Resources on This Website
Article Archives: I published Paauwer Tools–a monthly newsletter–from 2000-2015. Archived articles are here.
Free Webinars: Increase your productivity with tips, strategies and techniques that will benefit your whole life.
Kathy’s Recommended Business Tool List: View my list of recommended business tools that will help you maximize productivity and grow your business.
Free Assessments: Assess different aspects of your life.
Free Tips & Tools: Access valuable tips about organization and time management.
Radio Interviews: Listen to Kathy’s radio interviews about productivity.
Kathy’s Recorded Songs: Kathy is a singer and you can listen to some of her recordings here.
Web Resources
Looking for an online tool, help or information? For your convenience, I have compiled and organized the following online resources into categories, as listed below. Click on the category you want to explore, and it will take you directly to that section.
If you find a broken link or are unhappy with an experience you have with one of the companies or organizations I’ve linked to below, please let me know so I can consider removing the link from my site. Your feedback will help maintain a high-quality list of resources. Paauwerfully Organized donates all affiliate income to human service organizations.
ADD/ADHD/Special Needs
Nancy Ratey is the president of the Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA). She has ADD herself and is married to John Ratey, MD, who is the co-author of Driven to Distraction. Nancy is a Master Certified Coach and one of the founders of ADD coaching.
ADHD Nation: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma, and the Making of an American Epidemic (Alan Schwarz) is a groundbreaking and definitive book about the widespread misdiagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—and how its unchecked growth over half a century has made ADHD one of the most controversial conditions in medicine, with serious effects on children, adults, and society. More than 1 in 7 American children get diagnosed with ADHD—three times what experts have said is appropriate—meaning that millions of kids are misdiagnosed and taking medications such as Adderall or Concerta for a psychiatric condition they probably do not have.
Sari Solden is an ADD therapist and is the author of Women with Attention Deficit Disorder.
ADD Coach Academy is the premier ADD coach training program in the world, offering in-depth training for new and experienced coaches seeking the knowledge and skills to powerfully support individuals with ADD / ADHD.
Attention Deficit Disorder Association is an organization that was created in 1989 to Serve the needs of people with ADD/ADHD.
Sleep Help For People With Autism Spectrum Disorder: This resource highlights the most common sleep issues among children and adults with ASD, including how it might affect one’s sleep, what the most prominent treatment options are, the “do’s” and “don’ts,” as well as tips and other useful resources to tackle sleep issues when diagnosed with ASD.
Bullying and Substance Abuse: Students on the autism spectrum are more often bullied than others. DrugRehab.com published an educational guide about bullying and substance abuse–who it affects and why.
Open Forest LLC offers various exercises and techniques based on scientifically proven systems and principles such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness meditation, provided to help people affected by Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), depression, anxiety, and problem drinking.
Cerebral Palsy Guide provides free educational materials, financial options, and support to help those affected by this condition.
Talking to Children About Cancer: This website discusses how adults can talk to their children regarding a family member or friend having cancer.
Additional resources for special needs children and families:
Sesame Street Autism Resources for Parents
Reduce the Noise: Help Loved Ones with Sensory Overload Enjoy Shopping
Resources for Military Families
Moving with Special Needs Kids
Home Modifications for Special Needs Kids
Academic Accommodation Resources
Estate Planning for Parents of Special Needs Kids
Business Resources & Tools
Online Shopping Cart & Merchant Account: Jump-start your online business and enjoy a hands-free income! You’ve got better things to do than search for the right online services to support your business. From merchant accounts to shopping carts to innovative marketing tools, this will make the business of running your business effortless and easy. Their integrated eCommerce tools allow you to sell products, services and communicate with your clients through your website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, automatically!
Host Online Meetings: Teach online using WebinarJam Studio. This is an affordable webinar platform that provides room for unlimited attendees and unlimited webinars. All you and your participants need is an Internet connection–-no phone necessary! This makes it really easy for international participants, too, since no long distance call is required. All webinars are instantly recorded for playback and are stored on Google Hangout. Try it for 30 days and get your money back if it does not meet your needs.
Find What You Need When You Need It! This is a great paper and information management solution that will help you to find anything you are looking for in your paper files or your electronic files. Because this is a Web-based solution, it works on ALL computers — PCs AND Macs!
85 Free Stock Photo Resources: This resource reviews almost every free stock photo resource website on the internet to help people find the best high-quality that they can use for free. It also teaches how to understand creative commons licenses (CC) and the usage policy or licenses involved on using images from these different websites.
Affordable digital services: Check out Fiverr, an online marketplace that connects you with talented freelance professionals all over the world. I have had a couple logos created (each for only $5 and I was very happy with them), two transcriptions (one was 20 minutes and one was 5 minutes long… both transcribed for just $5 each) and I had an ebook cover designed and formatted for me. Be sure you read the online reviews before hiring a freelance person.
Instant Teleseminar: This is an easy-to-use platform for conducting teleseminars. I have been using it for years, and it makes delivering and recording teleseminars so easy. Up to 1000 participants can call into a bridge line from a telephone, while unlimited numbers of people can also listen either live or to a Webcast replay via the Internet (no phone or long distance call required). Playback is available instantly, using the same link to access the webcast.
FollowUpThen: This email reminder service will help you clear out your inbox, shorten your to-do list, and never forget to follow-up. Type [any time]@followupthen.com in the “Cc”, “Bcc” or “To” fields of your email. The email will come back to you when you schedule it to. Try it for free. Send an email to 1minute@followupthen.com. Check your inbox in one minute and see what’s there!
TimeTrade: This online appointment scheduling software makes it easy to schedule calls and other appointments without having to play phone or email tag to get someone else’s schedule. It “translates” the time zone for you, which is especially helpful when making international appointments.
