Five Things You Can Do This Summer Instead of Spending Hours on Quoting July, 21 2014

I'm not sure what runs through your mind when you think of summer, but here are my top 10 thoughts:

1. "Give me ice cream and/or beer and/or watermelon."
2. "If you wake me from my nap, you will meet certain death."
3. "My favorite person ever is the one who invented air conditioning."
4. In response to being asked if I want to attend a theme park in the middle of the summer, aka amidst 100% humidity and gaggles of tourists: "That depends. Do you want to leave after five minutes and/or hear me scream a lot?"
5. "IN SUMMER!!!"
6. "Yay, time to catch up on TV shows I was too busy/lazy to watch during the rest of the year!"
7. "Global warming: I believe in you."
8. "What is this catchy summer jam? Oh, it's been popular for three months? Oh..."
9. "Why isn't it fall yet?"
10. "No really, I'm ready for pumpkin-spice everything."

Notice "Dang, you know what sounds great right about now? Spending the entire afternoon compiling sales quotes and proposals!" is not in my top 10. I'm assuming that, as important as the quoting process is, it isn't in your top 10 either. And that's OK, because ice cream* > quoting. I don't know anyone who would argue that, and if they would, I need to have a discussion with them to outline all the different flavors of ice cream that could fill the "quoting" spot on their list.

*If you're lactose intolerant, vegan, etc., substitute your favorite frozen treat here.

With QuoteWerks, though, you can still get your quoting done and not HAVE to worry about making it a summertime priority. In fact, here are five things you can do with that time instead:

1. Sleep in.

I am obviously a big fan of this given #4 on my list, but seriously, SLEEP IN. Chores will be there whenever you wake up. Just don't sleep past the point where you wake up and slept so long you're actually more tired than when you went to bed, or if you'd gotten up hours earlier. I may or may not have done this more times than I can count, and then I just hate myself until I go to bed again.

Being awake is for the weak. Photo credit: coolanimalworld.com

Oh, and if you have children and/or a weekend job and/or a dog, you'll have to work around that, if you haven't figured that out already. I'm sorry.

2. Learn a new language.

I mean, why not? You never know when being bilingual (or trilingual) will come in handy. Sometimes it's required for a job. Or pick a language that the people of the country you've always wanted to visit speak. If that country is Australia or England or Canada, though, you need to pick another one because that's cheating. Unless you want to watch reruns of a TV show from that country and master the accent, because that would probably be even more entertaining.

Anyway, Rosetta Stone is always running specials. There are also tons of videos on YouTube that are, you know, free - just search for "Learn (insert language here)" and see what pops up. And not to toot our own horn, but we have a pretty sweet SDK (software development kit) that can help you expand the functionality of QuoteWerks based on your own needs if you have some programming knowledge. Programming totally counts as language!

3. See that movie you've always meant to watch but have never gotten around to because it's always on TV and you'll "see it eventually".

For me, these include but aren't limited to "The Breakfast Club" and "The Shawshank Redemption." I get lots of side-eye whenever I mention this, so I am admitting this in confidence to you all, shrouded by the security of the internet.

I feel like I'm too old now to really "get it," and I'm unreasonably terrified of that.

But really, everyone has at least three movies that, when they mention they haven't seen them casually over lunch, people as far down as the other side of the restaurant throw them a "What have you been doing with your life?" look, so take care of yourself. You know what yours are. If you're really ambitious or have seen all the movies you should have seen, maybe you can check out one or more of our QuoteWerks tutorial videos. They're SO fun(ish)!

4. Stalk people on Facebook.

For those of you saying, "GASP, I WOULD NEVER!", stop. Everyone who has a social-media account does it. Everyone has that one person they want to find on social media and compare their own lives to in the hopes that they turned out better. This could be the jerk who bullied you in high school, the kid down the street who stole your bike, or the girl in middle school who started a petition to get you to stop wearing the same jeans every day (EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE COOL JEANS, OK!?). This is especially fun if you consider yourself awesome today.

You can also follow our company, or stalk our owner/president and vice president and tell them all the cool stuff you love about QuoteWerks. Or give them your life story. They won't mind.

If Facebook stalking is just a me thing, please disregard this item and fill in your own. Like "Volunteering at a shelter for blind and deaf otters," or "Continuing to be a model citizen."

5. Compile a bucket list and start crossing things off.

A lot of my friends have made a "30 Before 30!" list or something similar, but I can't get that granular. I can't deal with time limits, because I know me and I just can't take the pressure of traveling to all seven continents before I'm 30 or whatever crazy goal they set for themselves. But a general list is really, really helpful to have, and it feels SO GOOD to check this off of it!

I may not have bought a house yet, but I have snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef! #yolo #priorities

What are some of your favorite activities that you can do while saving time on quoting, summer-related or not?

About the Author:
Jen Juneau
Technical Writer
QuoteWerks