Hi there!

I want to thank you for taking the time to stop by my blog.  I hope that you find interesting and helpful information. But more importantly, I’d like to know about you! If you are here because you want to learn more about creating your own info products, then please take a moment to introduce yourself to me and other visitors. Read the rest of this post »

I found a great, easy to use, and free mindmapping tool called Bubbl.us.  It allows you to create colorful mindmaps. Mindmaps allow you to brainstorm and organize your ideas visually. Once you create your mindmap, you can embed it in your website or email it or share it with friends.  Best of all it’s free.

If you are creating info products or ecourses, try using Bubbl.us for brainstorming or outlining your next project.  If you don’t have anyone to share it with, feel free to share it with me

Whether you are a mom (happy homemaker) or a mogul (internet marketer) – we all have a list of tasks to complete. How you complete them depends on the type of person you are.  I like to procrastinate,  so my style is completing EVERYTHING at the last minute. Unless you like living under the gun, I suggest you don’t do it that way.

First thing is to remember your tasks don’t always have to be completed in the order they are on your list (think shopping list). Normally you will have simple tasks and difficult taskss. If you are the type of person who needs motivation to complete a project, do the simple tasks first so you don’t get discouraged, frustrated or feel “this is taking so long”.  For example, when doing my chores  I clean the bathroom first because it’s the easiest and when its complete, I have 20% of my cleaning done. The living  room is next (it’s pretty easy too because usually most of the stuff there  belongs in other rooms) and when that is finished I have 50% of cleaning done. Next is the kitchen – I hate cleaning the kitchen, but i think to myself  ”I’m half way there!”  so that gives me  a little motivation, plus I look over at the living room and see that it’s clean, so that helps too.   When the kitchen is finished, I’m 75% done. At this point only the bedroom is left. I hate cleaning my bedroom – I don’t have enough closet space, too many shoes,  and in my determination to become a “minimalist”, I do not have many shelves, drawers or any other type of organization.  Now, if I were to start my cleaning chores with the bedroom, I’d just sit and stare for  hours with 100% looming over my head.

Others might like the challenge of tackling the big things first to “get them out the way”.  I attempt to use this approach as well.  Sometimes a task is so big that just finishing it makes it feel like you’ve made it over a hump, everything else is smooth sailing.  For example, when I’m creating an ecourse the biggest time taker is the “planning phase”  – what am I going to say, how am I going to say it, how will the learner navigate through my ecourse. Planning will take 50-60% of my time.  But once that’s done, the small things of putting it all together, making graphics, making animations, writing the pages is all very easy. That sounds great, doesn’t it?  Well,  it doesn’t work like that for me most of the time. To me, planning takes too long, so I find myself moving back and forth between planning / storyboarding, building the course, making graphics, planning a little more. I even go back to completing the easy tasks first.

I always start an ecourse saying “I’m going to plan this out completely first! Really, this time I’m going to do it!”  Nah. Unfortunately my need for variety just won’t let me.  But in the end, who really cares about your method if all of your tasks are completed at the quality they should be and your final result is obtained?

In any case, I wanted to recommend a cool tool that I hope to demo soon. Its called RemembertheMilk.com This service allows you to list all of your tasks and mark them as complete.  I like using online services because I have access to my data at anytime.  I had originally used this along with my Gmail and Google Calendar, but I see they have more features now.  Check it out, especially if you used Gmail, its free!

This is just a very quick follow-up to my post from yesterday. In that post I said  would take a look at the show Hoarders on A & E.

Well I was flipping through the channels and the show happened to be on. All I can say is – wow.  Imagine hoarding (or just not throwing any garbage away – ever) and the authorities are called in, you find dead, flattened rats and other rodents and critters, or even a dead pet cat!  I can definitely see how this can be a mental illness.  Of course now, I have the biggest urge to go throw out the trash bag that I felt could wait until a little later today

When I was young I lived in the Oakland hills in California. They were truly not the world’s most popular farmlands, so one wouldn’t expect to have a chicken coop in their backyard. Perhaps at higher elevations in the hills chickens would have not existed at all, but at 8016 Hillmont Drive there was a chicken coop and it was in my backyard. And with that I witnessed the beheading of one of the hill chickens (apparently Aunt Margie had the craving for some chicken soup and thus began the festivities). So I am probably one of the lucky few who truly understand the intensity and descriptiveness of the phrase “running around like a chicken with it’s head chopped off.” I have witnessed this intense disorientation and it’s not a descriptive you’d want of yourself. However, that is how I will describe my morning routine, especially when looking for matching socks. Imagine a chicken with it’s head chopped off wearing one sock rummaging through drawers and closets trying to find the matching mate…every morning.

