Career Archives - Strange & Charmed

Career

Well Planned & Productive Gift Guide

Hello My Charmed Ones!

It’s that time of year again!! The holiday season is approaching and it’s time to shop for gifts for the special people in your life. I love giving gifts- it’s one of my love languages and so I love creating gift guides with new and creative ideas to help you find something unique and functional for the people on your list.

I have created a new gift guide specifically geared towards planning and productivity presents that you can give to a planner lover, co-worker, or female entrepreneur you are buying for this year. Or of course, you could forward this gift guide on to the people who are buying for you this year if you see some things you like and resonate with.

These gifts are priced across the board- some are more of a splurge and some are stocking stuffer price. Most of them are $50 or less so they are pretty reasonable gifts.

5 in 1 Facial Massager

I love a good facial roller tool and this five in one option is a great way to make the most of multiple tools to help de-puff, sculpt and sooth your face. Use this massager to relax your muscles, apply serums and tone your face through lymphatic drainage massage. This is a great tool to use morning or night, or anytime you want to relax and pamper yourself.

Cups and Saucers

Stop drinking your daily coffee or tea from clunky old mugs and elevate your daily experience with this set of 6 cups with saucers and stirrers. It’s a beautiful set with classic and luxurious lines that will bring some extra elegance and refinement to your workday. Just add your favorite biscotti or croissant!

Pebbled Leather Zip A5 Cover

This chic leather cover can be used to protect your choice of planner or notebook in a compact and secure housing. I love the way a zip cover keeps it’s contents protected, especially on the go and I am particularly enamored with this dark green teal color. This is a gift that makes a major impact on your style, planning and productivity.

Acrylic Dry Erase Board

An acrylic dry erase board is a perfect accessory for your kitchen, home organization station or office. Use it for notes, announcements, meal planning or reminders.

Desk Timer

This adorable cube desk timer is the perfect productivity tool to help keep you on track and working in short bursts or blocks of time. Set the timer before you start a task to track how long it takes for planning purposes, and use the timer to set aside time to get started on a project or task you’ve been putting off.

Beats Fit Pro x Kim Kardashian Moon

These Beats Fit Pro Wireless Bluetooth EarPods have been my go to for both work and play. The noise cancelation technology helps me to stay productive while I work and listen to my favorite lo-fi jams. They are wonderful for working out and physical activities, and I love to wear them while I listen to a meditation or relax in the bathtub. Plus the color palette on the Beats x Kim Kardashian collection are gorgeous!

Dual Tip Highlighters

I think my number one most used planning and note taking accessory, aside from a pen, has to be dual tip highlighters. I use them to highlight dates and information, to create check boxes for tasks and to block off time in my daily schedule. I love this set of neural and pastel highlighters because they create a relaxing tone inside your planner as opposed to traditional neon highlighters that look like strobe lighting and often give me a headache looking at it for too long.

CEO Journal

If you are looking for an affordable and chic notebook or bullet journal, the CEO Journal has everything you need to organize and plan in one simple bound book. The undated pages allow you to select the date and organize information with the help of a square grid. The pages are numbered for you to keep an index if you’d like to track important spreads or information. And yes, it does fit nicely into the Pebbled Leather Zip cover linked above!

HyperChiller

If you are an iced coffee or tea fan and have not heard about the HyperChiller yet, I am about to blow your mind. Fill the dual chambers of this unit with water, let it freeze in your freezer and then whatever hot or boiling liquid you pour into the chiller will cool down in one to two minutes. No more watering down hot beverages to get them cool. This is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets, no wires, no batteries or electricity needed. Just water, your freezer and a hot beverage to chill down.

Marble Desk Pad

I love this marble desk pad- I don’t think I could work at a desk without one of these desk pads anymore because they act as decoration, a mousepad and a soft place to rest your hands. I have a few of these desk pads with different patterns on them and I switch them out for the seasons to give my home office and desk a new vibe.

Jelly Basket

As someone who works from home, I have a lot of productivity tools that I tote around the house with me whenever I decide to work from outside my office. I love these little jelly baskets because the large size fits my laptop, planner, notebook, phone, headphones, pens, highlighters and more so I can take my home office into any room of my house. I call it my mobile office basket and if you work from home, either full time or even part time, you will love having a simple tote like this to use to corral your things securely instead of trying to carry everything by hand yourself.

Functional Planning Handbook

If you are looking to get the most from your planner system, you absolutely need to learn the Functional Planning Methodology and this book is the official handbook that covers everything you need to know to set up, organize and use your planner to manage your life, plus tips on how to stay motivated and productive through the day.

