Has Social Media Taken Over Your Life. Here's Some Helpful Tips To Take It Back

Have you realized how much time you spend on Social Media sites and other things that keep you distract from really getting the things that really need to be done taken care of?  

There is an app on the Mac OS that can help you regain yourself control. The App is actual called Self Control.  The way this app works is it blocks distracting websites for a set time so if you find that you’re a Twitter addict or maybe spend way too much time on Facebook  and not getting what you need done to be successful in life you can set this application for up to four hours.  Your browser will act as if it is offline for that period when you try to go to that site.  The beautiful thing is no matter how many times you attempt to restart your computer or reboot your computer that time will not restart.  The great thing about this app is you have what is called a whitelist and a blacklist so that way you do not have to completely disable the internet you simply disabled what you need to stay away from to be focus.  This particular app is only for Mac users however, PC users can check out the Freedom app it is similar.

If you’re not to the point that you don’t need to disabled sites but maybe you want to take notice of how much time your spending where online then check out the app called Track Time it will audit how much time you spend on your computer as well as the different programs you use.  So if Firefox is where you do a lot of your other stuff (for instance I work in Google Chrome but I socialize in Firefox) this program would tell me how much time I spend where.  Track Time can be ran in the background, it will show you a timeline of your online life, and it is an effective wake up call to make you take notice of your online time.  Too bad this is only for Mac users and there is not a PC app out right now that is comparable.

~MB

Are You A Trendsetter Or Do You Just Follow The Trend

A friend of mine posted this via his Facebook profile (it is verbatim):

We are all free to run our businesses as we see fit, but I see many small business owners running away from competition instead of using competitive forces to push us to do better. Of the last 17 NASCAR Champions, TWO of them share 9 championships and are often in the top 10 standings for, it seems like, forever. That is Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson. These guys trade paint every Sunday, trying to be number one. But Monday through Friday, they work together to have the top two teams on the track. 

Whether you are a hairstylist, photographer, model or any other business, find a driving force to help you get better. Jordan had the Pistons, the Lakers have the Celtics, The Thunder have the Heat. The best competitive drive often come from the friends who want you to do better so THEY can do better. © 2013 Leighton DaCosta

When I read this, it really made me think I began to ask myself if I was being competitive enough in all the business ventures.  One of the problems I run into is with my direct sale business I began to allow myself to believe that the market that I live in is too saturated. Often times it, feels to me that the goals that are required are too hard to meet with such a large population where 1 in every 10 women are direct sales representatives for this particular company. Especially a company that kind of makes you wants to have loyal customers so it is not really frowned upon but it is one of those unwritten rules that you do not try to bribe a customer from another consultant.  However once I really thought about his post I began to realize that I did not need to feel that the population ratio was uneven or even the worry about stealing a customer all I had to do was be different and make buying from me more rewarding and therefore I have a few strong loyal customers.

I say all of that to say this be a driving force in your profession do not let someone else set the trend you should be a trendsetter.

Preparation is based on one driving force for me and that is to be relaxed enough to be able to listen to what the candidates are saying and react appropriately. ~Jim Lehrer

Trends don’t interest me. ~Manolo Blahnik