Business Credit Cards

By Laura Milligan

If you have a lazy employee in your office, you could find yourself working overtime to make up for missed deadlines and wondering if you should give your lackluster worker either a little extra motivation or the pink slip. While some employees simply take longer to perform certain tasks and think things through, this list is devoted to exposing those employees who purposefully show up to work late, waste time on the Internet and skip assignments, all in an effort to shave minutes off their work day. If you’re through putting up with it, check out this list of 20 fail-proof ways to expose your lazy employees.

1. Monitor their arrival and departure times: The easiest way to find out if your employee is deliberately trying to cut out time spent at the office is to monitor the exact times they show up to work in the mornings and duck out each evening. If they are arriving late and leaving significantly early each day, confront them, and ask if they will be willing to work out a new schedule or make up the time they’ve lost.
2. Cameras: If you’re having trouble tracking the arrival and departure time of your employees, or if you want to see exactly what they’re up to when you leave the room, consider putting a hidden camera somewhere in the office. You’ll have hard evidence of any slacking off, but just remember to be reasonable. No one wants to be known as their office’s Michael Scott.
3. Spectorsoft: If you have suspicions that your employees are playing on the Internet all day when they should be researching or typing up reports, install one of the spy software products from Spectorsoft onto their computers. These products will let you know who your office’s “worst offenders” are after analyzing which websites, chatrooms and keystrokes are used.
4. Send in an undercover customer: If you’re worried about how your lazy employee treats your customers, send in a fake client to request information or schedule a meeting. Have the undercover customer report back to you, detailing the employee’s efforts to make he or she feels welcome, give the correct information and adequately promote your company’s image.
5. Recruiting tests: Sometimes managers can expose a lazy employee during the recruiting process, saving them time and trouble down the road. This article describes how one hiring manager weeds out lazy workers by asking them to fill out two applications: one online before the interview, and another one during the interview. The manager ultimately “finds that people who skip the parts on the second application that they had previously filled out online, will eventually turn out to be lazy once hired.”
6. Monitor lunch hours: Just because you work through lunch each day, don’t expect your employees to consistently do the same; however, if you have one or two employees who make a habit out of strolling back into the office twenty minutes after their hour was up, you have reason to expose their negligence.
7. Track them with a GPS system: Lazy employees love running work-related errands out of the office because it gives them more control over the way they spend their day. If, however, you suspect them of running non work-related errands, install a GPS tracking system on the company vehicle, which will help you in “catching employees shopping, working out at the gym or otherwise loafing while on the clock.”
8. Schedule meetings early in the day or late in the afternoon: Within reason, schedule a meeting every once in a while at the very beginning of the work day or sometime in the late afternoon. If your employee takes major issue with the scheduling but can’t provide a reason for his tardiness (or absence), you will have successfully exposed their laziness.
9. Follow through with deadlines: By not enforcing deadlines, you give your employees the signal that it’s okay for them to procrastinate or turn in work late. Strictly follow through with deadlines, and hold employees accountable when they consistently fall behind. Document your efforts to remind them of deadlines, through email or by using the popular Monkey On Your Back tool, so that lazy workers can’t make up excuses.
10. Demand doctor’s notes: When an employee calls in sick practically every week, start demanding doctor’s notes from workers who have used more than one or two sick days. Just be aware of the fake doctor’s notes that can be bought online to trick managers.
11. Surf Logger: This “tiny add-on for Internet Explorer” records website history, so that you can track which sites your employees visit when they’re on the clock.
12. Guardian Software: Guardian Software is an Internet monitoring tool marketed towards parents who want to control what their children do online. Managers can use the same product to effectively expose lazy employees by blocking certain websites, recording e-mails from Yahoo, AOL and other accounts, and even “captures and records keystrokes.”
13. Cyberspy: If your office is on a budget, download Cyberspy to find out what your employees are doing on their computers. Cyberspy even captures whole images of a website or document in case you can’t properly evaluate the content from the file name alone.
14. Employee Loyalty Acid Test: If your employee isn’t performing his or her duties at your desired level, they could be planning to leave your company for another job. Give your employees this survey to gauge their company and job satisfaction.
15. Employee loyalty evaluator: If handing out surveys seems too obvious, check out this article to more discreetly evaluate an employee’s loyalty.
16. Motivate them: This post from Yahoo! Answers discusses the proper ways to motivate a lazy employee in order to gain positive results in the office. Give them a vested interest in the company’s success by talking to them in your free time, limiting harsh criticism and helping understand that their slow pace affects other workers.
17. Tell your boss: AskMen.com publishes this article, entitled “How to Complain About a Colleague.” Readers will find different ways to tell their supervisors about lazy employees without sounding like a tattle tale.
18. Award productive employees: If you can, set up a merit-based rewards system in your office that grants raises, gift certificates, or other perks to your most productive employees. Lazy workers may be so apathetic that you won’t see any change in their performance, despite the added bonus.
19. GPS-equip the company phone: While giving your employee a GPS-equipped company car might be way out of your budget, try investing in a company cell phone that comes with GPS. If you suspect your employee of leaving the office early, you might be able to catch them in the act with the GPS system.
20. Fire them: If you’ve tried to confront your lazy employee but he or she continues to miss work and deadlines, set a precedent in your office by firing them. Let your other employees know that you won’t put up with laziness any longer.

Before spying on your employees, discuss any problems you have with their less than desirable work performance. Laziness could be a reflection of a much bigger issue at home or in the office, and the problem could be solved in a more amicable way. If, however, your employee continues to be lazy at work, use these tips and tools to expose their listless behavior.

By Christina Laun

Having your own personal assistant can be great. With an assistant, you don’t have to handle your filing, mail, errands or all of the other little tasks that eat up your day and keep you from getting to more important projects. Of course, not everyone can afford to have their own personal assistant, real or virtual. But with the right tools, you can make your life easier without outsourcing your work to anyone else. Follow this list of tools and resources to make being your own assistant easy.

To Do

While it would be nice to leave the day-to-day tasks to someone else, managing them yourself doesn’t have to be a headache. Keep track of everything you need to do with these simple tools.

