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The World Wide Web is something the world just can’t do without in today’s times. Millions of people around the world go to the internet before making any buying decision. So when starting a new business or a new venture, ignoring the internet may prove to be a costly mistake. If you don’t know what to do when it comes to online marketing, then perhaps this article is going to help you. It may also be that you are already a seasoned veteran in online marketing. However, reading this list of important marketing tools is only going to help you.

a) Google Ad Planner: This is one of those media planning tools that not many people know about or use, but it is really great! This tool lets businesses identify specific target audiences for their products and services and then create an ad plan based on it. The tool lets one find out where a business’s interest- based targets are browsing online and makes it possible to place ads there. This being a free service by Google can be used by anyone and everyone

b) Firebug: This is another marketing tool that is important in the online world. For the proper promotion of your business, you need web development tools and Firebug is a service that is free of cost. Sometimes, ad codes on an advertiser’s website does not work or need to be changed. For this, Firebug is the perfect tool to use.

c) Traffic Estimator: Now this is another important online marketing tool that you need, especially if you are just starting out. This is a tool that has been designed to give people cost estimates and keyword search on search engines that are popularly used. This tool will let you put in keywords, budgets, geographic targeting, match types and CPC’s in order to generate cost estimates of a keyword search campaign. However, this is a tool that has faced a lot of criticism over the years for its failure to provide accurate data every time it is used. So it is advisable that this tool be used with a pinch of salt and not be considered as gospel truth.

d) Microsoft Excel: Now this may not seem like a ‘marketing tool’ as such, but it is actually a very powerful one. Excel has an almost countless number of functions. An online marketer can use Excel to make graphs, charts, calculations, pivot tables, data manipulations and functions. Not only can you use it for creating of reports, analysis, keywords, research campaigns and ads, you can also use this tool for creating a whole ad campaign. So if you are trying to make a mark with online marketing, perhaps you could try and learn as many uses and functions of Microsoft Excel as you can.

e) AdWords Editor: This is a free online marketing tool that is going to help you efficiently and quickly create display, search or remarketing campaigns. Bid and campaign management, two things that an online marketer cannot do without, also becomes possible with this tool.

Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Digg and all the 100s of other social media outlets may be of great importance to your business, but, one thing has not changed and probably never will and that is the need for web site content. In other words, do you regularly add content to your web site or do you just think about it and rarely do this?

Site Content Matters!

The fact is, content is still the king of page rank. Yes, there may be other ways to increase page rank but if you do not add to and improve your site content regularly your site will either loose ranking or visitors will not turn into paying customers as often as they may have.

Social Media and Site Advertising Matters But…

Keep in mind that, you want to develop all of this social media, videos, blogging and other targeting methods such as PPC to bring more people to your web site. So, since the goal is ultimately driving visitors to your web site, then you need to make sure that your site content is rich and of good quality. If not, all the advertising and/or publicity you may generate outside for your site may have little consequences to your bottom line be it financial or personal.

Content Affects Site Rank

When looking at the reasons for search engines to rank your site well, content is of major importance. Search engines live on quality content and the more of it they can deliver to web searchers; the better it is for everyone. When a search engines finds a site that seems to deliver good content, it does not just affect the page that is popular but the whole site. That works the other way too. Poor content may negatively impact other pages on your site.

In addition to search engines, other content delivery sites look for quality content they can post on their own site. As a rule, when your web page is delivered by content sites, your company name and site link is also delivered, which, in most cases, improves your page rank with major search engines.

What is a good amount of content?

First of all, a good amount of content is one that is continually added upon. In other words, you may start with a web site with 10 pages that brings you some web traffic but, as times go, you will want to add more pages to that site on, at least, a weekly basis. The amount of pages will depend upon the demand your type of product has on the web. As you discover new important keywords that pertain to your product of interest, you will want to add pages targeting those keywords.

What is quality content?

Each page should be as focused as possible on keyword subjects. Of course, you do not want to write pages just to stuff the right amount of keywords into the pages. The quality of your writing is more important. Let your thoughts stay focused on the subject and let yourself write naturally around that subject. The right amount of keywords will likely come out naturally. If it does not then refocus your writing so as to optimize the page with quality wording.

