Managing your schedule when things get in the way

So many of use work with some sort of schedule, so that our work doesn’t take all the available time that we have. Being self-employed can be a bit of a challenge because there are things that can get in the way of maintaining a good schedule. Here are a few things that can impact your schedule, and you will have to deal with them.

Maintenance schedule where you live means you don’t have power

            If you live in an apartment or condo and work from home, you might deal with this. There are going to be some power maintenance therefore that means if you work on a laptop and connect to client sites you are either going to have to wait until the maintenance is complete or find another location to work.

You don’t have water

            If you live in an apartment or condo and work from home, you will have to deal with this issue. Most are planned but there can be times when something breaks and you don’t have water. For planned maintenance you will have to figure out a work around for this situation. You might be able to stay and work, or you are going to have to find another location to work.

Noise around you are too much for your focus

            This one can happen anywhere, and you need to figure out how to handle it and that is loud conversations around you that can distract you and interfere with what you are working on. I know for me, I use my earplugs that helps me reduce the voices, but it doesn’t block them out totally so that can impact how I am getting the work done.

            Something that can also impact how you get your work done is construction sounds around you. Now this one is hard to deal with because it can impact you if you work in an office or remotely. Construction sounds can really interfere with your focus because it is something that you cannot control. Your option is to find a different location to do your work if possible.

Others think you have time to help them

            This is especially true when you own your own business. Some people think all your time is your time, and you can drop everything to help them out during the day. Sure, sometimes you can work around the demands of your job to help someone out especially in an emergency, but you can’t do it all the time.

 

Managing your schedule can be difficult with the things around you impact what you are trying to accomplish. I know that for us we try and work a normal schedule but there are times when things have to shift due to the things that are happening around us. Our schedule can also shift if a client needs work done off the normal workday. So, managing a normal schedule can be a bit of a challenge but you just do your best and get everything done.

My purse size matters

For a lot of women, the size of their purse really does matter. Some women don’t even carry a purse and would rather use a knapsack to carry everything especially when they are commuting to work. The knap is a great idea especially if you are also carrying a device back and forth to work. In other cases, some women only have their mobile device with a case on it that holds what they need to carry. 

Now for me I have different purses and bags, and they all have different purposes and sometimes the purse/bag is to meet a need especially when it comes to going to events. Here are the sizes of purses that I have and use.

Small one great for quick trips and going to concerts

• My small purse holds, my keys, wallet, EpiPen and my glasses. This purse is great for going to concerts as a lot of venues have a size restriction on what is allowed. It’s always a good idea to check the venue restrictions before you get there as you might be surprised what you can take and not take.

Medium one great for most of the time

• My medium purse is great for most of the time, and it will carry everything that the small purse carries but I also need to be able to carry one of my journaling books in it. This is the type of purse that I use most of the time because it carries what I need and isn’t too large.

Large one is wonderful when I want to carry a lot of stuff with me

• My large purse is really when I have lots of things that I want to carry with me. I have used a women’s computer laptop bag as a purse when I had lots of things that I wanted to carry. Now this purse/bag needs to hold everything that the medium purse does, but it also needs to hold a water bottle as well as my tablet and portable keyboard.

Yes, my purses all have different purposes and lately I have been using a small purse and what I have realized is that I end up having to put this purse into another bag when going some places so that I can take the water bottle and journal book with me. I know that I could change the purse to a larger one, but I have been enjoying the small purse for going shopping and things like that.

I know some women have one purse that they use all the time and they enjoy doing that. For me, I guess it depends on what I am trying to achieve at a specific time. I am currently loving the smaller purse as it is a lot lighter to carry most of the time and yes, I can easily put it inside a larger bag when I need the extra stuff.

 

Knitting project bag

 Recently I have been looking for a project bag for my knitting and crocheting projects that I can use when we are travelling. I am finding it difficult to find something that I think that will work for me. If I could find something that works, I think it would help me want to work on my knitting and crocheting projects a little more when we are travelling.

