A while back I (a bit ironically perhaps) tweeted this message:
‘Consider what you give your attention to each day. It’s a precious resource, & determines the shape of your life.’

This seemed to strike a chord with many people, who I think are feeling overwhelmed these days. Our attention is being pulled in too many directions, leaving us feeling overloaded, distracted, chaotic, spread thinly, without focus.

There are a million blogs, people, services, media, competing for our attention. Our attention is limited, and valuable, making it one of the most precious resources we have.

The world wants that attention. Only you can decide where it goes.

And it does determine the shape of your life: what you pay attention to becomes your reality. If you watch and read the news all the time, you will become obsessed with the latest crises. If you watch and read about celebrities, your life will revolve around them. If you socialize on social networks all day long, this will become your world.

If instead, you choose to give your attention to work you’re passionate about, that you feel is important, that will change your life and the world in some small way … this will become your life.

If you choose to give your attention to your friends, family and other loved ones — really give your attention to them instead of only half-heartedly while also checking text messages and emails and other updates — your life will be rich in many ways.

And so I urge you to reclaim your attention.

Here’s how:

1. Limit your friends.

Not real-life friends, but social network and blogging and forum friends. Not that these can’t be good relationships, but having too many makes them meaningless. And each friend will take up a little bit of your attention — when you read their updates, click on their links, reply to their messages, look at their photos, and so on. The more you have, the more attention they’ll require. Limit them to just the essential. Read more.

2. Limit your feeds.

Blog subscriptions, newsletters, other updates and news subscriptions and so on. Limit them to a handful of essentials, and let the rest go. The more you have, the more attention they require.

3. Limit your communication time.

Going into your email inbox? Just give yourself 10 minutes to read, reply, delete, and get out. Going to do Twitter? Give yourself 5 minutes. Seriously, set up a timer. Don’t let these things take up all your attention.

4. Give up on news.

 It’s a never-ending cycle. And if you’ve paid attention to the news as long as I have (I’m a former journalist), you know it’s all the same, year after year. Unless your job depends on it, the news is usually a waste of your attention. Let go of the need to stay updated. Even if your job does depend on it, keep it limited.

5. Be brief.

Write brief emails, tweets, updates, blog posts. With some exceptions, of course. But make brief your de facto. Read more.

6. Give your attention to the important.

This is the crucial part: choose what you give your attention to, and do this choosing carefully. What is important to you? Writing? Photography? Design? Coding? Creating a new business that helps others? Your kids? Figure this out, and give this the majority of your attention.

7. Become conscious of your distractions.

Once you’ve decided to focus your attention on the important, become more aware of distractions as they come up. Make note of them, and as you get the urge to be distracted, learn to pause, breathe, and return to the important.

8. Surround yourself with the positive.

If you want your life to be positive, let the positive have your attention. This applies to blogs, people, projects, and more.

About the Author: Leo Barbauta author of the new best selling book, focus: a simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction.

I keep my time saved in a box
From going fast in cars
I’ve piled it up high
From saying hello to friends with a quick goodbye
~Kathryn Williams, Flicker

The world is seemingly moving at a faster pace. Everywhere you turn, the pace is quick. Deadlines are moved up, workload is increased, kid’s schedules are packed, to-do lists are long, housework never ends – it’s chaos.

At least it feels this way.

Has the world really sped up? Are there more things happening today than 50 years ago? No, and no.

Some things around us may involve more pressure and feel like it’s moving faster, but many times it only feels this way. Thanks to the Internet and cable we hear about everything that happens, immediately.

Our interconnectedness through technology has helped create the illusion of a faster paced world. It’s also created the illusion of less loneliness and isolation – but there’s nothing that can replace real life connections with other people. Physical contact and interaction is vital.

This loss of contact and the perceived pace of the world produces a feeling of chronic anxiousness and a decrease in the ability to find pleasure in some of the simple things.

Honestly, when was the last time you stopped and took in the smell of fresh baked bread? Or colored with crayons? Or walked barefoot in the grass? Or took a few minutes to just breathe?

No where is the impact of our pace felt more than in marriage and family. It’s extremely difficult to move hurriedly through your day and then slow down enough to enjoy your family or your spouse in the evening.

Some of the reasons marriage and family relationships go through sour patches is the squeezing they get from our schedules, disconnection, and pace. It’s easy to get caught up in other things and have the immediate outweigh the important.

To reverse this, here’s a few ideas to try:

Start small.

No change in life is easy or comfortable. Working to let go of the pace around you and creating your own speed takes time and should be attempted in small, incremental steps. Begin by giving yourself permission to slow down. This may seem like a no brainer, but many people believe they don’t have permission to slow down. You do. Whenever life seems to move too fast, take a deep breathe. Three to five slow, deep breaths will slow everything down.

Leave the office.

And I mean leave the office. Shut off all projects, messages, emails, phone calls and conversations and leave the office at the end of the day. Most everything can wait until the next day, so leave it alone until then. As an added help, create a routine to help you disengage from the office on the way home. Walk down the stairs slowly rather than taking the elevator. Drive down tree lined streets rather than the interstate. Walk or bike home from work if possible. Listen to good music while on the train or bus. Stop by the gym for a workout. No matter which way you transition from work to home, make it intentional. Breathe. Relax. Breathe. Let work go. Then walk through the door to your home and enjoy time with those you love.

Turn off all electronic gadgets.

This one is simple. Turn off the phone. The Internet. The television. Spend time talking, playing games, take a walk outside. The point is, unplug and connect with other humans.

Be 100% present.

This is tough at times. But it also is a source of increased tension in life. When I’m with my kids and have other things on my mind, my kids become a pest and source of frustration – at least that’s the way it plays out. When I’ve got work on my mind, my son’s request to play cars is an annoyance rather than an invitation into the world of imaginative play with my child. Whatever you are doing, focus on being 100% present. Multitasking is impossible anyway. Focus on doing one thing at a time and being 100% present while doing it.

