Slowing the brain drown

 For a lot of us there are times when we don't know how to deal with getting the brain slow down before we go to bed. I know I'm one of those because there are times I just want to continue to write. Some cases it's just too many ideas running around in my head just can't seem to get the words into one format so that when I go to talk in everything seems to happen and I can get the ideas.

Tonight, is just one of those nights where I want to be able to make lots of notes and see that I have been able to accomplish something before I talk in might not be a lot but at least being able to start an idea some of the words down is going to help a lot.

How do you slow your brain down:

• There are times when I can just and relax my brain starts to know that it's time to wrap up all the various thoughts and ideas for the day before I go to bed.
• There are times when I tuck in about to tuck in all the various thoughts and ideas start bouncing around and I just need to slow them down. Sometimes just being able to close my eyes and focus and relax helps. There are times when I try to relax, and my brain seems to have too many ideas. One thing that I have found that does help me sometimes in the evenings is taking either a St John's Wort or a Gaba does help because it helps me relax enough and I've been able to get things done.
• I think everyone has a different way of slowing their mind down when it starts to feel like everything is just racing around. Right now, I'm sitting here on the bed writing this before I try and get to bed because my brain bounced around this idea, so it was time for me to at least try and get some of it out. If things go well, it will be posted without a lot of edits, but we will see how it goes. I guess tomorrow look at this document and see what it looks like and maybe add a little bit more, but at least I know able to slow my brain down a little bit through getting this idea out of my head.

Being able to figure out different ways to slow the brain down when you are trying to get some sleep is important. For me, most of the time I can just close my eyes and relax, and I can fall asleep without too much of an issue. Knowing how to slow your brain down can be a challenge sometimes but I think everyone finds what works for them for most of the situations. 

Flashing images

How many times have you received an email and there is a flashing image in it. I know for me it has been too many times, and it isn’t something that I appreciate happening. I think some businesses think that the flashing images in emails will get your attention and help you remember them. For me it does the opposite as it quickly makes me close the message and quite often delete it. 

Images in emails should yes communicate a message but not distract the reader from seeing what you are saying. For some individuals this could be a health risk because of the flashing that they see when they open an email. Understanding what good communication is when it comes to emails is important.

Now when it comes to presentations, presenters or designers or presentations need to understand that having those flashing images that repeat over and over until the next slide is clicked doesn’t help with the message. What is does is makes me stop listening to your message because that flashing image is extremely distracting. Also, when you have these images that are flashing you are once again potentially causing a health risk to individuals. If you are going to have those flashing images in your presentation you should say it upfront so that something with health issues can be prepared for them. These flashing lights or images can trigger seizures in some individuals and impact individuals that suffer from migraines, dizziness and other health issues.

Being aware that flashing images can cause harm to other individuals is something that you need to be aware of when you are trying to communicate your message. I know for me as someone that suffers with migraines it is difficult for me to remain focused on the message you are trying to communicate and too often, I end up sitting with my eyes closed for quite a while hoping that there won’t be a migraine abut to happen. So next time you are putting together an email or presentation, and you think that flashing image is cute think about those that don’t think they are cute and end up dealing with issues because of that “cute” image you inserted.

An interesting phone call

I recently received a phone call from an individual and it ended up that they were looking for some contract work and thought our business might be interested in hiring them. Well even before he started speaking to me, I was wondering what the purpose of the call was because on my caller id it showed “TORONTO ON” as the caller ID. This isn’t normal unless the person is trying to hide their identity. Well, that was just the first thing that made me wonder about things. 

The person asked to speak to either of us and when I said speaking, he seemed a little confused but that didn’t bother me too much. Sometimes when people are calling a business, they don’t think that an owner is going to be picking up the phone. When it’s a smaller business there are going to be lots of time that the individual answering the phone might just be an owner or key person of the business.

The person then went on to say that they have found our company on-line and was wondering if we needed any project management assistance. They were looking to assist us if we needed that type of role. This is when I started to wonder about the individual, so I asked them if they had looked at our website and saw what I did as a role. His comment was yes, “You’re a jack of all trades and don’t do anything”. Well, that is one way to make sure that you don’t in my good books especially when Project Management is one of my roles that I do for our business.

So, when I continued to speak to the individual, they said that they were calling to see if we were overwhelmed with projects and needed help with them. My simple answer was no I can manage the projects that we currently have and if I needed assistance, I would be looking for help through LinkedIn and our personal connections not someone just doing cold calling.

