My home office, which was once filled with sports memorabilia and inspirational photos, has slowly evolved into a combo business place and play room. It’s as though someone sprinkled preschool seeds and the native plants have been choked out. Walls are now adorned with paintings from school and shelves have been overrun by toys and … Continue reading
When a Crock’s Not a Crock
Over the years I’ve had a few consulting firms as clients. Thus I’ve been exposed to a lot of theory about lost time and whatnot, which is why I can be so “efficiency” minded — even if I’m sometimes poor at practicing what I preach to myself. But since Maggie came into our lives 11 … Continue reading
What were they thinking?!
What a simple joy it is to listen to Lydia independently play. She has reached a stage where her imagination and speech have blended and I get a front-row seat to reenactments of all of her experiences. Lydia loves to play “House.” She carries her babies around with her, pretending to feed them. At times … Continue reading
I Done It
Perhaps the biggest challenge of working from home is discipline. Without being visible to other human beings, you can avoid work and get away with it. You can take a three-hour lunch or a two-hour coffee break and use the cumulative hours to catch up on watching the Lost series for the fourth time. Lost … Continue reading
Strategic Partnerships 1
There is more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to building your business. I block off a section of time each quarter to think about and work on strategic partnerships. Strategic partnerships come in all shapes and sizes. In essence it’s an agreement between two or more companies to work together … Continue reading
Dirty Laundry
We can’t create extra time. We can, however eliminate unnecessary lost time. I define “lost time” as time spent doing something that could be done faster by changing the process. Lost time cannot be recovered, but it can be prevented. When I save time, I can use it to catch up on work or to … Continue reading
Dodging Trains
The bedroom of our new apartment overlooks the house’s modest backyard, followed by a small municipal parking lot, then by the elevated platform for the N/Q subway line. Trains come and go about every two minutes or so, all day. Seven-month-old Maggie is riveted. This presents a challenge: We change her diaper on our bed, … Continue reading
A Winning Strategy
Running a business can be very stressful and most owners will tell you there never seems to be enough time to get everything done. Most stay-at-home parents say the same thing. I am just crazy enough to try to take on both at the same time. However, as the owner of the business I have … Continue reading
Shopping Sucks
We all need food and supplies to survive. At its essence, though, shopping sucks up time and money, the two biggest elements of my life that I am trying to protect. Not to mention that shopping ranks right down there with going to the dentist on my list of fun things to do. Nevertheless, I … Continue reading
Bigger and Better Places
Well, we’re moving. We’re staying in New York City, but moving clear across the avenue, away from 33rd Street and over to 32nd. Yep, we’re relocating to one block away. Of course, traversing a block in NYC can put a few thousand people between your old place and your new. Moving a few blocks away … Continue reading