With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I thought it would be timely of me to share a Holiday Hits Playlist with you to get you into the Holiday Spirit! You’re going to be Fa, la, la, la, la-ing all week through your turkey-coma and LOVING every minute of it. So, without further ado, here is my Spotify Playlist for you to enjoy!
I hope this playlist helps you get into the Holiday Spirit! Let me know what other tunes you think I’m missing, down in the comments and I just might have to add them to my playlist so we can ALL enjoy!
The week is here! Thanksgiving Day is just 3 SLEEPS AWAY and the Charmed Shop’s BIGGEST ANNUAL SALE is about to begin.
NOW IS THE TIME to start making your holiday shopping list for the special friends and family in your life that you will be gifting to this year AND don’t forget #1, YOURSELF! While you are out shopping this weekend and over the next few weeks generously thinking of others, you don’t want to forget about picking up a few essentials for yourself. The end of the year is always a stress-filled, action-packed season, and it’s so easy to loose track of time and your own priorities when you are feeling the weight of a never ending to-do list on your back. Commit to Working Smarter, Not Harder this season and give yourself the GIFT OF PRODUCTIVITY with some of these planning essentials!
Here is a Special Preview of what you can expect from The Charmed Shop’s Annual Holiday Sale that starts Thursday November 25th and ends Monday November 28th!
PLANNER & OFFICE ESSENTIALS
• Meal Planning Bundle: Available in both A5 and Personal Size, this bundle of printable inserts for your planner is everything you need to streamline your meal planning process for JUST $10!*
• Holiday Deco Artwork & Printable Stickers: Personalize your planner for the Holidays with a Printable Holiday Sticker Design AND the Most Wonderful Time of the Year Printable Artwork that makes a perfect cover, divider set or dashboard for your planner. Just $10!
• The Charmed Life Planners & Functional Planning Bundles are BY FAR some of the best selling planner supplies in The Charmed Shop! Get your complete Printable Charmed Life Planner or Bundle Now Available in Full US Letter/A4, A5/Half Letter & Personal Size Filofax Equivalents, just $25 for the Charmed Life Planner or $35 for the Whole Functional Planning Bundle with your Choice of Planner and Project and Task Tracking Inserts as well!*
PRODUCTIVITY MUST HAVES
• The Work Smarter, Not Harder Bundle: My Two Popular Video Master Classes bundled together for one great price JUST GOT EVEN BETTER! Get yours for just $50 and get your productivity and goals in order for 2017!
• The Charmed Life Master Class: My signature self-guided personal development master class that will teach you my 10 Charmed Life Secrets and how to apply them to your own life, is just $49 during the sale!
Best Sellers
• The YOU GOT THIS Strategic Goal Setting Workbook: If you DO NOT have this printable, action-oriented goal setting tool, you are seriously missing one of the ALL TIME BEST SELLING resources in The Charmed Shop. Get yours for just $19 before the New Year so you can map out your goals and FINALLY have a clear path to achieving them!
BUSINESS BOOSTERS
• Online Business Course Bundle: Looking to start an online business in 2017? Have a current online platform you would like to turn into a business? The Online Business Course Bundle includes EVERYTHING you need to build your brand, following and income streams online! Get the Bundle for just $277 or choose the upgraded Bundle that includes one-to-one consulting calls with me for just $547!
EXTRA DISCOUNT CODES
As I mentioned in my post last week, the Holiday Sale includes two options. A public sale option, that I’ve outlined above where anyone can go to the shop and purchase the special discounted products, and a private option for those on my email list. If you are subscribed to my list, as an insider you will ALSO get access to special COUPON CODES for up to 33% off your total purchase in The Charmed Shop! So, if you want ADDITIONAL SAVINGS on EVERYTHING you purchase during the Holiday Sale, get on my list ASAP by filling out the form before and don’t forget to confirm your subscription to my email list or you will miss the codes!
TO DO & FREE PRINTABLE BONUS
The Sale is still a few days away, but I don’t want you to miss out on these great discounts because they are seriously a once a year occurrence. So, to help you prepare for your busy week ahead, I have some helpful tips for getting yourself prepared, plus a FREE Printable Bonus for you.
