Improving Time Management ROI

In business, everyone understands profit to be that magical space that exists between the expense of running the business and the actual receipts of the business. For the business to succeed, you obviously want to bring in more than you are paying out. This Holy Grail of business is also known as margin.

There are times when you will choose to strategically invest more than you are receiving in anticipation of something bigger and better. The return on that investment (ROI) should cover the cost of that investment and increase your volume and/or margin. ROI determines whether or not we have invested wisely and well.

Anyone who is serious about growing a business needs to take seriously this issue of margin. I'd like to suggest that anyone who is serious about success in business - or any other area of life - should likewise be mindful about their time margin.

I'm sure you understand profit margin, but let me give you a helpful definition of the time margin. Our margin is the difference between our load and our limit. Are you with me here? Our load is the stuff we do every day: sleep, eat, work, play, volunteer, and relate in the world.

Our limit is - well, our limit. It's that point where we are maxed out. There is not another moment of time or drop of energy left for another task. Have you been there? Yeah, I thought so. Me too.

There are times when you will live on the edge of your limit. This may be a time when you have to suck it up and work harder, longer, smarter - because you are making an investment in your future. Maybe you're working and raising children, taking a class or starting business. These are the days there will not be any margin - you may even go into the red for a while - but the expectation is that you will come out on the other side with a strong family, a more secure future, a life of joy and meaning.

But listen up: Living at your limit and beyond is not sustainable anymore than running a business perpetually in the red is sustainable. At some point, you need to start enjoying some fruit from your time investments just like the business needs to start making money.

I mentioned here last week that you need to be a little choosy if you're going to succeed at the time management game. So here's an easy way to make some decisions about how to increase your time margin. Ask yourself: What is the ROI for my time?

If your life is busy and jam-packed with activity and dreams for the future, then you need to see some big "R" for your "I". Time spent nurturing your relationships will always be a blue chip investment. Time spent taking care of your health is also a good long term investment. But the truth is that every day you will have to make choices from an abundance of worthy competitors for your time: hobbies, sports, church activities, school activities. You will also be tempted by much less noble time killers like too much TV or internet surfing. So remember this: you need to protect your margin.

If you can't see an end in sight to your season of busy-ness, and you are becoming increasingly fatigued, cranky, and feeling the heat of the bright flame that precedes burn-out, it's time to make some cuts. Look for some places you can start building some margin back into your day. Schedule less; say "No" more often; trade TV time for story time with your kids; trade 20 minutes of sleep for 20 minutes of quiet time or meditation first thing in the morning; trade lunch at your desk for lunch with some old friends; trade an hour of surfing the internet for an hour meeting new strategic partners for coffee.

So what about you? What are some of the ways you protect your margin?

Meal Deals of the Week 3/4/10

It's time to check in on our Weekly Meal Deals.

We got a little crazy with our Olympic discounts last week, and hopefully, you got a gold medal bargain.

Even if you didn't, there are still deals to be had. Go check them out here. Be sure to stay tuned - you never know what we might come up with next. It is March, and you know what that means: madness!

Think you have your hands full?

You do.

A recent Wall Street Journal article reports what many of us have been suspecting: economists may have declared that we are technically in recovery, (because we have hit bottom already)but it doesn't really feel like it yet. Why? In a word: jobs.

This recession has been a game changer. We've found ourselves with a new "normal". Some types of jobs may be on the verge of becoming extinct (video store clerk, maybe?), but many employers are just wary of adding to the payroll until economic confidence increases. With layoffs and budget cuts, productivity has actually increased. So what that means for many of us is that we will continue to do more with less.

Today's technology is making increased productivity possible and therefore more critical to your survival in the workplace. A growing technological literacy gap threatens every office worker that choses to look the other way - but how much is enough? How much is too much? How do you keep from becoming overwhelmed?

Sometimes our zeal for the "latest and greatest" outstrips our capacity to manage it. (Think about the field of bioethics - just because we have the ability to manipulate DNA, doesn't mean we are free to create designer babies.) With wireless technology, we are theoretically available 24/7 - that doesn't mean we should be. (I love Chris Brogan's thoughts on this in his post the Assault on Anywhen.)

So what's a harried, overworked person to do?

I think that rather than try to do and manage it all, we have to learn to be a little choosy and a lot disciplined about how we spend our time. I'll have some tips to help you do just that in upcoming posts.

Daylight savings time is just around the corner, a reminder of man's perennial attempt to manipulate time. The truth is, we are all given exactly the same number of hours in a day. How will you make yours count?

(Vmeals wants to be your partner in productivity. We invite you to subscribe to learn more about technology, time management and productivity as well as about Vmeals people, food and features.)

Here's a sweet deal!

Cupcakes have been on trend for some time now and I, for one, couldn't be more delighted. Here at Vmeals Worldwide HQ, we have a truly awesome cupcakery - Cappellinos Crazy Cakes - right in our back yard. These are among the most beautiful cupcakes you've ever seen, and I can tell you they taste even more delicious than they look. If you spend anytime on Twitter, you have to follow them @cappellinos - even if you aren't in Charlottesville. They regularly tweet their daily specials, and boy, are they inventive! If you are a food lover, you will thrill just to see "raspberry ginger pound cake with a swirl of buttercream" appear in your feed.

We are delighted to have a new cupcake vendor on the Vmeals network serving NJ/Philadelphia: Kati's Kupcakes. Kati creates beautiful and unique cupcake designs baked from scratch using only the best ingredients. I really like these cute beach-themed cupcakes (maybe because I'm snow-weary and dreaming of warmer days ahead).

Throwing a shower, celebrating a promotion or grand opening, or wanting to send an unforgettable "Thank You" to a client? A cupcake tower is the perfect solution for a festive treat!

