In today’s video I am giving you a tour of my new personal size Kate Spade agenda! I recently picked this planner up at TJ Maxx for $40 which was such a bargain that I had to give it a try with the personal sized Master Planner inserts!
Keep in mind I shared some important dates in this video for upcoming LIVE videos you won’t want to miss, here is my schedule.
I know, it’s been a while, but I’ve got a new set of free downloadable tech backgrounds to share with you for the month of October PLUS my favorite monthly to do list of the year, 31 Things to Do In October.
Thanks for sticking with me here on my blog, and for supporting my endeavors all over the internet! I truly appreciate you and I hope these little gifts help motivate and inspire you for the month ahead.
Today, I’m starting a series on the blog where I teach you about a few very common productivity tips I hear people talk about all the time that I actually believe don’t really affect your productivity. Now, what makes these tips a little complicated is that they do happen to touch on some real productivity truth, but it’s one of those situations where the true cause of the improvement is being masked by the myth. It’s like the concept of an old wives tale if you are familiar with those ideas that have been handed down through generations that sometimes work and sometimes don’t. The reason this happens is because the concept being shared touches on truth but the full understanding of the mechanism behind it isn’t fully realized. This is the case for the tips I want to share with you today. For simplicities sake, let’s call them productivity myths, because that is what they are, things people believe affect your productivity but they don’t. Instead, they touch on a truth that runs deeper, and I want to explain those truths to you as well!
Productivity Myth #1: In order to be productive, you need to wake up early.
Long time followers of mine will not be shocked that I am starting with this myth. I have shared my thoughts on this idea before; that we need to wake up earlier in the morning in order to get more done, in order to then be productive. It’s not only a complete farce, but I actually think this concept has some very dangerous implications for our society, which, at least speaking from my perspective in the U.S., is already highly sleep deprived! So let me deconstruct this idea a bit for you so I can explain exactly how it is supposed to work, why it is particularly insidious and what is really going on behind the scenes that can sometimes make it seem like it’s working when it’s not.
So, the idea behind waking up earlier to be more productive is that getting a jump start on the day, by waking up before others in your house hold or getting to work earlier than your co-workers, will essentially give you more time to do things, and perhaps more uninterrupted time if that’s something you struggle with. Sounds good, right? I can completely understand why we would believe this concept. I think most people probably feel guilty that they sleep in too long, or hit the snooze button too many times in the morning. I know a lot of people in my community have come to me and asked for tips on how to complete more work during the course of their days, and one seemingly easy way to achieve this would be to just be awake for more hours of the day. Yes, if you wake up earlier and get right to work, you can theoretically get more achieved in your day, but eventually cutting into your sleep will start to show negative affects.
One of the reasons soo many people sleep in often is because they aren’t getting the right amount of sleep to begin with. They either go to bed too late or have a hard time sleeping so the quality of your sleep is affected. Time is a construct people, waking up at a particular time doesn’t have any affect on your productivity, and waking up earlier and cutting into your sleep time will ultimately harm your productivity and your health. I find that those who try to wake up earlier in the morning and cut into their sleep might start their day successfully and productive, but then end up hitting a wall of exhaustion sooner than if they had just used that time for sleep. Unfortunately, most grown ups don’t have the luxury of taking naps during the day when this happens, so they end up having to push through the rest of their day exhausted, and likely much less productive, all because they cut into sleep time. Sleep deprivation not only makes you much less productive, but it has some terrible affects we shouldn’t ignore to our health and well being, as well as to our attention while driving or performing other tasks that require focus.
The truth behind this concept that often makes it seem like it’s working, is that waking up and getting straight down to business (not dilly dally-ing) does have a positive affect on your productivity. But it’s a mindset shift, not an alarm shift, that achieves this. Also, there is something to be said of having that time in your day when you can work uninterrupted, and so I can understand why parents might be drawn to this concept. If waking up earlier to get things done before your family or so you can get to work before others is beneficial to you, obviously keep doing it. My caution is that you don’t want to cut into sleep time, however. If you want to wake up earlier, you need to get to bed earlier. You need to structure your day in a way that you are taking advantage of patterns and routines you see in your life and not wasting those opportunities. But, you do also have the power to create opportunities for uninterrupted work in other ways as well. Most people don’t set enough boundaries or take the proper steps necessary to ensure they avoid interruptions during their day to begin with, so consider starting with things you can change during your day first before messing with something as important as your sleep.
Some ways you can create boundaries to avoid interruptions would be to work with your office door closed, or put up a sign on a cubicle letting people know you are focused on deep work. Turn off your phone or close out of email. I love and have used the idea of putting an out of office message on your email to let people know that you check your email only at specific points of your day to set expectations. I also am a big fan of finding an alternate place to work, even at your office (like in a conference room) so that you can get away from your desk. Not all of these strategies will work for everyone, but there is no harm in testing them out. One thing that has always worked for me that I think most people overlook, as well, is how powerful it can be if you just have an honest conversation with family or co-workers on how you can manage interruptions. You never really know what is possible until you ask people for their cooperation, and I firmly believe that certain problems in a formal work environment might be a mutual concern that your co-workers may also be eager to improve.
