In the beginning…

Way back in September, Recurly went down. At first, it seemed like a typical outage that would be resolved without issue in a short span of time. It soon became apparent that this was not the case, and we were unable to bill our customers for over a week. We'd soon learn that the cause of the issue was failure on primary and secondary hardware responsible for storing credit card data resulting in the permanent loss of encryption keys rendering the stored data unreachable. Even after their efforts to retrieve copies of the data from our payment gateway, we were still left missing 5% of our payment info.

As soon as we realized this was not a typical outage, we began planning steps to move off to a different payment provider to get our billing up and running again. After listing a few options, I jokingly suggested:

You know, we could just store it on Recurly and somewhere else. It wouldn't be that hard. We just collect the data, attempt to store it with two different services, and then bill the user on the first service that sticks.

To which Ted responded:

Ha! That would be funny. [short pause] Ok, do it.

Building it

Our first priority was security. We don't ever want to touch actual credit card data (it's better to leave PCI compliance to the companies that specialize in that). We use recurly.js and Braintree Transparent Redirect, so client data never hits our servers.

What was meant to be a joke became our new method of fallback for payment data. We settled on using Recurly (we didn't want to drop support for this and inconvenience all of our current customers by asking them to update their billing information) and Braintree. Without going into too much detail, our subscription process now looks like this:

If storing billing information on either provider fails, we're still able to continue processing as long as the other does not. After our user is subscribed, the rest of our code doesn't care which method was used. In most cases, a subscription is created even in the event of failure on leg of the process. We've also got the ability to migrate our subscriptions should a severe failure ever happen again.

That was a freebie

Adding Braintree as a billing provider had a pleasantly unexpected side effect. Our iOS app (coming soon) uses Braintree to collect billing information. They have a great iOS SDK that saved us a ton of time developing our in-app signup.

Final thoughts

This post is here simply to illustrate that redundantly storing your customers' billing information across multiple services is possible. When building the payment portion of your next project, consider doing this; you'll thank yourself next time one of your services is unavailable. We're very happy with both Recurly and Braintree, but we're also prepared for the next time this happens.

Oliver Emberton shares these tips for simple time management: 

The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importance and suppress urgency.

Humans are pre-wired to focus on things which demand an immediate response, like alerts on their phones—and to postpone things which are most important, like going to the gym.

You need to reverse that, which goes against your brain and most of human society.

Look at what you spend your day doing. Most of it, I'll warrant, is not anything you chose—it's what is being asked of you. Here's how we fix that:

Say no.

Most of us follow an implicit social contract: when someone asks you to do something, you almost always say yes. It may feel very noble, but you just agreed to slow yourself down because you were asked nicely. You may need to sacrifice some social comfort (as a bonus, people tend to instinctively respect those who can say no).

Unplug the TV.

I haven't had a TV signal for 7 years, which has given me about 12,376 hours more than the average American who indulges in 34 hours a week. I do watch some shows—usually one hour a day whilst eating dinner—but only ones I've chosen and bought. You can do a lot with 12,000 hours, and still keep up with Mad Men.

Turn notifications off.

Modern technology has evolved to exploit our urgency addiction: email, Facebook, Twitter, Quora and more will fight to distract you constantly. Fortunately, this is easily fixed: turn off all your notifications. Choose to check these things when you have time to be distracted—say, during a lunch break—and work through them together, saving time.

Schedule your priorities.

Humans are such funny critters. If you have a friend to meet, you'll arrange to see them at a set time. But if you have something that matters to you more than anything—say writing a book, or going to the gym—you won't schedule it. You'll just ‘get round to it'. Treat your highest priorities like flights you have to catch: give them a set time in advance and say no to anything that would stop you making your flight.

First things first.

What is the single most important (not urgent) thing you could possibly be doing? Do some of that today. Remember there's a limitless number of distractions—don't fool yourself by thinking "if I just do this thing first then I can." 

Less volume, more time.

There's always millions of things you could be doing. The trick is to pick no more than 1-3 a day, and relentlessly pursue those. Your brain won't like this limit. Other people won't like this limit. Do it anyway. Focusing your all on one task at a time is infinitely more efficient than multi-tasking and gives you time to excel at your work.

(You can outsource your to-dos to Fancy Hands, of course!) 

Ignore.

It's rude, unprofessional, and often utterly necessary. There are people you won't find time to reply to. There are requests you will allow yourself to forget. You can be slow to do things like tidy up, pay bills, or open mail. The world won't fall apart. The payoff is you get done what matters.

