The BlogHer conference was a blast, and I hopped from party to party, collecting business cards like a mad woman and tweeting up a storm. I might have even made some great joint venture deals— hard to remember with all that wine and swag flowing! Now that it’s over, I’ve got sore feet, stacks of business cards and days worth of unanswered emails. The party is definitely over!
The idea of following up with everyone I met and catching up on the work that I missed is making my brain throb. I am definitely experiencing Conference Crash. Here are the helpful tools and apps that I’m going to use to make my post-BlogHer recovery a little less painful.
Trapped inside each card in that stack you collected is a friendship, an opportunity, some great information, your next client or your next sale. And trapped they’ll stay if you don’t have a way to swiftly get them all into your contact management system, a daunting and time consuming task. Consider yourself rescued by Neat Receipts. This diminutive yet powerful scanner reads and extracts key information from your cards, documents and receipts so you can export it into your own system or database. Scan those scribbled notes you took at the keynote, hand-outs and flyers, and receipts you need to track for your next expense report— using Neat Receipts is like hiring a personal assistant to do all your typing for you, and it won’t even ask you for a raise.
Where can you store that business plan you wrote on the back of a napkin, the Exhibitor Hall contact list, that audio interview you recorded with the keynote speaker, and that photo of the Chardonnay label you sipped at the sponsor party? Evernote is like one big giant notebook you can tuck just about anything into. If you can see it or think of it, Evernote can help you store, organize and retrieve it. Web clippings, lists, documents, scans, audio files and more, all can be tagged and organized so you know you’ll be able to find it when you need it. Stuff it full of stuff from all corners of your digital life, and it will never be as heavy as your conference bag.
Stacks of unanswered emails are the worst side effect of Conference Crash. There’s urgent stuff— bills, work tasks, and emails from “real” people—sandwiched in between the department store coupons and mass newsletters. OtherInbox helps you get to that stuff first, and fast. It’s like having someone sort through your email, leaving all the important stuff in your inbox, then organizing and filing the rest for you to peruse when you’re done playing catch-up. Use the Organizer to teach OtherInbox about which emails are important to you and which can be tucked away to read later. Now, your inbox is a little less overwhelming and you can find your mom’s cat photos that much quicker (unless you tell OtherInbox to file her emails away— mums the word).
You met so many lovely people in 48 hours, but let’s face it, you want to network with some of the big fish first. How can you know whether that woman you met in the bathroom is a hobby bloggess, or a social media maven with legions who hang on her every word? Klout can help you determine the overall online influence of anyone. Just enter their twitter handle and you’ll get a thorough evaluation of things like their “Amplification Probability” (how likely their tweets are retweeted, or spark conversation), and their “Network Score” (how influential their followers are). Now you can make an informed decision about who to include in your first line of response— you’ll get to the rest, but first get to the ones with the most Klout— er, clout.
A hand-written “nice to meet you” note for everyone you encountered at BlogHer would be the ultimate smooth move— what better way to stand out from the pack? But writing all those letters is a one-way ticket to carpel tunnel, not to mention that most of your contacts didn’t give you their mailing address, and the postage bill would be sizeable. Send a card without the hassle with Cocodot, the eco-chic e-greeting company. Select from thousands of beautiful templates, then customize fonts and colors ‘til your heart’s content. Send a card to one or many, and each arrives in your recipient’s inbox in a digital envelope, which opens to reveal your beautiful card. The experience of opening one is so visceral it’s almost like the real thing. Upload your blog logo or company name for an even more personalized touch, or add a picture of yourself to the card to jog a new contact’s memory about what you look like.
Behind every great mom, there’s a great planner. A battered notebook or agenda, wearing formula stains and jelly fingerprints like so many battle scars. Agenda items about next week’s staff meeting sit alongside grocery lists and reminders to sign-up for soccer clinic. Pockets bulge with business cards, permission slips and a list of books you’d love to read… one day. Or maybe you’ve gone the digital route, and you need a screen and a pair of thumbs to access your life. Either way, every mom’s brain needs a place to offload, process and organize both work and home life.
I’ve rounded up some of the best planners made especially for us, usually by other moms who get how wacky it is to try and manage life with kids. Here are my favorites— enjoy finding the right one for you!
