Happy Thoughtful Thursday! Using the right tools can make a big difference in our lives.
We often rail against making things easier on ourselves. We keep plodding along, doing the same thing we’ve always been doing. This isn’t always the best way to go, especially if there are other solutions.
Sometimes it’s simply a matter of money we don’t want to spend money to buy something that may or may not work for us. The thing is sometimes you must try; you must try something different to see if it does work for you. If it does, great! If it doesn’t hopefully you can send it back, gift it to someone else, or donate it.
Case in point, I’ve been having some problems with my wrists, well my arms, specifically. I’m having some pain and I recognize this because this is not the first time it’s happened. It’s just good old tendonitis. The deal is at my day job I wasn’t using an ergonomic keyboard. I was just using the keyboard that I was given. But things got to a mission-critical level over the last few weeks, and I knew I had to do something. So, I enlisted someone to order me an ergonomic keyboard like the one I have at home. Things have improved. It’s not 100% better because there are other things about my desk setup that are contributing to this problem but at least I can type now. This is important when, like, 80% of your job is typing.
Tools make for efficient work
That’s not even really what the focus of this Thoughtful Thursday is about, though. As you may know, I have an Etsy store or two and when you have an Etsy store you tend to ship a lot of things. For years, I’ve been printing my labels on a laser printer, cutting them out by hand, and attaching them to the packages using up a plethora of packing tape–like a lot of tape. This wasn’t a problem until the pandemic, and I started to do a lot more business online.
Suddenly, this thing that I’ve been doing for years was becoming tedious and time-consuming. When you own a small business, efficiency is incredibly important. I decided this was a problem that needed a solution, and that solution was that I needed a thermal mailing label printer.
Mostly I’d resisted because I just didn’t want to spend the money. Prior to this year, I didn’t feel like I was making enough money on my Etsy sales to warrant such a thing. I just suffered through it, for years for no darn good reason.
I found myself a reasonably priced thermal printer on Amazon and I ordered it last week. I have to say, it has made a world of difference it’s so much easier and this got me thinking. At all levels of our life whether personal or business tools are important sometimes it would be superfluous for example, I have an awful lot of kitchen gadgets that I probably don’t use but I have some others that I use all the time. For business, we use a lot of tools–tools that make our lives easier, make our work more efficient, and allow us to do more with less time. Time is money after all!
Treat yourself from time to time
Sometimes it’s worth it to shell out just a little bit of money to get a big return on investment. So go ahead treat yourself from time to time and get yourself the tools you need to make your life easier. You don’t have to keep suffering through it’s not a requirement in fact it’s a detriment.
Let’s give ourselves permission to use the right tools for the job and make a big difference in our lives. I hope you have an amazing Thursday!