Now here are some of the red flags that made me wonder about this individual:

1. Call display hiding the individual’s name
2. When I said it was me speaking, they never said their name.
3. Sure, they looked at the website, but you should never say someone you are speaking with is a jack of all trades because in small businesses a lot of us do multiple jobs.
4. He didn’t like it when I asked if they were from a business or were they looking for contract work, and they had a hard time saying that they were a consultant and they were looking for some work.
5. He didn’t appreciate it when I said I don't appreciate cold calls from individuals looking for work.

It is so important when you are calling a business and looking for work, you are prepared to show you are confident in who you are as well as you have done your homework about the business. Telling someone that they are a jack of all trades and don’t do anything isn’t a great way to make a good impression. As you can probably guess it, I didn’t ask the individual to send me their resume because they didn’t make a good first impression.

Doing little things that make you happy

For everyone, we have things that make us happy and it can be something as simple as just curling up with a good book and finding that bit of time where the world just seems to disappear. There are times when even just spending those few minutes just escaping from the demands of life can make you happy because you have forgotten everything that is demanding some of your attention 

There are times when I can sit and just look at a flicker of a candle and that makes me happy because I can focus on the flicker and forget about everything that I should or need to do and it just helps me relax even if it is only for a few minutes. A candle can be a simple escape because it seems to help at least me relax a little bit and that helps to make me happy even if it is just a little bit of time.

There are so many different things that can help make someone happy and it depends on everyone as well as what has been going on around us. Here are some simple things that can make me feel happy even it that only happens occasionally.

• Curling up with a good book and little the book be your escape from things that are going on around you.
• Sitting and enjoying some quite time with someone that is important to you or just alone where the sounds around you just seem to disappear.
• Sitting and enjoying a nice glass of wine where you can sit and savour it and let the different things that are bothering you just be forgotten for a little bit of time.
• Going for a drive into the country where you can escape the sounds that are normally happening around you.
• Going for a walk in a park or near the lake where you can listen to the sounds of nature and forget about all the normal sounds that we listen to.
• Putting in some earplugs or noise cancelling ear buds that block out all the sounds around us to give us that bit of time when it is just quiet.

There are so many things that we can do to make us happy and being able to figure out what makes you happen helps. Of course, there are going to be times when things aren’t going to help and then something else will and we have to be available to accept that a solution that worked today might not work tomorrow. We have to be flexible and figure out when a solution works well for us and when we need to figure out some other solution and leave what works for us and makes us happy.

Everyone is going to have different solutions, and we have to accept that, and we also have to accept that something that makes you happy today might not make you happy tomorrow. Being flexible is very important and knowing that finding the little things that make us happy is extremely important.

 

When life overwhelms us

For some of us the simple sounds around us can start to get overwhelming and we need to figure out just how to manage everything. The sounds that I am talking about is traffic outside where to live to even the sounds that are within your home. I know that living in an apartment building it means that we deal with quite a few sounds that we don’t have any control over. For someone that have very sensitive hearing these sounds can seem to be extremely loud even when they aren’t even audible to others around us. 

I know that there are times when I am sitting here at my desk, and I can enjoy listening to the little bits of sounds around me and then there are times when things just seem to start to escalate and I am not certain how to manage them. Living in an apartment building I know that I am going to hear the sounds from the units around us which normally aren’t too bad but there are times when a unit is getting renovated that the sounds seem to be extremely loud. Other sounds that we hear quite frequently while living in an apartment during are:

• Doors slamming because people don’t think about how them dropping their door will affect others.
• Crossing guard whistle during the day so that children and adults can cross the street. It used to be that the crossing guard only blew their whistle for children but now it seems they do it for everyone.
• Emergency vehicles sirens seem to be quite frequent and that is probably due to living in a high destiny area.
• Van doors slamming – this is due to veggies vendors being able to a park in a regular street parking park and sell their veggies for days/weeks/months on end.
• Car’s backfiring – this is due to cars not being tuned correctly so everyone has to listen to cars backfiring and almost sounding like gun shots around us on a very regular basis.
• People – children/adults thinking that bouncing on the floor is fun because that makes them happy and it doesn’t matter what time of day or night it is.
• Music playing – people not understanding that the sound of their stereo especially the base sound is going to be heard through multiple floors because where they stereo or speakers are located. Speakers on the floor are going to transfer sounds through multiple floors even if you don’t think that they do.