Take a walk.

Make it a priority to walk with your spouse and your kids each day. There’s tremendous benefit to being out in nature, even if it’s nature in the city. Want a sure-fire way to improve your marriage? Walk and talk with your spouse at least 30 minutes a day.

Eat outside.

There’s something great about being in nature. There’s something even greater about sharing a meal with others outside. Head to the park for a picnic, eat on the patio at home or restaurants.

Prepare for your day.

Spend a moment at the end of your day preparing for the next day. Pick out clothes, make lunches, talk with your spouse. Then in the morning, before you jump into your day, take some time a simply sit quietly. Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. Breathe slowly, meditate, pray. What a great way to start each day.

About the Author: Corey Allan is the editor of Simple Marriage a site filled with laid back information that will make your relationships better. You can subscribe via rss or email.

‘Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.’ ~Shunryu Suzuki
Change can be a difficult thing. Most people want to change their lives, in some way, but find it difficult to either get started or to sustain the change for very long.

I’m happy to report that after years of studying it, I’ve become fairly good at it (though happily failing all the time). I actually relish change, not because I feel I need to improve my life, but because in change, I learn new things. Constantly.

What have I learned from my changes? I could write a book on this (and probably will someday), but the essence can be found in the space between the inevitable fact of change, and in the incredible resistance to change inside ourselves and in the people around us. We want to change, and yet we don’t. How do we resolve this tension?

It can be incredibly difficult, or it can be wonderfully joyous. I’m here to show you the elements of the joyous path to change. The difficult path … I think we can each easily find that on our own.

My Recent Changes

I’ve made dozens of changes over the last few years (read My Story for a partial list), but here’s a short list of a few I’ve made just this year:

• Lost over 40 lbs since last year. I’ve not cared as much about losing weight — it’s just a number — but more about losing some fat and getting fit. The weight loss has really been a side effect of that focus. I’ve tried a lot of different methods, but I’ve found that only two things matter, and they’re ridiculously obvious: cut back on calories and increase the calories you burn through activity. Finding ways to do those two things has been the fun part.
• Gave up our car and walk, cycle or use public transit everywhere. I’ve slowly been reducing how much I use a car, and increasing cycling and walking. Then we drastically made the change just a few weeks ago when we sold our van, moved to San Francisco, and have been car-free ever since.
• Began walking more. Obviously this goes with being car-free, but even when we had our van I would walk for an hour or three on many days, just for the simple pleasure of it.
• Eat foods with no or little packaging. From bulk bins or farmer’s market, with reusable containers, if possible. I strive for fresh fruits and a variety of veggies, plus beans and nuts and whole grains and seeds. None of this needs packaging, all of it is great for you.
• Gave up almost all of my possessions. I was slowly whittling away at my possessions, then took a huge leap when we sold or gave away almost everything and moved to San Francisco. We’ve bought some furniture (mostly used) but haven’t come anywhere near the (modest) amount of possessions we had before.
• Started working less. A task needs to meet a high threshold of importance for me to consider doing it these days. This means I work fewer hours but am more effective during those hours.
• Drastically reduced the time I spend online. I love online reading, and connecting with others, but it can really eat up your life if you let it.
• Focused more on being in the moment.
• Stopped setting goals and planning so much. I used to be a rigid planner and goal setter, just a couple years ago. You can see it in my old posts here on Zen Habits. I’ve dropped that habit, mostly.
• Instead, embraced going with the flow.

The Elements of Change

So what’s the joyous path to making these changes and others? I’ve broken it down into six elements, many of which overlap and have very blurred lines. They’re useful, though, in considering how to make potential changes in your life.

1. Beating inertia.

We all have inertia — that resistance to change, especially major change that disrupts our living patterns or way of thinking. Sometimes it’s not difficult to overcome — we can get excited to make a big change and want to overhaul a certain part of our lives. The joyous path, though, is in the middle ground between no change and drastic change. It’s in small changes — as small as possible. Small changes mean it’s not hard to get started, but also that the change is sustainable. If you make a drastic change, there is a great likelihood that it won’t stick very long.

If you’re feeling that inertia, set out to make as tiny a change as you can — just get out and walk for 5 minutes, or start writing or painting or playing your violin for 5 minutes. You can do anything for 5 minutes — it should seem ridiculously easy, but that’s the point.

2. Beating the resistance of others.

 This resistance can be even tougher to beat than your own inertia — very often people in our lives do not want change. They’ll be negative, or even actively try to stop us from changing. There are various strategies for beating this: ask for their help and get them on your side, or negotiate a way for you to make change without disrupting their lives too much, or if necessary, cut them out of your life for a little bit. Read more.

3. Finding the joy.

Here is the key to it all. Forget the rest of these steps if you need to, but never forget this one. Doing something you hate is possible, for a little while, but you’ll never sustain it. If you hate running, you’ll never keep up the habit for long. You need to find the joy in doing the activity, and when you do, you’re golden. So either choose an activity that you love, or find something to love in the activity, and grab on to that.

4. Keeping the joy alive.

 Joy can be fleeting, and to keep it going, you need to nurture it. This is an art form, and I can’t give you step-by-step instructions here. If I could, I’d be a billionaire, as it would change the world. But some advice: be grateful for your joy, every day. Be in the moment with that activity, instead of having your mind drift elsewhere. Refresh your joy often, by starting over or approaching things from a new angle or doing something a bit differently. Find new people to share this joy with, people who love it as much as you.

5. Celebrating the little victories.

We often get discouraged because we’re not as far along as we’d like: we don’t have those six-pack abs yet (after a month of exercise!) or we’re not a full-time blogger yet (after three months of blogging!). But we forget how far we’ve come. Every step along the path is a victory, not because we’ve accomplished a goal but simply because we made the step. Celebrate those steps — jump up and down in joy, scream Halelujah, brag about it on Facebook, post a victorious message in bold marker on your fridge. You rock.

