OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results, are a goal-setting framework used by businesses to align individual and team goals with the overall company objectives. The framework consists of setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives, along with key results that measure progress towards achieving those objectives.

Increased Clarity

One of the main benefits of OKRs is increased clarity. By setting specific and measurable objectives, employees have a clear understanding of what they need to achieve and how their work contributes to the overall company objectives. This clarity helps employees stay focused and motivated, leading to increased productivity and better results.

For example, let’s say a company has a goal to increase revenue by 20% in the next quarter. An OKR for the sales team could be to increase sales by 15% in the same quarter. This objective is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, and helps the sales team understand what they need to achieve to contribute to the overall company goal.

Improved Productivity

Another benefit of OKRs is improved productivity. By setting specific and measurable objectives, employees are able to focus their efforts on the most important tasks and avoid wasting time on less important tasks. This focus leads to increased productivity and better results.

For example, let’s say a company has a goal to launch a new product in the next quarter. An OKR for the product development team could be to complete the product design and testing phase by the end of the month. This objective is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, and helps the product development team focus their efforts on the most important tasks to achieve the overall company goal.

Increased Accountability

A third benefit of OKRs is increased accountability. By setting specific and measurable objectives, employees are held accountable for their work and progress towards achieving those objectives. This accountability helps ensure that employees are focused on the most important tasks and are making progress towards achieving the overall company objectives.

For example, let’s say a company has a goal to improve customer satisfaction by 10% in the next quarter. An OKR for the customer service team could be to reduce customer wait times by 20% in the same quarter. This objective is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, and helps the customer service team stay accountable for their work and progress towards achieving the overall company goal.

Conclusion

In conclusion, OKRs are a powerful goal-setting framework that can help businesses increase clarity, improve productivity, and increase accountability. By setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives, employees are able to focus their efforts on the most important tasks and make progress towards achieving the overall company objectives. If you’re looking to improve your business’s performance, consider implementing OKRs today.

Link: https://www.useloom.com/share/6ef724ecafba49fba8d61221dfdfc7ab

Written Instructions:

(This works as of May 2019 in Chrome v.74 and up)

1.      Open the website you would like to create an app shortcut for in Chrome.

2.      Click the three dots “…” beside your portrait in the top left corner of Chrome > More Tools > Create Shortcut

3.      Go to chrome://apps and you should see the icon of the website you were creating a shortcut for. If you do not see it, click on the right side as it may be on the second page.

4.      Right click the shortcut and select on “Open as Window”. *this is critical*

5.      Right click the shortcut and click Create Shortcut and select Desktop.

6.      Optional: go to your desktop and drag the new shortcut icon onto your task bar to pin it there.

7.      Now, when you click the shortcut in your task bar or from the desktop, it will launch in a minimal windowed app container so you can use your chrome websites and apps like a native downloaded application.

8. Enjoy and be productive!

So your mind is racing at a million miles a minute and you can’t fall asleep…

Everyone has been there, sometimes you get no relief, other times you take to the Google machine with ‘help me sleep’, a lonely cry of desperation and exhaustion.

I have been in this same situation many times and decided to research and experiment with different methods and products that can take you from wide awake to fast asleep in no time.

We have all heard the standard advice you can get anywhere:

• Exercise more (daily)
• Eat better, more healthy foods
• Cut use of LCD or bright screens before bed ( or cut the blue light out of screens)
• Avoid caffeine and stimulants 6+ hours before sleep
• Counting or other mind exercises

You don’t have time for all that, you want to fall asleep now! I know, here is what you need…

First step, CALM YOURSELF DOWN! No matter what you do or take, you can’t go to sleep if you are off the wall bonkers. Even if you take something short of horse tranqulizers, it will still be an issue unless you take a step back or a mental break and calm down.

Nothing is as important as sleep right now, no decisions you are going to make now are going to be as good and as thought out as after you rest your body and mind. So let it go and chill out.

