My tip of the day for you is this: Read books about gratitude and other inspiration. This will help you understand more the powerful effect that thankfulness can have on your life. A good one to start with is Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier by Robert Emmons, Ph.D., the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude. Read the book and discover how the practice of gratitude can increase your happiness by 25%. Of course, I’d love it if you checked out my book, The Grateful Entrepreneur. You can find it on Amazon.

Yesterday my gratitude tip for you was to leave a positive review for a business. But what if you’re a business and you get a bad review? How can you respond with gratitude and kindness?

Well first let me ask the business owners out there a question...

Do you respond to reviews that your business gets? A lot of companies don't, however you should respond to all reviews, the good and the bad.

If you don't respond, it's the same as being in the same room as someone, having them tell you something about your company, and you don't say anything.

If you get a great review, that's awesome. Thank your customer who took the time to review your business and say nice things.

If you get a bad review, it's easy to get defensive, or want to go somewhere to hide. But potential customers LOVE seeing that a business took the time to respond to a bad review and try to make it right.

Here are 4 tips to responding to a negative review:

1) Reply to a negative review as soon as you see it. Reputation management software for small businesses can help you monitor and manage reviews.

2) Express empathy for the customer’s unhappiness.

3) Ask the customer to contact you privately to discuss their concerns. It’s best to talk by phone or in person, as texts and emails are subject to misinterpretation.

4) Once you resolve the matter, ask the customer if they’d be willing to add an update to their original review.

Today’s tip: Share a positive review for a business. You know, we often only write reviews when we have something negative to say. Well, share a positive review on a website like Yelp or TripAdvisor or even Google to help support a business. The business can be a restaurant, hotel, vet, mechanic..any type of business you want. Believe me, as a business owner myself, you’ll make their day.

Today is episode 100. And I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you. We started on Thanksgiving last year, and have been doing The Daily Gratitude Minute for 100 episodes now. It really means a lot to me that you take time out of your day to listen to these quick bites of gratitude inspiration. I so appreciate you, and I want to acknowledge you for bettering yourself by listening to The Daily Gratitude Minute. I want to leave you with one of my favorite gratitude quotes: "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them." John F. Kennedy

We know that starting your day with gratitude can set the tone for a positive mindset and day. The same thing is true for meetings. If you have team meetings (in which what’s not working is often discussed), start your meetings off by going around the room and having each person share 1 thing they’re grateful for.

You probably know a lot about gratitude by now, and know it’s impact on happiness, optimism and a healthier life. Share the practice of gratitude with others. Is someone you know coping with a stress or trauma? Suggest that they ease worries and suffering by redirecting their attention on feelings of gratefulness. Imagine the impact you can make on others by spreading gratitude

Today is part 5 in a 5 part series on how to make more time for gratitude. So far We’ve talked about breaking down your work time into intervals, strategically unplugging, scheduling in your email and social media time and Creating a morning routine. Today is about creating a “not to do list.” That’s right! We often go about our days with a long to do list, crossing off things as we do them. Well the to do list is neverending, right? Instead Create a NOT to-do list. Write out everything that is not contributing to your well-being. This will help you eliminate the busy tasks distracting you from being more productive. It will take some practice but you’ll learn how to start saying no to things.

So there you have it - 5 ways to make more time for gratitude. Put one or more of these into practice and I know you’ll have more time to write in your gratitude journal and to get your thank you notes written and mailed!

Today is part 4 in a 5 part series on how to make more time for gratitude. So far We’ve talked about breaking down your work time into intervals, strategically unplugging, and scheduling in your email and social media time. Today, it’s about Creating a morning routine. Get up at 5 am, or a little earlier than you already are and spend the first hour of your day on you. It doesn’t have to be an entire hour. It can be 30 minutes, 15 minutes, or whatever works for you. The point is, this is your ME time. This is the perfect time to exercise, meditate, write gratitude and eat breakfast. Instead of hitting the snooze button a few times, and then rushing around to get ready for work and get the kids off to school, wake up a little bit earlier and have a more stress free morning doing things for you. Check out the book The Miracle Morning to help establish your morning routine. Tomorrow in part 5 we’ll talk about something that I guarantee almost no one is doing.

Today is part 3 in a 5 part series on how to make more time for gratitude. We’ve talked about breaking down your work time into intervals, and strategically unplugging. Today is all about your schedule: Schedule email and social media time: Don't check it every 5 minutes. That’s what we often do, right? We do a little work, and then hop on over to email or Facebook - and we feel the need to respond to things right away. So we spend our entire day reacting to things, which wastes a lot of time. Instead, schedule your email and social media time into your daily planner like you to everything else - meetings, workouts, etc. Same thing with phone calls. If someone calls you and it’s not scheduled - don’t answer it. You have to protect your time. Tomorrow in part 4 we’ll talk about creating a morning routine.

Today is part 2 in a 5 part series on how to make more time for gratitude. Yesterday we talked about following the pomodoro technique and breaking down your work time into intervals. Today is all about avoiding distractions. And believe me - we all have many distractions throughout the day. So here’s what I want you to do: Unplug: That’s right - Set your phone on airplane mode from 8 pm to 8 am so you're not tempted to jump on social media as soon as you wake up and you’re not using your phone right before you go to bed. Instead, as soon as you wake up, it’s the perfect time to write in your gratitude journal or write a thank you note. Also during the day set your phone on airplane mode during your focused blocks of work time to avoid distractions of incoming text messages and other notifications. This will allow you to get a lot more done during your day, leaving more time for gratitude. Tomorrow in part 3, we’ll talk about your schedule.