"A new and growing body of multidisciplinary research shows that strategic renewal — including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, longer sleep hours, more time away from the office and longer, more frequent vacations — boosts productivity, job performance and, of course, health.

Spending more hours at work often leads to less time for sleep and insufficient sleep takes a substantial toll on performance. In a study of nearly 400 employees, published last year, researchers found that sleeping too little — defined as less than six hours each night — was one of the best predictors of on-the-job burn-out. A recent Harvard study estimated that sleep deprivation costs American companies $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity.

The Stanford researcher Cheri D. Mah found that when she got male basketball players to sleep 10 hours a night, their performances in practice dramatically improved: free-throw and three-point shooting each increased by an average of 9 percent.

Daytime naps have a similar effect on performance. When night shift air traffic controllers were given 40 minutes to nap — and slept an average of 19 minutes — they performed much better on tests that measured vigilance and reaction time.

Longer naps have an even more profound impact than shorter ones. Sara C. Mednick, a sleep researcher at the University of California, Riverside, found that a 60- to 90-minute nap improved memory test results as fully as did eight hours of sleep.

MORE vacations are similarly beneficial. In 2006, the accounting firm Ernst & Young did an internal study of its employees and found that for each additional 10 hours of vacation employees took, their year-end performance ratings from supervisors (on a scale of one to five) improved by 8 percent. Frequent vacationers were also significantly less likely to leave the firm."

-Tony Schwartz for The New York Times

Or, we can do it for you. 

Ari Meisel, productivity genius and longtime Fancy Hands customer, guest blogs for us today: 

While some people might complain about the vagueness of IKEA instructions, you have to admit, they have broken down the process of building something into a set of instructions that is language-independent, requires as few steps as possible, and, for the most part, is fail-proof.

The goal with your processes should be exactly the same. You need to break them down to the fewest, most explicit steps possible so that they are easier for you, and more importantly, can be automated or outsourced entirely.

Processes?

You all have processes that you go through on a regular basis like checking your email, writing reports, doing research, generating content, reviewing materials, making meals, etc.

These can be things you do on a daily or weekly basis, or even just once in a while. The problem is that most of these activities have become routine, we do them without even thinking about them, almost as if on autopilot.

That might seem like a good thing but the truth is, if you can get these things done on autopilot, then someone else can probably get them done for you. It’s easy to fall in that trap of thinking you are the only one who can do the things that make your world spin, but have you ever stopped and considered the steps you actually take?

As an exercise, think about something you do often. Now describe, on a very granular level, each step you go through in order to complete that activity. Think about it as if you were creating “The Manual of You” and you were going to give it to someone who doesn’t know you, or how you work, and they have to get your tasks done.

This can and should be applied to most of the things you spend your time doing.

I have clients go through this exercise with incredibly complex and precise tasks with the same results - creating the perfect instruction manual.

I had one client start with a process that was 10 pages long, and he ended up with 11 easy-to-follow steps. 

Once you list all the steps, try to identify redundancies or missing instructions.

Then look at ways you can automate some of these steps using web services like IFTTT.

Finally, go ahead and send it off to your Fancy Hands assistant.

They will undoubtedly respond with a question or two, and may even offer a way to streamline your instructions.

The point of all this is that in the end, I was able to break my tasks down to an incredibly efficient, error-proof process that ANYONE can follow and complete.

Once a process has been perfected, delegating out of your sight and out of your mind is as easy as can be. 

We're pleased to announce our newest feature - an integration with the

Do platform. 

Do is a social productivity tool that allows you to streamline your tasks and get things done! 

It's free to sign up, and now, as a member, you can integrate your Fancy Hands account, and they'll work magic together. 

It's our goal at Fancy Hands to help you simplify your busy life. 

We'll continue to work towards bringing you more opportunities like this one. 

Give it a try (start here) and let us know how it goes on Twitter or Facebook! 

We love to hear from you. 

What are your interests? 

Improv, Running, Code.

What is your worst quality? 

Sometimes, it can take a little while for me to find my groove when I'm working.  But once I get rolling I am generally unstoppable.  

What is the biggest risk you've ever taken? 

Leaving a comfy and cushy job to start an office in the Middle East.

What's the most memorable Fancy Hands request you've seen from a customer? 

I am a big user of the service myself - I was a customer for over a year before I started working here.  

The most memorable request I have is a tie between:

a) Fancy Hands found me a boat rental place near NYC that would actually let me sail the boat myself.  It took 26 calls for them to find a place, but they got it done.

b) I moved, and Fancy Hands got my cable set up on the first day without any signup fee and negotiated a rate (taxes included) lower than what was advertised on the web, which was already on sale.

