Easy Meals to Get on the Table Quickly

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Fresh vegetarian pasta (2528005054)

Fresh vegetarian pasta (2528005054) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When you are having a crazy-busy work day the last thing you want to do when you come home is slave away in the kitchen to make a decent meal. I know when I’m mentally exhausted from the day, I don’t want to think anymore, so I end up ordering out and spending way too much money. To kick the dine-out habit, I found some awesome quick and easy meals to make that require little ingredients and not too much brain power!

Here’s my list:

1. Avocado Chicken Salad:

Ingredients: 2 cups of shredded chicken, 1 avocado, 1/4 cup of diced onions, juice from half a lime, 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt (optional), 1 tablespoon of basil leaves.

Preparation: Just mix everything together well and you have a yummy meal 🙂 (recipe from Real Food Enthusiast)

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Get Motivated With A Productivity Playlist

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By now you’ve probably heard about the Coachella festival. I can’t avoid it — it seems like all my favorite celebs (like Giada) are there soaking up the sun and listening to some amazing tunes.

Coachella is an awesome annual music and arts festival that has been going on since 1999. This year’s festival inspired me to make up my own productivity playlist.  Listening to music can get you pumped up to get the mundane everyday to-do’s done, while having fun!

ListProducer Productivity Playlist

1. Happy – Pharrell Williams
2. Crazy in Love – Beyonce
3. Feelin Alright – Joe Cocker
4. Only the Good Die Young – Billy Joel
5. Burn – Ellie Goulding
6. Everyday — Dave Matthews Band

7.White Noise – SimplyNoise.com (Sometimes all you need is to drown out everything around you!) Read more

How To Be A Team Player

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Business Meeting

Business Meeting (Photo credit: thetaxhaven)

Working on projects with co-workers isn’t always a walk in the park. There’s always the slacker, or the Negative Nancy, or maybe you just can’t seem to find your place within the group.

1. Break the Ice: Working with new people for the first time can be a little awkward. Whether it’s your first day at a new job, or you’ve never worked with certain employees before, it’s always good to get to know one another. Before you dive into work, grab coffee or dinner with your team. This will reduce tensions, and reduce the small talk when it really is time to get down to business. Here’s a list to get the conversation flowing

2. Remember Your Strengths: Everyone within the group should bring something to the table. Just because you may not be the most outspoken doesn’t mean you don’t belong. Don’t forget why it is that you are a part of the team, and let your personal strengths shine through.

3. Be Reliable: Don’t make promises that you can’t keep! This will make others loose faith in your abilities and your ideas won’t carry as much merit. Also make sure you are always on time – time management is key.

4. Schedule Group Meetings: Things go so much smoother if meetings are planned out. Make a checklist of key points to hit, what everyone should accomplish, and what the next goal for the group is. Meetings can easily fall short if they aren’t organized. The same goes for conference calls – here’s how to make them more productive!

5. Confront The Slacker: The best way to deal with a difficult person in the group is to confront the issue head on. Be honest about the problem, but don’t be insulting or negative. That will just cause tension and awkwardness. Most of the time the person doesn’t even realize they are creating a problem in the first place and are happy to readjust the situation.

6. Stay Positive: No matter the situation is it always essential to keep your head up and stay positive! One bad day at work doesn’t mean that the project is turning into a disaster. Things happen, good and bad, and the group just needs to stay on the same page through it all.

How do you play nice on a team at work?

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?

It’s My Blog’s 3rd Birthday!

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Happy BirthdayToday 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