There are a lot of different strategies I can think of off the top of my head to help you set boundaries to minimize distractions or interruptions at work and at home, so next week I’ll go in depth sharing those with you and elaborate more on some of the strategies I’ve already shared above. For now, I just want you to understand that you do not need to wake up earlier to be more productive. You just need to start your day with a sense of purpose and intention as soon as you wake and find ways to avoid interruptions while doing your most important work and it will increase your productive output for the day.
I do hope you have enjoyed this first installment of this series. I have a handful of other myths at the moment that I can’t wait to share with you, but I’d also love for you to share suggestions of tips that haven’t worked for you in the past, and I would love to evaluate those and share my thoughts on why they do and do not work in certain situations. So, please do leave your thoughts or struggles in the comments for me to address!
Are you struggling to find your perfect planning system? Your unicorn planner? A sense of that ever elusive Planner Peace? Well, in today’s class I am going to help you finally find that peace by helping you identify the reasons why people fail to find the planner of their dreams and stick to using it so you can get more done!
Would you like a simple but challenging routine to kickstart your productivity into high gear?
How does a 31 DAY PRODUCTIVITY BOOTCAMP CHALLENGE Sound?
The PRODUCTIVITY BOOTCAMP is an On Demand Instagram (optional) Challenge with a full month of simple but effective prompts that will help you:
✔︎ Get refocused on your tasks and goals for the year
✔︎ Improve your productivity through scientifically researched principles of productivity
✔︎ Create plans and routines that suit your life and needs
✔︎ Grow and strengthen neural pathways associated with executing and getting things done!
The Productivity Bootcamp is intended to be like one of those month long bootcamp exercise programs but for your mind. During the bootcamp we are going to hit reset on our productivity by challenging ourselves each day to take small steps through simple lessons and activities that will add up to big changes to our productivity. By the end of the bootcamp, we will be in prime shape to get focused on
I think it’s easy to forget that if we want to be organized, productive and successful, we need to work at it. Time management and execution is about so much more than having a planner and making a plan. Truly, it’s a mental exercise that requires daily practice to develop the mental strength and self discipline necessary to make prioritization, focus and getting things done second nature.
Just as following an exercise routine will help you improve the shape and condition of your body, nothing will improve your productivity more than having a simple (yet, well-researched) daily process to execute on. And having a community following the process along side you is the best motivation for ensuring you stick with it! This is truly the reason I created the Bootcamp, so that I could put all the research I’ve been doing on productivity into an actionable plan for others to follow, even if they were beginners to the topic of productivity.
The Challenge Includes
• A dedicated Bootcamp Resource Site Page where you will find all videos, downloads, additional instructions and support
• Challenge graphics for Instagram Feed & Stories with Prompts and community hashtag
• Daily Video Lessons explaining each prompt
• Extra download graphics and worksheets to make the most of specific prompts that you can keep and use as long as you’d like.
What Bootcamp Members are Saying
“The GTD Bootcamp challenge helped me make some big progress on projects that I have had on the list for over a year now. They’re almost done! Thank you Alexis!” -Becca
“Love the CharmedGTD bootcamp. It made me re-evaluate my plan proces and showed some missing links. Also made me realise that I need a different planner for next year because I’m more a monthly/weekly planner, than a monthly/daily planner. A lot of the other prompts made me re-evaluate my life, which was a welcome excerciece. Thanks Alexis” -Rianne
“I want to thank you for this idea of yours which seems so simple and exactly this feature makes it so deep and helpful. You’ve created small and bitable pieces that motivate to go forward and stick to the Bootcamp. And at the same time each prompt is a part of a puzzle so they altogether are the elements of the final productivity image. It has already influenced on significant changes in my daily routine and I’m really grateful to you for creating such an amazing system. I’m delighted to be part of the Bootcamp of yours.” -Anastasia
“Great accountability partner for increasing my productivity! Love the short, concise daily prompts, that allow me to go get things done!” – Lisa M.
Are you ready to hit Reset on your Productivity and Rebuild your Productivity Muscle?
Sign up for the PRODUCTIVITY BOOTCAMP TODAY and join the challenge!
I can’t wait to lead you on this month long journey and see all the ways you put your new productivity physique to work in your life!
If you are someone who is looking to become more organized and successful with the help of planning, the formula is pretty simple.
Step One: Find a reliable planning method.
Step Two: Make sure to write down and make time for all scheduled events and known tasks within said planning method.
Step Three:Do the things!
Simple, right?
Well, maybe in theory more so than practice. Step one can sometimes be a process of trial and error, which I get, but then again I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to find a system that conforms perfectly to our lives, when the truth is most people could make do with a pen and a notebook! Step two is a habit you just need to work on, making time to sit down and plan out your tasks and activities, and then also making sure you keep your planner with you in situations when you might need it so you can record information there making your system air tight. Step three, though, is were the real work is done and it’s really where all tutorials and direction for planning just taper off. Step three is go time, the moment of truth. To do or not to do, that is the question and if you are not someone with a lot of internal motivation, accountability and self-discipline, this can be the moment when the whole process falls apart.
If this is you, I get it!
Despite whatever you believe of me, how productive I am, how self-motivated and on the ball I can be, even I have moments were I see a task on my to do list and then I go blank. I might walk away from my desk for a while, take a break, or work on something else. I’ve clearly hit a wall with this task and I am trying to avoid it with all the psychological defense mechanisms known to mankind. For one reason or another, I’m experiencing resistance preventing me from starting and completing the task.
Resistance is the best way I know to explain this situation. Of knowing what I need to do next, but avoiding taking the action. It’s not something I experience with every task, and I think for the vast majority of us that is the case. We might not avoid all tasks we’ve planned, but we avoid some. This actually gives us really good insight into what’s going on with us in our heads- because that is where the resistance lies. When I hit this sort of resistance in my day, one of the things I tend to do is avoid working on a specific task and skip to something else on my list or go do something else entirely like start cleaning my house or meal prepping something. So, clearly I’m not just being lazy here, I am willing to do something, just not that particular something for a reason that is likely unknown to me in the moment.
The reason is unknown to me in that moment because my brain is causing the resistance and it doesn’t want me to see or understand whatever trigger or limiting belief this task is brining up. This is a normal part of the fight or flight mechanism in the brain. When the brain senses danger or anything it has determined is a threat to its delicate equilibrium, it puts us in a panic mode. Hence the reason I tend to see a task I don’t want to do and immediately get up and away from my desk to take myself away from danger. It’s also not uncommon to experience anxiety, mental strain, physical stress in the body, and other symptoms of a fight or flight reaction being triggered. It’s important to understand that we ourselves aren’t the ones deciding to have this response, instead it’s the programming of our brain’s autonomic nervous system that tries to protect us even when we aren’t aware of the danger. In the case of avoiding a task on our to do list, it’s clear to our rational mind that doing that task isn’t going to put us in harms way physically (unless the task is something that does involve danger, rare, but possible), but our brain has interpreted the task as a danger none the less.
Usually, the brain will trigger this sort of response to a task for one of a few reasons. First, if we have never done the task before. That’s pretty common. Our brains operate under a consistent fear of the unknown, and when we haven’t ever experienced something before, we get scared. Think of the jitters you got on the first day of school, on your wedding day or going to see a new doctor. Newness equals foreign to our brains and that means danger!
The second reason the brain might trigger this response is because we have some known existing anxiety over it. To give you an example from my own life, when I used to work at the fortune 50 before going full time for myself, I would dread our teams weekly calls or any event or interaction with my boss at the time because we did not gel. As a result, I would frequently avoid doing any work to prepare for those events (not going to make the situation any better, I know) because thinking about having to interact with my boss stressed me out to an unusually high degree. In fact, when I finally left my job, I gave my notice right after a one-on-one call with my boss and the day before we had a scheduled meeting together, and I didn’t even tell him, I emailed HR because I was literally shaking and overwhelmed with stress and anxiety. So, this is a bit of an extreme example, but I think it illustrates the point that sometimes we panic and avoid working on a task when we know we are afraid of it. Our known fear translates to a fight or flight response in our brains!
The third and final reason the brain might trigger this response is because a task is actually highly important to us and our personal identity. Now, this reason is something of a blend of the first two situations. It could be something we have never done before and something we are a little bit afraid of, but more so than that, it might be part of a larger goal that we feel strongly tied to. So, I find that when people set a personal goal for themselves, something they think is very important, something they feel called to do, or something they know deep inside is going to bring significant change to their lives, this can trigger the brain as well. I think the reason tasks related to the achievement of our goals ends up triggering our brains is because we have usually built up this goal in our minds, dreaming about it and fantasizing about it, that our brains fear the change you’re anticipating. I think of this as a subconscious anxiety response, similar to the second example but you don’t consciously know you are afraid of the tasks!
Okay, so these are three very significant reasons why our brains might set off a fight or flight response to doing tasks we have planned for ourselves, but what can we do to overcome this resistance? Eventually, we have to come back to the task at hand, and if it’s important to us to achieve it, we need to disable that fight or flight response and actually get down to work!
When this happens to me, when I get spooked by a task because I’ve hit a measure of resistance in the limits of my own mind, I use a simple but effective visualization practice to condition my brain. I’ll identify the task I need to work on and I will get myself in position as if I am about to do the work. For most of my tasks this means sitting at my desk, but if you’re avoiding cleaning out your closet or going for a run, this activity is best practiced in the situation where the task is to be accomplished for added ambience. So, once you’re situated in the right area, without taking any action, visualize yourself moving through the steps necessary to complete the task. So, if you were going to complete the task, how would you start? Imagine yourself taking the action and see with your minds eye the results beginning to form step by step until the task is complete.
Remember, you’re not actually doing anything right now, you’re just sitting or standing in the place where your task would likely begin and envisioning yourself doing the task like a daydream. If you need to, feel free to use some notes or an outline to keep your progress visualizing the task on track. This is you practicing to perform the task, and the great thing is, visualizing yourself doing the work actually convinces your brain that you’ve done it or that you have some experience that increases it’s confidence and therefore shuts off the fight or flight response. You might not think something like this, daydreaming yourself completing a task would have any affect, but science has shown that the brain can’t tell the difference between something that happened in reality and something that happened in your mind.