I know for someone like me there are days when I think I can manage everything just fine and then all of a sudden, the sounds seem to escalate and what I thought I could manage isn’t manageable any longer. The sounds that each person hears is going to differ and you have to understand and respect that when you live in a high destiny area even what you think might not be a loud noise could possible bother someone else.

As I am writing this blog there is someone on one of the floors above me that things that bouncing on the floor is a lot of fun. This sound is travelling through at least a floor or two and they don’t understand how others hear the sound. The other thing is when someone decides to knock on their wall because it just seems fun. The unit beside you is going to hear is so be prepared to get someone knocking back to let you know that you are heard.

Of course, there are going to be sounds that overwhelm us sometimes and then other times those same sounds are something we can manage. We just need to know that being able to escape from the sounds is something that we need to do and we also need to know that we have the method available that allows us to escape them.

I am going to post x number of days in a row

How many of us have heard someone on YouTube say that they are going to post x number of days in a row. I understand that is what you are going to try and do but maybe instead of saying “I’m doing to do” people need to say, “I’m going to try and post”. I think when you can be honest with both yourself and your followers it is going to go a long way.   

There are a lot of reasons why someone cannot post each day as they said they would, but they also need to understand that making a promise or commitment and not being able to achieve that isn’t good either. If you made that promise once and couldn’t maintain it that is one thing but if every time you say to your subscribers “I’m going to post every day” and you, don’t it doesn’t look good on your because you are not keeping that commitment that you promised. It would be better to say that “I’m going to try my best to post everyday through x”. Being able to tell your followers that you are going to try your best is better than doing that you are going to.

I have seen a number of YouTubers say that they are going to either post every day or every specific day and it doesn’t work and all they say is, I’m sorry I couldn’t do it today. Maybe they should think about rewording their promise because in too many cases they are over promising and under committing and that doesn’t look good on them. It is better to under promise and overachieve then letting your viewers/followers down because you haven’t been able to maintain your commitment/promise that you made.

I follow a number of YouTubers and so many of them don’t guarantee when they are going to post and what they say it make sure you hit the notification button so that you are notified when we post. That is the best way to ensure that you maintain your followers especially because life can happen and a post might not happen when you said it was going to happen.

So instead of saying that you will be positing x number of days in a row, you need to say that I am going to try my best to post during these days. It makes it so much better your subscribers because you aren’t letting them down because you said one thing and something else happened.

Presentation courtesy

When you are going to a presentation that is for a community, please remember that there are certain courtesies that you must consider because yes, the event might be free to attend, but there are guidelines that you should respect because there are others that are attending the event as well.

1. Silence your device – it is important that you silence your device so that it doesn’t interpret the presenter or any other attendee. Just putting your device on vibrate and then putting it on a table isn’t respecting those around you because it will disturb others around you.
2. Food and how much to take – yes, the food might be available for free because you are attending the event but make you that you are taking just a reasonable amount and not taking what could look you are taking stuff home to have later on. For example, if the pizza is party size, please remember that taking over 4 slices are going to be noticed even if you go back two, three or four times because people will notice you. When you end up taking 12 pieces of pizza people are going to wonder where you are putting all of that.
3. Arriving after presentations have start – mark sure you walk in quietly and DO NOT go and pick up pizza and pop because you are interfering with the presentation and not showing courtesy to the presenter or other attendees. Yes, you might want to have some pizza, but you are going to have to wait until there is a break and then you can get some pizza. I know, it is going to be cold by then, but you know when the presentations start so if you want to ensure you get warm pizza make sure you show up early. If you are thinking that the pizza is so important, it isn’t because you are not just showing disrespect to the presenter you are also disrespect to other attendees because you are blocking their view of the presentation.
4. Getting pizza at break or just before presentations start – if you are someone that is taking some pizza but before presentations start or during break make sure that you close the lid of the pizza box because you are blocking part of the screen from others that are attending the presentation.
5. Clean up after yourself - another thing that is extremely important is to make sure that you clean up after yourself at these events. A lot of the spaces are donated and one of the rules is leave the place as you found it. If the garbage can is full in the room where the event is being held, take the garbage out and find another garbage can because there are going to be other garbage cans out in the hall.

Yes, a lot of community presentations are there for a community, but you also have to show that you respect both the presenter and other attendees. Make sure that if you want to be part of the community make sure you show up ahead of the scheduled presentation time and if you can’t do that just come in quietly and take a seat and at break you can then enjoy any pizza and/or pop that remains.