The Time Finder with Paula Eder
The way you use your time is the way you live your life.
Archive for 'Time and Technology'
Find Time on Cyber Monday: Here are Some Quick Google Search Tips for You!
Posted on August 30, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time when you are working on-line is an ever-evolving process. That’s because your needs and interests keep changing, as do the on-line tools for finding what you need on the web. So, doing your best to keep up with the latest efficiencies and innovations can really help to save you time in this fast-paced milieu.
Perhaps the most ubiquitous tool on the web right now is Google. This search engine giant is your doorway to, quite literally, millions … or, more accurately, billions … of bits of information. From the weather forecast to the correct spelling of a word to books and poems and TV shows, Google is, for many, where the journey starts.
That’s why, this Cyber Monday, I was so pleased to find some articles offering some quick Google search tips. The first is by Simon Mackie and is titled “10 Simple Google Search Tricks.”
Here’s just one of the tips he shares … using Google search as a way to check your spelling when you’re unsure. It’s so much quicker than reaching for the dictionary when you’re in the middle of writing something. Give it a try! You can also check definitions very quickly that way, just to be sure that you’re using a word correctly.
There are also some very interesting possibilities offered in this article – ways to use different “operators” to narrow your search. For example, here’s one that many might be able to relate to …
Exclude specific terms with the – operator. You can narrow your searches using this operator. For example, if you’re looking for information about American Idol but don’t want anything about Simon Cowell, you could try: “american idol” -cowell
Then we’ve got some tips from Google itself! I love the fill-in-the-blank suggestion: “Madam Curie died in.” That search yields the following top result on Google:
Marie Curie Died — 4 July 1934 (aged 66) Passy, France
Are there time-saving tricks that you use when searching on Google? Drop me a line or write a comment here – I’d love to share more search tips with everyone!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together … and here’s a great way to do that … an upcoming teleclass that you’ll want to get onto your calendar today!
Want to explore your Wise Inner Voice more fully? The next interview in my Finding Time HeartBased and EducationRich Teleseries is at 7PM (ET) on Tuesday, September 14 with Soulful Coach Joanna Lindenbaum. Our topic? Activating Your Inner Wisdom: How to Bring Joy and Success into Your Life. Sign up and join us for this free, info-packed teleclass! When you listen to that wise voice inside, the sky’s the limit!
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Find Time to Explore Some Twitter Tools on Cyber Monday
Posted on August 23, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time to make the most of your social networking efforts is an ever-evolving challenge, isn’t it? It can be daunting to keep up with the changes in Facebook and with your ever-evolving list of friends and followers on Twitter.
That’s why we like to try to bring you new tools that can help make the work more efficient, more effective … and even more enjoyable!
Recently, we’ve been exploring three tools here at The Time Finder that I’d like to share with you. They serve three very distinct purposes:
- Cleaning up your list of tweeps,
- Extending your reach and focusing your tweets so that they go to the people who are most likely to share your interests, and
- Automating your tweets so that more people are likely to read them.
First, the clean-up: I invite you to take a look at Tweepi to get a good overview of who you follow that isn’t following you, and vice versa. This tool is fast and efficient, and offers you the opportunity to sort within categories, target your searches, and follow or unfollow multiple tweeps at once. We have been finding it very helpful in managing our list here!
Next, honing the focus of your list: This is where we’ve been experimenting with BlastFollow! and finding it, too, to be an excellent addition to our Twitter Toolbox. With BlastFollow! what you do is enter a hashtag in the box they provide. They’ll come up with a list of tweeps who’ve used that hashtag. If you want to follow them, just enter your username and password, and BlastFollow! will do the rest. What a quick way to add tweeps in your niche to your list!
Finally, for timely tweets, there’s Twaitter – a service that you can use (like SocialOomph) to automate your tweets. This can be an excellent tool for sending messages at times you know you’ll be away, for example. Twaitter, unlike SocialOomph, offers the capacity to set up recurring tweets for free. (SocialOomph has this in the paid version.)
As we explore these, and other, Twitter Tools, we’ll keep you updated. In the meantime, if you try one of these tools, let us know what you think! (And one time management tip: Set your timer before you start trying these out – they can be addictive!)