Everything is processed in your brain after all, those images you see in your minds eye of yourself performing the task are just as real as actually doing the thing, and get this, research has also shown that your body even records muscle memory from your visualized experience as well. This is why many pro athletes use visualization to practice when they are not at physical practice. Because this sort of mental rehearsal conditions your mind and your body to understand what it looks like and feels like for you to perform a task. This is why we see so many inspirational quotes about visualizing your goals and daydreaming about your future, because mental dress rehearsal increases the chances that you will actually take action and it will help you produce better results when you do because you’re prepared. You’ve done this before, even if it was all in your head!
So, next time you run away from or avoid a task that you had planned, take a moment to regroup and spend some time visualizing yourself taking the action. It might feel funny the first few times you try it, but like everything practice makes perfect!
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic and anything you have to add, so please feel free to leave me a comment below. Also, let me know how this strategy works for you- I’d love to hear your experiences and of course celebrate your successes with you!
I hope your September has been a productive one for you thus far, I know mine has been for sure! You might have noticed that I am back to creating content on a more regular schedule now, here on the blog, on my youtube channel and on Instagram as well. That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about today, my content schedule. I know my content has been on and off for a few years now. If you’re one of my long time followers, you know I used to hold myself to a strict schedule of 3 blog posts a week, one to two videos a week and nearly daily posting on Instagram. That was until 2017 when I decided to take a step back from my content and take a good long look at my goals and priorities for my life, my brand and of course my business.
Honestly, it felt so good when I initially let myself off the hook for content and refocused on myself. So much of my time had been spent thinking about and creating content for so long that it was nice feeling like I had gotten back so much time in my weeks to dedicate to myself and other areas of my life and business. I spent much of that found time focusing on my own personal goals, prioritizing my self-care, and deeply analyzing my future goals especially around my brand and business. In a lot of ways I feel like that time was spent helping me to really wipe the slate clean for myself to make room for the next phase of my life and business. But, the longer I spent away from content creation, the further I seemed to be from that next phase at the same time. Eventually, I made my way back to posting regularly on YouTube, and I even dabbled in and out of Instagram again, but I still didn’t feel like my next phase was starting yet. If you watched my Money Manifestation Declutter Series on my YouTube Channel, you know that since the Spring, I have been bustling with energy and ideas for my business again, but through most of the summer I kept feeling like I was being stifled by my own creativity. I had all these great ideas and not enough time to share them all on YouTube or Instagram Stories. I didn’t understand what was wrong with me that I was feeling back to my old content generating self, but my ideas didn’t seem to be as organized and efficiently produced as they once were. That’s when I realized what was missing. I was missing writing, and specifically I was missing blogging. Blogging was the first content I axed from my schedule back in 2017- I really thought I could do without it and channel my content creativity to video to make a bigger impact there, but I think I was wrong.
Yes, I can see the results of my videos more immediately, but I think for me, blogging and written content had a more cumulative effect on my business than I realized at the time. Most importantly, it had a cumulative affect on me more than I realized. Blogging does a few things for me that unfortunately video never will!
First of all, blogging gets me to write regularly, and although I had always been hesitant to admit this in the past, I really think at my core, I’m a writer. I definitely don’t see myself as a great video creator, that’s for sure and although I do some writing as part of video creation, it’s not nearly the same thing as sitting and writing out a 2,000+ word blog post. Undoubtably, writing has always been my strength and I think for a long time I took it for granted because it had always been a skill I didn’t have to think much about.
Second, blogging is something of a cathartic activity for me. When I think of cathartic writing, I usually think of journaling or poetry or even novel writing, but blog posts count too! I guess it doesn’t matter what you’re writing about, pouring your thoughts and words onto a page can be extremely therapeutic. Looking back now, I realize that so much of my failure to step into my well planned next phase was delayed because I was missing this key therapy that helped me manage my thoughts and ideas.
Next, blogging gives me the ability to quickly update my community on my ideas, strategies, products and general information I need to share. One of the problems I was having with my YouTube content was that I had so many ideas for content but not enough time to execute on them all. So I had to cull down my ideas, choose the concepts that I thought would make the best videos and just shelve the rest for later. At best, one full days work creating, editing and uploading video content could yield me at most two or three videos if I was extremely organized and focused. On the other hand I can write, format and schedule out at least twice that amount of content for my blog in the same time. I can share ideas and updates so much faster when all I need to worry about is writing them out and creating a picture for a post! Back when I was creating content regularly, I lived by a methodology of separating ideas into video content ideas and written content ideas, which helped me to optimize my content for each platform. With this system my content ideas didn’t have to compete for a spot on my editorial calendar because there was a place for everything I wanted to share and a plan for creating it so that all my ideas come to fruition.
Finally, blogging is how I manifest for my business and life! This point is actually very important for me and something I only realized recently. Because blogging produces more content, more ideas and more updates on my site more frequently, it actually helps me to feel in flow and in alignment because I am in a constant state of creation. When I create video content, it usually takes me a full day of work and then I don’t see the fruits of my labor published and live for a number of days. All that time and only once piece of content to show my audience. But when I blog, one day of work means days of posts popping up throughout the week. Even after all these years of blogging, I still get a flutter of excitement in my chest when I see a post has published on my blog, and that positive vibration is ultimately what helps me attract new members to my community, new customers to my products, and new ideas and inspiration to my mind. My life just flows better in every way when I’m writing and posting to my blog regularly!