Need a little assistance in falling and staying asleep?

The best thing i have ever discoverd in my research was the proper use of melatonin supplements. Meltatonin is a nuerotoxin that your body produces naturally in the asence of light, thus why when it gets dark at night, most people start to feel tired naturally. Synthetic melatonin supplements have been made for years and are safe and effective.

The best part about melatonin:

• It’s something your body produces naturally
• It is non addictive (physically/chemically)
• it is very in expensive
• it works fast

Where to buy and how much?

You can buy melatonin virtually anywhere, it is a supplement and not a drug so no perscription is required.

Wal-mart and Target run typically about $10-12 for a bottle of 60-120 depending on brand.

In conclusion, if you need something to help you to sleep RIGHT NOW, run out to the store and pick up some melatonin, take one with a small amount of water or milk, relax and fall asleep!

**NON-BRO SCIENCE** If you want to read more about the use of melatonin for certain medical issues, Natural Standard has an indepth test results page that might be interesting.

A lot of the information on the web suggests you use simple CURL or GET commands with http://whatismyip.org. The issue being it DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE. The site no longer produces a text verison of your IP, it now creates a image of your IP to serve it, most likly so only browser users use it and view advertising.

The great thing, is now there is an alternative, google now shows in in the results page for “what is my IP”, With this simple command you can grab the results of that query right in shell. The great thing being Google isn’t likley to change that anytime soon.

Here is the query, copy paste and run it in shell:

curl --silent 'http://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+my+ip' | sed 's/.*Client IP address: //;s/).*//;q'

This works in every instance of Red Hat EL and CentOS that I am running. Comment if it works successfully for you in another environment.

Que Bobby:

­­Asset Protection for the Entrepreneur

by Bobby Casey, Global Wealth Protection LLC

Frequently I work with entrepreneurs who have reached varying degrees of success helping them to properly structure their businesses in order to minimize risk, minimize the tax burden, and maximize their gain.

Entrepreneurs are one of my biggest client groups.  The reasoning is that while entrepreneurs are very focused individuals and highly driven towards success, they rarely, if ever, take the necessary precautions to protect their assets.  As the focus is on the next contract, the next sale and the next deal, focusing on tedious details like proper business structure and asset protection always seem to take a back seat.

As a fellow entrepreneur, I certainly understand the drive to focus on the money making endeavors.  I started my first “real” business at age 21 and grew it to over $7M in annual revenue.  The focus was perpetual sales and profits.  In my mind, the details would work themselves out.  Is this you?

The reality is only you are responsible for the details and if you don’t take the time to attend to them, you are risking your financial future by becoming a target.  The global economic environment has deteriorated over the past few years and there are financial predators everywhere.  You need to take the necessary steps to protect you business and financial assets before someone targets the bulls-eye on your back.

Let’s discuss some common mistakes entrepreneurs make in business structuring and asset protection planning.  For the sake of this exercise we will deal with experienced entrepreneurs who have generated some level of wealth through their business and investment activities.  However, even if you are just starting out you should read on and attempt to learn from the experience of others.

Wrong entity for business:

 I have seen many entrepreneurs work for years with the wrong entity for their business interests.  For example, I have seen many real estate entrepreneurs use an S corporation or C corporation to own the real estate assets.

 

This is a huge mistake.  As a child growing up, my father owned a construction company and real estate development company.  He also preached the need to have your assets out of your own name – which is good – however he held all of his real estate holdings in an S corporation.

 

The problem here is that as a shareholder of your own S corporation, you shares are at risk from outside creditor litigation – or litigation that can arise from activities unrelated to your business.  This presents a very real threat to your financial well-being as outside creditors can come from anywhere; unrelated personal injury claims, personal guarantees from unrelated holdings, divorce, etc.

 

Using a C corporation is even worse because you have the same liability risk from outside creditors plus you lose the pass through tax benefits from using an S corporation.

