Reduce Stress | List Producer

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

April 24, 2014/0 Comments/in Apps, Food, Happiness, Reduce Stress, Technology, Uncategorized, Wine/by Paula Rizzo

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!

Easy Meals to Get on the Table Quickly

April 20, 2014/0 Comments/in Food, Home, Increase Productivity, Reduce Stress, Saving Money, Uncategorized/by Paula Rizzo

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 Foo d Enthusiast)

How To Be A Team Player

April 13, 2014/0 Comments/in Benefits of List Making, Increase Productivity, Reduce Stress, Relationships, Tool for Success, Uncategorized/by Paula Rizzo

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?

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

Business Card Organization

March 27, 2014/3 Comments/in Apps, Increase Productivity, Reduce Stress, Technology, Tool for Success, Uncategorized/by Paula Rizzo

English: Photo of two free business cards (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am constantly meeting new people, which means I have stacks and stacks of business cards, possibly from fantastic business card providers similar to Metal Kards Business Cards, stuffed in my desk drawer. I’m sure most of you know the feeling. Also, when you’ve got networking events to go to and you know that you forgot your business cards, at that moment, it feels like the worst thing ever! You had one job, but when you think about it, it’s not the end of the world.

CardMunch: This is a free iPhone app that turns your business cards into contacts. All you have to do is take a photo of the business card and it uploads all the info automatically. My favorite part is it also connects you to the person’s Linkedin profile.

Evernote Hello: Whenever you meet someone you can input their info manually or scan their business card in this app. There is also a “hello connect” feature that can connect you to a group of people instantly. Once you do this, the app will bring in any other related info from your calendar, Evernote account, and social media and build a profile. The app also builds a history of all your meet and greets, so you will never forget anyone! You can download this to your computer or your smartphone.

ScanBizCards: Take a photo and scan in any business card, add in notes, forward contacts to colleagues, and assign and create groups. This app can also remind you to follow-up with people and will connect you to Linkedin. You are also able to sync all this info to your other devices! ($1.99)

Time to scan away! How do you keep your contacts organized?