http://www.theorganisedpa.com en-gb theorganisedpa.com 2011-10-5T00:00:00Z theorganisedpa.com http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#103940 2011-10-5 11:08:47 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#97921 Are you thinking about becoming a Virtual Assistant but arent sure where to start Would you like to like to hit the ground running Well Im selling my awardwinning and profitable Virtual Assistant business The Organised PA www.theorganisedpa.com and am looking for a prospective buyer. This is a perfect opportunity for someone who wants to be their own boss and have the flexibility of working from home. Alternatively are you a Virtual Assistant thinking of taking your business to the next level Whether youre a mum or someone whod like to stop your daily commute buying The Organised PA will enable you to hit the ground running with an established brand in the Virtual Assistant industry in the UK. All the essentials to setting up a Virtual Assistant business have been done for you saving you time and money. And you can be based anywhere BACKGROUNDThe Organised PA has been trading for nearly three years and is a profitable business with seven regular clients plus adhoc clients... 2011-7-8 08:58:58 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#69733 Well Im so glad that I made time this year to enter for the Best Customer Service Award which I was given at the National Virtual Assistant VA Conference amp Awards 2010 in June. Its so easy to find excuses to not research which awards to enter then fill out the application form and send it off in good time. However think of the wonderful recognition youll get if you win I was so delighted to be given the award for outstanding customer service for my clients. It means a great deal to me to have achieved recognition for a part of my business for which I feel passionate about. The Athena Network has come up trumps again by connecting me with a great PR lady Jackie Mitchell JM Communications and a very talented photographer Juliet Lemon. Juliets photo of me holding the award and certificate is above and the press release is being drafted as I write. Im not generally one to shout my own trumpet but so many people advised me to make the most of the situation and go ahead with a press... 2010-7-7 11:16:58 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#61134 How many of us wish that there were more hours in the day When youre running a small business its vital that you are as productive as possible and use your time effectively. Here are a few suggestions to help you save time 1. MINIMISE DISTRACTIONS Try to minimise the number of distractions which stop you in your tracks when youre busy working away. Email If you use Microsoft Outlook change the settings so that you dont get a new message notification. We all love new things and curiosity can sometimes get the better of us so by switching off these notifications you can more easily concentrate and be more productive. BlackBerry If you use a BlackBerry change the settings so that the red light doesnt flash when you have a new message and it doesnt vibrate either. TweetDeck If you use TweetDeck to view your Twitter account change the setting so that you stop getting notifications. 2. EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE Have a place for everything in your office and home and make sur... 2010-3-22 17:34:29 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#58749 Client relationships when everythings going along smoothly youre communicating well and theyre happy with your workdeliverables then its great. However as in life there will be times when things dont go as plannedand thats when the concept of a virtual bank account can come in useful. When things are going well you can build up virtual credit with your client perhaps you over deliver on a project come in well before their desired timescale give them a referral which brings in additional revenue suggest a cost or timesaving solution or simply go the extra mile. These are all ways of building virtual credit. Now for those dark times and it happens to us all in haste you may send back work with typos you miss a deadline you turn up on the wrong daytime for a meeting. Well this is when you go into virtual debit. The essential thing to remember to keep your client relationship healthy is to ensure that your credit balance always exceeds your debit balance preferably by a large ma... 2010-2-19 14:38:03 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#57218 A Virtual Assistant can email you a reminder so that you dont forget important occasions. For example birthdays wedding anniversary etc. Plus remind you when you need to start writing your monthly newsletter As they network regularly a Virtual Assistant can recommend other small businesses you may benefit from using. E.g. Business bookkeeper accountant marketing consultant logo design amp branding agency coach IT support. Personal mortgage advisor cleaner caterer photographer complementary therapist financial advisor. A Virtual Assistant can publicise events for you by posting details on relevant forums and websites. Give your Virtual Assistant access to your online diary and they can arrange meetings for you send confirmation emails and even confirm your meeting the day before for you. A Virtual Assistant can call people whove attended your events and ask for feedback. As they are calling independently people are more likely to be honest. Having typed up your report for you... 2010-1-28 17:45:17 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#54238 I find that I tend to always be looking into the future organising and making plans which means that I often fail to look back at what Ive achieved. The end of the year however is a great opportunity to take time out to review the last 12 months both on a business and personal level by asking yourself the following questions What did you achieve What were your biggest disappointments What did you achieve With your diary to hand go back over the last 12 months and list