How to lose Facebook friends?

The internet is abuzz this morning about this article from Scary Mommy:

http://www.scarymommy.com/how-to-lose-facebook-friends

"I don’t want 3-D lashes. Your face looks like a tarantula exhibit. There, I said it. Someone had to. “It Works!” Does it? If one body wrap works for you, that’s great. You know what else works? Spanx. Just bought some online. Pantsless. Boom.

Work Smarter NOT Harder in your direct sales or WAHM business - How do you do it all?

My mantra (all the time, every day!) is “Smarter not Harder”.  I pretty much just try to pay very close attention to what I avoid doing and why, and then I try to solve that barrier. I worked for a time management consulting company for many years as an administrative assistant, I learned a lot from all that stuff I typed!

That means that if it can be automated, streamlined or eliminated, I do it. If it is not a “business building activity” I try to avoid it. If it is something that has to be repeated (consistency and follow through are my arch nemesis) then I find a way to make technology my slave!

People ask me all the time "How do you do it?  You have so many kids, an immune deficiency that makes you tired and sore, your blog, successful businesses... how do you do it all?"

Work Smarter NOT Harder in your direct sales or WAHM business - Taming the To-Do List

My mantra (all the time, every day!) is “Smarter not Harder”.  I pretty much just try to pay very close attention to what I avoid doing and why, and then I try to solve that barrier. I worked for a time management consulting company for many years as an administrative assistant, I learned a lot from all that stuff I typed!

That means that if it can be automated, streamlined or eliminated, I do it. If it is not a “business building activity” I try to avoid it. If it is something that has to be repeated (consistency and follow through are my arch nemesis) then I find a way to make technology my slave!

I like lists.  A lot.  I make really pretty lists.  They are serious works of art.  If I only had staff to actually DO all the things on my lists...

I'm not exactly sure what it is about lists that I like most.  There is a component of getting it all out of my head and onto paper.  There is satisfaction in sorting my thoughts into neat lines and categories.  And color coding it.  And making stars next to the really important ones.  And marking them off (have you ever written something on your list that you've already done, just so you can mark it off?  I have!)

And yet, with all my pretty little lists, I was even less effective than before!  Why?

Work Smarter NOT Harder in your direct sales or WAHM business - Mailing Party Postcard Invitations & Reminders

THANK YOU for making this a #1 pin on Pinterest!

My mantra (all the time, every day!) is “Smarter not Harder”.  I pretty much just try to pay very close attention to what I avoid doing and why, and then I try to solve that barrier. I worked for a time management consulting company for many years as an administrative assistant, I learned a lot from all that stuff I typed!

That means that if it can be automated, streamlined or eliminated, I do it. If it is not a “business building activity” I try to avoid it. If it is something that has to be repeated (consistency and follow through are my arch nemesis) then I find a way to make technology my slave!

Most Direct Sales companies offer postcard invitations or reminders for in-home parties.  If you've gotten a hostess packet from your consultant, you probably had a stack of pretty postcard invitations and the instruction to fill them out and mail them to your friends.  If you actually did this - you deserve a gold star for sure!  I never did it.  Which is one reason I didn't have very good turn out at my home parties!

As a consultant, I know that my hostesses probably won't do it either.

We know that "real mail" makes a huge difference in party attendance - so how do we make that happen?

Work Smarter NOT Harder in your direct sales or WAHM business - Managing Time Online & Avoiding Information Overload

My mantra (all the time, every day!) is “Smarter not Harder”.  I pretty much just try to pay very close attention to what I avoid doing and why, and then I try to solve that barrier. I worked for a time management consulting company for many years as an administrative assistant, I learned a lot from all that stuff I typed!

That means that if it can be automated, streamlined or eliminated, I do it. If it is not a “business building activity” I try to avoid it. If it is something that has to be repeated (consistency and follow through are my arch nemesis) then I find a way to make technology my slave!   

