Category Archives: Administrative Support

Oct25

The Top 3 Most Haunted Places In The US

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The Top 3 Most Haunted Places In The US

Right now, the scariest thing we’re all facing is the raging Covid-19 pandemic. But, with Halloween upon us in a few days, it might be a good idea to take a break from worrying over the pandemic for a while and have some fun. 

We won’t be holding any costume parties for a while or until we get the pandemic under control. But we can always look for ways to get into the spirit of the season. Everyone loves to read a good ghost story, right? Let’s take our minds off the pandemic for a while. There’s no time like today to take a virtual tour and visit some of the most haunted places in the US.

San Antonio, Texas

The setting for one of the deadliest battles in the US, San Antonio, Texas is a hotbed for ghostly hauntings. There are many reports of apparitions of army men who fought for the independence of Texas from Mexico in the historic ‘The Battle of Alamo.’ You can also hear chanting and horse’s hooves in the prominent hotels around the area. It is said that the number of paranormal disturbances has actually increased over the years. Among the most haunted sites are: 

  • The Menger Hotel – that has the reputation of being the ‘Most haunted hotel in Texas’ 
  • The Crockett Hotel – where there are sightings of the Alamo Defenders in and around the hotel, and; 
  • The Emily Morgan Hotel – which once housed a morgue and a psychiatric ward.  

Hollywood, California

Good old Hollywood is the site for so many spooky stories, including celebrity hauntings. Here is no shortage of urban legends about celebrities who died and supposedly haunt the places they used to frequent. In fact, the Hotel Roosevelt has the most star-studded line up which includes celebrity ghost sightings by famous actors such as Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. Another haunted site that is a favorite of ghost hunters is the Queen Mary, a cruise liner that was turned into a hotel. Its Stateroom B340 has been the site of so many hauntings that management decided to close it off for a number of years.

Waynesville, Ohio

Waynesville has been called the most haunted town in Ohio, and for good reason. It is the site of 30 haunted houses. Yes, 30! It’s so haunted that The Museum at the Friends Home offers regular Ghostly History Walking Tours of many of those haunted locations. Among the many haunted sites in Waynesville, Ohio are:

  • The Hammel House in downtown Waynesville which houses the infamous room number 4, site of a gruesome 19th-century murder.
  • The Friends (Quaker) Meeting House, where a ghostly figure of a woman stares eerily from the white brick building’s windows.
  • The burial grounds at High Street, where you can hear the pained cries of the long departed.

Do you have any ghost stories or experiences? Share them with us in the comments. 

Happy Halloween! Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Oct18

Remote Work Is Not For Micromanagers

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Remote Work Is Not For Micromanagers

A lot of people are still working from home after the Covid-19 Delta variant has poured cold water over employers and employees “return to the office” plans. One positive thing about this exercise is that it proves that remote workers can be as efficient (or even more efficient) as on-site employees. It breaks down the notion that work from home employees are harder to manage than those who work in the office. It also demonstrates that not only is remote work possible, but should actually be part of a company’s business continuity plan as best practice.

We’re looking at a couple more years of remote working. Two at the very least. Or until almost everyone gets vaccinated. This does not bode well for managers who like to micromanage their employees and see what they’re working on at all times. Managers should accept the fact that they would have to relinquish some visibility over the tasks they have delegated to their work from home employees and trust that they will get it done. How can managers do this? The key is to establish a supportive company culture that prioritizes trust and psychological safety.

This might sound simple in theory but might be hard to implement if micromanagement is firmly embedded in the business. One of the best ways for managers to show that they trust their work from home employees is to give them the flexibility to choose how they get work done. Give them the means to be able to do their work like access to software, tools, information, a knowledge base, feedback, and guidance. Keep lines of communication open and have regular catch-ups to give instructions or feedback. Once you give them what they need to get their work done, the next step is to get out of their way.

Managers should also prioritize psychological safety. This means creating a space where every employee, working from home or otherwise, feels comfortable giving feedback, sharing ideas, skiing questions, and generally just being themselves. Also, allow room for growth. This means giving employees the space to make mistakes and allowing them to recover and grow. Managers can do this by publicly celebrating with their team – not just the wins and accomplishments but also the missteps and learning experiences. 

With the pandemic still raging on, now is not the time to look over the shoulder of your employee and check on every detail of the work they are doing. The best leaders show empathy and compassion as we go through these very challenging times. Give employees the skillset to accomplish their work and trust that they will deliver what they say they will deliver. Cultivate a results-based culture where you focus on what is achieved instead of how many hours were worked.

Do you have experience working with micromanagers? How did that turn out for you? Share them with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Oct11

What Is Timeboxing And Why Do You Need It? Part 2

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What Is Timeboxing And Why Do You Need It? Part 2

Last week, we talked about timeboxing and the steps on how to timebox. As you may recall, timeboxing is “a simple time management technique that involves allocating a fixed, maximum unit of time for an activity in advance, and then completing the activity within that time frame.” It was first introduced by James Martin, the author of the book Rapid Application Development, as a part of agile software development. This time management technique encourages you to put a strict time limit on activities that you think would take away too much of your time and can be used for both personal and work commitments.

Some benefits to using the timeboxing technique:

  • Helps you work on unpleasant tasks and limits the time you spend working on them – sometimes we encounter tasks that we just can’t bring ourselves to get to. However, when you schedule a dedicated time frame to accomplish these tasks, you’ll be guaranteed to work on them.
  • Helps you work on tasks that are too short (or too long) – there are tasks that you might want to put off for later since they’re too short – you end up forgetting to do them (e.g. sending acknowledgement emails). When you timebox them into 10 min chunks, you’re more likely to remember to do them. The same goes for tasks that are too long (e.g. writing a novel). Timeboxing writing chunks into 1 hour of writing per day guarantees that you will at least have written a few pages.
  • Helps you stop being a perfectionist – timeboxing eliminates the danger of nitpicking on unnecessary details when you only have 30 mins to work on a task.
  • Helps you be more motivated to finish tasks – a ticking timer can sometimes work as motivation for you to be able to focus on finishing your tasks.
  • Helps create balance in your work-life – the new work from home set-up has a lot of us spending too much time on meetings to ensure that everyone is calibrated while we work across different locations and time zones. Timeboxing ensures that we don’t go over the allotted time we set for meetings and catch -ups, and we actually use project management tools instead. 

Pro-tips:

  • Time is intangible, so make it visual by using a timer to make sure that tasks are restricted to each timebox. 
  • According to studies, our minds can only focus on tasks for up to 90 mins. Make sure that your timebox is set for a maximum of 90 minutes.
  • Make sure to take breaks in between back-to-back timeboxes – this lets your eyes rest. It acts as a refresh button for your mind, too, enabling you to focus on the next timebox. You’ll come back recharged after a short break.

What are your favorite time management techniques? Does timeboxing work for you? Share your experience with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Oct4

What Is Timeboxing And Why Do You Need It? Part 1

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What Is Timeboxing And Why Do You Need It? Part 1

The first time I came across this term was a while back, during a meeting with a former CEO for Oracle APAC. There were a lot of ex-CIOs and CEOs invited who all needed to be somewhere else urgently after a meeting that had to fit in a 30minute time frame because that was the only possible time to get all of them together.

I wasn’t familiar with agile software development but I was able to quickly grasp the concept of timeboxing. Timeboxing is a concept first introduced by James Martin, the author of the book Rapid Application Development, as a part of agile software development. It is “a simple time management technique that involves allocating a fixed, maximum unit of time for an activity in advance, and then completing the activity within that time frame[1].” This time management technique can be used for both personal and work tasks.

Timeboxing encourages you to put a strict time limit on activities that you think would take away too much of your time. You can understand the need to put strict limits to a meeting with CIOs and CEOs present. At the end of a timebox, you close off the task no matter what and assess if you were able to complete your goals.

What are the steps to timeboxing:

  1. Find suitable tasks – timeboxing is most suitable for tasks that you don’t want to spend too much time on. As stated by Parkinson’s Law, “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” So if you block off 3 weeks of your time to finish a task, even if you can finish it faster, you’ll aim to subconsciously expand your work to fit 3 weeks. By limiting your time, you’re guaranteed to work on high-value projects and tasks right from the start.
  2. Define your goals – break down your objectives and assign timeframes. If you know you have 30mins to get all the points of a meeting across to all stakeholders, what would you do? You assign timeframes for each point in the agenda, right? The same goes for bigger projects. Because you already have a set time limit, you can assess your goals and assign targets for them. Need to write a 1,000-word research article in 3 days? Aim to write 500 words per day and alot 1 day for revisions and editing.
  3. Set the time – assign time frames for your tasks and have a way to track them.
  4. Work and assess your results – work your way through your set timeboxes and once your time is up, stop working on them. Assess if you were able to meet your goals, either completely or partially.
  5. Claim your reward – there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel, right? You will be hard pressed to become motivated to do a task you don’t want to do if there was no reward waiting for you at the end. So always remember to treat yourself. It can be something as simple as time off, a cup of designer coffee, or a Netflix binge.

Does timeboxing work for you? What are your favorite time management tips? Share them with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

[1] https://clockify.me/timeboxing

Sep27

How To Focus On Work

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How To Focus On Work

By now, the novelty of working from home has probably faded, and we’re all experiencing some sort of lockdown fatigue. For some of us, it could be more than just a state of tiredness. It could be something as serious as a full-on mental burnout. Aside from the isolation of working from home, we can also experience the blurring of lines between work responsibilities and personal responsibilities. Our homes, which have been our refuge from the pressures of the workplace for the longest time, have now been converted into workplaces and home offices. This causes career and family stress to merge as one, resulting in our inability to shift our focus on either one. This could affect our work productivity.

Despite trying to be constantly organized with to-do lists and project management tools, many of us have lost the ability to hunker down and get through deadlines. We know that we need to get things done but might feel like we’re being pulled in different directions. How do we get our focus back on work and improve our attention span?

The problem: Tiredness 

If you find yourself constantly tired and yawning at work, that might hinder your ability to concentrate. Sleep deprivation can majorly impair cognitive function – including working memory. This means that your lack of sleep can adversely affect your executive attention.

The solution: as you would have guessed – try to get more sleep. Aim for 7-8 hours of restful sleep. The operative word is restful.

The problem: Doom Scrolling

When you’re getting a steady diet of bad news, your performance at work will most likely be affected. Right now, it’s a struggle to want to stay informed but to stay away from bad news. Most news programming would highlight information pertaining to COVID-19 response or lack thereof. It’s difficult not to worry.

The solution: balance out the bad news with good news. Stop the doom scrolling.  Actively seek out news that is uplifting and positive.

The problem: Overwhelm

Having too much on your plate can cause burnout. Too many balls up in the air can cause you to lose your focus and drop some of them. If you’re working on too many work and personal projects, you will feel varying degrees of pressure to get things done. This constant shift from one task to another can eat away at your mental and physical resources. 

The solution: focus on one thing at a time – easy to say but very hard to do. We all think that by multitasking, we accomplish more. That could be true for some instances, but multitasking trains your brain to be unfocused. The constant shift in attention puts your body in a state of stress. Make a list of your top 3 priorities for the day and stick to that.

What are your tried and tested tips to stay focused on work? Share them with us in the comments. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp