I know, we all get too many emails on a daily basis, but what if those emails you are getting were actually helping you out by keeping you informed, entertained and generally advancing your personal and professional knowledge? If that sounds interesting to you, you’re probably asking yourself how much something like that could cost you. Well, nothing! Except whatever time it takes you to read an email! Yep, that’s right! I have found three amazing and free subscription services that really help solve some of the major day-to-day issues facing busy professionals, students, and anyone else who is interested in learning and growing but can’t find the time to fit in long hours of personal development classes and self-help books! It’s about taking baby steps, and each day getting a little bit more news, information and advice
The Skimm
Who needs to pay for a newspaper when you can have the news delivered to your email inbox every morning, in a short but sweet summarized form that will help you to better understand the days events and discuss them competently? Busy professionals rejoice! The Skimm is just that! A daily dose of news (Monday-Friday) that tells you the need to know headlines, briefly explains the importance of the issues and helps you find ways to incorporate your news knowledge in day-to-day life to impress friends, family and coworkers!
DailyLit
Are you interested in reading more often but struggle to find the time to sit down and digest a complete novel? DailyLit is a free site that will send you short daily installments of books of your choosing that you can read on your computer or mobile device. Read via email or RSS anywhere you have an internet connection and leave you bulky paperback at home!
Netted
Do you enjoy hearing the latest news on awesome gadgets, technology, and apps but find it time-consuming searching through multiple popular technology and gadget websites each day? Try Netted by the Webby’s, a daily email subscription that keeps you up to date on the hottest new sites, apps and technology news. Short and sweet, this email promises its subscribers “better living through the internet” and if you’re reading this and are a fan of my blog I’m pretty sure this is right up your ally!
Do you currently use any email based subscription services? Do you like the opening your email inbox each morning to find something fun and useful instead of the day-to-day dregs of work emails and sale notifications? Which services do you subscribe to? Share them in the comments below!
As part of this month’s commercial detox, I have made it one of my goals not to purchase any unnecessary clothing. After all, I do have a wardrobe filled to the brim with clothes that I already own, most of them sitting unused at the backs of drawers or hidden between garments hanging in the closet. Since it’s now the end of summer as we head into fall, it’s about time to do a wardrobe change over anyhow, and in the process I plan to use the following tips to help me rediscover old pieces that have been hiding out of sight out of mind! The purpose of this exercise is not only to help me find existing items in my wardrobe that I haven’t been wearing, but to also help me create a “new” fall wardrobe by mixing and matching items I may not have normally thought to put together during that morning rush preparing for my work day! I suggest giving yourself a good amount of time dedicated to finishing this project, like two to four hours depending on the number of garments you own, so make sure to clear your schedule and your mind before you begin. I promise though, this will totally be worth it in the end and will almost be like a shopping experience except you’re using your own clothes and don’t even have to leave the house! Your credit card will thank you!
1. Prepare your space.
Before you begin this wardrobe transition, you will first need to have a good deal of space set out for yourself in your bedroom or living room where you can spread out your clothing and give good thought to how you want to style them for the fall season. Once you know the space you would like to use, I suggest cleaning it up a bit by sweeping or vacuuming the floor, making sure there are no other clothes or items that could get covered or lost during the process and generally make the space clear of any objects that might get in your way. This is an important step because your clothes are going to be everywhere during this process and getting them dirty or being too cramped will hinder your creative juices!
2. Grab your camera.
It doesn’t have to be a fancy DSLR, unless that’s what you want to use! Your cell phone’s camera , webcam or even a Polaroid will work fine! The point of the matter is that you need something to visually capture the outfits you are about to create. This is a very important step because you will need the visual reminder later on when you forget about your clothes and get back into your clothing rut!
