Controlling your Anger to Communicate Effectively

Anger – where does this takes you? Studies shows that people dealing with anger problems recalls tragic events in their past and later brought them anguish and unpredictable behavior. When someone starts getting in your nerves, you simply lost it or burst your bubble eventually. Anger is not healthy at all. Putting across the way you feel towards a person or a situation is the best thing that you can do. There are several reasons why people face anger management issues. Conveying it directly or indirectly is rather unsafe and mediocre. Following these tips of dealing with anguish behavior will ensure controlled emotions and better communication with others.

1. Admitting that you are Angry

People do not often admit that their mistakes and even anger issues. Why? Because they are afraid to hear more negative things and criticisms towards them and they are unable to figure out their unstable emotions. It is really crucial to acknowledge mistakes and that a person is pressured by anger. To avoid these situations, admitting that you are angry is the first step to treatment.

2. Identifying the Root Cause

As mentioned previously, anger has a deeper meaning, a root cause. Taking full responsibility of your feelings is the greatest lesson that you will learn. Anger is unhealthy. It can trigger emotional and physical instabilities. Identifying the root cause is the best way to go. How? Talk to a psychiatrist to know about your personality. Tests are given to measure your stress levels. Or have an intimate conversation with yourself and look what makes your angry – is it a person, place, object or situation?

3. There is Hope!

Every problem has a solution. Patients with anger management issues are frequently stressed by their environment. This is the reason why they don’t communicate effectively! They easily lose their temper whenever things won’t fall on their hands. Remember, the world doesn’t revolve around them. Making some adjustments is hard to do but analyzing personal traits can make a huge difference. For most people, anger is an emotion. Yes, it is true! But it is controllable. If you are personally dealing with this problem, then it’s never too late to ask for help. Anger is toxic – it prevents a person from communicating effectively and gaining respect from others.

4. Redirect and Ease Up

Most people don’t like hot-tempered individuals. Why? The moment anger manifested it turns to uncontainable behavior such as rage or hurting someone. Redirecting anger is a definite solution. Channel your energy to productive activities to ease up. Take heed, managing anger is a personal decision. Change is, however, inevitable. Relaxation techniques are recommended – simple breathing can cast off temper.

Effective communication enables people to pay close attention to you. You don’t want them to disrespect you if anger comes along in the scenario. Again, anger is unhealthy, toxic and downright mediocre. Even though it is nice to vent out frustrations, it still does not bring anything good to you. If there is no reason to be mad at somebody, then control it! Communication is about understanding one another.

Being Productive

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Business owners should always know how to increase their work productivity. All they need is a vision. Having a vision is very important and this is also the reason why a lot of companies have their “vision” framed in their offices. However, if you look at things closely, having a clear vision doesn’t necessarily mean that your time is under control and you realize that you still don’t get things done the way you’d want it to be. What is the reason behind this?

If you experience this, it is very possible that there is something that steals that time away from you. What could it be? It may be the priorities of others. It is very often that your time is taken up by attending to the imperative needs of others like a phone call, an e-mail, a text message and other means of notifying you that there is an emergency you need to attend to. Now, think about it, that emergency or urgency is not for you but for someone else which is why it is very important that you keep your priorities straight and at the top of your list.

Draw the line

To overcome this situation, you must learn to draw the line. Set boundaries or limitations. This will help you not fall into the trap of other’s priorities. You have to make choices. You have to manage the time on how much you are available to others and how much time you need to spend in your work.

Being available by those who needs your support is indeed, commendable but keep in mind that it is also a great strategy that you allow yourself to be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Be in control of your OWN time

Here are some tips to help you stay in control of your time:

Appoint deadlines and make yourself responsible to them
Keep in mind that there are more things to do and there is a possibility that you won’t get all the things on your list done
Appoint a recoup schedule for your e-mail program
Know how to say no to absurd customers and requests

Keep up with modern technology

Also, great thanks to the kind of technology we have today. We are so fortunate to be living in this technology where there is a constant flow of devices or gadgets that can help improve the productivity of our business. That is why whether you’re a soloist or not, it is always important that you keep up-to-date with the latest technology today because you’ll never know, that particular gadget or device can help you boost your business productivity more. Don’t let that chance pass you by.