Now, another part of my routine is to check my emails about 5 times each morning, even while looking for matching socks. Tuesday  morning this week while doing my chicken dance (hop-pull up sock-hop-pull up sock, etc) I received an interesting email from the Better Organized mailing list which was very timely. The item that caught my attention though was called “Where Hoarders Go for Help“.  I found the title quite catchy, but the information I found there was a little shocking.  Hoarding can be a serious mental illness and there are nationally recognized groups that help folks with this compulsive behavior. I admit I’ve never seen an episode of Hoarders, but that’s now on my list for viewing

Now, what does this have to do with infoproducts?  Well, I admit to being very, very, VERY disorganized, but I am by no means a hoarder (obviously because I’d have more socks, right?), as a matter of fact if something annoys me, is too dirty or just looks weird, I throw it out and let someone else grab it from the garbage and figure out what to do with it.

BUT…I might be a hoarder of infoproducts I seem to have  a couple of hard drives full of infoproducts – resell rights products I was going to sell, training products that I was going to read, PLR product that I was going to “recreate”, videos, PDFs, ebooks (remember the old .exe ebooks?), articles, graphics, websites, CDs, software, templates, memberships!!  Oh my!

Is there a such a thing as an infoproduct hoarder? YES!  I’ve heard and read many people admit they have hard drives full of ebooks they have never gotten around to reading, but they keep buying more.  I’ve seen the question “do you have a hard drive full of PLR material collecting dust?”  so many times.  Check out Jacinta’s comment on my blog – she’s obviously experiencing some sort overload as well! LOL

Luckily for me, over the past couple of years I’ve become more frugal (ok, cheap) so I’m limiting what I buy at this point.  Luckily for me, eBay has stopped the sale of digital products!  That was where it all started 10,000 ebooks for 99 cents!  Who could resist that  It’s very hard to go from paying $0.99 cents for 10,000 ebooks to paying $47 for a 20 page PDF!

So, what am I going to do?  I think the first thing I need to do is get all this stuff organized. My first step will be to consolidate everything I have into one place.  So, I’ve bought a new Iomega Prestige 1TB external hard drive.  Like I said, I’ve bought it – I haven’t done anything with it yet!  LOL

If you are an infoproduct hoarder, please let me hear from you and let me know how you deal with infoproduct overload!

Has it really been 3 months since I updated my blog? Now, I did plan on a January 1, 2010 launch date, so technically, I’m only 27 days late. But c’mon, really?

Well I must admit the new year has come in with a bang and it’s almost February. I’m sure everyone has been pretty busy. It’s time to start new habits and I’ve started mine. I’m kind of stuck in sale frenzy and buying excessive amounts of boots. I don’t really need so many pairs of boots (especially since out of all of the ones I bought, I only wear ONE pair). Ironically, one of my resolutions, like I’m sure many of you have – is to budget better. Meaning less spending. But how can on resist with so many sales.

And not just clothing sales – there are computers sales, camera sales, travel sales. Its amazing. What is a budgeter to do?

Now, what if it wasn’t money you needed to budget? Did you ever think about budgeting your time? Apparently, I’ve been “spending” an excessive amount of my time shopping boot sales. That’s time I can’t get back. Now, I could very well return my boots and get a refund, but there are no refunds on time wasted. So you can see time can be even more valuable than the almighty dollar!

Think about how your time can be spent more wisely: meditation, bonding with a friend, playing with your children, building your business. It’s all about what you value and what’s most important to you (it could very well be boot shopping!) and what you want to spend your time on. Make sure you budget your time to do more of the things you love, less of the things you hate. If you love to relax and watch old movies, but you feel you don’t have enough time to yourself to do that, then you need to work on your time budget!

So that’s what I’m going to start now that I’ve managed to visit my blog for the first time since….ummmm, November? Well, I’m sure I’ve visited it, but I just haven’t done anything! I will be budgeting my time to ensure that I start fulfilling the things I mentioned on my About page. I will also budget more time so that I can accomplish all of the cool goals I have set for myself this year. I’ll be sharing those with you as well.

But right now, I have to go and do some comparison shopping for a new computer. Hey…I need to make sure I have the appropriate technology to update my blog! Don’t judge me!! LOL

Until next time, have a great rest of January 2010 – its almost over and February is knocking!