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
PS: Just a quick reminder that, though the call with Artist and Creativity Coach Ellene Breedlove Davis is over, you can still access the FREE MP3 by clicking the link for: Finding Time to Be Creative: Portrait of the Artist. When you use your creativity to enhance your life, you will develop even more incentive for developing your best ideas and making them a reality.
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time by Increasing Efficiency and Accuracy Using Google Voice
Posted on July 12, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time to communicate quickly and accurately when you are working with a VA is very important. Since I tend to be very phone-based in my work, I have found Google Voice to be a great help in that regard.
What is Google Voice? It’s a free service offered by Google that (taken from the Wikipedia article) “provides a US phone number, chosen by the user from available numbers in selected area codes, free of charge to each user account. Inbound calls to this number are forwarded to other phone numbers of the subscriber. Outbound calls may be placed to domestic and international destinations by dialing the Google Voice number or from a web-based application. Inbound and outbound calls to US (including Alaska and Hawaii) and Canada are free of charge. International calls are billed according to a schedule posted on the Google Voice website.”
Google Voice also provides a Voicemail service – and this is the aspect of the tool that we are finding the most useful. Google Voice makes voicemail messages accessible via phone or e-mail, and it offers transcription of each message.
For my VA, being able to listen to my messages on her PC has been a major time saver. The transcription can be “interesting” at times, but the ability to play, replay, and save messages right on the PC has really enabled her to increase her efficiency and accuracy.
Here’s a link to a video tour of some of the tools and features that Google Voice makes available. This time-saving tool became accessible to anyone with a Google account late last month … having previously been available only by invitation.
I invite you to take a look – it may not be for everyone, but for us here at The Time Finder it has been a big help! And if you do give it a try … I’d love to hear how it goes for you!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have no material connection with the brands, topics, or products that are mentioned here, and have not received any compensation for writing this content.
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time to Post Prolifically With Posterous on Cyber Monday!
Posted on June 28, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time to optimize your presence on the web, if you are a web based coach or entrepreneur, is always time very well spent.
Some months ago we shared information here about Posterous — a very exciting development where you can very quickly and easily create a blog that is hosted on their site. Once you’ve set up your free account … voila, your Posterous blog is ready and waiting for you to share your thoughts, links to interesting articles, photos, video, you name it.
The sharing is simple and fast – just send an e-mail to post@posterous.com … or add the “Share on Posterous” button to your browser, and you are up and running.
It is now possible to import your existing blog to Posterous (something I just now did with ease) and they have made some other enhancements. I’d like to quickly share a few of them with you on this rainy (in New Hampshire) Time Finder Cyber Monday!
- Pages: The developers at Posterous have added the capacity to create pages on your Posterous site. This means that now you can have an “About” page on your Posterous blog … or a “Contact” page. Pretty much whatever you want.
- Enhanced Editing: It is now possible to, simply and quickly, upload photos, video, text, documents … you name it … to your Posterous Blog using their new editing tool.
- New Themes, more font options, mobility …
Take a moment and take a peek at my Posterous Blog … and let me know if you have one, too. I’d love to check it out! (And if you don’t have one, I’d suggest that you consider trying this free tool … as another way of expanding your reach on the web!)
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have no material connection with the brands, topics, or products that are mentioned here, and have not received any compensation for writing this content.
As summer unfolds, are you ready to explore your healthiest life? Ready to explore and consider some changes to optimize your energy and enjoyment of these unfolding days?
The MP3 of my interview with Nutritionist and Clean Eating Coach Wendy Battles-Plasse is just the thing for you! We explored how you can “Start Living Your Healthiest Life Today: Timely Tips on Clean Eating, Self-Awareness and the Power of Prevention.” We’ll send it to everyone who signs up on our teleclass page. This was a jam-packed, info-filled call … and it’s not too late to learn all about healthy eating and prevention from one of the best!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time to Tweet It Up and Enhance Your Event Exponentially for Everyone!
Posted on June 21, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time to use Twitter to publicize your next teleclass or special event is an excellent and effective adjunct to any on-line marketing plan. Do you use Twitter as fully as you can to get the word out?