What's your favorite request to give to our Fancy Hands assistants? 

I need to book a practice space every week, which requires calling an average of five places.  Fancy Hands does all these calls for me.

What food do you hate?

Suburbia Pizza.  This will probably ruffle some feathers, but 90% of America lives with bad pizza.  

Someone should do something.

What food do you love? 

Mexican food.  I want to live at Dos Toros.

Movies, books, TV, video games? What do you like? 

I don't really dig on video games.  I have become an old man.

God, I need to read more books.  Please don't let people know I'm basically illiterate.

I love Breaking Bad and Mad Men.  I wish I could just subscribe to AMC.

Blog/Twitter? Any social media links you want to share? 

I guess my Tumblr.  The theme is pretty tight. 

Who is your spirit animal? 

A rabid dog.

What are you most proud of? 

I ran a marathon last year without training at all.

What are you normally doing on a Saturday night? 

At an improv show - watching or performing.

What advice would you give to the 16-year old version of yourself? 

Work harder.  Keep working harder.

On Monday, we talked about 14 things you should do at the start of your work day in order to accomplish a focused and balanced day of productivity. 

How you wind down your work day is just as important. Jacquelyn Smith shared this on her Forbes blog:  

“How you end the day is critical, as it has much to do with how you start the next day,” says Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and author of Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant. “It’s half of the puzzle of being productive.”

Ending your day on a good note will also ensure that you look back on it with a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, making it easier to get up and go to work the next morning, adds Alexandra Levit, the author of Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can’t Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success.

Another reason to end your day the right way: Michael Kerr, an international business speaker, author and president of Humor at Work, says it has a huge effect on the level of stress and happiness you carry home, “which in turn can impact your health, your marriage and family life, your ability to sleep and your overall level of happiness.”

“Just as it’s never a good idea to hard crash your computer, you shouldn’t hard crash your day,” advises Michael “Dr. Woody” Woodward, PhD, organizational psychologist and author of The YOU Plan. “Closing out your day in an orderly and positive way is critical to making that clean psychological transition into the personal side of life. Nobody likes that feeling of unfinished business hanging over their head while playing with the kids or dining with the family, so it’s important that you do what you can to make as clean a break as possible when walking out the office door.”

Here’s how you should end your work day:

1. Evaluate your to-do list.  

Make sure you are where you need to be on these activities and that you’ve accomplished as much as you could, says Anita Attridge, a career and executive coach with the Five O’Clock Club, a career coaching organization. “If you aren’t satisfied with where you are, plan what you need to do and when you will do it so you don’t get further behind.” If you could quickly get something done before you leave, do it. This will save you time the next morning.

Review your schedule for the next day. Make sure you’re aware of any meetings or calls for the following day. You can also use this opportunity to schedule time on your calendar to accomplish any remaining items from today’s to-do list.

This is a smart time to hand your scheduling tasks over to your Fancy Hands assistants! 

“Some people like to visualize, make a mental or physical note of what is on their schedule first thing the next day,” says David Shindler, an employability specialist and author of Learning to Leap. “Think about one thing you are most looking forward to tomorrow. It will help you leave behind what’s happened today, enrich your current mood and help to put a full stop to your working day.”

2. Check in with your boss and colleagues.

Depending on how hands-on your boss is, you may want to visit with him or her to discuss the status of any projects you’re working on, Taylor suggests. You’ll also want to get end-of-day updates from co-workers.

This is also a great opportunity to double-check deadlines and confirm that everyone is on the same page.

3. Tidy up.

Nobody likes the feeling of walking into a mess, especially when you are under the gun, Woodward says.  Before walking out the door take a few minutes to toss any trash, organize your paperwork and straighten up your desk. This will give that feeling of a fresh start when you arrive the next morning.

You should also clean out your in-box. “Block off at least 15 minutes at the end of your day to sort through those unnecessary CCs, happy hour invitations, and random solicitations,” he says. “E-mails can stack-up fast and it’s easy to miss those critical ones when your in-box gets too backed-up.”

4. Complete non-peak hour work.

The end of the day is the best time to handle paperwork and tasks that don’t require phone contact. “E-mails, reports, status memos and thinking projects are best handled when phone calls, texts and other distractions have subsided,” Taylor says. Hopefully, you’ve maximized the peak hours to contact the people you need so that you can complete the administrative side of your job armed with their input. The end of the day is the time to determine who you need to reach first thing in the morning.