Okay, so that was a really long and drawn out explanation for why I am back to blogging after my time away, and now I want to explain the true purpose of this blog post which is to share my new content schedule for the rest of 2019 with you and set some expectations from what you can expect from me this fall!
Fall 2019 Content Schedule
• You can expect 3 Blog Posts per week from me here on my site. These posts will include articles on productivity, planning, personal development, success and more. I do intend to also use my blog as a means to share quick updates and news about products, classes, and anything I have going on that might impact my community online and of course my business.
• You can expect 1 YouTube Video a week from me over on my YouTube Channel. These will mostly center on helpful tips, how-to’s and different tutorials that really utilize the video medium. I have a number of different planning and productivity videos on my to film list, but as a rough expectation I am aiming to share one planning video, one business video, one vlog style behind the scenes video, one Live class and one fun lifestyle video a month (depending on the number of weeks in the month). I’m also planning to shift my weekly upload day from Sunday to Friday in an attempt to keep my weekends clear of anything work related. You can find more information about my Live classes in the LIVE Event Schedule below.
• You can expect sporadic posting from me on Instagram. Right now I am building out a concept for my Instagram posting schedule, but I’d rather focus my time and effort on creating original content on my blog and YouTube. So Instagram will be mostly announcements, behind the scenes and quick tips when I have something I want to share.
• You can expect occasional dog videos from me on Tiktok. If you haven’t heard, I recently signed up for this platform and it is a complete time-suck but at least I now have a dedicated place to share adorable videos of my dogs, Starbuck & Sultan. If you’re interested in following along, definitely look me up, I’m @MissTrenchcoat of course.
• Right now I have no plan for Facebook or Twitter outside of sharing and reposting existing content. I believe my blog and Instagram feed are set to autopost to Facebook and Twitter, but I won’t be creating any dedicated content on either of those platforms for now.
If you’d like to join me for any of my upcoming LIVE classes or events, here is a running list of everything I have scheduled. Some of these events are ticketed and I will link you to where you can sign up, others are free classes I’ll be hosting on my YouTube channel, so make sure you are subscribed and feel free to turn on notifications so you are aware of when I post a video or go Live!
• Friday September 20th @ 1pm: Planner Peace Master Class, Free Live Workshop
• Friday October 18th @ 1pm: Money Manifestation Techniques, Free Live Workshop
• Friday November 22nd @ 1pm: How to Create a Successful Passive Income Business in 2020, Free Live Workshop
• Friday December 13th @ 1pm: Set Up Your Planner With Me, Free Live Workshop
• Wednesday December 18th @ 1pm: New Years Goal Setting Workshop, Ticketed Event
• Saturday December 21st @ 8pm: New Years Goal Setting Workshop, Ticketed Event
• Saturday December 28th @ 1pm: New Years Goal Setting Workshop, Ticketed Event
So that is my Fall 2019 Content and Live Event Schedule! I hope this post has been helpful to set some expectations for my content and how we can connect live for the rest of the year! Make sure to review the dates on that LIVE Event Schedule and mark your planners for any events you don’t want to miss. I’ll also be emailing out reminders for those Free classes if you are on my email list!
It’s been FOREVER since I did a roundup of some of my favorite office related items, so to celebrate Back-to-Work season for the fall, here are seven of my absolute favorite items in my office that I would recommend you check up to up level your office space!
This laptop stand is pretty much a game changer for my desk! In the past I have used a few different types of laptop stands to help raise my laptop screen to a more ergonomic level and/or to save space on my desk by raising my laptop. I have always preferred laptop stands that are more or less invisible, either acrylic or super slim so they don’t impose on the overall look of my desk, and well, this stand is probably the most invisible of them all. You see, it’s not actually an individual stand, it’s actually a material based sticker that adheres to the bottom of my laptop and folds into a stand origami style. So, not only is this pretty much completely invisible on my desk, but it’s also a portable stand that is just on my laptop all the time. It’s super thin, made of a very soft microfiber material and actually quite strong. It has two main height levels, one that I consider my desktop mode and the other I use for typing to create a more ergonomic angle when I am not using my bluetooth external keyboard and mouse. It doesn’t really solve the problem of storage on my desk, however, as it is part of my computer, I can use it with other stands as well which is really nice!
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I recently updated my desk to something a bit larger. While the new desk gives me much needed extra depth on my desk, one thing it sorely lacks is storage- it has none! So, to supplement, I purchased this 3 drawer filing cabinet to go under my desk and I am so glad I did! Not only is it great storage, but it’s on castors so I can move it around as needed. I have been using it as like a sidecar extension to my desk to take pictures, set up a separate little work station for crafting, and I even started putting my smaller tripod on it to help me get more creative angles when I film at my desk. It’s been so handy I actually regret not purchasing it sooner because it can absolutely be used with a variety of different desks to add storage and function to a workspace.
