Helene Segura's Blog, page 22

Navigating Open Enrollment for Small Businesses

November 1 was the first day of open enrollment for health insurance. If you’re a small business owner, it can be overwhelming to determine what kind of group coverage will keep you in the good graces of government mandates, plus balance that with your desire to help your employees as much as possible without breaking…

How to Prevent Holiday Stress in 2021

Sharing this letter has been a tradition since 2012. Over the decades, I’ve learned that it takes entirely too much effort and stress to take things to the hilt at holiday time – decorations galore, baking like nobody’s business and hosting holiday parties featuring homecooked mains, side dishes and desserts for a few dozen guests.…

Get Organized for the Holidays! (2021 edition)

Back in the beginning of this year, I recommended that you reflect on the prior months and record a quick debrief of your 2020 holidays in order to get organized for your holidays in 2021. Can you believe it? The 2021 holidays are just around the corner, so it’s time to get a-crackin’! Do you…

Apple Crisp “Cobbler” Recipe (Standard and Keto, Slow Cooker and Baked)

Ingredients Crumble Topping 1 cup all-purpose flour (for Keto: almond flour) 1 cup brown sugar (for Keto: golden granular monk fruit or other brown sugar substitute) ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon nutmeg 1 pinch salt 1/2 cup butter, cut into ¼” -ish cubes 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) Apple Coating ½ cup brown sugar…

Productivity Lessons from the Facebook Outage

When Facebook crashed last week, millions of people around the world were sent into a tizzy. In addition to the Facebook outage, Instagram and WhatsApp (both owned by Facebook) also went down. All three platforms were offline for six hours. Here are some takeaways from the Facebook outage. Do you have a back-up communications plan?…

Productivity Boost – The Importance of Recharging

Too many times we forget to put “recharge” on our to do list. We do our best to accomplish tasks for our work and personal lives, but we don’t make a conscious effort to plan for taking a break from pushing ourselves. In fact, most of America does not completely recharge. In 2013, American workers…

What is Time Blocking or Time Boxing?

Whether you call it time blocking or time boxing, the overall concept boils down to this: You make appointments with yourself to focus on certain subjects or tasks. Here are a few keys to time blocking or time boxing: Know your professional and personal priorities. This should drive your decisions. Determine how much time you…

The Tool Every Home Office Needs

“What is the single most important tool every home office needs?” A journalist recently posed this question to organizing and productivity experts. This was my response: The single most important tool every home office needs is a battery backup. APC is a popular brand, but they’re not the only ones:  If there is any kind…

Strategic Planning for Q4 – Where Exactly Are You Going?

Do you ever feel like you spend so much time dog paddling, doing your best to keep your head (or at the very least your eyes and nose) above water, focusing on that to do list every single day (hoping to knock out at least a few items)…that you never pause to lift your head…

How to Smoke a Boston Butt Roast

Whether it’s Labor Day weekend or an ordinary Saturday, it’s always a great time to barbecue pork! If you don’t have a lot of time to study how to smoke a Boston Butt (aka pork shoulder), here’s a quick tips list: *Fire up your grill It will take anywhere from 30-45 minutes for your grill…