Last week I worked with a client who will be on vacation this week. She’ll be at the beach with her family — and her Blackberry.  We talked a little bit about her plans to manage the amount of work she does while on vacation.  Her habit is to check e-mail once in the morning and then again late afternoon.  She does not take her Blackberry out with her during the day so she is not tempted to check it more often.

What’s your vacation workload management strategy?  I’m of the opinion that there is no right answer, only one that is right for you. Some people have no problem escaping the grip of email - if you are one of them this post is not for you!

Some ideas for those who do struggle: (more…)

TAGS: business communication, Communication Skills, coping skills, simplifying

The Simple Dollar had a nice post about taking the training wheels off money management. Basically, after creating a plan to recover from a financial meltdown and after obsessively tracking every penny for awhile, the blogger realized he’d been spending less and less time managing his money–and that this was a good thing:

 In short, I began to trust myself. I had seen the results time and time again of my good financial behaviors - my account balances went up and my debts went down. Eventually, I began to trust these principles, and that trust led directly to a reduced need to keep running the numbers and micromanaging everything.

That’s the groove we want to be in when it comes to money–neither obsessive nor unconscious. If we’ve been unconscious and let things get into a mess, then a little obsession may be in order until we’re back on track. Once we’re on track, though, a good system should keep us there without excessive monitoring or worry.

TAGS: budgeting, financial planning, personal finance, simplifying