What can I say, I love cute cases for all of my gadgets and when I found this Celine inspired bag shaped case I knew it had to be mine. Really not much to say about it except it adds some extra heft and style to my AirPods which is useful for when I leave the charging case lying around to be able to see it. Plus, I just like all my cases and accessories to match my aesthetic and this is such a vibe on my desk!
I got the inspiration for this nite light style mini salt lamp from an Amazon favorites video from Allie Sevdalis so I take no credit for this find! I ended up purchasing a two pack of these lights to add extra ambience to my home; one lives in my office, the other in my bedroom. Salt lamps are said to have many different healing and cleansing properties, salt in and of itself is a very absorbing and cleansing element so I don’t doubt it, but overall I just like the look and the extra little nite light in my office in the evenings. If you haven’t heard me talk about this before, I don’t use very many lights in my home at night. I am a believer that it’s best to use lower lights or ideally candles (or fire light if you have a fireplace in your home) when the sun goes down as to not disturb the natural circadian rhythm of your body. This little nite light provides the perfect almost faux candle situation in my office for my moon lit work sessions.
Fair warning, this is not the exact acrylic paper tray I use on my desk but it looks pretty close. The one I have is no longer sold, but I absolutely love it as a fixture on my desk. At one point I had taken my acrylic tray and flipped it over to act as a stand for my laptop which worked out perfectly, giving my laptop some extra height and providing some excellent storage on my desk as well! Now that I have a larger desk, I’ve converted it to being traditional storage. I use the bottom tray for my planners and paper things and the top holds mostly makeup and accessories that have come to live on my desk. Again, I like when things on my desk are more or less invisible as to not draw too much attention away from the aesthetic of my desk, so an acrylic tray like this is perfect to add invisible storage!
If you run any sort of business or do social media for work or fun, this little phone stand is a must! First of all, it’s portable so you can easily fold it up and throw it in a bag with you as necessary. But, it’s also adjustable, which means I can use it to help me film videos for instagram and get that straight on view without having to hold my phone. Since it is thin metal, I have even been able to wedge it in interesting place throughout my home when I want to film or do a FaceTime call away from my desk. Of course I also use it to just hold my phone during the day and watch videos from my phone when my laptop screen is occupied. It’s a pretty functional little stand!
In March I upgraded my MacBook Air to one of the newer MacBook Pro’s from Apple, but with that upgrade came the loss of what I consider to be one of Apple’s greatest achievements in laptop design; the magsafe charging connector. If you aren’t familiar, Apple was I believe the first company to put a magnetic charging port on it’s laptops, which meant that if you had your computer set up and plugged in, if something got caught on the charging wire, it just popped easily out of the computer without taking the laptop with it. Well, when I upgraded to the MacBook Pro I have a feeling that this no magsafe was going to be trouble and I don’t know it this was prophecy or just bad luck, but would you believe that within the first week of having my new laptop, my dog Starbuck got spooked by something out the window, ran passed my desk, caught on my laptop charging cable and sent my brand new MacBook Pro plus half of the things sitting on my desk crashing to the floor. Luckily, Starbuck was unscathed and nothing broke, but my MacBook Pro screen did get a little scratch. I do have the Apple warranty that covers two accidental injuries to the laptop so I can get the screen replaced when I have time to spare it (probably never haha) but after I cleaned up the mess and caught my breath I found this amazing magnetic USB C charging cable on Amazon and promptly ordered two sets! It’s been a laptop saver for sure! No matter if you use an Apple laptop or not, if your laptop uses a USB C charging port I’d highly recommend this charging cable and magnetic port to protect the investment of your laptop! You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!
I hope you enjoyed seeing this roundup of some of my current office faves! Hopefully this inspired you to add some extra organization, inspiration or functionality to your office or desk space!
I’d love to hear about the office items you’ve been loving so tell me about them in the comments!
As you may already know, I have been doing a lot of research into the human brain over the past two years to learn more about how it functions, how our neural net is created and it’s role in helping us achieve patterns of positive productivity and success in our lives. When it comes to success and productivity, so much of our results in life come from the idea of establishing strategic habits and routines that make our ability to plan, organize and execute a naturally integrated part of our personalities. For example, it’s fair to say I am an organized and productive person, but that’s not a result of any natural instincts or talents, instead, that is a result of years of repetition and work nailing key habits that lead to routines for success in my life. No one is naturally wired to be productive, maybe some of us have some inborn traits that make it easier for us to reason the most effective plan, or give us an edge when it comes to spacial organization, but all god-given talents are absolutely useless unless they are acted upon consistently.
This is both good news and bad news for those of us who strive to improve our lives because on one hand it means that anything someone else has achieved is also achievable for you with work and dedication, but on the downside, it means we have to focus a lot more on being intentional with each action and habit we establish in our lives. If you’ve ever tried to establish a new habit in your life, you know how hard it can be to achieve this, because unfortunately the way our brains function, things that we have done in the past create an often automated response by our brain that compels us to perform a habit, out of…well, habit!
This is because for a majority of our days, our brains are in an autopilot like mode controlled by an area of our brain known as the basal ganglia. In may ways the basal ganglia appears to be something of a central hub of our brains, it controls many of our body’s automatic functions and responses. Many functions we don’t give any strategic thought to, like the movement of our eyes, the way our body moves, our thoughts and even our emotions. Most notably however, the basal ganglia controls our learning and, you guessed it, our habits!