out on a piece of paper all of the tasks which youve completed. It can be very satisfying and it also helps to explain how you spent your time. Take a look at your 2009 goals with regards to your work. If you run your own business did you reach your revenue targets If you work for someone else have you achieved your objectives from your appraisal On a personal level have you managed to fit in regular exercise and eaten 5 fruitveg a day You may find it hard to write down all youve achievedpeoples initial th... 2009-12-9 18:07:15 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#53421 At the Enterprise Nation Conference last week httpwww.enterprisenation.com a number of speakers spoke about the subject of marketing. And it really brought home to me the different challenges faced by people marketing a service versus marketing a product. Being a Virtual Assistant I provide a service which is intangible and one could say that it makes it more difficult to market than a product. I am selling the invisible. A product on the other hand is tangible. Customers can physically touch it see it and even try it out before buying it. With a service clients generally want to get to know you first. This is where networking becomes so important as it gives you the opportunity to build a relationship with people whether they are potential clients or people who may become third party referrals. Plus testimonials are vital to help your potential clients find out how other people rate the service you provide. So it all boils down to the intangible versus the tangible. Im not ... 2009-11-26 10:46:34 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#48901 Your business card is like a first impression. You have a lot to say and very little space. Thats why its so important to get it right and I would thoroughly recommend enlisting the services of a professional graphic designer. Recently I had my business card redesigned and Im delighted with the results. The design is now portrait rather than landscape and the whole look and feel is much more modern. There are so many variables to consider when you are having your business card designed Qualitythickness of the card Make sure you go for a good quality card...touch is an important sense. Design Your business card should provide an insight into the corporate culture of your business. If you are supposed to be creative then your card should reflect that. It you are trying to convey that you are professional and solid then your card might be a little more refined. Font Choose one which reflects you or if youre unsure ask your graphic designer for their input. Colour An obvio... 2009-9-17 10:07:35 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#48463 This week I took advantage of a great service offered by Business Link....a free Business Review. Its the second time Ive benefitted from this service and it was just what I needed to help me put in place an action plan to take my business forward. Ruth Lambert Business Link Surrey visited my office and gave me information about A free website review courtesy of Business Link Local networking groups Free local Business Link courses available Details of their Supplier Matching service httpwww.suppliermatching.co.uk This is a service which suppliers of Business to Business services can use to promote their business simply by registering. Once their business is registered their details will then be available to small businesses in the South East and South West of England. Business Link is funded by Regional Development Agencies and supported by government departments agencies and local authorities. For more information on Business Link www.businesslink.gov.uk And if youre b... 2009-9-9 21:52:14 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#43261 I keep on hearing the buzz term Viral Marketing crop up in conversation...and to be honest I wasnt completely sure what it actually meant. So I decided to do some research on the internet and have come up with varying definitions A piece of content so good that people want to pass it on. Any marketing technique that induces websites or users to pass on a marketing message to other websites or users creating a potentially exponential growth in the messages visibility and effect. Marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message. Some commentators say that viral marketing can be delivered by wordofmouth or it can be enhanced by the network effect of the internet. The underlying factor is that a message is passed from persontoperson. If a large percentage of recipients forward the message to a large number of friends the overall growth snowballs very quickly. If the passalong numbers get too low the overall growth quickly fizzles. T... 2009-6-14 13:18:03 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#42080 The apostrophe seems to be a very misunderstood and misused piece of punctuation in the English language. This is made worse by the fact that some people dont appear to understand what it does and in an effort to appear correct add apostrophes every time a word ends in an s. For example VAs instead of simply VAs. There are 2 main uses of the apostrophe 1. They are used to denote a missing letter or letters. For example In Full Letter Missing Shortened Form Do not o Dont They are a Theyre It is i Its 2. They are used to denote possession. For example The secretarys filofax The companys logo The girls laptop However if there are two or more secretaries companies or girls then the apostrophe comes after the s The secretaries filofaxes The companies logos The girls laptops Hope the above examples help to clarify all the confusion and did you note the deliberate mistake 2009-5-22 09:30:24 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#41728 This week I attended a very interesting talk about the difference between a feature and a benefit and it brought back memories of a Sales Director I used to work with. He was very passionate about making sure that his sales team appreciated the difference between these two terms and thereby