I hope you have enjoyed this Holiday Sale Preview and that you have some ideas for what you don’t want to miss out on in The Charmed Shop this week! Remember, if you want to save even more this week, you need to be on my list, so don’t forget to sign up!
How to Turn a Filofax Binder into a Desktop Filing System
Let’s be honest, how many of us have an extra Filofax planner sitting around that we’d love to put to productive use? I know I do, and that’s why I am always thinking of new ways to use them. The great thing about Filofax planners is that they are more than just planners. They are high quality ring binders that can be used to store anything from your calendar and to do list, to your paperwork and mail. One of my favorite ways to use a spare binder, specifically a spare A5 (although you can also manage this with a personal size) is to create a desktop filing system. That’s right, a simple, easy to use file system that sits on your desk and is portable enough to keep your essential documents and reference information safe while on the go. Since I am a productivity junkie, I like to use the 43 Folders System to file papers, mail and information I know I need for later, but don’t want to go through the hassle of filing away in “deep storage”. We all have documents that relate to in-process projects, or emails we have printed out and stuffed into our calendars to keep for a project or event months down the road, and the rotating ticker file or 43 Folders System is a great way to manage those types of physical documents. So, let me walk you through what you will need to undertake this project and give you some simple steps to building your own 43 Folders Tickler File in a spare Filofax A5 Binder.
Step 1: Remove any old inserts or papers from your Filofax.
Step 2: Using a piece of 5 paper as a guide, take a file folder and using a piece of A5 paper as a guide, line up your paper with the top corner of your file folder where the edge and the fold meet and mark the dimensions of the paper onto the folder. Repeat this for all file folders.
Step 3: Using a paper trimmer or scissors, cut the excess file folder where you have marked the A5 dimensions so that you have an A5 sized folder. Repeat this for all file folders.
Step 4: On the front side of the file folder, make a diagonal cut from the top corner of the folder (where the edge and fold meet) down to about 2/3rd of the page. Also, remove any tab on the folder if applicable. Make sure to only cut through one side of the folder and leave the other side intact. Repeat this for all file folders.
Step 5: Using clear tape, tape the bottom opening and 1/3rd side opening of the folder shut, making a pocket that can hold papers. Repeat this for all file folders.
Step 6: Punch holes down the long edge of the file folder on the side of the original fold with the A5 punch. Repeat this for all file folders.
Step 7: Name 12 of your file tabs January-December, creating one tab for each month of the year.
Step 8: Add one monthly tab to each of the 12 folders. Distribute tabs as evenly as you can.
Step 9: Using your A5 paper guide, mark the dimensions onto your paper or card stock. Repeat this for all 31 pieces of paper or card stock.
Step 10: Using a paper trimmer or scissors, cut the paper or card stock along the A5 guide. Repeat this for all 31 pieces of paper or card stock.
Step 11: Punch each A5 piece of paper or card stock with your A5 punch.
Step 12: Number the remaining 31 file tabs 1-31 and apply one to each of the 31 pieces of paper or card stock cut into A5 dimensions. Distribute tabs as evenly as you can.
Step 13: Open the rings of your Filofax binder and put in the folder labeled with your current month.
Step 14: Behind your current month folder, put in the paper or card stock numbered 1-31 in numerical order.
Step 15: Behind the 31st page, put the remainder of the monthly folders, in calendar order.
How to Use Your Filofax 43 Folder Binder
Your Filofax tickler file has 12 folders, one for each month of the year and 31 individual pages, 1 for each of the maximum 31 days in a month. To use your binder, place notes, to do’s, documents or papers (fold A4 or US letter pages in half first) into the folder for the month they belong to. For your current month, place papers in front of the numbered of the specific day of the month you want to be reminded or will need a specific document. I like to use sticky notes with reminders on them as a placeholder for any large multipage documents that don’t fit comfortably inside the system, and I leave documents/lists in the current monthly file if they don’t pertain to a specific day but I want to work on them that month. This file is great for storing all those straggling papers sitting in piles on your desk and perfect for forward planning, even if you don’t have any documents related to a specific idea or event. Using list pads or sticky notes with a concept or idea and sticking it to a specific daily page or inside a specific month’s folder is a great way to job your memory for a project or idea you have now that you don’t want to act on until later. As the months progress, make sure that the current monthly folder is on top, followed by the 31 daily pages and then the rest of the monthly folders in order behind those. This keeps the folder up to date and because nothing is specifically dated you can use the system over a span a years without needing to change a thing!