1. Backpack: Backpack can help even the most unorganized business owners get their tasks in order. Not only can you create to-do lists, but there are also features for notes, calendars and reminders.
2. Stikkit: Leave yourself virtual sticky notes with Stikkit. Whether you’re planning a meeting, organizing your day, or just trying to remember what to get at the grocery store, leave yourself a memo with this program.
3. Webnote: Never lose your notes from a meeting again with this useful program. Users can take notes on any computer and save them to the Web for easy access later.
4. The Online CEO: Organize and prioritize like the business owner that you are with this nifty program. Users can assign point values to tasks, with more points for more important tasks, and get the tally at the end of the day.
5. Ta-Da List: Ta-Da List will allow you to make to-do lists for yourself or anyone else on your staff, making it easier to manage your own tasks as well as those of others.
6. Remember the Milk: While you can use Remember the Milk to actually help you remember the milk, it can also be used for managing a variety of other work related tasks as well.
7. Swift To-Do List: This to-do list program allows you to create hierarchical lists, attach email and web addresses to tasks, send reminders, and even create to-do databases to keep track of your tasks long term.
8. Todoist: This simple to-do list has a built-in calendar and task ranking system to help you stay on top of your tasks. You can even use the keyboard shortcuts to make your work go faster, no assistant needed.
9. Voo2Do: Voo2Do makes it easy to manage and use your to-do lists. You can organize tasks by project, track the time you’ve spent on them, and even add new tasks by email.
10. Toodledo: Improve your productivity with the to-do list system on Toodledo. You can even bring it with you on your mobile phone so you can work on the go.
11. Orchestrate: Simply register on Orchestrate’s website and start creating easy-to-use to-do lists right away.

Accounting

Dont’ make balancing your business’ checkbook more of a chore than it needs to be. Keep your finances in order with these great accounting tools.

12. Wesabe: Keep track of your money with this great online financial tool. Set financial goals or track incoming and outgoing money with ease.
13. Instacalc: Chances are pretty good that in the course of your bookkeeping you’ll need to do a few calculations. Use this online calendar to make it easy to get figures, make spreadsheets, or even generate graphs you can embed on a webpage.
14. Dimewise: Maintain a handle on your finances no matter where you are with this online tool which allows you to manage multiple accounts, generate reports, and log all of your purchases.
15. LessAccounting: Since you’ve got tons of other things to do, use LessAccounting to manage your finances. Great for small businesses, you’ll be able to keep track of expenses and send out invoices.
16. Saasu: Saasu will help you speed up your accounting tasks with automated payments, purchasing, billing and even payroll. A computer that does work for you is almost as good as a real assistant!
17. Xero: Online accounting with Xero allows you to track your finances from anywhere and seamlessly integrate your banking statements to make it much less work for you!
18. Mint: Take managing your finances to another level with Mint. Not only can you track and record your expenses, but Mint will give you recommendations on how to save or make more money.
19. QuickBooks: One of the most popular accounting programs, QuickBooks is as fully featured as it gets. Get your finances in order, send invoices, create reports and much more.
20. Freshbooks: Freshbooks promises “painless billing” to help reduce the amount of time you have to spend sending out invoices by making it easy to send out reports and manage invoices.
21. Vebio: Freelancers and small business owners will find Vebio to be an especially useful accounting tool. It gives users an easy way to invoice clients and track client billing.
22. Billing Orchard: Send online bills to clients with Billing Orchard. Whether you’re billing by hour, flat fee, or on a recurring basis, this program can help make it easier.
23. BillMyClients: Make billing hassle free by using BillMyClients. Send out invoices via the post office or your email with just a click of a button.
24. Cashboard: This free program will help make logging time and getting paid simple and easy so you’ll have more time to dedicate to other tasks. Design attractive invoices and even integrate Cashboard with Basecamp to keep clients in the loop.
25. Fluttervoice: Looks matter when it comes to representing your business, so make attractive invoices with Fluttervoice.
26. Invoice Genie: Invoice Genie gives you an easy way to create invoices, track time, schedule meetings, and manage all of your fiances within one program.
27. Invoices Made Easy: Designed for small, service-based businesses, this program allows users to print, email, track and even get paid right from the office.
28. Invoice Place: Save time preparing invoices with Invoice Place. You’ll be able to manage invoices on the run, get overseas currency support, and send and receive billing on everything.
29. Invotrak: Don’t miss out on payments. Use Invotrak to keep your invoices in order. Track, bill, and manage all of your billing information in one easy-to-use program.
30. SimplyBill: SimplyBill lives up to its name by making billing extremely simple. Create new invoices, track old ones, and do so much more.
31. The Invoice Machine: Send out PDF invoices with this easy-to-use online program.

Phone

These tools will help you keep track of your messages and incoming calls.

32. FaxZERO: While sending things via email is often easier and faster, sometimes you just need to send a fax. Don’t buy an expensive fax machine for this, just use this online program to send a fax anywhere in the United States or Canada for free.
33. eBuddy: Keep in touch when you’re out of the office with ebuddy. It allows users to sign on to various instant messenger services from a mobile phone, meaning no important contact with clients will be sacrificed if you need to run some errands on your lunch hour.
34. Gaboogie: You won’t need an assistant to remind you of your conference calls with Gaboogie. This web-based program will make the calls for you and eliminate the need for long passwords and PIN numbers.
35. AbbyMe: Send phone messages over the Internet with AbbyMe. It can be a great way to send out meeting reminders ahead of time. Simply type in your message and the phone number you want it sent to and the program will read the message to the recipient, acting like your personal assistant without the paycheck.
36. K7: FaxZERO lets you send out faxes, but you can receive them without an actual fax machine with K7. K7 will assign you a phone number for faxes which will be directed to your inbox.
37. GrandCentral: Make managing multiple phone lines easy with GrandCentral. The program gives you one number that rings all your phones, goes to one voicemail box, plus lots of extra features.

Email

Make sorting through your inbox easier with these email tools.

