Getting things done ahead of time takes planning, but is so worth it

We all love the rush of doing things at the last minute. You can whiz around and really test yourself as you speed around the interwebs, looking up things on Wikipedia and testing your memory. But isn’t it even better to get things done ahead of time? (That’s a rhetorical question, by the way!) You might like this article: Simple systems for social media marketing.

So far today

On Monday, an atmospheric river hit our area. We got over 10 (11? 12? who knows what insane amount?) inches of rain within 24 hours. The river right behind the house threatened to overflow its banks. Lawn furniture, huge trees, and debris from the burn scar appeared, along with the roaring water. Then a couple of trees came down and blocked the road. Then some power lines came down. So that was an adventure. But you know what? It’s really great to have some things done ahead of time so I don’t have to worry about them. Plus, I got to find out about my neighbors and their his-and-hers chainsaws! Yes, really.

There was still a lot of panic

What would I do with the cats? The last time we had to evacuate, one of our cats, Stevie Wonder Paws, was really sick. He threw up, had diarrhea, and started to foam at the mouth. We had to stop at the vet to get him sedated, which still didn’t work. Plus, there was Covid. What would we do if we had to evacuate with Stevie again? That poor widdle guy was so upset! And what would I need to pack? I examined all the cat carriers–dusty from having not been used during the pandemic except for the last time we evacuated because of fire last year.

Social Media Managers need to be prepared

It’s important to know ahead of time what you’ll do if there’s an emergency. Of course, it’s not always possible to prepare for the unthinkable. Emergencies can find you no matter what you do. But being as well prepared as possible is always a good thing for your peace of mind. In this case, I was really happy that I had prepared and scheduled a lot of content ahead of time since our power could go out at any time. By the way, you might like: Made Up Holidays Social Media Managers Will Absolutely Love.

Image by Helena Jankovičová Kováčová from Pixabay

Baking takes prep, too

Many of us have been baking this season, or at least preparing to bake. For me, the prep work involved making dough for 18 dozen cookies. This weekend all the baking will take place. Like baking, content creation takes prep work, too. Not just writing, but deciding where to post, when to post, and which images to use. All of these can be done ahead of time. If there’s an emergency, your writing and/or content creation will already be done.

You’re working on your company’s marketing day in and day out, but sometimes you really need to go the extra mile in your marketing. How do you know when, though? Is there a time when it’s particularly important?

Holidays are important times to go the extra mile

For networking, holidays are the times when it can be either extremely quiet or dramatically chaotic. It’s good to have a presence during these times so that you can network with others. And knowing what to say and when is also important. You might help out by picking up party supplies or giving a co-worker a ride to the party or home afterwards. Planning ahead a few days or weeks can also give you an edge. And, although it might seem old-fashioned, carry a few business cards. People still use them! You might like this article: Made-up Holidays Social Media Managers Will Absolutely Love.

Anniversaries

By anniversaries, I mean anniversaries of certain dates important to your brand, such as 9/11. Not everyone is keen to express themselves on 9/11, but for some brands, it’s a must. Also, the anniversaries of school shootings in the U.S., or the deaths of key dignitaries or politicians. If you’re working with a lifestyle brand, there may be important times as well. One type of anniversary I’m not fond of? When a brand has reached a milestone, such as number of followers. Unless it’s a huge milestone, like a million followers on YouTube, nobody cares!

Throw in some extras

If you can make your client happy by adding a little extra, that’s a good way to impress. Going the extra mile in marketing means giving a baker’s dozen instead of a dozen sometimes. For instance, what I like to do is add an extra post on a different platform, such as Pinterest, for a client who’s only paying for Twitter and Facebook. Jodie Cook mentions this baker’s dozen strategy in an article for Forbes.