Here are some of the most important technologies that can boost business productivity

Smartphones – According to recent research, this particular gadget is the most sought-after gadget of many business owners. The best thing about a smartphone is that it has all the fundamentals of a mobile phone and at the same time, it has e-mail and internet capabilities. This simply means that you can still check your e-mail and send e-mails and also go online with the use of a Smartphone. This kind of mobile phone also allows you to take advantage of your time especially if you’re stick in traffic or waiting for an appointment, you can do some small tasks that are business-related wherever you are.
Computer hardware – your computer or laptop must always perform excellently. It is very important that you won’t encounter any glitches while you’re working on your computer as much as possible and to attain this, you must have a tailormade computer hardware that will perfectly fit your needs.
Online tools – get yourself some online tools as this can really help you a lot. You surely don’t want to stick to papers and jot down information such as projects, invoices, etc. These online tools will keep you organized and there is no need to bother anymore with a truckload of papers.

To put everything in a nutshell, in order for a business to perform well and have a well-boosted productivity, every business should go with or keep up with the times. Take the modern path and you will surely increase your business’ productivity and you’ll end up happy with the outcome.

What’s your business plan personality?

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A lot of experienced soloists encourage newbies to make business plans before they commence on their business pursuit. However, there are some soloists who just don’t make business plans but rather stays pliable or quick on the trigger. If you look closely, such approach can be absurd.

You see, if you are making decisions regarding marketing and other business-related issues, how can one create strategic plans or decisions? Without a business plan, your decisions will be for short-term periods only and tactical. Also, how much time can it take for you to decide on what you should do and what you shouldn’t if you don’t have the foundation for making that decision? In fact, how can you even come up with decisions?

According to behavioral science, there are a lot of options for humans which leads to doing nothing or doing things over and over again. The paradox of choice, as they call it.

Soloists should always, always, always have a business plan before they set sail and go on an adventure. The same goes to the little things that you’re planning to do. For example, traveling. If you enjoy traveling and you are bound to go to an unknown place, don’t you need to have to have a concrete plan in order for you to execute the whole adventure perfectly and at the same time, make great decisions? The same applies to small businesses or even large ones.

Devising new strategies, long-term plans are some of the most important things that you can write on your business plan. Aside from this, having the right foundation can give you a bigger chance to succeed on your business ventures. Soloists who are more into flexibility tend to be caught off guard and make wrong decisions that causes their business to fall into peril.

However, it is all by your own personal choice, whether you are the type of person who makes long term plans or just go with the flow, then go ahead. If you are a soloist and you plan to expand your business, you will need to attract more investors or partners for you to be able to expand and you can only do this if you have a business plan ready for them to assess. A business plan is the foundation of your business and potential partners or investors would want to know what you plan to do and fopr them to also give their judgement on your plan.

Having a foundation or framework for your business will allow you to be more creative and cook up new ideas that can help your business improve more. In order to do this, one should always have a good and clear starting point. As you make a plan for your business, just make a list and then do it. You don’t have to spend all your time creating lists, take action and everything will fall into place.

Are you being productive? – some guidelines.

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In our modern technology today, there are now new applications and software to help increase business productivity. However, getting all the updated applications, software, a faster processor and a faster internet connection can cost you a lot of money. Many business owners or soloists are willing to spend money just to boost the productivity of their business but having so many options can be so overwhelming and confusing. The best thing to do so you won’t be caught up in all the new technologies today is to create a simple plans and elucidate actions.

Our days are full of work to do but there are times that you realize that you’re losing time. Think about where you’re losing time and as much as possible, have a notebook in handy so you can list down your schedule and analyze it to prevent yourself spending time on less important things.

Repetitive tasks that takes away your time

Ponder on the tasks that you do repeatedly as these are the things that you do over and over again. You have to be very aware of your actions and be on guard.

What takes away your time?

The next thing that you should think of is the things that take away your time. These are the palpable periods where you’re just waiting for the results to happen. Usually this is the time when you just pace back anf forth or waiting for people to get back to you.

Distractions? Good or bad?

Now, think about the things that distracts you. These are the things that pull you away from your actual work. To be able to handle this, you must know the reason why these distractions are happening. However, don’t think that distractions are bad, there are some, while there are good distractions. You might be surprised that that distraction will help you be more energized and more focused todo your work which can sometimes lead to more productivity.

