What About that "To Do" List

So you find yourself bored with nothing to do, but you know you ought to find something to do if you are on paid time.  Why not, create a "to do" list for anything you ever felt like you needed to do or check the one you already wrote and hadn't got around to completing?

Ask yourself what keeps holding you back from accomplishing certain tasks.  If money is an issue, then find out how you can make extra cash.  Maybe you need to sell some things online, offer a service to your local area, or ask someone for money they borrowed from you.  Whatever your challenge, note a solution.

Don't allow yourself to not take advantage of valuable free time.  Find a way to get everything done that you always wanted to do and it always starts by creating a plan.

Nicholl McGuire is a writer and poet.  Feel free to check out some of her work on nmenterprise7 on YouTube.

You Need a Pick Me Up?

Sometimes life gets the best of us and we just need that pick me up!  We need someone or something to just say, "It's okay, I love you."  There is nothing wrong with wanting that!  You may be in a boring, humdrum relationship, in a boring job, or bored with your children.  Whatever is making you feel like you have no spark or no energy, just know that someone out here in the Internet world cares.

Some people simply don't understand, nor do they want to understand what makes us tick.  All some energy sappers want is what they can get out of us.  Once our energy is sapped, who is there to replenish us?  This is why the great teachers tell us to reflect inwardly.  To go some place and just meditate and reconnect with your spiritual self.  You may have reached this place of boredom in your life, because you allowed others, for so long, to dictate your time (and dare I say it your money too.)  Now you have nothing left for yourself!

Whatever you decide to do to get that pick me up, may it be worthwhile, inspiring, fresh and unique to you!  Most of all, don't wait for anyone to give you anything that you can get yourself!

Nicholl McGuire

Social Networking Anxiety

It’s a feeling of fear or nervousness that one gets similar to when he or she is preparing to make an important phone call.  They may rehearse what they are going to say over and over again until it comes out natural.  Their heart may be pounding, their breathing rapid, and body sweating before making phone calls.  For some people they get so nervous about it, that they leave it up to someone else to do it.  People who have social networking anxiety issues have the same problem.  They are stressed about the idea that they have to communicate thought via email or text.  They worry over whether their spelling and grammar is appropriate.  They wonder if the sound of their email will be positively or negatively received.

Networking online is not an easy task for those who are not use to communicating with people via email and text.  They may freeze up not knowing what to say or how to say it.  They may avoid providing details when asked a question for fear that they may not come across in their email as intelligent.  There are some things that you should consider doing that may help with your social networking anxiety.

Practice makes perfect.

The more you practice writing emails the better you will get at it.  There are plenty of online resources that explain the dos and don’ts of writing emails.  Some of the sites also offer samples of business emails you can use for various dilemmas.  Try doing a search under “email etiquette”, “how to write emails” or “how to text.”  Once you have a few you like, reword them, and save them as files on your computer.  Then when you are ready to make some online connections, have a dilemma, or some other need you can easily use your form letters without the worry of drafting up something new.

Maintain your internet relationships.

Often people will cramp up when trying to communicate with a friend because so much time has passed since they last talked so they don’t know what to say.  If you send an email to your friends at least once a week, it won’t be hard to send the next email.  Unlike a phone or in-person conversation, you can just say, “Hey just touching base.  You were on my mind.  How are things?”  You don’t need a lot of sentences to get your point across.

Avoid unnecessary worries and fears.

Some people become offended when they don’t receive an immediate response back from their email.  They may falsely assume that the person didn’t like what they said or is angry with them.  Most often people are communicating with many others and tend to forget to answer one another’s questions or respond to their comments.  It doesn’t hurt to send a follow-up email.  Now if you are rejected a few times than you can take that to mean that this person is trying to ignore you.

Don’t be anxious over responses.

You can easily stress yourself over waiting for an email response and you can turn someone off if you send too many follow-up emails as well.  To make your wait a little less stressful, keep yourself busy doing things offline rather than online.  It’s too simple to surf through sites and back to your email again.  If the response is taking a lot longer than you thought, follow-up with a phone call or email your phone number requesting that the person call you.

Check your insecurities.

Because email and texting tend to be impersonal and lacks the intimacy that an in-person meeting provides, you can become increasingly insecure about what a person is doing when they aren’t chatting with you.  You can curb your insecurities and keep anxiety issues at bay, if you would simply ask to meet with them in person.  Be honest and tell them you don’t enjoy emailing or texting and that you prefer a phone call. 