So, throughout the course of our days, the basal ganglia is in control of the show. Which means that in order to change a habit, to make new choices for our lives and build up a pattern of repetition for any new habit, we need to switch off the basal ganglia strategically during the day. Obviously, we don’t want to turn it off entirely, we absolutely need it to function, and it’s not like you can ever truly turn off an area of your brain anyway, but, if we want to successfully make a switch in our routines, add in a new habit or swap a bad habit for a better one, wouldn’t it be awesome if we could temporarily silence that voice in our head that automatically tells us NOT to do that new awesome habit we know will change our lives? Because that voice is coming from the BG, and I don’t know about yours, but my BG is a complete loud mouth who often screams bloody murder if I want to make even a tiny little change that will benefit my day. Sure, he might let me try something new once, but if I try to repeat a new task to start paving the new neural pathway for the establishment of that habit, you’d think I was fugitive from the law the way my BG calls me out and emotionally tracks me down until I turn myself in and submit to its will. But, alas, there is a way to silence the basal ganglia, to mute it’s cries and demands for attention in your moment of need when you are trying to make a better more productive choice.
A few weeks ago I learned about an ingenious little hack that you can use to switch the the center of control on you brain away from your basal ganglia and focus it on the part of your brain known as the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex or PFC is the area of your brain that controls, of all things, planning and complex decision making. So, hitting mute on BG and metaphorically changing the channel to give the PFC more control during strategic moments of habit formation is exactly the hack to master in order to make the often difficult process of establishing new habits and routines, easier! It’s not a miracle cure by any means, but when you switch control from the BG to PFC, it makes it easier to make the right choice, to choose that new better habit and to say no to any bad habits that don’t serve you but your BG just can’t shut the heck up about!
Are you ready for the hack? It’s so simple, but the most profound lessons in life often are!
All you need to do to hack your brain to switch control from your basal ganglia to your prefrontal cortex is spell the current day of the week backwards right before you go to execute your new habit.
I know, it sounds silly, right? But, I promise you, this is well researched and tested science! Let me explain how it works.
So, I will admit, it’s not necessarily the day of the week that figures into the effectiveness of this hack. But rather, it’s the fact that spelling a word backwards, a word you might not know backwards by heart, activates your PFC because it requires you to envision the word in your mind and then carefully list out each letter back to front. So, this hack could be used with any word. You can spell the current month backwards, you could spell your name, your pet’s name, your street address- all of it works to activate the PFC! I just think that for me, if I choose the same word to use everyday, like my name, eventually I am going to start memorizing it and this hack could loose it’s effectiveness. So, by choosing to follow this hack with the days of the week, everyday when I go to do this task is a new opportunity for me to have to remember what day it is (and most days I can’t even tell you what month it is accurately without some thought) and then take the time to spell it. So, I’ve put my own little spin on this hack, but feel free to do what works for you!
So, let me explain a little more in depth how I’d expect you to use this hack.
Let’s say you have chosen a new habit to integrate into your life, working out is a nice generic example! And you have struggled to get yourself to go to the gym in the past. Well, before we even get to using the hack, you’d probably benefit from choosing another habit to override or swap with the new habit of going to the gym. So, if you are someone who perhaps comes home from work and then hits the couch to watch TV, perhaps that would be a good habit to swap out. You’ll need to have a plan in place for how you’re going to execute on a regular basis, so identifying that old habit of come home from work and plop on couch as the cue and habit we are going to override with the new habit of come home from work and grab gym bag to drive to gym, is a nice seamless override. Maybe you could even do one better and instead of coming directly home from work, you drive directly to the gym, bag already packed and in your car (but that requires a few extra steps for accountability). Whatever you choose as your cue and old habit to override, you need to solidify it as your ongoing plan in your mind and ideally in your planner and with an alert or reminder on your phone because the first step to successfully executing a new habit is to remember it’s the new habit!
Once you’ve taken care of those formalities, now you are ready to execute the hack as a means of overcoming obstacles and objections you know your BG is going to flood you with as soon as you see that reminder and stop to decide whether or not you are going to follow through with the plan! So, as soon as you see your alert (or better yet, add this as the name of your alert that way you don’t forget to perform the hack either) ask yourself to spell the day of the week backwards.
First, you’ll identify what day it is, then you’ll see the word in your mind, and then you’ll start spelling it out one letter at a time in the reverse.
Achievement unlocked- your prefrontal cortex is now activated!
From here, you’ll now tell yourself it’s time to execute on the plan and guess what? With the intelligent and mature portion of your brain now in control, you should encounter far less mental resistance. Your PFC will send you messages that this is actually a good idea and praise you for remembering to prioritize this important habit. It’s like you’ve got your own personal hype man in your head, as opposed to that downer friend who is always low key doubting you and sabotaging your success. Of course, at the end of the day, this is still your brain and you still need to take action. Your PFC isn’t going to suddenly override all your functions and do the work for you, but it will make it easier for you to make the right decision and not fall into the temptation of laziness the way your BG would.
