With such a RACING and ACCELERATED world it's hard to stop at times to do nothing. Everyday, as I complete the tasks on my agenda, there are more things that approach--it's like an infinite list. I always have something else I can do. For example, this past week was extremely stressful, I was burned out by Friday because I had millions of things DUE. Even though I had completed all the BIG and major tasks I still have work to complete on the weekend, work is never ending. When I have emptier days--like these ones--I spread out more my work, but I still spend time doing something. There is a thing in my brain that pushes me to work every minute that I have free because otherwise, when I relax or stop working, I have a small guilty conscience that I am wasting my time. However, this is not true doing nothing at times can increase productivity more than working endless hours nonstop. 

During our socratic seminar this week we read an article that talked about the benefits of doing nothing. As I read through it and reflected upon myself I realized how my perception of productivity was so WRONG. Working on something too long burns you out, it begins to frustrate you, and it's not healthy. However, if you chunk your working time and have small breaks in between you can breathe and then work a little more. Also, the workload will look a lot smaller than if you chose to complete it all at once. Additionally, sometimes we need to talk on the phone, meet with co-workers, or simply have a snack, and when you shift your concentration, while working, it takes about 10 minutes to gain it back. By having small breaks, your brain will be more focused for a period of time, and you will be able to do those things that interrupt your concentration. Moreover, these small breaks shouldn't be ALL about talking or doing something else than your work, some of the breaks should be used as a moment to do NOTHING. 

There is a BIG misconception out there about what doing N O T H I N G entails. It's NOT about turning down the tasks for a while and looking down at your Facebook home page, doing nothing literally means doing not anything, no single thing--well expect for breathing. These "NOTHING BREAKS"--this is what I like to call them--should be about getting yourself together, letting your brain oxygenate, and let it rest by not forcing it to think or stress. It will be a CHALLENGE, at least for me, because we are all used to work and be active either by completing a project, studying for a test, responding emails, or even watching TV. However, if we take on this demanding challenge, we will have extremely positive results. If you relax the body, when you go back to the task, you will be more productive as you're mind is FRESH, fresh to generate new ideas and to improve the work you already have crafted. 

Currently, society is losing it's HUMANITY as we've become slaves of technology. Technology is supposed to help us, to facilitate our lives, but it's not supposed to DOMINATE us. It has gotten to the point were technology has COMMANDED over us. When we have a free moment or time to do something else than working we choose to go in our laptops, instead of jogging or walking our dog. We are running all the time and our body can't handle it--it's not healthy. At times, we need to TAKE a BREAK from society, form technology, and from our work and do NOTHING, only REFLECT. It will not only increase your productivity, but it will allow you to GAIN PERSPECTIVE of your life. It will help you rethink if you are going in the track that will take you to your goals, if you are happy, if you are doing something relevant, and if you are fulfilling your purpose. We have gotten, so caught up in this expeditious WORLD that we've forgotten the meaning of NOTHING. We have to take a moment to    B R E A T H E.

WE all have a REPUTATION, it's the way the world sees us, it's the label we've earned for the things we've done, and it's the information that society will use to judge us. When you apply to college, the admissions team looks into your reputation as a student and and a person, when you apply for a credit or loan in the bank, they will look into your financial reputation, and even when you apply for a job, the company looks into your professional reputation as they look into your university and experiences you've had. We live in a world where reputation is your YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET. 

Today your reputation doesn't travel only through conversation, but is also available online. Technology has opened a portal of our information to be available to anyone who digs deep and looks into it. In the past few months that I've been looking and applying to college I've FINALLY realized the importance of reputation. Beign in the IA for over a year has taught me many things and has changed me as a learner and as a person; therefore, I've COMPLETELY remodel my website in a way that showcases who I am T O D A Y--it was time to make an UPDATE. My website is my personal online portfolio that DEMONSTRATES me as a learner inside and outside of the classroom, and it exhibits my passions and what I like to do outside of the school walls. I am one in pool of millions of applicants--not only for college admissions, but also in the world-- so I realized that my website was the most EFFECTIVE and valuable way to PRESENT myself to the world; therefore, I've crafted my portfolio so that it entails everything that makes me who I am, TOGETHER in one single space. 