 

There are a multitude of business entities to chose from; C corporation, S corporation, Limited Liability Company (LLC), Limited Partnership (LP), Partnership, Sole Proprietor, and a few others.  There are even offshore entities to consider depending on your own personal or business situation; Seychelles IBC, Nevis LLC, Belize IBC, etc.

 

Ultimately, the entrepreneur is typically focused on his day-to-day business activity and not the proper planning of the business structure.

 

DIY business and tax planning:

 As a fellow entrepreneur who started on a shoestring budget, the idea of saving as much money as possible certainly has its appeal, but at some point you need to seriously consider hiring professionals to handle certain aspects of your business.

 

A wise man years ago told me, “Don’t get so busy doing the $10/hour jobs that you cannot find time to do the $1000/hour jobs.”  This isn’t to say the professionals you hire are only worth $10 per hour, but the point is that you need to focus on what makes your business successful.

 

Are you a software developer?  If so, why are you spending so much time on business and tax planning when you can outsource that to professionals who are much more competent than you in this field.  Do you also change your own oil in you car and mow your own yard?

 

Every successful entrepreneur needs to have  small team of professionals who can provide expert and non-biased advice on various aspects of your business and asset portfolio.  At a minimum you need a competent lawyer and accountant.  As you wealth grows, you should look into adding a financial planner, asset protection consultant, mentor, advisory board, and possibly board of directors.

 

Owning personal and business assets in own name:

Realistically I should put this item first as this is one of the biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs make.  With my personal clients, I help them develop their own asset protection plan.  The first step in this plan is to create a veil of privacy around your assets.

 

This is accomplished in a variety of ways using many different tools.  As each person has a different situation, there is no way to offer generalized advice here, but the idea is best summed up in the well known John D Rockefeller quote, “Own nothing but control everything”.

 

The purpose for asset protection planning and creating a veil of privacy around your assets is to lower your profile risk.  If you are the guy with the big house on the hill, driving the Ferrari around town, eating at expensive restaurants and picking up the bar tab for your friends, you aren’t very low profile and you are very susceptible as a litigation target.

 

As previously noted, the more wealth you have, the larger the bulls-eye on you back.  If you chose the more extravagant lifestyle, it is even more important for you to create a veil of privacy around your assets.

 

Assuming you don’t need asset protection planning:

In dealings with my clients over the years, the vast majority of them came to me AFTER they had a major issue to deal with.  These issues come in a variety of forms; personal injury lawsuits, business lawsuit, mortgage loan default with personal guarantee, divorce, state or federal tax lien, erroneous criminal prosecution, liability associated with teenage driving children, and the list goes on and on.

 

In December I had 2 clients who were facing a $1.5M judgment against each of them for a mortgage default related to some unforeseen environmental issue they were completely unaware of prior to purchasing the property in question.  Both of them separately told me they never imagined 6 months ago they would be in a position of potential financial ruin.  Both of these guys were in their upper 50’s and this could wipe them out financially forcing them to work well into their retirement years.

 

Asset protection planning can be equated to health insurance.  You don’t buy health insurance hoping to get a brain tumor in order to get your money’s worth.  However, you also don’t call your insurance agent on your way home from your MRI appointment where you were delivered the bad news.  At that point it’s too late.  Financial ruin is upon you.

 

Lack of financial education:

At the risk of generalizing the entrepreneurial mindset, many of the business owners I know are not very financially astute.   Most entrepreneurs are salespeople.  Sure, there are many different types of people out there; some inventors, mathematicians, engineers, and medical professionals, but most of them are salespeople at heart.  It seems to be a common thread among entrepreneurs that gives them the drive to push for growth and improvement.

 

What most of them lack though is the desire to deal with the details of the business.  And the most important details of the business is the financial aspect.  A basic understanding of accounting principles and financial management should be required for all entrepreneurs, but especially once you have reached a point where you are starting to acquire money and assets.

