1. Mint: Mint is the most convenient, free way to manage money online. It has a simple set-up which takes less than 10 minutes to start, requires no other book keeping and updates your information automatically. Using Mint provide you with an understanding of how to budget, invest, pay debts, and create savings. The Mint software automatically downloads and categorizes your spending and tracks your transactions to help you set realistic goals for your savings. You will receive weekly alerts and be provided with helpful graphs which uncover and categorize your total expenses. Not only does Mint help you manage your spending, it creates a budget analysis to help you get out of debt and find easier ways to save money.
2. ManageMe: Great for both business and personal use, ManageMe.com is an easy to use and secure service which will help track your transactions and manage your spending. Not only does ManageMe work in U.S. currency, but its services offer multiple currency support and allows you to control multiple accounts through one system. Similarl to Mint, the programs categorizes your expenses to help manage finances for you, your family, and your business. Have you ever seen a mysterious charge on your account you couldn’t trace back the origin of your purchase? ManageMe helps your track monthly expenses and provides comprehensive reports to give you a better idea of what you are spending. Customized reminders and budget-overshoot alerts keep you strictly focused on your money management goals and remind you how to really save your money.

Other helpful websites include: WeSabe.com, Smartypig.com, Geezeo.com, and many more.

• Seating: Make sure you can see the entrance of the room from your desk. Your vision of the front door will create a feeling of security and stability. It will help you focus on career opportunities that you otherwise might miss. If you have you back to the door you will be metaphorically turning your back on plenty of new business opportunities that will walk through your door.
• Personal space: Create a sense of importance and meaning in your work by defining your personal space. Place a mat or a barrier at your cubicle or office to prevent other people from walking into your space unannounced. A small bell or chime to alert you of their presence will help inform you of other people’s roles in your life.
• Symbolic representation: Remind yourself of your dreams and goals by placing object that remind you of them in front of you and above your eye level. For example, if you are aiming for a promotion place a tall plant in front of you to represent your goal.
• Nature:Balance our the stressful and chaotic energy of the business world with some natural objects in your office. Some wooden baskets and plants will help balance out the tenseness with a serene and natural energy from nature.
• Keep it clear: Don’t let things pile up on the floor, or on your desk. Discard unnecessary waste. Having a mass of projects lying around will keep not only your desk, but also your energy cluttered. The hectic mess of documents represents your psychologically constipated position. Every night before you go home, clear out all things off your desk. this will help you finish long term projects and keep your goals in mind.
• Position: Sit in the farthest corner of  the room with your back to the wall. The corner will put you in a position of power and the wall will create stability and support through out your day of work. The energy will flow much more easily than before.
• Energy: Balance light and dark colors in the room and place rocks and/or crystals through out your office. Rocks will give your work meaning and stability, while crystals will open up the energy and give the office more room for creativity. Creating balance in your life will help relieve stress and make your work more productive.

Saving Energy:

Several things can be done in the workplace to avoid wasting materials and help your business leave a “lighter ecological footprint“. Firstly, optimizing energy settings on all the computers in your workplace can help save a tremendous amount of electricity. Simply changing computers to energy-saving settings and remembering to put them on ‘sleep mode‘ when you leave the room will improve energy efficiency. After a hard day of work, take a moment and remember to unplug all the appliances that will drain energy while you’re away. For instance, your cell phone charger uses electricity even when it isn’t charging your phone. Don’t leave a computer on ’standby’ for the night; make sure all devices are off. When turning off a computer and other appliances, most of our gadgets still use up energy in low power mode. In reality, almost 10 percent of the total electricity we use in California is due to the drain of energy in low power mode. Certain tools, such as the Smart Power Strip, are designed to cut power to devices when they are off. If your whole system is plugged into an SPS system or something similar, you’ll not only be saving carbon emissions but also a hefty sum of money you never even realized you were spending.

Switching to energy efficient light bulbs is also another great way to conserve electricity. Only 8 percent of the energy consumed by an incandescent light bulb is actually used to produce light. The rest just creates useless heat. Light bulbs such as compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last ten times longer. LED desk lamps and other energy-saving light fixtures could be implemented all around the office. As well as utilizing natural daylight in large windowed offices to preserve heat and electricity. There are even simpler tasks we can also work into our daily routine such as turning off lights in the kitchen and restroom when they aren’t being used. Raising awareness and remembering to do what our parents told us - turn off those lights - helps protect our environment.

Minimizing Waste and Conserving Fuel:

One polystyrene cup contains one billion chlorofluorocarbons which contain elements of chlorine that can potentially harm a large amount of the ozone layer. To avoid using Styrofoam cups at the office, ask everyone to bring their own personal coffee mug and keep spare ones for guests. To avoid excess waste provide real towels in the kitchen and restrooms. Don’t use paper napkins! Rather than keeping cabinets full of paper, store things electronically and switch to editing and organizing digitally.

