I love all my little free tech tools and gadgets, but things break. I have a pro version of Xobni that isn’t hooking up with my account, so it only shows the free version. My Live Mesh file system is blocked by an antivirus program on my laptop, so the files don’t update. And I have a tangled mess of keyboards and mice on my desk because I bought some fancy-schmancy systems that use  bluetooth, and then the bluetooth got hosed up.

So I have all these little efficient things in place that are no longer efficient. This has produced a series of complicated little workarounds that are just downright annoying and time consuming. I’m using a wired keyboard and mouse, and I have to plug them into a USB hub that I use for a thousand things. So I’m forever unplugging one and replugging. And don’t get me started on the printer issues. Because we lost the wireless set up for one of our printers, I pretty much have to go to Kinkos to print something in color from the house.

I’d bet money that you have situations like this in your business…. little roadblocks that you’ve learned to work around instead of fixing. It would probably take half an hour to fix the Live Mesh thing, but instead I take an extra 5 minutes to wrangle files from computer to computer each time I need to sync something. If you add up the time I’m spending, it would be 30 minutes several times over.

Broken technology and little roadblocks are annoying, time-wasting and inefficient. So why don’t we feel like we can take the time to fix this stuff? When I go to print something, I sigh and get grumpy. I do my little workaround and promise myself I’ll fix the problem “soon.” Yet “soon” doesn’t come, and I keep cussing and dealing.

What’s on your business get-around-to-it list? I propose we all set aside Thursday, May 26, as Fix-It Day. Add a comment with a list of the little things you need to fix, and we’ll all commit to setting aside time May 26 (or before) to resolving those little irritations.

Who’s with me?

Now that I’ve held an actual advance copy of the book in my actual hands, it’s time to start sharing!

We’re giving away 10 copies of the book on Goodreads, complete with a cupcake magnet and other goodies!

Enter to win the chance to be one of the first reviewers: bit.ly/U2Fgoodreadsgive

Oh boy has it been crazy here on Avenue Z. I’m finishing up a new site (www.askbethz.com), getting ready to release the book (should be out in late May, but you can preorder here ), settling into married life, coaching a running team… Today I’m flying to Houston for my first speaking gig with a book signing, and I had to call the airlines to make sure I’d have wifi so I can get a project finished on the way there.

Crazy busy, I tell you!

But as I sift through my emails from the past couple of months, it looks like “crazy busy” is a new normal in our business world:

• “Sorry it took me so long to respond… things are crazy busy!”
• “I wanted to get to this last week, but it’s been nuts!”
• “Thanks for your patience… It’s just nonstop around here these days!”

And on and on. When I was growing up, I don’t remember my parents coming home and saying, “Wow, kids. Sorry we haven’t been home for dinner much — it’s crazy busy at work.” Both parents came home at fairly normal times, ate dinner with us most nights and retired to the TV room with us to watch awesome ’80s tv (Taxi, Love Boat, One Day at a Time, anyone?).

Are these “crazy busy” times a new phenomenon? Have we created work environments with deadlines at such an impossible pace that we’re all going insane? And has technology — the tools that are supposed to make our lives easier — played a role in causing this chaos?

I would answer in the affirmative for all three of those questions. I think the easier we have made it to access work, information, entertainment and connections, the tougher we have made our workloads. As much as I love technology and the excitement of this world we live in, I’d love it if we stopped answering the “How are you?” question with “Crazy busy!”

So, how do you answer “How are you?” Is your life calm, cool and collected these days, or are you crazy busy, too?

Gotta run… My Roomba robot vacuum just got stuck under the couch, my iPhone needs charging and I have to pack my Garmin Forerunner so I can go for a run in Houston.

My friend Sam dropped me a quick note on Facebook this morning: “How did it go?”

I read the question via email without logging into Facebook. Immediately I assumed that the “it” she was referring to was my run last night, which, quite frankly, was pretty pathetic. Four miles total, but at least a mile of that was walking. Damn plantar fasciitis! It was so pathetic that I whined last night to D.J. that perhaps I wasn’t assistant coach material for my upcoming marathon season, where I’m supposed to help 40-60 people get to the finish line in a marathon or half marathon. Perhaps I should drop out because I was completely out of shape and plagued by nagging injuries. Oh, poor me.

But the ever level-headed D.J. kinda scoffed at my self pity. “Babe,” he said, “today you had a fabulous presentation where everybody loved you, and now you’re all down about your running instead of thinking about the great career win you had today. Come on!”

Deej had a great point. I completely rocked a speaking gig yesterday. In fact, the speaker who was scheduled after me delayed her presentation because she ran over to hand me her card and ask me if I could come to speak to her group. It was a win all around. And the run last night was not as bad as I was making it out to be either. I was out there, after all, making the effort to work through a rough patch. And I have several weeks before the coaching season begins — plenty of time to get back to regular running form.

Yet this morning my first thought with Sam’s email was about yesterday’s down moment, not my high. The two events yesterday were completely independent of one another, yet my focus was on the mediocre run.

I think learning how to focus on the positive takes conscious practice. I think I have to learn to recognize that I’m giving energy to the negative and forgetting the positive. And I’m going to put some effort toward that to see how much more positive each day can be.

Your turn… what do you dwell on when you have a good/bad day? When you receive feedback about something from ten people, and nine of them love it and one person hates it, do you spend your energy celebrating the nine or obsessing over the one?

PS… To write this blog post I logged into Facebook to get Sam’s actual words. Turns out she was asking a mutual friend how her eyelash-dying appointment went. It wasn’t about me after all….