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Use Your Five Senses to Get More Done

May 6, 2014/0 Comments/in Apps, Benefits of List Making, Boost Memory, Decision Making, Decorating, Fashion, Fellow List Producers, Food, Happiness, Health, Home, Increase Productivity, Reduce Stress, Tool for Success, Uncategorized/by Paula Rizzo

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.

What Your Favorite Character Says About Your Productivity

April 27, 2014/2 Comments/in Fellow List Producers, People, TV, Uncategorized/by Paula Rizzo

Certain characters always seem to stick with us. Beyond the quirky characteristics and clever one-liners, our favorite TV characters can reveal more about our personalities than we might think. For me — I tend to be drawn to the characters who are overachievers, organizers and outspoken. Hmm…now that I think about it — I admire all of those skills.

So what do your favorite characters say about your productivity?

Dexter Morgan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dexter Morgan from Dexter: Everyone’s favorite serial killer is dedicated to details. Each and every episode he tirelessly plans every single nuance of his latest kill. It sounds morbid and like something that I would hate but I was hooked on the series immediately. If Dexter is your type of character you probably have a very organized closet and your morning routine is the same everyday, down to the minute. Read more

It’s My Blog’s 3rd Birthday!

April 3, 2014/5 Comments/in Apps, Benefits of List Making, Decision Making, Fellow List Producers, Increase Productivity, List Making, Reduce Stress, Video, Webinar/by Paula Rizzo

Today is my blog’s 3rd birthday, my “baby” is now a toddler! I can’t believe how fast the time has gone and I have all of my awesome productive followers to thank for making this such a success and supporting me.

For today’s post I thought it would be fun to go back in time and see where it all began! I started the blog after my husband Jay and I found our first apartment in Manhattan. We had a checklist of all the things we wanted in that apartment. Now three years later — we purchased our first apartment in Manhattan (also with a checklist!)

I’ve learned a lot through writing this blog and it has been through the good, the bad, and the ugly! So here is a look back at some of favorite posts, along with a few mishaps. You grow from mistakes as long as you learn from the, right?

Oldies But Goodies

Is Productivity Making Me Rude?: In my never ending quest to be more efficient, I realized that perhaps I’ve become more short and rude. This post is one of my favorites because I think it really addresses the things we miss when trying to do it all. Check it out. Read more

My First Blog Tour

March 23, 2014/1 Comment/in Fellow List Producers, Increase Productivity, Learning With a List, People, Uncategorized/by Paula Rizzo

(Photo credit: Dvortygirl)

This post is going to be a slight departure from the content you’re used to reading on ListProducer.com but I hope you’ll find it as fun. I was invited to participate in what’s called a “blog tour” by writer and blogger Sarah Klein.

Here’s how it works: I answer four questions about my writing process and then introduce three new bloggers who will do the same thing on their blogs next week. And so on and so on…kind of like a chain letter for blogs. I hope it’s a fun opportunity to gain some insight into how I’m able to pump out this blog three times a week and also introduce you to some bloggers I really admire.

Here we go!

1. What am I working on?
I’m always working on something! My biggest project to date has been my book, which will be published this fall by Viva Editions. It’s called “Listful Thinking: Using Lists to be More Productive, Efficient and Less Stressed.” Right now we are working on marketing plans and what the cover will look like. It’s very exciting and I’m thrilled to be able to share it with all my Listproducer.com blog readers when it’s ready!

Join National Unplugging Day

March 6, 2014/1 Comment/in Benefits of List Making, Decision Making, Fellow List Producers, Happiness, Health, Increase Productivity, Reduce Stress, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

It’s one of the hardest things to do — yet it can have such a huge benefit. I’m talking about putting your phone down and unplugging. Just giving yourself a few minutes to relax instead of compulsively checking your Facebook, emails, Twitter, text messages, apps, games, etc. is really scary actually. I get that! Just last week when I was forced to unplug because of a cable company snafu I thought I was going to lose my mind. But there are many benefits to just taking a breath and unplugging like:

1.Relaxation For Your Mind All day long our heads are buzzing with a million different to-do’s. This mental clutter can cause a lot of stress. So giving your brain a break can allow you to unwind, and de-clutter your mind. I think our hectic brains deserve that every once in a while!

2. In-Person Socializing Is that still a thing?! Unplugging will allow some quality face-to-face time with friends and family (and FaceTime doesn’t count.) It’s so easy to text and email people, that I actually find myself sighing when my phone rings. Actually — I never answer my phone if you don’t have an appointment with me (really -I even have a YouTube video about it! ) But it’s nice to let go of the phone and talk in person!

3. Distractions Be Gone Ever find that it takes you three times as long to complete a task because those tweets lighting up your phone were just too funny not to read? I understand! Well, unplugging can help you to focus on tasks and not get distracted by that next level of Candy Crush.

4. Health Benefits Being connected 24/7 can actually have an affect on your health. Our smart phones pump out electromagnetic radiation, which is linked with cancer. This is why you should kick your phone out of bed, and try not to have it on you for extended amount of times. Your eyes could also use a break from staring at screens for so long.

5. Less FOMO (fear of missing out). Out of sight, out of mind, right? Unplugging can help ease the anxiety of constantly wondering what emails you are getting , or what photos your friends are uploading to Facebook. It’s nice to take a break from what everyone else is doing and focus on yourself! And don’t worry too much, it will all be there when you decide to reconnect.

Even Randi Zuckerberg (former Facebook exec) who built her career around technology says it’s important to detox every once and a while to help you get reconnected with yourself and the ones you love. She even wrote a book about it called Dot Complicated: Untangling Our Wired Lives and a children’s book called Dot, which is about a little girl obsessed with electronic devices.

So how do you do it? How do you officially unplug? Here’s a kickstarter — tonight marks the start of the National Day of Unplugging. From March 7th at sundown to March 8th at sundown get off your devices!

That means:

No cell phones
No iPads
No iPad Minis
No eReaders
No computers
No social media

You can join the National Day of Unplugging by signing the Unplug Pledge and disconnect. The campaign encourages you to connect with people in your neighborhood and have interrupted meals with your family.

Happy Unplugging!