TimeSlots: This appointment scheduling software is like TimeTrade on steroids! Although it costs more than TimeTrade, it is much more robust. This software enables you to create a question form and ask all the questions you want someone to answer before you have a conversation with them. This helps you (and your caller) to be much more prepared when you speak. Imagine the power of knowing something about your caller and their needs before you begin the conversation. That’s power! Try it for free for 14 days.
Record and Edit Webinars with Ease: Screencast-O-Matic Pro version enables me to do the following: record any length of either a screen or webcam recording (audio and visual is on one track), edit what I have recorded, and publish to Google Drive, Vimeo Pro, Dropbox, YouTube HD, or a hard drive. It is very easy to use. They offer a free version for short webinars (under 15 minutes), although that version contains a watermark and does not offer editing capabilities. The Pro version is well worth the small investment for those who record webinars.
WebinarJam Studio: Do you love to teach without having to rent a classroom? WebinarJam Studio offers an affordable webinar platform that provides room for unlimited attendees and unlimited webinars. All you and your participants need is an Internet connection–no phone necessary! This makes it really easy for international participants, too, since no long distance call is required. All webinars are instantly recorded for playback and are stored on Google Hangout. Try it for 30 days and get your money back if it does not meet your needs.
Scriptly: Have you ever wanted to have a professional write your copy for your autoresponders or for a webinar to promote a product or service you sell? Scriptly does that for you. Click here to learn more about the Email Autoresponder Series and click here to learn about the Webinar Wizard. The creators will be adding additional copywriting modules like sales copy and telemarketing scripts soon. Try it for free for 14 days.
Curately: This tool makes it so easy to publish your own blogs, sourcing information available to everyone on the Web. You simply search for websites or add in individual RSS feeds, and Curately will index all published content from those sources to give you a basis for writing your own blog posts! Once you select the content that you want to include in your own article, you assemble your content, do final editing, and publish! No more starting from scratch and spending hours to create a blog. Try it for free for 14 days.
Free Content Formula: offers a simple and brilliant road map for how to attract new people to your website while providing great value through content provided by others. This is an easy way to share other people’s blogs as part of your own content marketing program.
Easy Video Sales Letter (Easy VSL): Visit this site to learn the secret to creating a high-converting video sales letter or message in less than 10 minutes, without PowerPoint, Keynote, or expensive video software. I used this program to create the short video on my Services page to describe what I do.
Business Services & Advice
Office Support Services Association (OSSA) is an organization of business support service professionals operating their own businesses. If you wish to outsource some of your support work, this is an excellent resource in the Puget Sound area. Some of these businesses may be available to help people outside the Puget Sound area. Link to their “Services Available” page to find a long list of services provided by their member businesses. Here’s a partial list of services provided: accounting, billing, clerical, data entry, call-in dictation, desktop publishing, editing, mailing services, project management, scanning/OCR, scheduling, translation, transcription, tax service, tech support for hardware and software, telephone answering, temporary on-site support, web site design.
S.C.O.R.E.: Counselors to America’s small business, the Service Corps of Retired Executives has answers to your business questions. This site offers workshops and business counseling. Small business owners who receive three or more hours of mentoring report higher revenues and increased growth, and SCORE is America’s premier source of free, confidential business advice. Most of their mentors have owned and operated their own companies or served in management positions. They understand your challenges because they’ve faced them, too.
Business Plans: Palo Alto Software’s site has one of the most extensive collections of business plans anywhere on the Web. Create your business plan in half the time with twice the impact!
How to Build, Grow and Finance a Women-owned Small Business: This guide provides useful tools and up-to-date resources available to help women get started in running their own businesses. It includes practical tips and advice such as how to write a business plan, how to set up a business online, how to apply for business loans and grants, and the many ways to seek funding for a business. It also includes an extensive list of agencies, advocacy groups, and organizations that offer support to help women become successful entrepreneurs and business owners.
How to Take Your Small Business Online: Moving your small business from the brick-and-mortar space to the virtual realm may seem intimidating, but in reality, creating a website has never been easier. This step-by-step guide will walk you through all the key points of creating the perfect website for your small business.
Working from Home: A Guide to Creating a Healthy and Productive Workspace: With millions of people around the world working remotely due to COVID-19, and with changing trends in how we do business, this guide covers the pros and cons of remote work. It addresses the biggest challenges faced by remote workers and it also provides practical tips and advice to set up a productive and healthy workspace at home.
Guide to Finding the Best Business Loans: Find the best business loan for your business in this guide. This business loan review is the result of over 40 hours of research on 90+ business loan companies from across the web. Each business is unique and has equally unique funding needs, find the one that best suits your needs in this online guide.
How to Get a Business Loan: This guide will help you figure out the type of loan you need for your business and will walk you through the step-by-step process of securing a business loan.
Best Business Checking Accounts: When it comes to banking, businesses have much different needs than individuals. This article compares the best business checking accounts in the nation today, based on in-depth reviews conducted.
Small Business Resources: This resource provides an insight into to the many things to think about before starting a business: the basics, financing, laws & regulation, and small business assistance.
Best Accounting Software: Several accounting software programs have been independently reviewed and 8 of the best options are highlighted here for small businesses, freelancers, and anyone else wanting to track their income and expenses.
Business Starter Kit: This combines expert advice from twelve industry-leading companies so you can execute your business idea.
Tips for Starting an Online Business: Here are 27 ways you can get started with an online business. Read through all of them and see which idea you connect with. Do your research. Then move forward and get started implementing one idea! You can add more as you go.
5 Ways to Make Your Small Business More Sustainable: Read details on how to adopt sustainable business practices. Also shared are benefits of sustainability in the workplace and tips to reduce a company’s carbon footprint, including insights on paper reduction, reducing energy consumption, eco-friendly printing practices, office recycling implementation, and more.
Introduction to Cyber Security and Data Protection: This guide, provided by the HigherEd Partners UK and University of York, will educate you about the ever-increasing risk of cyber crime — what you need to know, and how to protect your business from a cyber attack.
