Multiple Conflicting Professional Advice, not cookie cutter for all, take what works best for you and stick to it.
Last year I decided it would be a great idea to add “Entrepreneur”
magazine on my timeline on Facebook mostly because I would much rather read
about growing and managing my business that reading about cats and chain
letters. At first I nodded in agreement
with just about everything they shared until I started noticing conflicting
messages and advice, such as “successful people don’t read email first thing in
the morning.” Then a couple of days later, “successful people tackle email
first thing in the morning.” That was head-scratching
and confusing for sure. Of course you
have the commenters on the posts ranting about the confusion and others
promising that this method is what works best.
Of course all the methods work best, conflicting or not,
because it works. The advice given on
sites geared towards free spirited, unemployable, entrepreneurs like myself have to be
conflicting because not all of us operate the same. Being one of those people myself, I know very well how we have to roll with the
punches, be flexible with last minute changes in our ‘routine’ and use the
methods that are fool proof for us to be able to function on a daily basis. It’s great to see what other people are
doing and having all sorts of ‘could-be’ handy tips to improve our productivity
but not everything is cookie-cutter perfect for all. I suggest you try something you are
interested in trying a few times, then drop it if it doesn't facilitate your
day or if it doesn't feel natural to you.
- Thou shall exercise in the morning. Um, no. I’m not a morning person. I can workout in the morning once a week and that works for me, the rest of the week I have to workout after I pick up my daughter from school, otherwise I use up a good chunk of my ‘free childcare’ morning that I could be using for work. Thus resulting in a half productive day. Plus they have daycare in the gym and she loves socializing and playing in the kid's club area while I workout. Win-Win.
- Thou shall network after work. Again, due to my schedule, I can only network during breakfast or lunch. I have met many great individuals networking early in the day, we are all alert, fresh, optimistic and not under the influence of liquor. To me it fits in perfect with my schedule and it becomes a part of a productive day.
- Thou shall read emails only two times a day or first thing in the morning or not early in the morning. Depending on how you conduct business, you have to check email when you have to. I don't keep any email notifications on any devices, I check my emails whenever I can and respond to urgent message and leave the non-urgent ones for later.
End of rant. In summation,
not everything will be perfect for you, take what helps you be the best YOU and
leave the rest of the others.
To clarify: I LOVE Entrepreneur Magazine and I LOVE their Facebook page, they offer so much more than just tips and tricks.
Have a happy and productive week everyone!
-Nancy Valdez
Austin’s Virtual Assistant