However, it is understandable that in an office place there will be paper, so make sure it is recycled! Recycled paper saves 55 percent of water compared to freshly made paper. But simply having the nice recycler’s logo on the front package is not enough. When you buy recycled paper check the labels to make sure you’re buying paper with a high percentage of post-consumer content and little to no chlorine bleach. This paper has far less toxic chemicals that are harmful for the environment and will help make your office more eco-friendly.

To help your recycling efforts, reuse boxes from your office and use shredded paper as packaging material. Make sure the office is fully stocked with biodegradable soaps and always buy in bulk so shipping and packaging waste is saved. Everyone can make a difference by simply changing their routine. For example, try to bring lunch to work in a reusable container and use utensils that are made of metal. All these little details will help conserve supplies and eliminate unnecessary waste.

Another hazardous part of our daily routine is commuting to work every morning. For every gallon of gas we use in our cars, 19 pounds of CO2 are released into the atmosphere. Public transport, biking, or even carpooling would help reduce your gas emissions tremendously. The best way to commute, however, is not to commute at all- or to telecommute. Telecommuting could potentially help save millions of dollars in gas mileage and best of all- it allows you to work from your own home! If people drive about 1,000 miles a month, they are producing around 120 tons of carbon dioxide a year. Imagine how much of our environment we could all save by telecommuting even once-twice a week. Though we might not be saving the planet all at once, helping the environment and raising awareness is important in the work place and at home. Every little bit counts.

1. Herbs and Vitamins: Eat a strawberry! Though curing the flu is not as easy as just eating a fruit, an increase in Vitamin C will help restore necessary minerals to your body. Vitamin C is known to protect your body, skin, and gums. Not to mention it also helps boost immunity and fight off illness. In times of flu, if you aren’t willing to take a pill, eat foods that contain a high concentration of Vitamin C such as: parsley, broccoli, oranges, sprouts, and papayas.
2. Natural Remedies: A great natural remedy for the flu is Wellness Formula. Wellness Formula is a mixture of important Vitamins like A and C, and several other herbs that have natural healing powers. At the first sign of the flu, Wellness Formula will help balance your immune system and give your body the necessary strength it needs to fight a virus. Unlike medicines such as Sudafed, Robitussin, and NyQuil, Wellness Formula doesn’t have any side effects like drowsiness or nausea. Robitussin (and medicines alike) doesn’t actually help cure the flu, but rather makes uncomfortable symptoms less noticeable. In reality, taking a cough suppressant merely prolongs the illness. Symptoms such as coughing and fever, though it may not seem so, truly help the body protect itself. Oscillococcinum is a better and more natural remedy for coughs and has no side-effects. This particular medicine helps shorten the duration of an illness and reduces the intensity of its symptoms.
3. Home Remedies: Symptoms are a hassle and frustrating to deal with but rather than quickly reaching for a decongestant or cough suppressant try using home remedies. Not only are they free, but there are no side-effects, no potential dangers, and you won’t be putting harmful toxins in your body (as you would be with over the counter medicine). For relieving a runny nose, the use of a decongestant nasal spray, like Afrin or Sudafed, merely defers and increases the endurance of the symptoms. For immediate relief from a stuffy or runny nose, steam will unclog and sanitize. Simply boil a pot of water, grab a towel, and breathe over the steam to alleviate the strain in your sinuses. Saline spray and inhaling water will also keep your sinuses clear and help cleanse your system. For sore throat gargling is always a good way to relieve pain and clear out fluid from your upper-respiratory system. For best results, warm water with two teaspoons of table salt will help disinfect the throat. Also drinking warm liquids, like tea, will help naturally sooth the throat. Adding lemon and honey will help coat the throat and relieve pain.
4. Routine: Do you really wash your hands enough? Make sure there’s antibacterial soap in all restrooms of your office and plenty of hand sanitizer too. It may not seem like such a big deal, but the amount of contact we share with others and all the germs that we carry on our hands is enough to get the whole office sick. Even when you aren’t sick, stick to a healthy diet and try to get proper nutrition in order to keep your body healthy. Especially when you’re ill, eat healthy foods that will promote good health and make it easier for you to recover.
5. Water: The most important way to stay healthy is water. Drinking lots of water and constantly staying hydrated will keep your immune system happy and healthy. When you’re sick, the best way to get better is to drink as much water as you can, constantly, over a period of a few days. Always keep a bottle of water with you and keep refilling it.  Drinking will be the best way to cleanse all toxins out of your immune system and replenish yourself with necessary electrolytes and positive minerals. This will keep you strong and healthy enough to be able to have a good, productive day of work.