 

I would highly recommend you to pick up some books on economics, accounting and investing to gain a better understanding of finance and the world investment markets.  This will benefit you as you grow your cash horde and learn how to diversify your asset holdings.

 

Lack of asset diversification:

This is extremely common among entrepreneurs.  We focus all of our energy on creating, building and growing our own companies and we become laser focused on our own enterprise.  As well we should too.  This is our bread maker.

 

Keep in mind though, while you have direct control over the management and operating of your own company, there are still many outside factors that can have a very serious negative impact on your revenue and your profit, and thus your asset portfolio.

 

I have seen this time and time again, both with clients and my own business ventures, where there is a sudden drop in revenue that was completely outside of your control.  From a personal example, I owned a company (sold it a few years ago) that had relatively large contracts with some of the US’ largest retail operations.

 

Several years ago, one of our larger clients came to us at renewal time and said they were not going to extend our contract.  The service we performed for them was vital, but the new management of the company (theirs) has decided to take the service program ‘in-house’ which meant our contract would be eliminated – immediately.  This meant a sudden loss of several million dollars of revenue and a large part of our profits.

 

This happens in many small companies every day.  In the same way financial planner would not recommend you keep your entire stock portfolio tied up in one stock, I would recommend that you take some of your ‘chips’ off the table and diversify into different asset classes.

 

I am not here to go into macro economic discussions and portfolio theory, but there are many different categories of assets you can invest in, each with its own pros and cons;  publicly traded stocks, corporate bonds, sovereign bonds, foreign currency, commodities, real estate, private debt arrangements, and private company investments.  If you don’t know where or how to find and make these investments or you don’t have time to properly vet them, you need to see one of the points mentioned above and hire a professional to manage your non-core investments.

 

ABOUT BOBBY:

Bobby Casey is the Managing Director of Global Wealth Protection LLC, an asset protection and offshore consulting firm working with clients from around the globe.  Mr. Casey has undergraduate degrees in international business, finance and economics from the Universityof North Carolina and a masters in entrepreneurship from MIT.  He has started, bought, and/or sold several businesses over his career and has traveled and lived in many different countries gaining a global perspective.  You can subscribe to Mr. Casey’s free weekly newsletter or reach him by visiting his website at http://www.GlobalWealthProtection.com.

There you have it, Thank you Bobby for taking the time to get something over to me. I have come to realize how important Asset Planning is, and how much easier it would be if I had done it from the start.

At 5’11” I was 145lbs leading into 2010. For my height I was underweight and I hated it. But at the time eating was not a priority to me, I didn’t have a big appetite for anything and eating more than half of my food would almost make me throw up from ‘eating too much’. My body was accustomed to eating so little, I had to gain weight.

I decided to change all that late 2010 with a fitness competition between friends. The short of the story, I went from 145 to 167 in about 2-3 months. Fast forward to a few months ago, weighing in around 165lbs I decided I wanted to hit another goal… 185lbs and lifting 225lbs on the bench, with matching squats and deadlifts. In a few weeks i have put on another 10lbs already for 175lbs total. You don’t need to be into heavy lifting or bodybuilding to gain weight, but putting your body under strain helps your appetite.

More recent picture of what you get mixing eating and working out (mid progress shot)…

So how can I put on the weight as easy as possible Chris? 

In short form put your body under some strain (correctly!) and eat more. You have heard it all before, so if you are uninterested in trying, stop reading here. If not, continue on and I’ll explain how I made easy extra meals and was able to gain more weight for about an extra $25/week.

I don’t have the capacity to get up super in the morning to cook a huge breakfast or cook meals every night for the following day. Most people share the same issue of not having the time or not wanting to spend everyday cooking… which it is likely you are terrible at cooking anyway. An hour of effort to gain weight and not be skinny anymore is worth it.

What to buy

So here is what I went out an bought with the intention of adding two more meals daily.

