Duh.

Every one of my friends who runs their own business reports the same thing: they can’t stop their mind from spinning when they finally, at the end of a looong day, fall into bed. There are a million things on your ToDo list and you’re the Numero Uno for deciding everything. You’re emotionally invested in your business in a way a wage or hourly employee could never be. A friend once remarked, “small business, big ambition”. You’re thinking, dreaming, planning, marketing, selling in your mind all day. And of course, it doesn’t stop just because you know you have to get some sleep.

Is this just one of the hazards of small business ownership?

As it turns out, no, its not. Believe it or not, the incessant mind chatter is not due to the millions of things you have to do, it has to do with the way you do them. Ever heard of multi-tasking? Sure. Its been popularized as the key trait to develop. Unfortunately, its also the cause of a good deal of the noise between your ears. How is that?

First, let’s do a quick primer on how computers process multiple tasks at once.

A computer is excellent at processing computations sequentially. It can do one calculation or instruction at a time, but very quickly. So for example, if you click on a link, your computer is going to be processing, sending, receiving and finally rendering a web page. But what happens if, in the middle of your browser calculating those instructions, you click on your iTunes to change the song that is playing?

Your computer has to:

1. Stop the current task that it is doing
2. Save any data and the current state of the process to RAM (short term memory)
3. Retrieve the instructions and current state of the new process and begin processing.
4. When complete (or the user switches back to the old task), it must stop what it is doing
5. Save any data and the current state of the new process to RAM.
6. Retrieve the instructions and state of the old process from RAM.
7. Begin processing.

As you can see there is a great deal of overhead when switching from one task to another. Due to the fast processing power of a computer and because a computer works differently than your brain, you generally don’t see this overhead.

Now imagine you’re at your desk working on your finances, when you hear a “Ding” that you got a new email. You stop what you’re doing, your brain stores the current state of your finances to short term memory, and you look at your email. Then you save the email to your short term memory, pick back up the finances. 5 minutes later you get a phone call – same thing happens. 5 minutes later you remember something you forgot about your recent marketing campaign. The sum total is that for a given hour of work, you’ve lost a huge portion of that to multi-tasking (or more appropriately named, switch tasking).

How does this all relate to having trouble falling asleep?

Our brains and behavior, unlike a computer, is adaptable. We can develop habits in the long term and in the short term. If you have become accustom to constantly switching from one task to another throughout the day, when you lay down to go to sleep, your brain will continue the same process. It is not used to focusing on just one thing anymore and so will be spinning from one idea to the next. This is the major reason why most of us small business owners have trouble falling asleep or doing even much else without still thinking about our business.

But this is a good thing right? We’re thinking and improving our business?

Well besides the trouble falling asleep, no, this type of thinking is not usually very productive. Quality ideas and progress happen after focusing one thing for a sustained period of time. Flipping through ideas in our head, rarely comes up with an idea of any quality. And if you do come up with something decent, it will probably be pushed out of your short term memory in short order.

Solutions?

For me, blocking off sections of time that I dedicate to different activities works miracles. Also, turning off email, text and phone notification during those times help as well. My voicemail tells callers that I will return their call within 2 hours. That way I can turn the phone off and they will still feel relieved that they know when I’ll get back to them. The ASAP mentality is very prone to multi-tasking. The when mentality is prone to effective thinking, delivery and ultimately customer satisfaction.

Dave Crenshaw wrote a fantastic book called The Myth of Multitasking. Its a quick read and I recommend picking it up. If you sign up for his newsletter, there’s a series of videos that will show you some valuable strategies to help you move onto a better mode of operating than switch tasking.

Are reviews in one or the other enough. I say no and its important to get reviews in multiple places – in particular Google Places. Here’s why:

1. Google is an established giant on the internet. They’re not going any where and they define web search. If you are not listed or don’t have a good ranking in Google places, anyone who searches for your services via the web will not find you.
2. Google recently started omitting inclusion of Yelp reviews into Google Places. So if you have reviews on Yelp, they won’t translate into Google search results for you. So, not only do you want a Google Places listing, but you also want your customers to give you reviews for your Google listing.
3. Yelp is not an internet giant. They are a start-up firm founded on venture capital funding and looking for a buyer, i.e. they’re not a done deal.

I highly recommend taking the few minutes to create the Google Places listing. And ask some of your customers to review your listing. Copy the link to your place and email it to them. Tell them you’re asking for help to grow your business and, if you have a moment, would you mind reviewing your listing? Thanks so much.

Or something to that effect. If you’re not sure how to create this listing, sign up for my free e-book.  It is free – for now – and available – for now.

Good luck!

Do you know or remember any really great teachers? What was one thing they all had in common?

My answer is, a great teacher can easily convey potentially very confusing topics in a fun, engaging way that is unique to the audience and moment.

Our ability to understand any given topic is limited by our mood, personality and current interaction with the teacher. If the teacher uses the same words for every person all the time, chances are, they’ll have limited success. (more…)

Tips for dressing to impress in your photos

A couple rules of thumb should be followed when prepping yourself for a shoot for your professional portraits.

1. Make sure the clothing you choose, whether it be business formal or business casual is something you feel comfortable in. This means that the clothes should fit properly, not be wrinkled, torn, stained or have buttons missing (these things will show in your pictures). For the ladies, if you can’t sit comfortably without having to yank or adjust your clothing, you should rethink your outfit. There is no need to go out and buy new clothes, wear something you have in your closet and know you look good in. Think about the outfits or accesories you have gotten compliments about in the past and chose accordingly.
2. Have a variety of options to choose from for the photographer to mix and match.
3. All black or all white clothing,very bright colors, loud prints or stripes are not recommended. Stick to soft color palettes that compliment your skin tone. If you’re not sure, bring a few options to view with your photographer.
4. Make sure that you’ve had a good night’s rest. Stay hydrated and make sure you’ve had some food before your shoot. Lights get hot, most people are nervous and sometimes shoots can be long ordeals. Being prepared ahead of time means you’ll get the best shots possible.

Detection and Protection from Spyware

Part 1 of this 2 part series looked at how common Spyware is. Let’s now take a look at how to protect your computer, privacy and identity from spyware attacks. Here are a few solutions for spyware along with my personal recommendation.
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I met Anjuli Hicks, a licensed counselor, over the phone today. We got to talking about blogs and providing useful information for her patients and clients. One concern she brought up was in mental health counseling there is a very strict ethics requirement to protect the patient from doing themselves any harm. (more…)

Here are some basics for uploading new images from your computer. For adding images from a web page, click here.

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We all make mistakes, especially if one of your posts has HTML tables, images or anything that makes your post or page more complicated. Luckily, Wordpress saves a history of the changes you make. This means you can “undo” your changes and go back to a prior version.

At the bottom of the page or post is a box called “Post Revisions” or “Page Revisions”. It shows the date and time of each revision that Wordpress has in its history. If it says “[autosave]” next to a date and time, that means that is a revision that Wordpress automatically saved without you clicking Update or Publish or Save Draft.

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If you’re still skeptical that you even need a website, take a look at these statistics.

1,600 people search each month for the terms “back pain nyc”. (more…)

Thanks to everyone who made it. It was a… sweltering day, but the evening was perfect on the rooftop, not too hot at all.

Here are some pics.