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll see that I tweet about my EducationRich and HeartBased Interview Teleseries both before and after-the-fact. That’s because I love sharing this valuable information with as wide a group of people as I can.
But here’s another thought. Have you considered using Twitter during your event, too?
You may have noticed that when I tweet about an event, I use the hashtag #findtime. This is a hashtag that we created to use for our Finding Time Interview Teleseries, as well as for other Time Finder Tweets. The nice thing about the hashtag is that it makes it easy to find those specific tweets. As other people begin to use the tag, it targets and enhances communication and begins to create a sense of community. This can be especially powerful during your events!
Jenni Izzo recently posted a piece on Twitip offering some tips on How To Incorporate Twitter Into Your Event.
While Jenni’s post focuses on live events, there is great potential here for teleclasses, too. With a Twitter stream flowing during a class, participants can offer comments on-the-spot, connect with other attendees, and let others in the Twitterverse know about the event, right while it’s happening!
Imagine … you might be doing a call next week when someone in Belgium or Malaysia reads about it on Twitter and decides to dial in on the spot. Isn’t that powerful and amazing?!
I invite you to try out the #findtime hashtag at our next event … or right now, for that matter. We can connect and create dialogue any time we want to. It’s simple, easy, quick … and powerful!
And speaking of our EducationRich and HeartBased Interview Teleseries … there’s still time to grab the MP3 of my interview with Nutritionist and Clean Eating Coach Wendy Battles-Plasse. We explored how you can “Start Living Your Healthiest Life Today: Timely Tips on Clean Eating, Self-Awareness and the Power of Prevention.” We’ll send it to everyone who signs up on our teleclass page!
This was a jam-packed, info-filled call … and it’s NEVER too late to learn all about healthy eating and prevention from one of the best!
When you sign up, choose our VIP level and you’ll receive a word-for-word transcript of the call, as well as a special gift from Wendy – her 26-minute MP3,”4 Simple Steps to Meal Planning Success.” This audio is loaded with Wendy’s easy and practical tips that help put healthy eating within your reach every day!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time and Lots of Tweets Using Twitter Search on Cyber Monday
Posted on June 14, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time to find what you’re looking for on Twitter and make the most of this social networking tool can be a tall task. But did you know that Twitter includes a search function to help you find the tweets and tweeple you most want to view?
The simple form is right on your Home Page. It’s the little box next to the magnifying glass. To do a simple search, you just enter the word or words you are looking for in the box, click the magnifying glass, and voila!
You can refine your search by using some special “operators” that are enumerated under Twitter Support on their site. Here are 5 – and you can see the rest at the link referenced above:
| Operator | Finds tweets… |
|---|---|
| twitter search | containing both “twitter” and “search”. This is the default operator. |
| “happy hour“ | containing the exact phrase “happy hour”. |
| beer -root | containing “beer” but not “root”. |
| to:techcrunch | sent to person “techcrunch”. |
| traffic ? | containing “traffic” and asking a question. |
As you can see, there is a lot more you can do with the Twitter search function that you might have imagined.
If you aren’t comfortable using the special “operators” listed above, there is also an Advanced Search Form that you can use. It walks you through setting up your search and will add the operators for you.
Another nice feature you’ll want to remember on your Twitter homepage is that once you’ve got your search set up, you can save it and then repeat it as often as you like!
For more information about Twitter searches, along with some thoughts about ways you can use them to enhance your productivity and save you time, I offer you Thomas Baekdal’s “7 Secret Ways to Use Twitter Search” and Chris Webb‘s “5 Awesome Twitter Searches” – both from Twitip!
Happy searching … I’d love to hear how it goes for you!
And, in the meantime, don’t forget, there’s still time to tap into your healthiest self when you grab the MP3 of the most recent installment of The Finding Time EducationRich& HeartBased Interview Teleseries.
Learn all about prevention, clean eating, and creating yummy meals for yourself when you listen to my interview with Nutritionist and Clean Eating Coach Wendy Battles-Plasse. We explored how you can “Start Living Your Healthiest Life Today: Timely Tips on Clean Eating, Self-Awareness and the Power of Prevention.”