3x Glad plastic containers [5 peices] $15 total (reusable everyweek)

1x  GreatValue frozen chicken breasts in a bag $8

1x GreatValue boil-in-a-bag white rice $2

4x GreatValue chicken gravy $4 total

1x GreatValue spagetti noodles $1

1x Hunts 36oz canned spagettis sauce <whatever flavor> $2

1x carton of eggs $2-3

3x Seasoning’s (choose very differetn flavors) $1-2/pc

Total WEEKLY spend around $25        (PICTURE BELOW)

 How to cook it (in an hour)

Put the chicken in a baking pan season them all with your flavors..

Heat oven  to 350 degrees, cook for 1 hour…

In that hour,

Fill two pots with water

Put 1/3rd of the spagetti in a pot with a small bit of oil in it(so the noodles don’t stick together, very important)

Put all 4 bags of rice in the other pot once it is boiling

Both of those should take about 10 minutes. Once the chicken is done, take it all out, cut it all up. Spread it out between 10 containers, then half the containers get rice and gravy (no need to heat the gravy now) and the other half gets spagetti and sauce. Then add more of the seasoning on top and do not mix it all together in the containers.

You can hard boil the eggs during this time as well.

Heat one in the mid morning and one in mid afternoon. 2 minutes in the microwave works well for me. This is in addition to eating a normal lunch and dinner. In the morning i eat two hard boiled eggs and coffee (see you dont change much).

Final thoughts

If you are having trouble eating it all, try lifting weights. Try heavier weights at a lower amount of repetitions (5-8) with absolutely correct form. There are plenty of people or tutorials to show you both proper and improper form. Make sure you know both. This will stress your body to grow your muscle and make you hungry by increasing your calorie maintenance levels. I have put on 10lbs in 2 weeks recently with this method. The key is consistency, if you eat all week and fast all weekend, you will be right back where you started.

Let’s get right into it, blue UV light blocks your bodies natural melatonin production. (Not to be confused with Melanin the pigment in your skin that makes you tan, although they do have relations inside your body). Melatonin is a natural hormone your brain produces to help put you to sleep. Many things can block it’s production, but the most prevelant is light, specifically blue UV light. Melatonin is dubbed the “hormone of darkness”

But blue light is a part of all LCD screens that we use these days from tv’s to cell phones, so how can we avoid it?

Enter F.Lux a simple program for Windows/OSX/iOS users. Unfortunately there is no Android app yet, we hope that is in the works.

Here is a screenshot from my PC..

How do I use F.Lux to help me sleep better?

All you need to do is install the program, enter you zipcode or location and F.lux does the rest. It will get the sunrise/sunset times from your locale and automatically remove the blue light from your screen when the sun goes down and turn it back on in the morning time. You won’t notice the difference over time because of reduced eye strain.

Adding this to your computers/cell phone can help your body go to sleep faster if you use them frequently right before bed. Unfortunately there is nothing like this for TV’s because it would reduce the media quality, so not watching tv an hour + prior to bed time can help as well. This program is free as of this post date.

I decided to move up to Interspire Shopping Cart. I won’t get into why I love it over others in this post. Deciding to move your cart software is quite the task. You need to choose sometihng that works well, Configure all the back end options, emails, notifications, etc. The burden comes in the form of shifting over exsisting customer and order data…

Enter cart2cart…

Cart2cart was my savior here. All you have to do is upload a simple file to each peice of software where it is hosted and make sure you enter the correct details. They have tuned this SaaS perfectly to work with all the major shopping cart platforms.

The price is dependant on how much data you are moving but i can assure you it is far less than your time is worth. You can do a demo run to see how well your data transfers and from there it will quote you a price and ask you if you want it to finish the transaction or not. It is very very simple.

They also have a FAQ section about the data that transfers through their system, I suggest reading it ahead of time so you are fully informed.

This IS NOT a paid post.