Here are some of the things that I would like to have in my project bag:

• Self standing bag with at least 4 or more internal pockets for 100-gram balls of yarn each
• Central area for the project
• Closed top
• Area for the extra supplies, scissors, etc
• Handles, shoulder or backpack
• Grommets not needed, would prefer not having them (won’t be pulling my yarn through the grommets as how do I put the project into the bag and close it with yarn looping back into the bag)
• Black, grey or navy preferred not floral or bright colours
• Doesn’t look like a cooler

Yes, I know that the list is rather long of what I would like my project bag to be. One of the things that I want to be able to do is have all the yarn for a project together or at least a large percentage of the material all in one place. Right now, when I am working on a shawl with multiple colours or skeins, I find it difficult to keep them all in one place unless I throw everything into a shopping bag.

I have spent quite a bit of time looking for a bag that I like and currently haven’t found anything that really looks like what I envision for me to use on a regular basis. Being able to have a current project organized and ready to work on would be great and maybe seeing that everything is all in one place would be nice.

One of the reasons I am looking at buying a knitting project bag is for when we are travelling and I can everything organized in a way that I can keep things in the bag and it is easy to carry. The other reason I am looking for a bag like this is I would like something that I can use to help me manage my project. Yes, I know having a project bag like I am looking for is something that isn’t absolutely needed but it would mean that maybe I would be a little more organized when on the go.

Be aware of emails you get from your own business

Are you receiving emails that don’t seem to make sense because they are from accounts that don’t exist in your company? These are emails that you need to think about but not open and especially not reply to. Normally the display that is showing has nothing to do with your business and it is just away to try and get some credentials.

How many times have you received an email from an account that you don’t remember being part of the list of users that you have for your business. If you are a small business, you probably don’t have a bunch of accounts that maybe some larger business has such as:

• accounting@
• hr@
• helpdesk@
• invoices@
• finance@
• IT@ 

These are just a few examples of account addresses that you might receive an email from and those are probably not accounts that you use. So, if you are receiving an email from any of these accounts the first thing you need to do is not open the email and the second thing is if you happen to open the email, DO NOT REPLY to the message.

Even as a small business I have received emails from those accounts and I laugh because there are only two of us in our business and we definitely don’t have email accounts such as the ones listed above. Quite often when you dig a little deeper it is someone trying to get you to do something like provide them with personal information such as date of birth, address and even your social insurance number.

So, when you receive an email that looks odd make sure that you DON’T REPLY to it and if possible don’t open it at all. These emails need to be reported to IT when possible. If you are a small business and don’t have an IT department, make sure you report them to the individual that is responsible for the email account set up.

My membership

There are times when we all have to think about our personal membership on a YouTube channel and what are we spending to keep that channel active. Lately I have been finding that I have been spending some money on a channel that hasn’t been the best for me so now to figure out is it worth me continuing to support this channel. 

I have been a member of this YouTube channel for over three years and now I am looking at what the community is like and what I am getting for the price that I pay each month. We were told that there were going to be member exclusive posts, but I haven’t seen any of those for over the past two years. I wonder why that is happening, that could be because we aren’t getting the revenue to support those special exclusive feeds. People need to know that the exclusive feeds aren’t going to be part of the benefit that we were told we would get.

The chats that are included as a member benefit has now become only part of when departures happen and that is very limited to actually when the ships are departing. There is no extra chat because that isn’t encouraged and it just isn’t happening now matter when happening in the group. I know that I have tried to encourage different chats, but people show up for departures and immediately after departures they disappear. This doesn’t help with the overall community and even the moderators don’t encourage chatting outside the very small-time window of departures.

The other issue we are currently dealing with is either a slow feed or a buffering feed so that doesn’t help to ensure communication in the group. If we can’t see what is happening in or around the port it makes it rather difficult to have a conversation. If there are going to be issues that are going to take some time to resolve people need to know what is happening. Just seeing a stream disappear when it is part of a bigger channel doesn’t help at all.

As members we should be able to find out what is going on with the stream/channel and have an idea of a timeline but when we don’t we start to think about the money we are spending and is it worth the cost versus when we are actually receiving as a paying member versus what we could get as a free member?