sold the benefits to our clients and not the features. So what is a feature and what is a benefit A feature is a fact detail or description about your services. A benefit is the positive result that your client gets as a result of working with you. To improve their sales technique this Sales Director would ask his sales team to take a feature and then ask themselves So what. This forced them to think about why this feature meant something to a prospective client. He made them ask this question over and over again until they couldnt come up with any more answers. All of the answers to these So what questions gave the sales team a list of benefits. For example lets take the services of an... 2009-5-16 18:17:07 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#40835 Have you thought about joining The Athena Network Last week I attended The Womens Business Mastermind Conference amp Awards in Solihull organised by Carmen MacDougall of CMA Coaching. It was a very inspirational event in particular due to the quality of the speakers including Jacqueline Rogers cofounder of The Athena Networkhttpwww.theathenanetwork.com. Jacqueline founded The Athena Network in February 2006 with Louise Heasman as they felt that there was a gap in the market for an informal networking group for women in the UK. The Athena Network aims are Provide opportunities to make strategic connections with professionals in a wide range of industry sectors. Develop members business skills through a choice of interactive workshops and training courses. Encourage women in business to inspire and support others for greater success. When I set up my Virtual Assistant business I recognised that networking was going to be high on the list of ways to meet potential new clients.... 2009-4-30 17:34:12 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#40280 There any many tasks which can be delegated to a Virtual Assistant. The tasks that are most often delegated include those that are Repetitive in nature Timeconsuming menial or lowthought items Tasks that do not require your expertise to complete Tasks that you may not like to complete Items that will require someone to remember to do them on a daily weekly or monthly basis Analysing Your Workload The first step to enable you to know what you can delegate is to start to track your time say for a week or fortnight to get a really good idea of what you are doing. To do this its useful to use a timetracking software such as MyHours www.myhours.com. MyHours is free webbased tool which is very easy to set up. Simply punch in and out each time you do a different task. You can also make notes to remind yourself of exactly what you did for each task. Once youve kept track of your time for a week or two you need to then go back and analyse it. Run the report and sit down with a ... 2009-4-22 09:40:45 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#39205 The saying A picture is worth a thousand words comes from an old Chinese proverb. People buy from people and if you are a sole trader you are the most unique part of the business. So you need to make sure that you get a great photo that communicates who you are and speaks directly to your target audience. Tips Use a professional photographer If you want to portray a professional image then use a professional photographer.Ask your contacts if they have any recommendations and take a look at the photographers website for examples of their work. What to wear If youre having a colour photograph done you may like to wear a particular colour which will go well with the colours on your website. Appearance You may like to take a trip to the hairdressers before you have your photo taken so that youre looking your very best. Ladies you may also like to have your makeup done especially. Some beauty counters offer free makeup sessions. And dont forget to smile Asks for opinions O... 2009-4-4 12:01:41 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#38770 The Company Its a company which aims to help people start and grow their business at home. Emma Jones set up Enterprise Nation in 2006 and the company hosts the UKs largest website for people starting and growing a business from home runs the Home Business Awards produces the annual Home Business Report and advises the Government on the topic. She has also written a book called Spare Room Start Up how to start a business from home. If you would like to meet Emma she is one of the speakers at a conference taking place next month called The National Womens Business Conference and Awards. httpwww.womensbusinessconference.co.uk Also if you would like to follow her on Twitter her URL is httptwitter.comemmaljones The Website httpwww.enterprisenation.com Great free source of inspiration to help you start and grow your business at home. If you register you can also receive the informative newsletter post information and ask for advice on the forums plus view video podcasts. ... 2009-3-26 16:40:06 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#38508 My dabbling into Twitterland continues and slowly but surely Im starting to learn a little bit more about how it all works. Whilst at an Athena networking meeting recently we were discussing the benefits ofTwitter as a marketing tool for small businesses. As very few people within the group were aware of it I offered to write a Beginners Guide to Twitter. Its something which I wish had been available when I first stepped my toe into Twitter. So if youd like some pointers on how to get started please click on the link below and you can download the guide free from my website. httpwww.theorganisedpa.compage9.htm Id love any feedback you may have. Enjoy 2009-3-21 14:15:35 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#38131 Recently I was proofreading a website and it occurred to me how there are certain words in the English language which are easily confused and therefore misused. Complement and compliment are often confused with one another because they are homophones. Homophones are words which are pronounced the same but have different meanings. What makes things even more complicated are that complement and compliment can be used as both a noun and a verb. In essence a complement completes while a compliment flatters. Below are some examples which I hope help to clarify when to use each word as a noun and verb plus their adjectival endings COMPLEMENT Complement noun 1. thing that completes2. full number needed E.g. The biscuits were served as a complement to the tea. Complement verb 1. complete2. form a complement to E.g. The bride chose a veil which complemented her wedding dress. Complementary adjective 1. completing forming a complement2. of two or more things complemen... 