38. Viapoint: Don’t waste time hunting through your inbox for important emails. Viapoint will help you organize emails by contact, company, project or date range without you having to do a thing.
39. Thunderbird: If you’re looking to an alternative to Outlook, give Thunderbird a try. It’s free, and allows you to customize your email experience.
40. Plaxo: This online address book service allows you to automatically update your contacts as you or others change them in Plaxo, Outlook or Thunderbird.
41. Breeze: Don’t spend hours creating and mailing email campaigns to customers. Just use Breeze to easily send out mailings to hundreds of customers at once.
42. DropSend: Don’t bog down your servers sending out huge emails. Instead, use the service from DropSend to send files of up to 1GB.
43. iContact: Make email marketing easy with iContact. Send out email campaigns, and track and organize them easily with this program.
44. Sproutit Mailroom: Overwhelmed by your website email but can’t afford to hire an assistant? Sproutit Mailroom can help by allowing everyone on your team to manage and respond to the emails.
45. 9cays: Save time reading through email with the great features on 9cays. Instead of paging through tons of responses to group emails, 9cays allows you to create a webpage with all the messages in one easy to read place.
46. MailWasher: If your email doesn’t already have a spam filter, MailWasher offers a great free solution that will help make navigating through your email easier.
47. BlueTie: For the small business owner looking for a hosted email solution, BlueTie can be a great choice. You’ll get email as well as tons of other business boosting features.
48. Contact Grabber: Make collecting contact information easy with Contact Grabber. Simply highlight an email address and the program will save it for you easily and quickly.
49. Skemma: Save time by automating communications between your coworkers, clients, vendors and more with Skemma.

Scheduling

Plan your day with as little hassle as possible using these great tools.

50. Acuity Scheduling: Let clients do the scheduling for you with this online tool. Simply set your availability, types of appointments you accept, and clients will choose the appointment they want.
51. Calendar Hub: This online calendar can be a great place to keep track of appointments and company goals and you can access it from anywhere.
52. epointment: Create an online agenda as epointment. You’ll find tools to schedule meetings, keep track of important dates, and even get reminders sent to your phone if you’re not on the Internet.
53. Schedulebook: Schedulebook will make it easy to schedule meeting rooms, supplies, and appointments depending on your needs.
54. SmartCal: SmartCal is a great way to keep yourself organized and schedule appointments online. You can also get reminders, organize groups and much more when you sign up.
55. ScheduleAnywhere: Need to schedule your employees for hours, meetings or conferences? Try out ScheduleAnywhere to make scheduling easy and quick.
56. EZAgenda: This web-based scheduler is integrated with your email, allowing you to add appointments and share them easily.
57. MyMRM: Have trouble with scheduling space in your office? Don’t fight over the conference room, try using MyMRM to let everyone know and share scheduled time.
58. OrgScheduler: If you don’t have a personal assistant or secretary, OrgScheduler can make it easy to share an organization-wide calendar that lets employees know about important meetings, company holidays and more.
59. Memo to Me: Get a friendly reminder sent to you with the Memo to Me service. Remind yourself or others of meetings, deadlines, projects and anything else you can think of.

Presentations and Meetings

Use these tools to get ready for your next big meeting with clients or investors.

60. Campfire: If you need to have a quick online meeting, Campfire can be a great tool. Private, password-protected chatrooms can be set up quickly and easily.
61. GoToMeeting: Web conference with ease using GoToMeeting. You’ll be able to share files, give presentations, and more with a subscription to the service.
62. Demofuse: Create tours of your website, or a client’s site, and send or embed them in a webpage with Demofuse. It’s a great way to show off your work!
63. Dimdim: This open source meeting web conferencing tool will make setting up and attending online meetings easy as pie. You’ll also be able to share presentations, applications and even your desktop through the program.
64. PreZentit: PreZentit will allow you to create wonderful presentations online and share them with clients or anyone you’d like.
65. Screencast-o-Matic: Make showing clients how to use software or websites a snap with this program. It creates a video recording of your screen and the site hosts it for free.
66. SlideBurner: Create slideshows of your work or business and share them with clients all over the world.
67. Spresent: If you’re looking for an alternative to PowerPoint, give Spresent a try. This web-based program is flash based and easy-to-use.
68. Thumbstacks: Make presentations and share them with coworkers and clients online with Thumbstacks.
69. Viewbook: Viewbook is a great place to store your presentations, slideshows and portfolios online so they can easily be mailed to others or retrieved later for use.

Information Management

Keep track of important information, files, and anything else with these organizational tools.

70. Basecamp: Store and share information online with Basecamp. Collaborate with coworkers or just keep your files in a secure place online.
71. Project Stat.us: Don’t keep your clients in the dark about information on your projects. Keep your status online so you won’t have to field constant calls.
72. iOrganize: Keep all your important information like contacts, notes, and bookmarks in one place with iOrganize so you won’t be left wishing you could call someone else to find them.
73. Bubbl.us: Get your ideas out there with Bubbl.us’ online brainstorming tools. Create mind maps, write down ideas, share them with others and more.
74. Cebase: Cebase is an impressive online database program. A simple point and click interface lets you enter data and quickly share it with anyone you’d like.
75. DabbleDB:Get tons of great features with this database program. Users can enter data, share it, change views and more.
76. Domain Log Book: Own multiple domains for your business? Keep track of them and view their page rank with this program.
77. Fluxiom: Manage your digital media with this online tool. Host your pictures, marketing materials, contracts and more on Fluxiom.
78. iOutliner: Organize your thoughts, ideas, projects and anything else you can think of into structured outlines with iOutliner.
79. Lazybase: Would you like to create an online database but want it to be easy? Try out Lazybase. You can upload any kind of information you want by using a secret URL.
80. Quickbase: This web-based database from Intuit is great for project management, sales management and much more.

Project and Time Management

Your time is valuable, so don’t waste it on tasks you don’t need to. Instead, use these tools to help you make the most of it and keep your projects running smoothly without any outside assistance.

81. Harvest: Track your time with this simple web-based program. You can even generate reports to let clients know the status of your projects or just keep track of time for your own purposes.
82. Dot Project: This open-source project management tool can help you get your next project organized and on task.
83. FunctionFox: If you’re in a creative line of business, give FunctionFox a try for tracking your projects and making sure everything progresses smoothly.
84. 88 Miles: Keep track of how much time you’re spending on all of your projects for easy billing. 88 Miles lets you easily punch in and out of projects and has an on-screen timer to let you know how much time has elapsed.
85. ActionThis: ActionThis is a web-based team management program with great centralized project management as well as systems to track client information and individual assignments.
86. Clocking IT: Track your task progress and time at once with Clocking IT. Features include tagging, search, milestones and integrated wikis.
87. Emergent Task Timer: This timer from the Printable CEO can help you break tasks down into 15 minute intervals.
88. PunchyTime: Keep track of the time you spend on every project as you work, rather than after the fact. PunchyTime is a great solution for creative companies working by the hour.
89. Project Insight: Project Insight is one of the leading online project management systems. It’s intuitive and easy to use and will allow you to collaborate easily with coworkers.
90. Timepost: This project timer will automatically get all your projects and to-dos from different web project managers, saving you the hassle of having to re-enter things from each program.

