. Emails . Phone . Meetings

The increase in productivity from investing a small amount of
time in efficiently managing these activities upfront is more
than worth the result.

EMAIL MANAGEMENT

Keeping up with the daily onslaught of emails is a major
challenge for most of us, both personally & professionally. The
following tips will help you manage the daily flow of emails:

. Create an electronic filing cabinet, much like the physical
cabinets you have, with electronic folders for category names

. Once emails have been read and responded to (if an action is
required), move the email from your inbox to your storage
folders. This makes it easy to track which emails still need an
action. Many companies impose limits on “inbox” size. By moving
your mail out of your inbox to a personal folder, an added
benefit is that the restriction on size will not interrupt your
day at precisely the moment you need to send an email.

. If your email program includes previous email content for that
email string when replying, be sure to delete earlier versions
of the string to avoid redundant emails filed. This makes it
much easier to find the latest copy in the string when searching
later.

. If your email has an attachment file, detach and save it as a
file in your electronic filing system for future reference, so
you won’t have to go searching through your emails to find the
file later. Relying on email subject headings can create a time
consuming search for the file later.

. If you frequently send the same type of email, save a copy as
a draft or template that you can reuse over & over (changing the
specifics such as name, date and amount for each email)

. If a document is available electronically, but you refer to it
frequently, print it and keep it in a hanging file or on your
desktop.

. Every 6 months or so, go through your folders and delete
emails no longer needed. This will save disk space and make your
searches more streamlined.

PHONE MANAGEMENT

. When you leave a voice mail for someone, if the issue you are
calling about is a straightforward question, ask it on voice
mail to avoid playing telephone tag. Also, encourage the
responder to leave the answer on your voice mail if they miss
you. However, if the issue is complex, do not leave a lengthy
voice mail explaining the issue (out of consideration for the
recipient).

. If you know you will be in meetings or unavailable at certain
times, let the person know o avoid voice mail telephone tag.

. If you are in the middle of a complex task that requires an
uninterrupted thought process, let voice mail answer the phone.
Otherwise, take the call to avoid a pile up of messages to
return later.

. Phone messages should be responded to within 24 hours. If you
have been too tied up to answer a question or inquiry, at least
respond to the person who called to let them know that, and then
give them an expected date by which you will have the answer for
them. This way you still seem responsive, even if you cannot
address their request immediately.

MEETING MANAGEMENT

. When calling a meeting, always draft an agenda and attach it
to the meeting invitation. The agenda will serve multiple
purposes:

o Help attendees prepare for the meeting o Provide a sense of
time allocated to each subject, so attendees can be mindful of
intended time allotments o Focus attention on the key issues to
discuss (in case the meeting agenda gets sidetracked) o
Demonstrate to others that you value their time & intend to make
the meeting productive

This work equally well for small or large meetings, but becomes
even more essential to productivity with a large meeting

. After the meeting, it is helpful to prepare “meeting minutes”.
The minutes provide a summary of the key points discussed, and
the associated outcomes and action items. They serve as a
helpful recap for the attendees, as well as others who could not
attend, but who have an interest in the subject matter. A track
record of accurate meeting minutes also helps to keep meeting
size to a manageable volume, as all of the affected parties will
feel less of a need to attend the meeting in order to understand
its’ directional outcomes.

. The day before the meeting, make sure to arrange for copying
of any required handouts.

. If co-workers are always dropping by for impromptu meetings,
don’t hesitate to create a “Do Not Disturb” time to be used for
those complex thinking projects, where being interrupted has a
big impact on your train of thought.

Copyright 2004-All rights reserved

About the author:
As The Organizing Wiz, Ilene Drexler works with clients who want
to get organized in their home or offices. As a member of the
National Association of Professional Organizers and the National
Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, Ilene is a part of the
industry’s leading resources for professional organizing.

The Organizing Wiz Phone 917-301-1981 Email:
ilene@organizingwiz.com
url: www.organizingwiz.com

Many parents today really try to be better parents than their
parents were. They attempt to be there for their children – to
listen to them, support them, spend time with them, as well as
hold and nurture them. Their children grow up feeling loved and
valued by these loving parents, yet often these same children
struggle as adults in many areas of their lives. I have numerous
clients who tell me that they had wonderful parents who truly
loved and nurtured them, yet these clients are struggling with
their work, their relationships, or their lives in general. Why
is this?

The common issue is that their parents did not role model for
them personal responsibility for their own feelings, needs, and
physical health. They did not teach them through their own
behavior how to take good care of themselves physically or
emotionally.

So, what are you teaching your children through your own
behavior? Do you role model following your passions, or do you
spend your spare time watching TV? Do you role model taking good
care of your health, or do you smoke cigarettes, eat badly and
get little exercise? Do you have a spiritual practice that is
meaningful to you and moves you into your heart, or do you stay
mostly in your head? Do you have a process for managing your
conflicts with others, or do you tend to withdraw, get angry,
resist or comply as a way to control or avoid conflict? Do your
children see you avoiding life’s difficulties with alcohol,
drugs, gambling, spending, TV or other addictive behavior, or
learning from life’s challenges? Are you boring because you just
try to be safe and maintain the status quo, or do you extend
yourself and take some risks that result in aliveness and
vitality?