5. Get closure.

Be sure to tie up any loose ends so that you can truly disconnect when you walk out the door, Woodward says. Be sure not to leave anything hanging that can quickly be taken care of. “There is nothing worse than having that feeling of something hanging over your head,” he says. Attridge agrees. She suggests you take a few minutes to send that e-mail you’ve been meaning to send, respond to that request that you can quickly answer, or touch base with a colleague you been meaning to see.

6. Make a new to-do list.

Determine what you must accomplish the next day and have a plan of how you will use your time to manage your priorities, Attridge says. You’ll probably update or expand your to-do list the following morning, but it doesn’t hurt to compile a preliminary list the night before.

“Based on the day’s events and input, reflect those changes on your master to-do list so that when you start your day, you’re that much further ahead of the game,” Taylor says. “Anything you can do to have a head start in the morning will help you achieve more productive days and a more productive career.”

This is a great time to shoot your menial to-dos off to Fancy Hands! 

7. Reflect on the day.

Unfortunately, most people don’t do this. They’ll run out the door the second they’re done with their work. But if you can make time to reflect on your best achievement or success that day, you could end up walking out with a spring in your step, Shindler says.

8. Say good bye.

Kerr says it’s important to create routines and rituals at work that will helps us feel more fulfilled and happy in the long run, “so that we go home feeling reenergized and inspired, instead of fried and dead tired.” One simple routine that falls into this category is saying a proper good bye to your colleagues. “We tend to think about the importance of checking in and saying good morning to kick off the day, but we forget that it can be just as important, and make us feel good as well, to say a friendly and proper good bye to everyone rather than just silently drift off into the night. This is triply important if you are the supervisor.”

9. Leave on a positive note.

Take note of something that went well, compliment a co-worker on an accomplishment, or drop a thank you note to a client, Woodward says. “The idea is to find something positive that makes you feel good about your job and make sure that moment is the last thing on your mind before walking out the door.”

Taylor agrees. “If you have people reporting to you, say a few words of encouragement before you head for the door,” she says. “Most workers want to feel appreciated and know they’re making a difference in the big picture.”

10. Be green.

Turn off your lights and equipment, Levit suggests.

11. Disconnect.  

Don’t be afraid to shut down your smartphone or at least shut off the e-mail alerts, Woodward says. Let people know about it. When you walk out that door be sure to tell your colleagues the period of time you will be unavailable and stick to it. “It’s important to be present for your family and friends,” he says.

12. Leave your stress at the door.

When you walk out that door commit to leaving your stress behind. “Leaving the office at the end of the day can be tough, but carrying your stress home with you won’t serve any good,” Woodward says. “Your family needs you to be present, so do what you can to make sure your stress stays at the office.”

13. Go home.

Don’t aim to be the last to leave for the sake of face time, Taylor says. You’ll wear yourself out and your productivity will slip. It’s one thing to be a hard worker, another to hang around for Brownie points, achieving nothing. Better to plan for the next day, get rest and be clear-headed in the morning. “If more than one person has labeled you a ‘workaholic’ or you’ve forgotten the name of your pet, it may be time to do ’80%’ and not give 110%,” Taylor says. “Then you may normalize your work patterns more effectively.”

Shindler adds:  “Don’t stay just to keep up with the boss. Don’t leave just because you can.  Your colleagues may depend on you. Do the right things and do things right.”

I mistakenly called it "Valentime's Day" when I was little. 

Whatever your feelings are about the holiday, it is, in fact, Valen-time.

One thing is for certain: if you have someone special in your life, you'd better do something to commemerate it.

Even those girls who say "I hate Valentine's Day, don't give me anything" would actually appreciate it if you slipped a little love note under her pillow or put a couple of low-key flowers in a vase. 

Fancy Hands is a great gift idea for your sweetheart. Who doesn't want to receive a team of assistants?

Use this coupon code: love-love-love for 50% off of your first month. 

If you don't have a Valentine, get Fancy Hands for yourself. That way, this Thursday night, you will have delegated all of those mind-numbing things you were supposed to get done to your new assistants, clearing up time for you to eat a pint of ice cream and watch movies. 

An ice-cream-and-movie-date-in-bed is pretty freaking good, whether you've got company or not. 

Fancy Hands customer Kowsik blogged about his first month with us here. He had his assistants buy a Valentine's gift for his wife. Smart, Kowsik, smart.

Here's what he wrote about his requests: 

1. Order Contact Lenses

I know you can go waste hours navigating the map-less terrain of Costco, but I’m lazy and this was the perfect excuse to try out Fancy Hands. I fired off the following email to them:

"Please order 3-boxes of 90 contact lenses (in each box) and have it be shipped to my home address so that it arrives before Friday. I’m beginning my travel on that date and would like to get my lenses before that. Brand: 1-day Acuvue Moist (With Lacreon). Find the best price you can and in case there’s a better price for ordering more boxes, let me know and I can revise my order. Attached is a picture of my prescription."