Client Relations

You won’t need an assistant to bring up customer contact information with these programs. It will already be at your fingertips from just about anywhere.

91. DocuSign: Need something signed right away? Dont’ bother sending it over, get a signature online with DocuSign. Get legally binding signatures that allow you to seal the deal quickly, shutting out the competition.
92. HoneyPitch: Put together proposals, presentations, contracts and estimates with this great CRM tool.
93. ClientScribe: Keep track of all your client contacts using ClientScribe. You can keep your emails, phone records, faxes and proposals in one place, organized by client.
94. Entellium: This CRM tool has award-winning design, free support and great features to help you treat your customers like they deserve.
95. Highrise: Keep in touch with your customers with the online contact management system in Highrise.
96. Heap: This is a simple CRM system that allows you to instant message, keep track of a calendar, and organize contacts.
97. Pipeline Deals: Make CRM easy with Pipeline Deals’ simple notebook format that allows you to organize files, emails, notes and documents.
98. Relenta CRM: Relenta CRM makes keeping track of customer data easy with systems to manage contact info, documents and much more.
99. Sugar CRM: This CRM program focuses on improving your sales performance and marketing effectiveness.
100. vtiger: vtiger is a great open-source CRM designed for small businesses. Users will get access to features for automation, customer support, sales, marketing, inventory management and more.

By Heather Johnson

As a bootstrapper, you no doubt have more than enough responsibilities to worry about in your struggle to launch a successful business, spend time with your family and manage your financial accounts, from fundraising to investing to spending. Organizing each aspect of your life is of course the optimum goal, but who has time to set up a complex organization system? These 100 posts, categorized in no particular order, are written to help you manage and declutter your life, one step at a time.

Work

From organizing your work space to figuring out your career, these posts will help you manage your professional life.

1. 13 Tips for Working Smarter, Not Harder: Straighten out your priorities at work and learn to minimize busy work with the tips outlined in this article.
2. Organize Your Office in Ten Minutes a Day: This post assigns a simple organizing trick to each day of your work week. Declutter on Mondays, take inventory on Tuesdays, consider new organizing strategies on Wednesdays, sort your paperwork on Thursdays, and file on Fridays.
3. Office Organizing Tips: Professional organizer Vicki Norris gives professionals tips like “invest in adequate furniture” and “establish a paper processing area” to better organize their offices.
4. Paper Management Tips: Reduce the amount of paper stacks you have piled around your office with these great ideas.
5. Organize Your Office Supply Cabinet: The supply cabinet is supposed to keep you organized right? Not if you’re constantly stashing random items anywhere they’ll fit. This post will show you how to organize your supply cabinet, down to the tiniest detail.
6. 15 Tips to Make Today the Day You Finish Your To-Do List: This article maintains that “your best weapon against the rising tide of to-do is dedicating a day to destroying that list.” Learn how to tackle your massive to-do list in one day with these tips.
7. Organize Your Documents Online: This list of tools shows professionals how to straighten up the office by minimizing paperwork.
8. Organize Your Desk in 8 Steps: Tips like “keep office supplies in one drawer only” and “keep a spiral notebook by the phone” will help you clear off the clutter from your desk.
9. 6 Ideas for Conquering Email Clutter: Business owners can receive upwards of 100 junk emails a day. Learn how to declutter your inbox with these smart tips.
10. Organize Your Office and Improve Your Office Design: This in-depth post offers lots of great ideas for setting up an office that is “both pleasing and functional.”
11. Office Organizing Tips: The Time Manager gives tips on reducing interruptions, scheduling meetings and prioritizing tasks in order to promote a more productive, organized day.
12. 10 Tips for Growing Your Business the Organized Way: From developing a business plan to practicing effective marketing strategies, growing a business can be an overwhelming process.
Organize your goals and responsibilities with this simple guide.

Home Office

Many entrepreneurs have the luxury of working from home, but maintaining an organized home office is harder than it sounds. This list will lead you to articles about keeping it all straight.

13. 10 Easy Steps to An Organized Home Office: Use these tips to create a professional but personal home office.
14. Organize Your Home Office: Purge your home office of items that belong in other parts of the house, like laundry and toys. Get more great tips by reading the article.
15. Get Organized! Organizing Your Home Office: This post from Women’s Media discusses how lighting, ample storage space and a private phone line “guard productivity” and keep you organized.
16. 5 Tips to Organize Your Home Office: The iVillage Home and Garden supplies readers with 5 simple ideas for straightening up your home office.
17. Children in the Home Business Environment: Learn how to resist temptations and reduce interruptions when you work at home with your kids.
18. What to Do When Your Desk is a Disaster: This post contains great tips from a professional time management and organization expert.
19. Working at Home and Time Management: Time management is especially important when you work from home. These tips will help you stay productive while maintaining a flexible schedule.
20. Tips to Organize Your Home Office: Learn how to “control how others affect your productivity,” organize your desk, set up an effective filing system and more.
21. How to Organize a Home Office: eHow lays out a step-by-step guide for organizing a productive home office.
22. Tips to Organize Your Home Office: This post from the career advisor at Monster.com is a helpful resource for home-based professionals.
23. Organize Your Home Office and Get More Work Done: Lisa Kanarek shares with readers how organization is directly linked to productivity. Follow her tips for designing an efficient home office.
24. 50 Practical Home Office Feng Shui Tips: Use the principles of feng shui to cultivate a peaceful yet productive work environment in your home.

Personal Life

Dates, doctor’s appointments, holidays, family time: how can a busy bootstrapper keep track of it all? These posts will show you how.