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time to Check Under the Hood – You Don’t Have to be Mechanically Inclined to Do It!
Posted on May 24, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time to understand the statistics that are available for your blog or website is time very well spent.
It may look daunting at first (as do so many new things), but once you delve into your site’s numbers, you’ll find a wealth of very helpful, actionable information at your fingertips.
Lucky for us, Michelle Schaeffer, The Small Business Muse, has posted an article on Solo-E about this exact topic! Understanding the Basics of Website Statistics offers tips and insights that enable you to analyze your website traffic, and make adjustments in your marketing if you need to.
Every time someone visits your site, he or she leaves a footprint that can tell you a lot about what the draw was, what captured his or her attention, how long the person lingered, etc. Key numbers to keep an eye on, according to The Small Business Muse include:
- “Conversion rates: What % of visitors to a sales page made purchases? There’s plenty of information available on how to optimize sales pages for better conversion rates. Once you have a base measurement of your current conversion rate, start making small changes to your copy, headlines, and other page elements then watch for a change in the conversion rate to see whether changes helped.
- “Page views per visit: How many pages does each visitor look at? If this number is very low – one or two – then visitors aren’t being engaged enough or finding what they were looking for.
- “Monthly unique visitors: Is the number growing over time? Your traffic should be going up! If it’s not, take time to review your promotional tactics and strategies to see where you can improve.”
AW Stats and Webalizer are the two most commonly used analysis tools. Usually they will come as part of the control panel for your site. Google Analytics is another statistics-tracking tool that can be added to any site using a snippet of code that they provide.
I encourage you to use more than just one of the above tools, to get the fullest possible picture of your traffic patterns. If you are not technically inclined, and are working with a VA, you can always ask him or her to supply you with a monthly report so that you can track your statistics and keep on top of any trends.
How do you keep an eye on how your on-line activity is going? Do you track your stats? What do you find? Please feel invited to drop me a line – I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time to Explore Your Inner Twitter on Cyber Monday!
Posted on May 17, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time to engage with tweeps on Twitter, while not losing yourself to cyberspace, is an ongoing challenge. In previous posts we’ve talked about using a timer to manage your Twitter time (as well as your time on other social networking sites).
If you haven’t found the time to buy yourself a timer yet, here’s an elegant little idea from Inner Twitter for bringing mindfulness to your Twitter time.
How does it work? When you go to the Inner Twitter site you’re offered three different tweeps to follow. Each one sends out a “chime” message on different time schedule. As a follower of a user with a particular chime schedule you’ll receive the chime at its designated time, and then you can choose how to respond to it. Here’s a sample message from @mindful15:
……..*chime*…………..Mon May 17 10:29:01 2010
How might you respond to this chime when it arrives in your Twitter feed? Here are a few suggestions from Inner Twitter:
1. Stop.
2. Let any tension you are carrying drain away.
3. Meditate on your breathing.
4. Notice whatever is immediately before you.
5. Potentially share your observations.
Please don’t feel like you must follow these steps. You may observe the chime in anyway you wish. It’s completely up to you. The idea is to just stop every once in a while.
Do you currently find ways to give yourself small breaks during your on-line work? Would something like Inner Twitter be helpful to you? Do you have other ideas that you’d like to share? (I’d love to hear!)
Here’s to your time and internet success!
PS: There’s still time to sign up and access the MP3 of my interview with Entrepreneur Energy Coach and Founder of Body Brilliance Krista Hearty as we explored “A Secret Brilliance: How to Tap Into Your Unique Energy and Power.” And, even better, when you sign up, choose our VIP level and you’ll receive a word-for-word transcript of the call, as well as a special gift from Krista – an MP3 of her 20-minute guided visualization, “Present Moment Meditation.”
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time to Empower Yourself – Add Some Very Useful Webmaster Tools to Your Toolbox!
Posted on May 10, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time to learn some basics about the fundamental language of the web can totally change how you interact with the world of the internet. Whether you are technically inclined or not, knowing something about the mechanics of the web pages we all visit (or develop) definitely enhances the experience!