You don’t have to be British to like tea breaks! There are hundreds of different choices with teas and tea places. It’s time to come out and let your co-workers know that you just don’t drink coffee. That the liquid in your Starbucks “coffee cup” is really Jasmine scented, full of antioxidants that enrich your body, and you are tired to letting coffee drinkers take over the office kitchen! Tea contains a whole array of healthy and exciting vitamins and minerals, while coffee is proven to elavate blood pressure and intensify stress levels. It’s time for a change.

Besides, who has ever heard of anyone have an addiction to tea?

Some employers illegally ask their employees to clock in extra hours at work without proper compensation. If you have ever done this, or this has ever happened to you - note that it is illegal in the State of California to work overtime without being compensated.

In fact, the overtime pay rate minimum is 1.5 times the normal hourly pay for every hour in excess of forty hours a week. If you work more than 8 hours in one day compensation should be 1.5 times the normal rate and for more than 12 hours of work in a day the rate is henceforth doubled. Legally, an employer can’t fire an employee seeking compensation for hours worked overtime.

There is also a myth that salaried employees with management titles are not entitled to overtime pay. However, the overtime pay is calculated by averaging their annual salary (with bonus) and dividing the average number of hours worked in a year. Regardless of your title or compensation method, every employee is entitled to overtime pay.

Employers remember : you have a legal obligation to keep accurate time records for all employees entitled to overtime pay.

In other words, make sure everyone is being properly compensated at your work. Working for free (especially for commercial companies) is illegal. It’s just not fair if someone else is profiting from your free, hard work. Make sure you know your rights!

There are hundreds of ways to increase your daily exercise with simple routines at home, so we’re listing a few below:

1. Walk your dog: Instead of asking your spouse or kids to take the dog out, do it yourself. Try to schedule at least 30 minutes during the day to go for a walk or a run with your dog. Doing this activity in the morning puts you one step close to increasing your energy levels for the rest of the day and keeps your mind clear so you can focus on whatever the day may bring.
2. Take the stairs: Do you always take the elevator up to your office? I know, I know. You work on the 11th floor and there’s just no way you’re going to work up a sweat in a suit or heels! All I’m saying is that you should at least try it. Avoid elevators and escalators as much as you can, and opt for the stairs wherever you go. Walking up all those flights of stairs will eventually strengthen your legs and keep your core strong and healthy.
3. Hoola-Hoop: Remember hoola-hooping and jump roping as a kid? Wasn’t that fun? Relive those days with a $10 jumping rope or hoola-hoop which you can find in just about any store. Fancy treadmills don’t have anything on these two fun activities. If have a Wii, try Wii Fit for a virtual workout.
4. Find  your zen: Buy a yoga mat and try some simple stretches in the morning or before bed. If you don’t know any, search around on the web.  Yoga Basics is a great site to discover basic yoga poses and create a daily routine. If you work in a daily exercise that accommodates your personal physique, the chances of you sticking to it increase.
5. Clean the house: There is so much to be done around the house. Sure you want to stick your roommates with the vacuuming and dusting so you won’t have to, but start doing your own cleaning and count that as part of your daily exercise routine.
6. Park far from the entrance: When you need supplies to put your big presentation together, take 20 minutes and walk to the nearest store. It’s far better for you than driving those measly five block to Office Depot. Choose a parking spot that’s far from the entrance, that way you force yourself walk to it; you’ll be burning calories and helping yourself stay fit.

Small daily changes will make a big difference in your life and best of all it’s a free, easy way to help yourself when you’re too busy to hit the gym after a hectic day at work.

• Know a bit of code.  You don’t need to be able to design an entire Web site from scratch, but knowing how to look up some HTML or CSS can enable you to add a hyperlink or bold a title without outside help.  Consider keeping a cheat sheet at your desk.
• Learn the basics of search engine optimization.  You don’t need to be a Web content expert, but if you’re going to write an update for a Web site, make sure it is tagged correctly and has the appropriate keywords in the title.
• Be able to set up email rules.  Can’t stand being on so many list servs?  Sort them into a separate folder.  Tired of getting spam from someone?  Block those emails and you never have to see it.  Being able to sort your email so that you can get started each morning without wading through a sea of messages is an invaluable skill.
• Use social media.  Just knowing the Twitter lingo or how to post on YouTube can be helpful for Internet marketing, so do yourself a favor and get acquainted with the technology now.  

Some people are early birds and others are night owls.  We all our have peak productive hours during the day.  The problem with the daily grind is that we’re expected to join the morning rush and commute home at 5 or 6, leaving very little room for optimized schedules.  Anyone working in a home office knows the joy of setting your own hours. 
 
Some offices have also been experimenting with varied schedules.  Some people may come in early, others may stay late.  As long as there are enough hours that overlap for necessary interaction, this can be a worthwhile option.  Having the office open and staffed for more hours can be helpful for customers and clients.
 
What have you done to maximize productivity through schedule management?