Creative And Fun Free Calendars: Fill & Download for Free

Good question and good response posts. I agree with John Freier about factoring in the stage of the company.As a founder and CEO of a young startup in Silicon Valley, I find that I've lost the meaning of the weekend a little. Each day flows into the next with a focus on getting my startup off the ground. Occasionally I try to recall the excitement I'd feel on Fridays in the past when I was employed by others. That sense of going just a little limp, looking at all those hours of free personal time. In reality, even then I worked at least a couple of hours most weekends, as I think most people with positions of responsibility do. Still there was a clear calendar marker breaking up time.I also agree with Adam Nash's point on the "integrated" work-life balance. Despite being super busy, my work now is also my passion. In fact leisure and fun are now my work. My start up is about making beautiful places near and far easily discoverable and accessible to people. Of course that does not rid it of the slog of bringing a product and company to market, but it always feels integrated and balanced. I'm cognizant of the irony though, and try to incorporate day-trips to nearby beautiful destinations at least one a month. I always find that the change of scenery brings in perspective and often opens pathways to new creative ideas.

Introducing The Reverse-Procrastination Technique: A Quick Yet Powerful Strategy for Building High Levels of Sustained Motivation for Your Most Boring Tasks!Fed up with procrastinating on your most important work and study tasks?Try this!Here's a serious behavior-science-hack for real mind-numbing tasks like studying for math exams or memorizing dry concept and word lists.It’s a powerful new strategy called “Reverse-Procrastination” and it’s based on the best motivational science.It's so effective it has taken some children who received behavioral therapy of the spectrum and has resulted in significant improvements in many more.It’s also the single most effective, strategy for reversing clinical depression!It's called "positive-reinforcement" which is defined as any event or experience that follows a behavior that increases that behavior in the same (or related) situation next time.By its very definition, positive reinforcement (PR) can't fail to get amazing results.Properly understood and applied PR is the single most powerful tool for accelerating brain-based habit formation. It’s also the key to rapidly replacing bad habits with healthy ones fast.In fact, you will not find a single truly effective "procrastination cure" or "ridiculously effective productivity or life hack" that doesn't have PR as its center-piece.Reverse-procrastination actually let us take all that high energy motivation for your most fun, time-wasting activities and plug it directly into the work or studying you’re avoiding through procrastination.And you can actually build a solid high-performance study habit in the process.Feel free to check out my high-performance learning tips as well:David Haldorsen's answer to What are some great study tips, for those who feel they do not study properly?Ok. Here's a quick experiment to try if you want to quickly and effectively start to literally "reverse-procrastinate" right in just minutes:1. Make a top 5 list of your absolutely most favorite tasks or fun activities.Prioritize that list in order of enjoyment. Include things like listening to your favorite song, playing a video game, going on social media, etc (activities with the highest PR values are often the high-procrastination tasks we waste the most time doing instead of the work we’re supposed to be doing).Tip: if it’s an unhealthy behavior - don’t use it as a reward. Get creative and choose a healthy alternative source of positive reinforcement.2. Now write down and clearly define your most important "high-procrastination task" the one you're avoiding but need to get done the most right now.This is also known as Selecting and Single Tasking your MIT (or most important task). You can pick this by simply:Brainstorming your study or work tasks.Writing them out in point form on a sheet of paperOrganizing them in order of importanceThen starting with your #1 MIT on the organized listOnce Your first MIT is done, you then single task the next MIT on your list:3. Use this great on-line "Tomato-Timer http://tomato-timer.com and do the following (Reverse Procrastination is really The Pomodoro Technique on steroids!):4. Chunk-down your high-procrastination task (Your MIT) into sets of 10 minutes to start.5. Do 10 minutes of your high procrastination task using the tomato timer, and then enjoy 15 minutes of your most enjoyable activity from your favorites list.6. Now back to your high procrastination task for 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of your high-enjoyment activity. Repeat X2.Increase the time on your work task again to 30 minutes with 10-minute fun-breaks. Do this 3 times.7. Jump to 35 minutes on-task, followed by 10 minutes having fun, and repeat X3.8. Finally, move to 45-minute work-time chunks, followed by 15-minute reward-breaks.This is your ideal ratio for ongoing work!Congratulations!You’ve now transformed your procrastination into high-performance on-task behavior!For maximum reverse-procrastination effectiveness: don’t do any of your fun/reward activities unless you’ve completed your on-task time first.If it’s too hard, chunk down the on-task time to a more manageable chunk, but then increase it again next time.Even a serious procrastinator can commit to 2 minutes of work or study time, - especially if they know they can do something really fun or relaxing right afterward!Start your reward activity within 2-seconds maximum after you stop your work-task time, for maximum positive reinforcement effectiveness. The longer you wait to self-reinforce your increasing productivity levels, the less effective that reinforcement is likely to be.Vary your reward/fun-time tasks. Do the fun or reward task you want to do most from your reward list, but try to mix it up to keep motivation for each reward as high as possible!You can also reward yourself with healthy but extremely delicious snacks and fun physical activity (i.e. listen to your favorite song but do it on a short stress-busting power walk!) then back to your work or study-task.And of course, make sure to stay hydrated with lots of filtered water or healthy tea.If your stress levels are too high to stay focused, put practicing the “Instant Relaxation Response” on your reward list and practices it with the most relaxing music you can find throughout the day.Why?Because reducing health-harming toxic stress and feeling deeply relaxed instead is a powerful source of positive reinforcement! It will also allow you to focus on the work you’ve been avoiding until now.Bonus Tip 1: Use Your Day Planner or calendar to schedule a few longer breaks, to have normal meals and to go for a relaxing stress-busting walk for example 1 walk in the morning and one in the early afternoon.Bonus Tip 2: Make sure to get a great night’s sleep to give your body and brain the extra boost it needs to really learn your new high-performance learning habits. For example ask yourself: How do I fall asleep in 1 minute or less?Remember: Always talk to your family doctor before starting any new wellness, health, fitness or diet program/supplement.I hope that helps!David Haldorsen B.A.(Psy.) M.A.(OD) MHWC, CSSC.