I’m just writing a quick post to say that I’m gearing up to “re-launch” my blog in my specific niche – info product creation.  You can read my new About page for more information.

I will be discussing how to create a variety of types of info products, but more from a technical and “how-to” perspective.

I’m going to leave the “why you should do it” and “what to do after it’s created” to others to explain because they can do it much better than I can. My focus is on helping with the technical and creative parts of creating the actual “media” (pages, videos, audio, etc.).

In addition to that, I will still talk about work life balance – and how to get through creating your product. I’ve worked with many people over the years creating a variety of products and I understand that it can be stressful. Especially for those of us who are highly motivated and dedicated to seeing something to completion, it can be very consuming of your time! Other parts of your life can suffer while you are banging away at your computer all night and all weekend.

So that’s about it for now. I hope you plan on joining me for some info product creation fun!

I’ve found so many good blogs over the last week and I have been learning so much from them.  To me the best teachers are those who don’t even know they are teaching. To them they are just sharing their knowledge and their experience. They don’t call themselves “professors” and they don’t call themselves “gurus” and they don’t tout 3 or 4 degrees and they don’t ask you for $997 for the opportunity to hear them speak for an hour.

They just want to tell you something new they found out or explain to you something they learned how to do.

They are true, real-life, unexpected educators…

Have you ever noticed how children are always excited (usually) about learning something new? Well, maybe not in the classroom all the time LOL, but when they see something new, they become quite curious.  Why can’t it be the same with adults. I guess we think we know everything, and perhaps we do.  We DO know that trignometry didn’t really help us in the “real world”. We DO know that after graduation we never had to diagram another sentence. But I guess we have to admit that some of the things we did learn in school, really did help us as we grew older….maybe.

Now that we can make a choice to learn, why not be effective at it?   In this article, 7 Keys to Becoming a More Effective Lifelong  Learner, the discussion is not about becoming a lifelong learner…. it’s about become an effective lifelong learner.  The 7 keys aren’t anything earth shattering, they are so simple:

1. Commit
2. Make Time
3. Get Organized
4. Repeat it
5. Don’t over do it
6. Sleep well
7. Relax

I guess my point is – what’s different about committing to effective learning than any other goal? I for one know the abundance of information on the Internet can be overwhelming. Think about all of the new internet marketing methods you have read about, do you know which way to go or who to believe?  Think about all of the weight loss secrets and all of the “one simple tricks” for teeth whitening. If you have a health issue, you probably found about 100 solutions or 100 more questions about it.

We consume information, and are always learning (directly or indirectly).  But when it’s time to choose what we want to learn, we can be successful by following the same methods as we do for any other goals we may have.

We all work very hard in both our home life and work life. How can we maintain work-life balance if we’re too pooped to enjoy life after all that working we do?

Others of us are just chronically always tired, whether its health reasons, boredom, or just plain laziness (guilty!).

Let’s talk about how to increase your energy regardless of the reasons you feel tired. Below are some “energy boosters” that just might work for you. Some of them may work, some of them may not. Just try them all to see which work best for you.  You may find you need to do a few, and that’s OK too.  The goal is to get pep in your step so you have the energy to do the work, then enjoy life!

1. Turn on some energetic music. Find the type music that wakes you up and gets you going, and keep it ready. Keep a CD of energy boosting music in the car or store some songs on your iPod for when you are on the go.
2. Once the music is pumping, move your body! Even just getting up and washing the dishes, watering the plants or walking around the house helps to raise your energy levels. Or even try a few quick exercises – 10 quick jumping jacks are sure to get your heart pumping.
3. Try a hot / cold shower mix. Shower for a minute in hot water, then a minute in cold, alternate like this for six minutes. Not only can this actually boost your immune system (research shows…) but it will definitely wake you up!
4. Have a chat about something that interests you. Have you noticed that people get excited when they talk about something they love? And sometimes you can’t get them to stop yapping about it LOL. Think about the topics that get you excited and grab a person who’s willing to listen.
5. Try to sleep better to ward off the energy slumps before they even start. It’s not about the amount of hours, but also the quality of sleep. Is your room dark enough? Quiet enough? Is your bed comfortable enough? How is the temperature in the room?  If you sleep for eight hours and  don’t wake up feeling refreshed, try to analyze what’s happening at night while you are sleeping – locate the issue and try to fix it.

Alright, there you have it – 5 tips to help boost and increase your energy!