2009-3-13 15:50:03 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#37623 The power of networking never ceases to amaze me. During the last couple of months in particular connecting people seems to have been even easier than ever. For example I met a lady recently at a networking event. She mentioned that she is getting married this year and the conversation came around to wedding flowers. I told her that I had trained as a florist so she asked me if I could recommend any florists in London. From a list I gave her she contacted a few of them and now is delighted to say that she is really happy with the florist she has chosen a florist she would never have heard of if I hadnt have recommended her. This same lady works in the music industry. I thought it was a bit of a long shot but asked if she knew any local guitar teachers. One of my friends wanted to buy her partner guitar lessons for his birthday and instead of looking blindly in the Yellow Pages or on the internet she wanted a recommendation. Funnily enough this lady knew a great teacher and he... 2009-3-4 15:58:08 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#37334 I was reminded the other day of Stephen Coveys great illustration of time management In the middle of a seminar on time management recalls Covey in his book First Things First the lecturer said Okay its time for a quiz. Reaching under the table he pulled out a large widemouthed glass jar and put it on the table next to a platecovered with fistsized rocks. How many of these rocks do you think we can get in the jar he asked the audience. After the students made their guesses the lecturer said Okay lets find out. He put one rock in the jar then another then another...until no more rocks would fit in. Then he asked Is the jar full Everybody could see that not one more of the rocks would fit so they said Yes. Not so fast he cautioned. From under the table he lifted out a bucket of gravel emptied it into the jar and shook it. The gravel slid into all the little spaces left by the big rocks. Grinning the lecturer asked once more Is the jar full A little wiser by now the students resp... 2009-2-26 15:24:37 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#36840 Do you remember back in the good old Life on Mars days when people used to use dictaphones with minicassettes As long as the cassette wasnt mislaid their secretaries then transcribed their letters and while doing so hoped that the machine wouldnt gnarl up the cassette Well although some people do still use them many have moved into the digital age and are benefiting from using a digital dictaphone to dictate their reports letters emails and transcripts etc and then emailing them to a Virtual Assistant. So how does it all work Well you simply dictate into your digital dictaphone upload the file on to your pc attach the file to an email and then send it to your Virtual Assistant. They open the attachment transcribe your file and email the completed document back to you. The industry standard allows one hour to transcribe 15 minutes of clearly recorded speech. So a one hour digital audio file would take four hours to transcribe. Think how much time you could therefore save by dele... 2009-2-17 17:36:15 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#36418 Well its been a month since Ive signed up to Twitter and Im starting to understand a little bit more about how it works. There seem to me to be two different camps of people who use Twitter. The first camp are celebrities who tweet about what theyre up to throughout the day. Ive been following Fearne Cotton and Jenni Falconer recently both of them very entertaining. Then the other camp is businesses using Twitter as a marketing tool sharing links to interesting articles directing people to their blogs informing people about events or teleclasses and asking questions for feedback. There was a great article on Twitter for beginners last weekend in The Telegraph which is now on their website httpsnipurl.combmn42 By the way if youre wondering why the URL above looks different its because Ive used the website httpsnipurl.com to reduce the length of the original URL essential on Twitter as your whole tweet is limited to 140 characters. So if you would like to follow me on Twitte... 2009-2-10 15:45:15 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#35957 Yesterday the residents of Surrey like a lot of the UK woke up to a beautiful snowy scene. It just goes to show though that even in this day and age nature can slow us down. Due to the weather conditions train lines into London were disrupted and buses were simply not running. Thousands of workers were unable to make it into work...and had to stay at home communicating with their colleagues via their Blackberries. What I noticed however was the positive impact the snow had on peoples behaviour towards one another. Whilst I was walking to the local shops instead of strangers ignoring me as they passed by they smiled and said Hello. Even people driving gingerly past smiled and waved Pretty unheard of Anne Widdecombe interviewed on the BBC News also commented that her neighbours who normally walked past her in silence smiled and wished her a Good Morning. And teenagers who didnt know each other were filmed building a huge snowman together...saying they had now made some good... 2009-2-3 12:31:01 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#35772 