When they need a little extra assistance

For me, since I work for mainly small and medium-sized businesses, sometimes cash flow isn’t what it should be. And although I probably shouldn’t, I’ve worked for free temporarily just to get the small businesses over the hump–especially when I know they’ll be ok in the end and have positive cash flow. Do I have any regrets about doing this? Not at all. I feel good, and they feel good, too.

When there’s a conference

Many small businesses will either attend or throw a conference and being there will be a big deal. If you work for a company that holds conferences, that’s a good time to go the extra mile. If you can’t attend in person because of distance, inconvenience, or Covid, you might be able to attend online. If your CEO attends a conference, you could support them by either doing research into who will be there that they should meet or creating an article about the conference later.

If you, like me, have been a little bit bored with the traditional dry Thanksgiving turkey, why not try a Japanese Thanksgiving? Of course, you could also have this meal at Christmas or any other time, too. But since my cousin and I were both a little bored of the same old same old we thought we’d try something different. Hence: Japanese Thanksgiving was born. By the way, I’ve written about holiday recipes before. Here are some of the Best Holiday Recipes of #DigiBlogChat from 2020.

Why a Japanese Thanksgiving?

To backtrack just a little, my cousin and I are both half Japanese, or hapa (half) in Japanese. We’ve been wanting to make more Japanese food for a while and test out our cooking skills. Also, we both lost our mothers recently, and cooking some non-mainstream American meals seemed like a good way to remember our moms and reconnect with our Japanese ancestry. I’d been talking to good friend Terri Nakamura about our menu recently, and she suggested I add the turkey recipe to my blog somehow (Thanks, Terri!), and one thing led to another.

Japanese Senbei are oishi!

Appetizers–Senbei, of course

If you’ve ever hung out with Japanese families, they always always always have snacks around. If you ever travel to Japan, you’ll be amazed at the number of snacks there are everywhere. The food is delicious and convenient. For the appetizers, we chose a few different crackers (senbei)and snacks. My favorite of these was the wasabi lotus (those are the ones right in front in the picture above). We also had homemade gyoza, which another neighbor made from scratch!

Kimpira and Hijiki round out a Japanese Thanksgiving

Side dishes with seaweed help round out a Japanese Thanksgiving

Some of my favorite Japanese dishes are the side dishes–things like Kimpira (stir-fried carrot and burdock root), and hijiki which is the small black seaweed dish. To be honest, I bought these–making each and every side dish, plus all the crackers would’ve been daunting for a first Japanese Thanksgiving!

The main course: Turkey

For our Thanksgiving meal, I chose turkey thighs, which I cut up and marinated, based on a recipe I found on Yang’s website: Japanese Grilled Turkey Skewers. This is a remake of a Yakitori, or grilled chicken, recipe. I marinated the turkey thigh pieces overnight, which made them very flavorful. The next day, I soaked the wooden skewers and threaded the turkey onto them. We grilled the turkey on our outdoor grill. Tips: next time I’ll have the butcher cut up the meat, since that was the most time-consuming part of making the turkey.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes with Shio Koji

Cranberry-Orange Sauce with Ginger

Cranberry-orange sauce has become a tradition for Thanksgiving, and this year rather than skip it, my bestie made it, but added grated and dried ginger to it for an Asian twist. For the best results, make it the day before and let the flavors mix overnight.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes with Shio Koji

My cousin came up with this recipe. She’s a wonderful cook, and everyone loved these mashed potatoes! Shio koji is a fermented paste, similar to miso, here made with rice. It’s possible to make your own fermentation, but I think my cousin bought hers and added it to the potatoes.

Vegan Mushroom Gravy

Vegan Mushroom Gravy

Something you can’t ever have enough of is gravy, and this mushroom gravy was yummier than gravies I’ve had in the past, and didn’t make you feel urpy (anyone else lactose-intolerant out there will probably love this gravy!). Did you know that a lot of Asians are lactose-intolerant?

Miso-Glazed Root Veggies

Miso-Glazed Root Vegetables

Another favorite of everyone who still had room in their stomachs was the miso-glazed root veggies. Honestly, I got so full that I couldn’t even try these until the next day.