I would never consider myself a technical person, but when my VA shared a site offering tutorials where you can Learn HTML and CSS I was interested. The purpose of the site is to provide “guidance and help about designing and developing websites.” Their aim is to “make HTML.net a useful tool for everyone working with web design – either as a hobby or as a profession.
Tools like HTML and CSS can be daunting, but they don’t have to be. Basically, you can think of the process as very much like learning a new language. As you practice and explore, the terrain becomes more and more familiar. The tutorials offered in Learn HTML and CSS are very friendly and accessible … read on!
People often think it is extremely difficult to make a website. That is not the case! Everyone can learn how to make a website. And if you read on, you will have made one in just one hour.
Others believe – just as mistakenly – that expensive and advanced software is needed to make websites. It is true that there are lots of different programs that claim they can create a website for you. Some come closer than others. But if you want it done right, you must do it yourself. Fortunately, it is simple and free and you already have all the software you need.
The aim of this tutorial is to give you an easy, yet thorough and correct introduction to how to make websites. The tutorial starts from scratch and requires absolutely no prior knowledge of programming.
The tutorial cannot show you everything. So some engagement and a will to experiment are required. But don’t worry – learning how to make websites is a lot of fun and gives a tremendous amount of satisfaction when you get it right.
If you work on the web, even if you’re not directly involved in the technical aspects of your on-line enterprise, I highly recommend that you just take a quick look at these tools. They will expand your appreciation and understanding of the virtual world. And, if you DO work with HTML or CSS – or are interested in building your skills – I think you’ll find these tutorials a great addition to your toolbox!
Here’s to your time and internet success!
PS: There’s still time to sign up and access the MP3 of my interview with Entrepreneur Energy Coach and Founder of Body Brilliance Krista Hearty as we explored “A Secret Brilliance: How to Tap Into Your Unique Energy and Power.” And, even better, when you sign up, choose our VIP level and you’ll receive a word-for-word transcript of the call, as well as a special gift from Krista – an MP3 of her 20-minute guided visualization, “Present Moment Meditation.”
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time to Create Your Very Own Twitter Daily News!
Posted on April 26, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Finding time to keep up with your Twitter stream is a challenge. How do you work it into your daily routine?
If you’re a newspaper reader, you may find this new tool from SmallRivers.com to your liking! It’s called paper.li and what it does is take your own, unique Twitter stream and turn it into a daily newspaper for you! As Jeff Bajayo writes on TheNextWeb.com :
Paper.li has an original web app that turns your Twitter stream into a daily online newspaper. Your Twitter newspaper is updated every day just like the morning post.
Paper.li offers tags to help you find other newspapers by topic and explore the Twitterverse in a whole new way. You can share your new Twitter newspaper via the retweet button at the top of your page, and let all your followers read about what you are interested in.
How does paper.li work? Here’s what Edouard Lambelet on twitip has to say:
This new tool analyzes all links shared by your friends during a given day, determines topics (politics, science, technology, etc.) using semantic text analysis tools, extracts the content (text, video, images, pdf) and rank them for probable pertinence. With all of that info the tool is then able to create a newspaper front page, enabling you to scan this content – contextualized by tweets, always displayed nearby articles – in a very way. If such quick scanning is not enough, you are also able to access a table view of all content shared in the last 24 hours by the tweeps you follow. Once created, this “newspaper” is automatically updated every 24 hours.
I created my newspaper this morning. Depending on the size of your Twitter stream, this can take some time, but it’s well worth it. My newspaper reflects what the people I’m connected with are tweeting about, giving me a quick overview of my Twitterverse!
You can tweet your newspaper to your followers, using the button at the top of your paper. And, by using the “Notify Me” button, you can sign up to receive updates @ every 24 hours. Just like having your newspaper delivered each day!
I encourage you to take a look at paper.li. It’s another way to look at Twitter, and may be a format that you’ll find helpful.
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen some tweets about my upcoming teleclass. I’m so excited about this interview! Please join me at 7PM ET on Tuesday, May 4th for The Finding Time EducationRich& HeartBased Interview Teleseries with Entrepreneur Energy Coach and Founder of Body Brilliance Krista Hearty. We’ll be exploring “A Secret Brilliance: How to Tap Into Your Unique Energy and Power.” We’d love to have you there!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
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