Or do they start reading them and then find it too much of a struggle to continue Ive recently been reading an excellent book by Robert Gentle called Read this Business Writing That Works. Robert has some great tips on how to improve your business writing. For example Use plain everyday language I love this quote from Robert No one has ever complained that something is too easy to understand. Use short sentences They get your point across quickly so dont pad out sentences with superfluous words. Clean airy layout Use lots of white space as dense text can put the reader off. This great book is available from all good book shops and Amazon....and no Im not on commission Happy reading....and then writing 2009-1-30 17:29:44 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#35428 Google Calendar is a free online calendar service www.google.comcalendar It is webbased which means you can access it from any computer. You can colour code different events and send out invites to attendees. Also you can set up your calendar to send you emails or mobile textmessages to remind you about events. One of the biggest advantages of using Google Calendar is its sharing facility. This is a great feature when youre working with a Virtual Assistant. By having your calendar set up so that your Virtual Assistant shares it once they have made your travel arrangements such as booking flights hotels and car hire they can immediately record the details in your Google Calendar. You can also save time by delegating the making and confirming of your appointments to your Virtual Assistant. They can enter all the details into your Google Calendar and you can then view it simultaneously thereby avoiding the issue of doublebookings. If you would like The Organised PA to help y... 2009-1-23 18:28:52 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#35073 It really is.... and the more networking meetings that I attend the more apparent it is to me that there really do appear to be six degrees of separation. You may be wondering...what are the six degrees of separation Well according to Wikipedia Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know then everyone is no more than six steps away from each person on Earth. Source httpen.wikipedia.orgwikiSixdegreesofseparation For example last month I met someone at a networking meeting...well call them person A...who is 1 degree of separation from me. I met them recently for a coffee and they introduced me to person B. Person B is 2 degrees of separation from me. I then had a telephone conversation with Person B and they happened to mention Person C....who is actually a very good friend of mine.....it is a very small world There are now studies sa... 2009-1-16 12:02:16 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#34740 I keep on hearing the word Twitter mentioned in conversations and articles so have decided to look into what it actually is. What is Twitter Twitter is a microblogging tool that allows short messages called tweets of up to 140 characters to be instantly shared with others via the internet or mobile phones. Like updating your status on FaceBook it allows everyone within your network known as followers to immediately receive your latest messages and read reply or comment upon them. Its a free service that allows anyone to publish their thoughts ideas or messages to anyone wishing to follow. Why This is the big question Well why do people want to know what youre doing and why would you decide to follow what another what somebody else is doing There must be something in it as people such as Richard Branson Stephen Fry Lance Armstrong Andy Murray and Will Carling are all on Twitter. Stephen Fry in particular has currently over 40000 followers Is Twitter however useful for businesse... 2009-1-9 16:43:26 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#33991 Now that were coming to the end of 2008 many people are starting to think about their goals for 2009. However how many of them spend time first to look back over the last 12 months Reviewing your year can in the long run be very beneficial. You can learn what was successful and therefore continue to do it in the New Year. You can identify areas which need improvement and plan as part of your 2009 goals to tackle those areas. Plus you can learn from your mistakes and avoid making them again in the next 12 months. Only once youve reviewed your year should you then start to create your new goals for 2009. Below are some examples of goals which you may like to take on Promote your business regularly Join a new networking group Learn how to delegate and do it more Give something back to your community Learn something new Put metime in your calendar I hope this helps you with your goal planning. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2008-12-19 11:24:45 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#33661 Google has become for many people their preferred search engine. Most of us tend to simply type in a few words and generally what were looking for will come up on the first page or two. However if youre having problems finding what youre looking for you may be interested in the following tips when using Google When you type in your search terms be aware that you do not need to put an and between the terms. Bear in mind that the order in which you type in the terms will affect the search results. Google searches are not case sensitive so it doesnt matter whether you use lower case or capital letters searches will return the same results. If you are searching for an exact phrase simply put quotation marks around your search terms. E.g. blackberry bold If you want to search for two different search terms then you can simply type in OR between the search terms. Please note that OR has to be in capital letters. E.g. virtual assistant OR virtual pa If you need to qu... 2008-12-11 10:10:47 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#33295 Having a friend in the US who uses Skype as its all the rage over there apparently ..... more and more so for businesses I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a headset with a microphone a webcam and downloaded Skype on to my computer. This meant that I could talk to her for free Then I started to think about how I could save money by making my business calls using Skype and Ive been very pleased by the visible reduction in my quarterly phone bill. So what is Skype Skype is a software that allows you to make telephone calls over the internet. Using Skype to call another person who also has Skype is totally free If confidentiality is an issue then its great to know that calls between Skype users are secure and encrypted. You can also call people who are not on Skype for a small charge. There are two ways to pay and make calls to landlines and mobile phones Pay As You Go where you add some money to your account and then you just pay for the calls as you make them. Monthly... 