Tip Tuesday: Email-a-Menu,The Right Way to Multi-Task

From the archives: This is an encore presentation of our post on email-a-menu, another great, but often overlooked Vmeals feature.

One of the nice, but little known features of Vmeals ordering application is the email a menu feature. You might blow past it at first, but this path can be very helpful if you are planning a meeting for which you would like to invite guests, take their lunch order and track their RSVPs all from your desk top.

Here's how it works: When you begin an order, enter the location, date, and time of your event. Before you move on, be sure to select the "yes" button next to "Invite Guests via email?".

From here, you go on to the choose the menu and even the menu items from which you wish your guests to choose. You may present a menu in its entirety or limit selctions, making prices visible or not to your guests.

Once you have made your selections, you will be able to enter (and store for future use) the email addresses of your guests. Your guests will receive an email with a link to your customized menu. They will be able to either send their regrets or make their meal selection, adding their name and any special instructions, as needed.

As the event organizer, you will be able to keep track of who has responded, who needs a reminder, and when the order needs to be completed. (Yes, you may have to choose for someone - there's always somebody who can't get their order in on time.)

Our Customer Sevice team will help make sure your order is completed in time to meet the restaurant's lead time, and from there we will do all those things we do to assure your order is confirmed and arrives on time, just the way you expect it.

Monday Motivation Quote of the Week

"Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need." ~Voltaire


Yes, it's Monday again. Back to the grind.


Work can be fulfilling, satisfying, purposeful, and sometimes it can just be work. But consider the alternative: aimless days watching Real Housewives marathons, draining another box of wine, watching the unpaid bills pile up.


So show Monday morning some love and send up a little gratitude for work today.

Save or Toss? Taming the Paper Monster

From the archives: This article was originally posted 1.24.11.
January is often the trigger for fresh resolve to get organized. I spent most of New Year's day driving my new vacuum cleaner and diving into cluttered closets. Do I know how to celebrate or what?


My resolution? Not become a reality TV star featured on Cops, SuperNanny or Hoarders.

Clutter kills.

My biggest challenge (and I know I'm not alone) is managing the paper. No matter how much I try to digitize my life, paper continues to stream in and accumulate like snow drifts. I want to be responsible and prepared, so I find myself agonizing over what to save, file or toss - so I ignore and pile instead.

As W2s and other tax documents begin to appear in my mailbox, it's time to review my strategy for staying on top of paper clutter - just in time for tax season!

Paper management should be a routine task on a schedule appropriate to your situation. For example, most businesses have daily SOPs to deal with receivables, payables, and all other sorts of documentation. Personally, a weekly sorting of the contents of my purse and mailbox is usually sufficient to keep a handle on things.

Here are just a couple of tips for dealing with receipts (of which I now have scads from Christmas shopping).

My general rule of thumb: keep anything that you may reference on a tax return, receipts for items under warranty, anything to be reimbursed, and proof of payment.

• I tuck anything that I think may be relevant to my tax returns in a big brown envelope labeled: Tax 20XX. I have everything handy come tax time, and anything it turns out I don't need, I can discard.
• For big (or medium) ticket items under warranty, I've found the easiest thing to do is attach the receipt to the product paperwork. Sometimes there's so much paper in the box, I just throw all of it - the owners manuals/assembly instructions/warranty info - in a zip lock bag with the receipt. It all goes in a "product info" file. Since we seem to accumulate more of these at Christmas time, I've even put a whole season's worth of new product info all in one bag, with a label on the bag listing the items referenced within. 
• Receipts for reimbursement usually go in my wallet until I request reimbursement. Makes sense, right? It always feels like found money when I get it back. (I know, completely irrational.)
• Everything else just hangs around long enough to be validated against a bill or statement, then assuming there are no discrepancies, it's headed for the trash.
• Go as paperless as possible. Obviously, the contents of my purse belie this maxim, but receipts are about all the paper I handle anymore, and for a very limited time. I get most of my bills and manage most of my accounts and banking online. Once I've seen a transaction posted, then I ditch the receipts. I know I can retrieve that info if I need it in the future, and I'm not moving piles of paper around for eternity (or until the statute of limitations runs out).  

