Use code 2COOL15 at checkout and save 15% when you buy one.

(Expires July 1, 2011)

Environmental Benefits: Conserves energy in two ways: First, lower temperatures in the AC compressor means it runs at a lower pressure, allowing it to use less energy. Second, your AC will run for shorter periods since it will transfer heat more efficiently as air it is cooling is already up to 30 degrees cooler than outside temperatures.

Savings: Saves up to 30% instantly on air conditioning costs, using no electricity and less than 6 cents of water per day. Payback is in months, not years!

Ideal Use: Best where summer season is longest (when is it not summer in Texas?!) you get faster payback when you use central AC all year.

Directions for Use: Installs in less than five minutes to the top of most outdoorhome air conditioning units. No tools required.

Let’s talk about protecting our bodies and start with what to avoid. There are some truly scary products out there that have no business on our bodies or in the air we breath.

A prime example is a product that came out last year and is heavily advertised in my area this season: the OFF! Clip-On Mosquito Repellent. Its active ingredient is Metofluthrin, a neurotoxicant. Testing was conducted on mice, rats, rabbits and dogs (Beagles — sorry Snoopy), noting effects such as tremors, vomiting, increased salivation, “lateral position”, convulsions, hypothermia and death. In spite of this and other fun facts you’ll find in the EPA Fact Sheet, it also states “Acceptable neurotoxicity and developmental studies have been submitted for review.” This in regards to considerations for infants and children. The sheet indicates longer term studies were underway, but at the time of issuance (2006) preliminary results had not been reported.

Looking at Off!’s own advertisement, they do indicate it “doesn’t need to be skin applied”. Well that’s fortunate, because according to the precautions, it’s harmful if swallowed, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin. Wait, WHAT?!! So we shouldn’t breath the neurotoxicant vapor cloud the little fan blows all around us?? NO. On the contrary we’re to:

• Avoid contact with skin, eyes or clothing.
• Avoid breathing vapor.
• If Inhaled: Move person to fresh air. If person is not breathing, call 911 or an ambulance, then give artificial respiration, preferably mouth-to-mouth if possible. Have product container or label with you when calling a poison control center or doctor or going for treatment.

You may be thinking that a product meant to be applied to the skin is safer. It can be, but not if it contains DEET — also a neurotoxicant linked to brain damage.

Let’s skip all those products with toxic chemicals and look at some better, safer alternatives.

Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus – found naturally in eucalyptus leaves and twigs. The CDC sites studies finding it as effective as products containing DEET. Find in products in stores and online. NOTE: NOT to be used on CHILDREN UNDER 3 YEARS. Botanicals can still be irritants. One exception to this may be Kiss My Face Swy Flotter Insect Spray, which states it’s safe for kids too. Read the label carefully! For small children and infants, consider protective clothing and even mosquito netting over infant carriers.

6 Ways to Beat Mosquitoes Naturally – Read care2′s green living article about “six natural options that mosquitoes hate and you’ll soon love”. These are all DIY, so be sure you’re using products specifically formulated for or safe to be applied to the skin. Think citronella, catnip, lavender essential oil, soy oil, neem seed oil, and garlic!

Here’s an easy recipe I spotted all over the place that you can mix up right in your kitchen: In a spray bottle, mix 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/3-cup witch hazel, and 5 drops of citronella, eucalyptus oil, or any of the other essential plant oils (again, only the ones meant for the skin!) Shake vigorously and store in the refrigerator. Go the extra mile for your health and the planet by using organic ingredients.

And enjoy a fun, healthy and pest-free summer!

Photo by dr_relling

Expires June 30 11:59pm (Eastern) and coupons cannot be combined.

Pay Tribute Locally for Memorial Day – “More and more, people are thinking of green right alongside red, white and blue. Green is the nonpartisan, nondenominational forward-looking patriotism of the 21st century. So join the parade, attend a community service and share a moment of silence contemplating the sacrifice of the men and women who have died fighting for America. On this most patriotic of holidays, there’s no more green thing to do than to pay tribute.”

Support Military Families in our Communities -

Green your Barbeque - Gas, propane and electric grills burn cleaner and more efficiently than charcoal or wood. Treated charcoal and lighter fluid give off nasty, dangerous fumes. But if you still crave that smoky, authentic cook-out flavor there are safer and healthier ways to go about it. Check out the article and this video:

And just for Texas peeps, it’s a Texas ENERGY STAR® Sales Tax Holiday weekend! Saturday, May 28 through Monday, May 30, save big while replacing your energy hogging, money wasting appliances. If you do though, don’t add the old ones to the landfill! If the retailer does’t have a program, visit Earth911.org to find out how to recycle them in your area.

Shop Green Irene for eco-friendly products for your home and your workplace, including your home office.

Live healthier, live more sustainably.

12 month access to the Green Home Makeover Portal provides a roadmap to help your family live healthier and more sustainably. A 1, 3 or 12 month Membership with Ask Green Irene enables you to search our database for answers on greening your home and have a US based researcher available when the answer is not readily available.

To request your free or discounted membership to Ask Green Irene (AGI) with your free 12 Month Green Home Makeover (GHM) Portal go here — http://bit.ly/iEZtLl

The Coupon Code is : FreePortal20

This gives you $20 off any Portal and AGI combination.

Choose Item G01237 and enter the coupon code above for a free 1 month AGI membership with your free 12 month portal membership. Choose either of the others and apply the discount towards a 12 month AGI membership. You get the 12 months of portal access free regardless.

Both give you online access to my help and the latter gives you direct access to the researchers themselves!

WHY??

Check out InfoStreet Small Business Blog’s “Top 10 List: Top Cloud Computing Benefits for Your Small Business”

At the Small Business Trends Blog, Maria Colacurcio, co-founder of Smartsheet, offers 3 quick case studies on cloud collaboration for widely distributed teams, pre-integrated tools, and simplified/streamlined processes.  She concludes:

The improvement of online marketplaces like Google Apps, which offers pre-integrated solutions, is making it even easier for small businesses to start small and expand operations to the cloud. Pretty soon, the local PC, server or application becomes the inconvenient or undesirable approach. The good news is it’s easy to start small, risk little and still come out on the cloud.

Sandy Berger at The Pilot talks about convenience vs. security and points out:

If you are now thinking that perhaps you don’t trust Google or Microsoft or AOL with your e-mail, just remember that even if you use a program such as Outlook or Windows mail that resides on your own computer, your e-mail is still going through the servers of your Internet service provider. So, in effect, with e-mail, you have to trust some company or service.

What about service interruptions and provider integrity?

Many cloud-based solutions offer offline access, synced up again when connected. And you should do your due diligence. Research and get recommendations for providers who’ve proven themselves and have been around for awhile. Most will give you a heads up about maintenance downtimes and schedule these during typically “off” hours. Consider using a paid level, rather than free, for some guaranteed support.

TechRadar.com’s Gary Marshall reports on the cloud’s cheap, reliable convenience and five of the most common cloud computing services you’re likely to encounter.

An issue talked about more and more and that’s close to my own heart is greening your workplace and reducing your carbon footprint.

Vivian Wagner at TechNewsWorld discusses ways to do this in “The Virtual Workplace: Lean and Green”:

• Online/mobile platform meetings reduce commuting and other travel.
• Collaborative file-sharing saves paper, time, energy and money – even in document intensive organizations and industries like education and professional services.
• Off-site data storage reduces carbon overhead, can provide economies of scale and facilitate telecommuting/remote working.
• BONUS: These also increase productivity and drive growth.
• Bottom line: “the more virtual the workplace becomes, the more energy it can potentially save.”

If you’ve been wanting to try cloud-computing in your own solo/small team practice but have questions or are having trouble getting started or pulling it all together, just let me know.

Photo credit: Athena’s Pix / Athena Flickr

Why? Patrick McKenzie writes at myGengo that it’s social control, peer pressure – even simple hazing, i.e. “shared suffering” or paying one’s dues. He proposes that  going against this accepted norm “would instantly improve quality of life across the [startup] industry”.

An extreme example of the negative consequences of working to excess is Arianna Huffington, who passed out from exhaustion, breaking her cheekbone and requiring stitches above her eye! She recounts the incident in her TED Talk and urges us at the very least to get more sleep.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the impossibility of actually achieving work-life balance. Have you ever known anyone who could give both equal time? So perhaps balance is a misnomer.