When I log into the internet, it is really easy to get lost!  I don't mean that I don't know where I am, I mean I forget what I'm supposed to be doing!  You know how it goes - you are going to log in and look at email.  So you open up your browser and it comes up with the default home page.  This usually has news stories on it.  Even though I couldn't really care less about the Kardashians... I still click to see.  I didn't come here to watch the latest viral video sensation... but I still watch it.  I don't "need" to know the due date of the Royal Baby... but I'm tempted!

So, how do I keep that from happening? How can you manage your time online more efficiently? Here are a few of the things that I do - I'd love to hear your tips as well!

Work Smarter NOT Harder in your direct sales or WAHM business - Saving Electronic Files

My mantra (all the time, every day!) is “Smarter not Harder”.  I pretty much just try to pay very close attention to what I avoid doing and why, and then I try to solve that barrier. I worked for a time management consulting company for many years as an administrative assistant, I learned a lot from all that stuff I typed!

That means that if it can be automated, streamlined or eliminated, I do it. If it is not a “business building activity” I try to avoid it. If it is something that has to be repeated (consistency and follow through are my arch nemesis) then I find a way to make technology my slave!   

Every business needs to have a way to store and retrieve information.  In Direct Sales, we have customer files, hostess files, team member files, prospective customer files, prospective hostess files, prospective team member files... and then we have training materials, product photos, recognition letters, the list is long and can be overwhelming.

Work Smarter NOT Harder in your direct sales or WAHM business - Mailing Packages

THANK YOU for making this a #1 Pin on Pinterest!

My mantra (all the time, every day!) is “Smarter not Harder”.  I pretty much just try to pay very close attention to what I avoid doing and why, and then I try to solve that barrier. I worked for a time management consulting company for many years as an administrative assistant, I learned a lot from all that stuff I typed!

That means that if it can be automated, streamlined or eliminated, I do it. If it is not a “business building activity” I try to avoid it. If it is something that has to be repeated (consistency and follow through are my arch nemesis) then I find a way to make technology my slave!   

Mailing packages is a chore for me. It's not HARD, it's time consuming. And boring. And I'd rather do something exciting and productive!

Work Smarter NOT Harder in your direct sales or WAHM business - using auto-responders for hostess coaching

My mantra (all the time, every day!) is “Smarter not Harder”.  I pretty much just try to pay very close attention to what I avoid doing and why, and then I try to solve that barrier. I worked for a time management consulting company for many years as an administrative assistant, I learned a lot from all that stuff I typed!

That means that if it can be automated, streamlined or eliminated, I do it. If it is not a “business building activity” I try to avoid it. If it is something that has to be repeated (consistency and follow through are my arch nemesis) then I find a way to make technology my slave!   See the example below:

• One of the things that was falling through the cracks was hostess coaching.  I had really good intentions about calling my hostesses.  I also have 2 small children at home during the day, and that number grows when school lets out! (Barrier: Me, my memory, time/quiet to call) 

• So, I decided to use emails as my primary method of hostess coaching.  That worked pretty well, when I remembered to send them.  (Barriers: me, my memory, time to compose/send messages)

• So next, I decided to save the messages in my "draft" folder, along with all the attachments so that they were ready to go.  That helped a lot, but I still had to remember to do it! (Barriers: me, my memory)

•  I started using my "delay delivery" feature in my email (Microsoft Outlook).  This took me about 15 minutes to set up a series of emails to go out over the next 2 weeks.  This was working pretty well!  I disciplined myself to do this as part of my scheduling process: create party in workstation, create party on Facebook, mail hostess packet to hostess, email party info to hostess, schedule hostess coaching emails.  (Barriers: me)

Last month I promoted to Director with my company.  I’m prepping myself for even more BIG growth (especially in the area of team building and recruiting), and I knew that I HAD to have systems in place to support it or I would flop. I invested in iContact and have been working to build my auto-responder messages and systems so that I can become better at follow-up. It’s like having a personal assistant, but less expensive!

Now, that same series of hostess coaching emails takes me 30 seconds to launch.

Smarter.  Not.  Harder.

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