Long ago, far away (OK, about an hour from where I write this) … in a softball game, I  failed to catch a ball thrown to me at first base. This disappointed my coach because he depended on me to catch a reasonable throw every time. He forgave those occasional wild throws out of my reach. But not this one.

Photo from flickr user Keith Allison

As soon as the team got all three outs and came off the field into the dugout, I went to the coach. The look on his face confirmed my suspicions that he’d be disappointed in me. I apologized and told him I’d hit a home run to make up for it.

That was some promise for 12-year-old me. I excelled in softball, but I didn’t hit homers in every game or every other game. I felt bad about my mistake and wanted to make up for it.

And I did.

The Proof’s in the Pizza

People can recover from business mistakes. They happen and most of us rational folks accept that. It’s how we handle the mistakes that impress or depress customers. Amy Ravit Korin ordered pizza from Dominos online without talking to anyone. You’d think placing an order online would cut errors since you don’t have anyone speaking or listening in the equation. It’s all in writing (typing).

Not only did the pizza arrive over an hour late, but also it wasn’t the pizza she ordered. Korin tweeted a pizza her mind about the experienced in Twitter. Ramon DeLeon, the owner, caught her tweet and responded that he would make it up to her. First, he sent the correct pizza.

The next morning, he apologized in a video that also included the store manager. Despite its mistake, Domino’s gained respect and lots of video embeds for owing up to its mistake.  DeLeon also provide Domino’s pizza for over 350 people at a social media gathering in which Korin was involved in unbeknownst to him. (Talk about fate!)

Customer Service All A-Twitter

When I’ve complained in Twitter and received a response from the company, I’d follow up with a positive tweet about the company. Do a search for #customerservice and you’ll see complaints, compliments and job listings. Here are a few minus the job listings.

PatrickCSanders: Just had the absolute worst #customerservice experience @vapiano_usa on 18th&M NW #DC. Absent-minded chefs/mgmt, & food that never showed!

HeyyyGuyyy: Horrible #customerservice by @BestBuy_Deals during Hurricane Irene – Picture #BestBuy #Irene

I checked on the company accounts of the two negative tweets. No acknowledgment. Another user started a conversation with @PatrickCSanders about experiences with Vapaino.

People will talk about you and your company without you. While we can’t control anything online, we can listen and acknowledge. It can mean the difference between negative publicity and earning customer advocates.

What mistake did you experience that you complained about online? Did the company respond? Have you turned a problem into a positive experience? What happened?

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I live in Texas and haven’t been to a single high school football game since moving back to Texas in 1995. And, my daughter is a senior at a high school … a giant one (2600 in two grades) compared to mine (less than 2000 in four grades). Oh, I love football, y’all. My dad took me all around Dallas/Fort Worth to meet a few of the Dallas Cowboys and get their autographs.

Photo by Cherie A. Thurby

When the Cowboys won the Super Bowl in 1994, I was nine months pregnant. Although an exciting game, I couldn’t jump — thank goodness. Everyone wondered how I didn’t go into labor that day. (She arrived 10 days later — maybe that explains her disinterest in football.)

I joke that I didn’t graduate from a real college because it didn’t have a football team. Growing up in Fort Worth, I caught a few games at TCU where I went for my freshman year of college. Loved that experience especially when TCU played against Texas A&M. No matter how you feel about the Aggies, they have an incredible and precise band that puts most bands to shame. And no, it wasn’t because my husband had played in the Aggie band.  You just have to watch the Aggie band to understand.

My most memorable football memory has to be the 1986 Cotton Bowl: Texas A&M vs. Auburn and Bo Jackson. I have my brother, an A&M graduate, to thank for getting to see the game.

What’s your most memorable football memory? If soccer is your thing — go for it.

Brain food…

• Freelancer’s Guide to SEO – More Visibility, Traffic, and Clients. A well-organized doable guide with simple steps that won’t overwhelm you like others.
• 9 Ways Your Business Needs To Change To Become Social. This is how I try to work with social media. I truly love the interactions. I could spend all day listening and helping people if I could. [Link: Adam Helweh]
• How to Write a Good Freelancer Bio. Suggests various elements to include along with some tips.
• How to understand regret — and 2 ways to avoid it. I don’t think I have any big regrets in my life. Sure, I wish I had done some things differently, but if I had never done them … my path may not have ended up where it has today.
• 10 words worth collecting and how to use them. These aren’t insipid words. Quite the opposite.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Social Media Explained… in very simple terms. Hilarious.
• Duck Tron. What happens when you throw duct tape into a scene from Tron.
• George Washington Autocorrect. HA!

