I’ve been doing a lot of research and writing lately about the topic of being more efficient with email. In discussing this topic with people, I’ve discovered that the majority of people who feel that they are not efficient with email have the same few concerns.

Those concerns are:

• Lack of understanding about their email program. Most of these people feel that they don’t fully understand the different things that they can do to sort, organize and utilize their email accounts most efficiently.
• Too-frequent use of email. One of the most common complaints from people is that they check email all of the time which reduces productivity in other areas of their work.
• Taking too long to respond. This means two things. First, people feel like they leave emails in their inboxes too long before answering them which clutters the inbox and stresses them out. And second, they feel like writing up their responses takes too much of their time.

What I have come to believe after talking with these people is that the solution is a fairly simple one:

Set aside time each day to deal with email.

During this time, you can commit to answering everything that comes through your inbox in a focused and efficient manner. You can also commit a certain amount of time each day to learning a new tool or trick for your email. (A good one is to learn about email templates which will reduce your response time!) And then you can forget about email the rest of the day.

Tags: efficiency, ehow, email, how to, kathryn vercillo, productivity, simplify, tips

People seem to take poetry way too seriously. I think it’s because of the way that poetry was approached in school. We were asked to deconstruct the meaning of every line of poems that probably didn’t interest us. Sometimes a red wheelbarrow is just a red wheelbarrow, you know.

But poetry is meant to be fun. Even when it’s not happy, even when it is intense, it is meant to be an experience that we immerse ourselves in. It is meant to be something that we enjoy.

Celebrating National Poetry Month is all about bringing that fun back to poetry. It’s about honoring the fact that poetry exists in our history and in our modern lives. It’s about finding that poet that you can fall in love with and reading his or her works again and again. It’s about attending poetry readings and feeling the energy of a crowd or getting lost in the page as you pen your own poems for no one else’s eyes.

There are many small things that we can do to celebrate poetry but the main thing is to stop looking so negatively about it, to stop taking it so seriously, to stop thinking that we know what it is and instead to give it a chance to reveal something new to us. Who knows, it may just make us laugh with glee!

Tags: arts, celebration, ehow, kathryn vercillo, national poetry month, poetry, writing poetry

Anyone who has spent much time as my friend probably has a photo scrapbook that I made for a birthday or holiday celebration. It’s a running joke among those who knew me that I photograph everything and create scrapbooks all of the time. I laugh and say that I’d forget what I did if I didn’t have photo books to remind me but the truth is that I just really like being able to look back at all of those captured memories now and again. And even though they love to poke fun at me, I know that all of my friends treasure those little photo scrapbooks that I wrap up and give them periodically to remember our times together.

The reason that gifts like these are great aren’t because they’re truly wonderful gifts. It’s not like I make stunning scrapbooks worthy of Martha Stewart or Bree Van de Kamp. Often my scrapbook gifts turn out messy. But they are great nonetheless because they are personalized and in the end, personal thought-through heartfelt gifts are always better than storebought gifts even when they are a little bit messy.

There are many different types of personalized gifts other than just scrapbooks. There are photo blankets and handmade Christmas ornaments and even love letters. Anything that you make yourself and which includes references to something you’ve done with someone or just to your love for them is a personal gift. And that is always a gift worth giving.

Tags: celebration, ehow, gifts, kathryn vercillo, personalized gifts, presents, promo gifts, scrapbook

I don’t get the chance to write about fashion very often but it happens every now and then. For example, I recently provided advice on How to Wear High Heels without Hurting your Feet. I’ve been wearing high heels for as long as I can remember but I also walk everywhere so I’ve had to learn how to do this the hard way. It’s paid off in a set of great tips.

The article was chosen as one of the Top 3 articles this month in the Fabulous! Festival. The two other posts that were chosen along with mine for this honor were on mineral makeup and around-the-world shopping from your computer. Although these were considered the Top 3 posts, all of the other posts were also good.

There were posts on beauty in the areas of skin care and alpha lipoic acid. There were posts on fashion topics like pinups, depression chic and Milan fashion week. There were general style posts on handbags and Apple products. And there were shopping tips for things like prom. All great stuff! Do have a read.

Tags: beauty, blog carnival, ehow, fabulous festival, Fashion, high heels, how to, kathryn vercillo, style, tips

I’ve been really lucky in the past few years in that I have made a large number of great new friends. I’m not just talking about the people that I kind of know and see around. I’m talking about good friends who are really there for me.

It wasn’t always this way. I’ve often found it difficult to make new friends as an adult. Since I work from home, figuring out where to meet new people is tough. And since I’m busy, it’s hard to make the time that you need to make in order to really build up friendships.

But I’ve been successful at it lately and I’ve benefitted from that greatly. Here are some tidbits of info on how I’ve managed to make new friends:

• Met people through the Internet. Whether it’s Craigslist or Meetup.com or just via commenting on the blogs of local bloggers, I’ve used the Internet to make that initial connection. It’s just so much easier than approaching someone in a coffee shop, I think.
• Found things I like to do. It helps to have some shared activity when making new friends so I find things that I like to do and then invite along new people that I want to be better friends with.
• Said yes when people invited me to things. The more you go out, the more chance you have of making new friends, right?
• Maintained connections online. I find that sites like Facebook and chat conversations on AIM make it easy to really trade information and get to know someone even when you can’t get together in person all of the time. It’s not a substitute for real face-to-face connecting but it’s definitely a great supplement.
• Shared myself openly. The more open and honest I am about who I am and what’s going on with me, the stronger the connections that I’ve been able to make with others.

What else are people doing to make new friends as adults?

Tags: ehow, friendship, kathryn vercillo, meeting people, Relationships, socializing, society

One of the things that I don’t miss about my last place was that it had carpets. Sure, there are great things about carpets but they are so hard to keep clean! I much prefer my hardwood floors.

Nevertheless, I did have carpets for a long time. I also had dogs, a combination that doesn’t mix very well. Because of this, I was constantly testing out new vacuum cleaners and carpet cleaning products to try to keep that carpet free of pet hair and dirt.

What I found was that the best solution was to make your own carpet cleaner. This was great for three main reasons. First, it was cheap. Second, it was made using natural ingredients instead of chemicals so it was healthy and “green”. And finally, it really worked a lot better than anything else I tried.

Have you ever made your own carpet cleaner? Do you have any suggestions for how to make a good solution that works on all different types of carpets? I don’t need that advice anymore since I’ve got my great hardwood floors but I’d love to know the answer so that I can pass it on to others!

Tags: carpet cleaner, ehow, home, household products, how to, kathryn vercillo, make your own cleaners, natural cleaners

I believe that the key to living a healthy life is to live in moderation. I don’t always stick with this belief. I have some hedonistic tendencies. I like to indulge and imbibe. I like to revel and rejoice. But ultimately, I believe that most things work best when they are done in moderation rather than at the extremes.

I believe that this is true of both work and play. I definitely go through periods of being a workaholic. This is sometimes great since I really do love the work that I do. But ultimately the lack of moderation in my work causes me to dislike what I normally enjoy about it and to seek to regain that balance of work and play yet again. Likewise, when I play too much, I miss my work. When I am too social, I miss my solitude and when I stay home alone too much, I miss my friends. My life is constantly about trying to find balance and that balance comes with learning moderation.

One specific example of moderation that works is in dieting and weight loss. I don’t believe in fad diets. I don’t believe in rapid weight loss. I don’t believe in extreme weight changes. What I believe is that your body has a weight that’s right for it and that if you eat healthy and in moderation then you will naturally balance out at this weight, the right weight for you and the one at which you will feel your best. I don’t believe in over-indulging in treats but I do believe in indulging in what you enjoy on a regular basis. I believe, ultimately, in moderation – in weight loss, yes, but more importantly in life as a whole.

Tags: balance, being healthy, diet, eating right, ehow, happiness, how to, kathryn vercillo, life, moderation, weight loss, wellness

Yoga is a popular form of exercise, especially in California where I live. However, it’s more than just a form of exercise. Yoga is a means of connecting with yourself. It’s a tool that can be used to get away from the hectic pace of life and bring yourself back to the core things that matter for you. It’s a way to establish peace of mind, get to know what’s going on with your body and really heal yourself from the inside out.

I never thought that I would be a yoga person. I was always someone who couldn’t sit still for long. I was always someone who wanted to do hiking and indoor rock climbing and other activities that involved a lot of motion. And I was definitely never someone who enjoyed classes filled with people who were exercising together.

But then things happened in my life. My world crashed down around me. And the only thing that I felt capable of doing was breathing (although some days I didn’t even feel capable of that). That was when I found yoga. I signed up for a weekly workshop. I dragged myself there. I learned to do some basic poses. I learned to breathe more deeply. And I learned to settle my mind so I could just relax despite the chaos happening around me. The physical exercise is certainly an important part of yoga but yoga is about so much more than that.

Ever since I started that first workshop, I have felt that yoga must be an important part of my life for the rest of my life. I make time for yoga classes no matter what else is going on. When I was ill recently, the thing I missed most was being able to go to yoga. Although it’s not the right activity for everyone, it’s now the right activity for me.

Tags: ehow, exercise, health, how to do yoga, spirituality, wellness, yoga

One of the cool things about being a freelance writer is that you get asked how to do all sorts of different things. Because I’ve researched such a diverse range of topics, people will ask me about random stuff in the hopes that I’ve had to learn about it for an article in the past.

For example, someone might ask me how to paint block walls. Even if I’ve never done this outdoor design task before, there’s a good chance that I would know something about it because I’ve done a lot of writing about various building, landscaping and design topics.

Indeed, I do have a basic idea of how to paint block walls. They have to be smoothed out with the right materials, painted with the right type of paint and then sealed over so that the paint doesn’t peel off easily as a result of being out in the elements.

If I wanted to actually do this task myself, I’d do more in-depth research into the specific types of paints and sealants that should be used for the material of the block wall that I was painting (cinder block for example) but even without doing this research, I do have a basic idea of how to do the job. That’s the kind of smart stuff that freelance writers get to learn about all the time!

Tags: design, ehow, freelance work, how to, kathryn vercillo, landscape, painting, writing

One of the things that has always fascinated me most about life is relationships. All relationships interest me from sibling relationships to friendships but it’s the way that romantic relationships work that really captures my fascination.

I entered my first long-term relationship when I was fourteen. Ever since (for more than half of my life) I have been trying to figure out who I am inside and outside of relationships and how to make mine work best. What I’ve learned over the years is that relationships require a lot of hard work but they’re also the best thing that life offers us and one of the greatest ways to learn about ourselves.

I believe, in the end, that the best part of relationships is the day-to-day stuff that we do for each other when we’re in them. It’s those little moments of tenderness and kindnesses and ways we support each other and be there for each other that really make all relationships worth it.

My belief in that is why I’ve written a guide on how to make your spouse feel special every day. It’s not because I think that this is something we have to do in a long-term relationship but because it’s something that I think we should do if we want to have happy, positive, giving and loving relationships. I hope that I keep wanting to do the little things for someone for the rest of my life … and that I keep learning more and more about how relationships work because I really think that’s one of the most important things we can learn in this lifetime.

Tags: ehow, how to make someone feel special, little things, make feel special, marriage, nice things, Relationships, spouse, tips