Crafting - don't tell me what I need to do

There are so many times when I have been watching either YouTube or looking at Instagram or Facebook and I read “you should/must do it this way”. Well, I am going to let you know that your way might only be one of multiple ways of doing something, so it isn’t the only way. 

I have taken multiple cross stitch classes and the first thing the instructor says is if my way doesn’t work for you, please figure out a way that will work. I love when the instructor’s say that because I am a lefty so that means some of the instructions don’t work for me, so I need to figure out a method that is going to work for me. I have also run into instructions that have said their way was the only way and everyone must follow that method. Well, I didn’t and my piece turned out just like what the instructor wanted but I did it my way.

I know that when it comes to some crafts there are right and wrong ways to do something but the right and wrong also need to allow if you are a right-handed or left-handed individual. I might turn my piece clockwise while everyone else turned it counterclockwise, but what is the issue. There are so many things that it doesn’t matter what way something is turned as long as it is turned consistently in the same direction.

When it comes to scissors, I see way too many people pick up their scissors in their right hand and just start cutting. Well for someone like me I will be picking up my scissors (which are lefty-scissors) and I will be cutting things out probably in the opposite direction, but the overall outcome will be the same. Don’t tell me I must cut the right side first because for me that doesn’t work so you need your instructions to accommodate people that are both left and right-handed.

For someone that wants to craft, those around you need to understand that you might be different. In my family we have three females that are left-handed, so we all do things a little different, but we are still lefties, so we need to be accepted and accommodated for.

Time and Cost of Fabric

I have recently joined a couple of English Paper Piecing (EPP) groups on Facebook and what I have found is, so many people think saving a little bit of fabric is worth so much of the cost of the production. I know that for me I am the happiest when I can cut a 2.5-inch strip of fabric and then make it into 2.5-inch squares. 

I have seen too many people show that how they cut their fabric is laying out and tracing each template, including seam allowance and they put each of them up again the next one and trace around each of them. I know that might save a little bit of fabric but now much time are you spending tracing the motifs and cutting out the motifs versus maybe waiting a little bit of fabric.

When I do English Paper Piecing, I cut 2.5-inch stripes of fabric and then I cut each of them into 2.5-inch squares and that works for me. I am not going to waste the time to make sure that each side only have the 1/4 -inch seam allowance because then I need to ensure that I have placed the template in the exact right spot. For me I have my squares and I can quickly fold the fabric around the templates, and I am ready to do. 

For me I might have to buy a little bit more fabric to accommodate what I want to achieve but the cost of the fabric is a lot less than my time and that is what is important. If I wanted to spend hours tracing templates, sure I would do that but that isn’t what makes me happy. For me making sure that I can get the squares cut out and then start making the motifs is what makes me happy. I know that there are going to be some people that want to spend the hours cutting out each piece of fabric separately but that is me. If you tell that is how EPP must be done, I will tell you that isn’t how it works for me.

For me making my motifs using 2.5-inch squares is what makes me happy and I haven’t found an issue so far, so why should I spend all the extra time making sure that I only have fabric a specific size. I thought EPP was something that was to be relaxing and fun to do, but making me ensure that every piece of fabric that I use is a specific size, doesn’t work for me and I have a major problem with that.

For me, EPP is about enjoying the time making my motifs and attaching them to a project that I want to make, so maybe for some people it won’t be perfect but perfect isn’t what I want. My entire EPP journey, is good is good enough, and that is what makes me the happiest.

When tapping to pay when you get on a vehicle doesn't work

There are quite a few times when we have been on transit and see how see people that just simply just get on a vehicle especially on the back door and don’t pay. People wonder why they have transit security around and I totally agree with it. People get on especially transit with multiple doors (more than at least 2) and think they will never get caught 

Recently we were on a streetcar here in Toronto and there was someone that got on one of the other doors and clearly didn’t pay for him and his bike to ride on the transit. Once he got on, he was taking a wheelchair area, and his elbow hit the call for getting off the streetcar. He never realized that he had hit this button and of course that meant that the driver had to get off the streetcar and open the door and tell this guy he had hit the button. Of course, he had no idea that he had hit the button and of course didn’t understand what he had done. So, this is a clear example of something being able to get onto the transit without paying and in a lot of cases never being asked to show proof of payment.