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Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Mari McCarthy’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour. We’re giving away a copy of her eBook, Who Are You? How to Use Journaling Therapy to Know and Grow Your Life. Read on to see how you can win.

About Mari McCarthy: After twenty years as a business consultant Mari McCarthy switched gears. The catalyst was a health issue for which the remedy became her new life path. Mari now assists others with personal development and health issues through therapeutic journaling.

Mari says that journaling has become her “tool for life.” She keeps a journal in her office for assistance in business, one in the family area for use with introspection, and one by the bed for dream work. Through journaling Mari has discovered many things about herself, like her desire and talent for singing! Watch Mari’s video for “To Make You Feel My Love” on YouTube.

Reality Show: Your Journal As Documentary by Mari McCarthy

It might be said that the current-day version of the daily journal is the reality show. Both of these mediums delight in the power of the everyday to shock and enchant us. In both journaling and reality shows, very mundane things take center stage.

There’s a deliciousness in realizing the ramifications of each minuscule moment, whether it’s your own life or someone else’s. There’s a thrill in understanding how the choices we make in the minutia of an hour create our lives.

Unlike reality shows, which tend to be all over the map, documentaries have definite aim and purpose. When people make documentaries, they are exploring a certain thread. They have a fragment and they go looking for other fragments which, when all strung together, make a mosaic that brings a new depth of meaning / understanding to a particular subject.

When people keep journals, they don’t always recognize the thread they’re exploring. Sometimes it’s just a brain-dump, letting out inhibited emotions, letting off a little steam so you can carry on more calmly in your life. (Isn’t that why you watch reality shows?) This kind of journaling is healing and good. Just because it’s unfocused doesn’t mean it has no value.

When you re-read your “reality show” entries after some time has passed, you will see that it is a collection of fragments that add up to more than the sum of their parts. But in the moment, this is neither clear to you, nor important. Only the moment is important. As in a reality show, there’s a chain of events, but you only remember it later.

On the other hand, you can purposefully use a journal as a documentary, one that traces your commitment to something: learning Spanish; losing weight; being a mother; your religious or spiritual faith; your talent for whittling, or whatever. In this case, the overall theme is given (though not necessarily strictly adhered to) and a chain of events is anticipated.

Using journaling as an aid when you anticipate progress – or at least increased understanding – in any given direction can be enormously helpful. Like taking a shortcut when the way is long and arduous, keeping a journal provides a short-hand route to awareness.

When documenting anything, you follow it, ideally from beginning to end. When you follow any aspect of your life or consciousness, you make at least a mental documentary of it. When you keep a journal during the process, you maintain both a bird’s eye and a close-up view. The result? Prismatic!

You know where you are today and you can at any time re-discover where you where in the past. You gain a sense of swimming as opposed to just drifting with the current.

When you document instead of drift, you can perceive all dimensions of your experience. It’s like putting puzzle pieces together. You are building something.

Some people keep two or more journals going at the same time. There’s the daily session with your Inner Coach, and then there’s the journal documentary of your trip to Eastern Europe or your job on the floor of the NY Stock Exchange or your 2011 vegetable garden.

The Inner Coach – your inner reality show – is a staple that’s with you all the time, while the documentary journals come and go. The two kinds of journals serve different purposes, but they are equally indispensable.

Comment and win: For a chance to win a copy of the eBook Who Are You? How to Use Journaling to Know and Grow Your Life, please leave a comment at least 50 words long about writing about your life. What kinds of documentary journaling do you do? Do you censor yourself? What’s your approach? You have until 11:59pm on September 1, 2011 to qualify for the drawing. The unbiased and robotic Random.org has the honor of picking the winner.

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My youngest enters third grade, a grade that feels like a pinnacle school year. When my oldest was in third grade, I was pregnant with the youngest and had him at the end of the school year. He visited the school many times as a baby and toddler. Now, he’s over halfway through his elementary school career. Third grade is the first year they take those fun state tests with Texas introducing a new one this year making everyone crazier than usual.

Third grade is when things get serious in a child’s education and life. Less play, more work.