How to Find a Manufacturer or Supplier for Your Product Idea: Whether you want to manufacture your own product or find suppliers to purchase wholesale from, they aren’t always easy to find. This article covers the basics of sourcing a supplier for your next product idea. It includes places to search, how you should approach them, and what to ask.
Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan: This article talks about what should be included in a disaster recovery plan and how to maintain one. It provides a downloadable template to help small business owners get started creating a plan.
Guide to Creating a Business Website: This step-by-step guide will show you how to build a small business website using WordPress.
International Virtual Assistants Association: This site has been designed to capture key details of your business, your support needs, and the qualities you are looking for in a Virtual Assistant. The process is simple: You submit a Request for Proposal (RFP) Form with as much detail as possible about your business, your requirements, your concerns, etc. Members will review your RFP and those who meet your criteria and feel they have excellent qualifications will post a response on the RFP system. You will be able to login and view the responses at any time.
An Introduction to Remote Working for Business: Allowing employees to work remotely can boost employee well-being, help with recruitment, and speed up business expansion. But how do you look after your team and maximize data security when everyone is miles apart? This guide explores everything you need to know about safely and effectively managing remote teams.
Equifax Consumer Services: Checked your credit report lately for accuracy? Check it online now.
Career Information & Job Search
Salary.com offers detailed salary ranges based on job field, zip code, and position. It also contains updated articles, career advice, and job board links. Join the largest community of HR professionals to analyze your pay practices and compete for top talent.
SalaryExpert.com provides mean salaries globally based on position and zip code, plus corresponding “buying power” figures based on an area’s cost of living. It also contains information on more than 800 positions, including some less common jobs.
Salary Calculator: They help you to understand the average salary in different regions of the US for different industries with their handy salary calculator.
Best Job Sites: This organization completed a study to determine which job sites were most effective, providing information about the strengths and weaknesses for each site they rated highly.
Single Mothers Looking for Work: If you are a single mother needing temporary assistance until you secure employment, check out this resource. It provides information about grants to help single mothers with rent or mortgage, utility bills, child care, education, medication, medical bills, and more.
Monster.com provides a place for employers and job seekers to meet online and learn more about each other. They are dedicated to making the job search process simple and stress free. Their job search engine is built with powerful technology that aims to match the right job opportunities with the right people. To find the latest and most relevant job openings, simply browse by job title, company, city or state. Or become a member to get the first alerts on jobs you’ll like. Also, make sure to check out the Career Advice section of the site for other job search tools like resume samples and interview tips.
IQ Score Estimate and the Wechsler IQ Test are both free to take. They can be taken for fun to get an IQ score estimate or by anyone preparing for an upcoming IQ test. There are many different types of IQ tests. The first link above takes you to a website that combines questions from several of the most popular types of IQ tests. The Wechsler website focuses specifically on questions from the Wechsler IQ test.
University Interview Guide: This guide shares some of the most common questions asked during an interview, as well as tips on how students can best answer them. It also shares advice on how to present oneself to make a good impression; such as being assertive (but not overbearing), using strong and confident body language, type of clothes to wear, and plenty of other practical and useful information.
Online Bachelors in Marketing: Maryville’s program combines forward-thinking marketing courses with traditional business principles. This hybrid approach can equip you to meet any challenge with creativity, passion, and ingenuity.
Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) Online: Maryville takes a different approach to the online MBA degree. Their courses are rooted in reality, not just research. Their instructors are passionate about teaching and advancing your career — not theirs. Everything about their program is designed to help you redefine your role in today’s market.
ZipRecruiter has over 8 million jobs, all with a one-click apply that allows you to easily find and get your dream job with customizable notifications. You’ll receive updates when your application is being reviewed by a hiring manager.
JobsOnline is an online career resource site providing links for both employers and job seekers alike. By providing its services at no charge, JobsOnline is able to offer job seekers valuable career resources, including one of the broadest array of job listings on the Internet, while at the same time presenting employers with the most cost efficient alternative to advertise their positions to a large audience of potential candidates.
Glassdoor: So much more than job postings: a place to find out if you would actually like working for a particular company.
Indeed: Bare-bones search results, and lots of them make Indeed the Google of job sites.
JobisJob: This site has international reach. JobisJob also has a geographic hot spot tool that shows where the most thriving job markets are.
Ultimate Guide to Passing Any Interview: This website contains 7 chapters of tips to help you through the interview process for a job. All of them are free. Scroll down and click on the chapter titles to access the chapters in this Guide.
LinkedIn: Not the best place to find postings, but it’s where the majority of recruiters find their best candidates.
Career Builder: If you’re looking for a new job in your current field, this is the site for you. You can search over 70 job posting sites across the country. You can create and post your resume for potential employers to see. This site also has a neat feature called the“Personal Search Agent” which will send new job postings that match your search criteria directly to your email address. That way you know you’re seeing the latest postings without having to constantly check the site.
Update Your Resume: This site will actually generate a resume and cover letter for you. Just fill in the blanks with information such as your career objectives, work experience and educational background. This site will even email a copy of the resume and cover letter to the prospective employer.
Build an Effective Resume: This site is filled with excellent resources that will help you write career objectives, cover letters, resumes, curriculum vitae (CV), and more. It includes samples of resumes by industry.
Resume & Cover Letter Templates: This site offers resume and cover letter templates to download, writing tips and an interview guide.
A Guide to Salary Negotiation: Salary negotiations are a challenge for most workers. Striking the right tone, being confident without being cocky, and crafting the business case for why you deserve more is a career skill in itself.
Harvard Business Review: Why Women Don’t Negotiate Their Job Offers: Learn why women are more reticent than men to negotiate their salary offers.
Social Media and Your Job Search: How to find and be found by your future employer
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics : The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program produces employment and wage estimates annually for over 800 occupations. These estimates are available for the nation as a whole, for individual States, and for metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas; national occupational estimates for specific industries are also available.