What really bothers me is that these people are the ones that mean that transit costs are going to go up for the individuals that are honest and tap every time they either board a vehicle or transfer between vehicles. It is hard to accept that the individuals that are honest have to deal with the individuals that are cutting the costs.

I do know that one of the ways the people are cutting the costs are when drivers open the back door and they trust that the passengers will tap and pay the fairs. I have watched so many people just simply get on and never tap their car therefore they are riding for free. It doesn’t matter f you are at a transfer point you need to ensure that you have tapped your card to ensure your route has been tracked.

The overall enforcement doesn’t seem to be working and all we keep hearing is that there are more enforcement officers, but I have yet to see one of them. We travel the lines during some of the busy times, and you think we would at least seem them sometimes. So here we are paying our fare each time we use the transit but watching too many others that don’t. I think there is a problem, but the other problem is that they cannot or don’t want to confront something as the issue doesn’t turn out well.

Being someone that is honest that the taps everything they are transferring between vehicles can be a bit of a challenge, but we also have know that we are doing what is right and what is expected of us and only hope the ones that are trying to cheap the system get caught.tr

Hotels and their service

Something that I have started to notice and maybe this is the hotel chain that I have been staying at is there are times when customer service and just service in general seems to be going downhill while the price of staying at the hotel is going up. Maybe we are just getting the hotel when they are having a bad weekend but that seems to be happening more and more.

• Breakfast area – not keeping items stocked so that the guests can grab their food and coffee and be on their way. This time at the hotel the coffee was running very low when we got ours and then I think it ran out not long after but it took a while for it to be restocked. The sausages were low (only 2 left when we got our food), so none left after we got food and the plate area was empty in one section for empty. It took quite a while to get any of these items restocked and some people did without sausages and probably coffee as they were in a hurry.
• Cleaning staff – they were very impatient with the elevator. One of the elevators was out of order so it meant only one was working. One of the cleaning stuff was constantly pressing the button to call the elevator as if that would make it come faster. This is just after 8am and lots of people would be leaving at that time. When the elevator finally arrived it was full of guests leaving with their luggage so that is why it took a while. One of the cleaning staff walked by us and I thought she was going to try and get on the elevator before us but she waited otherwise she would have heard me.
• Cleanliness of the room – when putting our shoes in one of the closets discovered a part of a cracker on the floor. Have no idea how long it has been there but it shows that the floors of the closets are not cleaned on a regular basis. We didn't have crackers so it was there before we arrived.
• 
  Recognition of being a member of the chain – this is something that has happened a few times. Yes, we are recognized as a returning guest to the hotel but not as a gold member of the hotel chain. When you get the survey that is one of the questions that you are asked and again this time I will be stating not recognized as a gold member. Sure, when I get into the room it welcomes me by name and as a gold member.
• Caution pylon - this pylon was in the one elevator that was working the entire time we were in the hotel. The floor wasn't wet as it wasn't raining out and we didn't see anyone washing the floor at any time we were around the elevator.

These are some of the issues that we saw on our latest stay and something that chains need to understand that can impact of a guest continues to start with a specific chain of hotels or is it time for them to try a different chain and see if that chain has better service.

Something that we are going to be doing is trying a different hotel chain to see what they are like. Being able to have the flexibility to try and different chains and not just stay with one does help quite a bit. We will see how that stay goes as we have already booked a trip and I will make sure that I write up about that experience.

40 years

Here I am sitting and writing about a date that was 40 years ago, and the date was September 8, 1986. This is the day when I started my first full-time job and it was for a company that I continued to work for until October 31, 2001. Yes, that seems like a lifetime ago and in some ways, it has been a lifetime ago and it’s been for me most of my working life. When I sit back and think about how things have changed since that date, I know that both the world and I have changed. 