Social networking anxiety issues can easily be prevented if you just ease your mind of the worry and stress that tend to occur when using technology.  You can control how you communicate with others on a regular basis by simply telling them what kind of response you prefer.  Some people enjoy texting all their responses, others enjoy email, and then of course traditionalists love talking on the phone or going out together.  Tell those who you meet online from the beginning what kind of communication you enjoy and if they sincerely want to be a part of your world they will take into consideration how you like to communicate.

By Nicholl McGuire

Sometimes Money Can't Be Saved Because We are Lazy

Many businesses become successful on people's laziness. Think of how much money can be saved in one's household if he or she didn't act lazy when it came to: performing household duties, saving money, maintaining a relationship, and more. Those who capitalize off of other people's laziness would be put out of business! Yet, the person who "doesn't want to do this -- or do that -- " will continue to pay high prices on cheap goods and services.

Some people will reason that they are saving time when they buy a certain item, but are they really? What might they be saving time for anyway? Maybe they are allowing more time for errands to buy yet another gadget, watch TV, sleep, play video games, or eat? Exactly how much time are they hoping to gain? One of the worse things to do is have more free time in your schedule only to have it filled up with trying to fix or clean something that is supposed to help you save time in the first place! Think of all of the computer software, gadgets and appliances that were upgraded only to find that they solve one problem, but come with numerous glitches.

Tours

How many times have we bought into a sightseeing promotion while vacationing somewhere? We desired to see a community that we may know enough about and possibly could have driven around ourselves to explore, but what do we do? We pay to be driven around sometimes as much as $30-60 plus per family member. By the time the bus has made many stops, we missed what the tour guide said because of conversation and misbehaving children, we are ready to go back to the hotel to sleep the other half of the day away. Now we have less cash then we started with, a bunch pf photos that we can only hope aren't blurred because of all the stopping and starting during the tour, and family members who hope to get on yet another costly tour.

Food

Whether we eat it at the restaurant or pick it up already pre-packaged, we spend lots of money on just eating! We spend so much money that some of us don't even cook for ourselves anymore and won't bother to make extra time to pack a lunch. Even worse, some of us will pay a lot more for fruit dishes just so we don't have to cut them. Meanwhile, big businesses are scraping in money by the truckloads on our laziness.

Transportation

Car buyers or leasers always have a reason as to why they need the extra features that are rarely used on an automobile. It doesn't matter that it's just a thousand dollars more for automatic whatever.

Homes, Apartments

How often do home buyers and apartment renters sign on a home with amenities that they rarely if ever use? There's the pool in the backyard, but no one swims. You tell yourself, "One day I will learn to swim." There is the deck that no one sits on except for a once or twice a year event. Oh, let us not forget the balcony or on-site fitness and party rooms that you may have visited once in what two or three years?

Cable TV

Now how many channels do you actually watch on a regular basis? So why is there 99 plus that you are paying for that you never watch? You assume you are saving money by not going to the library or video store to rent movies of your choosing!? Also, throw in those monthly fees for the extra equipment that the cable company offers you to record your favorite shows, use the Internet, the phone, etc. because well it's too much to research the equipment and then just buy it. Enjoy that so-called money-saving bundle package; the cable companies of the world love you for it! That is if you have time to watch TV since you are at work on most days anyway.

Lighting

Some people love their lighting d©cor. They have lights for just about every corner of their room, downstairs, upstairs, in closets and under cabinets as well as outside their homes--all set to different timers. It can be a bit much for a healthy able-bodied person to turn on or off a light as needed, so go ahead let them burn even if one doesn't need them. The electricity companies say, "Thank you for your business."

Appliances

"What was wrong with the last one we had?" an angry spouse says to his wife. "But the store has better ones and they do this -- and that -- " Nothing wrong with upgrading an appliance to something better, but what if you just want it. The sales person convinced you of how good the appliance is and now you just got to have it. There isn't really anything wrong with your current appliance maybe you have to change the lint filter on the dryer a little more often or the old washer doesn't have an alarm to alert you when the clothes are done, but you are okay with them. If the washer could put your clothes in the dryer for you and then fold them, you might be willing to spend a tax refund check or two for it even with all its glitches, huh?

