Our Homes

Did you ever realize just how much our homes and living spaces affect our lives? These days all you hear about is mindfulness and being able to live in the now. There is a slew of mobile applications dedicated for this very purpose. In order to be able to live more consciously, we have to start at home and the design. Our home should be a place where we can nourish our spirits, inspire our minds, and connect to our higher selves and the Divine. Your first job is to understand yourself so that you will be able to create a space that supports you. Secondly, make it beautiful. You should put things around the home that you find beautiful and alluring. When you walk into a room, remember that it is an experience and does not just boil down to the way that it looks. Incorporate all of your senses and understand the feel that you get from the home. Lastly, eliminate stressors. These are the little things that need done around that home that are not urgent and simple such as organizing or fixing something up. There really is no place like home.

Public Speaking Tips

The second worst things about public speaking, other that the actually act of public speaking, is having your audience be completely and utterly bored. You are there to present something in the first place so it must be somewhat important that other people know about it, otherwise you would not be there. It does not matter whether you are presenting on your web development project to your team or unveiling some amazing gadget to the world, the same concepts apply. First, make sure that you make a human connection with the audience. It will make them more engaged and feel like you are talking to them and not at them. As far as the content of your presentation goes, make it simple and use a list. Lists are easy to absorb and remember. Also, do not take yourself too seriously because it will bore your audience and there will be a disconnect. It is ok to crack a couple jokes.

No Backup

What would you do if you realized that there was no internet for the next couple of days? Panic? Hyperventilate? Postulate about how the world is coming to a devastating end with an apocalypse led by zombies? A fiber optic cable was cut by vandals a couple weeks ago in Arizona and left thousands without internet. The infrastructure has some huge vulnerabilities. Because Internet service is largely unregulated by the federal government and the states, decisions about network reliability are left to service providers. Industry analysts say these companies generally do not build alternative routes, or redundancies, unless they believe it is worthwhile financially. This means that most smaller cities and rural areas do not have a backup system if one of the internet routes fails. To be honest, it is to everyone's advantage to have backup. Internet phones are overtaking landlines and they are more cost efficient. The FCC says about half the rural U.S. lacks access to high-speed Internet service. It plans to distribute about $20 billion over the next five years to support rural broadband, but it does not require recipients to build network backup systems against outages. Should there be more regulation at least over the infrastructure?

Great Things About the Cloud

Cloud services can really be the best thing that ever happened to your business. Some of the best aspects about the services is that you can back up and store data there. The data will be automatically backed up so you do not have to worry about losing data anymore. There is usually customer support that comes with the back ups and it all adds up to your business saving money on in-house servers and IT professionals. You can also use the cloud in your business for email. This will enable synchronization for all calendars as well as easy collaboration. The cloud can also be used for web site hosting. This means that you will be spending less on web development because it offers tools to create the site and even templates. The updates and customer services will also be right at your finger tips as well. Cloud services are much more useful for businesses than it was ever imagined. In the long run it will pay for itself because of the increased productivity and efficiency while decreasing the costs of running your business and saving you time.

Keeping Your Business In Check

If you are running a business, there are always going to be great employees and not so great employees. As the owner, you need to be able to make sure that they are really doing what they are being paid to do. One approach is to employee human snoopers. They will pose as customers, come in to the location or call in. Then they will be able to report back to you on how the place is being run. You could also look through your employees files on their desk at least once a month to see if they are really working for the money that you are paying them. Here is a secret that needs to be out: the good employees really resent the employees that do not do their fair share of the work. You can also set up a toll free number for employees to call and leave tips to let management know about the ones that are not doing their job. Lastly, the best way to see what is really going on at your business is to go there, no mobile applications or sophisticated software development required. This is called management by walking around. It is important to see and be seen as well as interact with the people. Do you have any other suggestions?

Take Back That Text

Have you even sent a text that you wished that you could take back? Of course you have, you are human and that is part of the human condition. On the brighter side, technology and communication services have been developed that can help. There is a mobile application called Strings that lets you delete messages from your phone and any phone that you sent it to. The downsides to this apps is that it can prevent the person from receiving the text in the first place and the other phone has to have Strings downloaded as well. Strings isn't the first app that aims to control smartphone screw-ups. Invisible Text lets senders see whether or not the recipient has opened their text yet, and if they haven't, the sender can delete it. Ansa is the "Snapchat of texting," meaning your texts self-destruct after a certain amount of time. Strings say they are different because they let the user control everything from start to finish. Do you use any of these applications?

Need a Moment to Refocus

Do you ever feel like you are web browser with too many tabs open? You are probably focused on everything and nothing and running a bit slower on top of that. There are several great approaches to get you back on track though. The first step is shut everything off and that means completely. You should go to a quiet space where you do not have distractions such phone services or social media. You can even go so far as to shutting your phone off. The second step is to take deep breaths. It helps to connect with your body and get back on track. Once the outer distractions are gone, it's time to deal with the inner voice. Often the workload at hand distracts me. I might have a jumble of client tasks, school projects, column titles, family needs, and more. As it all jumbles around in my head, my brain struggles to keep centered on what's in front of me. That's when I pull out the notebook and make the classic to-do list. Lastly, take a look at that list and prioritize.