Candle Warmer Lamp

I love filling my home with candles, but as a pet owner, it isn’t always the safest to have candles burning throughout my home. So, using a candle warmer is a must and these warmer lamps are the perfect blend of style and function to give you some extra home decor, and a safe way to use your candles without lighting them.

I Make Money Moves Journal

If you want to be a more productive and successful person, you absolutely need to start a journaling practice. I think getting your thoughts out of your head and into paper is so important, and especially keeping track of your thoughts and self-talk are a major factor in what you manifest and bring to fruition in your life. This journal will help you manifest more money and abundance into your life through a daily journaling practice where you get clear on what you want, your own value and your plan for making things happen in your life.

Flameless LED Candles

These remote controlled flameless LED candles are the perfect addition to your bedroom, home office or bathroom. They are a safe way to create mood lighting and help you get cozy at home, helping you to relax and destress from a busy day.

Aesthetic Gel Pens

If you are a planner and productivity lover I know you have a thing for pretty pens. This set of neutral matte gel pens is very aesthetic and certain to help you create a planning or journaling routine that fits your energy and vibe. Why use ugly pens when you can use a chic option like these?

Monitor Memo Board

I don’t personally use a desktop computer with a separate monitor, but I have seen so many videos and examples of people using these monitor memo boards and I think they make an awesome accessory for your home or office. You can attach this set of memo boards to the side of your monitor to organize sticky notes or to use as a dry erase. And I bet you could use these on other surfaces besides your monitor. You could affix these to the sides of a mirror in your bathroom, your refrigerator or cabinets in your kitchen- anywhere you need to organize notes and some information- these adhesive memo boards would work!

Self-Adhesive Business Card Pocket

I know these self-adhesive business card pockets seem so random for a gift guide, but they are actually one of my new favorite planner supplies. My planner cover doesn’t have a ton of business card holders built in, and so I have been sticking these pockets onto dashboards on my planner to organize business cards. I don’t use mine for business cards, instead I use them for planning/journaling cards to decorate my planner and to add a little more inspiration.

Transparent Tabs

As someone who is more into using my planner for function than decoration, I don’t use very many accessories in my planner. However, another one of my planner must haves are this set of neural transparent tabs. I use these to mark pages in my planner for reference and also to write out a note or reminder for my planner before it is set in stone. I love the colors in this set and that it includes pointed and squared edge options. I also use these tabs when reading in physical books or to notate documents I am reviewing or editing.

Makeup and Skincare Organizer

I know it might seem odd to see an acrylic makeup and skincare organizer on this gift guide, but there are a few reasons I wanted to include this. First of all, getting ready in the morning or getting un-ready at the end of the day is an essential part of your daily routine and having your necessities organized and visible like this helps you to remember to do this important self care each day. Also- I think this organizer would also be awesome to use in your office to store stationery and planner supplies. Think of this as a beautiful display case for your office with all your favorite stationery organized inside.

I hope you have enjoyed this gift guide and that it gave you some great inspiration for this holiday season!

xoxo,

Business Career Functional Planning Productivity

How to Create an Inbox System for Busy Professionals

How to Create an Inbox System for Busy Professionals

I talk a lot about how to create a solid plan for your workday so you have a clear focus and intention for how you’ll be spending your time, but the real challenge for most busy professionals is handling the additional new action items and tasks that accumulate throughout your workday.

It’s great to start the day with your top three tasks identified, your schedule for calls and meetings, and of course time blocks outlined to do deep work, but what should you do if you get even more new tasks and items that need to be integrated into your existing daily plan?

How do you capture, prioritize and integrate new tasks that come from the multiple different inputs in your workday like meetings, emails, messages, and calls from team members, superiors, clients, and other co-workers?

The solution is to have a well organized inbox system.

Your inbox system may actually be made up of multiple different task and information capture solutions, especially if you are someone who not only receives new tasks throughout the day, but also receives information that may pertain to specific projects, or perhaps needs to capture your own ideas or reminders for future meetings or work that isn’t currently your focus at the moment.

A Place for Everything and Everything in it’s Place

My first suggestion for creating your organized inbox system is to decide the specific places you are going to put specific types of information and the general process you intend to follow for each.

New tasks must be captured and processed in a different way than information you may need for future reference, so having a unique process for each different information type will be important.

It would be optimal to capture new tasks in one centralized location, like an inbox page of your planner, a brain dump spread, or a specific file in a notes application, so you can then determine the priority of the tasks.

I determine the priority of my new tasks using an Eisenhower Matrix that evaluates tasks for urgency and importance. Any new tasks that are urgent and important will be integrated into my plan for the day, while other tasks of less urgency or less importance may be scheduled for another day or kept on a pending list for future reference.