First day of third grade

Lessons from Third Grade

Third grade happens to be one of the grades I remember well. It’s the one year I recall laying out my clothes the night before — brand new dress and ugly blocky ’70s shoes. When the students waited in the cafeteria to find out our teachers, we third graders talked about who was mean and who was nice. Out of all that, I remember someone saying, “Mrs. Miller is the mean one.”

Guess who I landed. I also had almost every third grade teacher. First, I had Mrs. Johnson for reading and Mrs. Lambert for math. My mom went straight to the principal and told them to try again. She believed the school placed me in lower level classes than where I needed to be. They moved me to Mrs. Johnson for math and Mrs. Massey for reading. Happily ever third grade.

Oh, and Mrs. Miller? She was a wonderful teacher.

The lessons: expectations and speaking up.

Expectations

We can’t help but have expectations in our lives and careers. You interview for a job and form an idea of what to expect in talking with the people interviewing you. You meet with a potential client discussing the project collecting tidbits from the conversation hinting what it might be like to work with the client.

Sometimes our expectations are on target. Sometimes they’re not. The more accurate information you have, the more likely reality matches expectations. My third grade friends had no basis for saying Mrs. Miller’s mean. It was probably a long line of hearsay.

Speaking up

When something isn’t right or you believe it can be better. Speak up. Fight for it. As a freelancer, my clients hire me for my expertise in content. If I see a missed opportunity or a better way of doing something, I speak up. A freelancer isn’t a person who only does what the client asks. It also means acting like a consultant who shares knowledge and experience to help the client.

For example, I’ve worked with a client on his company website for a long time. Search engine optimization (SEO) rules have changed since we first met. I told him I’d like to revise pages per current SEO recommendations explaining what needed changing and why. He told me to run with it.

When one of my kids received an assignment way out of his league that would hurt more than help, I spoke up. It had happened before to another student and the powers that be didn’t do anything to correct it. I couldn’t stand by and watch my son suffer the consequences of a poor decision on the leaders’ part. It took a few messages, but we found a compromise.

When did you encounter expectations that didn’t match up to reality? How about when they did match up? Why didn’t they match up? Why did they? How about a situation when you spoke up to a manager or a client?

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School begins on Monday. Yay! Hooray! Too excited? The kids had a good summer. It’s time to return to our regular scheduled programming, only this year it has a few more shows added than I would like. The little guy takes piano, does scouts and goes to religious school twice a week instead of once. The older guy adds football and has to practice twice a day for a big event in February.

The daughter gets busy with her college search and application process. Glad that last one will be done by November — I hope. I know some schools accept applications later on, but the bulk of the work happens this fall. Then, she can sit back and enjoy her senior year.

Me. I’ll be working extra hard to hold on to my sanity on top of mothering, wifing (boy, that looks like wi-fi’ing — you know, be a good wife), volunteering, serving clients as best as possible, chauffeuring, exercising, sleeping.

College has changed drastically from when I applied. I only applied to three schools. After I finished my freshman year, I applied to two schools because I moved to Washington, D.C. Now, kids typically apply to more than five schools. The cost? College tuition inflation multiples faster than regular inflation. In a conversation, someone said that it’s possible fewer kids will go to college in the future because of this. Or, go to community college — which are growing like weeds. I believe it.

Education is important. But not at the expense of your finances and sanity.  What are your thoughts on the state of college education?

Brain food…

• How to Find an Illustrator for Your Book. I suppose I should save this as I doubt Lane Smith, Chris Von Allsburg or Mo Willems are available or affordable.
• 3 Principles for Facebook Fan Pages. This author-focused article gives you the basics to get started, even if it’s with a personal page. Don’t start a page for the sake of it. Do it because you have a strategy and you want to commit to it. Although, he has been talking about social media for a long time, my client didn’t commit to a Facebook page until recently. If you’re into social media and marketing, you might find it useful.
• Is Free Too High a Price? I love this post as it clearly illustrates the value of giving away an ebook.
• 10 Things About Having A Writing Blog. George highlights what it means to manage a writing blog.
• Quiet Theory of Influence. A powerful post on how you can influence in social media without the oily stuff. People will argue against some of the points like the pop ups. I never liked them, but people have tested them and they do work. It’s like “Please RT” in Twitter. Yucky, but has shown to work. But I wouldn’t feel good about it… hence, snake oiliness.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• 12 Hilarious Pics of Starbucks Spelling. Do the barristers close their eyes to challenge themselves? How do you get “Parge” from “Kate?” Actually, I’d probably make these mistakes if I couldn’t read their lips.
• 50 of the World’s Best Guided Expeditions. I hope the next time I plan a vacation and travel someplace new, I remember to check this. [Link: Gina Stark]
• Exercises for the Terminally Busy. Often, I’ll take a short break mid-morning and do something like this. Then I do a full workout in the afternoon.
• 13 Hilariously Stupid Signs. “Staff and visitors only.” OK, who’s exempt?
• World’s Smallest Origami: A Rather Tiny Art Installation. Now I’ll be watching White Collar‘s Neal Caffrey copy … steal … these adorable works of art.