In 1986 after just finishing college, I had no idea what working full time was really going to be like and how your free time is limited because of the basic things that you need to do everyday. Sure, I had gone to college but there were long breaks between classes and if you didn’t want to attend a class on a specific day you didn’t have to. Now, working meant showing up at a specific time each day of the week and then leaving at a specific time. Things sure did change but it was something that I enjoyed, and I know that I learned a lot working at that first company.

Things are so different now compared to when I started working and the use of laptops and cell phones are just a couple of the things that have changed. Overall, the way that we work on is so different, but the job still needs to get done and demands of your time are still here. Now, the means of communicating has really changed and now when you haven’t answered a text message or a voice mail, someone will call you and ask why.

Our free time now is so different, because now we can order online our groceries and meals and they will be delivered to our house without in a lot of cases talking to anyone. For some people their free time is spend scrolling on their mobile device and losing hours watching different things that are posts on social media. Growing up we could only watch a program on the television at a scheduled time and now it’s whenever we want to watch it.

I know that I have changed from being that scared individual that walked into an office to start her first job to someone that now is a partner of a business. Sure, there are times when I wish I could go back to the easier ways of life, but I am enjoying my life as it is and if I hadn’t started working for the company that I did, things might have been very different for me. Forty years really isn’t that long ago when you think about things and sure things that changed and life is different, but I can still look in the mirror and see that person that I was.

Fast Food Establishments

This blog is being written after we were trying to enjoy lunch at a fast-food location and things just didn’t go as well as it could have. The food was fine so that wasn’t the issue, it was the other customers that weren’t considerate while they were in the location. Here are some examples of what happened:

1. Two high school students were sitting at the table next to us and they are picked up 99% of their lunch at Metro (one of our local grocery stores) and then came into this location so that they could sit down and eat. One of the girls had purchased a pop from the fast-food location but that was it. So, they were sitting at a table for four and had only purchased a pop during a time when the location was busy. Also, they had purchased some potatoes at the grocery store but needed salt so they walked up to the counter and asked for it as well.  If you are going to sit in a location when it is busy, make sure that you have purchased move than 50% of what is on the table from that location.

2. A group of four girls come in, and they placed their orders and then they are trying to figure out where they want to sit. One girl goes down to the back of location and gets a table and then one of the girls waiting for her food starts chatting with this girl sitting at the back of the location. It was pretty busy and that type of chatting isn’t something that should happen when there are lots of other people in the store. This group did seem to get organized and had their lunch without much of an issue other than they didn’t clean up their table when they left. Everyone else made sure their tables were cleared off.

I understand that when a fast-food location isn’t busy you might have a little bit of something from another store but not most of your meal and make it clear that it was from somewhere else. This fast-food location didn’t serve pizza in bags or broiled potatoes in a plastic container or pop in bottles. So this was one of the issues that really bothered me.

Something else that maybe the location would improve is how close to the end of the counter the first table is. When people leave the counter, they go past a wall, and the first table is right there and if you are sitting there isn’t like people are almost coming into your space when there is a lot of open space around that table. If we sit at this table again, I will be making sure that I sit at the other two seats so that we are a little further away from where people and their trays seem to be.

So, when you are visiting a fast-food establishment when it’s busy please be considerate of the other customers as they want to enjoy their meal. I understand that students want to have lunch outside of school some days but if you are purchasing your food from a grocery store, you need to figure out a space outside to have your food. I understand it is difficult for fast-food locations to monitor the customers sitting in their store and in a lot of cases they don’t want to approach a customer as they don’t know how that customer is going to react.

When communities work and when they don't work

A lot of us are part of some online communities be it for work or pleasure and there are times when things run smoothly and then there are times when things just don’t work. I think we have all seen that happen to at least one of the communities that we are involved in. 

One of the key factors for a community working well is have leaders/administrators/moderators that are part of the community. If the key people are not posting and seeing part of the community that is when things start to fall apart. Those individuals don’t have to be posting all the time, but they at least have to be making comments to posts and at least being visible within the community. If these people either never post or hardly post it makes it difficult for some communities to continue to be effective.