Charitable Donations of Goods
Links to organizations that accept tax-deductible items you can donate are listed below. Do a Google search for your local area to find more charities that accept in-kind contributions.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT TAX SAVINGS: Keep track of your charitable donations so you can get a tax deduction. For years, I have used a free online program called ItsDeductible to keep track of mine and it has saved me thousands of dollars on my taxes, because I donate a lot of in-kind as well as cash contributions.. In order to use this when it’s time to do your taxes, you must purchase TuboTax Deluxe (even if you have a CPA doing your tax returns for you), as the software will generate the Form 8283 — the Noncash Charitable Contributions IRS form that must be attached to your return if you claim more than $500 in non-cash contributions. The number of hours it would take for your CPA to manually create this form would be astronomical, so it is well worth the investment each year in TurboTax Deluxe if you have in-kind contributions in excess of $500. Your tax savings will more than pay for this software.
Donate children’s shoes, socks & coats to a good cause: Shoes That Fit is helping kids improve their self-esteem and fit in at school by eliminating one of poverty’s most visible and debilitating marks.
If you’d like help determining where to give cash gifts, I invite you to check out GiveWell, a nonprofit that uses in-depth research to measure how much good a charity delivers for every dollar it spends. If you are looking for a quick and effective way to maximize the impact of your giving, check out GiveWell’s annual list of top charities.
Coaching
International Coach Federation: The International Coach Federation (ICF) is the leading global organization dedicated to advancing the coaching profession by setting high standards, providing independent certification and building a worldwide network of trained coaching professionals. ICF accredits programs that deliver coach-specific training. ICF-approved and –accredited training programs must complete a rigorous review process and demonstrate that their curriculum aligns with the ICF Core Competencies and Code of Ethics. Before hiring a coach, ask if his/her coach training was completed at an ICF-accredited school.
Communication Tools
Stay in Touch with Clients, Prospects & Referral Partners with Ease! Send a PAPER greeting card in the mail with your personal handwritten message and signature for less than the cost of a store-bought card … without leaving the comfort of your desk! Schedule a time to connect with me by phone and I will show you how it works and help you send a free card to someone who needs to hear from you.
FollowUpThen: This email reminder service will help you clear out your inbox, shorten your to-do list, and never forget to follow-up. Type [any time]@followupthen.com in the “Cc”, “Bcc” or “To” fields of your email. The email will come back to you when you schedule it to. Try it for free. Send an email to 1minute@followupthen.com. Check your inbox in one minute and see what’s there!
Record and Edit Webinars with Ease: Screencast-O-Matic Pro version enables me to do the following: record any length of either a screen or webcam recording (audio and visual is on one track), edit what I have recorded, and publish to Google Drive, Vimeo Pro, Dropbox, YouTube HD, or a hard drive. It is very easy to use. They offer a free version for short webinars (under 15 minutes), although that version contains a watermark and does not offer editing capabilities. The Pro version is well worth the small investment for those who record webinars.
Instant Teleseminar: This is an easy-to-use platform for conducting teleseminars. I have been using it for a year, and it makes delivering and recording teleseminars so easy. Up to 200 participants can call into a bridge line from a telephone, while unlimited numbers of people can also listen either live or to a Webcast replay via the Internet (no phone or long distance call required). Click here to try it for $1 for the first month.
Assessment Tool Generator: Create Your Own Assessment Tools in 10 Minutes or Less! Design custom self-scoring assessments to attract more prospects and give better value to existing clients. Their basic plan monthly subscription–offering up to 5 different assessments–is $19.95/month.
CaringBridge provides a free online service connecting patients to friends and families. When you don’t have time to update friends and relatives about a loved one’s medical condition, you can rely on this free web service as a “check-in” place to get the latest update about their condition and any family needs. It also offers a guestbook page for people to leave messages on.
Do Not Call List for Cellular Phones: Block telemarketing calls from coming in to your cell phone by calling the number 1-888-382-1222 from your cell phone. Or, you can add up to three cell phone numbers to the Do Not Call list by visiting www.donotcall.gov.
Free Invitation Service: If you want to send invitations to people and allow them to respond online check out Evite.
Health & Wellness
Relax the Back: A wide variety of ergonomic and orthopedic solutions for the home, office, sleeping, travel, and exercise.
National Safety Council: This site offers excellent free resources, such as an online Basic First Aid and CRP training program, and information about a variety of topics such as information about floods, fires, and tips about staying alert while driving and avoiding driver fatigue.
Basic First Aid: Understanding basic first aid can save a life. Knowing correct first aid technique is the first step in stopping a situation from becoming potentially deadly. Medical News Today offers a guide with a wide array of beginner’s tips for CPR, drowning, treating burns, and much more.
American Academy’s Online CPR Certification is the best company in the industry for having their coursework and tests designed by board-certified physicians. In an effort to help educate as many people as possible, they offer all of their courses online completely free of charge. There’s a small fee if you want to receive a certificate, but the training itself is completely free.
PositiveHealthWellness.com has created a Fitness Goals to Avoid infographic that you can download.
Healthline.com is a consumer health information website that is continually reviewed by doctors to ensure that the information provided is up-to-date.
GoodRx: You may think that prescription drug prices are regulated or fixed, but they aren’t. Prices vary wildly from pharmacy to pharmacy—especially when it comes to generic medications. GoodRx is a site that connects consumers to pharmacies with the lowest prices. They provide an interesting article titled The Effect of Income on U.S. Prescription Fill Patterns, provides an in-depth look of more than 50 million US prescription claims, highlighting the stark health disparities between wealthy and impoverished areas.
FitnessGoals is dedicated to inspiring women to live a more healthy and fulfilling life.
