One of the biggest challenges faced by business owners is managing your most valuable asset (your time) effectively.

Let’s face it. The internet (and the world, for that matter) provides a constant series of distractions, tangents and diversions to take us off track. Combating the effects of those distractions is no easy task!

So how do business owners like us stay on track, in focus, and at our most productive?

Simple. Hold yourself accountable for your time. Organize it, structure it and stick to that structure. Basically, do like Santa Claus does: Make a list, check it twice.

Life Without A List

Think about the last time you sat down in front of your computer without a clear plan of what you were going to do. Not just what you were going to do first, but what you were going to do that day. First, second, third, fourth, and so on, until you plan on saying to yourself “Job well done. Time to relax.”

By the way… you should be saying things like that to yourself on a regular basis. If you aren’t, it means you are either selling yourself short and being way to hard on yourself, or you need to adjust your focus so you can start saying it. Either option is bad, and I honestly don’t think one is worse than the other – but I do believe that we are all victims of both from time to time.

Anyway, back on focus (what did I tell you about distractions? I just distracted myself right there, in the middle of a blog post!). We were talking about what happens when you don’t have your tasks mapped out in front of you.

If you have nothing specific set out for yourself, you’re bound to start wandering aimlessly about the web for who-knows-how-long. Check your email, read some tweets, respond to some comments on your Facebook page/YouTube channel/blog/forums… maybe even go through some or all of those twice.

Then, while you’re on YouTube, a funny video of a walrus playing checkers with a french speaking kitten wearing a sombrero sucks 47 seconds out of your life.

After that, you see something even more entertaining in that insidious “Related Videos” box. I really don’t like that box. It is the KING of distraction. Seriously. Related Videos = Work of the devil.

You’re only laughing because you know it’s true – and despite your most sincere promises to yourself to be more productive, it happens over and over again.

So what can you do?

The Power of a To-Do List

I remember an email I read once, from one of my greatest mentors in this industry. In this email, he announced that he would be sharing the single greatest tool he used in his business, every day, without fail.

The email went on to explain that this one tool – to which he attributes the majority of his success – was free for anyone to use.

As you can imagine, this seemed like a great deal! I couldn’t wait to find out what it was, so I read on feverishly. The answer that awaited was so simple – and yet powerful – that I couldn’t agree with him more. This WAS the most valuable tool for a business owner.

You ready? Notepad.

Yup. That free piece of software (or something similar) that comes on pretty much every computer. A simple program that allows you to enter, save and edit text – and that’s all it does.

The reason this is so powerful is because it makes it easy to do what so many of us fall short on: make a list for the tasks that we will complete each day.

Now, whether or not you choose to use notepad is up to you – but this example is so powerful because it is so simple. Before you end today, you should plan tomorrow.

Make a list of all the things that need to get done tomorrow and stick to it. Don’t forget though, the last thing on tomorrow’s list should be to make another list for the next day…

Don’t Just Make A List. Make A BIG List

Sometimes, size does matter. I’m not saying your list should be 50 items long – in fact I strongly advise against packing too much in.

Trying to take on too much at once will lead only to frustration, stress and doubt. Push yourself, but be reasonable. This philosophy applies to writing to-do lists, eating Thanksgiving dinner, and many other important parts of your life.

What I mean by a “BIG” list, is one that you can’t miss. If a notepad file on your desktop and on the taskbar of your computer is enough to remind you to stay on track, great! If you need something more aggressive, do it.

Whatever you do, make sure that list is visible. Tape it to the side of your monitor, hang it from the ceiling above your desk, or pin it to your shirtsleeve.

Personally, I write my list on a whiteboard by my desk. Every time I get up to stretch, or walk into the room on my way to the computer, it’s there. Watching me. Reminding me. Guiding me.

It’s kinda like the Force.

Turn Your List Into A Schedule

For me, this is the part that makes all the difference.

When I write my list, I go back through it and evaluate each task. Next to each item I’ll write down approximately how long it should take me.

Once that’s done, I can add all of the items up (the final number is usually pretty surprising!), so I know how long everything should take, how much work REALLY needs to be done.

From there I can evaluate the expectations I’ve laid out for myself. Too much? Should something be saved for tomorrow? Do I have time to take some of tomorrow’s items on today?

I can also figure in when I plan to start, so I know when I’m going to finish. I can figure in breaks when necessary – because they are necessary.

If you don’t schedule your downtime, you are much more likely to just take it whenever you start getting a little tired or worn out. This isn’t a break. It’s a distraction.

If you have a break planned in advance, you’ll know it’s coming, and look forward to it. When your mind starts to wander, you can use that break as a proverbial carrot to put yourself back on track.