25. 5 Organizing Tips from the Pros: These quick and easy organization tips will keep your day on track.
26. Plan Well, Travel Well: This post shares tips for reconciling spontaneity with order when planning a vacation.
27. Do You Live in Your Car?: Many of us, from commuters to stay at home moms, feel like we live in our cars. This post gives tips for organizing your car to lighten the load.
28. Tips for Traveling with Children: This post will show you how to prepare for a vacation with the kids.
29. If Mama Ain’t Happy, Ain’t Nobody Happy: This post divulges the secret to “squeezing in time to nurture yourself” by better organizing your time and paying better attention to your own needs.
30. Personal Improvement in a Balanced, Simplified Way: Learn how to set goals for yourself with the tips laid out in this post.
31. 6 Keys to Respecting Your Time: Prioritize your daily activities by respecting your time with these 6 keys.
32. Ways to Say No: Simplify your schedule and organize your life by learning when to say no. These 5 ways will help you be more assertive.
33. Time Management Tips for the Busy Dinner and Evening Hours: Evenings are supposed to be a time for us to wind down after a hectic day, but extracurricular activities often mean that our busy schedules continue well past dark. Learn how to get evenings back with the ideas proposed in this article.
34. Morning Madness: Start your day off right by giving your mornings an updated schedule.
35. Organize Your Day With Routines: BellaOnline explains why formulating and maintaining daily routines will help you become better organized.
36. 7 Ways to Catch Your Breath: Sometimes all you need to organize your life is a little perspective. Take a minute to catch your breath before you jump back into your busy life.

Family

From soccer practices to music recitals to planning for a new baby, the following articles will help you learn how to take a deep breath and organize your family life so that you can appreciate it more fully.

37. Great Ways to Be More Organized — and Have More Time for the People You Love: You may have to dig for it, but finding and defining free time to spend with your friends and family is important. This post shares ways to organize your day so that you’re left with more time with the people you love.
38. Set Up a Monthly Calendar for your Family: This post gives “quick tips to make a monthly calendar succeed” in your household. Include chores, vacations, school holidays and other important items.
39. How I Organize My Kids’ Crafts: Get fantastic storage ideas from this post by Julie Bonner.
40. 4 Family Organizing Tips: Tips like holding family meetings, and giving everyone things to do will make your family more organized.
41. 8 Great Tips to Organize Kids’ Rooms: Smart tips like “take a child’s eye view” and “make it easier to put away, harder to get out” will keep your kids’ rooms from getting overly messy.
and organizing by reading the tips listed in this article.
42. Get Your Better Half to Help Out: Convince your husband or wife to pitch in with the cleaning and organizing by reading the tips listed in this article.
43. Organize Your Family Life With Famundo: This post from Lifehacker features the Web-based calendar and to-do list Famundo that is designed to whip your family’s chaotic lifestyle into shape.
44. Organize Your Family with a Family Binder: The blog Zen Habits suggests starting a family binder to organize important documents, emergency phone numbers, weekly menus and more.
45. Plan to Succeed: Teaching Kids the Planner Habit: Train your children to organize their own lives by encouraging them to keep a planner even when they’re young.
46. Revolutionize Your Relationship: Even relationships sometimes need an organizational makeover. This post lists common problems that spouses have and offers ways to fix them.
47. Organize Your Family’s Schedule in No Time: Anyone with kids knows it’s difficult, if not impossible, to sync up everyone’s schedules, but this post teaches readers how you can better organize your family’s day with these great ideas.
48. Tame Morning Madness with a Family Launch Pad: Mornings can be a hectic time when the kids are trying to get to school, you’re off to work, and everyone is trying to remember their schedules for later in the day. This post shows you how to create a family launch pad or headquarters for keeping backpacks, briefcases and to-do lists.

Home

Learn how to organize every room in the house, from the living room to your kids’ bedrooms.

49. Get STUFF Out of Your House: From books to old clothes, find ways to get items that you no longer use out of the house for good.
50. Organizing the Entrances to Your Home: Hallways and entryways often go unnoticed when you clean your home. This post explains why it’s important to pay special attention to these areas.
51. Power Tools for an Organized Home: This post outlines the necessary tools like Sharpies, binders and sheet protectors that keep your home super organized.
52. Room-by-Room Makeover Organizing: This post gives great tips for organizing the dining room, kitchen, living room, bedrooms, bathroom, laundry room and home office.
53. How to Start Organizing Your Home: Maybe you haven’t started organizing your home because you just don’t know where to begin. This article will help you get inspired by outlining a simple plan for the daunting task.
54. Lighten the Load: Laundry Systems Analysis: This post shows readers how to set up an effective laundry system so that you and your family always have clean clothes.
55. The Ultimate Workshop: Set up an organized, well-stocked workshop in your garage with these necessary tools.
56. Five Easy Tricks for Handling Problem Rooms: If you think your room is too small or the ceiling is too low, try out these tricks that will help you make the most of any space.
57. How to Organize Your Home: This guide from Lifehack.org offers simple but effective tips like “everything has a home” and “pick up as you go,” which will turn your house into a clean, organized home.
58. 50 Ideas to Organize Your Home: From the bathroom to your kids’ rooms, this post will help you transform your home.
59. Organizing Your House: This post from Mrs. Clean shares secrets for discovering hidden storage spaces in your home. She also encourages readers to reduce clutter by walking through your house with a “stranger’s eye” and evaluating what fits and what doesn’t.
60. Turn Your Bedroom into a Haven: When you’re expecting company, do you clean up by throwing everything into your bedroom? This post maintains that your bedroom should have a “nurturing atmosphere,” so consider starting your next organizing project by giving your bedroom the attention it deserves.

Finances

Get your finances in order with the valuable advice given in these posts.

