Life has a funny way of teaching us lessons when we least expect them. I broke my ankle in three places in May, and while it’s been quite the challenge, it’s also given me some surprising insights that relate to business.

1. Adaptability is Key

I had to quickly figure out new ways to get around. It reminded me how important it is in business to adapt when things don’t go as planned. Sometimes, you just have to find a new path forward.

2. Seeking Help is Not a Weakness

I couldn’t and still can’t do everything on my own. I have to lean on friends and professionals. It makes me realize how important it is in business as well to ask for help when you need it. It’s not a sign of weakness, but a smart move to get the support you need to succeed.

3. Patience and Persistence Pay Off

Healing from a broken ankle takes time and A LOT of patience. In business, reaching our goals can feel slow, but sticking with it and trusting the process is crucial. It’s all about staying committed, even when it feels tough.

4. Attention to Detail Matters

Getting through daily life with a broken ankle meant being really careful to avoid making things worse. In business, paying attention to the little things can stop small issues from turning into big problems. Being diligent really pays off.

5. Celebrate Small Wins

Every bit of progress, no matter how small, is a win for me as I am recovering. From walking (with moon boot and walking frame) one round around the house on my own, to now doing a round plus snipping off some weeds in the garden, it all adds up.

So, my broken ankle turned out to be a good reminder of the resilience, adaptability, and support we need in both personal recovery and business. ​

We all spend too much time on our phones, but they are a valuable tool to achieving more.

The secret to using your phone to your advantage is to be in control (not the other way round) and mindful of how you're spending time on it. Like anything you do, time is precious, so you want a return on your investment.
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Here are some tips for sensible usage:

DO these things

• If you can, use time spent in the car to listen to podcasts and audio books, or catch up on calls (of course, only if you have a hands-free device!)
• Create and publish content from anywhere with your phone
• Be accessible to your team, your clients and suppliers
• Spend some time customising your phone (shortcuts, widgets, etc.)
• Set up phone-free spaces during your day ... and night!

Use those airplane or do not disturb modes.

DON'T do these things

• Have notifications turned on
• Keep apps you no longer use (they're just clutter)
• Jump when your phone says jump! Jump only when you're ready
• Ignore the trend in mobile marketing
• Have distraction apps on your home screen
• Use short passcodes, they're both easy for you to unlock your phone and easy for hackers to unlock

Use your phone while in a meeting, a date with your beloved, ... pretty much anywhere you're face to face.

​There's no foolproof formula for perfect proofreading every time. As Mark Twain realized, it's just too tempting to see what we meant to write rather than the words that actually appear on the page or screen.
The following tips should help you see your errors before anybody else does.

• Look for one type of problem at a time
  Read through your text several times, concentrating first on sentence structures, then word choice, then spelling, and finally punctuation. As the saying goes, if you look for trouble, you're bound to find it.

• Double-check facts, figures, and proper names
  In addition to reviewing for correct spelling and usage, make sure that all the information in your text is accurate.

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• Give it a rest
  If time allows, set your text aside for a few hours (or days) after you've finished composing, and then proofread it with fresh eyes. Rather than remember the perfect paper you meant to write, you're more likely to see what you've actually written. This obviously doesn’t apply to urgent emails or proposals, rather have someone else to proofread.

• Use a spellchecker
  The spellchecker can help you catch repeated words, reversed letters, and many other common slip-ups - but it's certainly not goof-proof as the following example shows:

Author E.S. Gaffney once confessed that when she worked for the U.S. Department of Energy, she had to submit a proposal to a man with the last name of Prono. Without her authorization, her computer corrected that name to… well, you guessed it!
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Trust your dictionary
Your spellchecker can tell you only if a word is a word, not if it's the right word. For instance, if you're not sure whether sand is in a desert or a dessert, visit the dictionary. 

Ask for help
Invite someone else to proofread your text after you have reviewed it.
​A new set of eyes may immediately spot errors that you've overlooked.
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Readers are appalled when they spot a typo that seems to them careless or ridiculous. Most of the time though, it’s not habitual sloppiness or lack of effort leading to the errors. Instead, situations crop up where even meticulous writers or editors find it tough to catch mistakes.
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​Company or brand names
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Is it “Phillippe,” “Philippe,” or “Phillipe”? It’s all too easy to get this wrong.
Confusion like this happened when someone listed an 1852 bottle of Allsopp’s Arctic Ale on eBay as “Allsop’s Arctic Ale,” with only one “p.” The winning bid was $304.
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However, the buyer noticed the typo and relisted it on eBay. With the correct company spelling, and therefore getting picked up in online searches, this antique item quickly resold with a winning bid of more than half a million dollars. What a lucky buyer (the first one!).