I recently designed a simple Inbox Sorter Insert for my Charmed Life Master Mind sisters to use as a simple capture and prioritization system for their tasks. It integrates the concept of a single task inbox with the action plan that results from organizing your tasks with the Eisenhower Matrix.

For example:
Urgent and Important Tasks | Do Now
Not Urgent and Important Tasks | Schedule
Urgent and Not Important Tasks | Delegate
Not Urgent and Not Important Tasks | Delete

For any information you receive during the course of your workday, I think it’s important to have a separate system for organizing notes and reminders so you can quickly locate and use the information when you need it.

I recommend using a digital notes tool to organize this type of information especially if you are receiving it in digital form most of the time through messages and emails. It’s quite easy to simply copy and paste information, where as rewriting it onto a paper notes system may take a bit more time. Of course, if you prefer to be fully analog and use a paper notes system for this part of your overall system, do what works for you.

I use Apple Notes to organize raw information and ideas, because the app syncs across my laptop, iPhone and even my iPad so that I always have access to it, and because it is digital I can use the search function to quickly find information as well.

I keep my notes app organized by folders for different categories of information, like Personal Notes, Business, Marketing, Content, etc, and then I keep individual note files inside the folders to organize specific topics for quick reference.

If using a notes app doesn’t work for you, you could also use a Google Sheets file or spreadsheet application on your computer to organize information by category and topic as well.

If you’d prefer to use a paper based system, you could divide a notebook into sections for your categories, or include pages in your planner dedicated to specific categories or projects you need to retain information on to act on later.

Turning the System into a Routine

With your Inbox System set up, the next part of the process would be to define and establish a regular routine for transferring and reviewing information.

It’s not enough to have the system set up with the defined place for each type of task or information to go, but you also need to decide how often you are going to review your various other inboxes to transfer information into their appropriate place in your system, and how often you need to review those individual places to make sure you are utilizing the information you captured.

I generally check my inboxes (email, message systems etc) about twice a day, once in the morning at the start of my work and once in the afternoon before I stop working for the day, and that is the point where I will funnel tasks and information to their appropriate spots in my organization system.

Tasks get listed and organized with the Eisenhower Matrix, and information, reminders or ideas get organized to their appropriate folder or note in my Apple Notes.

I keep active notes for each of the classes, products and pieces of content I create so I can quickly transfer or capture information that pertain to each of these individual projects quickly, as soon as it comes to my attention.

When you initially start this routine, it will be a good idea to set alerts to ensure you use the system regularly, and then after a while, it will become a natural process you do as part of your day.

I hope this information helps you create your own organized inbox system to stay on top of your tasks and do your best work, no matter what you do! Let me know how it works out and if you have any questions and I’d be glad to help!

xoxo,

Career Productivity

Letting Go to Do Your Best Work!

Does this ever happen to you? You sit down to start an important project, you know exactly what’s expected because you have either done it before or are familiar with what the end result should be, however, even before you have begun, those expectations begin to nag at you. You begin to worry that you may not do a good job, you obsess and knit pick over elements of your project and after all your mental anguish and second guessing you finish your project and it all turns out fine. Maybe you have also experienced this second scenario. You sit down to start an important project, but this time it’s something you have never done before. You’re not exactly sure how to begin or how things will look by the end, but you think about your project logically, put in a solid effort and in the end, it turns out spectacular! Why does that second scenario usually turn out better than the first? You would think that someone would do better in a situation where they had more experience and understood the expectations, but that isn’t always true. It’s beginners luck! You may have heard of it before, it’s a common phenomenon where someone attempts something new and ends up successful in their effort. Now, while “beginner’s luck” has never been statistically proven, most of us have experienced it in one way or another and we can certainly learn a thing or two about how to do great work from it!

Beginner’s luck is tied to the idea of expectations. When you attempt something new and admittedly know very little about it, you often find that when you give it a try, you are much better than you would have assumed. That’s because you didn’t expect much, but you gave an honest effort none-the-less! As humans, we are often tied up in notions of what is possible and what is impossible, and in that mindset we project upon ourselves what we think we can do, what we think we can’t do, and we end up surprising ourselves when we actually succeed where we had no expectations of success.

Okay, so how do we use this concept of beginner’s luck to our advantage? There are a number of ways where a shift in your perception to this beginner’s luck mentality can help you do your best work and live your best life!

1. Don’t be afraid to try new things, you will do better than you think!

This goes for work and personal situations. Although many of us are plagued with fear of the unknown, beginner’s luck tells us that when we try something with an honest effort we get a better result than anyone would have guessed. Even if you have tried something before with a negative result, giving it an honest shot the second time around may prove fruitful!

