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- Remind her that you are working on other projects that she has already identified as top priorities
- Ask for help in deciding where the new task should fall on the list of priorities
- Point out that you might be able to do everything, but not to the usual high standards that are expected.
1. DO ONE OR TWO THINGS, AND DO THEM WELL.
Rather than volunteering at every school, organization or work activity, pick one or two things and focus your efforts on those. If someone else requests your time, let them know you're committed to these one or two activities, and simply cannot take on another.
2. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE ALL OR NOTHING.
While you may consider helping someone out with something, that certainly doesn't mean you have to do it all. For example, rather than serving on a committee, you may volunteer to make reminder phone calls, or to type up the newsletter.
3. BARTER.
If someone asks you to volunteer your time, ask this person to volunteer their time right back. For instance, if your friend asks you to baby sit tonight, ask her if she can drive your son to school tomorrow.
4. NO GUTS-NO GLORY.
If you have no intention of saying YES, don't avoid the issue by saying, MAYBE, or IF I HAVE TIME. While this may temporarily alleviate your guilt, it's unfair to the other person, and you'll be wasting time fretting over what excuse you're going to give to this person. Just say No. And don't feel guilty about saying No, because you want to spend some quality time with your family, or you need some personal time alone.
5. TAME YOUR TO DO LIST.
Your To Do List should not be ten pages long. Good time management is picking and choosing those items that are truly important and saying NO to those that are not important at all. Force yourself to limit the amount of items on your To Do List.
6. DO IT BECAUSE YOU WANT TO.
While there are some situations that are to be considered emergencies--such as helping an ill relative or friend-- there are many other requests for your time that you simply don't have to do. The best rule of thumb is to choose those activities that you TRULY WANT TO DO--those things that will make you happy. If someone asks you for your time, and you find yourself thinking, 'Oh, no', then simply don't do it.
1. If you have your machine plugged into wall current, turn off the power at the circuit breaker in your home or office.
You don't want to touch a wet wire carrying 110 volts or so.
If you're running the machine on battery power, it's still operating, and you don't see sparks, hear odd noises, or smell burnt electrical components, shut your laptop down through the normal Windows process.
If something is obviously wrong with the machine, turn it off immediately by depressing the Off switch or by removing the battery.
2. Ground yourself by touching the center screw on the faceplate of a dry electrical outlet or by touching some other metal object that reaches to ground.
3. If you haven't done so in emergency mode, remove the AC adapter and the battery, and set them aside.
4. Disconnect any external devices (such as a mouse) attached to the USB, FireWire, serial, or other ports.
5. If you find any liquid on the battery or AC adapter, wipe them carefully and set them aside.
If your spill has thoroughly soaked the AC adapter or the battery, you probably need to consider it a loss. You can get replacement AC adapters and batteries from various sources, including the original equipment manufacturer, laptop accessory companies, and the used market.
6. Remove any cards installed in the PC Card slot.
If they're wet, carefully dry them off. If any water has gotten into the narrow slot, dry out the area with a cotton swab, taking care not to leave any threads of cotton in the internal connector.
7. Wipe off any liquid on the display.
Use a clean cloth dampened with water to remove any sticky residue.
8. Remove the hard drive and the CD/DVD drives if you have them installed in plug-in bays.
Dry them off if they're wet. Set them aside.
9. Open the memory module container; remove and dry the memory modules.
Make notes on the placement of the modules. Set them aside.
10. Hand-dry the keyboard surface with a lint-free cloth.
If you spill soda or coffee, consult the instruction manual for your computer and learn how to carefully remove each of the keycaps for the affected area. If the instruction manual includes a picture of the keyboard, make sure that you can see the names of all the keys and their locations; otherwise, make a drawing of the board, paying special attention to the location of some of the specialized keys, including cursor keys, Page Up, Page Down, Scroll Lock, and the like. Or you can use a digital camera to take a picture of the keyboard.
11. Clean the exposed membrane or switch cover and the keys themselves.
Leave the keys to dry before replacing them.
12. Leaving the display open, place the computer on a sturdy surface supported by two books or small boxes.
This setup lets air circulate all around the computer. Leave the computer and all of its separate parts to air dry for at least 24 hours. Don't use a fan or (horrors) a hair dryer to attempt to fast-forward the drying process.
13. Reassemble the pieces that you removed.
Do this step a day or more after doing Step 1 through Step 12, and make sure that everything is dry and that you don't have any dried puddles of sticky acid left anywhere on the machine. Remember to ground yourself before touching any circuitry or modules, and begin the power-up process with the battery first and the AC adapter second.
If in doubt about the safety of any part, you should go ahead and replace it instead of using it. Replacing a battery, an AC adapter, or even a hard disk drive always costs a lot less than replacing a motherboard.