So, I hope this little hack helps you to make some strategic changes to your habits and keep you accountable to yourself and to your own brain for the routines and results you develop with your choices and actions! I’d love to hear how you enjoyed this hack and how it works out for you. I definitely think this is one of those hacks that will serve you better as a reminder in your phone for when you’ve planned to do that habit swap, so make sure you don’t miss that key step because you want the PFC to get in control of your decision making function before the BG has a chance to rain on your parade!
Thanks for checking out this post, leave me a comment with your thoughts down below and I am wishing you a very productive week ahead!
So, we are currently sitting at the head of the second week of September and before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas (and the Winter Holidays) and then viola, we’ll blink and it will be 2020! So, last week I sat down to do some forward planning for the rest of this year so that I can have an intentional and well paced final quarter of the year. I highly recommend you do the same at some point this month because there is nothing worse than stepping into the busiest season of the year with no plan but a prayer!
Usually, my Q4 is something of a hot mess!
Obviously, part of this has to do with my business. Q4 is a very busy time of year for most businesses, and then on top of that, Q4 is really where I pull out all the stops on my home-maker vibes. I’m not usually what one would consider the traditional home-maker type, but during the holidays I morph into a completely different beast. My home-making type during the holidays is what I consider a perfect juxtaposition between Martha Stewart and Morticia Addams. Over-the-top theatrical, dramatic, dark, and yet surprisingly cheerful and welcoming. Home cooked meals, candles everywhere, multiple decor changes around the house, guests and lots of events and excursions. So, yea, my life usually gets pretty hectic, like most during the final season of the year, and making decisions and plans for myself under that sort of stress just leads me into a spiral of overwhelm and sometimes a bit of disaster management!
So, during this end of year planning session, the main focus I gave myself was to answer the following questions:
What were my hard line priorities going to be?
What did I absolutely want to get done no matter what, what would be great to have completed before 2020?
What would be my stretch goals (those objectives that I’d like to accomplish if I have the time but nothing concrete is riding on their completion)?
Answering those questions, a very clear picture began to materialize in my mind!
One of the top priorities for the end of the year was to make sure both myself and my community were prepared for the new year with clear 2020 goals! I know it might be weird to think of my priorities in terms of what I’m trying to accomplish for you and the rest of the community, but this is my role our community as I see it. So keep in mind when you do your end of year planning session, that it’s okay to have objectives for others that pertain to your role in their lives. Just make sure you are reasonable with your expectations of what you can accomplish in the name of others.
What I KNOW I can accomplish for both myself and each of you in the community is to host a series of live classes and workshops where I give you as much opportunity as possible to set your goals for 2020 and get time with me to answer your questions about the goal setting and planning process.
Last year I hosted a New Year Goal Setting & Planning Workshop that was a complete success, and it’s been my intention to do host a similar workshop again this year! So, I’m pleased to announce that I have opened up ticket sales for the 2020 New Year Goal Setting & Planning Workshop a little early so we can get this scheduled into our calendars and make the time to prioritize this very important annual task!
Now, let me give you some important details about the workshop. I loved last years workshop and so many of you reached out to tell me you loved it also, which I highly appreciate. But, I realize last year’s workshop would have benefited from a bit more strategic planning in order to ensure every single one of you had a stellar live experience.
The main issue with last year’s workshop that I want to remedy this year is that I need to teach this workshop multiple times in December, not just once! I know that the workshop is online and on-demand but, not everyone was able to attend the single workshop I hosted last year. Which is why I am very pleased to announce that due to my little Q4 pre-planning session, I have marked off time to host not one, not two, but THREE live sessions of the workshop!
The tentative dates for the 3 Live Workshop Sessions are:
• December 18th, 2019 @ 1pm Eastern Standard Time • December 21st, 2019 @ 8pm Eastern Standard Time • December 28th, 2019 @ 1pm Eastern Standard Time
Now, I say these are tentative dates because I have no clue what other obligations or family gatherings are happening during December, so I can’t fully plan for those right now (if only everyone were planning their year four months in advance lol) but I am very committed to these dates and times and if anything does change I will let you know and make up for the change with a rescheduled session!
For those of you who do pre-purchase your tickets, I’d love for you to reach out to me and let me know any suggestions for other times that work for you so I can keep those in mind!
Of course, when you purchase your ticket to the Workshop you won’t need to choose a single date, everyone who purchases is going to get access to all three live events so you have time to process your plans by attending more than one, or if you have questions during your first round and want to go through it again live, I know it’s great to be able to have more time with me live to get questions answered that may have popped up with you as you processed your goals the first time around.
With the Workshop, you are going to receive a set of goal planning worksheets for 2020, and once the live events are complete, you’ll have access to an edited replay of the workshop which will include the best version of the workshop plus all of the Q&A from the three sessions in one video. You’ll get access to the replay, plus email support from me through January 31st, 2020. Sound good?
Well, if you already know you are down for this year’s New Year Goal Setting & Planning Workshop with me, don’t wait to purchase, grab your ticket now with the early bird pricing because next month the price will go up!
If you have any questions about the workshop, feel free to let me know! You can leave me a comment down below or shoot me an email.
