Use Your Five Senses to Get More Done

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by
The five senses (Photo Credit: Onefleshmarriage.com

The five senses (Photo Credit: Onefleshmarriage.com

I’ve recently started meditating using the HeadSpace App and one of the exercises is to really pay attention to everything around you. Close your eyes and tap into what you’re hearing, how you feel, what you’re smelling and what your feet feel like on the floor. It’s a tedious practice at first but this attention can really do wonders in the long run. The same idea goes for your workspace.

We all have our favorite places to work, but have you ever thought about why? Whether you realize it or not, the five senses do more than just provide us with nice smells and pleasant tastes—they actually influence our productivity habits.
Next time you go to sit down in your office, here’s how you can use the five senses to impact your productivity:

1. Sight: Next time you paint your walls, remember that blue is the most productive color. Moredays.com says it stimulates a high work performance, which can keep you plugging along for long periods of time. Blue provides a calming and soothing effect, which helps to improve the mind too.Blue is even the recommended color to wear on a job interview because it symbolizes loyalty!

If you can’t change the color scheme in your office, add a small desk plant. While desk plants help to spruce up a workplace, two recent studies show that plants actually help to improve productivity, as well. Nature helps brighten moods and regain focus, but if you don’t have time in your schedule to go for a walk outside, a desk plant will do the trick.

Read more

Five Ways to Simplify Your Life in Five Minutes

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , /by
Alarm Clock Redux

Alarm Clock Redux (Photo credit: Gnu2000)

We’ve all heard it before, “I’ll be there in five minutes.” or “just give me five more minutes.” Everyone always throws around five minutes even if it’s going to take them 10 or 15 minutes. Throwing five minutes around annoys me. Maybe it’s the producer in me because I’m used to being very precise with time. I’ve been known to have meetings at odd times like 4:37 or 12:23 because I know exactly how long it will take me to get somewhere and every minute counts.

But if you’re smart enough, you can spend those “five minutes” actually doing something really productive. Five minutes is a very valuable chunk of time — if you know how to use it correctly. Here’s a list of things you should use those extra five minutes doing:

1. Prioritize and prepare: Before you go to bed each night, take five minutes to jot down the most important activities that you need to get done tomorrow. This will help you schedule your time appropriately and be productive from the start of your day. Once you have created your list, look through it and identify any ways you can make each task a little easier. If you’re planning on going for a run in the morning, lay out your workout clothes the night before to save you time when you wake up. Not only will this be time efficient, but this will also encourage you to follow through with your workout plans!

2. Refine your list: It’s easy to get caught up in miscellaneous tasks throughout the course of the day. If you find yourself straying from your ‘to-do list’, take five minutes to rework your list. Keep it as simple as possible—if you take on a new task; replace it with a different task on your list. This way, you won’t be taking on more than you can handle. And don’t be afraid to say no when necessary!

3. Limit your media consumption: From cell phones, to social media, to e-mail, it’s easy to get distracted. In order to ensure that you do not stray from your priorities, take five minutes to download apps, such as “AwayFind”, which will send an auto-reply text message stating that you are currently busy. It will also provide emergency contact information just incase. This eliminates the social distractions in your life and allows you to focus on what’s important so you can check another thing off your ‘to-do list’.

4. Clean out your closet: If your clothes drawers are so stuffed that you can’t close them, take a five minutes to give one drawer a once over. Pull everything out, set a timer and get rid of any items you do not use.

5. Eliminate any junk mail: If your email inbox is overflowing with messages, it becomes difficult to find that important email from a few days or weeks ago. Take five minutes to clear out any unneeded messages or spam from your inbox in order to make your account easier to manage. Next time you go to look for an old e-mail, it will be much quicker to find.

Hopefully, the five minutes you took to read these steps will buy you five extra minutes in the future!

Checklist for Overcoming Pre-Speech Jitters

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , /by

microphone-298587_640Public speaking is one of those things that leaves some people weak in the knees. With wedding season and graduation on the horizon it may be time to start preparing that special speech. I know how stressful it can be to give a speech packed with humor, excitement and memories, all while shaking in your own heels. I was a maid of honor once and I wrote and rewrote my speech over and over again.  I even practiced in front of the mirror!  In the end it was fine but what an ordeal!

If you are tasked with giving a speech at a wedding, at work or even in front of the PTA — do not fear.  Bill McGowan, author of “Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time, Every time” has created this checklist just for us to help calm nerves and deliver a stellar speech. Read more

Ronald Reagan Was A List Maker!

/3 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

I take copious notes while doing just about anything.

1. Phone Calls: I jot down keywords and phrases so I don’t forget details and can go back and reference what was said later.

2. Magazines & Books: I write down ideas or websites I want to check out as I skim through the pages.

3. Movies & TV: I’ll get a thought and have to write down a note or two about what I’m watching.

My husband thinks it’s a colossal waste of time but it turns out I’m not alone in this obsessive little habit. Former President Ronald Reagan did a similar thing!

A book called “The Notes: Ronald Reagan’s Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom,” is a collection of Reagan’s personal notes. He jotted down his favorite quotes, jokes and proverbs on 4-by-6 index cards and kept them locked away in the Oval Office. The only other person who had seen these lists was his beloved wife, Nancy.

The book says that Reagan picked up list making while he was working as a spokesman for General Electric in the 1950s. He would read during long train rides and write notes on what he thought was most important. Read more

Organize Anything With SpringPad

/2 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , /by

A friend of mine is moving for a new job and needed to get a lot organized in a short period of time. She tried a few apps that I’ve suggested on the site, but even my hero app Evernote couldn’t keep up with everything she needed to do. She needed an app that would allow her to make notebooks that could include tasks, people, events, lists, location information, and important links. While I can think of the best apps to handle each of those things individually, I couldn’t think of any that handled them all together. Until we found SpringPad.

SpringPad is a multi-faceted personal organization tool that is designed to help you plan or organize anything. Create custom notebooks for yourself, or share them with others to collaborate. Then, start filling those notebooks up with “springs.”

A spring could be anything, like:

Movies – When I spring a movie title Springpad creates a small icon with the poster of the movie. The app notifies me when the film comes out in theaters (and will help me find showtimes), when it comes out on DVD, and even when it is available on Netflix.

Links – For links, I usually use the “Spring It” feature, a button that lives in the bookmarks bar and allows me to “spring” any website to my SpringPad account. It’s a great way to save articles and videos to watch later. Read more