So, again, when it comes to your site, make sure that you continually write new, quality and engaging content. It will likely improve your site ranking and your visitor experience whether they are coming from a search engine like Google or Bing or from a social media site like Facebook or Tweeter. If you have any questions about site analysis and content, please do not hesitate to ask us. Be well.

Havilah Marketing offers web marketing advice and many web tools for small to medium size businesses. Our web address is [http://www.havilahmarketing.com]. Some of our offerings are:

Here are four ways to keep your reader interested when creating an article.

1. Find out what your reader’s interests are. If you are specializing in health awareness, then provide articles about the facts of health and safety. If you are missing the necessary information that will capture your readers, then do more research. Browse different forums and chat rooms to acquire details on things that you want to promote.

2. When you are writing an article, start it with an attention grabbing title and introduction. Make sure to take your time creating it. Make it interesting, something that will lure them to read more content. If you are promoting diet pills, then try to make an introduction that will speak to a single person having some problems losing weight. Make the reader feel that you are talking directly to them.

3. Readers need facts, details and tips, so include them. Make your article easy to understand, you don’t need to use big fancy words. The majority of readers are a general audience. Although your readers want that information, they also look forward to some excitement in an article. Make it worth reading.

4. You must not lose that excitement even when the article is about to end. That is one of the greatest problems that writers have, make sure that excitement still lives on.

Remembering that it’s your mission to offer something that a potential client and reader can not resist. Use your article to captivate them, anyone can create an article. Just knowing the basics of an article which are the intro, content and ending, making sure grammar and spelling are correct is very important. You can also hire writers to produce more articles for you which can used for more than one site, this can further increase the traffic to your website. The big question is, can you attract your readers and get them to click on your site?

Here are three other key factors you can keep in mind.

1. Building your reputation as an “expert”. The article will be reflected to its writer. Just like your website, it must be written professionally so that you look like someone they can trust.

2. Your article must draw traffic to your website. The popularity of your site and the products or services that are offered will be dependent on the traffic driving it.

3. It must help you create a database of potential customers. Once your site is popular, you can now link it to other websites to further your traffic even more.

In essence, engagement is the ability to catch the attention of a user. When it comes to SEO, it is the length of time a user stays on a page.

Google may not have officially announced this, but there is proof to imply that this leading search engine rewards websites that have strong user engagement with higher page ranking.

According to Google, a user spends a longer time on a page that he/she finds useful. Because Google aims to provide its users with the most favorable results, it will push sites that have strong engagement in the search results pages.

What is the best way to improve the engagement of your site?

The three strategies you can utilise to boost your content in search engines are as follows:

Make Your Posts Easier to Read

Enhance your page’s readability by formatting your posts well. This way, you can improve your rate of engagement. Based on eye-tracking studies, these three formatting tips can help in making your content more readable to users:

Shorter Paragraphs

Each paragraph should only contain a maximum of 3 sentences. Whenever possible, only write one-sentence paragraphs. However, use them with stride, otherwise, your posts will seem like a blog.
Shorter Sentences
It is harder to read longer sentences on screen. If possible, cut longer sentences into several shorter sentences.
Sub-headers
Users scan the web rather than read what’s on it. To make it easier for them to scan, you should make use of many sub-headers that are clear and informative to serve as their guide through a page.
Bullet Points
Use bullet points when listing your several data such as stats, examples, ideas and facts, among others. This way, users can scan them with ease.

Include Images All Through Your Page

If you want a simple but effective way to enhance engagement with your audience, add professional, high quality images such as pictures and graphs. Images not only tell an idea, but convey it (like a picture says a thousand words).

Next, images lets you break down content into different parts. Lastly, it is natural for users to look at beautiful images.

Lower Your Bounce Rate

It helps to write valuable content and properly format your posts. An additional critical part of engagement is improving your bounce rate, the percentage of users who land on your site, but leave right away without engaging. Bounce rates increase due to factors like wrong implementation and improperly designed landing pages.

However, usually, high bounce rates are caused by poor user experience (UX) and usability. Though such issues vary from one site to another, these can easily be addressed with numerous well-known online tools.

SEO Continues to Change

SEO changes so fast like every year and even every month. So, marketers and business owners should be able to adapt immediately. Your business site could still have an edge over competition.

Always keep in mind to focus on creating solid content, as well as copywriting basics, engaging your viewers and being up-to-date with the latest technical trends – such as backlinks, site speed, schema and SEO health.

How to Get Found When People Are Looking for Your Offerings

Where do you go when you need to find a lawyer, restaurant or interior designer? To Google, of course!

But with so many businesses competing for everyone’s attention, if you are a service-based business you really need to focus on search engine optimization (SEO) as one of your main marketing strategies.

One of the main components of SEO is to find relevant and targeted keywords that make a connection between what your ideal target market is searching for and the services you provide.

Here are 3 SEO keyword research strategies to help service-based businesses get started:

1. Dive deep into your business

You can’t develop an SEO keyword strategy for your service-based business until you understand who’s coming to your site and what they’re looking for.

Head to your Google Analytics account and look at stats like:

What keywords people are using to land on your site

What pages they’re leaving/staying on

Their geographic location

Then, you can fine-tune which keywords to target (like adding city names to service-based phrases), see which keywords aren’t showing up in your data, and create content to enhance the user experience.

2. See what the competition is doing

Whether it’s a company who’s been in the business for years and appears in the top-ranking position or a newer service-based business on the scene, you need a picture of the competitive keyword landscape.

See who comes up when you Google what your customers are looking for. Find out who else is selling your services in a specific location.

Make a note of the type of content they provide potential customers and how well optimized their site is for certain keywords. This helps you understand which keywords they are and aren’t targeting.

3. Focus on longtail keywords

The more general the keyword, the harder it will be to rank for that search term. Service-based businesses should also be researching and utilizing longtail keywords – those keywords that are ultra-specific to whatever you are selling.

While they may bring in less traffic than high ranking, shorter keywords, the traffic they do bring in is very targeted.

Maybe you’re a tax accountant who specializes in returns for people who own a second home in another country. Or a home stager who mostly works in three-bedroom ranchers in the east side of the city. Whatever your niche is, let the (local) world know!

First keyword research, then an SEO strategy

SEO is a necessity for any service-based business – whether your company is all online or has a storefront location. Do your research to develop a solid keyword strategy that will help you dominate the local search rankings.

You don’t have to do this alone! Why not hire an expert in professional search engine optimization? They’ll do your keyword research and SEO strategy the right way so you can focus on building your business in other ways.

What SEO research did you do for your business? Share your experiences in the comments!

Our businesses also differ in terms of interface with clients. If you do “business to business” transactions, the number of people you interact with on a daily basis may differ from someone whose business relies on interacting with consumers. Appointments may be more practical in some instances than others. You have to tailor-make how you manage access to your particular situation if you are to eliminate distractions. Having said that it is important to note that some people do not mind spending the whole day at the office entertaining friends, visitors, and casual acquaintances dropping into the office whenever they feel like it. Do not be that kind of person. It sets the wrong kind of example to junior staff and can harm one’s productivity because these people take up time that you do not have and besides you want to cultivate a professional environment.

The demands of the day are enough to fill the eight working hours available unless if you tend to stay back and play catch up. How do you stay competitive in the market if there is no separation between work and play? Anybody serious about success and achieving effective results will put boundaries that are clear so that there is no confusion. Entrepreneurs are more susceptible to this especially when the workplace is easily accessible. The fact that you are your own boss even puts more responsibility on you to maintain self-discipline and self – management. I have written a whole book called, “Achieve More through Self – Leadership. In it I walk you through the practicalities of how you can get better results through managing self.

Appointments are an important way of not only managing time but managing life. They help you become more structured and productive. Some people seem not to be able to honour their appointments. I once attended a job interview that was supposed to start at 10:30am. By 11:30am there had been no communication about what was happening or when the supposed job interview was going to take place. I decided at the point that this company was probably not good enough for me to join because if you don’t respect people’s time you probably do not respect them.

You may be saying appointments are just not for me yet you never rock up at the doctor, dentist, lawyer or hairstylist without an appointment. Why is that the case? Because you simply won’t see the dentist without an appointment. They have given you conditions acceptable to them. We tell the world around us how to treat us by what we allow.

Some people are always available when you want to see them. If you are always free to see people at short notice, you are probably not that organized. The one who owns a diary will manage the one who doesn’t own one. Why? Because the one without the diary is always available, even though he is very likely to forget important meetings, dates and engagements because of a lack of organization. I used to have a boss who kept a diary and whatever you promised to do in the line of work, he would write down, including the day and time you said he would have it by. You would of-course forget because you didn’t record it like he did and when the time to deliver comes, guess who would be found wanting. It was then that I decided that I do not commit to an action that I am not willing to write down because, what’s written gets done!

You may be saying, “what if my business feeds off the “walk-ins? The fact that your business relies on walk – in customers should not be an excuse for disorder. Sometimes those who drop in unannounced may indeed be potential customers, suppliers, cold-calling salespeople, and even worthwhile business contacts. There is nothing wrong if the call is beneficial to you and your business but I believe there must be a structure and way of doing things that follows certain pre-set principles. I remember seeing a poster in an office that said “if you don’t have anything to do please don’t do it here”. It’s humorous yes, but true. Appointments help to structure your day and helps you allocate time to what’s important. This means you can focus on your most important asset: the paying customer. There is nothing as bad as walking into a place wanting to do business and staff are inattentive because there is just a demand on their time. I am more understanding if the personnel are not busy entertaining social visits at work.

In conclusion, you know your business situation better than any of us. All we can do is make recommendations that will enable efficiency that leads to growth. Some of you may actually need a personal assistant who will put order in your office and focus on the things you are not willing to do that will enable to focus on the highly value things you ought to do such as running a business.

Do you think successful people are just plain lucky?

Successful people did not become successful because they were lucky.

They did not achieve success by accident. Being at the right place at the right time, meeting relevant people, reading the appropriate book, did not come about accidentally or by luck.

Luck is brought about by Labour Under Correct Knowledge.

Successful people prepared themselves. Instead of giving up on anything they started and wanted to achieve they got stronger by learning more.

Success is a methodical, orderly and deliberate process of deciding what you want to do with your life, what are the steps that you need to undertake to get you there, and lastly what you will do once you get there.

One of the most important aspects, if not the most important aspect to success, is the ability to visualise your successful outcome and stay focused on it until you achieve it.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is limited.” – Albert Einstein

Successful people understood the potential power behind knowledge, yet they also understood that, for them to close the gap between where they are and where they wanted to be, they would have to piece together the enigma that is most often referred to as “life”.

They had to build a picture, a vision, of success in their mind, and then go about taking action on creating that envisioned life.

In much the same way, you have to be serious about your present and future, you need to have the knowledge that is required so you, too, may close the gap: you need to be and remain determined to devote yourself to taking massive action to build your business of succeeding in life.

You, too, will need to see the end, your dream and destiny that you desire in your mind’s eye. It is up to you to take the necessary and relevant action to make it all happen. It’s just like going to the doctor with a particular health problem.

The doctor may prescribe a medication for you to take four times a day, yet he cannot be there with you to ensure that you are taking the medication.

It comes back to deciding to be responsible for your life.

Have you noticed how it all stems from that one attitude? Being responsible for your own life.

Your success, your being responsible 100% for you to live your dream life starts here.

When you accept 100% responsibility for yourself and your current life situation, you will have the power to move towards those things you truly desire in life: which is success in all areas of your life.

This life-changing article is about possibilities and opportunities, knowledge and tools. It will help expose your unique course in life.

It will inspire, support and motivate you to excel, to do what successful people do, to have all that successful people have, and to become a shining example of a successful person.

Here, you’re not being told what you couldn’t do, instead you are being told to shoot for the stars. And above all, you are being shown how to shoot for those stars.

“A person is what he thinks about all day long.” – Emerson

Interesting thought, wouldn’t you think? So much so, it’s worth repeating: “A person is what he thinks about all day long.”

Success and happiness cannot happen if you possess the same old thoughts and beliefs.

If you do not change your mind, if you do not get rid of the unsupportive thoughts and beliefs, you will inevitably remain stuck in your old ways. Not much, if anything, will change.

Let’s give you a quick overview on how change comes about:

Your BEHAVIOUR, how you act (or perhaps do not act), controls your success or failure. Your ability to attain high levels of success is dependent upon your actions and behaviours. Your results are the outcome of your behaviour. Now let’s consider where your behaviours come from and what controls them?

Your FEELINGS command your behaviour. Every action that you take is first filtered through your feelings that reside in your subconscious mind. How you feel about something determines what you do and how well you do it. So where do your feelings come from?

Your ATTITUDES create and influence your feelings. Your attitude is your perspective from which you view life. Whatever attitude you have about anything will affect how you feel, which, in turn, affects how you act. Where do your attitudes come from?

Your BELIEFS create, control and influence your attitudes. What you believe about anything will determine your attitude about it, which will create your feelings, and then which will direct your behaviour and action. Belief patterns are so powerful that two people who are in the same situation could perceive things completely differently. It only requires us to believe what we see and how we see it. We all have thousands of beliefs – big and small. And where do your beliefs come from?

Your THOUGHTS create, control and influence your beliefs. Your thoughts are real and are immensely powerful. Everything you accept from the outside world and everything you feed yourself from within is a product of your thoughts. Everything starts as a thought.

So, it goes without saying you need to learn to control your thoughts. And when you do, you will automatically control your beliefs, your attitudes, your feelings and, consequently, your behaviour and actions.

The big secret to success:

Learn to control your thoughts and you will influence your behaviours and actions. It’s all a mind-set. That’s what we’ve been saying all along.

Success is predictable and is not achieved by accident.

Have the mind-set of the successful people and you will achieve success. Believe and it is yours!

“There is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.” – Joel Osteen

Science of success experts have concluded that the brain is a goal-setting organism.

That is fantastic news for us: for whatever goal we give to our subconscious mind, it will work for us day and night, 24/7, to achieve it for us; to make it a reality.

The principal breakthrough that scientists made was that we do not need to waste our precious time and effort trying to change old thoughts and behaviours: we just simply create new ones.

And the other discovery they made was that we can continue to create new thoughts, new memories, new behaviours, new skills, and learn new things for as long as we are alive on this earth.

Now, with the new discoveries in recent years, it has been scientifically proven that our capacity to achieve and succeed literally has no limits.

Our brain has the capacity to continually learn during our entire lifetime.

Our brain can form new thoughts, can have new memories, and can learn new things by the millions, no matter what your age is. By the millions.

That’s how many new things we can learn, that’s how many new skills we can learn, that’s how many new thoughts we can have, that’s how many new behaviours we can adopt.

This is encouraging because there is no limit on your capacity to achieve new things.

No limits whatsoever for the human brain to learn, memorise, develop, achieve and perform at higher levels than ever imagined. It makes no difference what your age is: you are capable of learning anything new that you want to learn.

That adds to what we spoke of earlier: no more excuses.

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

Your brain has the capacity to achieve way beyond what was ever thought possible. So now is the time to break out of your limited thinking and start dreaming big and imagining unlimited possibilities.

Becoming successful is not impossible.

It is a choice you make through a decision. Every day, step-by-step, you may climb the mountain of success if you’ve decided to do so, if you’re committed to accomplish what the others think impossible.

Design your future now.

Prepare to receive what you desire.

Thanks to the phenomenal advances made in cognitive science and the development of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), personal change, personal transformation, has come a very long way.

In fact, personal growth is no longer a mystery.

NLP has brought to light that change, transformation and growth can be fast, reliable, and even fun. It has shown us that we do not need to spend thousands of hours slaving away to increase our creative-thinking abilities.

By practicing a few simple exercises and applications, you can start your creative juices flowing, and you may even amaze yourself at the quality and quantity of good ideas that you can come up with to expedite your success.

It can allow you to achieve something you seek within days and months as opposed to years and decades. That’s the power of the progress science has made on how the brain works, and also how you can have your mind to be your best ally in achieving anything you want.

Learn to live as you like by no longer living as you dislike.

Are you ready to get on the road to success and fulfilment?

Bear in mind, much like everything else in life, success requires practice and massive, consistent action.

“Success doesn’t mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war, not every battle.” – Edwin C Bliss

Do you feel as if you’ve outgrown your circle of friends? Perhaps you do not feel safe or understood any longer. There may be fewer and fewer things you can share with people in your habitual circle, and it leaves you feeling lonely or isolated. If so, you are not alone. Welcome to one of the core dynamics of continuous growth!

As we continue to evolve, many of us struggle with a sense of not quite fitting in with our traditional community or tribe: we may have expanded or changed beyond the borders of tribal norms, and no longer find the same sense of belonging there. Other members may have tightened the tribal rules to foster a sense of security. As a result, we may feel a sense of disconnection or alienation.

