From the Desk of Janet Barclay

When I wrote my first blog entry, I was a little unsure that I would be able to come up with enough to write about on a regular basis but, believe it or not, a whole year has gone by, and I’m still here!

Like most bloggers, I really appreciate it when people take the time to post a comment, so I’m going to "borrow" an idea from one of my VA colleagues, Erin Blaskie (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all), and use this occasion to thank everyone who has left a comment over the past year:

1. Jacki Hollywood Brown of Well Organized
2. Alex Fayle of Someday Syndrome
3. Kathie Thomas, Virtual Assistant
4. Suzanne McLoone of Let’s Talk Organizing
5. Jenn Kubilis of JK Business Services
6. Monica Ricci of Catalyst Organizing
7. Marcia Francois of Take Charge Solutions
8. Allison Cabral, Life Coach and Speaker
9. Vicki Riley of Original Dinky Baby Dolls
10. Debbie Weil, Business Blogging Specialist
11. Michael Fletcher of Neworld Coaching
12. Erika Martlew, Virtual Assistant
13. Jennifer Wilson of Agent Solutions
14. Kylie Short of Tilda Virtual Services
15. Barry Zweibel of GottaGettaCoach!
16. Candy Beauchamp of OffAssist
17. Dr. Amie Ragan of Psychology of Clutter
18. Yochi of Green Mothers’ Digest
19. Tom Mulrooney,  University Student and Blogger
20. Adam Kayce of Monk at Work
21. Dawud Miracle of Healthy WebDesign
22. Cristina Favreau of The Savvy Entrepreneur
23. Ariane Benefit of Neat & Simple Living
24. Laurie Dart of Writing Wisely
25. Crystal Pina of Visions Virtual Assistance
26. Rebecca Trelfa of Virtual Dynamos
27. Erin Blaskie of Business Services, ETC
28. Chris Shaver of Hamilton VERC
29. Cathy of MurrayvilleMom
30. Caroline Rochon of A la Carte Organizing Services
31. Joseph Michelli, Author of "The Starbucks Experience"
32. Leesa Barnes, Podcasting Expert
33. BJ of Buy Back Warehouse
34. Maria Zegarac of the Society of Management Accountants of Ontario
35. Doug (my dad)
36. Mark Walford
37. Rosemary De Favio
38. Mike

Your support means a great deal to me, and I hope you continue to find some interesting tips and information here.

If you’ve been "lurking," please don’t hesitate to leave your name. Knowing who is reading my blog will help me to write about the topics that will interest you.

I’ve been convinced for a long time that we all procrastinate in different ways and for different reasons, but I never gave a lot of thought to my own procrastinating habits. Lately I’ve been struggling with keeping my inbox empty - something I’ve aspired to since taking McGhee Productivity Solutions’ webinar, Getting to Zero in Your Inbox, and I’ve realized that the reason I’ve been postponing dealing with some of my messages is INDECISION.

There are so many meetings, seminars, teleclasses, and other networking and professional development activities, that it’s not realistic to try to attend them all, but choosing the ones that are worth my time has always been a struggle for me. Then there are those emails from people who want to get together for coffee or lunch or a meeting… as an introvert who loves working from home because it means I don’t have to go out into the world all the time, those emails are usually met with a heavy sigh. I am always glad when I go out, whether it be for a one-on-one business or social get-together or a formal networking event, but motivating myself to go is difficult.

Maybe it would help if I plan to attend one group function and one one-on-one outing per week, then when I receive one of "those" emails, I can simply pencil it into my calendar and reply right away. Remembering how good it feels to have an empty inbox can be my motivator!

What about you? What causes you to procrastinate, and what can you do about it?
 

There’s been a lot of discussion on this blog and elsewhere about whether it’s necessary to stay "connected" while away from work, particularly during vacations. And although I personally discovered this fall that it’s not, as long as you leave your business in the hands of a capable person who can reach you in case of an absolute emergency, it seems that more and more people feel they should be available just because the technology exists to make it possible.

On a similar subject, a friend recently sent me a link to a posting on Sync: The Tech & Gadgets Blog which raised an interesting, although somewhat disturbing, question: is it appropriate to answer one’s cell phone while using the bathroom? That is just wrong, on so many levels! Why pay for services like Voice Mail and Missed Calls Logs, and not use them at times like this? Surely there’s not one person on this earth whose business is so important that they can’t wait five minutes or so to return a call…

After a very busy summer and fall (which included a ten-day vacation away from home), I’m finally in a position where I take some time to clear up some of the "important but not urgent" tasks which I’ve been neglecting.

Since I’m taking a "catch-up" day, I thought I’d give you one as well, so rather than posting something new here, you can get caught up on my other blogs! 

OnlineOrganizing.com - Technology as an Organizing Tool:

Arranging Your Furniture – Digitally
Goal Spirals
Organize Movies the Easy Way

Introvert Retreat:

Shannon Kalvar’s Thoughts on Passing as an Extravert
What’s Wrong With Extraverts

And as always, there are some new guest articles at OrganizedArticles.com to help you organize your home as well as your business.

When I set up this blog, I chose Blogsome because at the time I had little experience with blogging platforms and it seemed to be easy to use and have the features I wanted, and for the most part, I have been satisfied. The one drawback I have discovered was the fact that it does not offer a way to back up your entries, and now that I’ve been blogging for nearly a year, I was a little concerned about losing my work. I was thinking that instead of just logging in and writing spontaneously, which is my current practice, I should start preparing my entries and saving them to my hard drive before posting them, but I would still need to copy and paste all my older entries over just in case something happened to my blog or to the site itself.

I was about to ask my VA to do just that when I decided to first check out the Blogsome forum to see whether there was an option that I had overlooked. I was very pleased to see that another user recommended BlogBackupOnline and even more pleased to discover that it is very quick to sign up and easy to use. What’s really great about it is that you get up to 50 MB of storage for free, and that you can back up multiple blogs within one account. Since I write for several blogs as well as managing some of my clients’ blogs, this is an ideal solution.