BRAINSTORMING

The next step in planning your productivity is to brainstorm. Gather ideas to help you find solutions. At this point, don’t expect to find answers – yet. Create ideas first to resolve the problems you’re having that hinders you from being more productive. In this step, you must first focus on what you actually need instead of focusing on what’s available in front of you. Remember, your needs are more important than anything else and this can be a great reason for you to be even more productive once you determine what you actually need.

Solutions, solutions, solutions

The third and last step is to look for the solutions. The previous step should have given you thoughts or ideas on what you actually need and it’s time to hunt for soloutions. You may find solutions that are very straightforward while there are some solutions that can be done physically through administrative tasks.

Always be eager when you’re looking for answers, and consult your network and ask help from people around you. Being busy ais not the secret to success, keep that in mind.

Give yourself a pat on the back!

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Being a soloist doesn’t entitle you for a performance appraisal unlike being a part of a whole company. No, you are also not entitled to get an award, a promotion or even a raise. We all know that recognition of your performance can impact your self-esteem and confidence and this can even drive you to be more productive and appreciative of yourself. For soloists out there, there is no need to worry because you can have your own performance evaluation. So, how do you do it?

Call in sick

Many soloists don’t find this applicable because there is no HR department to call them and ask why they didn’t go to work. A lot of soloists, even if they feel sick don’t take the day off because they don’t want the deadlines to mount up. However, this won’t allow you to work more productively. If you’re feeling under the weather, you have every right to take a day off. Health is wealth!

“Celebrate good times, come on!”

Being a soloist doesn’t entitle you to office parties but you can still celebrate! Why don’t you gather some of other soloists you know and grab a drink? You can also take your partner out for a dinner for two and just have fun and not think about work or even talk about it for a couple of hours! You will need this. There are many ways to celebrate.

Create your network

Isn’t it nice to interact people who have the same business as you do? It’s really nice to talk to something who you can relate to and where you can feel very relevant. Surely, you know some people who are managing their own businesses and why don’t you pick-up the phone and schedule a regular meet-up? This will definitely do you good!

No HR department? Then do it on your own!

HR department keeps an eye on the personal development of employees and you can do this too. Grab a piece of paper and list the things that you don’t enjoy doing, or things that you want to do. This will give you a clear vision of how you want your business to work and how you want to improve as your own boss.

Long leave

Everyone deserves to take a break for a couple of days or even weeks. It is very important that you schedule a long break. Go on a vacation and just experience not working even for a couple of weeks or even months! The fresh air can do you some good. There is no need to stay locked up in your office, give yourself time to have fun and nurture the things you’ve worked hard for. You will be very refreshed, inspired and motivated once you get back on your desk.

Monitor and Improve Productivity

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Are you loaded with work yet you still don’t know why you can’t finish everything on time? If this keeps on happening, there are ways to improve your productivity which will impact your work performance and you will be happy with the results.

Know your rhythm

What time of the day do you feel very energized and what time of the day do you feel very lazy and just want to take a nap? Determine your rhythm as this is very important. You have to know the reasons why you feel energized at a particular time while some other times you feel very lazy to move. This is one step for you to improve your productivity.

Rate your activities

Every single day, there comes in new work to be done while there is work that you do regularly. Now think about how much brainpower these activities consume. See, when new activities or tasks comes in, you will need to think harder about how you’ll start and how you’ll finish it while the activities or tasks that you do regularly don’t require you anymore to think too much because you’re used to it. What is being said here is the activities that require higher brainpower will need you to provide a different approach and solution because this will require more involvement from you. It is better to work during the early hours of the morning on activities or tasks that require higher brainpower.

Have an alloted day/week/month to improve on high brainpower activities

Since some activities or tasks require high brainpower, it is very important that you do these things when you feel most effective. Allot a day or week or even a month for this when you can just concentrate on work that needs your robust attention and focus.

List down at least three things that can help improve business

Grab a piece of paer and think about three things that can make your business improve more and then do these three things. It is much better if you also allot a day, week, or month to achieve these things and to just concentrate in fulfilling these.

Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be successful

Being busy can kill your buzz which means that this can affect the productivity that you wish to achieve. Instead, don’t contemplate on unimportant things such as social networking sites, re-reading your e-mail over and over again or making lists of the things you plan to do. As much as possible, when you’re in front of your computer, remove the things that can also interrupt you such as your mobile phone.

Time organization

Assign a time for business and time for other activities. Fulfill this time and make sure that you be disciplined in meeting these boundaries that you set.