So, you know everyone loves a cupcake, but maybe you're concerned that they may be more "princess" than professional? Not to worry - behold the "mancake". (What do you do when your Wall Street law firm gig doesn't work out? Cupcakes, of course!)

So go ahead, indulge and watch office morale skyrocket! To make it even more tasty, Kati is offering a free box of cupcakes to the person that places an order through Vmeals. For more info on this and all our other deals for the week,visit our deals page here.

The Lazy Girl's Guide to Paper Clutter

Every week or two I clean out my purse. I carry a big one, and I figure that if I just stuff everything in it, I'll always have what I need, right?

This is a picture of the pile of receipts I pulled out of my bag (after weeding out the candy wrappers, notes-to-self, and other trash). Mostly, these are receipts for my morning coffee, groceries, and assorted small purchases. However, there is also in this pile a particular receipt for $257, for which I'd like to be reimbursed. I know it's in there, but I'm guessing I'll spend a little time going through each slip of paper to find that special one.

Sound familiar? Maybe you too have had to paw though mountains of paper to find a receipt for an expense report or to support an entry on your tax return. You dig with growing anxiety until at long last you find it, raising it victoriously overhead in your sweaty fist while in the distance: the sweet singing of a chorus of heavenly hosts. Well, unless you live for this adrenaline rush like I do, there is a better way.

Make paper management 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.

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.

Weekly Meal Deals, Something to Roar About!

Did you know it is now the year of the Tiger?

Between Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras, the Olympics and the Snowpacalyse of the mid-Atlantic, the first day of the Chinese New Year on Sunday, February 14 passed below our radar. It's not too late to get in on the fun, however.


Chinese New Year festivities typically last 15 days. Each day has specific customs traditionally observed on that day. For example, the days preceding New Year's Day are devoted to thorough cleaning of one's home. (Oops, missed those days!)



It is believed the cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes their homes ready for good luck. Brooms and dust pans are put away on the first day so that luck cannot be swept away. Day one is also marked by fireworks and lion dance troupes and gatherings of the entire family. (Another good reason to give the house a good cleaning!)


It is now day 5 which coincides with the the birthday observance of the Chinese god of wealth. Businesses typically re-open this day with renewed hope for prosperity and good fortune in the year to come.

Isn't that the train we want to hop on? Aren't you ready to sweep away the bad luck of the last year and get back to work? I recommend rallying the troops in your office with a Prosperity Lunch.

One of our featured meal deals this week is from Great Wall of China (not that one, the one in Charlotte, NC). They are offering a Chinese buffet with choice of four different entrees for only $10 per person all inclusive! Not in Charlotte? We have some delicious options in Baltimore, Charlottesville, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Orlando, Philadelphia, and more.


In honor the Year of the Tiger, and because market research shows that babies get our attention, I have added for your viewing pleasure a few cute baby tiger pictures.
Happy New Year!

Your 5 Step Training Plan for Winning at the Office

Right now, someone (or many someones) is sweeping the debris from Bourbon Street from last night’s Mardi Gras celebrations, while many others sleep off the damage. We are now officially in a season of discipline (for those who observe Lent).

Discipline isn’t sexy, but we can be reminded of its value as we watch the Olympic games going on in Vancouver right now. (Check out some truly inspiring images here.)The Olympics are the culmination of years of training and discipline by athletes who made some choices that were often tough: getting out of bed earlier to hit the gym/track/slopes, passing on the junk food/beer/wine, going to bed at a reasonable hour instead of nodding off on the sofa waiting for the next episode of Real Housewives.

We all make these sorts of choices. Even if you aren’t an elite athlete, you can be a winner at work by approaching your professional life like an athlete-in-training.

1. Pursue your passion. Who wants to spend their whole life working for the weekend? Not me. We can’t all be Bono or Steve Jobs or Usain Bolt, but we can find our fit and commit to employing our skills with energy and enthusiasm.

2. Set your sights. Athletes train with some kind of goal in mind, be it a race, competition, game or a personal record. What are you going for - top sales performance for your division? Seeing a project proceed to completion on time and on budget? Acing your next performance review? Go beyond your “to-do” list and create your “Ta Da!” list. When you check things off your “Ta Da!” list, you feel more than a sense of tidy productivity, you will feel deep satisfaction.


3. Put together a plan. A good training plan usually involves a few components: routine repetitive tasks, demanding skill specific exercises and endurance work. The idea is to put as much on auto-pilot as possible so that your personal resources are reserved for the most demanding tasks. This is as applicable to the office worker as it is to the marathoner.

4. Challenge yourself. If you never push yourself farther than you think you can go, you will never know how far you actually can go. Might you fail? Yes, but so what? Elite athletes may be genetically gifted, but I don’t think one of them entered the world in gold medal form. Without trotting out all those virtues-of-failure quotes, suffice it to say there is a lot falling and failing and often pain and injury before mastery is achieved.

5. Don’t give up. Some days are going to be hard. You’ll be tired and cranky and doubt will start to creep in. You’ll doubt your ability, your judgement, your purpose. Don’t. Have a little faith in yourself and your plan because somedays its about just showing up and doing the work. No one breaks a record every day.

Not only do I think you should put yourself in the athlete-in-training mindset, I also recommend you declare it wherever you go – as in: Thanks for bringing in your leftover cupcakes from little Janey’s birthday party, but I’ll have to pass. I’m in training. Or maybe this: Dude, I hate to cut our convo about your upcoming child support hearing short but I’ve got some heavy analysis to do. I’m in training. Be proud every time you choose discipline over distraction. That’s how the race is won.

Are you going for the gold?

Just a reminder: Vmeals is offering discounts equal to the US medal count. Keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook posts for updated discount codes!