Gratitudes
What are you grateful for? Have you recently stopped and given thanks for all the good people and things in your life?
This Thursday, the fourth Thursday in November, is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. While many celebrate it as a day to eat too much good food and watch too many American football games, it can also be a time to stop, reflect, and remember how much we really have.
My gratitude list is long, and grows longer every day. Here’s a few things I am grateful for:
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My son, at 14, still wants to talk to me (at least some of the time!)
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My cat, a constant source of love and entertainment
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My business! It began this year, and continues to grow
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My clients – who help make my business a success
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My FAB VAB (Fabulous Virtual Assistant Bookclub) group! We began as strangers in an online Get Clients Now reading group, and have grown to be a supportive group of friends that occasionally gets around to talking about the books we are reading!
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All the amazing people in my life – both in person and online
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I have more than enough!
When times are hard, and things are going badly, it is easy to forget all the good things you have in your life. A quick list of a few of them can change your perspective and brighten your day.
Have you made your list? What are you grateful for?
A Less Paper Life
Do you ever feel this way?
I often feel I am drowning in paper. From the unwanted fliers in the mail to the multiple announcements my son brings home from school, there is too much paper coming in. And for all the tips and suggestions on how to deal with it, I just want less of it to handle. So I’m attempting to limit the amount of paper I have to deal with, both personal and business. Here’s some steps I’ve discovered that have helped. (WARNING: I am not an attorney or an accountant. Please consult your attorney or accountant about your particular situation.)
To help limit the amount of paper that comes in:
1. Send your name and address to OpOutPrescreen.com and DMAchoice.org to get off credit card and direct marketing lists. Contact any catalogs you receive and have your name removed. The paper won’t stop overnight, but with time you should notice a difference.
2. Receive your bills electronically whenever possible, and use online bill pay. For business purposes, you may need to receive actual statements and checks, but using this option for personal bills will make a difference.
3. Don’t print anything you don’t have to. Does the email have to be printed? Do you really need to print off the one page letter to read it? Carefully consider before you click print. If you download an ebook, scan through it to make sure you think there is material in there you would gain from. If not, you can keep the digital copy in case your needs change.
4. Have documents sent as an email attachment, or faxed to an electronic fax number. Efax\ is probably the best known, but do an internet search to find other providers. The fax is sent as a PDF file to your email address, allowing you to review the document, save it to your computer, and only print out what is necessary.
5. Likewise, if you have a document you want to save the information from, but don’t need the actual item, you can scan it and saving the digital copy. Or, fax it to your electronic fax number, and save the PDF file you receive.
6. Check out a book from the library before purchasing it, or at least visit the library or bookstore and skim through it. Make sure you will really be able to use the book before making the purchase.
7. Can you eliminate magazine and newspaper subscriptions and read online? Or, could you share a subscription with a friend or business associate? You may find you need your own copy of some, but each one you can eliminate reduces the paper coming in.
8. My final tip is not about saving paper, but about protecting the digital copies you make. Back up your computer!! Have more than one back up copy of your important documents. I cannot stress this enough. You should be doing it anyway, but you want to make sure you have multiple digital copies of your documents, especially if you don’t have paper versions. And at least one backup should be off-site. When you least expect it, you will need it. Yes, I know this from experience.
Is it possible to be completely paperless? No, not today. And I’m not sure that should be the goal. Instead, get rid of what is not needed, and look for ways to reduce paper coming in.
What ways have you worked to reduce the paper in your life and business? What paper items have you found that you cannot let go of?
BarCamp Memphis
More fun this Saturday in Memphis!! That’s right, Bar Camp Memphis happens this Saturday, November 14th.
The Unconference takes place at the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering and features expert sessions in the morning, a wonderful lunch, and an afternoon of sessions and Core Convos that are selected by the participants.
After attending SocialCamp in September, I am looking forward to connecting with some great people, and filling my head with more ideas than I can possible handle.
If you are in Memphis, you should be there.
Registration for BarCamp Memphis is easy and online. Come help make Bar Camp Memphis something special!
WordPress How To: Adding Subscription Options
I previously wrote on the importance of giving your blog readers multiple options for subscribing to your blog. One persons’ preference will not be someone else’s, so make sure you offer people options.
It was easy for me to add an RSS and an email option to my WordPress blog, so I created this tutorial to help others do it. If you use a different platform, check the help section for instructions. Also, please note that some WordPress themes may already have these options added to it. Check the one you use – or any new ones you are thinking of adding – and see.
To add subscription options, go to you Dashboard, and click on Appearance, then Widgets.You will need to add a text widget because this is where the code will go. Give it a title that will help your re aders find it. I was extremely creative and original and titled mine “Subscribe to Blog Updates”, but at least it is clear!
Next, you need to get the code for the feed. I used Feedburner. To use them, go to the Feedburner website and sign up (or sign in, if you already have a Google profile), then enter your blog url.
You then get the page for your blog. Across the top of the page are five tabs; click on Publicize. On the left side are a list of options.
Click on Email Subscriptions, and scroll down the page for the subscription code. You have code for two options – a form for people to complete, and a link for them to click on. Decide which one you wish to use, copy the text, then return to your WordPress site and paste the code into the text widget you began earlier.
To add the RSS option, click on the Chicklet Chooser on the left side, then follow the instructions. At the bottom of the page is the code for adding the chicklet to your page. Copy, then paste into the text widget as you did with the email option.
The last thing to do is decide where on your page you want your subscription options to be . From the widget page in WordPress, the right side will show a list of widgets being used. You can click on each one and drag it to a different location. Your subscription options widget needs to be easy to find, because some people will not take time to look for it, no matter how much they like your blog. Make it easy for them! Many blogs put it at or near the top of the page, and that is where I usually look for it.
Finally, go to your blog and take a look. Does everything look OK? Try out the links. Sign up for your own blog feed. That way you know the sign-up process works AND it lets you see how the appear to your subscribers.
So there’s the way to add subscription options to your WordPress blog. If anyone tries this and has any questions, please post a comment or email me and I’ll try to answer them. If you have created a tutorial on adding subscription options to other blogging platforms, please post a comment with the link to help out others.
