We’ve Got You Covered…Virtually!!!
This week we received a huge box measuring 18″ x 18″ x 6″. Wow, I couldn’t imagine what was in this box. It turned out to be a small item measuring 2″ x 2″ x 2″ weighing 1 pound. The box weighed 3 pounds.
Now with the Post Office raising it’s shipping costs and the economy as it is, wouldn’t you think shippers would get real – stop wasting shipping materials and charging exorbitant prices for shipping. We do have an idea what it costs and don’t appreciate the waste.
Share and enjoy…
Do you put off important work until the last minute? So do I. That makes us both procrastinators. In fact, this article was due weeks ago. But since you didn’t know that, you weren’t missing it, were you?
Only my editors suffer from my work habits. At least, that’s what I try to tell myself.
Procrastination costs the country untold millions — if not billions — of dollars, though. Missed deadlines create a cascade of problems in a complex, interconnected economy.
California can’t seem ever to turn out a timely budget, scads of Americans recently waited weeks and weeks for tardy stimulus checks, and delayed software releases even have their own name, “vaporware.”
However, procrastination is not all bad, and not all procrastinators are deficient performers. For example, graduate students are more likely than undergraduates to procrastinate, in spite of being statistically superior students.
Artists often revel in pulling all-nighters full of blasts of creativity and production. The peculiar genius of desperation and 4 a.m. logic is a fecund contributor to the national product. In fact, a little procrastination may be part of living an ambitious and energetic life.
But what about when procrastination goes critical? When relationships are ruined, spouses feel betrayed, bosses are disgusted, and a person is frozen, frustrated, and disillusioned with that nonperformer staring back in the mirror? That’s when procrastination is an enemy to mental health.
“In personal relationships, if you say you’ll do something and you don’t do it, people begin not to trust you,” says clinical psychologist Linda Sapadin. “If they can’t trust you to do what you say you’ll do, that’s passive-aggressive, and it creates a lot of disturbance in relationships.”
Dr. Sapadin is a national specialist in procrastination, and author of “It’s About Time! The Six Styles of Procrastination and How to Overcome Them.” In addition to her private practice based on Long Island, she speaks to
Classifying procrastinators
It turns out not all procrastinators are alike. Dr. Sapadin’s taxonomy identifies six different types. You may recognize yourself in one or more of these:
Perfectionists – They want every project to be perfect, and this often causes them to be frozen in fear that they cannot meet such an unrealistic goal, even though they set the goal themselves.
Dreamers – These people suffer from magical thinking. “It’ll all work out,” they say, while they do nothing to advance their goals.
Crisis Makers – They often say they do their best work under pressure, but more accurately, they prefer uproar and crisis to do any work at all.
Worriers – Their fears consume their thought processes and prevent any real work being done, as they imagine and dwell upon every possible scenario for disaster and failure.
Defiers – These people may resent the assignments in the first place, and retake control over their lives by refusing to do the work in a timely and cooperative manner, or at all.
Overdoers – Also known as “the pleasers,” these people can’t say no, and so take on more and more responsibility without any reasonable expectation of being able to deliver on their obligations.
One of the more fascinating findings in the research literature about procrastinators is that time-management training doesn’t really help. Procrastinators know perfectly well how to manage time; they just don’t want to do their work that way!
When Dr. Sapadin was considering writing her book, “All the existing books had to do with time management or getting organized, but for most people it [procrastination] related to some glitch in their personality style,” she says.
So procrastinators have to change their thinking, rather than improve their knowledge of time-management techniques. For more on this, check out Dr. Sapadin’s Web site psychwisdom.com.
For example, perfectionists have to tell themselves, “This doesn’t have to be perfect. Good enough is just fine. It is more important to be done on time than to do a perfect job. Perfection is unattainable anyway, and it’s not what my boss or professor wants.”
Crisis makers may need to tell themselves, “I don’t really do my best work under pressure. That’s just a habit I have. I can do more work if I start sooner, and I’ll probably find that some of that work is just as creative and interesting as the work I might do under pressure.”
It is this sort of cognitive reprogramming that leads to change.
Procrastination is extremely common in academic settings. In fact, the overwhelming majority of students procrastinate. The American Psychological Association has a guide for educators on how to deal with different types of procrastinating students, “Counseling the Procrastinator in Academic Settings.”
Is Procrastination Healthy?
By Don Asher
It turns out that procrastination is, in fact, a time-management technique. When it’s not a destructive force, it allows workers to be hyperproductive in bursts. It’s an antidote to that old maxim, “The assignment expands to fill the available time.” It’s a way to contain an assignment within a smaller block of time.
To see how procrastination works when it is a force for good, I decided to interview some top students about their work habits. The following students are all top performers.
Ginger White, a McNair Scholar and a senior at Indiana University — Purdue University Indianapolis, readily admits to procrastinating.
“I do work better under pressure, and I’m easily distracted. Little things get in the way, until the deadline gets near.” For the final push, though, she says she gathers all the books and reference materials she needs to do the assignment.