2. Reach for the “impossible” because that standard is imagined.

Voices outside and even inside of ourselves are often telling us what is possible and what is impossible. Think of these voices as bookies at a horse race giving you the odds in a situation. If you bet on the long-shot and lose, you just lost the few dollars you initially bet, but if you win you will rake it in! The odds may be against you in a certain scenario, but taking beginner’s luck into account, anything is possible. When it comes to your future and your dreams, if you have more to gain than to lose, trying for impossible is actually a better bet!

3. Let go of your expectations and just get to work!

Don’t think, just do! Thinking can often over complicate things and cause irrational fears to pop up. If you let go of your expectations for the end result, you will be open to whatever direction you are led to while you work. Some of the most creative and brilliant solutions have been found by accident while trying to find a solution to a different problem. Do not think, become.

Are there any areas of your work where you feel like expectations are getting the better of you? In what ways do you plan on letting go of your expectations and embracing the concept of beginner’s luck to help you do better work? Let me know in the comments how you think you can execute these ideas in your own work life and feel free to share any success stories that may have resulted from your own beginner’s luck experiences!

xoxo,

This article was first published on Strange & Charmed on July 10th, 2014 and is being reposted as part of my Holiday Prep Hiatus! For the months of November & December I will be recycling some vintage S&C content that you may have missed in order to give myself some extra time to finalize projects and spend time with my family during the holiday season. All reposted content will be marked as such. I hope you enjoy this blast from the past blog post!

Career

How to Improve your Focus at Work

In a world plagued by constant distractions, pop up notifications and a never-ending stream of calls, texts and to do’s, it can sometimes feel hard to live in the moment and concentrate on the tasks you have in front of you. If you suffer from this modern form of chronic connectivity induced mental lethargy, these tips could help!

Remove all distractions

This is probably the hardest thing you could ask any modern professional to do, but turning off the pop up notifications, silencing the smart phone and closing the email window are the first steps to reestablishing your mental focus and clarity. Unless you work in a field that requires you to answer your phone or text messages as a matter of life and death, you need to set aside time for you to get your work done without the constant interference of instant communication! So go ahead, turn your cell on silent, disable pop up notifications, set your office line to send all calls, remove your email from your active desktop and shut your office door if you have to!

Reason with yourself and others

If you have removed all distractions like suggested in step one, congratulations! I know that was probably difficult for you to do and you are probably freaking out inside just a little with fears of all the horrible things that may happen because people can’t get in touch with you. Well, that is simply not going to help you focus if your constantly worrying yourself about the unknown, so let’s be reasonable. I know as well as you do that you can’t go all day without answering the phone or responding to messages, so the next step to improving your focus is to carve out a time-table for how long you will work distraction free before returning to your email.

This part is up to you, but I suggest 2-3 hours of solid uninterrupted work, followed by a half hour or so of responding to emails, voice mails and messages. If you are worried that this could be too long for you and your specific job responsibilities, think about what is causing you to feel this way. If answering the phone is part of your job because, lets say, you’re a receptionist, than clearly you need to leave the phone on. However, if you are simply afraid that your boss or colleagues will be upset that they cannot contact you, I suggest letting them know in advance.

Even if your boss is a stickler for quick email responses, give them a call and tell them what your thinking. Let them know you have a lot on your plate and the constant messaging is starting to derail your productivity. If you let your boss and others know how long you will be disconnected and when they can reasonably expect a response for you, it will be much easier for them to swallow and they may even encourage this sort of behavior if they see a marked improvement in your work!

Leaving an out of office response on your email is also a good way to temper the expectations of others that depend on you. A simple message that explains that you are working on an important task or project but that you will be checking emails intermittently will give fair warning to those trying to contact you via email. You can do the same on your phone as well to ensure that everyone knows your busy but will be able to respond to their needs in a reasonable amount of time.

Have a plan of action

Once you are sufficiently distraction free you need to have a clear plan of attack for the work you want to accomplish. Make a list of everything you need to get done, ranking it in order of importance, urgency and time required. Making a list like this may require you to check some voice mails, print out a few emails and gather some information outside your office, but once you have your to do list ready, sit down and get to work!

Reward Yourself

Successfully sticking to a new plan or schedule is a hard thing to accomplish in and of itself. If the lure of improving your focus to get more work done isn’t enough of an incentive for you to stick to your plans, try giving yourself a more tangible reward. Perhaps it means a trip to Starbucks in the afternoon for a caffeinated pick me up or an extra stop on the way home to your local Redbox for a relaxing movie night. Whatever it is that will motivate you to stick to your action plan, commit to it, because eventually a new habit will form that will improve your focus in the long run!

xoxo,

This article was first published on Strange & Charmed on August 8th, 2013 and is being reposted as part of my Holiday Prep Hiatus! For the months of November & December I will be recycling some vintage S&C content that you may have missed in order to give myself some extra time to finalize projects and spend time with my family during the holiday season. All reposted content will be marked as such. I hope you enjoy this blast from the past blog post!