Vmeals keeps receipts for all your orders for all eternity. What restaurant is going to do that for you? When you need a receipt for your expense report, all you need to do is log in to your account, click on your order detail and print your receipt. No digging required. (Hey, you knew a Vmeals plug was coming.)

So what are some of your best tips for keeping the paper monster tamed? I'd love to hear them.

Tip Tuesday: 3 Steps to Improve Your Productivity

I fancy myself a woman who can get things done. (This may be delusion, but for the sake of this post, let's just go with it.) Sometimes I find it remarkable that I get things done because I am not naturally organized, but just like people with dyslexia can learn to read and excel academically, those of us who were born with, ahem, a free spirit, can learn to be productive and appear all orderly and disciplined-like.

Step 1- The List

The most common tactic for getting it together, keeping it together, and getting things done is the list. We looove making lists. I need constant reminders and visual cues. I don't know if this is a product of age, hormones, over-commitment or inhabiting a world of 24/7 plugged-in, connected, information overload. I'll go with the latter.

At any rate, the list is only step one. I start my day making lists, but more importantly, I keep a notebook handy at all times. Important to-do items often occur to me while I'm in the shower, walking the dog, or driving. I try to catch all those random thoughts so I can return to them later and get on with my life.

Step 2-Prioritize

If you don't give a little thought to what's most important, your list becomes a way to game your own productivity. You cross things off and feel faux accomplishment. I've even written down to-do list items I've already done, just so I can cross them off. 

Some suggest you hit your high priority items first thing, other say knock out a few easy items for the quick win. I say, tackle your priorities when you are at your best. you know when that is. The key is to schedule the time and just do it. Starting is always the hardest part. So set aside some protected, uninterrupted time for the important stuff every day.

Step 3 - Put up Some Guardrails
Guardrails are designed to keep you from running off the road, so for me these look like deadlines and accountability. Write things down, schedule blocks of time for certain important but routine activities, and tell someone about that thing you want to get done. It's amazing what a little grown up peer pressure can do for you.

So what about you? How do you stay productive?

Monday Motivation Quote of the Week

"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." ~Jim Rohn

The idea here isn't simply about making your own way, but taking initiative. Have you ever blamed someone else for your own lack of knowledge, skills or direction? Well, whoever that someone is, you can bet they aren't thinking about you and your needs nearly as much as you are, so don't wait. 


Be curious. Be ambitious. Be bold. 

Tip Tuesday: Fast Gets Faster

There is a comedian I love who does a bit on Taco Bell Express - like how much faster does Taco Bell need to be? I want a taco - NOOOOOW!

Vmeals makes ordering quick and easy, so how much easier can we make it? In our most recent survey, a few frequent users left comments to this effect: I wish there was a way to remember what I ordered or where I ordered from last time.

Good news! This function is available, but maybe you just weren’t quite sure where to look or how it works.One of the advantages of using Vmeals is that you have access to you order history for eternity. (I don't know if that is true, strictly speaking, but it's there for the foreseeable future.)

Simply go to My Account and you will see all your Upcoming Orders. Below that you will see your Order History. If you have too many to see in this view, click on View All Order History to find the order you're looking for. Click on the order ID number to see the details of any order.

Notice next to each order you can either mark it as a favorite, making it easy to find and repeat a great meal, and you can duplicate an order.

When you click on duplicate, you will find yourself back in the order process with all your previous selections pre-populated. You only need to update event details. (Keep in mind that changing the date and time of an order may impact the availability of that particular menu.)

You will also have the opportunity to make any other changes you wish. Don't worry, your credit card won't get charged until you have completed your order, selected and confirmed how you wish to pay.

See? It really is easy to order, eat and repeat!

Got questions or comments? Lay 'em on us!

Monday Motivation Quote of the Week

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.


We honor the life of Dr. King today. Whether you are at work, enjoying a day off, or participating in  a day of service, we can all emulate the dignity, passion and excellence of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s work.