A couple of emails back and forth later, and voilá! They set me up with an account at Walgreens, got me a box of my lenses at a pretty awesome price and had it delivered to my home on time. Time I spent on emails? 5 minutes.

2. Book a transit hotel in Singapore

I was flying to India and had a 6-hour layover in Singapore. I figured might as well spend the time at the transit hotel to get some rest, washup, etc. Here’s my request:

"Attached is my travel itinerary. I have a 6 hour layover in Singapore and I would like to see if it’s possible to use the transit lounge. Find out if I can use United club pass to enter the lounge (I have 4, if that makes any difference). If that’s not possible, see if I can use United miles (part of the Star Alliance) to enter the transit lounge. If that doesn’t work, book me 1 block of 6 hours in the transit hotel."

Boom! I received back a detailed report of all the transit hotels in the airport, their operating hours, etc. Since my United miles didn’t work, I ended up paying for the transit hotel. Time I spent on emails? 5 minutes.

3. Call AT&T on my behalf

I was in the process of porting my landline over to Ooma and got hit with a question. Do I have split-line DSL? Well, I had to call AT&T to figure that out so I could safely disconnect my phone without affecting my landline. Yeah, like I was going to be put on hold. Here’s the request:

"I am thinking of porting my land line to another VoIP provider, but I need to verify that I have “stand-alone” or “dry-loop” DSL. Attached is my home address. 1. Call AT&T and verify that I can disable my land-line without disrupting my DSL. If you need additional verification information, let me know. 2. If not, find out how to decouple the land-line and the DSL and how long it would take to do this. Do they need to send people out to my home to do this or is it simply a matter of flipping a switch remotely?"

A few hours later, I got a response saying that FancyHands spoke with Chris at AT&T and that I could indeed cancel my land-line without disrupting my DSL service. Perfect! Time spent listening to AT&T’s elevator music? 0 minutes.

4. Research a refrigerator to buy

I wasn’t entirely sure about this request, but hey, doesn’t hurt to try right? I am in the market for a 36″ refrigerator (do you know of a good one?) and wanted some research done. Here was my request to them:

"I’m in the market for a 36″ French door refrigerator with the freezer drawer(s) at the bottom. I would like you to find three best options with the attached requirements. If you need clarification on any of these, don’t hesitate to ask. 1. Send me a report comparing the top three based on these requirements. 2. Also send me links to where I can find these at a great price."

My requirements included customer reviews, price range, consumer reports rating, etc. I got back three options with summary reports, link to Sears and Home Depot as well as various consumer reports. I wasn’t entirely sure about the ROI on this one, but I’m chalking this one up to learning what a good request is.

5. Hush, hush

I could write about the last one since my wife doesn’t read my blog,  but don’t want to risk that. Anyways, something special to be delivered to her since it’s that magical red week. Time I spent on email? 2 minutes.

There are many things you can do to keep your head and your heart clear, centered and focused at work. 

One of them, of course, is to become a member of Fancy Hands and delegate your small, tedious chores to our team of assistants. Our clients are amazed at how much time they save by outsourcing phone calls and research to us.

It’s also helpful to approach your work day in an organized, efficient manner. Jacquelyn Smith offers these steps to get off on the right foot. 

1. Arrive on time.

This may be obvious to most people—but some don’t realize that showing up late can not only leave a bad impression, but also throw off your entire day. “Getting in on time or a little early helps your mindset for the day and helps promote a feeling of accomplishment,” says Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and author of Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant. 

2. Take a deep breath.

“Literally,” says Michael Kerr, an international business speaker, author and president of Humor at Work. “And do something to focus in on the here and now.”  Many people come into work harried because they don’t leave enough time at home to deal with “home stuff,” he says, “they’ve barely survived another horrendously stressful commute, and then they dive into the madness.” Slowing down, taking a moment to pause, and creating a routine around centering yourself can work wonders.

3. Take five.

After the deep breath, give yourself five minutes to get settled in, says Michael “Dr. Woody” Woodward, PhD, organizational psychologist and author of The YOU Plan. “This is a good way to set the tone of the day. Don’t allow yourself to be bum rushed by frantic co-workers lost in their own confusion.” It’s not unusual to wake up to a long backlog of e-mails just screaming for your attention, he adds. “The challenge is taking a moment for yourself before diving head first into your day.”