Paper
For the Big Brood
When you’ve got a pile of kids, all of whom have schedules of their own, you need a planner that acts like air traffic control— guiding in one kid’s arrival from martial arts so that it doesn’t collide with another’s departure to band practice. Oh yeah, and then there’s your schedule, which you need to see simultaneously to keep things running smoothly. Good thing MomAgenda and Mom’s Weekly Planner have got this concept down, giving you wide open pages to plan the flight schedule. Mom’s Weekly Planner has a spot for important contacts, and tear-off to-do sheets you can take with you. MomAgenda’s Day Planner offers a full address book, a fitness log, party planning pages, and many more resources, all wrapped in a stylish cover that says, “I’m not too frazzled to be fiercely chic.” MomAgenda Daily Planner $43 at momagenda.com; Mom’s Weekly Planner $19.99 at http://www.peterpauper.com
For The Perky
Crack the cover of Erin Condren’s Life Planner and you’ll be invited to “Carpe Diem!” Hard not to seize the day when you’re organizing them with this highly-customized, rainbow-colored planner. But it’s not just a pretty face— this 18-month calendar allows you to see life by the week and month, using a clean design and really functional pages. Its “to do” and “to delegate” task sheets offer a reminder to take some stuff off your plate, and a tear-off notepad makes quick work of grocery lists or meeting agendas. With an address/phone book, stickers, monthly motivational messages and helpful add-ons like a storage envelope and a clip to bookmark your place, this is one sunny little book that means business. $24 at http://www.erincondren.com.
For Those Who Travel Light
If you’re looking for a planner that doesn’t weigh a ton but packs some powerful tools, Buttoned Up’s Family.Agenda has got it all. It defies the physics of a 2-page spread by giving you big blocks of space to see your life in weekly and month views. Plus a special page to track “scheduled” events (so you don’t have to write them in over and over). Plus, leave it to Buttoned Up to pepper their planner with helpful organizing advice, and opportunities to “do” what’s important and “delegate” the rest. All in a lightweight, soft-cover book that’s smaller than a magazine and a lot more helpful. $10.99 at Organize.com.
For the Eco-organized.
Some days, life with kids can make you wonder if you’ve lost your mind. Keep your head on straight by getting a LobotoME— not the surgery, the eco-friendly notepads and planners! The MomME Weekly Planner, made with soy inks and recycled paper, has plenty of space for the days events, plus encouragement to eat right, exercise and find time for you. Grocery and list pads help make easy work of list-making and trips to the market. And if you feel like you’ve lost your marbles, head to the MantraMe poster for inspiration (you can download it as free desktop wallpaper or purchase the poster for some kick-in-the-pants wall art). Plus, if you become a fan, you can sell LobotoME products at your next fundraiser, or become an affiliate. It’s a no-brainer. MomME Weekly Planner $19.95 lobotoME.com.
For The Non-Committal
Sometimes you don’t need an agenda so much as a war room— a place have a strategy meeting or brainstorming session with yourself, get clear, and go go go. You need scratchpads, and lots of them, all designed to get you clear on different things. Mom Essentials has got you covered, and then some. Built by Amy Keroes of MommyTracked fame, it’s a series of tear-off sheets that help you plan your week, track to-dos, and plan menus with grocery lists. There’s even space for the phone numbers of your favorite take-out places (keepin’ it real) and pages to track your favorite websites. Knock Knock’s 5 Days A Week Paper Mousepad and other fabulous pads also offer indispensable, disposable support for a mom with a lot on her mind. Their “All Out Of” pad reminds you when you’re out of milk, and their “Planning the Menu” pad makes easy work of “What’s for dinner?” Mom Essentials Mom Essentials Planner $14.95 Pokkadots;5 Days A Week Paper Mousepad $11 at Knock Knock.
Digital
For the Master Coordinator
Cozi isn’t just a web-based family planner, it’s grand central station for simple family management. Adding items to your calendar is a breeze with an update field that understands english (When you type “PTA Meeting on Thursdays” it adds the recurring appointment automatically). Make multiple to-do lists so that you can track your errands separately from your phone calls. It’s mobile version is accessible from any smartphone plus there’s a snazzy iPhone app, so you’ll never be standing at the market wondering what you need (and you can text a list to your husband if he volunteers to stop on his way home). Plus a great journal feature allows you to capture life’s little moments and effortlessly create a website to share with friends and family. It’s FREE and easy to get started. Sign-up for free at Cozi.com.
For the List-Obsessed
If lists are your addiction, thenListPlanItis like the pusher who gives you your fix. There’s a checklist, worksheet or to-do list for every possible scenario in your busy life, from planning a move to keeping track of what you lend to your neighbors, to budgeting to packing your diaper bag. The weekly and monthly planner templates offer you printable time management help in day, week, month or year formats. Membership offers you access to all these and more so that you can print, itemize and check-mark to your heart’s content. Memberships from $20-50/year at ListPlanIt.com.
