I started this post on February 19th. That’s right—nearly a month ago. The irony in that is that the very things I was talking about, such as focusing on your life plan and having a lifestyle business, happened to me. My daughter, the light of my life, got a serious respiratory illness and I had to stop working for a week to take care of her. Then, my husband had knee surgery, and I had to care for him. To top it all off, well, let’s just say we got a little surprise that will be showing up around Halloween sometime, and I’m finding myself so tired and nauseated that working has been difficult for a few weeks. The importance of these events is that I didn’t quit my "regular job" to work from home (and to be with my family more) just to make the people in my life take a back seat to work. What I did was create a true "lifestyle business", employment that would be flexible enough to be second to those that really matter in my life.
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Posts Tagged ‘homepreneur’
A True "Lifestyle Business"
Less, Part 3: The E-mail Diet
I had been using Eudora for my e-mail for a very long time, as it was handed out as part of the computing package at my school, Cornell University. And then I disaster happened: while my mailboxes were compressing, I got an end-of-file error, thereby losing about half of the e-mails in my inbox. I didn’t learn my lesson at that point, however—it took a second time, losing most of my outbox, that I finally realized it was time for a change!
Less, Part 2: Noise
I dropped the ads from my site.
In the end, it had nothing to do with the aesthetics or the influence, but with clarity. I simply felt the ads were distracting me from my true, internal reasons for having this site, and I couldn’t let that happen. The ads were removed, my purpose for this site has been reaffirmed, and all order has been restored.
Which brings me back to my continued goal of Less for 2008: Less Noise. By taking the time to reflect on my true goals and eliminate outside influences in my decision, I came up with the right decision for me—and that is what "less noise" is all about.
Less, Part 1: Time
I have been pondering my goals for this year in the past few weeks, and I have come up with one common thread: Less. How is less a goal, you might ask? Well, I think if I can retrain my habits to keep less in mind, I can actually get more of the things that are meaningful in life, and therefore make my life and my world a better place. So over the next month or so, I will be creating a series of posts that focus on the various ways in which I can aim for less in 2008.
Part 1: Wasting Less Time
When I think of time management, I don’t think of scheduling every minute of my day. Instead, I think of eliminating the things in your daily activities that don’t hold meaning and making room for the things that are important to you. Eliminating time wasters will make you a better and more productive entrepreneur. I’ve processed through my own life and the stories I’ve heard from colleagues, and identified some time wasters that I do during the day. Some of these may be funny to you, but I’m trying to be as honest as possible in order to help you identify and eliminate the time wasters in your own life.
It’s Family Friday
I’m writing this post on my "break". You see, my daughter has been sick for a couple of days—and anyone with a 2-year-old can tell you that a toddler barfing all night is enough to knock a few years off your life span. Instead of actually resting, I thought I’d take a moment on my break from her needs to discuss the balance between work and family with my readers.
Carnival of the Capitalists
Hello, and welcome to the Carnival of the Capitalists for Monday, July 23rd, 2007. I, Nikole Gipps, am your host for today. I maintain 2 blogs: the one you are reading this on, Small Business Essentials, and another one, Web Technology for Entrepreneurs, which is hosted at StartupNation. I also run a web design and marketing firm, NHG Consulting, which mainly works with small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Two notes before I get started: