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We all strive to find some kind of half-decent balance in our lives. And Fiona Parashar’s book The Balancing Act: Work-Life Solutions for Busy People aims to help you just do that in as little as seven days.

As well as helping you identify what’s sabotaging the ideal balance in your life, Parashar leads you through a series of intelligent, practical steps to redress the imbalance. It’s like having your own personal coach in a way.

What I like most about this book are the seven-day action plan, the inspirational case studies showing how people from all walks of life have managed to regain balance in their lives, and the fact that it is solutions driven.

Read this if you want to identify and understand the WHAT, WHY and HOW of getting more control of your life. 

Now, let’s see if I can at last make a significant dent in my ‘TO DO’ list!

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It’s already the end of October and, boy, is it cold (zero degrees as I type)! I’ve been researching ways to keep warm while keeping energy usage down as I work out of the, brrr, cold north-facing dining room (my office). So far, I have come up with wearing Thermals and layers — LOTS – of clothing. Jumpers, T-shirts, cardigans . . . you name it, I’m probably wearing it!

Any ideas to save my blue fingers most welcome! Do please share how you cope with the cold by clicking on the comments link below. 

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I was critiquing a client’s press release the other day. Nothing unusual in that. While it was in essence a good base for a successful PR campaign, the release itself was full of “This is why I am so good” details about the author of the piece. Nothing unusual in that, either . . . unfortunately.

You see, a news release should NEVER be used as an opportunity to toot your own horn or blatantly sell products. Rather, it should be about the reporter. Her audience and their needs, to be precise. And it should read like news, not an ad.

Your release should provide newsworthy fodder that is important or valuable in some way, so that it makes the publication’s editor think, “This looks exactly the sort of thing my readers should know about.”

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Wotz ron with the English langwage? Kwite alot, according to a leading academic expert.

Teaching correct spelling is a waste of time, and the apostrophe should be scrapped, says John Wells, an Emeritus Professor of Phonetics at University College London and president of the Spelling Society.

“Let’s stop worrying if people sometimes spell ‘you’ and ‘u’, ‘you’ and ‘you’re’ as ‘ur’, and ‘whose’ and ‘whose’ and ‘who’s’ as ‘whos’,” he adds. 

Well, yes, I agree — WHEN we’re talking about informal emails and ‘textmessage speak’ among friends and family. BUT in general I’m a stickler for correct use of the English language as it was intended.

Sure, add words as we and the language we use evolves, but let’s not get complacent over what is often regarded as possibly THE greatest gift to the world.

The trouble with completely altering any language with each generation is — apart from the fact that different generations may well not be able to communicate with one another on paper — great literature works from hundreds of years ago will become unreadable and unintelligible.

Speaking and writing the English language as it has been thus far been taught allows us to communicate . . . to be understood . . . to be socially mobile.

Playing around too much with the English language — abandoning spelling and punctuation — will ultimately lead to a world full of conflicting messages and meanings, and a place where no one can really understand one another.

Let’s not dumb down too much, nor abandon the pursuit of excellence in attention to detail. English is universally too precious a language. 

As for John Wells, all I can say is, careful; you don’t want to do yourself out of a job.  :)

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I read a fun post on freelancing and holidays by blogger Joanne Mallon this morning. She points out that the word holiday is often a misnomer for sole traders. There they sit on the beach, hugging their Blackberry to their left ear while trying to pick up important work emails (and pick off not-so-important granules of sand).

That’s IF they’re lucky enough to unchain themselves from their desk and actually take a break, that is. As freelancers know only too painfully, no work = no pay.

Well, do you want to hear something shocking? I haven’t been on holiday for more than two years! Well, I did go to Cornwall for a week in September 2006, but I don’t count that as I became seriously ill on day two. Oh, and yes, I did go to see my dad in Devon for a few days back in February this year, but I don’t count that one as a holiday, either. As much as I love my father, he can be hard work!

The point I’m making is that I’m long overdue for a holiday, and if I’m not careful I’ll be fully booked with client commitments before the end of summer.

That’s one of the perils of self-employment: Unless you schedule in some ‘getaway’ time well in advance, the days can easily fly by without you having so much as dipped your toe in the garden, let alone those much-missed sunnier shores. So make time for that holiday! Hmmm, best take heed of my own advice, then…

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