ChooseMyPlate.gov: Eat the perfect diet for you! The USDA’s food guidance system is comprised of the new MyPlate symbol and other materials to help Americans make healthy food choices and to be active every day. The website features practical information and tips to help Americans build healthier diets. It features selected messages to help consumers focus on key behaviors, including: (1) Balancing calories, (2) Foods to Increase, and (3) Foods to Reduce.
SelfGrowth.com is the most complete guide to information about Self Improvement, Personal Growth and Self Help on the Internet. It is designed to be an organized directory, with articles and references to thousands of other Web Sites on the World Wide Web.
Exercise for Mental Health: How Being Active Benefits Your Wellbeing When people talk about the benefits of regular exercise, they’re often referring to how it can improve one’s physical health. This article offers insights on how routine strength training and cardio workouts can also have a positive impact on our mental health.
Mental Health Tips for Home-Based Workers: Remote working has become the new normal due to the pandemic, with an estimated 30% of the workforce being home-based by the end of 2021. This can take its toll on both physical and mental health. This helpful guide offers tips for employees to reduce their stress when working from home, as well as tips for ways that employers can support a healthier and less stressful home work environment.
Tips for Identifying the Early Signs Of Mental Health Issues: Early intervention can potentially decrease the severity of a mental illness. In some cases, it may be possible to delay or prevent a major mental illness altogether. This website offers tips for identifying the early signs of mental health issues in children, teens, and adults.
Sensory Overload: This guide provides a great description of what sensory overload is, what happens to people experiencing it, and how to manage it.
Psychology Today offers a website with a search function that can assist you in finding a qualified therapist near you.
Dual Diagnosis: Mental Health and Addiction: Many people diagnosed with a substance use disorder also suffer from a co-occurring mental health or behavioral disorder. This is known as a dual diagnosis. Individuals with a dual diagnosis require an integrated treatment plan that addresses both disorders as interconnected mental health issues. By seeking treatment for both, an individual will stand the best chances of enjoying a fulfilling and healthy life.
Drug and Alcohol Addiction Resources: This site offers a wealth of information about drug and alcohol treatment resources throughout the USA. You can do a search by state for resources in your region. You may also be interested in visiting Rehabs.com for a directory of addiction treatment programs in the USA.
Alcohol Rehab Guide provides a resource to help people recover from an alcohol use disorder. They offer high quality substance abuse and recovery content to help those affected by alcoholism learn more about the issues surrounding it.
Addiction Treatment: What Families Need to Know: This resource helps people better understand addiction and breaks down how to talk about addiction, assist a loved one with getting professional help, and offer support throughout the process, including through recovery.
Rehab Spot: Often, family and friends wonder if a loved one needs help with an addiction. Recognizing the signs of addiction can be vital to saving a life. This site shares common physical symptoms and social signs to look for if you suspect a loved one needs help. It also links you to a dedicated treatment specialists who are trained to help.
American Addiction Centers offers a large collection of online resource for those suffering from substance use and mental health disorders. Their goal is to guide as many people to help as soon as possible before more lives are lost to drug overdoses. They offer a wide range of information on their r sites – from facility reviews to forums – to help millions of families make more informed decisions about treatment. Click here to access their rehab guide.
Creativity, Productivity and Sleep: This guide covers the current state of research into how our sleep habits influence our ability to think creatively, and how it is an important part of improving productivity and focus.
Home & Personal Organizing
Checklists and forms for all occasions: Sometimes you need someone to write a list for you. Real Simple magazine has it covered! Check out their checklists, templates and worksheets to tackle whatever life throws your way. Just click, print, and start filling out or checking off. For example, they have things like a babysitter information form, wedding plan worksheets, and a vacation packing checklist.
Easy Minder Reusable Lists: are extremely useful and practical laminated lists that have been designed and developed for many situations and for use by a wide-range of people. Examples: grocery list, medicine minder, babysitter information sheet, habit builder, homework & activity planning sheet, pet sitter list, and more. Comes with a pen that is guaranteed for life.
Collectify My Stuff: This will help you get ORGANIZED in a snap! It is cataloging software for people with collections of things you cherish or value, whether sentimental or monetary — memorabilia, antiques, glass, etc. Sotheby’s says, “We are delighted to recommend Collectify MyStuff to our clients, a software tool for all their cataloging needs.” Anyone using the link provided will receive a $5 discount!
Find What You Need When You Need It! This is a great paper and information management solution that will help you to find anything you are looking for in your paper files or your electronic files. Because this is a Web-based solution, it works on ALL computers — PCs AND Macs!
Lifestyle Systems: They offer “do-it-yourself” drawer dividers in black or white polystyrene or clear acrylic to organize a drawer, anywhere. You will love the ease of installation, durability, and versatility of these drawer organizers. Use these in your Home, Office, Clinic, School, or Workshop.
GarageTek: The revolutionary garage furnishing system, bringing beauty and well-designed, ultra-functional room to your garage. Transform your under-utilized space into a versatile, organized area, creating a space custom designed to your specific needs.
Gladiator GarageWorks: Robust and smartly-designed products provide a place for every item in your garage.
Internet Services & Products
GoDaddy.com offers a wide range of internet services, from domain names registration and web hosting (from $3.95 per mo.) to email hosting and more.
RoboForm: Still trying to remember that password? Let the Robot do it! Roboform fills out login, registration and other forms automatically.
FollowUpThen: This email reminder service will help you clear out your inbox, shorten your to-do list, and never forget to follow-up. Type [any time]@followupthen.com in the “Cc”, “Bcc” or “To” fields of your email. The email will come back to you when you schedule it to. Try it for free. Send an email to 1minute@followupthen.com. Check your inbox in one minute and see what’s there!
Online Shopping Cart & Merchant Account: Jump-start your online business and enjoy a hands-free income! You’ve got better things to do than search for the right online services to support your business. From merchant accounts to shopping carts to innovative marketing tools, this will make the business of running your business effortless and easy. Their integrated eCommerce tools allow you to sell products, services and communicate with your clients through your website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, automatically!
