Volunteers are Priceless

A recent tweet said " Volunteers are not paid; not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless." Hats off to those that share ...", but I disagree with volunteering in most cases.

Over my career I've found myself providing services for free to non-profit organizations who save a bundle through my suggestions, but run an office with a staff of ten, salaries, benefits and electricity bills.

A non-profit is not a non-revenue, and I fail to see why I should not take part in the revenue stream.

I quit all this 15 years ago when a non-profit asked me to drive 10 km north to stand by while they did their first mail-merge. Why stand-by? In case it didn't work and they used a few sheets of paper unwisely.

For a few sheets of paper I was to schedule 3 hours of my time, drive 10 km each way, ...

No. My time is worth more than that.

I am NOT priceless; I am worthy of my hire of any organization in the business world that has a revenue stream.

Especially if their revenue stream is greater than my revenue stream.

Talk to Me!

What's Different this Christmas?

I can be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes.

It's just dawned on me that out of about 200 Christmas cards mailed out so far in the past month, not one has been returned.

Of course, now that I've typed THAT, there'll be a flood next week!

What's different between this year and past years?

(1) I have spent more time this year "touching" my contacts, either by phone, by email, or by letter; and issuing letters is one way to check on mobility of the addressee.

(2) My contacts are higher-echelon, the C-crowd, and CEOs, presidents and the like move around less than do middle-level managers and clerks.

There are probably more reasons, but it is comforting to know that this year my mailings are reaching their targets.

Talk to Me!

1 Easy Way to Get THAT Task Done

We all have them. The proposal that ought to have been completed yesterday; the article that should have been submitted last Tuesday.

I've been using a simple solution for several years now.

Here's the trick.

Clear Your Desktop!

I've got you there, haven't I? Because you don't know whether I mean your real desktop (made of wood) or the screen that faces you as you read this.

I refer to the screen that faces you as you read this.

No wait! There's more

Most users I see have a screen desktop that is a vast un-navigable array of icons. There are shortcuts and there are documents, and I get paid $100 per hour to sit while they mutter "It's here somewhere".

Silly really.

"A place for everything and everything in its place" was a motto my mother never taught me; if she had have done so, my early life would have been a great deal more pleasant.

I had to learn the hard way.

Make an effort, today, to start filing things on your hard drive in a logical pattern - client data in a subfolder of "Clients\", personal data in a subfolder of "Personal\".

And stop storing data on your boot partition (drive C) in that "Documents And Folders" thing. Drag everyone of them to your data partition (probably drive D) and stop using your desktop as a landfill site.

Use the QuickLaunch toolbar for those tasks (programs or documents!) you use throughout the day.

Then your desktop will be as tidy as mine:-

Here's the 1-Step

At the start of the day, make a shortcut icon to ONE, and only one task that should be completed before the end of the day.

Just one. Not two.

That icon will remind you that there is a priority task.

And it will get done.

Talk to Me !

P.S.

Tomorrow is another shortcut!