“Then, I sit there. I don’t care how long it takes. I sit there. I’m in the zone, and the ideas just come, and if I were to try to do this two weeks early, the ideas just wouldn’t be there.”
This seems to be working for her, as she has a 3.9 GPA in new media and computer sciences.
Brandon Lewis, a music education major at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and also a McNair Scholar, says he procrastinates “all the time.” But he sees a benefit to it.
”When I have a big paper due, I might put it off,” he says, but “I’m planning out how I’m going to do it, planning when to do it. I’m thinking about it constantly.” So this type of mental rehearsal and preparation helps him get ready to be productive.
Dominique Booker, a double major in criminal justice and political science at Anderson University in Indiana, says her busy schedule of activities sometimes makes her delay schoolwork.
“I have good intentions, but I’m involved in a lot of stuff,” says Booker. “I’m vice president of the Multicultural Student Association and a delegate on the legal committee for the Model United Nations, and I take these seriously. There’s a lot of work and research for these projects, and sometimes I put these ahead of my regular schoolwork.”
But then, like Ginger White, she gets in the zone.
“I get all the library books and articles, and I just do it. I just start reading, highlighting, taking notes, collecting resources and citations, and I work straight through, usually. I normally do it all day, even if it takes several days. I’ve worked as much as a week straight, usually every afternoon and night, say 4 p.m. to 2 or 3 in the morning.”
She recommends academic procrastinators make sure they have all the books and resources they need well before the deadline, or other students may have them checked out.
Then again, there are students like Martsyl Joseph, who is just finishing her Master of Public Administration degree at IUPUI and will be going on to law school in the fall.
“I don’t procrastinate anymore,” she says. Joseph overcommitted to activities as an undergrad, she admits, but in graduate school she stays on task.
“The key is to know your limit. Understand that you can’t do everything, even though you want to. Pick and choose what’s most important to you, and stick to those one or two things. And put education first. You’ll have plenty of time after you graduate to do all that other stuff.”
So, if procrastination is not debilitating, it may be useful. But if it is debilitating, training in time-management skills is unlikely to achieve a change in behavior. You’ll need to change the way you think about your work. For myself, I’m going to get on the next article due, right away. Just as soon as I …
Card, card, everywhere – a card! Bursting out my wallet! Breaking my mind! Spend this, spend that, can’t you use the card! (To the lyrics of “Signs”).
Ok, so I can be offbeat sometimes! But dang, is everyone else as fed up as I am about having to use a “store card” just to get a skimpy discount??? The grocery store, the pharmacy, the hardware store, the clothing store, the pet store, the office supply store, the liquor store, the bagel store, the Stewart’s milk card and the list goes on and on.
And then there’s the rebate deal! If it wasn’t enough to have to fill out all those forms, cut out the UPC code, mail it – now they don’t even send checks. I got a rebate debit card from my last Staples purchase. The letter said it can be used anywhere Visa is accepted. The hardware store wouldn’t take it, the clothing store wouldn’t take it, so I decided to use it for gas – we’ll see what happens. However, I think the clerks just don’t know how to ring it through. At any rate, it has been a pain-in-the-you-know-what!
When does this all END! Come on retailers and stop this card nonsense. It costs more money, time and aggrevation that it is worth. Just lower your prices and we’ll still come to your store. My wallet is weighing me down and unfortunately, not with money.
Ok, so what does this have to do with being a Virtual Assistant? Nothing and everything! Retailers always have a huge markup which lends itself to discounts. Some VAs give discounts, some don’t. However, think about this. Would you expect an employee to offer you a discount on their wages just for working 20-40 hours/week? I think not! An important part of hiring a VA should be about experience, quality of work, integrity, and a personality you can work with. A first look at what a VA charges versus an in-office employee may seem more expensive. However, when you take into consideration that a VA pays their overhead expenses including equipment, software, utilities, etc, and you only pay for time worked, it truly is a bargain. And look, no card!!!
Enjoy the rest of your summer. We’ll be here…
We all love summer and vacation time! It’s what life is about! But what if you have a business to run? Can you ever really take time off? In the age of laptops and Blackberries, we seem to always be connected. It’s as important to take a well-needed and probably well-deserved vacation as it is to work. Vacation rejuvenates and revitalizes us. Your time spent with family is just as important as your work. So, yes, you have permission to turn off that cell phone and don’t answer those emails. But…but…but – I can just hear your objections now. While I said it’s ok to take time off, I also think it’s still important to be accountable. Here’s a couple great suggestions to help you enjoy your vacation and be accountable:
1) Voicemail: Set up your voicemail to indicate you are on vacation with limited access to voice and email, who the caller can contact in case of emergency (ie; partner, colleague, friend), and your expected date of return.
2) Email: Outlook and most email client software provides an autoresponder feature. You can utilize this to send an email on your behalf with the same information as above.
More times than not, people will respect you are on vacation; and whatever they need, can wait. More importantly, it lends credibility and accountability.