The last part of the scheduling side of this is checking up on yourself. Throughout the day, make a point of evaluating how long each item actually takes.

Try to keep a log, either mentally or on paper, of how accurate your time estimates are turning out to be. The reason you want to do this is two fold:

1. It’s a great way to discover what types of jobs are taking longer than the should, and address the issue
2. You can start to evaluate how fair you are being with your estimates – allowing you to create a more accurate (and therefore more effective) list in the future

All of this talk about writing a list and holding yourself accountable may seem like common sense, but trust me: It’s the things we take for granted and say “yea, yea, I know…” that we are most likely to blow off.

You’re running your own business now. You are your own boss. There’s no one standing over you, making sure you’re doing what needs to be done.

That was probably the whole point of embarking on this journey in the first place, right?

The bottom line is, now that that “boss” is gone, and they aren’t there to “make” you get your work done, someone needs to step in and take their place.

And since this is YOUR business, guess who that “someone” is going to have to be?

We’d love to hear your tips on how you stay on track in your business, so feel free to leave comments below

Spring is a time that many people love to dread. Most of us (especially those in colder climates) get tired of drab, dirty snow and begin to long for green leaves, blooming flowers, and warmer temperatures.

Unfortunately, the improved weather inevitably brings high pollen levels with it, which means a runny nose, watery eyes, sleepless nights and more sneezes than we care to count.

The worst part of hay fever however, isn’t the list of physical symptoms. The worst part is the disconnected, “foggy” feeling that leaves you feeling completely detached from the world around you.

Yuck.

I know these symptoms well, because for most of my life I had terrible springtime allergies, to the point where I would hate going outside, always being afraid I’d find a yellow film of pollen that had accumulated on the hood of my car, as if to taunt me. I, like so many others, desperately wanted to be “Claritin Clear.”

It wasn’t until this spring, when everyone around me seemed to be commenting on how awful the pollen was this year, or bumming Zyrtec off of one another that I fully realized that I was much better off than I usually was this time of year.

I remember noticing an improvement in my symptoms last year as well and passing it off as good luck… but two blissfully allergy free years in a row was just too much of a coincidence to ignore (not that I’m complaining!). My previously debilitating symptoms are now reduced to some mild sneezing and a slight tickle in my throat for 5 or ten minutes in the morning.

No more congestion, feeling like a zombie or having to alternate what side I sleep on every 15 minutes at night just to be able to breathe!

As thrilling as this change was, I couldn’t figure out what had brought it on. We had moved, but we were only a few minutes from our previous address, in the same town and honestly surrounded by more flowers and trees than we had been before, so that wasn’t it. I wasn’t taking a different allergy medication, heck I hadn’t really taken any medications since we…

…and then it hit me. I’d never been a big fan of unnecessary medication, and allergy season was one of the few times I was willing to compromise and pop a pill for relief, but even that had tapered off a couple of years ago, when Lynne and I made a shift to a diet of predominantly organic foods.

For the last two and a half years or so, Lynne and I have done our grocery shopping almost exclusively at Whole Foods, and at least 95% of the food we prepare at home is organic.

The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. There really is (to put it as simply as possible) a lot less crap in organic foods, and not processing the extra preservatives and chemical additives in all the food I ate made springtime a lot easier on my entire system.

Think about it this way: if your body is constantly inundated with artificial flavors, dyes, partially hydrogenated oils, and other harmful ingredients, your entire system is going to be drained and out of balance.

The definition of an allergy is “an abnormal reaction of the body to a previously encountered allergen introduced by inhalation, ingestion, injection, or skin contact…” which basically means your body encounters something it views as a pathogen or threat (even if it isn’t) and responds accordingly.

This leads me to two conclusions. First off, why would your body react abnormally to a substance such as pollen? It stands to reason (especially after my recent experiences) that the introduction of various substances that don’t belong in your body (artificial ingredients in food for example) could disrupt the balance of your immune system, causing it to inaccurately perceive allergens as a threat.

Now, does this mean everyone who doesn’t eat a natural, healthy diet is going to have terrible allergies? No, but for those of use who are susceptible to hay fever, it probably doesn’t help!

The other thing to consider is that when our bodies are weakened due to infection, our immune system is obviously somewhat depleted, making us more susceptible to infection from other sources. Wearing your body down with foods full of various toxins is going to have an impact on your overall susceptibility to various issues, including allergens.

If your system is already worn out by constant exposure to the chemicals in your food, it’s likely to be that much more sensitive to a potential allergen such as pollen, where if you are limiting your exposure to harmful substances you will probably be less sensitive.