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I went to camp with my fifth grade class, but don’t recall much about the adventure. Only two scenes play in my memories. One is getting ready for bedtime wearing my long-sleeved maroon PJs with a big white 8 on the front. At the time, my brother attended Texas A&M and I was a big fan of the Aggies. The school’s colors were maroon and white. And, I loved playing sports, and these were sporty PJs.

Photo from sxc.hu user tato_al

The other memory. The zipline. I wimped out. It took me a little longer than my friends to build up courage to do things like riding roller coasters and climbing down mountains. Two years after the fifth grade trip, I went to a summer camp in Colorado where they had rappelling. The counselors strapped me in the getup that felt like wearing underwear on the outside of my shorts. I turned my back to the mountainside and the unknown, slowly taking steps backwards.

Mountain face-off

I stood on the edge frozen for a long time. (Reality: five minutes.) Heart thumping. Legs and arms weak and numb. No, I didn’t think about fifth grade camp to remind myself not to wimp out again. Finally, I pushed one foot behind the other in small steps while gripping the rope harder with each movement.  I found myself on the side of the mountain looking straight up at the sky with body parallel to the ground. It was time to push off to slide down. First jump was just enough to get over dental floss. With each push, I went further out and further down.

Touchdown! I love you, ground. Proud. Pat, pat, pat. Nice job. Hey, I did it. All that stuff.

Around 1996, I went indoor rock climbing. No problem going up. No problem going down. Repeat.

Pushing fear out of the way

Doing something for the first time is hard. Taking on a new client is hard even if it’s the same work you’ve always done. You’ve done the work before and done it well. So why be afraid? The big reason doing tasks for new clients feels like the first time I rappelled the mountain is that I fear the work won’t be good enough. Or I won’t do it the way the client likes it.

Think about all the things that you make afraid. Life would be easier without fear. But how do you get better? Learn from mistakes. How do you try new things? Forge ahead.

If I hadn’t pushed through while afraid, I would not have…

• Gone skydiving.
• Worked with new clients, some I still work with today.
• Attended conferences where I met people who became friends and colleagues.
• Enjoyed one of the most memorable weekends of my life.
• Published a website for a nonprofit organization. (I can manage websites easily, but designing one reflecting the organization scares me.)

If you avoided everything that made you afraid, what would you have missed on?

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I love schedule pickup and finding out my kids’ schedules, teachers and subjects even though I won’t know one teacher from the next. (Well, except my daughter happily got the same teacher again for math.)

I loved creating schedules like I did for high school and college. The only time it didn’t go well was during my freshman year of college. All the good courses were taken and I ended up taking a class that I wish I had never taken. I liked figuring out what courses I needed to satisfy my graduation requirements.

My daughter’s high school does it differently than mine did. She doesn’t get to pick her teachers. At my high school, seniors would go register first. Then juniors, and so on. We’d go into the cafeteria where the teachers were sitting by subject area and we’d go sign up with them. Of course, that wouldn’t work well in my daughter’s school of 2600 kids in 11th and 12th grade. Crazy.

The only thing I don’t know is who will be my youngest’ teacher. We’ll find out next week. That’s probably the most exciting one because I know many of the teachers at his elementary school. (We’ve been with this school since 2000 as the older two went through it.) He’s had a good track record in being assigned to the right teacher.

With schedule pick up comes buying school supplies, checking out spirit wear, joining PTA and going in shock in how much we’re spending in one week for all of this. And we didn’t have much spirit wear in high school. I had none in elementary or middle school. The only thing I had was a letter jacket. High school — I recall having a senior shirt, a sweatshirt for a senior girls’ group and a letter jacket. Yearbooks? That was a high school only thing.