So go…enjoy your time off! See you when you get back to the office!
In my opinion, the answer is ‘yes’! It’s about image and how you portray your business when working from home. Having a second phone line allows you to answer the phone appropriately. Let the kids have the home phone! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called someone with a home business, only to have the kids answer the phone inappropriately or worse yet, not answer call waiting because they are talking to their friends. Think about how you would feel. What about that incoming fax you won’t receive because your home phone system doesn’t quite seem to understand the difference between voice and data.
Giving yourself a professional image with a second phone line for your business and fax doesn’t need to be costly. There are several options available today. Sign up at www.efax.com for free incoming faxes directly to your computer. Paperless – it’s a wonderful thing!
If you are interested in a second business line for around $25/month which includes local, regional and long distance, please contact me at options@virtuallyyours925.com. We will be happy to provide you with our research findings so that you can make the best possible choice for you.
Have you ever found this really great website and wanted to send it a friend or colleague via email, but the URL was super long? If the link is too long, by the time it reaches the email recipient, the link could wind up broken because it’s split over a couple of lines. Unfortunately your recipient won’t be able to view the great site you sent. Here’s a tip to shorten that link to alleviate that situation once and for all!
Happy snipping everyone!!!!
The Virtual Assistant industry is booming and with good reason. Virtual Assistants are on your team without being in your office. They can work virtually anywhere in the age of laptops, Blackberries and Web conferencing. VA’s provide a wide range of personalized support that you wouldn’t typically find with an in-office Administrative Assistant. VA’s are tech savvy and provide web design, web maintenance, social marketing (ie; Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc), bookkeeping, travel arrangements, scheduling and various other administrative tasks.
The entrepreneur or small business owner truly benefits by hiring a virtual office assistant that will allow them to:
Until next time!!!
Virtual Assistant’s (VAs) are indeed “real”. We perform real tasks for real clients in real home offices. We have real schedules with real office hours. My days starts around 6:00 am with household duties (feeding pets, laundry, a bit of cleaning, some exercise, and a shower) and then off to my office with a start time of 9:00 AM promptly! Yes, VA’s actually get dressed for work, maybe not the typical suit and heels, but most often not PJs or sweats.
More and more, it’s becoming a virtual business world. Entrepreneurs of all stripes use virtual assistants, virtual office space, virtual employees and even virtual capital. The virtual phenomenon is transforming how millions of small, successful firms operate. Under the virtual model, biz owners outsource nearly everything – including people and partners who may be anywhere. The technologies and services to tie it all together are becoming more sophisticated, but less expensive, helping fuel the move to virtual existence.
VA’s are here to stay. More next time.
Hello, I am Rhonda Parker, Owner of Virtually Yours 9-2-5. We are a virtual assistant company providing virtual assistance to entrepreneurs and small business professionals. You might be thinking, “What is a Virtual Assistant or VA and why would I need one?”
A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services. Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a contractual basis. Here are my top 10 reasons why you should consider hiring a VA today.
Committed Partner: VA’s familiarize themselves with their client’s businesses. The goal is to establish long-term relationships to positively impact a client’s business as well as their own business. You have a committed partner and advocate at your service to help you grow your business rather than a “temporary employee”. Our success hinges on the success of your business. We are eager to go above and beyond.
Entrepreneurs: We are entrepreneurs who have invested in our businesses. We work from home, market our services, prospect for clients, and provide a service the same as other entrepreneurs and small business owners. Therefore, we know what you are going through. As an entrepreneur, you probably went into business for yourself so you’d have more time for family. But with all the hats you are wearing, you will soon find you are working more and spending even less time with your family. Take time out to see exactly what administrative tasks you are doing that could easily be transferred to a VA.
Cost Reduction: You have no expenses associated with benefits such as vacation, 401k, sick time, down-time or over-time pay. Nor do you have expenses associated with insurance such as unemployment, Worker’s Comp, FICA or employer Social Security taxes. You do not need to provide office space and equipment. You benefit by experiencing the results of the work effort without having the headaches and expenses often associated with managing in-office employees. 100% tax write off for you!
Flexibility: You have access to services outside of normal business hours. We are only a phone call away!
Business Acumen and Foresight: Since VA’s are entrepreneurs, they often have the foresight to look ahead to anticipate and help solve any potential problems that may arise for you.
Experience: Most VA’s have 10-30 years experience in various industries.
Trained and Certified: VA’s are highly trained, skilled and in some instances have received VA Certification from a respected provider.
No Loss of Privacy: You have no loss of privacy if your office is located within your home.
Resourceful: VA’s may not have all the answers. However, it is important to know VA’s usually know where to go for the answers. We have developed our own network of entrepreneurs for services. When you have your own VA, you are able to tap into their resources thus doubling your resources and network of entrepreneurs.
Consistent and Efficient: VA’s assistants are available whenever you need them, so they’re able to provide you with consistent and efficient service. With VA’s you only pay for the time worked to the minute! We hope you will consider hiring a VA today!