In truth, each one of us belongs to many tribes simultaneously: there is your original tribe – the family you were born into – and then there are all the communities of choice you have joined: your work tribe, your social circles, your faith-based community, your neighborhood, and more. These communities are not static; they are in continuous flux because they consist of individuals who are in continuous states of change. When there is a lot of change happening in either the individual or the community, a sense of dissonance results.

How are we to deal with this? First, it is important to recognize that tribal allegiances were historically forged for survival. They were adapted over the course of centuries to ensure the safety and survival of the group. Survival required that individuation be sacrificed for the trade-off of security.

In modern society, the tables are flipped. Whether we enjoy it or not, change is essential for survival at every level of being. The pace of change is driven by technological advances and happens with increasing rapidity: sociologists estimate that more change has taken place in society over the course of the past 100 years, than in the totality of the previous 6,000 years. Individual adaptation now is a requirement for survival, and the pace of individual change does not always match the pace at which our various tribal communities evolve. The resulting dissonance can cause intense friction and pain.

Dissonance also results from confusion between the concepts of ‘connection’ and ‘community.’ We tend to equate one with the other, when they really relate to different qualities. Connection relates to connectivity: the objective physical technology or media that enables us to build community, but which does not represent the quality of that community. Connectivity simply offers the opportunity to connect with others through internet, texting, phone calls, or any other social networking options.

Community is the result of building relationship through meaningful interaction over time. There is no shortcut; it is a process that develops when bonds of trust and intimacy are nurtured and honored.

And here lies a caveat: When we confuse connectivity with community, we depersonalize the sacred nature of true community and start relating to people as objects. Instead of developing intimacy over time, we collect friends on social network sites or try to buy people’s allegiance. Yet friending is simply an act of connecting; it does not create intimacy.

In fact, social experiments indicate that technologically dominated connectivity results in alienation and social collapse over time. In a groundbreaking social experiment conducted by Josh Harris, one of the founders of social networking on the internet, he found that the more people’s private lives were exposed by 24/7 technology, the more their sense of intimacy and relationship deteriorated until the community collapsed in violence and self-destructive behavior.

It is time to revisit our concepts of community so we can create tribes that offer a true sense of intimacy and belonging.

In his 1987 book, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, psychologist M. Scott Peck described several core characteristics of true community. Beyond the obvious components of inclusivity, commitment and participatory consensus, Peck pointed out the quality of embracing diversity through realism. When each member contributes their unique viewpoint from a place of humility and goodwill, the community benefits from a broader perspective in which to better grasp the full context of a situation. In other words, mutual tolerance helps members to embrace one another’s different viewpoints as an integral part of the whole, instead of imposing a forced compliance to groupthink or cohesion.

In an environment like this, members experience and express compassion and respect for one another. They allow others to share their vulnerability, to learn and grow, and to express who they truly are. When conflict arises, they learn to resolve it with wisdom and grace. Members listen to and respect each others’ gifts, accept each others’ limitations, celebrate their differences, and commit to find solutions together rather than to fight against each other. Indeed, the true spirit of community is the spirit of peace, love, wisdom and power. The source of this spirit may be seen as an outgrowth of the collective self or as the manifestation of a Higher Will.

Does this description of community sound spiritual to you? It is indeed, because Spirit is the common denominator among all of us, regardless of how separate we feel from others.

As human beings, we often experience a socio-economic sense of separation from others because of different opinions, beliefs, expectations, language, culture, or interests, since each one of us expresses these in a way uniquely different from anyone else. And still, we continue to differentiate! In this ongoing process, we continue to evolve or devolve in response to life. A community that felt like a good fit last year may no longer work today; the places where we felt embraced, now may suffocate us. Over the course of a lifetime, we can expect to outgrow and change allegiances to many of the tribal communities we once belonged to.

And yet, when we transcend the layers of physical appearance, mental beliefs and socio-economic conditioning, we find in the presence of Spirit a common denominator in everyone around us. Perhaps it is time to expand our tribal definitions to embrace a spiritual community that includes all of mankind as children of God.

Mother Teresa admonished her nuns to see Jesus in every leper they encountered, to find His presence as they looked into the eyes of the homeless. When we can look past the issues that divide us to find omnipresent Divinity in each other, we will uncover the foundations of true community.