4. Start each day with a clean slate.

You may have to attend to projects or discussions that rolled over from the previous afternoon—but try to treat each day as a fresh one, says David Shindler, an employability specialist and author of Learning to Leap. “Leave any crap from yesterday behind, tap into what’s happening at the outset of the day, get organized and ready or hit the ground running, if that’s what is needed,” he says.

5. Don’t be moody.

You’ll want to pay attention to your mood and be aware of its effect on others. “First and last thing in the day is when emotional intelligence can have the greatest impact,” Shindler says. So if you’re not a “morning person,” try to suck it up and have a positive attitude when you arrive at the office. Grab a second or third cup of coffee, if that’s what it takes.

Kerr agrees. “Your first hour at work can set your ‘attitude barometer’ for the rest of the day, so from a purely emotional point of view, I think it’s an important part of the day,” he says. “One morning grump can infect an entire team and put everyone on the wrong footing.”

6. Organize your day. 

The first hour of the work day is the best time to assess priorities and to focus on what you absolutely need to accomplish, Kerr says. “Too many people get distracted first thing in the morning with unimportant activities such as diving right into their morass of e-mail, when there may be a whole host of more important issues that need dealing with.” Make a to-do list, or update the one you made the previous day, and try to stick to it. However, if your boss has an urgent need, then it’s OK re-shuffle your priorities within reason, Taylor adds.

Anita Attridge, a career and executive coach with the Five O’Clock Club, a career coaching organization, says when you prepare your morning to-do list, determine what must be done today and what can be completed tomorrow, and prioritize accordingly. “Also determine your peak working time and plan your schedule accordingly,” she says. “Use your peak time each morning to do the most important tasks.”

7. Be present.

Even if you’re not a morning person, you need to be awake when you get the office. Especially if you’re in a leadership position, it’s critical to be present, mentally and physically, and to communicate. “One of the biggest office pet peeves I hear from employees is about how their immediate supervisor just blows by them in the morning without so much as a smile,” Kerr says. “Taking the time to connect with your team members is essential, and doing the seemingly small things–making eye contact,  smiling, asking them about their night,  and checking in on what they may need help with–helps you as a leader take the pulse of the team, and helps set the tone for all the employees.”

8. Check in with your colleagues.

“A quick 5 to 10 minute team huddle can also be an effective way for many people to start their day,” Kerr says. Make it a short meeting, with no chairs, have everyone share their top goal for the day, and share any critical information the rest of the team absolutely needs to know, he says. “Doing the huddles helps people focus and more importantly, connects everyone with the team. And by sharing your goals for the day publicly, the odds of achieving them rise substantially.”

9. Ensure that your workspace is organized.

Clearing off the desk and creating a neat workspace sets a tone for the rest of the day, says Alexandra Levit, the author of Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can’t Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success.

It can also help avoid confusion. “While most communications are through e-mails and texts, if your boss or co-worker stopped by looking for you and left a sticky note about a last-minute meeting occurring in ten minutes, and it’s sitting on a mound of mail or papers, you’re already behind the eight ball,” Taylor says. “Also, for many, it’s difficult to think clearly, easy to forget important reminders, and just plain stressful if you feel you’re fighting the battle and the tornado of mail or paper is winning.” Ideally, you’d clear whatever you can out the night before so you can have a fresh start before you even turn on your computer in the morning. But if not, make sure clearing your desk takes precedence over things like checking e-mails and chatting with co-workers in the morning.

10. Don’t be distracted by your inbox.

This one is difficult for most people—but the experts agree that you shouldn’t check your e-mail first thing in the morning. If you do, only read and respond to messages that are urgent. “Priority-scan your inbox,” Taylor says. “Not all e-mails were created equal. Hone your ability to quickly sift the wheat from the chaff and address what must be answered on an urgent basis.”

Attridge agrees. “Only respond immediately to the urgent messages so that you control your morning activities.” There will be time during the day to respond to the less urgent e-mails.

Why must you put off checking e-mails? “For far too many people, e-mail and the web can serve as huge time-wasters and distracters, particularly in the morning,” Kerr says. “Once you start checking e-mails, it’s a click away from watching the funny video someone forwarded you, which then sucks you into the abyss: checking the sports scores on line, the news headlines, the stocks, et cetera, and before you know it you’ve been watching a cat play the drums for twenty minutes and, like a poorly planned Oscars ceremony, your entire schedule is already thrown off before you’ve even begun your day.”

11. Listen to your voice mail.

Most people jump on the computer and ignore their phone. “While office voice mail is indeed becoming antiquated as people rely more on personal cell phones, Blackberrys and e-mail, some people do leave voice messages, and if you ignore them, you could miss something important,” Levit says.