And my parents had to shop for all of my school supplies. I’m grateful to the PTA for making that the easiest part of all this. The PTA works with school supply companies to order things in bulk. We just select the grade, write the check (of course, 3rd and 7th grade have the most expensive supplies in both schools!) and it’s done. Thank goodness, high school doesn’t have school supplies. The kids get what the teacher recommends or pickup what they need like folders, paper, writing instrument

I love back to school time. Yes, I do! It’ll be great to get back on a regular schedule. What’s your favorite thing about this time of the year?

Brain food…

• Quixey: Find apps that do what you want.
• 7 Ways for Marketers to Maximize Google+ Now. I like the tips in this one. Ironic, though. I couldn’t find the author’s social media links on his company website. Make sure yours links to your social media IDs.
• How to Write Better Using Humor. Crackers. Quixote. Cargo. Did I make you laugh? In editing an article, I noticed the author used sarcasm — in the same way I would. Except, it struck me as mean not funny. I better watch that!
• The Little Productivity Tip of a Zen Master. I love this one. I tend to do this — address things on the spot, unless it takes more time than I have. If I don’t, I fear forgetting and don’t always think to make it a task. Same concept as going through mail as soon as you get it.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Angry Birds Superheroes: Who needs ordinary when you get the Avian Torch!
• 12 Coolest Things Inspired by Harry Potter. That dog! Too cute and funny. Those cupcakes. Yum!
• 62 Ways to Show Love. “I love you always works.” It’s nice to surprise and show in other ways.

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I’ve been reluctant about guest posts because they rarely offer value and most of them write 10 versions of the same article to post everywhere. Not Matt Polsky. Matt did something different. He addressed me by name and his email included specifics about my blog. He also suggested a topic that worked for readers like you. That’s the way to reach a blogger. Take it, Matt.

Photo from sxc.hu user Thoursie

Businesses should take care in monitoring their brand name. From the first day and throughout the life of the company, managers need to use monitoring apps and searches to watch what is being said about their company. Not only does this apply to large businesses with many employees, but to small businesses and one-person businesses as well.

Ignoring customer comments and views devastate a business’ brand and negatively affect your personal image. Because one-person business owners have a tendency to use both their name and their business’ name simultaneously, online reputation management grows more important. To protect your name and business’ name, use the following online reputation management techniques.

Use Basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO used to be the go-to for all online reputation management needs. Although it isn’t the only technique to use, it remains important. Following SEO guidelines  allows business owners to make sure that their names appear high in the search engine results and prevent poor press from being easily seen on these same search pages.

Great content and keywords contribute to SEO. After Google’s Panda update, content has become king, the better the content and the more people share it, the better it is for you. A great spot to start for content creation is a blog. Starting a blog is not hard and you can provide your customers with relevant information and show off your expertise.

Businesses researching their competitors look for who is linking to them and what anchor text they are using. However, for someone such as a writer, this would not be a time efficient option since you would have millions of competitors to research. Now if you are a niche writer who write about a certain topic that has fewer  competitors, the research may be worth it.

Dominate Social Media

For individuals who run their businesses under a different title, they need to have an account on numerous social media sites for not only their own personal name, but also for their businesses name. Each of your accounts on these sites, both personal and professional, need to convey the same image that you are a professional providing quality products or services.

While your professional social media sites may be more focused on your products or services, your personal sites need to indicate that you are a professional business owner. This consistency makes it easier for potential customers to find you trustworthy, which will make them more inclined to give you their business. Other reasons why you need to be using social networking sites include:

• Gain feedback from customers.
• Engage followers in a positive avenue.
• Manage and correct any negative press received.
• Grow ranking factor for search engines.

Remember when working on social networking sites, it is important to keep them frequently updated. A neglected account can be worse than no account at all and lead to negative press. If you receive negative comments, respond immediately and rectify the situation, or at least show you are working to resolve it to make both parties happy. Remember negative comments aren’t the only ones that merit a response. If customers compliment, thank them and work toward turning them into brand advocates.

The rise of social media has made brand management a priority for everyone, even college students seeking employment. Politicians have ruined their careers over tweets, while Facebook photos have costs professionals their jobs. It takes years to build your reputation and merely a bad tweet, comment or photo to ruin it.

About the Guest Blogger

Matt Polsky is the Senior Content and Reputation Manager for VA Mortgage Center.com. Managing VA Mortgage Center reviews, and sharing insights learned from the nation’s leading provider of VA home loans.