3. Sort your clothing by color and type.
Now comes one of the hardest parts of this whole exercise. You will need to begin removing all the clothing from your closet, drawers, etc and start sorting them into piles laid out on your bed, the floor, etc. I suggest sorting clothing by the type of garment (blouse, long sleeve shirt, pants, etc) and then group them by color family the way you might do while washing them. I suggest the following color groupings, but yours may vary by the items in your closet: Darks (Black, Grey, Navy, Dark Greens, etc), Lights (White, cream, beige), and Brights (Colors of the rainbow). Once you have completed this step, all your clothing should be in piles around you. Don’t get overwhelmed! The next part can be super fun if you let it!
4. Start “shopping” your closet until you come up with at least 5 “new” outfits.
Go through your piles and take a good look at your clothes. Start putting together new outfits based on different combinations of clothing that you haven’t tried before. Try different techniques like layering blouses and sweaters, mix a few prints, imagine a dress or tunic as a top tucked in and belted! If you’re really lacking inspiration, pull our your laptop or iPad and start searching Pinterest for outfit inspiration. I bet you if you look hard enough at the clothing you have in front of you, you probably have items right in front of you that would create that ideal outfit you pinned last year! Don’t be afraid to swap garments out for one another. So, the look you want includes a henley, use a chambray instead. No short-sleeved blouse to go under your cardigan? Try a well fitted t-shirt instead! You don’t have to own every item you see on a model in order to capture her style. You just need an open mind to find the pieces in your own wardrobe that could act the same way to evoke the style!
5. Snap a quick pic of your “new” outfit.
Once you have an outfit put together, lay it out in front of you and photograph it. It would also help if you gave the outfit a name, like “Edgy Office Look” or “Casual Friday Polka Dots”. The image and name association are going to help you remember the outfit and what your thoughts were for wearing it later on when all your clothes have been put away. Another way to help you remember the outfit would be for you to hang it up as an outfit in your closet instead of separating the outfit into its pieces when you put it away.
6. Clean up and organization.
At this point, once you have all your new outfits photographed and planned out, you will need to start your clean up. If you change your clothing out for the season, proceed with putting last seasons clothing away and replacing the dominant spaces in your wardrobe with the current seasons clothing. Now is also a great time (since your clothing is in color coordinated piles) for you to look and see if you have any unnecessary duplicates, old, worn out or damaged pieces that need to be mended, discarded or donated to your local thrift shop! Slimming down your wardrobe is a great way to keep yourself motivated to wear all the pieces in your closet. Too often we get caught up wearing the same outfits repeatedly and when we get sick of them, the answer is shopping for new. Fight the urge to shop for new and shop your closet first!
Did this exercise inspire you to begin rediscovering your own wardrobe? Do you have more clothes than you actually wear on a regular basis but also find yourself constantly shopping for new? Think about your triggers for buying new clothing and let me know your plans to pare down your wardrobe or start wearing pieces that you had forgotten about! We’d love to hear your stories in the comments below!
Often times when we are looking for professional or career advice, we turn to popular books on the subject. I have read my fair share of career and business books in order to help me develop my skills and talents, but do you really need to buy a book to help you on this subject or can you do a little of your own research using free online websites as resources? Here are three of my favorite professional advice websites, some geared specifically towards women, that I hope you find as helpful as I do!
Levo League
Levo League is an organization and free website ran by career minded millennial women. Their site includes profiles that connect members with mentors that work in a variety of industries and have had anywhere from a traditional to a unique career path! You can interact with other members that are just like you, ask questions about career advice and read daily articles on a variety of business, career or personal issues affecting young women in the workplace. I have even written for Levo, and you can check out my profile and posts here.
She Takes On the World
She Takes On the World is a website for business women and female entrepreneurs written by writer, business woman, motivational speaker, Natalie MacNeil and her team! This fun site is filled with blog posts and videos that cover real hard-hitting issues and questions facing female business owners and professionals. I love this site because it always has fresh perspectives and unique views on day-to-day problems facing businesses. Natalie and her team do a great job of giving real life tips, advice and complete solutions to every business problem!