Another factor that can determine if a community to going to work or not is having community members that post and what to be involved. I have seen too many communities where only a few members do the majority of the posting and everyone else just sits back and just lurk. It is important for a community to work well there needs to be conversations. It’s important to have members that want to engage and be part of the community because if everyone just lurks that isn’t a community at all.

Online communities be it for work or pleasure can help you figure out issues or provide you with information about things that you are interested in. I know that I have been involved with communities for both work and pleasure and some have been really good, and others haven’t helped at all. Communities do have a life span and some of them with last for years while others may only last for a few months, as it depends on the purpose of the community and the type of members that are involved in it. What is really sad is when you find that a community that was a wonderful place to participate is slowly fading away. It can be hard to realize that this community may not last much longer but if you enjoyed it when it was in it’s peak, remember to enjoy it and know that you were part of it during it’s good times.

 

 

Sharing on Social Media

If you are going to share other posts on social media, please explain why you are sharing a post. If you are just sharing a post without explaining why you are sharing, you are just spamming everyone.

There are so many times when I am looking at Facebook, and I am feeling that I need to try and control a bunch of things because I am feeling like too many people are just sharing posts and not explaining why they are sharing the posts. I understand that you might think the post is important, but you MUST explain to me why it’s important.

I have seen lately quite a few of my friends just sharing posts without any comment and that is getting very frustrating because I don’t have a clue why they are sharing the post other than spamming everyone. There are so many posts that you see so many ways that if you are going to share something you need to explain why you are sharing on your page.

I have times where multiple friends have shared the same post and none of them have given me the reason why they are sharing. It might be something that I might/should pay attention to but if everyone isn’t giving me a reason to look future into the issue regarding the post I am just going to ignore it.  

So, if you would like me to pay attention to something that you are sharing, you need to explain to me why you are sharing something. Just a simple share doesn’t tell me anything and if you continue to do this type of sharing you might end up not being someone that I see your posts.

For a lot of us we need to understand and only see posts that are important to us and when friends or family just share without a reason that can limit how much of them, we see. I have already limited what I see for some people and if you are one of those that just keep sharing things without explaining why, you are probably going to go into that category of those that I don’t see your posts and I will only check on what is going on in your life occasionally.     

Being a blind sharer means that you aren’t respect or care about others in our circle so why should we care about what you post. You aren’t caring about those in your group because you don’t explain why you share something that doesn’t us give a reason to care. Hitting just a share button means that you don’t care enough to give me a reason why I should care.

Apps and promos

How many times have we received a promotional code through one of our apps that we have on our mobile device, and it just wants us to purchase something that maybe we looked at once and decided it wasn’t worth it. I know for me, I have seen this too many times when I have received a code or the “you need to purchase immediately for this discount” when the discount wasn’t even a discount. 

What everyone needs to be aware is that some of these promotional codes or buy now to receive the best discount isn’t really a discount, it is a business or app that is just trying to make sure that they pressure individuals to feel that the purchase is a now or never. What they don’t think about is just trying to show maybe someone how an item might help the individual.

I know for me when I get this immediate promotional code or you must purchase now, my decision is I am going to walk away from that item because that business is demonstrating the need for sales instead of trying to meet the needs of the potential consumer. I recently signed up for a fast food chain for some of their promotions but what I found out is that they are going to both blast me through the app and the blast me through emails so why should I want to purchase from them just to meet a promotional requirement. For me, I will purchase at the various fast-food chains when the chain meets my needs not when there is a promotional item that I MUST purchase.

What a lot of the apps and promotions need to realize is that just offering me a discount isn’t going to make me jump to purchase your item. The location of the store is going to be a major deciding factor and if you aren’t with my immediate location I am not going to drop everything to drive miles just to get a discount. Businesses need to understand that a discount might be nice when I am close to the actual location but if I have to drive miles to receive the specific discount it is no longer a discount it is an expense to me.

When the app gives you a time sensitive promotion you need to look at the cost of getting this promotion versus not getting the discount. In some cases what you save by not getting the discount is more than the discount you could have received. Act now, don't think, as we need your money more than you do.

 

Why should I move?

