eSoup

Saw this and chuckled...

dogjoke, originally uploaded by Avi_Abrams.

Springtime Workday Remix

  Young spring love 
  Originally uploaded by mormoralice.

Do not be jealous of me for what I am about to tell you (not that you would be--you're too highly evolved for anything like that ;-)), but I think I've accidentally stumbled on to something that will enable me to feel like I'm on a permanent vacation, even though I'm still working 6 days a week.

Let me explain...

A couple weeks back, I glanced up from my computer in the middle of the day to see that seemingly overnight the trees and shrubs were blooming with flowers and the cold dreary days of winter were replaced with 70 degree weather and sunny skies.

I thought, "Why am I inside working all day when it's so gorgeous outside?"

With the temptation of Spring as my inspiration, I decided to do some test tweaks to my schedule to see if I could come up with a way that I could 1) get my work done with optimal efficiency and 2) have the majority of my day free to do whatever I please.

Here's what I came up with:

5:30 am--Wake and have a cup of coffee
6am to 8:30am--Do client work
8:30am to evening--Free Time
7pm-9:30pm--Finish up client work and do blog stuff

This is my new schedule that I've been doing for the past week and a half or so. I do it 6 days a week, taking Saturdays off.

Although it's pretty much the same number of hours I was working before, it feels like I'm on vacation for some reason.

I mean, by 8:30 in the morning I tell myself, "I'm done with my work for the day!" (This is just a tiny fib I tell myself; while I do have an evening work session, I'm done with my work for the daytime.)

And of course it's completely flexible--if I have plans in the evening, I do the second work session in the afternoon.

This new way of working is just absolutely invigorating to me. This is one of the main reasons why I decided to start my own business-- I wanted to have a flexible work schedule, so that the premium hours of my day were reserved for me, rather than spending the "best" hours of my day cooped up in an office.

Perks I've noticed:

• Increased efficiency-- Because I know a fun, really long break is only a couple hours away each time I start a work session, I'm finding it really easy to cultivate the "mind like water" mindset that allows for working at optimum efficiency.
• Looking forward to work more-- I'm enjoying all aspects of work even more than I have in the past. Truthfully, it's always been quite fun, but now I'm feeling extra jazzed about my business partnerships and finding that absence from work does make the heart grow fonder.
  
• Greater work/life balance. I'm spending bunches more time offline, enjoying the sunshine and getting "real world" ;-) stuff done.
• I'm exercising more and eating healthier-- Before, I had a tendency to get transfixed by the computer and would inadvertently skip meals, then be starving and end up eating things that were not always that healthy. With having almost my entire day free, I'm able to stick to a more regular eating schedule, which fascilitates making healthier choices. The beautiful weather is also luring me outside more, and I've pumped up my exercise program.
• I feel more creative--with spending more time offline, I'm rekindling some of my dormant passions. I've been re-discovering music that I had forgotten about, doing some painting, and re-reading some books that inspired me when I was in high school and that now have new meaning to me. (I'm reading Atlas Shrugged right now.) I think that having a lot of offline mental stimulation promotes online writing creativity (aka--it's easier to write blog posts now).
  
• Overall, my days aren't feeling like "workdays"-- It feels like that elusive "work/life balance" thing that folks are always talking about.

I share this story with you, because many of you are online entrepreneurs and could also feasibly re-arrange your work schedule to do something similar if you wanted. Sometimes we just get in a rut of doing the same thing we've always done, and we forget that one of the major perks of owning your own biz is that you can make your own hours.

I'm wondering, do any of you change your workday schedules with the seasons or do a "summer schedule" sort of thing?

Email signature lines that DO NOT annoy

  email 
  Originally uploaded by Mrs. Bickerson.

I'm going to be starting with a new client soon, and I had asked  him "Do you know what you'd like my sig line to be?" (for when I send out email representing his business.)

This cool, laid back guy (I only work with cool, laid back guys ;-) ) told me, "Nope, come up with something fun and original :)"

So, I've been enjoying trying to come up with a really cool sig line.

I'm actually a bit ashamed to tell you how much time, energy and enthusiasm I've put into this quest for the perfect sig. (I am such a geek at heart! ;-))

Coincidentally, this evening, as I was following some of Gavin's links, I found Kevin Dugan's blog and his post "Stop Email Signature File Abuse!", and of course it got my attention.

I thought you might enjoy Kevin's top 5 sig line pet peeves (my comments are in green):

"1) Script Font: Using script font for your name as if you really wrote it yourself. That’s so cute. Not. (What about those sig lines that have the actual signature of the person? I guess it's inserted as a graphic. You're not fooling anyone--we know you didn't sign the email!)

2) ASCII Text Art: It’s ugly. See? (I wouldn't even know how to go about creating digital "art" like this. This is why I'm stealing Kevin's image.)

3) Any List: It’s a sig file, not a resume. And I don't care if you rode in the same elevator as Seth Godin. (Yeah, at no point should the sig line be longer than the email itself. )

4) Cheese: Automatic calculators tracking how old your kids are and any other related cheery, personal sap. (Again, over my head on the technology, thank God.)

5) Quotes: I don’t care who said what. It doesn’t make you cool or smart anyway. (Guilty as charged. Changing it right away...)

Less is more. We just need basic contact info. Thanks."

Hee hee--that cracks me up. Yeah, we seem to be getting away from the old school "let me show you a piece of my soul" sig lines, and more into the "just give me the damn info" ones.

From looking at Kevin's comments for his post, other no-no's are:

• embedded backgrounds, graphics and fonts (us folks with plain text emails never get to see 'em anyways)
• attached vCards (with or without your birthday included)
• anything that makes the sig file appear as an attachment

and let me add a few of my own...

• I also hate it when folks try to turn their sig line into a commercial to try to get you to go to their website--does this ever work? Who falls for that?
• And those people whose sig lines go on forever (I guess this would fall under the "Any List" sigs), as they tell you every contact under the sun: Here's my home phone, cell phone, work phone, the URLs of every one of my websites and blogs, my Ryze, MySpace, and LinkedIn pages, fax, email (even tho you obviously have their email cuz they just sent you an email), home address, and the IDs for every instant messaging tool in existence: skype, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo --Geez, it's just too much info!

The gist--less is more. Too much info is annoying.

If you'd like to express your personality or share your philosophy of the world, do it on your blog, not your sig line.

I appreciate these guidelines. This makes it so much easier for me to create my new sig now.

Do anyone else have any other sig line pet peeves?