Brazen Careerist
The Brazen Careerist site is not geared specifically towards women, but it is no less useful! The site itself provides virtual solutions for real life hiring needs for businesses and schools, but also includes a blog that addresses common and not so common issues that workers face. From finding a job, to turning your current job into a dream job, this site covers all the real life issues of being a professional in an insightful and relatable way.
Do you enjoy reading about professional and career advice? What sorts of topics do you find yourself interested in? Are you looking for a job or find yourself networking on career sites like Levo? What is your opinion of business websites vs. books? What other professional or career advice websites or blogs do you follow? Let us know in the comments!
I love iOS apps and I don’t mind paying for a good one, but whenever possible I try to get them for free! The app store is a tricky place though and although apps frequently go on sale, with price reductions or temporary promotional free price tags, it’s still hard to find those awesome apps on discount. So, let me tell you about the best two ways to find apps for free or at a discounted price!
AppShopper
The first way to find great apps for free is by downloading and skimming through AppShopper. App Shopper is a free iOS app that shows you all the app sales and discounts. Since apps go on sale everyday and can be on sale anywhere from a single day to an entire month, App Shopper keeps track of these sales histories to make sure you are seeing everything on sale! You can use the app to search for a specific app or search through categories to find a certain type of app you are looking for like a game or a utility. You can even use the app to create an App Wish List where you can list out apps you want to purchase and if they go on sale AppShopper will notify you!
Starbucks Pick of the Week
If you are not familiar, the Starbucks Pick of the Week is a promotional program hosted through Starbucks that highlights great music, movies, apps and more! Basically, when an App is chosen as part of Starbucks Pick of the Week program, free download codes are distributed by Starbucks in their stores and through their iOS app. You may have seen these little credit card sized cards sitting by the pickup station of your Starbucks, and when you take one, they have a code that you can use to download the chosen app for free. You can also use the Starbucks App to get instant notification of new Starbucks Picks that are available through their app as a digital download. The Starbucks Pick of the Week cards and downloads are always free, but you need to use the app or visit your local Starbucks in order to get them.
Are you an app junkie? Do you pay for apps or do you strictly download the free apps! Have you seen the Starbucks Pick of the Week program? Do you pick up those free cards or prefer to use the Starbucks App for free downloads? Let us know in the comments!
Coffee house visits can be a major source of unnecessary, and usually avoidable, expense in the average professionals life. Don’t get me wrong, I love Starbucks and although spending $3-6 dollars on a gourmet beverage may seem like a minor thing if you are making these trips occasionally, daily visits can certainly become very costly. Think about it, visiting a Starbucks every work day can cost you $20 a week and $1,040 a year! That is rather much for a single beverage a day habit and that’s not even including weekends! So, what’s a girl to do if she wants to avoid this expense? Well, make it at home, of course! Most people do own a coffee machine, even if they get their coffee fix elsewhere, so put yours to good use with this simple recipe I have created at home using Starbucks coffee products! Hopefully, this will help you see that a delicious barista style drink doesn’t have to cost you much time or money, and you can still say your drinking Starbucks, because, well, you are! I will be using a Keurig to brew my coffee, but you can easily translate this to a standard coffee machine!
What You’ll Need
A Reusable Starbucks Cup: I bought this simple reusable Starbucks cup earlier this year when Starbucks was running a reusable cup promotion. I believe the cup only cost me $1 and it looks exactly like a regular Starbucks cup!
Starbucks Cafe Verona K-Cup: This coffee is also available in regular ground form, but I use this blend because it is actually made with chocolate in the brew so it is already a little sweet and mocha flavored.
Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa: I only use half of a packet in order to get that salted caramel flavor without my coffee tasting like hot chocolate.
Creamer: I use a lite non-dairy creamer, but milk, soy/almond/rice milk, or cream will do fine as well!
Whipped Cream: You don’t need this per se, but if you want to give yourself that extra special Starbucks feeling, its easy to add a but of whipped cream to the top of your drink before you lid it.
Sweetener: Although the coffee and the cocoa itself are sweet, you may want a bit of something extra. I use stevia to sweeten my coffee, but feel free to use whatever you’d like. Just make sure to go a little easier on the sweetener than you normally would because your drink is already slightly sweetened.