Enhanced Stuffing

Enhanced Stuffing

My 13-year-old stepson was particularly fond of this stuffing, and kept eating more and more of it.

Green Beans wrapped with Bacon

Green Beans Wrapped with Bacon

Again, there was so much food that these green beans had to wait until the next day to be tasted!

Drinks

For drinks, we had Prosecco cocktails (basically just Prosecco with pear nectar or apple juice). Simple, but delicious. We also had an assortment of Japanese IPA beer. Did you know there’s Japanese IPA beer with things like Matcha added? Of course, we had to taste some of those.

Dessert was not Japanese!

We also had rum cake, which I made and then forgot to take a picture of–grrrr! It soaked in 151 rum overnight (probably illegal in some parts of the country). The recipe called for spiced rum, but I think spiced rum is kind of disgusting. Also, I only had the 151 rum, so there is that.

You’ve probably set loads of goals in your life before, and, with January coming up fast, you’ll probably set even more of them. But how do you set goals that last longer than the time it takes to write them down? There are a number of steps you can take to give those goals some staying power. If you want to master goal setting, that takes a little more time and thought.

Set your goals to become a goal setting master

Of course, you need to have goals before you can become a goal setting master. So you can start with a big brush and write out some notes before really buckling down. For instance, do you want to improve your health? Write it down! Want to improve your wealth or start a budget? Write that down, too. I’ve written about stretch goals before–you might like the article.

Use the S.M.A.R.T. model

Ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. In this MindTools article on SMART goals, the S in Specific is achieved by using similar tools to those a journalist would use. That is: what, why, who, where, and which. So in the second step, make your goals more specific! What do you want to improve about your health? Do you want to lose weight? That’s one of the most popular and common goals for New Years Resolutions.

Make sure you can measure your goal

Don’t just say you’d like to lose “some weight.” Surely you have a number in mind. You can start with a small number and work in increments, too. For instance, how about five pounds? When you reach five pounds, you can reassess. Or maybe that’s all you need to lose, in which case you’re done!

Is your goal realistic?

If you want to become the world champion heavyweight boxer or enter the next Olympics, is that even a possibility? Sure, it’s great to be ambitious, but even the most ambitious person has realistic goals. Again, dividing your long-term goal into short-term steps can really help here.

Timely goals are important

If you don’t give yourself a deadline to get those goals finished, there’s probably no point in having goals! Otherwise, you might be looking at decades before getting your goals done. That’s if they get done at all!

Say them, print them, post them all over

That’s right–you need to make your goals into something you can repeat, like a mantra every day. This is where it helps to have just a couple of goals and not twenty or thirty of them! So print them–on your printer or by hand is even better, and then put them up. How about on your refrigerator door?

Look at your goals every day!

Sometimes I fall down on this one. In the past, I’ve put my goal list into a folder on my desk so I can see them every day. Or, make a shorter list and look at them while brushing your teeth. Whatever you every day, make sure you can see your goals and you can really cement them into your brain.

We’ve all had those times when we really feel like there’s nothing to say. Or when you think someone else has already said it and said it better than you! Not every day is going to be a productive day, but some days are terrible! Does that sound like you? Maybe writer’s block is keeping you from even starting on that project! If that sounds like you, stick around!

Review your old posts

Go through your old posts until something makes you look twice. Maybe something didn’t “click” the first time or the images weren’t correct for the post. Whatever it is, revisit it and look at it in a different way. Maybe the timing was off? This kind of review can really assist with your writer’s block.

Sleep on it

Right before you go to sleep, suggest to yourself that you’ll wake up with a topic. This often works for me, especially if I keep a pen and paper next to the bed. If you don’t have a way to record your idea, though, often it’ll disappear into thin air!