Email Stripper: This is a FREE program for cleaning the “>” and other formatting characters out of your emails. It restores forward or replied emails back to their original state so they’re easier to read.
Legal Shield: Have you ever wanted legal advice on a credit matter or legal assistance with the purchase of a home? How about for writing or revising your Will? For just pennies a day, you can protect your legal rights. Instead of shelling out hefty fees for a few days of legal help, you pay a modest monthly membership fee that provides you with access to a law firm for life. Legal Shield offers great legal service plans designed with the cost-conscious consumer in mind. I have been a member since 1998 and have found it well worth the monthly fee.
Identity Shield: Identity theft can be an easy problem to ignore—until you experience it yourself. With more ways for criminals to obtain your personal information online—and more complex ways to cover their tracks—it’s more important than ever to protect yourself and your assets. IDShield is the only identity theft protection company armed with a team of dedicated licensed private investigators to restore your identity should it ever become compromised.
Legal Assistance: Nolo’s mission is to make the legal system work for everyone — not just lawyers. To help people handle their own everyday legal matters — or learn enough about them to make working with a lawyer a more satisfying experience — they publish reliable, plain-English books, software, forms and this website. Everything they publish is regularly revised, updated and improved by their staff of lawyer-editors. They pay attention not only to changes in the law, but to feedback from customers, lawyers, judges and court staffers. One of our clients formed her own LLC with tools found on this site…without hiring an attorney. Check out the hundreds of forms and other tools they offer.
FreePatentsOnline.com: This site has sophisticated patent searching, PDF downloading, alerts, and work-flow functions, all for free. It is an excellent resource for intellectual property professionals, students, small businesses, and anyone who needs legal or scientific information.
Marketing
Grow Your Mailing List Exponentially: This social content list-building tool provides an easy way to grow faster by providing multiple opt-in opportunities using their white label value-packed resources and proven methodology.
GREAT free stuff from Marketing Guru Robert Middleton: Get Robert Middleton’s free Marketing Plan Workbook and sign up for his free More Clients eZine. Robert’s expertise is in helping service professionals develop effective marketing plans. Both of these free tools helped me to take my business from fledgling to fantastic. When you’re ready for more, you may wish to consider getting Robert’s InfoGuru Online Marketing Manual.
Make Sales Without Selling: Here’s a totally risk-free marketing approach that teaches you how to get paid well for doing what you love. My Marketing Coach, Kendall SummerHawk, has taught me much of what I know about marketing effectively. One of my favorites is her series, “What to Say if You Hate to Sell,” which shows exactly how to have a respectful, authentic, thoughtful conversation with prospects–a conversation that results in people asking if they can hire you.
50 Ways to Make Your First Sale: This marketing guide from Shopify gives you fifty actionable marketing techniques that can help you get that first sale. It will teach you everything you need to know about online marketing channels where you can make your first sale online. It consists of 53 chapters that can be accessed online and it’s also available on a FREE ebook (PDF) downloadable file.
Easy Video Sales Letter (Easy VSL): Visit this site to learn the secret to creating a high-converting video sales letter or message in less than 10 minutes, without PowerPoint, Keynote, or expensive video software. I used this program to create the video on my Services page to describe what I do.
PressPlay: This powerful video landing page software and app will give you the ability to create high-converting video landing pages, squeeze pages, sales pages, and a customized “smart video player” that enables the viewer to resume where they last left off. It includes timed call-to-action links, and much more.
Assessment Tool Generator: Create Your Own Assessment Tools in 10 Minutes or Less! Design custom self-scoring assessments to attract more prospects and give better value to existing clients. Their basic plan monthly subscription–offering up to 5 different assessments–is $19.95/month.
Office Organizing & Supplies
Find What You Need When You Need It! This is a great paper and information management solution that will help you to find anything you are looking for in your paper files or your electronic files. Because this is a Web-based solution, it works on ALL computers — PCs AND Macs!
HangUp: these strong see-through, moisture-resistant, acid-free Keep Safe Hanging File Bags provide a secure way to protect, file, and transport important papers, photos, artwork, computer disks, CDs, and other small items you may be storing in existing hanging files. They come in both letter and legal size.
Organize Your Cords & Wires: A practical solution to the endless rat’s nests of cords and wires! The easy-to-use Cord Control Kits and accessories immediately transforms the appearance of any office or home entertainment center by systematically labeling, bundling and concealing all electronic equipment cords and wires.
Quality Products for Home and Business Organization: This company stands for quality, and has been in business since 1919. Their products provide superior performance. Check out this site for products to organize your closet, pantry, garage, or business.
Lifestyle Systems: They offer “do-it-yourself” drawer dividers in black or white polystyrene or clear acrylic to organize a drawer, anywhere. You will love the ease of installation, durability, and versatility of these drawer organizers. Use these in your Home, Office, Clinic, School, or Workshop.
Preparedness
I offer several blogs and tip sheets on various topics related to preparedness:
- General Disaster Preparedness: Some of the suggestions in this tip sheet include preparing ahead of time for a specific impending disaster when a warning has been issued, and other suggestions are for general preparedness.
- Are You Prepared? Although none of us likes to think about it, we are all mortal. Regardless of age, each of us needs to be prepared for when the time comes that we die or become incapacitated. This blog offers tips to help you create a Personal Operations Manual – a critical resource that will reduce a lot of stress, turmoil and angst for surviving loved ones who are left to deal with the fallout of managing someone else’s affairs. The time is NOW to get your affairs in order.
- Are You Prepared for a Disaster? (Part 1) The first of this four-part blog series invites you to consider the man-made and natural disasters that your geographic area is prone to experiencing. This is the first step in preparedness planning.
- Are You Prepared for a Disaster? (Part 2) If you and your family do not have an emergency preparedness plan, now is the time to create one and be sure everyone in your family knows the plan.