6. Making it a part of your life.

Whether a change stays with you forever or not, making a change has value, in the momentary joy you get from doing it, and in what you learn from it. But making a change stick can be a great thing. To integrate change into your life, it must become a part of your daily routine. If you want to meditate, you need to do it at a regular time: right after having your coffee and before showering for work, for example. Having the coffee becomes your trigger for this new habit, and as the coffee is already integrated into your life, it becomes an anchor upon which this new habit will be grounded. The more times you do the new habit after this trigger, and the more regularly you do it, the more firmly it will stick.

And lastly

One last note, to anyone making changes: you will fail. I don’t say that to discourage you, but to release you from the fear of failure … because if you already know it will happen, then there’s no pressure to avoid it. Failure is an inevitable part of change, and in fact it should be celebrated — without failure, we’d learn nothing. Fail, fail often, and learn. Then you’ll be better equipped for the next attempt. Find joy in every attempt, in every victory, in every failure, and the change will be a reward in itself.

‘Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ ~Samuel Beckett

About the Author: Leo Babauta is the author of a new best-selling book, The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential, in Business and in Life. If you liked this guide, please bookmark it on Delicious or share on Twitter.

When we think about simplifying, we usually think about subtraction. Getting rid of excess stuff. Clearing away obligations. Deleting old emails.

We simplify by paring away the layers of something until we find the core. Too many books on the shelf? Give them away, one by one, until you’re left with a manageable number of the volumes you really enjoy.

But decluttering this way is hard. For example:

Do you really want to pull dozens of books off the shelf one by one, trying to decide whether to keep or sell each one?

Do you have the time to go through hundreds of backlogged emails, choosing which to save and which to delete?

And there’s another obstacle. When you’re forced to choose to keep or discard something, uncertainty rears its ugly head. “Can you really afford to throw this away?” it whispers. “Are you sure you won’t need it eventually? Sure, you’re on a simplification kick now – but will you regret it later?” Playing the willpower game with uncertainty gets exhausting.

Simplifying Backwards is Easier

If you’re having trouble deciding when to hold on to something and when to let it go, try doing things backward. Learn to add responsibly instead of subtracting.

I call it the clean-slate approach to simplifying. Here’s how it works, in three steps.

Step one: Take all the clutter you’re facing, useful or not, and put it away. All of it. Put the pile of clothes in a box; put the old emails in a hidden folder. Now you have a “clean slate” to work with, but you don’t have to throw anything away. Yet.

Step two: Go about your business as usual. As you discover a genuine need for something (genuine being the operative word), take it out of storage with a clear conscience. No more agonizing over what to keep. Life will show exactly which things you actually need, and which things you only thought you needed.

Step three: When you’re ready, sell, donate, or throw away the stuff in storage. It’s easier now, since you’ve had weeks or months to overcome your attachment to it.

And here’s a bonus: if you develop the discipline to only put stuff back in your life when you absolutely, positively need it, you’ll find it easier to keep from buying, collecting, or accumulating unnecessary stuff in the first place.

4 Ways to Simplify with the Clean Slate Method

How can you put this method to use? Here are a few ideas:

1. Clean Out Your Email

 If you’re staring hopelessly at an inbox full of read and unread messages, email drafs, and spam, consider declaring email bankruptcy.

If you use Gmail, the archive feature lets you easily move all the mail out of your inbox and into a separate folder. Instant inbox zero. If you use a desktop mail client like Outlook, you can export your mail data to a separate folder, then clear out your active inbox.

Worried about missing obligations to friends or customers? Send an email to your important contacts explaining your email bankruptcy and asking them to remind you of anything vitally important.

And now? Go about your business. If you need an old email, move it from your archive folder into another, active folder. Simple. Don’t stress, don’t agonize – just go with the flow.

2. Pare Down Your Library

Clear off your bookshelves and put all the books in a box. Now you have empty shelves to work with.

If you discover you need a book to read or reference, pull it out of the box and put it back on the shelf. Books that you need and love will naturally come back into your life; books that were just nice to look at or think about reading will stay out of your way. This also works well with DVDs, CDs, or cassette tapes, if you have them.

Eventually, you may feel ready to donate or sell that box of old books entirely.

3. Reformat Your Computer

 The easiest way to do this is with a secondary hard drive or USB flash drive. Take all your files and programs and copy them to your secondary drive. Then reformat (wipe) your primary hard drive and reinstall your operating system of choice.

Going forward, only allow yourself to download a file or install a program if life shows you a genuine need for it. Try to avoid overlaps: do you really need that fancy word processor – or is the simple text editor you already have enough?

On the other hand, when you do find a genuine need for a new program, you can install it without feeling guilty.

4. Simplify Your Closet

Take all your clothes and put them aside. Most items can go in a box or a drawer. If you’re worried about your nicer garments, just push them to one side of the bar or use a placeholder hanger to divide your “storage” section from your “useful” section.

You may also want to commit to a regular laundry schedule – waiting three or four weeks to do laundry is a sure way to fall right back into a cluttered closet.

After a while, you’ll develop a cycle or routine of clothing that shows you exactly which clothes you actually need, and which clothes are just closet eye candy.

Setting a Purge Deadline

To really make the clean slate method work for you, it’s helpful to set a purge deadline. This deadline is how long you allow yourself to keep all your old stuff in storage before you get rid of it for good.

When you set the deadline is up to you. You might decide to eliminate anything you haven’t found a need for within 60 days, or 90 days, or a month. Whatever your number is, it’s a good idea to commit to it in advance, so there’s no second-guessing yourself later on.

