in 10 small-business owners say they “strongly agree” that social media

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Uncover the Source of Your Information Overload with Xerox’s Business of Your Brain App

Productivity Bits

Copyright © 2011 Marlon Ribunal. Visit the original article at [link]. Guest Post. This is a guest post by Christa Carone, Chief Marketing Officer at Xerox. I was originally asked by Xerox’s PR to try and review this Microsoft Outlook plugin called “Business Of Your Brain App&# from Xerox. For security reason, I couldn’t use this plugin because it is not an approved app for use in my work’s email (I use Gmail / Yahoo for my personal email).

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How Your Weaknesses Can Make You Strong

Eat Your Career

Let’s talk about your weaknesses, shall we? Yes, I’m looking at you. Take a seat. Get comfortable. I know it hurts to hear, but you’re not perfect. Don’t worry. No one expects you to be. We all have weaknesses because (surprise!) we’re human. Knowing them—and effectively addressing them—can be a powerful tool in the professional world. Pretending like they don’t exist, on the other hand, can have tragic consequences.

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Announcing my first book: The Hidden Power of Your Customers

Customers Rock!

I am so excited to share the news with all of you that I have a book coming out in July! And it is thanks to you, my faithful Customers Rock! readers, that it is happening. The book is called The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Four Keys to Growing Your Business Through Existing Customers , being published by John Wiley & Sons. The hardcover edition will be released on July 20, with eReader versions to follow.

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How to Praise Good Performance

Ian's Messy Desk

You should remember that, as a supervisor, you’ll always get what you reward. if you ignore good behaviour, you may lose it and perhaps a good employee as well. While this may appear to be common sense, it is far from common practice. We like to be recognized for doing good work. We crave praise , but do not always like to give praise. One of your jobs as manager is to make sure you give out praise as often as possible.

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Top 5 Tips For Getting Local Press coverage

The Small Business Blog

The weekly top 5 tips post is always full of helpful hints and advice for small, home and micro business owners. 1. If your product or service is revolutionary, it will be able to generate press regardless of the geographic area in which you operate. 2. Show your face at big industry conferences and events.

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Your Accounting Expertise Will Only Get You So Far: What Really Matters

Speaker: Victor C. Barnes, CPA, MBA

In the climb from contributor to leader, the rules quietly change. If you’re aiming for the summit, the air gets thinner—and what got you here won’t be enough to get you to the top (a concept first popularized by Marshall Goldsmith in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There ). What made you successful early in your finance career—technical accuracy, sharp analysis, flawless execution—won’t be what carries you to the next level.

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How Not To Overload Your To-Do List

Productivity Bits

Copyright © 2011 Marlon Ribunal. Visit the original article at [link]. Post written by Marlon Ribunal. Follow me on t witte r. What is the first thing that you do in the morning when you sit down in front of your desk? If you answered “check email&# , “listen to voice messages&# , or “sort pile of documents&# , then you’re wrong.

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Best Business Technology for Small Businesses & Their Owners (28 ideas from them to you!)

Stephanie LH Calahan

" Stephanie you are such a geek." That is what I heard from her as we were talking on the phone.  OK!  I'll own that.  I like to share various tools that help to make you more productive. I laughed, and that statement led us to an interesting conversation about technology and how much or how little different people use of it in their business life.  Even if you are not the most technical person on your block, you probably have some form of technology in your l

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Help! My Boss Is a Jerk

Eat Your Career

I’m not naming names but I’ve worked for some pretty difficult people in my life. Oh, who am I kidding? They were jerks. It’s probably just the nature of the professional world. Some people are cut out for management and some aren’t. But what do you do when you’re stuck with a boss who’s a real pain in the you-know-what? Below, I’ve listed a few of my recommendations.

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Thoughts on Memorial Day

Tips From T. Marie

Starting your own business is the stuff the ‘ American Dream ’ is made of. The fact is that in the U.S.A., anyone with the passion and drive to take their dream to reality can do so. It’s one of our freedoms. We should never, ever forget that those freedoms come at a price. I’m taking a few minutes today to say thank you to those who serve, have served and have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.