The hard thing about reputation is that it takes time to build a good one, however, it is very easy to gain a bad one if we slip and take the wrong turn. Let's be honest, when you are about to hire someone for your company, admit it to your college, or even grant someone a loan you carefully look into the reputation of the person in order to make a decision. WHY? Because you want someone you can trust, someone that is hard working, someone that aligns to your believes. Like Botsman said in her TED Talk, reputation is our new currency because it will give you the key to open great doors. 

Furthermore, I haven't only seen the VALUE of REPUTATION for individuals, but also for businesses. Because we are a new startup, it has taken a while for us to settle and to gain real customers. For the past months we've been working in BLENDZ to not only make the business grow, but same time we've been striving to give BLENDZ an identity and a REPUTATION. We believe that:

Through our company we've been working hard to be transparent with our customers-- everything from the profit margin to how our smoothies are made--because it's the best way to gain trust and build relationships. Additionally, we have also worked towards donating our profit to a meaningful cause, thus becoming an NPO. We had initially thought about making an emergency fun for the community; however, we've decided to change to something different that creates a bigger impact and it's meaningful and personal to us. We have generated some ideas for our new cause, but we are still in the process of figuring our social responsibility. Also, aside from building a socially responsible reputation one of the greatest things we've worked on is BLENDING our community. We want BLENDZ to bring the community together, not only students, teachers, and parents, but also workers and staff. Through our new SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE solution we want to provide workshops were teachers, workers, staff, students, and parents can participate or teach. This will be completely optional and it will allow the workers to get to know the community and also it will allow them and us to benefit from the human capital and talents we have and them to offer.  

Reputation is KEY because it build TRUST, trust amongst individuals and trust amongst the customers and the businesses. This is why we watch films with the highest ratings,  go to five star hotels, and download apps with great reviews. Like I mentioned, one of the biggest CHALLENGES entrepreneurs face is building a great revered reputation. Since they are new to the market, customers haven't yet developed a FULL trust circle with the company, so as time passes by and the reputation of the business begins to develop the company will gain more trust. Right now we are in a very important period in BLENDZ, since we are new anything we do TODAY will scar our FUTURE, in a good or bad bay. REPUTATION is extremely valuable and essential, great reputations get you far not only because you gain trust, but you also inspire people. 

WHO SAYS YOU HAVE TO GRADUATE FORM COLLEGE TO START YOUR OWN BUSINESS? We, in the Innovation Academy, were given the opportunity to start our own business in school; there is no better way to learn about entrepreneurship than by experiencing it in your own startup. All the learning have come from the successes and failures; maintaing a business has been extremely CHALLENGING because it's not only about having our finances straight and ongoing sales, but also maintaining a culture of excellence. The culture in every company is different because it exemplifies each companies values and beliefs, but in every company is one of the MOST important things in order to keep the employees MOTIVATED and GROW.

TIME is MONEY in the business world and TIME is PRECIOUS. For next semester we want to have our trailer up and ready to start sales the first month of school, we want to hire employees and we want to see our vision in real life. However, in order to do so we need to get the trailer build over the summer, but first we need the money. If we don't stop and look at the calendar we wouldn't have realized that we have less than two months to raise $15,000. So we've CHALLENGED each other to RAISE $500 by December 1. CRUNCH TIME is here and things have to start happening. Also, we have a long time to work in school and many of us have taken this time for granted. So to push us to be more efficient and productive we've cut BLENDZ time. This way we will work more at home and leave the time we have in school to collaborate, meet, and plan together.  