A client of mine was recently struggling with the lack of
passion in her life. I asked her if her parents were passionate
about anything. “No,” she said. “The smoked constantly, drank
beer, and watched TV. They were nice to me, but they were both
sick a lot and both died at young ages. I never saw either of
them excited about anything.” This woman in her late forties had
no idea of how to discover her passions and her life felt dead
to her. Her husband had expressed a lack of interest in her
because he actually found her to be boring, and was no longer
sexually interested in her. This is what brought her to work
with me.

Let’s take the role modeling a little further. Are you honest,
or do you let your children think it’s okay to withhold the
truth or even lie outright. Do you role model integrity, or do
you behave in ways that you would not want announced in a
newspaper? Do you stand up for yourself, or do you let others
walk all over you? Do you tolerate abusive situations or do your
children see you take action in your own behalf?

It’s very important to realize that, while being there for your
children is vital, it is only half of good parenting. The other
half is being there for yourself with honesty, courage and
integrity. It’s not enough to treat your children with love. You
need to treat yourself with love as well if you want your
children to grow up knowing how to take loving care of
themselves.

If your parents did not role model treating themselves lovingly,
the chances are you don’t know how to do it for yourself.
Treating yourself lovingly is something that is a learned skill.
The six-step Inner Bonding process (see our FREE course at
www.innerbonding.com) was developed specifically for this
purpose. The best thing you can do for yourself and your
children is learn these six powerful steps and practice them on
a daily basis. Your children will naturally learn how to take
responsibility for themselves – for their health and emotional
well-being – as you learn to do this for yourself. Give yourself
and your children the gift of the joy that comes from truly
loving yourself!

About the author:
Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of
eight books, including “Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By
You?”, “Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By My Kids?”,
“Healing Your Aloneness”,”Inner Bonding”, and “Do I Have To Give
Up Me To Be Loved By God?” Visit her web site for a FREE Inner
Bonding course: http://www.innerbonding.com

Inattention: The most visible and well-known behavior of a child
with attention deficit issues is an inability to maintain
attention and focus over an extended period of time. This
behavior shows up in a variety of situations, such as forgetting
or confusing instructions that were just given, being
inattentive when involved in a conversation, growing bored of
activities within moments, appearing to be in a daze or day
dream, and being unable to complete tasks.

Hyperattention: Paradoxically, the same ADD child who cannot
stay focused enough to finish many common tasks will have no
problem whatsoever in focusing on a video game or TV show for
hours. This ability to hyper-focus on chosen activities is very
common in the child with Attention Deficit Disorder. This
behavior is possible only because the child pursues the
desirable activity through a heightened level of excitement
which is a controlled form of hyperactivity.

Distractibility: An ADD child can be easily distracted from most
activities by any form of stimulus in the environment (movement,
color, sound), as well as by their own scattered, fast-moving
thoughts. This results in half-finished or poorly completed
tasks, constant minor non-compliances with known rules,
zig-zagging from one activity to another, and the inability for
the child to do well in group situations (such as school) where
compliance with the rules is important.

Impulsivity: An ADD child will often blurt out information in
inappropriate ways and make poor decisions relative to their
actions. This child may risk his or her own safety without a
second thought, running into the street, climbing to the top of
a tree or rock formation, or jumping or diving into a pool
without checking the depth. The child with ADD acts on impulse
rather than through logic or problem-solving. Impulsivity in
many ADD children can also be characterized by impatience or
temperamental (often oppositional) behavior since the ADD child
often feels a driving need for something (anything!) to happen
immediately.

Hyperactivity: Of all the characteristics of an ADD child, the
behavior that is most difficult for those around the child to
accept is the presence of hyperactivity. The child with
hyperactivity is always in motion — touching, searching,
pushing, jumping, running, tapping, and squabbling with friends
and siblings. The hyperactive ADD child seems to need a high
level of stimulation at all times in order to feel OK.
Hyperactivity will also be seen in the form of a child who talks
incessantly, clowns around all of the time, and finds every
other form of trouble that a parent can name.

Insatiability: The ADD child has an insatiable need for
attention to be brought onto himself. While all children thrive
on adult attention, focus and concern, the child with ADD can
never seem to get enough. They act out, talk incessantly, joke
around, monopolize conversations, demand the teacher’s constant
involvement, show off to friends, and badger incessantly until
they get their way.

Clumsiness and Poor Coordination: Many ADD children exhibit
problems with fine motor control. This can be seen in poor
handwriting and in difficulty performing other routine tasks
such as buttoning buttons or tying shoelaces. When combined with
the child’s inability to plan or organize a flow of activities,
the resulting outcome (written paper, self-dressing, etc.) may
appear chaotic and disorganized. Many ADD children also exhibit
gross motor control clumsiness due to poor motor planning
cognitive skills or other co-existing weaknesses in areas such
as balance, depth-perception or eye-hand coordination.

