The Productivity Hangup You Probably Have Too

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lady drinksA few weeks ago I was invited to a dinner party to celebrate my book Listful Thinking.  My friend and colleague Joya Dass runs a women’s networking group called LadyDrinks and hosted the event.  

So I was thrilled when she asked me to recreate the magic with an afternoon tea theme in Princeton, NJ.  (You know how much I love tea if you read this blog regularly! So I was all in on this.)

Most of the women at the tea were professional moms who juggle careers in industries ranging from technology to medicine. They all had one question – “How can you balance everything?”

It’s not easy, I struggle with this too and it’s only me and my husband at this point!  

One of the pitfalls and mindset issues I noticed coming up time and time again as we went around the room chatting was the idea of setting boundaries. I think mothers who work outside of the home tend to feel guilty about not spending enough time with their families. And then they feel guilty about not working enough when they are with their families.  That’s a recipe for overwhelm and disaster.  

Taking time for yourself is super important for your productivity and for your sanity.  Here’s the fix: boundaries.  Read more

Be Less Forgetful With These Apps

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adult-15814_640Here’s a secret — I’m pretty forgetful.  I really need to write things down immediately or they fly right out of my head. Between working as a news producer and managing this blog I have a lot to remember. I rely heavily on lists of course and programs like Asana, but sometimes things fall through the gaps. So I’m always looking for new technology to help me keep track of everything I need to remember.

Here are some of the new apps I’ve been trying lately: Read more

Quicker Than a Celeb Marriage — Zirtual Is Back

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Zirtual WebsiteUPDATE: This is a correction to a post I wrote this week called, “Outsourcing Site Zirtual Goes Bye Bye…Don’t Panic.”

Great news…you really don’t have to panic…

Zirtual is BACK!

Yep — just like that.

In the blink of an eye all those annoying tasks you didn’t want to do yourself — can be outsourced to a Zirtual assistant again!

I’ve rarely had to cover breaking news on this blog — I reserve that for my day job as a TV producer.  But I’m excited to bring you this up-to-the-minute update.

I heard from the CEO at Startups.co, which bought out Zirual after their payroll snafu.  Wil Schroter wrote via email:

We bought the company and are operating as per before.  Your article is inaccurate.  Happy to answer questions.

I didn’t realize they had gotten operations up and running so quickly.

Well that’s fabulous and that means you need to get going on that to-do list you’ve been putting off.  And by get to… I mean give it to someone else to do!

Outsourcing is your friend.

Sometimes Productivity Falls Through the Cracks

I have to admit when I got this email from Wil my heart sank.  I thought, “oh no! I got it wrong! I let my readers down.”

You see — as a producer working in news — “getting it right” is something that is really important to me — really it’s the only thing that matters.

I’m sorry I got this one wrong.  When I published that first post — the Zirtual blog still said it was in limbo and to stay tuned so that’s what I went with.

As soon as I learned about the update though — I preempted the blog post that was supposed to run today so I could bring you the most accurate information.

Sometimes productivity and accuracy does fall through the cracks. We are all human — remember not to be too hard on yourself today.

Thanks for understanding about my oversight and I hope you’re just as excited as I am that Zirtual is back!

Outsourcing Site Zirtual Goes Bye Bye — Don’t Panic

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zirtual**There’s an UPDATE to this story…Quicker Than a Celeb Marriage…Zirtual is Back!**

 

If you follow my blog regularly you know that I’m a huge fan of outsourcing.  I’ve given lots of ideas of what to get off your to-do list by giving it to someone else.  Plus I’ve talked about some of the best new apps and websites to help with your outsourcing.  The good and bad of some of these new startups is that some can’t hack it in the startup world.  

Enter: Zirtual.  

I’ve told a lot of people about this service and I even mentioned it in my book Listful Thinking — so I feel it’s only fair to give you the skinny and a few alternatives to keep on outsourcing.  

Here’s What Happened

Outsourcing website Zirtual has closed its doors. Due to an accounting error almost 400 employees lost their jobs overnight. According to Fortune’s interview with the CEO Maren Kate Donovan —  Zirtual outsourced some of its financial management to a Silicon Valley company which provided turnkey CFO support and services.

Unfortunately a payroll error went unnoticed and Zirtual projections had missed two additional payroll cycles. With hundreds of employees, that’s a lot of unaccounted money.

So they had to close up shop quick!

What Does This Mean For You?

Sadly Zirtual has not yet announced any plans for reimbursing customers who had not used all their hours. Startups.co aquired Zirtual after this snafu and they will most likely strike a deal with old Zirtual customers to keep their business. But I don’t know what that deal will be.

Even if you’re not a Zirtual customer — we can learn an important lesson from Zirtual. Just because you have outsourced a task doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check in on that task every once in a while.

Some Outsourcing Alternatives

Here are some replacement apps you can try:

Fancy Hands – Outsourcing is one of the best ways to get more done. Fancy Hands is like having your own virtual personal assistant.  Assistants can do research for you, make appointments and even make annoying calls to customer service on your behalf.  They just can’t do any physical tasks.

TaskRabbit.com – Similar to Fancy Hands, except they do physical tasks as well. TaskRabbit is great for crossing items off your list like putting together Ikea furniture or picking up groceries and laundry. Currently, TaskRabbit is available in 18 cities across the United States, as well as in London.

Alfred – This service specializes in taking care of your chores for you, which you know I’m all about.  The cheapest package is a tidy-up service that costs $15 a week, including things like making the bed, doing the dishes and taking out the trash. If you want the option to ask for something special, like food delivery, you’ll shell out $22 bucks a week. Alfred is only currently available in New York City and Boston.

How do you outsource your tasks?

My Love/Hate Relationship with Tim Ferriss

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Timothy_FerrissTim Ferriss is considered to be one of the leading experts in productivity right now. His book ‘The Four Hour Workweek’ is immensely popular and I would recommend reading it.  I mean – who wouldn’t want a four hour workweek?

When I tell people I write this blog or about my book Listful Thinking —  they will often ask me what I think of him. While I often smile and tell people he’s great….the truth is, I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Tim Ferriss.

What I ‘Love’ About Tim Ferriss

There’s nothing wrong with him, in fact I agree with him on most things. These are just a few examples:

Go right to the source – Tim believes that if you want the best and most accurate information you should head to the best source. It’s how he made his decision for voting in the presidential election and I completely agree.  He asked people in the know what they thought about each candidate and decided from there.  No suffering from analysis paralysis for him.   Read more