The clean-slate method is just one way to simplify your life and your stuff, but it’s worked very well for me. If you find it difficult to simplify the “normal” way, give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.

About the Author: Jeffrey Tang writes about simplicity, great work, and lifestyle leadership over at The Art of Great Things. Read more by subscribing to his feed or following him on Twitter.

Before you start your home based business, you must first take the time to write down your blueprint for success.

The following 5 secrets are the difference between success and failure within your own home based business.

Secret 1:

Before you start your home business, you must first know your TARGET MARKET, or Niche Market. This step is the key for delivering Products or Service people really need. Successful marketing campaign must always start with the needs of the target market. To help you identify your target market, ask the question:”Who will be likely to buy my products or services?

Secret 2:

Before you launch your home business, you must choose your BUSINESS MODEL. There are many business models available today, online and offline. Ask yourself what are the Pros and Cons of this business model compared to others? When I first started working from home, I was trapped with business. If you have a home business without a web presence, you are wasting your time.

“You must choose a business model that uses the POWER OF THE WEB to generate income for your business”

Does your home business have a WEBSITE? If the answer is NO, then you are heading to failure with your business. The internet marketing system is set to reach thousands or millions of people a day. You must incorporate this powerful tool.

Secret 3:

Before starting a home based business, you must first plan your MARKETING STRATEGY. How do you let the world know about your products or services? How do you beat your competitors? Although the MESSAGE is important, the DELIVERY of that message is more important than the message itself.

There are millions of great products that don’t sell very well because customers do not know about them. If people don’t see your offer, they can’t purchase your products. There are several ways to invite people to come see what you are offering, both ONLINE AND OFFLINE.

Secret 4:

The success of your business is determined by your ability to choose Hot Selling Products. By hot selling products, I’m referring to items that are in demand by your target market. Whether it be a new product, existing product or service, if you identify what people want, you will succeed with your home based business.

Secret 5:

Why does a College graduate makes more than an undergraduate? The answer is KNOWLEDGE

The more you learn, the more you earn. Success with your home business depends on your ability to learn in depth about your business. Forget about the get-rich-scheme and strive to build a successful business. With the internet, you can learn many tips and interact with people that will help you succeed. Join the community and learn more about the Internet business.

About the Author: Eddy Dickinson is a home business consultant,author and web designer.

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”             ~Lao Tzu

One of the best things I did when I decided to simplify my life was to simplify my workday — first at my day job and later, by quitting my day job, in the work I do now as a writer and entrepreneur.

I’ve eliminated most of the routine, boring, administrative tasks with a few simple principles.

These days, I have eliminated the non-essentials, and can focus on what I truly love: creating.

Not everyone can make such drastic steps toward simplicity, but if you have some control over your workday, you can do a few small things that will simplify things greatly.

If you don’t have control, or if you find yourself thinking, “I can’t do these things”, I’d start to ask why not? Is it possible to change things, if not today then over the long term? I found that often I thought something wasn’t possible (working from home, for example), but in the long run they were.

You don’t need to do all of these things — pick just one, and try it. Then try another and see if it works. Experiment to find what works for you.

And enjoy the simple work life.

1. Start early. Going into work early was one of my favorite tricks — it was quiet, before the phones and chatter and meetings started, and I could get a lot of work done in peace. By the time everyone else was getting started, I’d gotten two or three big tasks checked off.

2. Limit your hours. It’s ironic, because so many people work long hours and think they’re getting more done and being more productive. But they’re throwing brute hours at the problem. Instead, cut back on your hours and set a limit — say 6 or 7 hours a day — and get your most essential work done within that limit. If you know you’re only working 6 hours today, you’ll be sure to get the important tasks done first and waste less time. Limits force you to be effective.

3. Make a short list. Make a long list of all the tasks you need to do … then make a short list of 1-3 things you really want to get done. Choose so that, if you got only these tasks done, you’d be proud of what you did today. Start with the most important task, before checking email or reading online.

4. Batch distractions. What are your common distractions? Perhaps things like email, reading blogs, Twitter or another social network? Set a time for these, preferably later in the day: say, from 3-4 p.m. Don’t do the distractions before then. By grouping them all into one time period, you allow yourself to do other work first, but still get in your distraction time. Another approach might be to do them for 10 minutes at the end of each hour — but stick to that 10-minute limit!

5. Write shorter emails. If email takes up a lot of your day, the simple change of limiting yourself to 3-4 sentences per email will make a big difference. First, it’ll drastically shorten the time it takes to write or respond to emails. And second, it’ll shorten responses to your emails, which means you’ll spend less time reading email.

6. Limit meetings. The fewer the better. Some top Google executives just do 5-minute meetings — anyone who attends these meetings had better be prepared, and concise. If you can get out of meetings and just get the notes, or find an alternative way to communicate, it could save you hours per week.

7. Automate. The fewer repetitive and routine tasks you have to do, the more time you’ll free up for creating and important work. So automate wherever possible: have people fill things out electronically, or get info from your website instead of emailing or calling you, or use a service that automatically processes payments or ships your product, and so on.

8. Eliminate paperwork. I used to deal with a lot of paperwork, and even then I knew it was a waste of my time. If businesses and organizations could have paperwork filled out electronically, it would save a lot of paper, copying, filing, and duplicate effort. Whenever possible, eliminate paperwork in favor of digital. This might be more of a long-term move.

9. Clear your desk. This can be done in a few minutes. Clear everything off the top of your desk. Only put back a few essential items. Everything else should be: filed, given to the appropriate person, given a permanent spot in a drawer, or trashed/recycled. Make quick decisions and then get back to work.

10. Get away. If you can get out of your office, you can find a peaceful spot where you can focus on important work. Find a spot where you can work, turn off the Internet and do your work, and then turn the Internet back on so you can email or upload it to the appropriate spot. Working from home is a good option here. The more you can do this (it might be once a week, or an hour a day, or half of every workday), the better.