Career

How to Succeed at Work!

I know I spend a lot of time on my blog and through my various social media platforms talking about how to succeed with your own online business, however, as someone who spent over 5 years working for a Fortune 50 company and had 4 different jobs in those 5 years, I clearly also know a thing or two about how to succeed at a 9-5 job as well! I know that for many of you reading this, landing that great 9-5 job or working your way up in your current company is going to be a real priority, so here are my five best tips to find success at work!

1. Exhibit Curiosity

Employers love it when they have employees that are interested in their work and curious enough to take extra time to research subjects and topics that may help them come to a greater understanding of their job. When you show a true interest in your job, your boss and company will notice and will reward such curiosity with increased responsibility, pay and ultimately, promotions!

2. Work Hard

This one may seem pretty obvious, however, you’d be surprised at the number of employees who think they are working hard but really aren’t doing all they can to benefit their employer. Sheer hours spent on the job isn’t a true indicator of productivity and hard work. What truly matters is how much you are able to accomplish with your time. If you are constantly ahead of schedule with projects and tasks, that will go a long way to show your work ethic!

3. Try Different Things

When it comes to working your average 9-5 people tend to get into routines and habits for their work. That’s not a bad thing, but problems can arise when you become too rigid with those routines and refuse to take on new tasks and experiences. When your supervisor presents you will new tasks and challenges, you should eagerly be saying “Yes” to these opportunities because this is your chance to try something new, expand your knowledge and show that you can take on new and different responsibilities!

4. Don’t let anyone rain on your parade

I’m not going to lie, competition is always going to arise in corporate culture, it’s just the way it is, but you shouldn’t let that competition get to your head or throw you off balance. Ignore the office politics, gossip mongering and rumor mill and focus on your work and producing great results. Try to be that beacon of positive energy in your company or on your team so that people always think of you as a good person and worker. Acknowledge that when you are successful with your job, people are always going to try to tear you down one way or another so that they can take your success and claim it for themselves, but you can prevent this by tearing clear of the drama!

5. Ask for what you want

Too many workers, mainly women, believe that if they work hard and keep their head down, they will be acknowledged at work with raises and promotions, however, that is not the way corporate culture works. It’s not enough that you do your job and do it well, you really need to make sure you are clear with your employer about what you want from your career and the opportunities you expect them to give you so long as you continue to be a productive asset to the company. Remember, corporate culture is competitive and if you don’t show interest in that open job position or ask for that raise, trust me, your employer isn’t just going to hand it over to you!

If you would like to learn more about how to get ahead in your current job, make sure to check out my series called How to Stand Out at Work. It’s filled with numerous tips, tricks and advice on how to gain more favor and responsibility at work so that you are poised for a raise or a promotion! Let me know what you thought of these tips and feel free to leave your best tips for success at work below in the comments. I’d love to hear your stories and how you have been able to climb the corporate ladder no matter how big or small your company!

Career

10 Awesome Females All Millennial Women Should Know!

With so many of you that tell me on a day-to-day basis how much my work has inspired you to live a more productive and organized life, I got to thinking that I should perhaps share with you all the people, specifically, the women, that inspire me. I definitely go through phases where I become very interested in and inspired by the work of certain notable women, but for the most part, I find that I keep coming back to the same ladies and their work over and over again. So, here is a collection of 10 awesome females that I believe all millennial women should know!

1. Sheryl Sandberg

You really have to be living under a rock to not know about Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, her controversial book, Lean In, and her work promoting and supporting the roles of women in executive positions through her foundation Lean In.org. Sheryl Sandberg has been everywhere since her book released in 2013 and she has become something of the unofficial face of women in leadership, opening up an important dialogue within the U.S.

2. Marie Forleo

Marie Forleo is a very awesome lady whose work I just recently discovered early in 2014. Known predominantly for her eponymous website and business coaching practice, Marie is definitely a mover and a shaker, rubbing elbows with Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins and Sir Richard Branson to name a few. Through her weekly web series, Marie helps inspire her audience of entrepreneurial women with refreshing candor and a hit of sass! Oh, and did I mention she’s from Jersey? What can I say, she’s my type of lady!

3. Malala Yousafzai

Seventeen year old Malala Yousafzai has been making major waves on the international scene for years through her human rights advocacy and especially her support for the education and advancement of women in her native country of Pakistan. In 2014 Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Prize, making her the youngest ever recipient of the prestigious honor. This brave young woman already has accomplishments galore under her belt, and the world can only expect more great things to come from her in the future!