- Are You Prepared for a Disaster? (Part 3) Having survival food and water is an essential part of planning for a disaster. This blog provides suggestions about what to have on hand.
- Are You Prepared for a Disaster? (Part 4) Do you have a disaster kit? If not, make it a priority to create one. You never know when you’ll find yourself in a situation where you have to manage without food, water, power, internet, or the ability to head out to the store to buy what you need.
B-air.com provides these free tips:
- Flood Preparedness guide– Includes BEFORE, DURING and AFTER tips, also sections for pets and senior
- Water Categories and Water Damage Classifications– Includes the comparison of water damages and waters with comprehensive comparison
- Disaster Preparedness Plan — An infographic of different types of disasters
- How To Prepare For Natural Disasters– A complete guide for emergency
Unity Home Group and EXP Realty provides these free tips:
Productivity Tools
Find What You Need When You Need It! This is a great paper and information management solution that will help you to find anything you are looking for in your paper files or your electronic files. Because this is a Web-based solution, it works on ALL computers — PCs AND Macs!
FollowUpThen: This email reminder service will help you clear out your inbox, shorten your to-do list, and never forget to follow-up. Type [any time]@followupthen.com in the “Cc”, “Bcc” or “To” fields of your email. The email will come back to you when you schedule it to. Try it for free. Send an email to 1minute@followupthen.com. Check your inbox in one minute and see what’s there!
Collectify My Stuff: This will help you get ORGANIZED in a snap! It is cataloging software for people with collections of things you cherish or value, whether sentimental or monetary — memorabilia, antiques, glass, etc. Sotheby’s says, “We are delighted to recommend Collectify MyStuff to our clients, a software tool for all their cataloging needs.” Anyone using the link provided will receive a $5 discount!
RoboForm: Still trying to remember that password? Let the Robot do it! Roboform fills out login, registration and other forms automatically.
Checklists and Forms for All Occasions: Sometimes you need someone to write a list for you. Real Simple magazine has it covered! Use their SEARCH feature to find what you are looking for. You’ll find checklists, templates and forms to tackle whatever life throws your way. Just click, print, and start filling out or checking off. For example, they have things like a babysitter information form, wedding plan worksheets, and a vacation packing checklist.
SaneBox Email Management: Important email is easy to see in your inbox. Distracting email is sent to @SaneLater and summarized for you daily.
Creativity, Productivity and Sleep: This guide covers the current state of research into how our sleep habits influence our ability to think creatively, and how it is an important part of improving productivity and focus.
Reference Library
Online Libraries & Reference Desk: This site offers local libraries online from all around the country. It also has a reference desk which offers your answer for acronyms, almanacs, calculators, and specialized legal and medical information.
Mega Reference Desk: Here you’ll come across everything from encyclopedias to international phone directories to a roster of the FBI’s most wanted, and Internet reference sites ranging from the U.S. Census Bureau and Gray’s Anatomy to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. This site helps visitors sort through the millions of resources on the Web, including books, artifacts, images, documents, and maps.
Web-Related Questions: This site contains a collection of tutorials that can answer most Web-related questions.
Free Visual Thesaurus: Truly a unique resource, this free web site offers a complete thesaurus in a graphical interface that is easy to use and remarkably extensive in content.
Find Great Quotes: to use in public speaking or in your writing. This site offers the ability to search for the perfect quote by topic or author. You can also do a search to find out who the author is of a famous quote. Another great site for quotes is Inspiration Peak.
Find Great Articles: by going to this site and searching by topic or author through more than 300 magazines and journals dating back to 1998. Each search result gives you the author’s name, date of the article, length, source, and first two sentences. You can then print out the entire article.
High School Hub: This site is an incredible resource for high school students. It offers information on just about every subject high school students study. This is a must see!
TopSecretRecipes.com and CopyKat.com offer some “secret” recipes from chain restaurants such as Applebee’s, Olive Garden, and Boston Market.
Tax & U.S. Government Information
Learn Valuable Tax-Saving Strategies: Former IRS attorney teaches business owners how to legally and ethically cut your taxes in half! Sandy Botkin, Attorney and CPA, is CEO and Principal Lecturer for the Tax Reduction Institute. His lecture series, titled Tax Strategies for Business Professionals, contains valuable information and is also very entertaining to listen to. He also has a series called Tax and Financial Strategies for Residential Real Estate and Tax Strategies for the Home-Based Business.
IRS Assistance: Tax questions? Go straight to the horse’s mouth. The Internal Revenue Service offers an essential set of resources for tax preparation including advice on minimizing penalties, downloadable forms, and complete instructions.
Breaking Tax News & Updates: Want to be ready for next year’s taxes? Get your 1040 forms, and read articles on breaking tax news as well as data like standard deductions, AGL limits, and state addresses.
Questions for a Government Agency: Want to know the latest postal rates or find tax forms? What about how to file complaints with the government, get a passport, or register to vote? You’ll find the info here.
Time & Life Management
Peace-of-Mind for the Entire Family with Life360 for iPhone and Android: No more endless texts and calls wondering, did Jenny make it home? Has Dad left the office? When will Mom arrive to pick me up? With Life360, just open the free app and instantly see everyone in your private Circle on the map. You can also message the whole group at once or 1:1. Whether you’re making dinner plans, coordinating carpools, or just ensuring everyone arrived home safe, Life360 gives you simplified communication and peace-of-mind right at your fingertips.
Self Improvement from SelfGrowth.com: This is the most complete guide to information about Self -Improvement, Personal Growth and Self Help on the Internet. It is designed to be an organized directory, with articles and references to thousands of other Web Sites on the World Wide Web.
Checklists and Forms for All Occasions: Sometimes you need someone to write a list for you. Real Simple magazine has it covered! Use their SEARCH feature to find what you are looking for. You’ll find checklists, templates and forms to tackle whatever life throws your way. Just click, print, and start filling out or checking off. For example, they have things like a babysitter information form, wedding plan worksheets, and a vacation packing checklist.
