Tag Archive for: being more organized

An Entire Store Dedicated to Pencils!

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I’ve always loved office supplies, notebooks, pens, highlighters – you name it I go crazy for it.  If you’re an organizational nerd like me you probably can identify. But for some reason pencils, in particular have always been my thing. I write with pencil pretty exclusively and only use pen when I’m writing a check or filling out a greeting card.

The main problem with being such a pencil fanatic is that it’s hard for me to find the perfect pencil. Typically I use mechanical pencils but I’m very particular  because I’m a lefty and we have a smudge problem when we write.

Imagine my excitement when my mother told me that she heard about a pencil only store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan called CW Pencil Enterprise. Given my affinity for pencils I was intrigued and had to visit.

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How to Break Down Your Goals

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Whatever project you have in mind, whether it’s writing a book, planning a big dinner party or starting your own side hustle, these big ideas can quickly become overwhelming. Thinking about all the work you have left to do can make you feel like giving up before you even begin..

To help me feel less overwhelmed I use a little trick called “backtiming.” This is a concept I picked up from my day job as a TV news producer. If your show finishes at 11pm, that’s it, you can’t over run. So to make the news work on time we start with the end in mind and work backwards. This guarantees that you’ll finish on time.

This method has multiple real world applications, if you’re a whiz in the kitchen you probably use this method to ensure all the various elements of your dish will finish at the same time. You can also use backtiming to plan out your future goals. For more on how backtiming works check this out.

It also helps to break up your goals into smaller, more manageable pieces. You can focus on one of these lists at a time to prevent yourself from getting distracted by all the other pieces of the puzzle. Read more

Bringing Back “Old School” Productivity Hacks

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As technology gets more and more advanced, we tend to forget how we used to do things.

Think of how shocked kids are when they hear how you did homework before the internet. (No one appreciates the dewey decimal system anymore!)

But are we becoming too reliant on technology? While it certainly makes our lives more convenient, we now bypass certain steps that helped us to stay on top of our organizational game.

Here are some ways kickin’ it “old school” will make you more productive:

Remember the Typewriter – This old piece of tech is symbolic of a whole generation, you’d be hard pressed to find a black and white movie that doesn’t include a typewriter. One of the downsides to the typewriter was that if you made a mistake you had to start over again. As much of a pain as this may be it made you more conscious of what you were typing. Read more

Guide to Getting Last-Minute Tasks Done Right

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Whether you make a regular habit of it, or you get caught unexpectedly and have to change plans – at some point we will all have a project or tasks that get left to the last minute. So how do you deal with these last minute changes? If you’re a person who’s used to having everything planned out well in advance, (like me) something like this can really throw you off your game.

But it doesn’t have to.

Even when it feels like it’s impossible to get everything done in time, you can still manage your  time most effectively.

So what do you do? Read more

The Stars Are Aligned For You to Get More Done Now

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It’s the beginning of the new year and everyone is already fantasizing about their grand plans for 2017.

You’re in luck because this is the perfect time to get moving on your goals. Not to get too “woo woo” but Mercury Retrograde came to an end on January 8th.

So what does this mean? Well many people believe in avoiding making life-changing plans or decisions during the retrograde, because it’s a time when everything is in flux. They save all this for after the retrograde, when the chips have all fallen and you can make firm plans for the future.

Whether you believe in this theory or not, January is a great time to start planning your future. So how are you going to make this year different from all the other years?

The only way to break out of these patterns and start accomplishing our goals is to take responsibility for our role in that downfall. For example, your diet didn’t fail because a donut place opened across the street from your apartment. (Yum!) It failed because you chose to go there! (Multiple times…)

Bad habits are not just the actions we take, sometimes we can develop bad ‘thinking’ habits. So you might think failure is inevitable, which subconsciously causes you to act in a self-sabotaging manner. This ultimately allows you to prove that you were right about being a failure in the first place and continues the negative cycle. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

This year it’s important to take control and understand how you can break out of that cycle and your bad habits and get more done.

One way for you to get the most out of your day is to sign up for my webinar – “5 Habits That Are Killing Your Productivity & How to Optimize Your Time”.

It’s time to stop being ‘busy’ and time to start getting things done!

I’ll be hosting two sessions of the webinar. One on Wednesday and one Thursday at 8pm Eastern. Pick a day that works for your schedule and sign up by clicking this link.

I’ll walk you through ways to rethink how you plan out your day so you can cut down on procrastination, make more attainable goals and have time to do the stuff you really want to do.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

  • How to make simple changes to your everyday routine to get more done
  • Discover how you’re really spending your time and find out how to optimize it so you’re not “busy” all the time.  
  • Start building momentum towards the things you want most by creating a time-management system that works for you.
  • Feel in control of your life and your goals instead of feeling stuck.
  • Learn the quickest ways to be more efficient for free without spending tons of time

I look forward to talking to you and showing you how to get more done this year! Join me!