12. Place important calls and send urgent e-mails.

If you know you need to get in touch with someone that day, place the call or send the e-mail first thing in the morning. If you wait until midday, there’s a greater chance you won’t hear back before you leave the office. “There’s nothing more frustrating that trying to complete something and not having access or answers from people you need because your day time hours were lost on other matters,” Taylor says. “If you have your questions ready and your e-mails fired off during early peak hours, by the end of the day you should have what you need.”

13. Take advantage of your cleared head.

“Many people feel that their brains function best in the morning, and that morning is when they are most creative and productive,” Kerr says. “Consider whether you are making the best use of your brainpower and plan ‘high brain’ activities in the morning.”

14. Plan a mid-morning break.

“This is the time to assess where you and take time to revitalize yourself so that you can keep your momentum going,” Attridge says.

If you’re stuck in a routine that doesn’t include these must-dos, it may be worthwhile to re-examine your habits and make some changes for enhanced career development, Taylor says.

“Habits are created out of having regular cues that prompt a routine, which then eventually become our habits,” Kerr adds. The morning is the perfect time to create some critical habits that will, over time, become routine and help you be more focused and productive.

“I know my morning routines are critically important. They help me focus and build momentum,” he says. “I’m a big believer in thinking about the start of your day the night before.”

If you're snowed in this weekend, take some time to shoot your to-do list tasks over to your Fancy Hands assistants. They'll keep working through the weather, so you can make yourself a hot chocolate and relax!

How many times have you been one of the people below in a meeting; daydreaming, complaining, or missing it altogether because you were so sure that it was a waste of time? 

Company meetings can cost time and money without resulting in any positive result for the employees or their employer. 

Here's how to make the best impact on your team: 

• Conduct short meetings; 30 minutes or less.
• Only have a meeting if it's necessary; cancel a recurring meeting if there's nothing much to report. 
• Create an agenda and allow everyone to follow along. People pay more attention to your words when they have a visual guide to follow.
• Open the meeting for discussion and questions only at certain times. Allowing everyone to speak whenever they'd like to is a surefire way to send the meeting schedule off the rails. 
• Have one clear meeting leader, and if others are epxected to speak, be sure that they're prepared before addressing them. 
• Create direct action items and let people know what the expected outcomes are from the information exhanged. 
• End the meeting on a positive note and a laugh. 
• Follow through with team members after the meeting to be sure that you've achieved your desired result from them. 

(Cartoon by Doug Savage, Infographics from Atlassian and Crunched) 

Paula Rizzo loves making lists. She writes a blog called "The List Producer", and she wrote this review of Fancy Hands: 

Even very productive people have trouble getting everything done throughout the day. The secret is being able to delegate. If you can take something off your plate so you can work on something else that you’re better at, you will be much more efficient.

Enter…the assistant. I know you’re thinking, “I can’t afford an assistant!” I know because I said the same thing until I found FancyHands.com. It’s basically a virtual assistant service. So the assistants, who are located all over the United States, will do any task that they can perform using their computer or phone. They won’t pick up your laundry. but they’ll find the best service to come pick it up for you and deliver it back to you when it’s done. I’ve known about them for quite some time but never tried them out until now. I must say…I’m impressed.

Here’s my list:

PROS:

• It’s really cool to say you have an assistant (My friends think I’ve officially “made it”).
• It’s simple to set up and get started. You can email your tasks or submit them right through the website.
• There’s a pretty quick turn around depending on the task (One of my tasks took a few days though, because my assistant was waiting for a call back.)
• There are different plans to meet your needs depending on how many tasks you’ll need help with throughout the month.
• As Leah Busque from TaskRabbit.com says “just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. She’s right.
• FancyHands.com frees up tasks on my to-do list so I can do other things.
• They have a referral service so if you get friends to join you get money towards the following month’s tasks. You can cancel whenever you want.

CONS:

• The tasks don’t roll over from month to month, so use them or lose them!
• There’s no app….yet. I heard it’s coming, though. (Yes, it is!) 
• You never get to meet or talk to your assistant other than via email — so it does feel a bit disconnected. You may get a different person every time (although you can request to get the same person but it doesn’t always work out).                  

Overall, I’m pretty in love with the service.

I’m planning a trip to Italy next month and I’ve used a lot of my tasks for help finding hotel reviews and destination information.

I’ve also used it to find my husband a guitar teacher and a place to donate my old clothes!

The possibilities are endless, really. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Time management expert Julie Morgenstern shares this advice with O Magazine about your to-do list: get real. 

