From the Desk of Janet Barclay

One month ago today I wrote that I was searching for a VA to support my business. It was an eye-opening experience. In my posting, I indicated the specific skills I was looking for and requested work samples. Some people sent no samples with no explanation as to why they were unable to provide them, others sent samples with glaring mistakes in them, and another one said she didn’t know what kind of sample I was looking for.

I selected the VAs I felt most closely met my needs and set up times to chat with each of them over the phone, which was a draining exercise for someone who is not a big fan of the telephone. Happily, I found someone with the background I was looking for, whose rate I could afford, and with whom I "clicked" and we began working together a few weeks ago.

As I expected, it has been challenging for me to relinquish control to someone else - especially someone who isn’t just a few feet away - but at the same time, it has been liberating. When I think of something that needs to be done, or notice something that needs to be updated on my website, all I have to do is fire off an email, which doesn’t take much longer than putting the task on my to-do list. Of course, some things need more detailed instructions, but by taking the time to write them out now, my VA will have them as a reference going forward, and next time it will be a snap!

In addition to the time-saving benefits, I am learning to provide even better service to my own clients from being on the receiving end and knowing what kinds of "extra" things I would appreciate.

Okay, I confess… I am a social networking junkie.

My first experience of social networking was in 2003, when I signed up for Ryze, on the recommendation of Tracy Lyn Moland, a fellow member of Canadian Entrepreneurial Women, an online community which I recently left as I no longer have time to participate. (I suppose message boards and forums are also a form of social network, but I’m thinking more of the type of website where members have their own profiles and the ability to connect with "friends." ) One of the things I liked about Ryze was the ability to see photos of the other users, and to customize your profile, almost using it as a one-page website. The other thing I liked was the various special interest networks you could join. One of the problems with these networks is that they tend to be either wildly popular, in which case staying on top of all the messages becomes almost a full-time job, or the opposite, where the only messages posted are "Hi, I’m new" followed by "Welcome!" One exception was the Professional Organizers Network which was founded by Linda Elliott. Linda and I got to know each other quite well, and she even drove all the way from Western New York to Hamilton to visit me and to attend a POC meeting in Cambridge, and on another occasion we collaborated on a seminar in Toronto. Unfortunately, she had to leave the industry for health reasons, and other than a couple of occasions where I’ve met someone in person that I recognized from Ryze, providing a conversation-starter, I haven’t found much benefit in it.

The second social networking site I joined was LinkedIn, which is very different than Ryze. No fancy pictures, no customized profiles, and no special interest groups. One plus is that you can only connect with someone if you know their email address or if someone introduces you, so you don’t get total strangers sending you friend requests. One the other hand, it makes it more difficult to make new contacts. It also offers the ability to post questions and answer questions that others have posted, which makes the networking very focused, and gives an opportunity to show your expertise. But fun, it’s not. And I don’t think I’ve gotten anything out of it yet, other than some wonderful recommendations posted by people I’ve worked for and with.

Most recently I joined Facebook, which is very different again as it emphasizes "social" as opposed to business networking. I’d been invited to similar sites previously (Ringo, Yahoo 360) but never joined, but the person who sent me the invitation was a special young person who had disappeared from my life for several years and recently reappeared, and I couldn’t bring myself to just delete the message. That was about four months ago, and I now have nearly 100 friends on there, including family members, school friends, former co-workers, and business contacts. It’s similar to Ryze in that you can post photos and join special interest groups, and there are quite a few business-oriented groups as well as personal interests. It can be a lot of fun, and has made me wish there was a similar site to this that was business-oriented.

This morning I received an email telling me about Fast Pitch! who describe themselves as the "Facebook for Business" so naturally I was curious. Although it’s tempting, I think I’ll wait this one out and see if someone I know sends me an invitation. A person needs to leave some time in their schedule for in person networking - and to actually do some work!

A friend of mine has joined The Compact, which is a group of individuals who have made a commitment to not buy any new products of any kind during 2007, but instead to barter, borrow, or buy used. There are, of course, some exceptions - they don’t expect people to buy used underwear, for example. Their goals are as follows:

• To go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of disposable consumer culture and to support local businesses, farms, etc.
• To reduce clutter and waste in their homes (as in trash Compact-er).
• To simplify their lives (as in Calm-pact)

Their main Yahoo group currently has over 8400 members, and they have a number of regional groups as well, including the Compact Canada, which are listed on their blog.

I’m not ready to make that type of commitment, but I fully admire those who are, and I strongly support donating unwanted gifts to other people or organizations rather than throwing them in the garbage where they’ll end up in the landfill.

I’m still in love with Outlook, but I have one pet peeve…

The Junk Mail filter is relatively effective. I still have to check my Junk Mail folder daily to make sure it hasn’t flagged something incorrectly, but I can live with that. What annoys me is that when a spam message doesn’t get caught, and I click on "block sender," it then sends the message to the Junk Mail folder. Which means that unless I check my Junk Mail folder BEFORE my Inbox (which almost defeats the purpose of having it), I have to review those same messages twice.

You can set your preferences so that all messages flagged as Junk are automatically deleted, but I don’t want to do that, for the reason stated above. But I think if I manually flag a message as Junk, it should go directly to the Deleted folder, and not to the Junk folder. If there is a way to do this, please let me know, because I haven’t been able to find one!

I read a great article this month by Vince Thompson, author of Ignited: Managers! Light Up Your Company and Career for More Power More Purpose and More Success, entitled Make the Most of Your White Space. In this article, Thompson defines "white space" as "those gaps in your calendar in between meetings and other planned activities." He then goes on to suggest effective strategies for maximizing your use of that time, and I suggest that you read his article to learn what strategies he recommends.

One thing he doesn’t mention in his article is the importance of creating white space in your schedule. You (hopefully) know that you should leave enough white space on websites and printed documents to make them readable, but do you consciously leave white space on your calendar, or do you schedule back-to-back meetings and other activities, barely leaving time to wrap things up and safely get from one location to another?

In today’s fast-paced lifestyle, this problem is not isolated to the workplace. Many families live in a constant whirlwind of hurrying home from work and school, then grabbing a quick bite to eat before rushing off to various activities. This type of existence makes it very difficult to enjoy time together or even the activities themselves.

Now that summer is here, many of those regular activities will not be taking place. Why not take advantage of this "white space" to figure out what you really want to achieve in your personal and professional lives, and to determine what you can eliminate from your schedule to make it possible?