2008-12-4 12:07:07 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#32946 I hate to admit it but I started my business life before emails existed. I can remember faxing long documents with the frustration of the paper jamming the other end and the constant annoying beep of the fax machine that followed I also remember visits to the post room hoping that Id be able to find 10 internal envelopes so that I could send out a memo to my bosss ten direct reports. Picking up the phone and calling clients on their landline was the norm. I remember when email first appeared on the scene and I was working in the Client Services Department for a large company in the City. The Sales Director asked me to email a client and I felt very uncomfortable as I considered it such an informal way of contacting them Well that was then and this is now. Technology has advanced so quickly speeding up our business lives and email is now a very effective tool for communication. However even though it is very fast and saves time there are situations when a different form of ... 2008-11-27 11:51:38 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#32630 One of the most effective ways to promote your business is to create an email signature. Its a great way to advertise your products and services for free and is also an important way of building brand recognition. You may ask what is an email signature Its the text which appears at the end of your emails which identifies you your company and your products or services. Its advisable to include the following name company name company logo phone number email address website address marketing strapline Ensure that every email you send out includes your email signature by setting it up in your email software. You can change the colours of the text to tie in with your company branding and add your logo. If you need any assistance in setting up your email signature please feel free to contact me . Just think how many times your company gets exposure if you include these details in all your emails A signature file is one of the most powerful marketing and communication tools a... 2008-11-20 14:38:42 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#32227 You meet someone for the first time they tell you their name when they introduce themselves but a few minutes later youve forgotten it The reason we dont remember peoples names is because were so focused on ourselves busy thinking of what were going to say to them that we dont concentrate and actually listen to them speaking. However as Dale Carnegie commented A persons name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language. So it makes sense to try and improve your memory skills. Youll find it not only helps create a good first impression in your business life for example if youre networking but also in your social life. If you would like some hints and tips please read on Concentrate You can only remember what you observe in the first place. If you are not paying attention you wont register the persons name so you cant possibly remember it. So concentrate on firstly paying attention to the persons name when you first hear it and secondly form an im... 2008-11-11 17:28:16 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#31736 Email is an amazing communication tool however it can become a distraction and prevent you from getting things done. Having recently listened in to a conference call by Mike Song who wrote the book The Hamster Revolution please find below some of his suggestions on how to control your emails rather than let them control you. Disconnect your email notification so that you dont receive an alert every time an email comes into your inbox. Work on email in batches e.g. every 45 minutes spend 510 mins reading and replying to emails. Dont process one email at a time when it appears in your inbox as it breaks your concentration and disrupts your workflow. If you use your inbox as a ToDo list set a target for the number of emails you want to have in your inbox at any one time. For example you may decide that it is 35. Then if you have over 35 use this as a trigger to work on your emails and reduce the number. Scan through them and see which ones can be deleted immediately. Then select... 2008-10-29 15:02:50 http://www.theorganisedpa.com/page8.htm#31120 Well for all of us there will only be 24 hours in the day. However some people manage to accomplish more than others. One tip is to regularly write a ToDo List each morning. I personally find it useful to split my list into two columns Work and Personal. Then under each column I have three sections red amber and green. Red means I absolutely have to do it today amber means it would be great to do it today and green means its a nicetohave. The secret is to review your list at the end of the day transferring untackled items to the next days list. Also another tip is to make sure that you handwrite your list as opposed to typing it up. Somehow...dont ask me how...having tried both methods I find more tasks get done when theyre handwritten Why not start writing that ToDo List now..... For more tips please feel free to sign up to our newsletter. 2008-10-16 16:01:21