No need to work too much, allow yourself a break or two!

Every business owner should learn how to accept low-energy days or just spend a day without doing business activities. If there is really no way out of your commitments or you just can’t slack all day, just give yourself an hour to finish the necesasary things and lay down on your sofa, pop a DVD and just relax. Working too much can cause you stress and pressure which can alter your focus and make you grumpy. Allow yourself to breathe and relax.

What Your Business Plan should reveal?

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Making a great business plan can assure you of great benefits. Here are some of the most important benefits that can be delivered if you make a great business plan.

Busy? This is not the secret to success!

A lot of business owners say that they don’t have business plans because they are loaded with too much things to do. Urgent priorities tend to tyranize the minds of business owners and because of this, they lose focus on the things that they should concentrate on, such as making a business plan. Having a business plan assures you success and at the same time, you will be more confident in making decisions because yoo have a well laid-out plan.

According to recent studies, some business owners don’t have a clear starting point which causes procrastination. That is why it is important to have a very clear and organized approach. Aside from this, don’t just focus on the investments. This is also one reason why business owners fall into ommision when it comes to making their business plans because most of them tend to focus more on how much their company can earn and other business opportunities that can bring more money to their business.

To put everything in a nutshell, it’s always great to have a plan because this will help prevent abrupt results.

Boost business value

This is one benefit that you can get from having a business plan. Setting value goals and having the ability to delimit your progress will enhance business value. Business value is considered to develop during the late stages of the business. Consider the comprehensive value at the time of sale, there will be no enough time to increase the value of your business. You should value the growth of your targets and at the same time your objectives as this will allow you to track the progress of your business, not just the cash flow but the comprehensive value of your business.

Remember that the value of your business will determine what will happen today and in your future once you exit your business. Having a business plan for how the creation of value will take place and you’ll be able to adjust your business with the objectives you set.

More business partners and funding

All businesses need to draw more funding and partners for the business to grow. In order for investors to consider your business proposal, you should be able to present your business plan which has a realistic path to success and with your own definition of success when it comes to financial and imperative value.

Having a distinctive business plan will show potential investors that you have the right kind of attitude, motivation and discipline that made you come up with such a plan with recapitulation on how you connote to achieve your business objectives. You can also use milestones to break down your plan into a more feasible and fathomable proposition.

If you don’t have a plan, it will be difficult for possible investors or partners to give you a significant assessment. Having a plan to present them will give them the chance to give you an analytical review of your plans such as your approach, strategy and business model.

Coordinate strategy with action

The high-level of strategy for your business develops when you are making your business plan. Having a plan will let you think of many strategies to work on your business for it to grow more and draw more potential investors or partners that can do good to your business. Making a plan will allow you to have recourse to your resources that are limited.

Better decision making

Once you have a business plan, you will be able to avoid complications and you will be able to come up with the right decisions that will do good for every aspect of your business.

Do you know your billable hours?

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It is very important that you record your billable hours and even the non-billable hours. If you haven’t, then you should definitely do it and find out the results. Business owners and even employees who tracked their hours were surprised with the results.

In order to record your hours, you must set a daily and weekly targets and you might as well list your goals and your long-term ones. There is a time-billing program that you can find online which can help you to keep track of your billable hours and non-billable hours. Be aware that this is a software and most of the good ones require a premium payment. However, you will find that having a program like this installed in your computer will be very helpful and useful.

Recording your hours at the office will really surprise you. For example, that 15 minutes you spend on admin and e-mail time daily will let you realize that you’re spending too much time on it instead of focusing on other things. Once you realized this, whether you are an employee or not, you will realize how much time you are wasting rather than focusing all your energy and time on more important work that needs most of your attention.

The good news is that there are people who actually went through the whole thing and this urged them to create ideas to manage your working hours. You might have heard of the 8-billable-hours-a-day-bootcamp which is very similar to a fitness bootcamp. How is it similar?

When you sign yourself up for a fitness bootcamp, you will realize how hard it is to go through all the pain and aches that it will bring you but at the end, you will realize that through those exercises, you develop endurance and strength and you might even be surprised of what you are capable of achieving.

Every fitness bootcamp has an assigned period when you should focus on intensive training and after this, you will be able to develop a new level of fitness that you are not doubting in the first place. You see, these principles were applied to the 8-billable-hours-a-day bootcamp. It is clearly observed that halfway through the whole bootcamp. Your endurance and focus are stronger than they were a month ago or a couple of months ago.