You've got your pad of paper and you're merrily scribbling down your to-dos. And when you get to about item number ten, panic sets in. How will you ever get everything done? You know as well as we do - you won't. Not until you devise a realistic plan. "A manageable list will fuel your sense of accomplishment and allow you to get more done," says Morgenstern, author of Never Check E-mail in the Morning.

We put together a list (office duties not included) that resembles the one buried at the bottom of your purse—then asked Morgenstern to edit it. Follow her sensibly ruthless strategy, and your goals for any given day should fit on a scrap of paper no bigger than a Post-it. 

Things to Cut from Your List: 

• Upload vacation pics from camera

Unless it's going to bring you joy to sift through tons of blurry, off-center images to find the gems, ask someone else to do it. Drop it off at a photo lab or outsource it to a young family member. 

• Reschedule coffee with Angela

If this is a meeting you've been putting off, ask yourself: "Do I really want to hang out with Angela?" Any plans that are tinged with guilt can't be on this list. And if it involves one of those friends who drain you because all they do is vent, just say no. 

• Remind Jackie not to forget Mom's birthday

If Jackie is your sister and you know she's perfectly capable of remembering this on her own but chooses not to, don't make it your problem. It's not your job to compensate for other people's deficits. 

• Check that last month's AmEx bill was paid

A lot of the things that end up on our to-do lists are driven by worry. Looking for ways to automate tasks that seem to keep popping up will eliminate so much stress. In this case, sign up for automatic bill pay on your bank's website. (In other cases, Fancy Hands can help!)

• Get groceries for dinner party

The question we always ask ourselves is "How much can I do?" But the smarter question is "How little can I do without cheating?" When you're already overloaded, opt for a potluck. Learning to throw a party with minimal effort is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. 

Things to Keep on Your List: 

• Call Pamela!!!

A good to-do list includes connecting with at least one friend. Maintaining relationships that you enjoy keeps you energized; dodging them only increases your stress. Instead of setting yourself up to explain why it took you so long to call, dive right in and get caught up. 

• Kickboxing at the Y at 6

Do something for yourself—especially something physical—every day. It doesn't have to be big or time-consuming to pay off in motivation or happiness. 

• Help Aunt Linda assemble bookshelves

Promised favors can be a drag, but you should follow through. You'll feel better once it's done, and Aunt Linda will know she's important to you. 

• Living room redo

Have Pinterest-inspired dreams of redecorating? Break a large-scale project into smaller, less intimidating tasks and put one on your list per week. Select a single, significant element that can be changed—like the sofa—that will breathe new life into the room and start there. 

• Sign up for automatic bill pay

Once you register, you'll get an e-mail from your bank when your payment is sent out, so you won't have to double-check (or triple-check) ever again. 

• Book flights to San Francisco

Never put off anything that could cost you money. Plus, once you have your flights booked, you start racking up the prevacation happy points that come with looking forward to a trip. 

• [Insert emergency here]

Minicrises will come up (hello, leaky bathroom faucet and surprise root canal!), so leaving a time cushion to accommodate the unexpected will help keep your plan from suddenly going out the window. No snafus? More bonus time for you. 

It wil feel so good to get to the end of your list and be done with it! 

Fancy Hands customer Karell has an exciting year ahead of her - she’s getting married in August! Her Fancy Hands assistants have been helping her with all of the planning and research that goes along with that, as well as with various other curiosities that have come up! Here’s what Karell has asked lately: 

We're thinking of having our friend be the officiant for our wedding ceremony that might take place in Yonkers, NY. Can you please tell me what requirements they need to be a legal officiant there? Can you especially confirm if a person ordained online is valid to be a legal officiant? 

Can you help me find a summer camp wedding venue in NY, NY, or PA? Please include prices and what's included.

Can you find some inexpensive dance parties in Brooklyn being held for New Year's Eve? Anything with a ticket price of $40 and under. 

Can you find me a good (read: NOT dive) bar near Broadway and Prince Street in Manhattan that serves picklebacks?  

Can you send me some hotels in Yonkers, New York? I need to find some places that would let me block out a set of rooms for wedding guests. They should be hotels with good ratings on Trip Advisor. Please let me know the hotel websites and their price ranges. 

Can you find me free things-to-do/events/cool things happening in NYC from the 19th through the 26th? I’m interested in music, comedy, shows, demonstrations, store openings, anything cultural, interesting or unique. 

Can you please find other places where they sell this flower girl dress? It's sold out at Nordstrom. Or, if you could, find out when it will be back in stock there. Thanks!