Think of the many people who paid more for a refrigerator with a water dispenser on it and now it doesn't work or they don't use it because they can't connect it to their kitchen sink. What was wrong with just opening the refrigerator and pouring yourself a glass of water?

Cell Phones

Can't get enough of those phones from the early days of the simple flip phone to smart phones, people just don't want to have to do much of anything. Don't want to dial a number, just say it. Don't want to take a note pad out and write a simple note, just text it. However, with all the "I don't want to have to do -- " complaints, you will pay.

Internet Software

It's a goldmine out there on the Internet. Anything you can't or won't do on the Internet can be done by others. Of course, with a price whether it is a small fee, annual fee, monthly fee or some other fee someone sells you on what you don't want to do and you pay for it; rather than, learn how to do it yourself.

Education

We pay others to teach us things that we could have read out of books ourselves. This is by far the worse of them all! So many people are too lazy to read a book. But you say, "I won't be recognized for my skills without that certificate -- " Interesting, depending on the subject matter, many people have figured out ways around paying four years to institutions for a certificate.

Healthcare

Most people don't exercise, prefer not to eat healthy and won't do much of anything that health professionals tell them to do. Well due to being stubborn and lazy, everyone in the healthcare industry gets a bit of your money monthly in health insurance and then again when the invoice shows up in your mailbox telling you what your insurance doesn't cover.

Events

You don't feel like organizing a birthday party or some other celebratory event? Well there is always someone who will do everything for you. Just think of all the couples who get married, people going away to college, and others who could have used all that money that was spent on some event.

Local drug and convenience stores

Too tired to walk a few more blocks to the nearby grocery store, drive a car or get on a bus, well never fear your local drug and convenience stores will charge you double for your trouble. Pay for the overpriced soda, the air-filled snack bag, even the toilet paper, it doesn't matter what you buy unless you have coupons, the item is on sale, and you have received extra dollars (you know those coupons that come out of the register) from the store, you got ripped off!

Gas

You have your favorite gas station that you like to go because it is close to home, but it seems like every other day the price changes at the pump. Do you change gas stations? Nope. You keep buying their expensive gas plus you give them a donation for convenience.

Entertainment

You are practically robbed blind anytime you step outside of the house with your family! Whether it is to the movies, to a family friendly restaurant or gaming place, or some other entertainment facility, the children will not only want to play the games or ride the rides, but they will get thirsty, hungry, and want a souvenir to take back home. Rather than look for inexpensive places for all of these things, you buy them all at the facility. The companies were hoping you would do that. Sometimes they require you do it.

Counseling

How many times have you heard someone on TV say, "We need counseling -- " it doesn't matter what the issue, someone suggests counseling. Could you save yourself some money if you researched a little more on the Internet for something free related to your issue? Maybe there are free clinics, free programs, free trainings, free help, free counseling in your local area. So many people pay for things that they can get free, but because they don't want to put the time in to research, they end up paying a lot of money for counseling services.

Protests

Everything mentioned in this article can be used as great ideas to spearhead a protest, but because people are too lazy to stand together on much of anything, big business gets over while we still pay dearly for everything.

Don't allow businesses to make money off of what you don't "feel" like doing, because seriously folks it is costing all of us in the short and long terms. However, if you are financially wealthy and can afford to waste money, then good for you! As for the rest of us, review your budget and see what your household can live without in order to save money.

Bored with Your Favorite Social Media Site or Micro-Blogging Service?

I don't know about you, but some of the popular social networking and micro-blogging sites (like Facebook and Twitter) tend to get boring especially if you are on those sites often, so I started a search for other websites that had some interesting features. Here's what I came up with:

My Yearbook: I like this site because it is similar to Facebook, but its just nicer to look at and easy to navigate.

Jaiku: Very simple to use and again nicer to look at.

Plurk: I thought it was fun to view especially the way the text runs across the screen.

Tagged: I enjoyed my time there. Very simple interface. I was able to design my page in minutes. You meet people almost instantly! (But I had to cancel, started noticing some people were too close to home.)

I hope you find some fun in visiting these sites and registering. (Notice, I don't get anything for writing about these sites--that's why I didn't include any links.)

My Life: Simple to use, many of my classmates were there and I was able to create a page for free. However, they do charge for other services.

Classmates: I like the site, but the idea they are charging people bothers me. I saw many of people I went to school there too, but not nearly as many as Facebook.

Nicholl McGuire