The new order of the day is integration - merging our work and personal lives into a harmonious whole. Sounds good. No more balancing act – let’s mix it all up. We’re our own bosses, right? We make the rules. But as I’ve heard this integration thing touted lately, I’ve wondered how to really make it work.

Margarita Tartakovsky’s PsychCentral review of CEO of Me: Creating a Life That Works in the Flexible Job Age highlights some intriguing advice on the subject from co-authors Ellen Kossek and Brenda A. Lautsch. They outline the idea of developing your own “flexstyle” based on personality and values. You’ll know you’re doing okay if you feel in control and are managing your relationships well. And as circumstances change, you can reevaluate and change your style.

The authors also point out that there are trade-offs in all three main flexstyles (“Integrators”, “Separators” and “Volleyers”) that may necessitate tweaks to make them work for you. From time journaling to deliberate scheduling to staying in the moment, they all call for active management of your own flexstyle.

In working with entrepreneurs over the years – myself included – I’ve found that this is definitely easier said than done.

Marissa Brack, Can-Do-Ologist, states the problem perfectly:

If something is important enough to make you feel harried, stressed, anxious, distracted, unsettled (etc. etc.), shouldn’t it also be important enough for you to make time and space to properly act on it?

The logical answer is yes, but part of what keeps us caught in the cycle of busy-ness is that we usually behave as if the answer is no.

She explains how it is that we’re so busy, but feel like we get nothing done. It’s because we’re putting our attention on one thing while our action is on another. We get things done, but not the ones consuming our attention, which denies all the things we do get done and perpetuates “busy-ness”. What a vicious circle. It’s no wonder we often feel like we’re spinning our wheels.

I read through her post, then went back through it and did the exercise. I was quite amazed at the dichotomy between my own actions and attentions. I’m going to do as Marissa suggests and give myself permission “to put action where [my] attention (and energy) is already flowing”. I’ll observe and take note of the things that still split my attention and waste mental energy.

All of this boils down to being aware and intentional and holding ourselves accountable for how we live our lives. Also acknowledging that we have the freedom to evolve our own work-life styles.

Every once in awhile we get one of these wake up calls, and most folks I know are backing up most of their data. But if your email is completely cloud-based, that may not be the case. I stopped using Outlook years ago and use Google Mail only. Not only that, but my several accounts all forward into one main one. If it all disappeared irretrievably into the ether, I could be in a very tough spot and probably cry for days.

Here are 3 good ways (especially for solo entrepreneurs) to avoid the tears:

1. Back it up with POP – Enable POP  in your Google Mail (Gmail) settings, including what’s already been downloaded. (You’ll see what I mean.) Save changes. Configure another mail client to download Gmail, such as Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc. Periodically download in batches and archive from there. It can be a painfully slow and cumbersome process though. If I, The Documentation Queen(!), avoided doing this, I’ll bet your boots most others don’t do it at all.
2. MailStore Home (Windows PC only) – A freeware utility that you download to your PC that creates one central archive location for easy backup and searchable access. It also backs up Outlook, Thunderbird, Microsoft Exchange Server and Hosted Exchange, and more. Super easy and fast, I backed up multiple Google Mail accounts, Outlook data and Outlook PST files in no time. Here’s a good Web Worker Daily post about how this works for Gmail: “How I Back Up My Gmail Account” (Note: MailStore also offers a Server version at a reasonable cost for organizations with 5 or more mailboxes or the need for browser or mobile access.)
3. Backupify – This has the other two options beat by backing your Google products (Mail, Docs, Sites, Calendar, Contacts) and several social profile accounts up to the cloud. No extra external drive backup necessary! You can access, download and restore from any web browser. This service doesn’t currently offer backup of non-Google mail accounts. There are free, $5/mo and $20/mo versions. You’ll need a paid version to backup from Google Apps.

So no more excuses! No crying over spilled milk. Choose your backup plan and get it in place today. Automate and save time with options 2 and 3. Avoid external backup and save more time with option 3.

What other email backup methods and services do you use and recommend? Please share them in the comments. I’m constantly testing new tools, services and methods for myself and for clients.