Overcoming Frustration with TechnologyWritten by Andrea J. Lee
For whatever reason, when we get a new boost in productivity, whether that be from a tool, technology or technique...we quickly forget how much more efficient it's made us. It's human nature. It's like commuter who gets angry about how bad traffic is, but forgets what a pain it was to wait for bus. Or cell phone user who complains about a bad connection, and forgets about days when he had to fish for spare change to make a call from a pay phone. It's much same with technology. If your plan for your online business is in a long term one, there's no getting around it: You will have to find a way to overcome frustrations you will have with technology. It's inevitable. Here are some simple tips for dealing with frustration Slow down. Let's start with an analogy: When you're driving a car at 100 miles per hour, a small thing like a bumblebee hitting windshield can cause you to lose control and crash. How does this translate to online frustration? When you're straining your systems and technology to work faster and better for you, smallest technical glitch can have a bigger impact on your performance than seems logical. That's because you are pushing for "more, faster and better" in first place. The solution is to slow down. What this means for you as a carbon-based being is: take a stretch break, breathe a couple deep breaths and generally loosen up. Lighten your grip on intensity you are trying to sustain, both for yourself and your systems. Concretely, this may mean taking care of your email just a little bit slower. Typing not quite as fast. Or giving yourself an extra hour to set up your new audio recorder. The extra time spent is worth it if it means you don't have to clean up a tangle later. This may seem counterproductive, but it gives your tools time to do their work for you. Sometimes you have to slow down to get to your destination sooner.
| | Should You Get A Blog?Written by Andrea J. Lee
A blog is a type of website. It allows website owner to easily write messages that get posted to site automatically, often in a journal or diary-like style. A particularly appealing thing about blogs is that your readers can comment back to your posts fairly easily, and a continuous stream of fresh conversations result. (This is a good thing.)Here are three reasons to consider getting a blog: 1.To Replace Your Ezine If you currently publish an ezine, you may wish to consider replacing it with a regularly published blog. This means using your blog to publish journal entries, and then when it comes time to communicate with your subscriber list, you excerpt some items from your blog, and send those out as your ezine. This saves you from creating special articles only for your ezine. In many cases it becomes easier for you to write in blog format (short and sweet) so you save time. Readers enjoy practical, "reporter-like" nature of blogs instead of ezines, and gradually come to feel that they are in conversation with you on a daily basis. You become part of their everyday circle of friends and associates, which leads to you becoming their natural resource on topic of your expertise. 2. To Create a Quick and Dirty Learning Environment or e-Campus For those of you who offer TeleClasses or other programs that want to have a web page of learning resources, links, class notes and audio, etc., a blog can be a great way to bring together an e-Campus. If you offer a workshop, coaching/consulting, or even a software solution, and you want to instantly add value to your clients, create a "client/student resource page" using a blog. This becomes an environment that students can play in, study more, and soak up your materials. Your clients continue to benefit from your expertise even though you're not physically there; they do it at their pace, and at little cost to you.
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