11. Take breathing breaks. Every 15-20 minutes, get up from your desk, and take a breathing break. It could be simply walking around the office, saying hi to someone, or even better, getting outside to get some fresh air. Walk around, get your blood circulating, perhaps massage your neck and shoulders if you feel tension. Do some pushups if you want to get fitter. When you get back to work, remind yourself what you want to be working on, and clear away all distractions.

12. Practice a focus ritual. Every hour or two, do a refocus ritual. This only takes a minute or two. You might start it by closing down your browser and maybe other open applications, and maybe even take a walk for a couple of minutes to clear your head and get your blood circulating. Then return to your list of Most Important Tasks and figure out what you need to accomplish next. Before you check email again or go back online, work on that important task for as long as you can. Repeat this refocus ritual throughout the day, to bring yourself back. It’s also nice to take some nice deep breaths to focus yourself back on the present. More focus rituals.

13. Schedule big blocks of creative time. Not everyone can do this, but when possible, put a big block of 3-4 hours in your schedule for creating or doing other important work. Make this time inviolate, and don’t allow meetings or other things to be scheduled during this time. Be ruthless about clearing distractions and doing the work you love during these blocks, taking breathing breaks as necessary.

Rejoice in your creativity.

About the Author: Leo Babauta is the author of The Power of Less and the creator and blogger at Zen Habits, one of the top productivity and simplicity blogs on the Internet. Babauta is considered by many to be one of the leading experts on productivity and simplicity, and has also written the top-selling productivity e-book in history: Zen To Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System. It has sold thousands of copies and has reached tens of thousands of readers.

When you’re a female small business owner life can be hectic and crazy and busy and stressful. Working mother’s guilt can leave you feeling inadequate in your role as family caregiver.  Business stresses can keep you awake at night.  Time demands can leave you feeling frantic and confused.  Multiple commitments as mother, caregiver, wife/partner, friend and business owner can leave you feeling pushed and pulled all over the place.  All of these things can leave you feeling overwhelmed and unhappy, questioning why you even started this journey in the first place.

Take some time out

I’ve felt all of these things in the past and taking a short break recently with my children was like stepping off the hamster wheel which has left me questioning many choices that I’ve been making recently.  I was so caught up in driving my businesses and achieving my business goals that I was allowing them to drive my life rather than the other way round.  For the first time in a long time I really relaxed and just had fun.  Rather than finding the school holidays stressful because it took me away from my businesses (yep, that’s generally how I have felt in the past every-time a school holiday comes along), I was able to embrace the time off and relax.

Know your goals

This experience left me wondering what it was all for.  A friend of mine suggested that I sit down and write down my goals.  I of course started with my business goals as that is really all I’ve thought about for the last 2 ½ years.  Hmmm, that didn’t feel quite right.  Then I noticed that something was missing, where did I fit in all this?  So I then decided to write down my personal objectives, from scratch.  As if I didn’t already have two businesses that I was running.  These objectives defined the type of life I wanted, the type of income that I wanted and the amount of time that I wanted to spend in the different areas of my life; business, family, friends, me.  What surprised me was how much my personal objectives had changed over the last 3 years (the last time I did this was after my daughter was born in 2007).

This exercise was invaluable as it helped me to see where the gaps and disparities were between the two.  Now I know what I want out of life, I was able to adjust my business goals to fit my life rather than the other way around.  This has meant that my current objectives have taken me from world domination to lifestyle entrepreneur.

This is the process that I went through to find more balance in my life and make some major adjustments in the way that live my life.

Write down your personal objectives

Do this across a number of categories depending on your personal priorities.  Don’t judge yourself as you are writing these.  Let the ideas flow.  I find that drawing a mindmap or even better using mindmap software like Tony Buzan’s iMindMap, (you can get a free trial here http://www.thinkbuzan.com/a_id/4bc6b7641c434 )  It helps get ideas down quickly and freely.

• Family
• Friends
• Charity / Social
• Spiritual
• Health
• Business
• Financial
• You

Write down your business objectives – short term and long term

These are very high level goals - you’re not into planning yet…

• Financial
• Social
• Impact
• Team / Size of business
• Timescales

Ask yourself

Do they match?

Is there a gap between the two?

Given your personal objectives are your business objectives achievable?

Make your choices

If I’m being honest, I had abdicated responsibility for the choices that I was making.  I was allowing my businesses to run my life and quite frankly, it was making me miserable.  I was reminded recently that we can choose the path that we want to take, and even though making those choices can seem very difficult at the time, in the long run they can be worth it.

Once you know what you want it’s very easy to measure the opportunities that come your way against those choices.  It’s important that you find the right balance and priorities for you as until you do, both business and life will feel like a struggle.

Embrace your choices

It’s one thing to make your choices, it’s totally another to embrace them.  By embracing the choices that you make you are taking responsibility for them.   If those choices are making you unhappy then revisit the questions above and re-prioritise them until you find the balance that works for you.  Your life and your future are in your control

World domination will have to wait

I’m an avid consumer of self help and personal development books and had convinced myself that I needed to “Think Big”, create audacious goals and drive my businesses to great success.  However, I hadn’t factored in what was personal success for me.    That’s not to say that world domination isn’t still on the agenda, but at the moment it’s taking a back seat to spending time with my children.

Take the time out to identify the life and the business that YOU want – trust me, it’s worth it!

___________

About the Author: Julie Hall is the founder of Women Unlimited, a web marketing expert and founder of Springmedia, a digital design agency based in south west London.

How much of your day is spent doing administrative tasks, and not creating or doing other important work?

How much time do you spend responding to emails and IMs and social networks, making payments, doing paperwork, filing, sitting in meetings, driving, doing errands, and so on? How much of that could be cleared up for more important work?