Garnish: I garnish this drink with just a pinch of the cocoa mix, some natural sea salt and some colorful pink sugar crystals, but you can top it or not top it however you would like!
Let’s start brewing!
The first thing you will need to do is brew your coffee. K-Cups are super simple, but they do cost a bit more than regular coffee grounds. Obviously, you will just use whatever method of brewing your coffee you have available to you! Once I have my coffee brewed, I transfer it to the reusable Starbucks cup and spoon in half a packet of the cocoa mix. I then add my creamer and sweetener to taste. If you plan to add whipped topping, make sure you leave a little room at the top of your cup for that. Next, add your desired amount of whipped topping and your garnish. I use a small wire sieve to distribute that pinch of cocoa mix evenly. I then add another pinch of sea salt and the pink sugar crystals for added color and general delightfulness!
Voila! Top your cup with its lid and take a sip! Delish right? Depending on the size you made, this recipe costs at least half of what you would pay at Starbucks, is significantly fewer calories, and is quicker than the Starbucks drive thru!
Has this recipe inspired you to start making your own coffee-house drinks at home? Would you be interested in more easy, at-home coffee recipes like this? Do you visit Starbucks or your local coffee-house as part of your daily commute to work? Or, perhaps you already brew your coffee at home? Let us know in the comments!
I had a great time this summer. I went on mini vacations, I visited other cities, I went out to dinner (a lot!) and in general, spoiled myself. But, now that fall is right around the corner, I have taken a look at my life and my wallet and decided I really need to take it easy on the spending. I have some big financial goals I want to hit this year and picking up a $35 YSL lipstick every week is really not a necessary expense. So, for the month of September I am going to partake in what I am calling a commercial detox! This means that during the month of September I am not going to spend any unnecessary money on clothing, food, makeup, whatever! This doesn’t mean I don’t spend any money at all on the extras, but it means that if I want a new tube of foundation, I have to use up my old one first. Or if I want a yummy gourmet diner, I am going to have to make one myself! I am going to write-up a list of rules for myself to follow with the specific parameters I have for myself and my expectations, but the point is to reduce my commercial wants!
Now, I am not just doing this for myself, but I hope that some of you may want to partake in this with me as well! So, to go along with this personal spending freeze, I am also going to spend the month of September writing articles for this site that will also hopefully encourage you to stop your excess spending as well and use the things you already have instead of buying new! That concept of using what you already have is going to be a major theme for my posts in September! I am going to show you how to make the most of the things you already have and show you that you don’t really need those shiny new objects you have been lusting over!
So, what do you say? Will you join me for a month-long commercial detox? Do you have financial goals that you are hoping to hit this year? Saving for a home or perhaps a vacation? Let me know in the comments, tweet or email me to let me know I am not going it alone this September in my attempt to detox myself from my bad spending habits!
One of the things I have been working on for the blog is free printables. I love printables because they are like instant office supplies, so I thought the first item I would create and release to you should be a nice clean calendar for the balance of the year! I love full page calendars and I have been using these as the editorial calendar for my blog. I especially love the notes sections that I included on the right sidebar of the calendar, goals this month, books to read, blogs to follow, and places to visit! That way you can keep track of suggestions and recommendations you hear from friends and colleagues. I hope you enjoy these, and please, if you download them and like them, please make sure to share the link to this post via your social media feeds! Sharing my work helps me to continue to help you with free items like this that I have worked hard to create for my readers!
With a fresh season about to start, I thought this was the perfect time to discuss my top 5 things that I believe a woman cannot live without. In this day and age it’s no surprise that a woman in her twenties or beyond should really have a few things settled in her life in order to start developing her career, life and future plans. Some of these things are tangible, others not, but they are all equally important for any woman to have in her life!