INITIATIVE has been a problem since the beginning, but to tackle it we've decided to list down all the tasks we have to accomplish by the end of the semester. Therefore, if you don't have anything to do you can take on a task and work on it. There will be no more wondering around or asking people for jobs. This allow us to get more things done on time and have less people without a task. 

Finally, we are not CHALLENGING each other and this is one of the many reasons why things don't get done, we push deadlines and we don't dig deep. So, like I mentioned we did a list with all the tasks and we PLACED deadlines for the most important ones. The deadlines are VISIBLE and REAL this will push us to have things done without pushing deadlines because by not completing the task it will have an impact on everyone. Also this will allow each person to dig deeper on their task since each person is assigned one task at a time.

I had never imagined that the HALLOWEEN SALE was going to be so MASSIVE. We had enough people to work in both stands, we had the fruit and yogurt, the blenders and materials, and we had the set up. However, it ended up beign more work and time consuming than any other SALE we've had. In the beginning I didn't quite understood what was the reason for this, but when we begun to reflect I realized that the major problem was that people didn't have DEFINED ROLES. 

We've always had defined roles within the stand such as smoothie maker and cashier, but we've never had roles for the setup and cleaning of the stand. During BIG sales like this one we should have people assigned to different jobs that have to be covered before and after each sale. For example, have someone in charge of always making sure that the fruit is taken out previously so it begins to defrost. If everyone would cover a role all the time, it will make us MORE EFFICIENT and we would ASSURE ourselves that EVERYTHING is ready in the stand and NOTHING IS MISSING. This way we would also be more organized since each one would know and have a role they need to cover, thus no confusions. I believe that with a clear defined role TAKING INITIATIVE will be easier for everyone because we would have a clear idea of WHAT IS OUR ROLE and WHAT IS OUR GOAL, so while working on it we can think of other things to make our job better or if problems arise we can think of innovative solutions to solve it.

Aside from DEFINING SPECIFIC ROLES for everyone I also believe that I should create a big checklist that is up in the room every time we have a sale. The reason behind this is that once everyone has completed their roles they can see the checklist and make sure everything is completed before the time of the sale or asking someone what to do. This will also have the TASKS more organized allowing everyone and me to VISUALIZE everything that must GET COVERED to succeed. Also it will keep everyone informed of what the sale looks like. One of the biggest struggles I had while organizing this event was that all the time I had people coming to me and asking what they should do. With such a massive event in mind I couldn't think of all the tasks that had to be completed and the role everyone should cover. By having the checklist I would be able to have my tasks clear and we wouldn't have the problem of having people confused or walking around without a task. BLENDZ would be MORE PRODUCTIVE. 

Through the sale I learned that you can plan and organize everything you want in ADVANCE, but what really counts is the moment of execution of the plan. By this I mean having people with clear roles so that they can work independently and we don't have three people doing a task that can be covered by one. Also nothing would get forgotten and every aspect of a SUCCESSFUL sale is covered effectively. If one person has their role clear they don't need to be asking for help from someone who understand the role or they don't get confused and thus work faster to accomplish small tasks. During this sale we took very long to cover over things that could be done in minutes because everyone wasn't aware of the roles or how to cover them and this make the process slower. This was partly my fault for not making the class aware of how things work for the set up and not only for the sale. Having EVERYONE aware of the event and the jobs that have to be completed (the checklist) is essential so things get done fast and properly. The day before the sale I was sure everything was under control; however, the next day when the deliveries started I realized that it was much more complicated than what I had anticipated and it required more hands than the ones I had thought. I had trained everyone for how the stand was going to run, but not how to set up for the sale.  I learned that without a REAL LOCATION every time we do the sale it will require a lot of hands because we always have to set up and bring everything down all the time. Therefore, as long as we have this problem in order to tackle it down the smarter solution is to have CLEAR and CONQUERED roles by each person, this make this CHALLENGE smoother because not only one person is thinking everything ahead, but the challenge is divided into small parts that are have one person thinking them through and mastering it.