Great Weather Forecasts: Get local weather reports, as well as information like pollen alerts, travel reports, and a 15-day forecast.
Hurricane Preparedness Checklist: This website includes preparedness checklists that can be used in preparation for disasters including hurricane, earthquake, tornado, fire, and more.
Time and Date Calendar: Create your own customized calendar with important dates on it. Find the duration between two dates, the countdown to the New Year, when you will be 20,000 days old, and other date-related information.
How to Clean Anything: offers a wonderful stain removal guide for many different kinds of stains you might find on upholstery, carpeting, car interiors, and clothing.
WatchMinder: is a watch/device invented by a psychologist to help you remember what needs your attention next. If you find yourself getting distracted and you want to teach yourself to stay on task, try WatchMinder for 30 days. If it doesn’t help you to improve behavior and form new habits, you can get your money back! WatchMinder comes with over 70 pre-programmed messages such as pay attn, go mtg, call home, meds, relax, exercise. It has 16 daily reminder alarms, silent vibration, and multiple fixed/random interval training alarms.
Mission Statement Builder: This FranklinCovey site walks you through a series of questions and creates a personal mission statement based on your responses.
Self Improvement & Personal Growth: SelfGrowth.com is the most complete guide to information about Self-Improvement, Personal Growth and Self Help on the Internet. It is designed to be an organized directory, with articles and references to thousands of other Web Sites on the World Wide Web.
FreeGrantsForWomen helps low income women with finding grants and financial assistance programs. These grants help families with education, rent, housing, utility bills, mortgage, and medical bills .
Free Grants for Veterans helps low income veterans with finding free grants. These grants help veterans with rent, housing, education, medical bills, and utility bills.
Travel
Lowest Gas Prices: This site tells you where to find the cheapest gas in your area, plus it gives you a perspective on gas prices in relation to other places in the US and Canada. AAA also provides a Fuel Cost Calculator to estimate the cost of gas for traveling from one point to another in the United States.
TripAdvisor is one of the top 15 worldwide travel sites and the #1 travel search engine. They provide unbiased information on cities, hotels, and attractions in North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and the South Pacific. They are not a travel agent. They offer a great place to get helpful information as you make your travel plans. And there is no cost to you!
The Essential Guide to Traveling with a Medical Condition : This free guide offers helpful travel tips and information. It also covers some of the common challenges associated with traveling abroad with a health condition. The four chapters cover what to pack, transport accessibility, medical emergency management, and travel recommendations for people with medical conditions.
Traveling When Pregnant: How to Enjoy a Holiday With a Baby on the Way: This guide is an excellent resource that offers useful information such as tips on the best babymoon destinations, advice for traveling in different trimesters, as well as a list of frequently-asked questions that will help any pregnant traveler enjoy a safe and comfortable journey.
Foreign Language Assistance: If you want to master a few useful phrases in a foreign language before traveling, go to this site. It even supplies sound clips so you can pronounce the words properly.
Speak and Translate for iOS and Translator Speak and Translate for Android: This is a voice and text translator app that allows you to communicate effectively in any corner of the globe.
Historical Weather Averages: Before taking off on a trip, check out the historical weather averages for thousands of cities around the globe. Find out when the rainy season is, or what the average high and low is before you pack.
How Far Is It? Enter the names of two cities anywhere in the world and get the distance between them in miles or kilometers, with the option of printing out a map with driving directions.
Currency Converter for International Exchange Rates: Want to know what the cost of a product or service will be after you have converted it to your own currency? Click here and enter the asking price, as well as what currency you want to convert from and to. It does the math for you!
Track an Enroute Flight: Want to check on the status of a flight to see if your guest or loved one will arrive on time? With this site, you can track a plane’s progress with either the flight number or the departure and arrival city. You’ll get a real-time map of the plane and its progress, based on radar data.
Travel the Earth via Earthcam: This site provides images from digital cameras around the world. Visit hundreds of places without leaving your chair! The images are updated regularly, and some are live.
Travel the Earth via Satellite Images: This site provides images taken by satellite of the Earth at night.
Travel Insurance Comparison: Get a comparative analysis of 14 travel insurance companies. Simply enter a few facts about your travel plans and the system will present several policy options for you to compare.
God’s Creation: Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida has put up a very interesting Java applet on their site. It begins as a view of the Milky Way Galaxy viewed from a distance of 10 million light-years and then zooms into towards Earth in powers of ten of distance. 10 million, to one million, to 100,000 light years and so on and then when it finally reaches a large Oak tree leaf. But that is not all it zooms into the leaf until it reaches to the level of the quarks viewed at 100 attometers. This is a fantastic representation of how magnificent the Universe is and how vastly infinite it is.
My Gift to You:
7 Strategies to Overcome Overwhelm
…for good!
In this guide, discover how to simplify your life
at work and at home by following these 7 simple strategies.
-
Real Estate Agent, Pacific Real Estate Network, Inc., Kirkland, WA
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same. The thoughts and concepts you've shared with me as my coach will always influence my choices. Having the opportunity to share my thoughts with you is going to guide me to my true path. I feel such a sense of peace. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” -
Program Director, Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas, Seattle, WA
“I was very inspired by your workshop last week on Managing Time, Paper, and Information for Maximum Effectiveness.
I began creating my personal mission statement that evening. I also started the weekly planning process last weekend. I managed to achieve a much stronger sense of accomplishment than I have in a long time. Your help has, in a week's time, proven to be invaluable."
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In 2003 our family had the privilege of hosting an exchange student from Ukraine. Olha participated in the FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange) Program, which offered competitive scholarships that were fully funded by the U.S. State Department. This program brought gifted high school students from former U.S.S.R. countries to spend an academic year in the United […]
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