I love getting a new computer, but I hate that it comes with pre-installed anti-virus software. While I understand the necessity, I hate the amount of effort it takes to remove all traces of Norton from your system. Removing McAffee isn’t that bad, nevertheless I dislike both of these products.

Using Norton or McAfee does not make my life easier because:

• They block access to too many things.
• It takes forever to get my DSL working after I have installed one of these anti-virus programs.
• I still end up with viruses and pop ups.
• These programs slow down my computer.

Instead I use AVG from Grisoft and avoid all of the above problems.

AVG + Windows Firewall + Firefox + Spyware Killers = A Happy Computer

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Everyone doesn’t have the luxury of creating their own schedule, but if you do, I recommend you take full advantage of it.

I’m the type of person who can work all day and all night and feel great about it. Once I get into my work mode, I get extremely annoyed if someone interrupts me. I’ve read that’s one sign of being a workaholic. I don’t want to be like that, so I have to find ways to get off the laptop, and make time for my family.

Anyone who knows me, knows that it’s very hard for me to be away from my computer for extended periods of time. My mind is constantly thinking about what I should write next, what I should have written, promotional materials, networking, and a host of other things.

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The best way for me to step away from it all is to plan in advanced. So I’ve set myself up so that I work (mostly) according to my husbands work schedule. If he’s off on Wednesday, I’m off on Wednesday. If he’s off on Thursday, then I’m off on Thursday. Some weeks it doesn’t quite work out that way, but I try my best. I don’t ever want my husband to joke around with me again and say “do I have to post on your blog in order to get a hug from you?” so that’s why scheduling family time makes my life easier.

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You move. You change jobs. You change service providers. You change phone numbers…not anymore with Grand Central.

I’ll admit that I haven’t taken full advantage of the service, but once I start to, my life will be much easier.

Right now I have way too many phone numbers because I like to heavily filter my calls. There’s my home number, my home office number, my cell phone, and two voicemail boxes, and a 800 number. That’s too much.

With Grand Central I can condense all of that, and on top of it, I don’t ever have to worry about changing phone numbers again. (It would be prudent of me to mention that this fall that some users were told that they’d have to change their phone number. )

This has the potential to make my life easier because:

• You have one number that can ring to whatever phone(s) you like.
• The number can ring to any phone based on who is calling
• You can personalize the voicemail greeting based upon who is calling
• You can record calls, block people from calling, and screen unknown callers

And there’s a host of other things that I haven’t even explored yet.

Best of all it’s free…for now. But it’s also in beta so you’ll need an invite.

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