Recently I was seeing that there was an event that was asking attendees if they would be willing to move from the hotel from where the event was being held to another hotel that was a little bit of a distance from the location. Yes, I understand that the event hotel was going to make sure that you were transported between the two locations but that doesn’t matter.

Something that we need to understand that there was a contract (separate to the specific event) from January through March for a group of rooms that were to be vacated prior to the event that was to happen at the end of April and early May. Well, what happened is the long-term contract was extended without looking at what other contracts were signed and suddenly we had a major issue. So, what happened was the hotel where the event was contracted, they were able to find another hotel within the same area that was able to find accommodations, but they could accommodate people that were willing to have a king bed so that really did impact a lot of people. Yes the original hotel was willing to make sure that they could transport the individuals back and from the new hotel but there are still the challenges.

Something that a lot of organizers don’t think about is how many individuals will be going up to their room for just those few minutes to escape the sounds of the event space or what happens if I forget something in my room and need to do a quick run up to the room to get that specific thing that I need to continue to move a specific project forward. I don’t want to have to give out how to get to my new hotel to just spend a few minutes in my room and then turn around and get back to the event hall.

For a lot of attendees at an event, we have to understand that moving from one hotel to another might seem easy to some but can be a challenge to others. How do I move between the two hotels because do I always want to spend the time and energy going between the two hotels. Sure, the event hosting was willing to pay for the transportation, but they didn’t think about the time and energy that was going to happen for the different attendees.

I understand that there might have been an issue between an existing long-term contract and a signed contract that was done a year ago, maybe what should have happened is the people that there at the original hotel should have been the ones moved to accommodate a contract that was signed a year ago.

There seems to be a lot of there long-term contracts that are around in the hotels, but we also have to think about the contracts there were signed a year ago and how it looks for individuals that want to stay at a given hotel. Why are there so many less rooms available and maybe that is what we need to look at.

Edit: there is an update and it ended up that the hotel was able to resolve the issue and the attendees of the event didn't have to move to a different location. I am happy to hear this because it shows that hotels need to understand that a contract that was signed should be respected.

A community is only as good as the weakest link/member

There are so many times when you are part of a community especially those that are online that you have to step back and not say things because of the questions or comments that have been posted. Recently I saw on a community group that someone was asking a crochet designer to help them figure out a pattern that this designer had no involvement in. The person (designer) that they contacted very nicely told them that they needed to contact the original designer to request the changes she needed. 

When you have an issue with a pattern be it knitting, crocheting or cross stitch you need to contact the original designer to ask them the questions and not ask someone else for help. There are so many times that we have to think about copyright laws as well because patterns that are designed by an individual do have copyright laws that will impact the sharing of the pattern with others.

If you are sharing a pattern that you purchased that is a pdf you cannot share it at all even if you are asking someone for assistance in figuring out the pattern. The pdf is licensed to you along and you are not allowed or entitled to share this pattern with anyone else even if you are having issues with it. I know that I have seen a lot of people want to share a pattern for help or even just to give it to others and those are not allowed. I have also seen someone say that if you send me the pdf I can make it compatible for a specific program and once again this isn’t allowed because you are sharing a pattern with someone else and how does the designer know that you will delete your copy of the pattern after you have made it work for the original purchaser.

When you are part of community you need to understand that there are rules that everyone needs to comply with and if you don’t it could cause a lot of issues for the group as a whole. When you keep asking for help and aren’t realizing that you are breaking copyright laws that doesn’t help the group. I know that the groups that I am either a moderator or an administrator of if I see these types of requests I immediately delete the message and let the individual know they the post has been deleted. Making sure that you are not the weakest link/member of a group is extremely important and always make sure that you are not breaking any copyright laws when you are asking for help.

When you demand that the group provides you with help and you don’t understand how to communicate within the group you are causing lots of issues. A group can only provide the assistance that is available to them and without breaking copyright always. A weakest link is someone that demands help and doesn’t care if they are breaking copyright laws or causing other issues. Next time when you see this happening make sure before you try and assist you understand and respect the copyright laws that could be being broken.

Slowing the brain down

 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 tuck 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 tuck 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 am 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.