Yeah, I’ll admit it. So should you.

As part of my recovery process, I have to admit something. I have experienced occasional symptoms that seem to point to a disorder known as Squirrel Syndrome. I am not alone in my plight. In all honesty, it should be called, the “SQUIRREL! Syndrome.” Not familiar with that term? How about the Shiny Object Syndrome? Or maybe the “I Need to Work on This but Got Sidetracked with That” syndrome? It’s not the same as attention deficit disorder, but when it comes to multi-tasking on multiple important projects, shiny objects can sometimes become a distraction.

Hopefully you get the point here and if it affects you on occasion too, you might struggle to make it through the rest of this article without wondering about your stock investments or the next step on a project for which you’ve committed to complete. In fact, you are probably reading this article when you really should be doing something else, right?

“I’ll get back to it,” and “What was I supposed to be working on?” are all common phrases muttered by someone infected with Squirrel Syndrome. Common phrases they frequently hear might include, “I thought you said you were going to do that first?” “You left to take out the trash an hour ago but fixed the fence instead?” We won’t even discuss what social media does to these folks.

What Tomatoes?

A gentleman named Francesco Cirillo developed a timeboxing technique using a timer that happened to be shaped like a tomato. He used the timer to break down his work into intervals of 25 minutes, separated by short breaks. He called these intervals pomodoros, which is Italian for tomatoes. Cirillo’s Pomodoro Technique improves mental agility by breaking projects into focused segments. During a pomodoro interval, a person commits to focusing on one project and ignores all other sources of distraction. This means no email, no phone calls, and nothing else that might distract the person for the task at hand.

Killing Squirrels

Entrepreneurs, writers, software developers, and similar creatives have latched onto this technique as a tool to overcome the Squirrel Syndrome. Although I recently published a non-fiction book, I have a larger, major book project in the works. I have been working on this book for a few years now and I have struggled at times to buckle down and make solid progress on the few days a week I can find time to devote to it. I found a cool Pomodoro timer app for my phone and have been using it for about a year. I can attest that this technique is fantastic. I first find a time on my calendar that isn’t stressed with surrounding meetings. Then I grab a bottled water, get comfortable, exit my browser, and let my phone go to voicemail. I start the timer and get to work. It gives me a gentle musical notification when the time is up, that lets me finish my thought process without being startled. I can then choose to take a break before starting another session or starting on another project.

This technique has been a wonderful productivity tool for me when I really need to focus. I used to get easily distracted with shiny objects. Now it’s rare that I get distracted and forget to finish my

The post Kill the Squirrel Syndrome with the Pomodoro Technique first appeared on Fire Your Job, Hire Yourself.

Busy owners tend to focus on the fire at hand, and often set aside mundane tasks such as paying bills on time. Here are five great tips for helping you get those bills paid on time, assuming you have the funds to do so:

1. Online Bill Pay

Many banks offer an online EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) service that allows you to set up one-time or automatic recurring payments to vendors. These are great for saving postage and quickly paying a bill that is about to come due. They are also excellent for paying recurring payments of the same amount monthly, such as insurance payments, lease payments, and minimum payment amounts (e.g., to ensure a credit card bill gets paid $100 per month, for example, so in case you forget to pay the full bill on time, you will at least have the minimum covered so you don’t get extra charges.)

2. Set Up Auto-pay Using Your Credit Card

Simple versions of this include setting up billing to charge your credit card instead of sending paper billing that requires you to write a check. This allows you to just pay the single credit card bill every month instead of multiple bills. If you get frequent flyer miles on that credit card, this is extra cool as long as the vendor doesn’t charge an extra fee to use the credit card.

3. Set Up Auto-pay for Your Credit Card

To avoid a late payment on your credit card bill, most credit card companies allow you to set up a minimum payment every month. In most cases, you can choose to cover the minimum due that month or a fixed amount. The goal here is to ensure you cover the minimum payment to avoid late charges in case you forget to make the payment on time. If you make the payment on time, this backup payment can be automatically cancelled for that month. Many credit card companies will allow you to pay the entire balance automatically. These payments are typically handled through ACH (see below).

4. Set up ACH (Automated Clearing House network) Payment Systems

Most big suppliers, and more and more smaller ones, offer an ACH payment options where they take the funds directly out of your bank account. This is about as simple as it gets. Some business owners get a little nervous with smaller vendors being able to draw directly from their bank account in case a mistake or evil intentions drain the account. In these cases, they might use a separate bank account and transfer payment funds into that account monthly.

5. Old School Organizer

For paper bills that you still need to pay, consider obtaining a 31-slot bill organizer (or file folder if you can’t obtain a bill holder). When each bill is received, open it, determine when you need to make the payment, and place the bill into that numbered slot. When it’s time to pay bills, grab all the upcoming bills and deal with them.

NOTE: I have a slotted bill organizer just like this in my office. It saved my hide many times!

Signup for our free giveaways and private mailing list.

#accounting #AccountingTips #bookkeeping #GetBillsPaidOnTime #SlottedBillOrganizer

The post Five Easy Tips to Help You Get Your Business Bills Paid on Time first appeared on Fire Your Job, Hire Yourself.