61. 10 Tips to Organize and Simplify Bill Paying: Helpful tips include “designate two to four days per month to pay your bills” and “condense your credit cards.”
62. Are You Really Saving All You Can?: Learn to organize your finances better and prepare for emergencies by checking out these saving tips.
63. Organize and Simplify Your Spending: Organizing your finances starts by taking a realistic look at your spending habits. Read this article to help you revamp your budgeting strategies in order to organize your overall financial situation.
64. 8 Tips for Keeping More of Your Hard Earned Money: This post shows you how to save more money through better organizing tactics like “pay yourself first” and outlining your mortgage and retirement funds.
65. Organize Your Finances for Tax Time: Access tax templates, calculators and more tips for organizing your finances when tax time hits.
66. Organizing Your Personal Finances: This post encourages readers to “break down the organization into steps” and setting up a personalized system that works for you, like stashing all of your receipts in a single basket or using a computer software program for online budgeting.
67. The Cost of Disorganization. Can you Afford It?: Find out how much money you’re losing by not maintaining an organized budget.
68. Organize Your Spending: Erin Huffstetler from About.com teaches readers “how to organize your finances in a way that contributes to your financial success” in her step-by-step guide.
69. 10 Easy Ways to Organize Your Business Finances: This clear, concise article lists the top 10 ways professionals can organize their business finances. Effective tips include: actually read your credit card statements and computerize your checkbook.
70. 5 Ways to Organize Your Finances: Tips like “consolidate your credit cards” and “keep your tax-related stuff” in one place will give your financial situation more clarity.
71. Organize Your Bills: Get a handle on your bill paying each month with these tips from consultant Diana Brock Makes.
72. Organize Your Financial Life: This post from MSN Money gives readers a realistic approach to organizing their finances. Find out “why filing systems fail” and how to create a bill paying regime that works for you.

Health and Fitness

Many of us have good intentions when it comes to starting a new health and fitness routine; unfortunately, though, intentions won’t help us lose the pounds or stay healthy. If you need some extra inspiration to whip your wellness program into shape, check out these posts.

73. Organizing My Diet: Keep track of what you eat by planning out daily or weekly menus for yourself and “organizing your eating habits.”
74. Organize Your Fitness Effort: Debbie Rocker writes for Yahoo! Health, telling readers that “happiness takes effort, and yes, in our day and time, organization, too.” Follow her guide to organize your fitness effort by cleaning out your kitchen of unhealthy foods, planning out menus, and weighing yourself only every 2 weeks.
75. A Healthy Option On How to Organize Your Workouts: Workout instructor David C. Brown shares ideas for organizing your fitness routine so that your body gets a healthy, stress-free workout.
76. Organize Your Health: Fitsugar’s post on organizing your health provides a list of tools and planners to keep tabs on your diet and exercise regimens.
77. Spring Clean Your Medicine Cabinet: Find out which meds to keep and which need to be thrown out with this guide from About.com.
78. What to Do About Stress?: This “30-Point Plan for the small and big business person” will help you learn methods of alleviating stress and improving your emotional health.
79. 10 More Tips for Your Wellness Journey: Simple tips like these will inspire you to start and maintain a healthy fitness schedule.
80. ADD and Optimal Self Care: In our hectic world, it can be difficult to find time to relax and focus on the things that really matter. This post gives tips for beating the ADD-like mindset and finding time for yourself.
81. Avoid Common Fitness Pitfalls: This post cautions against 10 exercise pitfalls like eating too little, doing too much too soon and ignoring expert advice. Avoid these nasty little habits in order to develop a long lasting, effective fitness routine.
82. Can You Organize Your Way to Happiness (And Health Too?): This post reveals the positive happiness and health benefits of leading an organized lifestyle.
83. 10 Foods for Better Health: Incorporate these 10 power foods like salmon, nuts and tea into your weekly menu to follow a healthy diet plan.
84. Finding Time to Exercise: Does a busy bootstrapper like you really have time to exercise?

Check out these 5 clever fitness tips that will help you find time to be proactive about your health.

Miscellaneous

From birthday parties to weddings to the holidays, these posts will help you organize every other aspect of your busy life.

85. Don’t Just Get Organized, Stay Organized!: These “7 concepts that stick” will let you lead a more organized life.
86. Cut Your Clutter Calories!: Discover your clutter weaknesses: do you shop at garage sales? Accept freebies? Cut out clutter calories to make room for a more organized life.
87. Wikify Your Life: How to Organize Everything: Use wikis to store and organize all kinds of information, from shopping lists to vacation lists to to-do lists!
88. Color Your Way to Organization: Stacey Agin Murray explains the benefits of color coding your home and office so that you can be better organized.
89. Need More Storage? Think Vertical: Declutter It’s Julie Bonner shows readers how adding vertical storage space is possible in any kitchen, garage, or office.
90. A Checklist for Moving and Relocating: Moving to a new city, state or even country requires a lot of organizational effort. Use this checklist to help you pack and purge.
91. Organize a Birthday Party for Kids: wikiHow gives great tips for organizing a birthday party for kids that will keep the good times rolling.
92. Plan Your Wedding in 13 Simple Steps: Can it really be that easy? LifeOrganizers.com shows brides-to be how to minimize stress during the wedding planning process.
93. 3 Simple Pre-Holiday Organizing Tips: This detailed guide offers just a few simple ideas that will help you get through the holidays. Tips like”take inventory before you buy” and “look back, look forward” will prevent you from overspending and running your errands at the last minute.
94. How to Simplify for a Less Stressful, More Joyful Holiday Season!: Follow Ariane Benefit’s “20 tips for easy decorating, gift-giving, card sending and entertaining.”
95. Time Management Tips: Organizing Errands: Learn how to plan ahead, take inventory, and car pool to make your trip to the store less frustrating.
96. Organize Your Shopping List: Stop running around the store in all different directions by organizing your shopping list before you go out.
97. How to Organize Cat, Dog and Pet Stuff to Keep Your Home Easy-to-Clean: Pets are a part of the family, but they can cause a lot of mess and disorganization around the house. Check out this post for ideas on how to minimize pet clutter.
98. The Top 3 Excuses We Use to Keep Our Clutter: About.com writer Sarah Aguirre debunks 3 common myths that keep us from organizing our homes.
99. Organizing Your Coupons: This post is great for discount lovers who need to organize their mountain of coupons.
100. 10 Benefits of Being Organized: Saving money, spending more quality time with family, and having more energy and less stress are just a few of the benefits of organizing your life.

By Laura Milligan

With increasing gas prices and a weakening dollar, retailers are concerned about fighting for the attention and cash flow of consumers. It seems as though everyone is looking for a discount, whether it’s on food, electronics or travel deals. Check out this list for 49 places to find great discounts on just about everything.

Electronics

Read below for sweet deals on computers, DVDs and other electronics.

1. eCOST.com: eCOST.com is “your online discount superstore,” providing customers with discount laptops, GPS systems, DVDs, video games, cell phones and accessories, TVs and more. Featured brands include Sony, HP, SanDisk, Canon and Nokia.
2. CNET Clearance Center: After reading the experts’ reviews of your favorite electronics, check out the website’s clearance center to find printers, paper and other electronic office supplies.
3. DiscountElectronics.com: This Texas-based company sells individual desktop parts, wireless routers, speakers, all-in-one printers, and cables at prices much lower than those found in regular stores.
4. TigerDirect.com: TigerDirect.com supplies a wealth of electronics at low prices that are “simply not possible anywhere else.” Find iPods, keyboards, gaming hardware, PCs, cell phones and more from brands like Logitech, Sandisk, Canon and Apple.
5. SavingLots.com: This discount consumer electronics site allows customers to pay for their finds– from karaoke machines to navigation systems — with PayPal or the Google Checkout service.
6. SourcingMap: Find top electronics at wholesale prices at SourcingMap, “the world’s first factory-direct online superstore.”
7. Geeks.com: Computer geeks will love the selection of computer parts, media accessories and other fun gadgets offered at discount prices. Check back often for seasonal specials and other deals like the “no payment for 90 days” feature.
8. Audio Discounter: Audio Discounter encourages shoppers to “find the best”, and they “will make sure you can afford it.” From adapters to headphones to Bluetooth accessories, Audio Discounter has all kinds of products at great prices.
9. Lapantz 4 Less: Low cost electronics are the specialty at Lapantz 4 Less, where Guitar Hero can cost as little as $64.99 and laptops are available at discount prices.
10. Electronic Liquidators: Printers, scanners, desktops, handheld devices, memory cards and other electronics are all sold at Electronic Liquidators, where you can compare their discount prices to prices at retailers like BestBuy and CompUSA.

Auto Parts

Find discounts on auto parts for your car, truck, SUV or jeep by visiting these websites.

11. Advance Auto Parts: Shop online or search for a store near you at the Advance Auto Parts website, where the company proves to be “a leader in the automotive aftermarket industry in parts availability, price, and customer service.”
12. Discount Tire: Discount Tire is a popular company among drivers because of their free tire repair and low prices on other maintenance projects.
13. Auto Parts Warehouse: Shoppers can “save up to 50% everyday” at the Auto Parts Warehouse. Search for bumpers, door handles, fan blades, exhaust systems, mirrors and more for plenty of automotive DIY projects.
14. CarJunky.com: This site features an easy navigation system, allowing shoppers to search by their car’s year, make and model to find the appropriate parts.
15. AllUsedCars.com: Search for used cars and trucks all over the U.S. with this helpful website. Those looking to sell their cars can also register to place an ad.

Travel

Indulging in a fabulous vacation doesn’t have to empty out your bank account. Look to these sites and resources to get great discounts on everything from hotels to transportation.

16. TravelZoo: Find deals on cruises, airfare, car rentals, vacation packages and even last minute trips, all at TravelZoo.
17. Hotwire: Hotwire is known for having some of the best travel deals and packages on the Web. Check out their site for advice and discounts on local vacations or international trips.
18. SideStep: SideStep is “the traveler’s search engine.” Use their search tools to compare prices with other sites to make sure you are getting the best possible deals.
19. STA Travel: This travel website connects students with cheap airfare, hostels and hotels, travel loans and other discount packages.
20. Ding!: Ding! is a popular tool from Southwest Airlines that allows travelers to select favorite Southwest destinations leaving from their city. When unbeatable airfare deals pop up, travelers are notified by a Ding! on their desktop.

Entertainment

Waiting in line at a game or the movies is so old-fashioned. Use these websites to find cheap tickets, movies, games and other entertainment steals from your computer.
21. Outlet Trail: Find everything you need from discount electronics and collectibles to sporting goods, holiday decorations and more at the Outlet Trail. If you’re not happy with your purchase, you can take advantage of the 30-day money back guarantee.
22. Your Bargain Mart: Shoppers will find discount electronics, sporting accessories for surfing, hunting, and team sports, toys, games and many other entertainment products at Your Bargain Mart.
23. Complete Tickets: This website offers discount tickets for major sporting events, concerts, theatre events, movies and NASCAR races.
24. The Entertainment Book This annual publication contains coupons for movie tickets, sporting events, travel deals, restaurants and more.
25. Cheap Premium Tickets: Tickets to concerts, sporting events, Las Vegas shows, the Olympics and other special events are all sold here without service charges or other hidden fees.
26. Cheap Fun Wines: This blog features economically priced wines, wine accessories and wine-related vacations and entertainment ideas.

Clothing and Accessories

It’s time to shop ’til you drop! With discount prices on designer clothes, shoes and accessories, you’ll have a blast shopping on these sites.

27. The 15 Dollar Store: From pants to coats to swimsuits, everything on this website is just $15.
28. Bluefly: Men’s and women’s designer clothing and accessories are marked down to more affordable prices at Bluefly.com. Featured items include Vera Wang dresses up to 40% off and Jimmy Choos pumps up to 20% off.
29. StyleMaven Sample Sales: Check out the Sample Sales directory from StyleMaven to attend discount shopping events in cities like London, LA, New York and San Francisco.
30. Top Brands Direct: Clothing brands like Hugo Boss, Dolce & Gabanna and Ralph Lauren are available at discount prices here.
31. SourcingMap: Browse through funky jewelry and handbags for just a few dollars each at SourcingMap.
32. Overstock.com: Overstock.com is an online outlet store full of goodies for the whole family. Pick out jewelry, shoes, clothes, furniture and home decor and appliances here.
33. Overstock Jeweler: Deck yourself out in all the baubles and bling that your favorite celebrities are wearing on the red carpet. This site has everything from Tiffany-inspired jewels to baby charms to cufflinks and more, all at discount prices.

Gas

Find the cheapest gas in town with these helpful tools.

34. GasBuddy.com: Search by city, state or province to find the cheapest gas closest to your U.S. or Canada-based home or office.
35. GasPriceWatch.com: If there’s a gas station in your area offering gas at discount prices, you’ll find it at GasPriceWatch.com.
36. MSN Gas Prices: The MSN Autos page allows users to type in their zip code to search for the least expensive gas in their area.
37. mobGas: Sign up with mobGas to have maps of local stations with cheap gas sent directly to your phone.