Now, not all allergies are the result of food, and eating more healthy, organic foods isn’t guaranteed to eliminate them all together, but it certainly hasn’t made mine any worse. Just some food for thought

Be sure to leave your thoughts and experiences in the comments regarding hay fever and any natural remedies you’ve had success with.

“Sprint Nextel Plans to Cut 8,000 Jobs in Quarter“

“Caterpillar Moves to Cut 20,000 Jobs“

“Starbucks Will Close 300 Stores and Open Fewer New Ones“

“ING Will Cut 7,000 Jobs and Its Chief Will Leave“

“62,000 Jobs Are Cut By U.S. and Foreign Companies”

What (aside from being disheartening and intimidating) do the above have in common? Several things:

• They are all headlines pulled from the New York Times
• They are all headlines from this week
• They are all signs of a growing problem

Take a look again at that last headline. On Monday, January 26, 2009 62,000 jobs were lost.

62,000.

And those weren’t all. Pfizer and Wyeth are in the midst of a huge merger that will cut 19,500 more jobs. On Wednesday (1/28/09) Starbucks announced they were closing 300 stores and cutting up to 6,700 jobs. Home Depot cut 8,000 jobs. Circuit City, with more than 30,000 employees is closing it’s doors.

Now, we are sorry that the picture is so bleak… and we truly hope that no one reading this post has been affected by these events – and if you have, we are sorry and wish you the very best.

The reason we are bringing this up is because while it is unpleasant, the truth is that this isn’t going to go away… things will likely take some time to turn around, and could very well get worse before they get better. A lot of people, literally more and more every single day, are feeling the effects of this situation in a very big way. We personally know someone who was laid off by a company he had been with for years. Eventually, that company bought out his next employer and guess what they did? Laid him off again!

So the big question becomes “What do I do if this happens to me?” or “How do I protect myself and my family?” The answer is to literally take matters into your own hands. There are so many different ways to make money from home, on your own time, on your own terms.

The events of the last week have shown, more strongly than ever, that “job security” is a thing of the past.

We strongly encourage anyone reading this, or other articles on the topic to start looking for alternatives. For ways to take control of your financial future and rely less on a big company and more on yourself.

[disclaimer]health[/disclaimer]Indigestion and heartburn are something that should be infrequent problems (and for us they are, thankfully). Occasionally though, we are all susceptible to overindulgence at dinner, or a stressful day that leads to an upset stomach. Anyone who’s experienced it knows that when heartburn happens, it isn’t fun, but finding a fast, reliable and above all else healthy remedy isn’t always easy. Most people end up depending on a remedy like Tums or another over the counter supplement.

The problem with most of these “main stream” products is that they are usually full of unnatural ingredients that are doing plenty of damage behind the scenes while they alleviate your heartburn. We actually use a product called Stomach Balance from  a company called Aboca. Stomach Balance is a 100% organic supplement that does exactly what the name implies: balances the acid in your stomach to alleviate heartburn and indigestion.

Now, the big question is, “Why use a product like Stomach Balance when something like Tums is so much more readily available?” And the answer that jumps to my mind it “Why wouldn’t you?” Let’s break out the important differences by looking at the ingredients.

Stomach Balance Ingredients

• Calcium (as natural calcium carbonate from Limenstone)
• Sodium (as natural sodium carbonate from Nahcolite)
• Aloe
• Barley
• Licorice
• Chamomile
• Cane Sugar
• Sweet Mint Natural Flavor

Note: all of these ingredients are 100% organic.

Tums Ingredients

• Calcium Carbonate
• Sucrose
• Corn Starch
• Talc
• Mineral Oil
• Natural & Artificial Flavors
• Adipic Acid
• Sodium Polyphosphate
• Red 40 Lake
• Yellow 6 Lake
• FD&C Yellow 5 Lake (Tartrazine)
• Blue 1 Lake

Just at first glance, which one of those would YOU rather swallow? Here’s some more important notes… First off, the ingredient of “Natural & Artificial Flavors” is a pretty scary loophole in the ingredient labeling system. That term can cover hundreds of different ingredients, some of which are pretty scary if you take the time to look them up. Another thing to notice is how many artificial dyes are used.

A lot could be written about the different ingredients in both products, but Stomach Balance is by far more natural and less risky. If you are curious about any of the specific ingredients, just do a simple “what is” search in Google. Personally, we’d choose a product that is made of organic herbs over one with artificial chemicals, colors and flavors every single time.

We usually purchase Stomach Balance from our naturopathic doctor’s office, but we did find it online at Natruramart.com.

For us, Stomach Balance works great for the occasional heartburn or upset stomach… we obviously aren’t doctors or nutritionists, so this is all our opinion based on our personal experiences… you should do your own research before making any of your own decisions.