How do you manage your reputation? What do you monitor? How do you respond to comments about you or your business?

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I don’t think the weather realizes this as we continue breaking all kinds of records with this heat wave.  Uh oh! Now I’ve got that “Heat Wave” song playing in my head. Both versions. Marilyn Monroe and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. It’s too hot for a picture. It’ll just fall off the page or pop more popcorn.

This one is brief. Didn’t sleep well and you know how I get when I don’t sleep enough. It’s my fault that I didn’t get to bed on time. I became absorbed in some work I needed to do and time escaped me.

Brain food…

• Complete Google+ Cheatsheet. Shortcuts, photos, chat boxes and other helpful tips.
• Do you obsessively check your smartphone? I do, but it’s better than obsessively checking email on my computer where I might let myself reply to a message that can wait. It’s less tempting to reply on my smartphone because it takes more work to type on it.
• Draft Your Platform Action Plan: 5 Worksheets. All writers have a platform, and that includes new ones. [Link: Porter Anderson]
• AlternativeTo. Find alternatives to applications you want to replace. [Link: Kevin Smokler]

For fun because we’re allowed…

• 12 Hilarious Blue Screen of Death Appearances. Will BSOD ever cease to exist? Well, only if Microsoft changes BSOD from blue to red
• 30 Creative Bag Advertisements. [Link: Elisa Miller, my sister]
• World’s Youngest … I’m the youngest of three, but that’s all. I hope these kids are having some semblance of a childhood.
• 12 Hilarious ELAS fails. Math much?
• Summharry: The Complete Harry Potter Story in One Comic. Wow. Impressive.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Almost <mumbles> years ago, I stood on the corner wearing a brand new dress suit on a hot and humid Washington, DC July day waiting for the bus to come. It had to be around 7 a.m. as I headed out to my first day of my first job after college. From that day on, I arrived at work by 7:30 a.m. until later years when I changed that to 7 a.m.

Rest

Yet, eight years before that first day of work, I struggled to get out of bed to make it to high school for the 8 a.m. bell. Somewhere between the first day of high school and first day of work, my body decided it liked the early bird routine. Living in Washington, DC, prime time TV ran from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. I rarely caught the news because I fell asleep by 10:30 p.m.

Years later, I still hit the pillow between 10 and 10:30. Actually, I’ll get under the covers by 9:30 to wind down by reading or watching TV. No computer. No exercise. No energetic activities right before bedtime. This habit works so well that I could barely keep my eyes open after a family party ended at 11 p.m. despite the fun and excitement.

I get seven to eight hours of sleep every night. Occasionally, I’ll pull in a six, nine or even the dreaded ten (too long!). Anything less than seven isn’t good. When I don’t sleep well or enough, I’m a disaster the next day. I do my best to get through it, but I’m slower, hungrier, unfocused and irritable. More research shows getting enough sleep helps your mental health, memory, performance and body healing process.

Exercise

Thanks to playing a ton of sports while growing up, exercise has always been a regular part of my routine. Well, I’ve sharpened the routine since I stopped playing tennis. I’d play tennis twice a week and then randomly exercise two other days. Now, I have a structured routine on the what I do and when I do it.

Some days I don’t feel like working out. Because of habit, I get ‘er done. Maybe I don’t work out as hard or as long. Generally, I work out around the same time each day of the week (afternoons during weekdays and mornings on weekends). Sometimes I have an afternoon meeting or an early weekend event. I adapt. It’s harder, but because I stick with it — it’s done.

Habits

Notice a theme? I have a bad habit of checking email every morning because I created it long ago. But really. How many people you know stay up late sending emails? Most of the first thing emails are spam, social media notices and email newsletters that I can read later. First thing emails rarely come from a client or family member. (Well, except for my mom who can thrive on little sleep.)

I started keeping my email client closed while quickly glancing at the inbox on the BlackBerry. Most of the time, it’s nothing. It gives me comfort knowing I’m not missing anything. Remember email is my “phone.” With Gmail, I switch to “Contacts” mode to hide the mail. Also, make email filters your friend.

Habits help with work. Every Tuesday, I do work for one client. Every Friday, I post my favorite links for the week.

You probably know all this. So why post this? Sometimes we don’t realize that we need to create new habits or why we struggle to change habits. It takes time to retrain your brain’s passageways to dump or make habits.

What habits do you have? What habits do you want to change? What habits do you value?

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