Health and Wellness

Taking care of your health doesn’t have to be overly expensive Check out these programs and deals that will help you save money on health and wellness.

38. TheMedicineProgram.com: TheMedicineProgram.com offers families a free prescription card that saves you money “at over 48,000 participating pharmacy locations,” including most major pharmacy stores.
39. Drugstore: This “truly convenient, always reliable [and] totally professional” online drugstore provides pharmaceutical drugs at discount prices. Patients can also take advantage of free shipping on all drug orders.
40. Outlet Trail: The Outlet Trail also sells discount exercise equipment. Get the Bowflex Blaze for just $749.99 or the Bobby Bully sparring partner for $169.99.
41. Fitness Discount Outlet: Fitness Discount Outlet is “a health and fitness super mall” for online shoppers. From gravity boots to treadmills to weights, this site has everything a home gym needs.
42. A1 Nutrition: Health and fitness fans can find all kinds of nutritional supplements like creatine, meal replacements, and herbal blends at discount prices at the A1 Nutrition store online.
43. Net2Fitness: Net2Fitness is another online store that specializes in discount home exercise equipment like resistance bands, bars, ankle weights, kickboxing gear, rowing machines and more. Miscellaneous
44. Discount Cookie Bouquets and Food Gifts: Sending a cookie bouquet for a birthday treat, office party or any other special occasion is now more affordable with this discount shopping option.
45. Deal News: Deal News is a website that reveals the day’s best sales and deals. Shoppers can also search for coupons at retailers like eToys.com, Staples, Sears and more.
46. Sale Pirate: Visit this site “where everything’s on sale.” From Christmas supplies to books to kitchenware, shoppers can take advantage of the super low prices.
47. Edible Nature: Natural and organic food lovers can find herbal teas, spices, coffee, supplements and other food, bath and body items here at discount prices.
48. Deep Discount: Movie buffs will have fun searching for discount Blu-ray DVDs, movie posters and other memorabilia, at prices as low as 99 cents.
49. Half.com: Half.com is a reduced-rate online store sponsored by ebay. Shoppers can find new and used items like books, CDs and DVDs for unbelievably low prices.

By Jessica Hupp

If you’re like many busy people, your desk is full of mail, papers that hold forgotten to-do lists, and perhaps a stray coffee cup or two. This sort of environment just isn’t conducive to productivity. Follow these tips to streamline your work area and get things done.

• Keep it tidy

  First things first. A tidy desk makes it easier for you to stay focused. Otherwise, you’ll feel overwhelmed by the weight of stuff around you. Organize your papers, corral post-it notes into a journal, and get rid of any random junk. You’ll feel refreshed and can clear the path towards better work.

• Clean up your computer desktop, too

  A clean virtual desktop is just as important as a the one you’re sitting at. Instead of using lots of specialized tools, find a few super tools that can do multiple jobs and stick with them. Clean out the junk by uninstalling programs you don’t use anymore and archiving old files.

• File

  Have you ever found yourself scrambling to find a piece of paper you just know you have, but can’t seem to place? Make it easy for you to find what you need by putting everything in a specific spot. You’ll save yourself time and frustration, plus it will be easier to stay on track if you don’t have to stop everything to conduct an extensive search.

• Keep the essentials close at hand

  Your desk should be stocked with nearly everything you need to do your job. Whether it’s a file cabinet, printer, or pencil sharpener, make sure it’s within reach. If you have to get up and cross the room to use something, you’re likely to get distracted and off track.

• Don’t goof off

  Make your desk a sacred space for work, and you’ll train your brain. Avoid using your desk for personal projects, storage, or other distracting items, or your attention may be swayed. If you keep your desk purely a work zone, it will be easier for you to get into work mode when you sit down.

• Have good lighting

  Lighting is essential to productivity. It reduces your eye strain and prevents gloominess. To create productive lighting, focus on using natural light and reflection. Get rid of shadows and glare, and be sure to keep up proper maintenance.

• Practice desk yoga

  Yoga isn’t just good for health and spirituality, it’s helpful for creativity and concentration as well. Take a moment to be active and mindful, and you’ll refresh your brain. Try out a program like Yoga @ Your Desk to learn about yoga you can do without even leaving your chair.

• Get a smaller desk

  To get productive, get simple. Using a smaller desk means you’ll have less opportunity to let clutter take over. There’s less room for papers and assignments to pile up, so you’ll be forced to deal with items as they come. This can provide you with an incentive to work more efficiently.

• Decorate with stimulating colors and design

  Some colors are just more productive than others. White rooms create an environment that supports errors, while bright colors like red are stimulating. If you’re overwhelmed by stimulating colors, blue-green walls are universally productive and relaxing.

• Practice good ergonomics

  The comfort and efficiency of your body can directly influence productivity. Getting out of an awkward posture simply makes it easier to do any given task and concentrate on your work. It’s also been found to reduce errors.

• Leave your desk

  That’s right, take a break. The most productive desk is one that you’re not chained to all day. Get up, move around, have a snack or a quick chat with a friend, and you’ll be more refreshed and ready to work again.

Greetings! The 3rd edition of the Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship is up. This is the last carnival edition of 2007. We will be back again in the new year. We have selected 51 posts for this holiday edition. Here you go:

Michael Martine presents The Secret to a Successful Business Blog: Sell without Selling posted at Remarkablogger. Is your blog overselling or underselling your business? What’s the right way to blog for your business? Find out!

David B. Bohl presents Financial Planning Gets a Makeover from Financial Consultant, the Coaching Industry posted at Slow Down Fast Today!. In today’s uncertain world of changing careers, on-the-go lifestyles and shifting family roles, smart financial planning frequently takes a back seat to immediate demands.

Dominic Tay presents Work-at-Home Entrepreneur: Looking at the Real You posted at Personal Development Blog for Winners. Success isn’t a complete word without the “U” part. This is the reason why with the hundreds of personal development articles, programs and workshops available, the you part shouldn’t be taken for granted.

GP presents A Christmas Cookie Cutter Guide posted at Innside Montana-Your Home at the Range. A christmas cookie cutter guide.. applicable to business.. follow the directions.

Richard Lee presents How Long Will Your Business Survive posted at Richard Lee.

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