Imagine this for a moment: you have no administrative tasks, only the core work that you love doing. Your day has been cleared for creating, building, doing high-impact projects. Isn’t it lovely?

Is this a pipe dream? Perhaps for some, who have little control over their work. But if you have a larger degree of control, let’s explore the idea of “frictionless work” or even “frictionless living”.

If you have little control, consider a change.

My Frictionless Business

I know I don’t have a typical job, but that didn’t happen overnight and I did this on purpose. Today, I have a few successful blogs and a handful of successful books.

Only a year ago, that required a lot of administrative work — so much so that I hired an admin assistant to help out, and outsourced other work.

But assistants, employees, delegating, and outsourcing are not hassle-free … each comes with work of its own: email or phone calls, following up, checking the quality of work, doing contracts, reviewing terms, clarifying, firing, searching for a better employee/contract company, paying, filling out tax info, and on and on.

The better solution is to simplify. Eliminate non-essential tasks. And so I did, slowly

• I eliminated comments from Zen Habits, cutting back on a huge amount of work for me. Comments turn a major blog into a forum, where the blogger is the moderator. It takes hours to moderate a major blog, and while I outsourced that for months, it was always a major headache that required a lot of work. Eliminating comments, which only a tiny minority of readers used, eliminated my need for that admin work or for hiring a moderator.
• I stopped doing work that required me to do paperwork or admin work. That meant losing some income from consulting and other business, but it also meant a lot more free time for what I love doing.
• When a guest writer submits a guest post, I no longer format the post but require the writer to format it and submit for my review. Mostly now I just need to read over the post and hit publish.
• I got out of a bunch of ad networks that were always asking me to do admin work. That was a loss of income, but it also simplified my website. Now I sell one ad a month (which I’m also eliminating), and do almost no work — the advertiser presses a Paypal button to reserve the ad, and emails me the ad image and link code.
• I eliminated email, for the most part, except for collaborative projects (which are few and far between). My email time went from half my day to a few minutes a day.I sell ebooks automatically through e-junkie, and affiliate payments are also computed automatically.
  I now have almost no admin work to run my blogs: I write, and publish. Once a month I log into my Paypal account, send out affiliate payments, and transfer money to my bank account (and from there, my bills are automatically paid and money is automatically transferred to savings).

This is not to brag. I know I have it easy compared to most, but this has all been done gradually and on purpose. I created this frictionless work.

What Are Your Admin Tasks?

Take inventory of your work: what admin tasks take up your time? Add to this list over the course of the next couple of days, because you’re probably forgetting some.

Now ask yourself: which of these can be eliminated? Many of you will probably answer, “Very few”, because you’re used to the way things are done. “This is how things are done.” But that’s an artificial limitation — instead, ask yourself how it can be changed. How might it be possible? Think radically different.

To eliminate tasks, you might have to make major changes over time, but the beauty is that you’ll also be freeing up time. Consider some examples:

If you do a lot of paperwork, can you require forms to be filled out digitally, perhaps online? This will eliminate a lot of work, and if the database is set up right, eliminate filing.

If you spend a lot of time on calls or email, can you provide other ways for people to get info or get things done? Perhaps put up an FAQ online, so common questions are answered (like Google does for its product support), or provide web pages where people can automatically download products or get other things done without you as the bottleneck? Or can you route those requests to someone else?

• Also unsubscribe from newsletters and notifications and so forth, so you don’t have to spend time processing them in your inbox. Consider each email that comes in and ask yourself: “How could this be eliminated?”

• Can you eliminate meetings, or at least get out of them? How can you get the info without meetings? How can projects get done without the meetings?
• If you worked at home, you wouldn’t have to commute, or do a lot of other tasks associated with working in an office. It’s not always possible, but often you can work towards that goal.
• Can you drop clients or parts of your business, losing a little income but eliminating all the admin work that goes with it? The free time could be spent creating something that would more than make up for the loss of income.
• Can you eliminate features that aren’t completely essential, so you don’t have to do all the work to support those features (similar to how I eliminated comments)?
• Can you stop worrying so much about growth, customers, competitors, statistics, and so forth — and focus instead on what you love doing? A great quote by web designer and developer Sam Brown: “I used to stress a lot about my business, my clients, the amount of work I was doing and my competitors – but the minute I stopped worrying about all of that and focussed on just doing great work that I was happy with it really made a big difference, to me and my business.”
• If you think a task is necessary under the current conditions, consider changing the current conditions.
  These are just a few ideas and questions to get you started, but you can see that by radically rethinking your work, you might be able to eliminate a lot of admin tasks.

And free up time for what truly matters.

Frictionless Life

This concept of eliminating admin work can apply to your personal life as well. Imagine your personal time with as few chores, errands, paperwork, and commitments as possible. You’d be free to … well, do what you love most.

• I can’t claim to have done this completely, but I have made huge progress towards a frictionless life. Of course, I still have chores to do (washing dishes, laundry, etc.), but I’ve eliminated a lot of personal tasks:
• I don’t pay bills anymore. I either pay them in advance if I get a big lump payment, or I set up automatic payments each month. In fact, because all my transactions are electronic, I never go to the bank.
• I don’t file personal paperwork anymore. I’ve gone paperless, so all documents that I needed to keep are scanned, and everything else is already digital. Even contracts are done digitally.
• Housework is minimal. Admittedly, my wife does the laundry, but we share in cooking and cleaning duties, and most of it is painless as we have a pretty sparse home. It’s fairly clean all the time.
• Errands are minimal too. Mostly it’s going to the grocery store or post office, and we moved last year so those are within walking distance. So we often walk to those errands, getting a nice workout and enjoying the outdoors in the process.

There isn’t much else we have to do, except things with our kids and each other. The fun stuff. Much of the friction of living has been eliminated.

A Warning

It’s not always easy to change your work and your life to get rid of the friction of admin tasks, but once you do, it’s simply lovely.