There are some tools and that can help you with tracking your projects and customers.Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms are those fun little tools that so many people use incorrectly. CRMs as a category have done an amazing job of positioning themselves as a sign of success. CRMs can help small businesses and freelancers get organized as they scale up their operations.When small businesses are just beginning without a lot of clients, it is pretty easy to keep track of everything with a simple spreadsheet. But, once businesses start to grow, spreadsheet isn't enough to track things like customers, sales, progress, etc. Luckily, customer relationship management (CRM) tools exist to make business owners' lives easier. Even the smallest business can benefit from using CRM tools and it isn't expensive. In fact, there are some free plans.If affordability is the major criteria when you go for a CRM; there is a common trend of CRM keeping their prices less than its competitors. But sometimes, you might be missing out on some important feature trying to save a dollar. You should always choose the CRM that fits your needs the best.CRM should not be considered as a data entry system; rather it should be seen as an automated system which relieves a user from manual data entry, manual emails, and SMS. Your choice of CRM should be smart enough to capture your deal and create it for your workflow into your sales pipeline.1. Insightly (14-Day Free Trial)Insightly is a well-rounded CRM with marketing and project management tools as well as automation for lead and opportunity management. Freelancers with an abundances of clients could appreciate the leader profile layout. You can see your activity history with the lead, as well as email correspondence, internal notes, exchanged files, related tasks, and events. Build- in and custom email templates allow for personalized, scheduled emails to touch base with clients or build rapport, Customizable reports allow in-depth looks on data within the CRM for nearly any angle. Even after the free trial, there is a forever free option where you can use with less functions, but it is a really great tool!2. Bitrix24 (30-Day Free Trial)Bitrix24 is a platform that offers quite some features for free. There is even a built in telephone, the option to migrate your emails to a Bitrix24 webmail account, an internal activity feed, a calendar with sync to Google, Outlook, Mac and mobile, file storage, and more. Now onto their CRM aspects, Bitrix24's CRM functions include the normal lead, contact and deal management, as well as built-in invoicing and quptes, activity management and deal reports (not to mention summary reports for each section). There is a ton under the hood for Bitrix24- it provides a broad range of functionality for its users. Like Insightly, Bitrix24 offers free plans even after the free trial, but again, with minimal functions.3. ThriveSoloThriveSolo targets the creative freelancers in the CRM space. Like all the other CRMs, it provides a 14 days free trial. Freelancers use ThriveSolo's software to give them a competitive edge while ensuring freelance projects run smoothly. It will have a transformative effect on a freelancer's workflow. Repetitive monthly or weekly tasks, such as invoicing, can be taken care of with the click of a button giving the freelancer the time to be creative and concentrate on clients. It also allows freelancers to keep track of expenses and time they spent on the clients' project. This is a powerful software for freelancers.Of course there are other CRMs in the market for freelancers and small businesses, but these are 3 of our favorite CRMs for you to try out. Let us know what you think!Check out more on our blog Best CRMs for Freelancers and Small Businesses