Eight days a week
By SisterSki
British summer
time. Lazy hazy days, ice-cold lemonade, cupcakes in the garden,
buttermilk scones, home made jam and clotted cream. So you have
to say goodbye to an extra hour under the duvet. So what? But
imagine if you could actually get it back. And some. Just
conjure up another 60 minutes a day. Every day. What would you
do? Get some exercise. Have a relaxing massage. Catch up with a
friend you haven’t spoken to in ages. Or would you answer a few
more emails, send a couple of extra tweets and fill the minutes
with more work.
Stressing about a
lack of time is pretty widespread. Yet there are people who
find time for a daily workout, a hobby, a family, a social
life. And run a business.
You could aspire to be Mrs Thatcher and train yourself to exist
on four hours’ sleep a night. But would you really want to end
up looking like the Iron Lady. Debatable.
Want to magic that extra hour a day?
All it takes are just a few minor adjustments.
One for each day of the week.
MONDAY Less
is more
OK so lists may serve a purpose.
However if you're a List Queen, here’s a radical thought.
Abdicate. Strip down those endless lists to the bare bones.
Learn from glossies on packing a capsule wardrobe. Take
your list. Halve it. And halve it again. Everything doesn’t
have to be done today. And you don’t have to do everything.
Become a Mistress of the art of
delegation.
TUESDAY Three is the magic number
Take three tasks. Work on
them. If you find one hard going, rotate them and work on each
for 20 minutes at a time. Then come back and finish what you
started. And www.teuxdeux.com is a nifty little tool which can
help you mange your
tasks.
WEDNESDAY
Keep it real
Be realistic about the
timeframe. If you have three hours, you’ll know from experience
what you can expect to accomplish. If this is the first time
you’re working on a given task, under-promise so that you can
over-deliver. Less stress for
everyone.
THURSDAY Delicious
distractions
Ignore pings, pokes and
tweets however amusing, interesting or diverting. Turn them
off. Put aside 20 minutes or so at the
beginning and end of the day (and the middle if you’ve gone
cold turkey) when you can respond. It's rare an immediate
response is expected. Try it. You’ll be amazed at how much you
get done without become a social media
slave.
FRIDAY Meet yourself
Set regular meetings. With
yourself. On the agenda. Expenses. PR and marketing. Planning
and development. Turn up at the same
time every week and treat yourself with the same respect you
would any other important client. Down to the biscuits.
SATURDAY All systems go
This is hard to get your
head round if you think of yourself as a spontaneous type but
if you have a system in place for managing contacts, expenses,
subscriptions, account passwords, standard e-mail responses and
client contacts you won’t waste time looking for information.
And might even have time for a spot of
spontaneity.
SUNDAY Life beyond the
desk
Tied to your
desk? Stop worrying about the world
crashing down while you’re away. Even better. Let someone else
do the nitty gritty. Use a call minding
service, find a bookkeeper and hire a VA. Taking time out
feeds the mind. Grab a cappuccino. Walk the dog. Or better still, as you've
found some extra time book the next Sister Snog event and
hook up with the Sisters!
And start a new week with an extra day. Who says you can’t
have 8 days a
week?
My Avatar and me
By SisterSnogger
Who's Sybil?
Ever seen the film Sybil? An award winning TV production
starring Sally Field as Sybil, a real woman possessed by 16
different personalities. It’s an absorbing account of Sybil's
struggle with a multiple personality disorder and the 11-year
psychiatric treatment that helped to integrate all her
personalities into one. Bit of a tear jerker. Supply of hankies
essential.
Inside out
Sybil isn’t the only one with multiple personalities and a number
of characters to her name. Everyone’s pretty complex. How many
times have you met someone with a Jekyll and Hyde personality.
And what about the Id, Ego and Super-Ego. Different aspects of
the human psyche. Studied by Freud. Characterised by Beckett .
Face
the music
In fact there’s a train of thought that the way people embrace
different social media channels speaks volumes about the type of
people they are. According to Howard
Lindzon everybody lies on Facebook. People represent a kind
of false self, so that it’s hard to really know what a person is
like from their Facebook profile. He feels differently about
Twitter and holds the belief that people's tweets are a much
closer representation of their true self than Facebook. In his
view, someone who is a jerk on Twitter is likely to be a jerk in
real life. On the other hand someone who is thoughtful and
careful in their tweets is also like that offline.
Say cheese
Whether Facebook rocks your boat or Twitter rings your bell,
they both have one thing in common. A rogues gallery of cheesy
mug shots.
Strike a
pose
Let’s face it. Few of us are truly photogenic. They say the
camera never lies but surely it depends on the camera. Why is it
that so many online profiles include photographs that have a
photoboothesqueness about them, at best. Or at worst, can only
have been taken with a disposable camera. Not very flattering. Go
on. Take a look. Ask yourself. Is this is really someone I'd like
to go on a blind date with or find myself in their company on
Come Dine With Me. Never mind connect with
them in the digital world. You wouldn’t. Would you? First
impressions and all that.
Mini me
So, why don't more people have some fun and create their
online-alter-ego. The beauty is anyone can become immortalised as
a caricature and join The
Osmonds and The
Jacksons. Step aside hip-hop celebs. There’s a queue in the
cartoon hall of fame.
Cartoon yourself
Thanks to all those teckies with a big fat brain. There’s a world of avatars to discover. Even a film. Directed by Mr Cameron. With an avatar you can step into Toontown
and become a Toonlet. Turn yourself into a Simpsons character or a squat rotund brat from
South Park. Fancy something arty
and abstract? Feel like a manga? Or a zwinky? Find yourself a doppelganger. Play around. Cartooning yourself really is pretty ABC.
Sister Snog goes retro
Sister Snog likes the idea of being a Sister of the sixties. That’s why everyone at Snog Towers is crazee-mad for Mad Men. Hats off to the artist behind the vintage-y Mad Men illustrations. The very talented Dyna Moe. She’s nobody’s sweetheart!
