From the Desk of Janet Barclay

What an awesome party! The celebration was made even greater by seeing Canada break the world’s record for Olympic gold medals. Woo hoo!

Thanks to everyone who dropped in, especially those of you who took time to participate in the Trivia Challenge.

Here’s a recap of the questions, along with the correct answers:

1. What is the name of the networking group I run for local virtual assistants?

Golden Horseshoe Virtual Assistants Group – mentioned in A Few More Minutes of Fame and Glory and Happy New Year 2009

2. When did I last attend a POC Conference?

2006 – mentioned in FoVA 2009 in Review

3. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, what is my personality type?

ISTJ – mentioned in Is it Time to Revise YOUR Work Schedule? and How I Became a Virtual Assistant

In the spirit of the Olympics, I’ve decided to award not just one prize, but three.

The gold medal goes to Jacki Hollywood Brown, the first person to answer all the questions correctly. Jacki is eligible to receive a prize of her choice from my Products page. Congratulations, Jacki!

The silver medal goes to Julie Bestry, who also got all the correct answers. Julie is eligible to receive a prize of her choice from my Products page, with a maximum value of $24.95.

The bronze medal goes to Ross Dodwell, who got two out of three answers correct. Ross is eligible to receive a prize of his choice from my Products page, with a maximum value of $9.99.

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks again to everyone else who played along.

I’m having another special event here later this month, with even more prizes. Make sure that you get all the details by following me on Twitter, subscribing to my blog by email, or adding it to your RSS reader!

Today is my birthday, but I’ve had lots of those, and hope to have many more, so it’s really not a big deal. On the other hand, it also happens to be the anniversary of two major milestones in my life. It’s hard to believe, but it’s been 20 years since I moved to this city to start a new life with the man who is now my husband and business partner, and 5 years since I left the world of paid employment to work in my business full time.

I’m so excited that I decided to have a blog party, and I’m glad you were able to stop by. I hope you brought your own food and drinks though, because that’s one thing I haven’t figured out how to do virtually.

It wouldn’t be much of a party without games, so I’ve decided to have a Trivia Challenge. Below are three questions All About Me (it is my party, after all!). All the answers can be found on my blog fairly easily, so if it’s your first time here, you have just as much chance of winning as people who have known me for years.

The first person to get them all right will receive a prize of their choice from my Products page. You have until Monday morning at 6:00 AM EST to play. The correct answers – and the winner – will be announced here on Monday.

Are you ready to play? Here are the questions:

1. What is the name of the networking group I run for local virtual assistants?

2. When did I last attend a POC Conference?

3. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, what is my personality type?

Have fun!

What are you doing tomorrow? Would you like to come to a party?

Don’t worry; it’s not the type of party where you have to dress up or worry about driving home safely. It’s a blog party, and it’s happening right here!

I don’t want to spoil the surprise by telling you all about it now, but there will be a game, with a prize for the winner!

The party will run all weekend, in case you can’t make it on Friday, so please don’t miss it!

I hope you enjoyed today’s picture… as I typed the title of the post, I had this sudden flashback from my childhood. I went to my bookcase and, sure enough, I still have the book! I see that someone else’s name is written in it, so if that person wants it back, she should let me know…

I recently read a statistic regarding the number of outstanding tasks the average person has at any given time. It was so depressing that I quickly put it out of my mind, but the fact is, we all have many things to do, both personally and professionally. Most people have some kind of system to keep track of it all, whether it’s a collection of Post-It Notes (not recommended), a task manager connected to Outlook or another electronic calendar, or something in between.

If you haven’t found a system that works well for you, perhaps one of the following resources is just what you need.

NowDoThis is an online solution that is ideal for people who just don’t like lists. Simply go to the website, click on Edit, and a text box comes up. Type in the things you need to accomplish in the order they should be done, then click Save. All that shows up on your screen now is the first item on your list. Once you’ve completed it, click on Done, and your next task appears. Repeat until you’re finished. It’s that simple! No account to set up or log into; no complicated interface. It doesn’t get much easier than this!

Remember The Milk is a more elaborate online solution which allows the user to enter deadlines, tag tasks with appropriate keywords, and receive reminders by email, Twitter, SMS, or instant messenger, among other really cool features. It can be accessed on a cell phone or other mobile device, making it perfect for busy people on the go.

Maybe you prefer pen and paper, but keep losing those scraps of paper or are bored with plain white notepads. If you need a change but can’t bring yourself to spring for some fancy note paper for yourself, why not download and print a fun “Mom’s Got A Latte Do Today” list from Skip to My Lou, or a “Short Term Memory Loss Device” from Design. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.?

For lots and lots of lists, consider a membership to ListPlanIt, where along with various to-do lists, you’ll find lists for planning every area of your life, including home, business, finance, travel, and much more.

How do YOU keep track of what you need to do?

Do you ever have days when you download your email and find your inbox full of newsletters, spam, chain letters, jokes, and warm fuzzies?

You can unsubscribe from newsletters and use SpamArrest to eliminate spam, but how do you handle well-intentioned friends who feel compelled to share every single email that puts a smile on their face? For an answer to this question, check out Thanks. No. which offers an interesting, if somewhat passive-aggressive, approach to dealing with people who are addicted to forwarding.

Thanks. No. isn’t really my style, nor will I just delete this type of email automatically. I always like to take at least a quick glance, because you just never know when you’ll come across something that is worth reading and even sharing. For example, take the following passage, which I received not too long ago – I think it will speak to you, no matter what season of life you’re in.

You know, time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years.

It seems just yesterday that I was young, just married and embarking on my new life with my mate. And yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went.

I know that I lived them all… And I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams… But, here it is… the winter of my life and it catches me by surprise… How did I get here so fast? Where did the years go and where did my babies go? And where did my youth go?

I remember well… Seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that winter was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like…  But, here it is…

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