4. Felicia Day

So when you think of Felicia Day you probably think, geek girl, gamer, actress, writer, but what you should be thinking is web media innovator. In case you didn’t realize it, back in 2012 Felicia launched Geek & Sundry, a Youtube Channel featuring a laundry list of popular web series’ and has basically carved out a nice piece of the new media pie for herself, but then she turned around and sold that pie two years later after turning one single YouTube channel into a media entity in and of itself! She is one savvy multi-talented business woman who is building her media empire, brick by brick!

5. Brit Morin

Do you ever find yourself pining for a younger, more tech savvy version of Martha Stewart that would be accessible to the modern millennial women? Well, clearly you haven’t been acquainted with Brit Morin! As an entrepreneur and modern business woman, Brit has built up a lifestyle brand akin to Martha but with a twist. She is something of a digital homemaker with not only her own popular website and shop, but also her subscription based DIY box service that gives millennial women a creative outlet in their busy, often stressful lives! I’ve been following Brit for years back since the days where she was blogging under her maiden name and working for Apple & Google, and I have to say that it has been very exciting watching the progression of her brand into what it has become today, and I know there will be so much more in store for her in the future.

6. Caroline Ghosn

As the daughter of international businessman Carlos Ghosn, Caroline Ghosn clearly comes from a background of wealth and privilege, but instead of using her families money and connections to get herself into parties, play dress up and live in lala land like some other privileged socialites might, she graduated from college and started her own business in her early twenties; Levo League. You have probably seen me talk about Levo before, I’ve written articles for their site and really love the work they do helping young women connect and network with resources and mentors that will help them advance personally and professionally. Although Levo is a new company and still rather small, I have seen them take on massive projects and make such an impact already that it is exciting to see what will come next!

7-8 Carly Zakin & Danielle Weisberg

Carly Zakin & Danielle Weisberg are two names on this list that I expect you are most likely unfamiliar with. In fact, I myself am still not familiar with their names although I enjoy their work and product on a daily basis. Carly and Danielle are the founders of one of my favorite email subscriptions, Skimm.com, a daily email that catches you up on the important news of the day. As someone who doesn’t really read the news (I know, it’s not something I’m proud of) their service has really helped me keep an eye on important events around the globe by providing a skimmed down summary of the important facts, key players and possibly impacts. Oh, and did I mention this is a free service? Well, it is, so you really have no excuse not to become an informed and educated citizen, thanks to Carly & Danielle!

9. Gabrielle Bernstein

Gabby Bernstein is one of my personal favorite modern spiritualists. By day, she is a motivational speaker, author and life coach, but really, the thing that makes her stand out to me is that she is a spiritual thinker, yogi, and all around kick-ass lady! You may have seen me talk about her latest book Miracles Now, which I love, it’s basically a how-to guide to solve life’s little (and not so little) problems in the moment by changing your mindset and using your body’s natural energy to help you live a better life. I always love thinkers that really seem to practice what they preach, and to me, Gabby is one of those authentic, do gooder types who works to empower people through spiritual methods rather than through gimicky or commercial means. She is just one of those people who really inspires you to live a better life by embracing love and light in your own life and letting go of all those insignificant things that often times trip us up. She’s definitely one to watch if you are into spirituality, meditation, yoga, and self-help!

10. Wendy Davis

I really thought that this list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning an inspiration woman who is part of the U.S. political system. Wendy Davis is a former Texas State Senator who came to national popularity when she took a stand on women’s rights and stood for an eleven hour-long filibuster to block a Senate Bill that would place harsh regulations on women’s reproductive rights in Texas. Now, no matter your political affiliation and no matter your stance on abortion and reproductive rights, you have to admit that one single woman standing up against the political system in one of the largest states in America and facing huge amounts of opposition for her actions is really, honestly, amazing! You really need a plethora of courage and strength to do what she did, and although her actions weren’t successful in preventing the legislation from passing, she did manage to bring national attention to the issue and help open a dialogue in support of the right’s of all women, and for that I think she is pretty awesome!

I hope this article helped introduce you to an awesome and inspirational woman who you may not have been familiar with before and if it did, please let me know in the comments below. If you have other great women that you draw inspiration from I would love to hear about them as well. Perhaps you can introduce me to someone great as well!

xoxo,

Career lifestyle My Productivity Playlist

My Productivity Playlist #1

So, I thought it would be fun if I spiced things up here on the blog and let you guys in on a little more of my personal life, including the music I like to listen to throughout the day. Consider this Whistle While You Work 2.0! Without further ado, here is my first installment of My Productivity Playlist series, five of my favorite songs from various genres that makeup the soundtrack to my work day!