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How To Overcome Change Fatigue In Finance With Neuroscience-Backed Strategies

Speaker: Kim Beynon, CPA, CGMA, PMP

The most overlooked, yet most critical, element of transformation is preparing people for change. Automation and AI aren't just technical upgrades, they’re cultural shifts which can challenge identities. That’s why change management isn’t a side project—it’s the foundation. In finance, where precision and process rule, navigating change can feel especially disruptive.

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5 Common Communication Mistakes

Ian's Messy Desk

Image via Wikipedia. Good communication and interpersonal relationships are imperative to overall business performance and sustainability. Yet they tend to be neglected in terms of their importance. Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, once said that 60% of all management problems are the result of poor communication. While poor business decisions can cause the ultimate failure of a business, many businesses become torn apart and fail because of communication and relationship problems

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Top 5 Tips for Preventing Business Failure

The Small Business Blog

The weekly top 5 tips post is always full of helpful hints and advice for small, home and micro business owners. 1. It helps to be prepared, but over preparation can distract you from the important task of actually getting started and making money. Not everything needs to be perfect first. 2.

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Top 10 Productivity Tools For Chromebook

Productivity Bits

Copyright © 2011 Marlon Ribunal. Visit the original article at [link]. Post written by Marlon Ribunal. Follow me on t witte r. Around December last year (2010) Google launched a pilot program in which they gave away thousands of notebook units they called “Cr-48″ – a prototype of the Chrome OS-based notebook. That prototype has now been fully developed and released as Chromebook which according to Google is: “A mobile device designed specifically for people who live on th

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Productive Communication: You Don't Have to Yell To Be Heard - Part 1

Stephanie LH Calahan

Sometimes productivity has to do with systems and processes.  I've written about that a lot recently, but often it is about effective communication too.  If you don't have good ways to communicate in your team or with your clients, the systems and processes fall flat.  Today I'll talk about some critical steps you can take to make sure that your communication and that of your team works.

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Breaking The Commerce Bottleneck: Your SAP Exit Plan Starts Now

Speaker: Jason Cottrell and Gireesh Sahukar

Retailers know the clock is ticking–legacy SAP Commerce support ends in 2026. Legacy platforms are becoming a liability burdened by complexity, rigidity, and mounting operational costs. But modernization isn’t just about swapping out systems, it’s about preparing for a future shaped by real-time interactions, AI powered buying assistants, and flexible commerce architecture.

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Mobile Marketing for Small Business Online Event

Small Business Labs

Mobile marketing has become a key to local business success.  According to Network Solutions: "One in three searches on mobile is local.  After searching for a business:  61% call the business, 59% visit the business; 88% take action the same day." To learn more about mobile marketing, attend the Network Solutions free online Livestream on mobile marketing on May 17th, from 1:30 to 2:30pm eastern, 10:30 to 11:30 pacific.  The session will cover.

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Earth-Minded Storage and Packing Solutions: Five Sustainable Business Storage Strategies

Eco-Office Gals

There’s a certain sense of purpose that comes with fresh cardboard boxes and the loud swak of wielding a tape gun with reckless abandon. Add a few jumbo-sized smelly permanent markers, and boxing up old office files and materials seems almost adventurous. But the novelty quickly wears off. Stuff gets tossed haphazardly in boxes, the permanent marker labeling becomes indecipherable, and by the time the boxes are ready to be dumped into a storage unit you could care less about anything other

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Use Mind Maps for Better Notes and Ideas

Ian's Messy Desk

Image via Wikipedia. A neat page of notes or a well-structured outline might not be the most effective way to capture and organize your thoughts. A page of something that looks like scribbles, complete with drawings, arrows and plenty of colour, may be just the “structure&# you need. A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea.

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What is Mentoring?

The Small Business Blog

Running a business can sometimes be a very lonely affair. Decisions are always on the to-do list, having someone as a sounding board can be an invaluable asset to every small business owner. Business mentors are one group of people who can be your sounding boards.

