Use Your Five Senses to Get More Done

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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.

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Add Fun to Your To-Do List With These Food Apps

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Weekends are great for crossing off to-do’s, but you can’t forget to add fun and relaxation to the list.  Going out for a date night or hitting happy hour with your co-workers are fun ways to unwind from a stressful week. Here are some (free) dining and drinking apps to try out:

                                                             

                                                       Drinking Apps

Untappd: If beer is your go-to drink, this is a great app. Not only will it give you a list of the most popular local bars but you get to share and read beer reviews. Whenever you try a new beer, snap a photo with your phone, upload it, and review it. The app keeps track of all the brews you’ve tried and gives you suggestions.  You can also follow friends to see what they are drinking and you can earn badges for your beer tasting!

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Using Social Media To Get Social In Person

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Socializing

(Photo credit: zerok)

This new social media age has made friendships and dating more and more digital. With it being as simple as being able to post a photo for many people to see, to being able to send instagram messages on computer, staying in touch and interacting with followers may not be as tough as some may think. Social media may not be for everyone though.

The “social” aspect of being social is quickly diminishing. Don’t get me wrong I love my technology and apps as you know – but face-to-face communication shouldn’t go out of style. And this is coming from a person who loves alone time. Friendships are so important for your mind, body, and soul. Here are just a few benefits:

1. Great support system: Having friends at your side means you always have someone to lean on. In good times and bad you have someone there for you.

2. Happiness: Good friends equal good company. What is better than having a BFF to gossip with, watch chick flicks, or share a bottle of wine over some laughs? Friends can brighten your day and just make you happier.

3. Good for Your Health: Many studies have shown that having close friends or relationships can help your cardiovascular health and lower levels of cortisol (stress hormones). Check out more health benefits here

Now I’m not saying to throw away social media – in fact, I can give you the best of both worlds! Here are a few social media sites that actually get you to be social outside of online but before looking at them, let’s talk about how to build social platforms up, you can actually build them up using professionals such as a social media accounts manager. They will help you by growing your instagram for instance, and this will bring people to your site by using relevant hashtags, putting up snappy captions and taking amazing photographs, of course this is just the basics of social media marketing and they are there to help with all of the complicated stuff! There are so many interesting sites to look at…

Girlfriend Circles: This site connects like-minded local women with one another to create friendships. This is great for people who have just moved into an area, or are just looking for some girlfriends to get coffee and lunch with! You can search through member profiles and join “connecting circles.” They also post scheduled events to meet up with other women.

Tawify: Online dating can be more social too! This site is like Millionaire Matchmaker but without the “millions”. The new online dating site allows you to skip out on all the profile searching and has a “personal concierge” do all the work for you! Once you sign up, you fill out a short questionnaire and they will set you up with your dating agent who you meet in person. Make sure you fill out the questionnaire as truthfully as you can, it’s important you don’t try and change who you are. Your agent will then find your best matches and set up your dates for you. This is a cool spin on the typical dating site because the agent will be able to get to know you and find the perfect person for you.

Meetup: This is where I first started my “Lists and Libations” group. A group for list lovers who meet at bars in NYC and talk all things productivity. You really can find a group for any interest on this site. From cooking buffs to book lovers — you’ll find “your people” and be able to meetup off line.

How do you think you’d benefit from having more friends and actually meeting up in person more often?

Checklist For Trying New Things

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We all have our daily routines, it’s what keeps us productive and gives order to our busy lives. But without trying anything new, you can easily get stuck in a rut.

So here is a checklist to get you motivated for new exciting things!

1. Do Not Be Afraid: This is the very first thing you need to check off your list. You can’t start anything new if you don’t think you can do it. You have to get into the mind set and be confident in yourself! I mean, what is the worst that can happen?! You hate it, you stop doing it? So what. At least you tried it and did what you said you would. Here is a motivating speech from my girl Oprah to pump you up.

2. Find The Time: It’s easy to have the excuse “I don’t have any time,” but you can make it. Want to try a new workout regime? Wake up an hour earlier or wait to clean the house til tomorrow (a sink full of dishes isn’t the end of the world!) Want to learn Spanish – all you need is 15 minutes a day to pick up a few words. Write down a schedule and stick to it. Once you put it in your calendar it’s much easier to commit and make sure you do it at that time. There are some great scheduling apps that will remind you to sign up for that hot yoga class.
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Where Does Luck Come From?

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Is it luck that opens doors in our life or is it our hard work and determination that pushes us forward? I think that it’s a little bit of both! When I look back at the good things that have happened to me — sometimes I’m the one who creates my own luck! I think that Oprah puts it perfectly, “I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been ‘lucky.'”

It’s always good to be prepared for the time that opportunity comes knocking at your door, and to always keep an open mind.

So to get you inspired, and of course, in honor of St. Patrick’s day, here are 7 quotes to lead you to that lucky pot of gold 🙂

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