01Apr 2020 by CJ
3 working from home tips that will help you adjust

3 working from home tips that will help you adjust

Information & Education, Life & Living
“Successfully working from home is a skill, just like programming, designing or writing. It takes time and commitment to develop that skill, and the traditional office culture doesn’t give us any reason to do that.” – Alex Turnbull, Founder and CEO of Groove I started working from home a little over two years ago. As a highly social and team-oriented individual, I questioned how successful (and ultimately how happy) I’d be sitting in my home office alone during any given 40-hour work week. But two years in, I’m still very happy with the choice. Many organizations condition us to believe that success is only achievable in an office environment where ideas and engagement theoretically thrive. While there is some truth to that, success in business today is not contingent upon…
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29Oct 2019 by CJ
Email etiquette is all about respecting other’s time

Email etiquette is all about respecting other’s time

Information & Education, Life & Living
The other day I realized that we all learned reading, writing and arithmetic from our wonderful teachers across the United States. But when were we ever taught email etiquette? If you can believe it, the very first network email was sent back in 1971 – invented by American computer programmer Ray Tomlinson. It’s been almost 50 years and the technology has revolutionized the way in which we interact, both professionally and personally. Admittedly, email etiquette (as it pertains to business) is nothing more than common sense.  Keep your tone professional, practice proper grammar and punctuation, make subject lines clear, re-read before hitting send, and the list goes on and on. Honestly, I’ll forgive bad grammar and even vague subject lines in favor of what I believe is the number one…
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03Aug 2019 by CJ
Mowing the grass – 3 really good reasons to keep on doing it

Mowing the grass – 3 really good reasons to keep on doing it

Information & Education, Life & Living, Youth
I’ve been mowing the grass since I was about twelve-years-old, when my father finally deemed me tall enough to push our gas-powered lawn mower on my own. Soon, every Saturday and throughout my summer vacation, keeping our lawn perfectly manicured was now my job. While this might sound a bit like child labor to you, in truth it provided me with a sense of responsibility and even helped me build the strong worth ethic I still have today. Fast forward a few years and not only was I mowing my parents’ grass, but my grandparents on occasion as well. Though admittedly I never really minded mowing their lawn for my grandmother would always dote on me and feed me something wonderful afterwards. But I digress. I’m now 44 years old…
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19Aug 2016 by CJ

Sensationalism in journalism – a dangerous game

Information & Education
“Those who have gone through the high school of reporterdom have acquired a new instinct by which they see and hear only that which can create a sensation, and accordingly their report becomes not only a careless one, but hopelessly distorted.” — Hugo Munsterberg Let’s face it – journalism of today is all about sensationalism and readership (usually at the expense of the actual story). Facts and information are typically distorted and taken out of context in order to fit the confines and desires of the writer. But that doesn’t mean the story is an accurate depiction of reality – instead writers are trying to differentiate themselves with the next “big” story, relying very little on substance. This can be incredibly damaging to the parties associated with the story (subjects,…
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13Jan 2016 by CJ

Set goals – but don’t forget about people

Information & Education, Youth
“It’s good to have an end to journey toward; but it’s the journey that matters in the end.” – Ursula K. Le Guin Humanity spends a great deal of time with their sights set on goals. It drives our decisions, motivation and seemingly begins to take on a life of its own. But as we go about our days, striving and pining for the goals we assign a great deal of importance to, far too often we overlook the journey and the realities going on right before our eyes. Many times those “realities” come in the form of people. Perhaps it’s a spouse who supports their mates career aspirations without fail or question – standing on the sidelines hoping their efforts and sacrifices will be noticed and appreciated. Maybe it’s…
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