For the Tough Cookie.
If you’re looking for one do-it-all solution for managing your schedule, meal plans, contacts, finances, household inventory, goals and lists, plus a personal journal you can confide in about your impossibly high standards, you’ve met your match with the Daily Home Planner. Homeschoolers will love it’s functionality for planning lessons, and lots of demonstration videos will inspire you to use it more ways than you might have thought. Available as a Windows desktop application ($19.95) and web-based app ($5/month), either is a small price to pay for organizational zen.dailyhomeplanner.com.
Laura Vanderkam wants to help you make more of your week. In our time-starved, crazybusy world, she’s uncovered a truth that is sometimes hard to swallow— we have plenty of time for the things that are important to us, we just suck at using our time well.
Yikes.
In 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, Vanderkam makes her case gently yet powerfully— we all could be a lot better about identifying what’s important to us and making time to do it. I sat down with her for an interview where she shares how the successful among us make better use of the 168 hours dispensed to all of us, and how we cane employ some of their best practices.
Last month’s Mompod was great– we blew through so many productivity secrets, and my motivated moms have already reported a LOT of life changes as a result! Kids were playing, moms were relaxing over a beautiful fruit platter (thank you, fabulous Treehouse Social Club!), and a good time was had by all.
This month, it’s not just about how to be more productive— we’re tackling those projects and tasks that you just. can’t. get. done. I’ll share techniques for how to properly break down and conquer any project or task that has been eluding you. Come hang with me and other amazing women as we talk life, family, career… and how to keep them all afloat!
It all happens Wednesday, June 16th, 10:00-11:30AM at the Treehouse Social Club, a hipster indoor playplace in Beverly Hills, so you can bring tykes and they’ll be plenty busy while we talk shop.
Pricing: $20 for YOU + 1 tyke, $5 for every extra child.
(If you’re a member of First Tuesday, an amazing community and professional networking organization, you get a discount).
Space is limited, so email me if you’d like to join us, and I’ll reserve a spot for you!
Mompods are my first order of business as a new leadership member with First Tuesday, a national organization of phenomenal women. DEFINITELY check out their website for more information— this is an amazing group to join, whether you’re new in town, want to do some professional networking, or want to find fun ways to “give back”. I’m proud to be working with them!
Los Angeles moms, I’m starting an awesome monthly event that I want you to be a part of! Come hang with me and other amazing women as we talk life, family, career… and how to keep them all afloat! I’ll be hosting the first “Mompod” on May 21st, 10:00-11:30AM at the Treehouse Social Club, a hip-and-cool indoor playplace in Beverly Hills, so you can bring tykes and they’ll be plenty busy while we talk shop. $15 gets you admission plus 1 child, and bring extra kids for $7 each. This month, I’ll be talking about my biggest TIME MANAGEMENT secrets— spend 90 minutes with me at the Mompod and I’ll help you earn even MORE time back with everything you learn!
Space is limited, so email me if you’d like to join us, and I’ll reserve a spot for you.
Mompods are my first order of business as a new leadership member with First Tuesday, a national organization of phenomenal women. DEFINITELY check out their website for more information— this is an amazing group to join, whether you’re new in town, want to do some professional networking, or want to find fun ways to “give back”. I’m proud to be working with them!
I’m excited to let you know that I will be the guest expert on a call with Momnificent’s Lori Radun on Wednesday, March 3rd at 10:30am PT/ 1:30pm ET. The call is part of her monthly Mom’s Club teleseminar series, which is full of fantastic resources to fuel your personal and professional growth as a mom.
Wednesday’s call is all about LEVERAGE. Because when you’re short on time (that’s all of us) and low on energy (helloooo!), you need to yield big results with little effort. Knowing how to leverage everything from your smartphone to your family members will help you maximize your two most precious resources— time and energy.
In our hour-long gab session, we’ll discuss how to automate, delegate and delete the things in life that drain you, making room for you to be more present with your children and work and have a more joyful life. We’ll tackle the negative mindsets and beliefs that keep people from getting the support they need, and how to overcome them. And we’ll talk about how doing less actually makes you more productive, and the myth of multi-tasking.
To learn more and to register for this teleclass, please visit http://www.tinyurl.com/marchmmc. Momnificent! will send you a reminder with the phone number and access code you will need to join me on this teleclass.
If you’ve been following the Perfect Moms Finish Last Interview Series, you’ve heard me talk about Perfect Mom Disorder, the affliction that plagues most moms I know. We’re all obsessed with doing everything “the right way” and we obsess over even the tiniest decisions, afraid to make a mistake, afraid to let our guards down that we don’t have it all under control.
In this video, I reveal how PMD rears it’s ugly head in my life, and how I almost had a nervous breakdown producing the interview series I designed to help battle it! I’m sharing stuff I’ve never shared before about how difficult motherhood was for me in the beginning, why I started Mothercraft, and how all roads have lead me to write the Perfect Moms Finish Last 6-Week Course.
If any of this resonates with you, and you’re feeling a little PMD, you’ll want to register for the preview call I’ll be hosting on February 25th at 10a PT/1p ET. I’ll be unveiling the entire syllabus for all six weeks, and registration will open immediately after.
Plus, I’ll be announcing the grand prize for the “I Heart Organizing Giveaway”, and you must be registered for the call to be entered to win the grand prize!
What’s your Perfect Mom Disorder Story? Please send it to me, I’d love to hear how you overcome your PMD (or at least give it a try!).
Mompreneur, you wear 42 different hats in your all-consuming business. You do everything from fulfillment to customer support, from marketing to PR, from business development to office supplies. (Argh— how can I be out of magenta ink AGAIN?!)
To the untrained eye, you’re lookin’ mighty busy. But is all that “busyness” showing up in your bottom line? Because, let’s face it, if your business isn’t making money, you’re nothing but a frustrated, drained, deflated mom with a really expensive hobby. Not pretty. In this new world of ever-emerging business models and social media platforms-du-jour, it can be tough to figure out where to place your time and attention. We need to build profitable, sustainable businesses that work— they grow, they thrive, and they GIVE us energy, not suck us dry.
This past year, I’ve asked myself all kinds of tough questions about what all my busyness has amounted to. Sometimes I was on track, and other times, it didn’t amount to a hill of beans. I simply REFUSE to be hit-or-miss like that— my time and energy is limited, and I want to have enough left over to bake cookies and chase my kids around the dining room table, or it’s just not worth it.
If you’re feeling like you’re chasing your tail, if you’re having trouble focusing, if you’re on the brink of packing it all in, join me for my very first Mompreneurs Coaching Circle. It’s all about creating a business that works for you (not the other way around!) and having the accountability you need to stay focused and grow, baby, grow. Yes, in this economy. Yes, even if you only have 3 hours a day to focus on your business.
There are only 4 spots left… is one of them yours? Once this group is full, it will be closed for 6 months, so this chance won’t come by again until the spring of 2010. Where will your business be by then? Hopefully, not in the trash bin with the empty ink cartridges. Again, not pretty.
For more information, and to sign your busy self up, click here. I can’t wait to meet you, and turn your “busyness” into one lean, mean, money-making, mom-owned business.
Lara Galloway is a firehose of amazing information for mompreneurs. A sweet firehose, with a comforting southern accent and a passion for helping moms build a “sustainable” (as in, you still want to be in business next year!) business makes a mom and her family truly happy.
Lara was kind enough to have me in her WoMEN Teleseminar Series (What Mom Entrepreneurs Need) to talk about my favorite subject— how to get stuff DONE! Check us out as we explore how to develop Ninja Mom Skills— get faster, more efficient, and more stealth about how you manage your time and meet your personal and professional goals.
Batching tasks is the art of doing a bunch of similar things all at once to save time… something all us busy moms can relate to when we’re constantly being interrupted and can never finish anything we start! Time is our most precious resource, so the more we can save by doing things more efficiently, the better! I figured out that I’d lose 30 hours this year to a particular task if I didn’t make a change… you’ll have to watch the video to see what it was!
This video refers to a tip I gave this past week on The Juicebox, a weekly email I write to help overwhelmed moms simplify their lives. Here, I address the friendly backlash I got from many of you Juiceboxers who balked at the idea of only checking your email 2X/day. Lay off the Crackberry, people!
Carley is an advocate for mothers as they strive to reach a balance in their lives. She has led discussions for our infant, grandparent and toddler classes and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Carley is warm, caring, sensitive and extremely knowledgeable in helping women meet their full potential. Her coaching style encourages women to confront issues they may be facing and helps resolve them. — Michelle Warner, Infant & Toddler Program Director Valley Beth Shalom
The BlogHer conference was a blast, and I hopped from party to party, collecting business cards like a mad woman and tweeting up a storm. I might have even made some great joint venture deals— hard to remember with all that wine and swag flowing! Now that it’s over, I’ve got sore feet, stacks of business cards and days worth of unanswered emails. The party is definitely over!