1. A College Degree
A college degree in this day and age is pretty much a must have for a woman to succeed in any traditional career path. I realize that there are exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, if you don’t have a college degree you can’t expect to develop a dynamic career in most industries. Even if you expect to start and run your own business, a formal education will help you develop those base skills and critical thinking techniques that will help you to build your business and your brand. And of course, in unstable economic circumstances where you may need to find employment the traditional route, a degree will help set you apart from other, less qualified candidates.
2. A Trusted Confidant
Everyone woman needs a friend that she can trust 100%! From sharing secrets, to having a shoulder to cry on or an ear to vent to, a trusted confidant is a necessity for a woman. It is very important, of course, that this confidant be someone you know personally and not just some anonymous friend on the internet. It’s important that your confidant really know you, nearly as well as you know yourself so that you can trust her opinions and value her advice.
3. A Signature Makeup Look
By the time you hit the workforce, it’s very important to have a signature makeup look established for yourself. I don’t necessarily mean that this look has to be incredibly unique, you just need to know how to apply a face of makeup that looks great on you. Nothing to heavy, just an everyday look that can carry you from day to-night with only the change of a lipstick or an extra bit of pizzaz to your eyes! If you are a working woman and you don’t feel like you have your makeup look established or struggle with application techniques, I highly suggest making an appointment at Sephora, Ulta, or your local department store to have your makeup done and to learn the basic techniques you need to know.
4. A Place to Call Your Own
Whether this is your own home or apartment, or just a room in your parents house while you get your life and plans in order, every woman should have a place to call their own, a retreat if you will! It’s no secret, as a woman you need your own private space to just be alone with your thoughts and feelings. It’s cathartic in a way to just be by yourself on a couch or on a bed, able to feel at ease and completely comfortable. This can be especially useful if you live with a significant other or roommates, because you need your own space to just chill out and be yourself. A woman without the ability to unwind in her own privacy will quickly buckle under the stressors of daily life.
5. A Can-Do Spirit
A can-do spirit is very necessary as a woman. Too often I see ladies who refuse to help themselves, get stuck in ruts and rely too often on others. A can-do spirit can benefit you at home and in your professional career. This can include things like a willingness to do home repairs, taking the initiative at work, and changing your own flat tires. It’s the twenty-first century after all, and there is really no excuse why you should be relying on others, particularly men, for anything you could do for yourself!
So, do you agree with my must have list? Is there something you would add or do you have your own list? More importantly, do you have all these things in the list or in your own must have list?
In order to help me stay more organized and focused on my blog and creating great content for my readers, I recently put together a “Blog Binder.” Basically, I bought a three-ring binder and filled it with things to help me keep track of my blog post ideas, editorial calendar and any and all inspiration I have for my blog!
First, I started off by finding a binder that was a physical representation of my blog. I know that sounds a but silly, but I really needed this binder to look like my blog so I chose one that was a nice modern print that I found interesting and of course the color scheme for the binder was in line with the teal and grey of my blog! I also adorned the binder with a binder strap from the Martha Stewart for Staples collection. It, of course, is a teal/aqua color!
Next, I filled the binder with tabbed sections. For this, I used my Martha Stewart large tabs, again from Staples! I knew I only needed a few sections so I broke them down into three important ones; Current Month (for my editorial Calendar), Inspiration, and Articles.
The first page of my binder is my Manifesto for my blog. Once I typed it out, I used Adobe InDesign to format a page that incorporated the look and feel of my blog. So much nicer than just printing out a statement with no life or color to it!
The next page is a mini inspiration board that defines my Target Audience. It’s important for me to keep my ideal reader in mind so that I consistently write for her. For example, my target reader is a female working professional, is interested in technology and loves good design! When it comes to my blog and my expectations, its important for me to always keep in mind that my blog isn’t for everyone, it’s for a very specific type of person. If some people don’t like my blog, that’s okay, if they aren’t my target reader I can’t expect them to like what I am writing!