However, there will likely be a temptation to fill up your freed time with more email, social networking, blog reading, and so on. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do this, but before you do, consider how you really want to spend your time. Do you want to remove the friction just to fritter it away with distractions?

I’m a big fan of doing nothing, of solitude and relaxing and playing. So if that’s how you use your freed time, I’m jumping with joy. You might, however, spend this time creating, and that’s one of the true wonders of creating frictionless work and a frictionless life. Spend your time doing what you love, living your passion, making something new and beautiful. You’ll be glad you did.

“The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.” ~Frances E. Willard

_____________

About the Author: Leo Babauta is the author of The Power of Less and the creator and blogger at Zen Habits, a Top 100 blog with 130,000 subscribers. Babauta is considered by many to be one of the leading experts on productivity and simplicity, and has also written the top-selling productivity e-book in history: Zen To Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System. It has sold thousands of copies and has reached tens of thousands of readers.

Last week Enterprise Nation, the home business website, went on a roadtrip. Starting in Scotland, the touring team traveled south to meet and film home based businesses in what will become a mini documentary charting the rise in this modern way of working. Whilst out and about, the crew picked up on a few clear trends.

From Scotland to Shropshire

Packing everything in to a single week meant we were able to get a very quick overview of what’s happening in the home business sector across the UK. This is what we found:

Now is a great time to start – the mood throughout the week was incredibly upbeat. One moment that will stick in the mind is when Patrick Elliott (CEO of Business Link in London) opened an event with a question to the audience of ‘Do you think this is a good time to start a business?’ – a ripple of 200 voices came from behind and it was a resounding ‘yes’ – throughout the week we met people who are starting up whilst holding down the day job and others who have come out of redundancy to realise their business ambitions. We met a wide cross-section of businesses and there was nothing but positive chat from them all.

Technology means trade – all of the businesses we filmed are making the most of technology, whether it be Stuart Mills [www.useyourlocal.com] who is applying the web to the pub world, or Malcolm Gallagher who is communicating his business message through online videos; produced cost-effectively from a home studio. Many of the craft businesses are using sites such as Etsy.com and MyEhive.com to sell their products to a national – and international – audience. Technology is clearly broadening the trade and partnering horizons of many a small business.

Freedom & control – we stopped counting the number of times these words were used in interviews. Having started up, home business owners are finding freedom and flexibility in their working lives and are relishing being in control of their creativity, working environment and earnings.

Ethical – this is a slightly difficult one to put in to words. Every business owner we interviewed is doing something ‘good’ by being in business; whether it be Clare Nicolson who believes in giving work to the people in her neighbourhood, Emma Henderson who sources fair trade fabrics from India or Emma Warren who offers time and business experience to a charity. They would not refer to themselves as ‘ethical entrepreneurs’ as such but these business owners are having an impact in many a varied way.

Growth through outsourcing – the adage of ‘do what you do best and outsource the rest’ is being taken seriously by the home businesses we met. Companies are partnering up and work is being outsourced to professionals. In the case of BodieandFou, Karine Kong outsourced the design and build of her website to an expert she’s yet to meet! Technology tools such as Skype, email and project management software means there’s no need to be in the same place but for others, physical networks are important as a place to meet business partners .. but also just to have a social chat!

It was a crammed and fascinating week that shone a light on what is a bright and vibrant business sector. The documentary will be aired for the first time on Home Enterprise Day on Friday 20^th November when home business owners will be travelling to us!

Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’

The home business roadtrip took place in week commencing 14^th September and was sponsored by Orange.

Panic set in for thousands of parents up and down the country when the last day of the school term arrived.  Now, they had the responsibility of finding ways of entertaining their children for SIX whole weeks.  This is a feat that can be difficult at the best of times, but add to the fact that cash is in short supply right now, and…well, you get the picture!

In a bid to save the pennies many families are opting out of travelling abroad this year. But there are still lots of fun activities that families can enjoy for a reasonable price or for free in London.

Battersea Park Children’s Zoo
This great zoo is perfect for small children. There are lots of animals to keep your young ones entertained, such as otters, talking mynah birds, sheep and cheeky monkeys. You can bring your own picnic with you if find their cafe a bit pricey. Queenstown Rd, SW11 . www.batterseaparkzoo.co.uk. Nearest train station: Battersea Park.

Crystal Palace Park
Crystal Palace Park has a maze, a children’s play area and a café as well as enough open space to wear out the most energetic children! Open air concerts are sometimes held here in summer also. Thicket Rd, SE20 www.bromley.gov.uk). Nearest train station: Penge West or Crystal Palace rail

Queen’s Park
Does your child have a penchant for wandering off? At Queen’s Park wardens are much more visible than their equivalents in London’s larger parks. There’s a playground with a giant sandpit and adjacent paddling pool, a miniature farm, a nature trail and a pleasant, refurbished café. There’s also a programme of lively kids’ entertainment at the bandstand. Kingswood Avenue, NW6. Nearest train/tube station: Queen’s Park.

Cartoon Museum
The first-floor gallery will be the most interesting for your child and includes original artwork loaned by publications like the Beano and the Dandy. There’s a cartoonist in residence and lots to make and do. Visit the museum’s website for details of cartooning and animation workshops. 35 Little Russell St, WC1. www.cartooncentre.com. Nearest tube station: Holborn.

London Wetland Centre
A 105-acre city wildlife area of lakes, reedbeds and marshes created by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust. A three-storey tower gives excellent views of the wild areas. Facilities include a theatre and a children’s adventure centre. Free guided tours take place twice a day. Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, London, SW13. Nearest tube station: Hammersmith then Duck bus (283)

Horniman Museum
The Horniman has a marvellous natural history gallery and huge collection of around 1,600 musical instruments. There are plenty of activities for families, including a nature trail, weekend workshops and a hands-on base where children can touch museum objects. 100 London Road, London, SE23 www.horniman.ac.uk. Nearest train station: Forest Hill.