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Automation, Evolved: Your New Playbook for Smarter Knowledge Work

Speaker: Frank Taliano

Documents are the backbone of enterprise operations, but they are also a common source of inefficiency. From buried insights to manual handoffs, document-based workflows can quietly stall decision-making and drain resources. For large, complex organizations, legacy systems and siloed processes create friction that AI is uniquely positioned to resolve.

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Producteev: Task Management Application

Productivity Bits

Copyright © 2011 Marlon Ribunal. Visit the original article at [link]. Guest Post. This is a guest post from Judi Huck. Judi is the community manager of the task management application Producteev.com. She is an active member of several community management groups and passionate about inspiring others to become contributors – whether in the Producteev community or elsewhere.

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Is Quiet Time Productive?

Stephanie LH Calahan

The other day I mentioned on Twitter that the "in-between" time where you are in a waiting pattern can be the most non-productive.  @pinwheelgirl shared her perspective and it inspired this post.  To see our conversation, take a look at the picture to the right.  The most recent comment is on top and historical follows.  Do you experience quiet time?

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Top 10 Emerging Technologies 2011

Small Business Labs

Each year MIT's Technology Review chooses 10 emerging technologies they think will have the greatest impact on the world.  This year's top 10 are: Social Indexing. Smart Transformers. Gestural Interfaces. Cancer Genomics. Solid State Batteries. Homomorphic Encryption. Cloud Streaming. Crash Proof Code. Separating Chromosomes. Synthetic Cells.

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Special Price: StudioPress Pro Plus All-Theme Pack

Eco-Office Gals

An important announcement has been released regarding EOG’s favorite theme company. Studiopress will be raising the price on their Pro Plus All-Theme Package next week. If you’re not familiar, the Pro Pack gives you all 36 current child themes, *plus all future child themes* with updates and support for each. The price has been $249.95 forever, even though they’ve added tons of new child themes in the last 6 months alone.

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Navigating Payroll Compliance: Future-Proofing Payroll in an Evolving Regulatory Landscape

Speaker: Jennifer Hill

Payroll compliance is a cornerstone of business success, yet for small and midsize businesses, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of federal, state, and local regulations. Mistakes can lead to costly penalties and operational disruptions, making it essential to adopt advanced solutions that ensure accuracy and efficiency.

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8 Simple Ways to Encourage Others

Ian's Messy Desk

Encouragement goes straight to the heart. In fact, the word itself comes from a combination of the prefix “en” which means “to put into” and the Latin word “cor” which means heart. Knowing what a big difference encouragement makes in your own life, what can you do to help others “to take heart” when things get tough or you want to acknowledge a job well-done?

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The Referral Engine by John Jantsch

The Small Business Blog

Word of Mouth – in my opinion not only the best way to gain new customers, but also the most cost-effective way, is always something to talk about, because happy customers are your word of mouth referral agents, totally free of charge.

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Learning Lessons, Cheetah Style!

Virtual Moxie

Over the weekend, I saw the Disney movie African Cats. If you haven’t seen it, do. It’s beautiful and amazing, and you’ll feel so very good by the time you leave the theatre. In the middle of it, I did something I never do in a movie—I whipped out my Blackberry and took some notes to help me write this post to share with you. Horrible movie behavior, I know, and I'm glad I did it (fwiw, I wouldn't have done it, except there were only six of us in the theatre, and I knew I wouldn't bother a soul)

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We are Fighting Against Cancer & Relaying For Life on Saturday - Check Out This Great Organizing Package

Stephanie LH Calahan

I do not normally post regarding personal causes, but this one is near and dear to the Calahan Solutions, Inc. family.  Ellen Hankes is a very dear friend, consultant with Calahan Solutions and CPO-CD.  I have written about her many times here on Productive & Organized. Her speciality is working with those that are chronically disorganized and/or hoarders.  She is a positive light to everyone she comes in contact with.

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Mastering Remote Onboarding: Proven Strategies for Seamless New Hire Integration

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

Join this brand new webinar with Tim Buteyn to learn how you can master the art of remote onboarding! By the end of this session, you'll understand how to: Craft a Tailored Onboarding Checklist 📝 Develop a comprehensive, customized checklist that ensures every new hire has a smooth transition into your company, no matter where they are in the world.