Disorganization: The ADD child is a study in disorganization!
Whether it is the state of the child’s room, the organization of
a term paper, the set up of the child’s school supplies and
workspace, grooming, dressing and hygiene skills, or any other
aspect of the child’s life, the most probable outcome will be a
disorganized mess. This results from the ADD child’s impulsivity
(jumping at any solution), distractibility (stopping in the
middle of any activity), hyperactivity (pulling out and tearing
apart everything in sight), and inattention (they lose interest
anyway!).

Mood Swings: With an ADD child, everything is always at
extremes, and their range of emotions is no different. In some
cases, they can be extremely domineering and controlling as they
seek to gain attention for themselves. In other cases, they can
be unreachable, and no amount of discipline or parental
intervention seems to have an effect. When an child with ADD is
“stuck” in the emotions of the moment, there seems to be no way
for reasonable discussions to bypass the emotional whirlwind in
progress. ADD children can be described as oppositional,
stubborn, overly-dramatic, flighty, ecstatically happy or
excessively sensitive, just to name a few of the extremes
experienced by ADD children.

Poor Social Skills: Based on all of the issues discussed so far,
it’s not surprising that ADD children don’t fare well with peer
relationships. They speak and act impulsively, show off and
dominate conversations or class time, clown around at
inappropriate times, miss subtle social cues, may be physically
clumsy and awkward, and often irritate and annoy their peers in
a thousand daily ways.

As a result of the symptoms and behaviors just described, the
ADD child encounters all too many difficulties in their young
lives. True ADD should not be considered a “phase” that will be
outgrown. Rather, parents and educators should seek all of the
education and knowledge they can find to help these kids
flourish and succeed throughout the elementary school years.

About the author:
Jeanne Bauer is the author of the ADD to C3 Kids E-Booklets,
providing a fast, natural and healthy approach to ADD/ADHD. Find
more information at http://www.add-adhd-infoplus.com and
http://www.addtoc3kids.com. ]]> http://www.quietcornerfamily.com/articles/the-add-child-challenging-parents-teachers-and-friends/feed 0 http://www.quietcornerfamily.com/articles/war-declared-on-instant-messenger-how-to-stop-your-child-from-wasting-their-life-away-online?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=war-declared-on-instant-messenger-how-to-stop-your-child-from-wasting-their-life-away-online http://www.quietcornerfamily.com/articles/war-declared-on-instant-messenger-how-to-stop-your-child-from-wasting-their-life-away-online#comments Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:28:47 +0000 Jenn McGroary http://localhost/quietcorner/?p=43 Hey Parents! I hate to tell you, but there is no such thing as
“useful instant messaging”. Your crafty child might try to take
advantage of your lack of “Techie” know how when they say in
that whiny voice… “But Mom I’m IMing my friends about
homework.” Don’t buy it! They are simply playing up the school
is important bit so they can get you off their back.

To be fair, yes kids might spend a couple minutes discussing
their school assignments. But for every 30 seconds of actual
work, another 30 minutes are lost in useless chatter with the
hundred or so “friends” on their buddy list! And if your child
consistently pulls the “I didn’t know the assignment” excuse,
then bigger school problems than instant messaging are on the
horizon.

You can easily stop the hours upon hours of instant messaging
with one simple gesture. PULL THE PLUG! Now, I don’t really mean
to literally pull the plug out of the computer on your child.
The last thing we want to do is get into a power struggle with
your child, or break your $1500 computer.

No, what I mean is simply lay down the law. Allocate a specific
period of instant messaging time per day. One hour of IMing is
not going to kill anyone or their social life. And in that one
hour time slot they will have plenty of time to discuss
homework, their teacher, the new kid in class, or whatever.

Right now you might be saying, “That sounds great Chris, but
what happens when my kid refuses to adhere to the allotted
time?” When your child disregards your house rules it simply
means they have too much free time on their hands. We all know
that idleness is the devil’s playground. It might be time to up
their chore responsibilities. Or sign them up for an after
school art class or even a sport or karate. Sometimes the best
answer is to simply spend some quality time with them. Set up a
time each day to play scrabble, take a walk or cook something
together. It really doesn’t matter what it is, just play to your
kids interests and keep them busy.

The internet is a great tool, especially when it comes to
education and homework. In the future we can expect to see an
even greater merger of it with our every day lives. However,
right now it’s the great stealer of time. Getting sidetracked is
very easy, (as some of you might know) and with the media
induced, shortened attention spans of our children, whole young
lives could waste away online. Teach your kids to use the
Internet and Instant Messaging as intended. Sometimes we use it
for work; sometimes we use it for play. Just be sure your kids
know the difference between the two.

=======================================

Chris Pizzo is the President of Noble Learning Systems Inc. and
the developer of the NEW “Amazing Homework Motivator” program.

Why are thousands of kids happily sitting down to do their
homework each and every night?…Without a fight, an argument,
or even a reminder? Click here now ==> www.HomeworkMotivator.com

About the author:
Chris Pizzo is the President of Noble Learning Systems Inc. and
the developer of the NEW “Amazing Homework Motivator” program.