Take a walk

If you take your mind off your subject, often you’ll be inspired. A walk or a change of scenery often does the trick! Maybe you don’t like to walk. Then take a drive or call a friend instead. I’ve written about social media burnout before, and you might like that article: Social Media Burnout. There’s a link to forest bathing in it, too.

Eliminate distractions

Is that donut in the kitchen calling your name? Are the kids crying (if you work at home)? Is there loud music somewhere in your workplace? Getting rid of those distractions can often help with writer’s block. I’ve written about writer’s block before. You might like: How to Cure Writer’s Block: 10 Best Ways.

Put the seat of your pants in the seat of your chair

This is the one that has the most impact on me. Simply setting aside the time and writing. It doesn’t always have to be good writing! That’s why ideas like NaNoWriMo work so well! Try it and see if you can write more this November (it’s not too late!). You don’t have to write a million words in a month, but try to write more than you did last month.

Write for 15 minutes

Could you write for 15 minutes? Of course you could! So write in whatever way you want–with a pen, pencil, or keyboard in a Word doc. Whichever way you decide to write, just do it for 15 minutes. Even if you write the same sentence 15 times, it’ll get your brain in the right mode to write and that has to be good, right?

Make an Editing Checklist

Friend Randy Clark has a nifty list of things to watch for in his editing checklist on his article about How to Defeat Writer’s Block. And you might want to read it just because he writes a lot and you could find inspiration there.

Everyone uses search all the time to the extent that Google has now become a verb. We don’t even bother saying we’re going to search on Google. We just assume that you’re using Google to search. Google is wonderful and I use it every day, but how can you optimize your search results? And are there other search engines you could use for other purposes? Why yes and yes! Stick around while I help you search like a pro!

Duck Duck Go

If you really want to search like a pro, try asking a 12-year-old. Yes, don’t be so full of yourself that you don’t think you can learn from kids because any 12-year-old knows a lot about how to search and keep it a secret. Want to know about that weird medical condition that you might have? Or want to find out the latest cannabis recipe without being followed all over the internet? Try Duck Duck Go!

Pinterest Search

Say you want to knit a sweater, but you don’t know exactly which one? Get on Pinterest. You can enter something like knitting pattern sweater and you’ll get a visual result of knitting patterns. I’ve written about using Pinterest as a search engine before here: Why Pinterest Isn’t Social Media–and Why It is. But you can also use Google the same way. Try the same knitting pattern sweater and you’ll get similar results in your search. You can narrow your search further by specifying images on Google (click on the images tab).

Google Scholar

Need to combat fake news? You can search for academic studies, articles, dissertations, and abstracts with Google Scholar. Of course, there’s a WikiHow on the subject that can explain this better than I can: 3 Ways to Use Google Scholar. Note: the best way to use Google Scholar is to sign into your Google account. Another note: there are ways to optimize your search within Google Scholar just as there are ways to optimize your search within Google itself. Scroll down in that Wiki article and you’ll see.

Reverse Image Search

This is one of the best uses of technology out there. Go to Google, type in reverse image search, click, upload your image, and voila! Recently, I was visiting a friend and she had been looking for an image’s source for months. With Google reverse image search, we found it in a matter of minutes. Here is how Google explains how to use reverse image search.

Use the tabs to search like a pro!

As mentioned above, you can use the tabs in Google search so that your search is visual. But there are other tabs, too! There’s a news tab, a maps tab, and a more tab! You may see a shopping tab and a tools tab if you click on the more tab.

Use a colon to search on a specific site

We’ve all come across those annoying websites where you can’t find anything! But! Did you know that you can use a colon to drill down in your search? Here’s an example. (And I’m not saying the Homeless Garden Project has an annoying website, either.) Search for the Homeless Garden Project’s store on their site as follows:

store: https://homelessgardenproject.org/

Start with a simple search

Chances are, you’re already doing this. Start with the most generic search and then make it more and more specific. For instance, if you want to know about artificial intelligence and its risks, first search artificial intelligence, then narrow your search further.