I hope you have enjoyed this first installment of my new feature! Let me know in the comments if you would like me to continue with this series and make sure to send me a tweet letting me know what you like to listen to while you are working!

Career

Have a Productive and Successful College Career with these Tips

This is incredibly odd to write, but it was 10 years ago, this month, that I first packed up and left home for college! It’s weird to think it has been a decade but I can still remember the day I packed up my dad’s truck and made the four hour drive with him from New Jersey to Virginia, where we then stopped off at my mother’s house to get more boxes and my little brother to help with the moving in process. We spent the night in a hotel right off campus after another two hour drive down to what would be my final destination for the next 3.5 years! On move-in day, I remember everything taking far less time than I expected. Since we were staying so close to my dorm, we woke up very early and after a few quick trips between the truck and the three flights of stairs to my dorm room, it was all over and my father and brother were gone. That’s pretty much the long and the short of it! After that, came an unforgettable few years that were filled with more ups and downs than I will ever have time to convey. Last fall, I wrote briefly about my college experience in a post chronicling my biggest regrets from college. It’s a must read for any soon to be college freshman or really any college student who still has time left to get in those critical experiences that will be carried with you for a lifetime. Today, however, I thought it could be helpful if I shared some tips for college freshman on how to have a productive and successful college career.

Stay on top of your credits: One of the reasons I was able to graduate early, despite having two full majors in college, was because I was always on top of my credits and graduation requirements. For the most part, colleges and universities lay out a plan for students by major with required and elective courses that they are required to complete before graduation. Make sure you are actively paying attention to that list and have a plan for the classes you are going to take to fulfill these requirements. That means you may need to take a certain number of classes per semester to stay on track for a timely graduation and you may also need to be a little flexible when it comes to which classes you want to take vs which classes you need to take.

Prioritize your major: The second reason I was able to graduate early with my double major is because I always prioritized taking the classes I needed for my major. This meant that I took prerequisite classes as soon as I was eligible to, I sometimes took less interesting classes that fulfilled major requirements when others I was interested in filled up, and when necessary, I took the maximum number of courses allowed (with my advisors permission, of course). I pretty much did whatever it took to make sure I was on track to graduate, which in the end resulted in me graduating early at a school that had an unusually high number of students that went on for a 5^th year to complete course requirements.

Don’t skip class: This was my one major mistake the first semester of my freshman year! I made the mistake of signing up for 8am classes every day, thinking, “no problem, I had to be in class at 7:20am in high school, so this should be a piece of cake!” No! It was not a piece of cake, it was terrible and I unfortunately received the lowest marks in my college career in those classes because I skipped too often (C’s, gasp)! However, I learned from my mistake and never again signed up for an 8am class! I also stuck to a general rule, which was not to skip more than two classes of a single course. At my college, some teachers had this as a general rule and missing more than two classes resulted in a negative grade on your attendance, but many teachers operated under the concept that as a college student, you are an adult and if you want to waste your money by skipping class, that’s your choice, good luck with that final! Look, when you break it down, as a college student you will have a class 1-3 times a week on average, and a semester lasts about 16 weeks. Seriously, there is really no reason, other than illness or emergency, that you should be skipping class anyway, so keep your missed classes to a minimum!

Choose your professors wisely: When I was in college, and I assume the same goes today, students were always talking about their professors. Everyone had an opinion on each and every teacher they took and even some they had never taken. It was not uncommon for certain teachers to get a bad reputation, which then caused certain students to avoid taking their classes. Now, I believe that listening to peer reviews of teachers/professors is important, however, you need to make sure you are being smart about it. For example, in college, I remember taking two classes with teachers that were notoriously “hard.” At the time, I had no clue what “hard” meant really. So, I assumed these classes were going to be hell. As it turned out, they weren’t really as bad as people said and I ended up receiving fairly good marks (I think B+) because I did my work and didn’t skip class. See, as it turned out, the people who’s recommendations I was taking failed to explain that the reason they thought the teacher was hard was because they were not “nice” to their students. However, as professors, they were thorough, fair graders and willing to answer questions outside of class to help you understand the content and increase your grade! In fact, I remember, one of these “hard” professors had this clever tactic that scared the shi*t out of me at the time, but once the semester ended, I understood and appreciated what she had done. On the first day of class, this notoriously “hard” professor gave the scariest lecture ever. She outlined how hard her class would be, her zero tolerance policy for lateness and missing classes, and explained how excruciatingly hard her exams were, encouraging the students who were unwilling to do the work to drop the class now! By the second class, half the students were gone, but I will tell you what! She ended up being the most easy going person after that, an excellent resource for her students and a fairly easy grader, in my opinion. Everyone left that classes with at least a B, despite the fact that she explained that she graded on a “harsh curve.” She wasn’t “hard” she just didn’t want to waste her time with students unwilling to take her class seriously! So, when discussing your professors with other students and friends, make sure to ask the right questions. Ask what grade the student had received, how often they studied, if they missed class or were late often. Just because a professor doesn’t like to put up with BS from their students, doesn’t mean they are “hard” or bad teachers.