Spiritual community transcends all socio-economic borders, beliefs and backgrounds. It is inclusive because it operates on voluntary self-responsibility and mutual compassion, and its doors are open to everyone.

Building this type of community takes time: time to listen, to hear, to respond and to participate. Take a few moments to read the description of spiritual community again. Then, make time in your life to foster that type of connection with people who matter to you. You are one of the architects of community in your life, and you can participate in building a tribe where you belong.

What would happen to you if your home life was more organized than it is right now? Can work-life balance be achieved? What are the tools at our disposal? Could scheduling appointments and keeping them at home help us save time and prioritize?

What is the challenge we face? I sometimes find that time spent at home can be the busiest time, especially in the times we live in. Imagine someone working from home, home-schooling children, and sometimes even doing a side hustle. Imagine also the full-time home-based entrepreneur. How do they manage to do all they need to do in a day?. We are living in a time when many entrepreneurs and even company employees have adopted work- at – home culture. This comes with its challenges as the lines become blurred between home and work. These blurred lines and constraints on the limited resource called time result in over-worked, under-rested, burnt-out individuals. Whilst good time management has been encouraged and indeed, embraced in the workplace, I believe more needs to be done in changing the mindset for the elusive work-life balance to be achieved.

What are the tools at our disposal? To manage time effectively at home, there are many interventions one can employ including setting goals for the day, prioritizing wisely, setting a time limit for every task, organizing oneself, and instituting the discipline of appointments. Yes, an appointment at home! We can spend time pontificating on the pros and cons of each intervention, however, I believe we need to focus on appointments and see how this can powerfully change the course of one’s day regardless of whether it’s a workday or weekend. Life is busy as it is without any intrusions. The question is how do you handle the one who announces that they are at the gate. These can be friends, neighbors, a salesman of some product you do not even need. I am not promoting regimentation here but rather a culture of filling your day with what’s important. Everything that we succeed at is because we carefully plan and execute it. I am a firm believer that you cannot manage time if you do not manage yourself thus I implore you to incorporate planning and appointments into your repertoire. I am not talking about something I do not do. I have to achieve many things in a day therefore I set appointments with my work, others, and myself.

Could scheduling appointments and keeping them on the home front help us save time and prioritize? Whereas we have established that it is a normal business practice to set appointments and keep them, we need to abandon the liberal open-door policy of allowing all and sundry to have access to us as and when they please on the home front. Please understand where I am coming from. We each have greatness within us but for us to achieve it we need to culture great habits. Employing the use of appointments at home and seeing only those people you had agreed to see removes non-essential encounters especially during the most productive hours. I know this will vary with culture, geographical region, or even level of affluence, whether you live in a low density or high-density residential area, but doesn’t negate the need to be organized and effective. Controlling access determines how organized you are and how well you will work and rest when the time for scheduled rest comes.

What do we need to do differently? We need to be disciplined and diligent, learn to say no, now is not a good time, let’s make an appointment for next week. What are the benefits of this approach? You are not always fire-fighting to meet deadlines, You are not always tired because you have not taken time out to rest. You have set aside enough time to spend with your loved ones or a loved one. If you are a busy person, I am sure you appreciate what I am saying. Whether it’s time to work uninterrupted, family time, or “me-time”, it takes some kind of order to enjoy it.

I am not saying that those that come unannounced are bad people. No, not at all, they probably are people you enjoy spending time with. Nevertheless, there must be prior communication so that you can attend to your visitor(s) when it is convenient for both you and them. It can be quite disrupting and a whole day can just pass by without achieving anything that you had planned to do.

As we grow older we begin to appreciate that rest and recovery need to be scheduled. The fact that I am relaxing doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything to do. One therefore cannot assume that just because you are at home you are available. Maybe you have scheduled that time to rest. That is important. You need to make an appointment with yourself, spouses need to also set aside time for each other. Parents need to schedule a time to spend with their children. When you have some sort of order in your life you determine who sees you and who you see. It also means that your relationships will be healthy and that makes you a happier person.

In conclusion, I believe that the work-life balance can be achieved. There are many tools at our disposal just like it is in the workplace.I believe we could do more and be happier if we are disciplined enough to make only the commitments we can keep.I am certain that setting appointments and keeping them at home help us save time and prioritize.