Sunday January 25, 2009    My brother Jerry is a genius.  He is the mastermind and master tech behind our worldwide multimedia division.  Translation: he designed the Horizons Magazine website and newsletter and this blog for me.  Jerry is genius at a lot of things.  He is creative, he’s an artist, he’s very psychic. He’s also an inventor, a mechanical and design engineer and, in the past several years has become a webmaster as well.  He’s sure made my life easier and more productive and profitable.

Jerry is a good role model for me for someone who sees what needs to be done in every situation and simply does it.  He doesn’t need to get attention for it.  He doesn’t need to form a group to discuss it.  He simply identifies something that he can devise an efficient way to do and he does it.

I’m not always as efficient as I’d like to be.  I am fairly organized, I keep ongoing lists of things to do and check them off as they are done.  I may not do them in the order listed, but for me the list is just to have in front of me everything that needs my attention.

My To Do lists are very long for the average person, but probably average for an entrepreneur and small business owner.  Wow, it sounds weird to describe myself that way.  So I have a separate TO DO list for Home, Yard, Horizons, and Andrea’s Personal Projects, like recording new mp3 files.  So I am fairly organized and I know I do the work of at least 2 people.

I read and answer 40-60 emails a day, that doesn’t count the spam I open and delete.  I get a dozen or more calls a day.  I make a half dozen calls a day, since I mostly email.  Half the calls go to voice mail, so every few days I check voice mail.  SECRET: To get me quickly, email me.

But I begin to feel less efficient when I drop back to just working 8 hours a day like one person would do. Then I begin to beat myself up for not just putting a few more hours in at the desk because, after all, once I sit back down and am at it again, I totally love what I am doing.  And then sometimes the occasional unplanned emergency will happen which pulls me away for a few days, so work becomes a little backed up.

But I just sit back down at the desk as soon as I’m able, and start going down the list, doing what needs to be done, cranking it out, crossing it off, and moving on to the next thing.

Am I doing this so I can get it over with and begin my happy life?  No.  This is my happy life.  Really 🙂

But I also know that part of being efficient is recognizing when I am burning out and needing to take some time off.  And not necessarily time off from work, sometimes just a change of scenery will do it. I’d gladly answer emails and do phone sessions from a beach in Maui or a fireside from a mountaintop cabin in the Smokies,

But I’d also like to go kayaking or backpacking with a friend or two to get away from all that.  Go somewhere 3 days away and see things I haven’t seen and do things I haven’t done.

I know if I’m to be truly efficient, I have to remember to reset my internal computer.  That means turning it completely off (the work topic)  for long enough to allow myself to completely reboot.   Hmmm, I need to plan a vacation.  Any ideas?