Remember what you came for: At the end of the day, I think the most important thing to remember is that as a college student, you have chosen your path. As much as our friends, family and especially our parents encourage us to go to college and do the best we can, ultimately, you are the one in control of the situation. If all you wanted from college was to party and hook up, good for you, but I will say there are easier and less expensive ways to achieve this without going through the trouble of a college admission. If you are eager to learn and want to grown and develop new skills and passions, try to remember that from time to time when you would prefer to go out partying with your friends or want to wait until the last day to study for your final. When it all boils down, by the time you graduate, it doesn’t matter what grade you got in econ, or if you went to that one blow out mixer! The only thing that really lasts from college, other than that piece of paper they give you that says you finished, are the lessons you learned about yourself and the type of person you have become from the effort of your own self discipline. So, have fun, stay safe and above all, actively participate in your own self discovery and education!

I hope you enjoyed this post and if so, I encourage you to share this in your social media feeds or send it along to any college students, or soon to be college students, that you know!

Career lifestyle

Noteworthy: Lovely Notebooks & Notepads

I know I am all about that digital life, doing most of my writing a designing via my laptop, but the truth is that paper is still a major part of my creative process. As much as I love the clean, sleek feel of a Macbook Air under my fingers as I type away endlessly, writing in notebooks can be even more satisfying and specifically very cathartic for me as I pour my mind out onto paper. Lately, I have been spending chunks of time working on a book that I hope to publish sometime later this year. Although I use my favorite piece of software, Scrivener, to organize most of my writing, it’s been my time with pen and paper that have really helped me organize my thoughts for this longer, more meaningful piece. That is why I love having beautiful notebooks and notepads around me for making lists, doing quick sketches and writing out my thoughts before I hash them out in Scrivener.

A lot of people are always asking me for stationery recommendations, so I thought it would be fun for me to curate a few of my favorite notebooks and notepads from around the web. Some of these I already own and some of these I am simply lusting after, but if you’re looking for a fresh new notebook to crack into for some writing or note taking of your own, I think these are a beautiful escape from the ordinary notebook or journal. Click through the carousel below for more information on this lovely collection!

[show_shopthepost_widget id=”142724″]

Career lifestyle

What I want to be when I Grow Up

I recently had a conversation with a friend and former colleague about the importance of knowing “what I want to be when I grow up.” She and I were discussing career paths and what sort of job she would like to have next within her company, but she was unsure which path to take. Should she look for a promotion, should she move to another company, where was her life and relationship with her boyfriend headed? In the midst of our conversation, I asked her “well, what do you want to be when you grow up?” She thought the question was funny, “obviously, we are grown up, but what was it that you always thought you would do with your life and do you still want to do it,” I asked.

She really didn’t have to think about it because she immediately knew the answer, she wanted to work for the company she had spent a year interning for after college. She knew it was the time of her life and although she knew she would want to go back in a different role and work in a different side of the business, she at least was able to articulate it.

“Okay, so go work for them,” I said, very matter of fact. “I can’t do that,” she replied, “[my boyfriend] owns a home here and he would never move.” The conversation went on from there and we discussed that ever confusing ambiguity of life where women are expected to manage their personal life and their career, and how to know if you are with “the one” or not. Clearly, neither of us are experts on the subject so I’m not sure the conversation ended with any sort of resolution to her issues, although I like to hope she was at least able to frame herself and her situation in new light.

The reason I am sharing this story here on my blog, is because I feel like for so many women out there, we struggle to find a career and a life that is fulfilling, but then we openly reject what it is we know we want because it may require our lives to change. My friend was probably right, her boyfriend probably won’t want to move to allow her to pursue her dream career, but does that mean that the career is wrong or the boyfriend is wrong? I think pragmatists would say, leave the boyfriend and pursue the career you want, romantics would say, find another career and keep the man. Who is right? Who is wrong? It doesn’t actually matter. The opinions of others don’t really matter when it comes to our own life choices. People will always have an opinion one way or the other, but we have to find the courage to make the choices that bring us happiness and fulfillment. The issue isn’t about choosing career or choosing love, the issue is choice itself and understanding that you do, indeed, have a choice in how to live your life. You can choose to be a passive participant in your life or you can choose to have the courage to be an active one!