Next comes my editorial calendar. I have a few months planned out in advance so I keep the Current Month tab on the active month. These calendar pages were also created using InDesign to match the look and feel of my blog. See a pattern here? It’s important, for me at least, that I keep a consistent image so that I don’t clutter up or confuse my brand. I will be releasing these calendar pages in the next few weeks in case you are interested in using them for yourself.
After the calendars are my inspiration pages. They start off with a page filled with some of my favorite quotes that I pulled from Pinterest. I also have some infographics about productivity to keep me inspired when I feel too lazy to write!
The next section is the tab Articles. Here I have printed out some of my favorite articles that pertain to blogging and/or productivity. Laura Vanderkam’s What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast is one of my favorite articles that I constantly return to when I need an extra push in my day! In this section I am also thinking about adding some of my favorite blog posts that I have written over the years just to show case for myself some of my best written work!
Next I have also included this adorable teal chevron wire bound notebook. Its filled with lined pages and is three hole punched so it attached nicely to my binder. I use these pages to just list out post ideas and items I want to keep track of.
The final section is filled with squared planner paper. Since I have been getting more into the graphic design elements of blogging and designing printable calendars and planning pages, I use this section to sketch out ideas that I will then create using Adobe CS6 software. This image shows a rough idea for a planner page I would like to release as a printable for my readers in the near future.
So that is it! I hope you enjoyed taking a peek into my Blogging Binder! I hope this gave you some ideas of how you too can organize your blogs or any large and ongoing projects in your life!
Do you have a blog? What sort of organizational methods do you use to keep yourself on track? Have you seen an improvement in the quality of your work since you have started using an official organizer like this?
Late summer is one of my favorite times of year. For a long time it meant back to school for me, which I loved, but now it means back to work after a summer filled with vacation days and long lunches outside in the sunny weather. This is also the time of year when I feel a burst of energy to get myself reorganized, and I don’t know if its because academic planners are just everywhere this time of year, but its the perfect time to check up on your planner and calendar system that you may have set in place at the start of the new year or to implement one if you are not currently using a reliable system!
When it comes to using a calendar and planner system, the biggest choice you have these days is to choose digital or paper. Each system has their own benefits and drawbacks, but your habits and needs will ultimately affect how useful one type of system is over the other.
iPad or other Digital Calendar System
Pro’s: iPads really excel as personal planner and calendar systems because of the variety of applications you can use to get yourself organized. While there are plenty of apps for individual note taking and calendar optimization, there are also plenty of all in one apps that can keep you organized throughout your day. IPad’s are also great because normally within the apps you can choose to view your information in a variety of ways, like in daily, weekly or monthly formats. If you need flexibility in your daily life in order to get things done, an iPad may give you everything you need.
Con’s: While iPad’s make great planners because of their array of apps, they are still sometimes cumbersome to use. Many people find input via iPad difficult and slow. Since the iPad also needs to be charged in order to function, your planner system is completely dependent on your ability to keep it charged or have access to an electrical socket. Now, of course there are many portable charging systems you can purchase for your iPad if you work in the field or out of an office, it is still more cumbersome than a traditional paper planner.
Pro’s: One of the best things about a Filofax organizer is that they are nearly infinitely customizable. There are a multitude of planner pages, calendar views and notepads you can use with a Filofax that it makes finding your ideal system a breeze. You can also use a Filofax to store additional papers, sticky notes, and business cards so that you can keep important information close by. Since your dealing with paper and pen/pencil, you never have to worry about being without your notes or calendar, no matter how long you are away from your office. As long as your Filofax is by your side, you can keep yourself organized and on task!
Con’s: Although Filofax organizers have a variety of formats for calendars, notes and to-dos, once you have written in a to do item or scheduled a meeting its permanently there and if you need to change or update information, you often need to erase and rewrite it over again. The flexibility of editing information is much more difficult with paper planners and once you are set with your “view” (daily, weekly, monthly, etc) you cannot easily convert to a new one without purchasing more inserts and rewriting all your information over again.
So, what sort of calendar system do you use? What apps do you keep on your iPad or iPhone to keep you organized? Are you a paper planner person? Which planner system do you use?