Readers are taken aback when they spot a typo that seems careless or ridiculous to them. Sometimes it’s not habitual sloppiness or lack of effort leading to those errors. Instead, situations crop up where even meticulous writers or editors find it tough to catch mistakes. 
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It's Official! 
​Data entry is the world's most hated task, followed by filing digital documents and managing emails.
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These are the top three tasks described by business owners and staff that they hate doing, but end up spending most of their workday on – ripe for human error!
If you are spending large amounts of time during the day doing these tasks, it’s time to stop.
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Outsourcing those repetitive tasks that suck your time and energy is one first step in claiming back your work life. But – sometimes just getting started is the hardest part.
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If you haven’t outsourced before, you may not know how to tackle this and what the benefits are. You might need to consider hiring an Online Business Manager who can help identify those tasks that could be outsourced and help automate some of your processes, so you’re not wasting any more time on these.

The Outsourcing Decision Matrix
 
I found this amazing article that helps figuring out which tasks are ok to be outsourced and which ones better not. It is called The Outsourcing Decision Matrix

​If you need help with any of these issues, just contact me!

Are you finding yourself feeling more exhausted than usual at the end of your day? Feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or just generally drained of energy?
If so, you are not alone. And you could be struggling with what’s known as “Zoom fatigue”, a result of the frequent calls and online meetings you’re having to deal with.
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How to overcome Zoom fatigue

You can adapt to these conditions by implementing a few simple practices that keep you alert, attentive and well-rested.
Zoom calls (or any type of video call for that matter) are forcing us to focus more intently on conversations so that we can absorb important information. We also need to stare directly at a screen without getting any visual or mental break, and that is tiring.

To make video calls less exhausting, try using a few of the following tips:

1. Avoid multitasking - Multitasking not only affects memory, it also makes performing simple tasks harder and more taxing.
2. Turn off self-view - Knowing that your video is seen by others can heighten your awareness of being visible, and that can induce anxiety and make it difficult to focus.
3. Use the 20-20-20 rule - For every 20 minutes you spend looking at a screen, take 20 seconds to look at something 20 feet away (6 metres).
4. Plan short breaks in between meetings and/or classes and webinars. Stand up, stretch, close your eyes, or even take a short walk.

Schedule shorter meetings - keep meetings short and to-the-point if you can. Not every Zoom needs to be an hour long​.
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The Brain and Zoom
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“When we’re on Zoom ... the brain has to work overtime to process information. It isn’t picking up the social cues it’s used to identifying [like hand movements, body movements and even a person’s energy]. This places stress on the mind and uses up a lot of energy.”

~ Dr Brian Wind, Vanderbilt University​
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​(Just joking!)
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But today we are talking about speed on your website, one of the most important factors some businesses just don't think about very often.
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Optimise your website for speed

Okay, so, you're browsing the web and come across a website of interest. You click on the link, eager to see what they have to offer.
 
Meanwhile you're making yourself a coffee, get your breakfast ready, but by now the page really should have loaded...

It hasn't, so you click away from it.

This scenario is a bit over the top, I know, but the essence is clear: we want fast access to website content. We don't have unlimited time to spare.
Slow loading websites will lose you customers and get your website penalised in search results. Your website needs to load within a few seconds.
To achieve this it might be necessary to hire someone, but a few things you can easily do yourself.​

Less is more
 
1. Reducing the size of your images is a really important one

Don’t upload images straight from your camera. Large, high resolution images will make your pages larger and slower to load. Use a free image editing tool such as Adobe Express to compress your images. Size is a big one, too (pun intended). Resize your images wherever you can so you are not loading larger images than necessary.
  
2. Reduce the number of plugins you have installed

It’s easy to end up with lots of plugins installed, but are they all actually necessary? If you are not using some of them, remove them. The less plugins you have running, the quicker your site will load.

 3. Install a new, faster loading theme

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, your website will still be slow to load. This could be because of the theme you have installed. Older themes are not optimised to modern requirements, so if your theme is more than two years old, it is probably time for an upgrade.

Summary

I would recommend to tackle the easy things first. Some things are quite simple and straightforward and will help a lot with gaining site speed. Once you have sorted these, you can get your hands dirty in the more difficult processes, or if needed, hire someone to do it for you.
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​In order to know whether you’re carrying out your plan, it’s important to track what you’re doing. Use a spreadsheet or a calendar, or just your notebook.
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​Here are three things I could help you with:
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1. Implementing a tracking system
2. Explore solutions or possible solutions for issues in your business processes
3. Proofread all your business documents before they go out “into the world”