London International Gallery of Children’s Art
This art gallery goes a long way to helping young people appreciate art. It contains art in all its forms created by children from all over the world. Waterlow Park Centre, Dartmouth Park Hill, London N19 5JF. www.ligca.org. Nearest tube station: Archway. 10am-4pm Fri-Sun, other times by appointment.

Pumphouse Educational Museum
The Young Archaeologists Club (for nine- to 16-year-olds) meets on Saturday of each month at the Pumphouse Educational Museum in Rotherhithe to discuss all things digging. Activities include walking the Thames foreshore to collect objects that have washed up, identifying bones and mosaic-making. Lavender Rd, SE16. www.thepumphouse.org.uk. Nearest tube station: Rotherhithe.

Royal Air Force Museum
Does your child love planes? Then this is a perfect day out for them. attractions include 80 aircraft on display, an interactive area and a simulator ride. In the Aeronauts Gallery visitors can take a pilot aptitude test to discover whether they are the ‘right stuff’. ‘Milestones of Flight’, a permanent exhibition in the museum’s new silver barrel-vaulted, stainless steel-clad building, includes some of the most important RAF aircraft along with classics from the USA, Germany, Japan and France. Grahame Park Way, NW9. www.rafmuseum.org.uk. Nearest tube/train station: Colindale tube/Broadway rail.

Royal Observatory
The Peter Harrison Planetarium makes a visit to the Royal Observatory worthwhile. It has an advanced laser projector and presentations specifically aimed at children. Most are suitable for kids over six, with special shows for children aged three to six at weekends and during the holidays. Greenwich Park, SE10. www.rog.nmm.ac.uk. Nearest train/tube stations: Cutty Sark DLR/Maze Hill rail.

Workshops
Barracudas www.barracudas.co.uk, runs day camps throughout London incorporating activities as diverse as quad-biking, jewellery-making, archery and karaoke. Alternatively, your child could learn circus skills at The Circus Space (Coronet St, N1, www.thecircusspace.co.uk), in-line skating with Citiskate , www.citiskate.co.uk, or scuba diving with London Scuba, www.londonscuba.com .

Let your children know just how hard it is slaving away over a hot stove only to have them turn around and say ‘yuk!’ to your efforts. Let them get stuck into a shift at Acton’s Kids’ Cookery School (107 Gunnersbury Lane, W3; www.thekidscookeryschool.co.uk . I don’t think they will complain about your cooking so much after that!

Dulwich Picture Gallery runs an award-winning education programme for budding artists of all ages and abilities. Classes for seven- to ten-year-olds are on Saturday mornings, 11- to 14-year-olds can head along on Thursday evenings, and 15- to 18-year-olds can take classes on Tuesday evenings. There are also free drop-in classes.

Elsewhere, similar classes run at the National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk ) and National Gallery (www.nationalgallery.org.uk ). And the ever-attractive Camden Arts Centre (www.camdenartscentre.org ) runs two-day holiday courses in anything from clay to mixed media. Somerset House (www.somersethouse.org ) runs free (ticketed) art workshops on Saturday afternoons, as well as occasional ’studio days’ for older children. Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Rd, SE21. www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk . Nearest train station: North Dulwich or West Dulwich.

Little Angel Theatre
Does your child have a flair for the dramatic? Take them over to Islington’s Little Angel Theatre – London’s only permanent puppet theatre since 1961. Summer shows commence on Aug 9. Most productions are aimed at audiences aged five and over. The Saturday Puppet Club runs over ten weeks, and culminates in a show for family and friends. 14 Dagmar Passage, N1. www.littleangeltheatre.com . Nearest tube station: Angel.

Pineapple Performing Arts School
The renowned Pineapple Performing Arts School offers a drop-in street dancing class on for eight- to 16-year-olds every Saturday; you just need to turn up and pay six quid. It’s a great way to either keep the kids fit, or drain them of excess energy. For the really keen there are also summer schools in street dance and musical theatre, for nine- to 17-year-olds. 7 Langley St, WC2. www.pineapplearts.com . Nearest tube station Covent Garden.

Polka Theatre
This is a beautifully designed kids’ theatre which puts on daily shows (10.30am, 2pm) and runs school holiday workshops. 240 The Broadway, SW19 www.polkatheatre.com . Nearest tube station South Wimbledon.

Roundhouse
Camden Town’s revamped Roundhouse features a high-tech set of studios and rehearsal spaces that are ideal for creative children. Courses range from rap to contemporary dance, film and TV to experimental drama; there’s even the chance to be a presenter on Roundhouse Radio, broadcast over the internet. Brochures and enrolment forms can be downloaded from the website. Chalk Farm Rd, NW1. www.roundhouse.org.uk . Nearest tube station: Chalk Farm.

Tricycle Theatre and Cinema
The Tricycle Theatre is renowned for their children’s shows; they have a wonderful workshops on weekdays, with everything from prop-making sessions to interactive whodunnits, as well as holiday workshops and youth theatre. Tricycle Theatre and Cinema, 269 Kilburn High Rd, NW6 (7328 1000/ www.tricycle.co.uk  ). Kilburn tube.

Brockwell Lido (Dulwich Rd, SE24. www.brockwelllido.com  is a great location for swimming set amid the greenery of Brockwell Park; Tooting Bec Lido (Tooting Bec Rd, SW16; www.wandsworth.gov.uk  is quite awe-inspiring (and has a paddling pool).

Now, we realise that these examples are all London based, but if you are coming to London this summer (which according the national press 1 in 5 of you are planning to!), this list should give you an idea about some idea about some of the things you can do.

For those of you that are further afield, please put your suggestions below as we all need to find ways to keep our kids entertained!