This program or “bootcamp” is still on-going. There are no definite results yet but so far, the bootcamp is successful. Going through this will definitely help employees and business owners when it comes to managing their time and this will also boost the performance and the efficient of an individual or a business.

Sell your services like products

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For so long, one question that stood out among the rest, it was: “How to sell my services just like the products”.

I have already tried running a business on services and products, and as time went on, I came to realize that it is more practical to deal with services if we talk about time and finances. The only thing with offering services is you have to earn it every single moment. There is no way you can leave it somewhere and on its own will generate revenues, just like selling products. I cannot even find time to do some important errands because I have to attend to my business of servicing for people. There is no way you can take some time off for something if you wish not to lose a relevant portion of your revenue. On the other hand, product based business is fine, only that it requires a considerable space and capital. The need for a huge space for the inventory could really be overwhelming plus the surmounting pressure of huge financial requirements as the operation runs. The good thing about it is it is way simpler than service-based business. You can easily hire some people for different various tasks and sure it will generate revenue even if you are away.

The challenge here is to merge the two concepts by slashing the superfluous characteristics and retaining its positive traits. I wish to come up with a concept that sells my services the way products are sold. Below are 5 of the concepts I successfully employed:

1. Apply the team concept

Meet your projects the same way a team will do its parts. You can tap a few of highly skilled workers to do the job for you when you are busy or you took some time away. If you are a writer, you can tap a few skilled writers to share the work for a fee. Or you can even offer to handle the project as a project manager. It is a win-win situation for everyone.

2. Become a trainer

Once you have established yourself as an authority in a certain field with a reputation as someone with incredible skills, you can utilize that knowledge to earn money for you. You conduct trainings for a fee and sell your training modules for yet another revenue generating income. With the advent of technology, your training materials could reach the farthest places thus increasing your potential to earn more.

3. Become a writer

You can earn from writing relevant materials. Ebooks now can fetch a good price depending on the content. It is a great way of selling your services just like a product. Your only capital here is your knowledge about the topic you are sharing.

4. Make it an artwork

By transforming your own work into a work of art it becomes a lot more marketable. It does not have to be complicated; you can make it simple but intricately beautiful.

5. Make it client-oriented

When you package your services, make sure it is client oriented; one that caters to the customers’ needs without any complications. For a web designer, you might just have to develop a simple and cost effective template that performs at a standard of their requirement. Just make things client friendly.

If you have any relevant opinions on transforming client based into product based businesses, and then please share it with us.

The truth about energy equation

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To mine a source of energy you have to use energy. This is how it works. When money works, it produces money. Take time to read the facts I learned about the equation of energy.

We are in a world where every single thing produced requires a proportionate amount of energy expenditure. It seems we are exhausting all the available energy, but proven facts show that there are things that leave us energized rather than exhausted. Here are a few examples of the stated fact:

When you exercise you are poised for a good and relaxing vibes. While you exercise you expend an amount of energy to perform the physical activities associated in exercise. But instead of exhausting us, it does exactly the opposite, it energizes our body. All you need to do is for you to find out which activity fits you and then you just start doing it.
When you spend time with people that stimulate your being, you feel way better than when you are around people who talks only about misery. These people are the ones that make you feel stronger even in your dire circumstance.
When you show kindness, it could open up a well spring of energy within us. No matter how small or trivial in your eyes at the moment, kindness will always have a great and noble impact on both the giver and the recipient.
When you treat yourself, you feel energised for all the relaxing effect it gives. You can go have a relaxing vacation, buy yourself your dream watch or shoe or anything to make you feel anything good, you just do it. You need to spend time for yourself. The more satisfied you are within yourself, the more capable you are of showing kindness to others.
When you communicate, communication is very powerful. It gives us a feeling of security knowing that someone out there cares for you.
When you go for entertainments you help yourself get refreshed after a long hard day’s work. An uplifting movie, a walk in the park or anything that entertains, the effect is still the same; it energises you to no end.
When you read a book, it is one of the most relaxing things you can do. You stimulate your mind, and at the same time you get to relax.

Life is too short; you cannot live it without an attempt to preserve it. Take time to reenergize, and all the while you will find out how fulfilling it is indeed.