If you would like to replicate this DIY for yourself, here is a video I made outlining the process and providing additional details that may interest you. If you do use this method, I would love to see it, so please make sure to take a picture, share it on Twitter or Instagram and tag me @MissTrenchcoat. Don’t forget to pick up my latest free planner printables over at http://www.TheCharmedShop.com!
5 FREE Resources to Help You Plan a Joyful and Low Stress Holiday
With a little over a week until Thanksgiving Day in the US, I thought now was as good a time as any to share some of my best seasonal Holiday productivity tips and tricks to help you get organized over this busy and often stressful period of the year. Yes, the holidays are wonderfully magical as they remind us of the love, family and gratitude we have in our lives, but holiday celebrations don’t come without their own brand of challenges. Coordinating people, meal plans, multiple events and holiday wish lists can be a struggle for many of us, but hopefully, I can help make it a little more productive and enjoyable for you with these 5 FREE Resources to Help You Plan a Joyful and Low Stress Holiday!
First things first, if you have not snagged yourself my FREE printable 30 Days of Thankfulness list for you planner, do so now! You will want to frame everything you do during this season in a sense of gratitude, and this planner insert is a great way to keep that idea fresh in your mind.
If you are someone who struggles with stress and anxiety during the holidays, my video The 5 Steps to a Stress Free Holiday, is going to be a resource for you. Definitely watch it and take some notes to keep with you on the strategies I share to help you prevent and overcome stressors as they arise during the next few weeks.
This next resource is an AMAZING planning tip that I learned about right before last Thanksgiving and it really helped me keep my Thanksgiving planning and prep very streamlined. If you are hosting any dinners or family get togethers during this time check out this video on How to Plan for Thanksgiving! I promise, the strategy shared applies to more than just Thanksgiving!
After you have watched the video from resource #3, if you are still looking for some great tried and true recipes that I rely on for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, here is a blog post filled with my favorite recipes! Most, if not all, will be served as part of my holiday dinners this year!
Finally, we can’t forget about holiday shopping. It can be stressful, expensive, and time consuming, but with in this video, I share some of my Must Have Holiday Shopping Apps to make the process a little easier and even a little bit enjoyable!
I sincerely hope you found these resources valuable as you begin to get into the thick of your holiday planning! If you have any other resources or tips you would like to share, please feel free to add them below in the comments so we can all benefit. One last thing I thought I should mention, is that I have started a Holiday Themed Board on Pinterest called Christmas is Coming! I’ll be sharing more resources and recipe ideas there if you’d like to follow along- and don’t be surprised if you see a resource you suggest pop up as a pin as well!
Hello My Charmed Ones! Welcome to The Strange & Charmed 2016 Holiday Gift Guide!
The Most Wonderful Time of Year is Almost Upon Us! So, I thought this would be the perfect time to do a short series of gift guides before Black Friday and the holiday rush begins. Of course, since this is a Strange & Charmed Gift Guide, my choices for 2016 will be themed into categories that pertain to my readers. The first Gift Guide is themed for the Planner Addict in your life. Whether that be you or a friend! The second Gift Guide is themed for your Business Bestie. This may be a fellow #LadyBoss or co-worker that you want to spoil this year! The third and final Gift Guide is themed for the Homebody. This could be someone who loves home decor and entertaining, or a book lover who prefers to stay in on a cold winter’s night to relax and enjoy the comforts of home. Of course, with all three of these gift guides for 2016, I will include links at the bottom of the post where you can check out these items, start making your 2016 holiday gift list and get to shopping. So, I hope you’re excited for this series!
I hope this Holiday Gift Guide gives you some great inspiration for the Homebody in your life! Feel free to leave your gift suggestions for decorista’s down below to add to the holiday gift giving goodness!
Hello My Charmed Ones! Welcome to The Strange & Charmed 2016 Holiday Gift Guide!
The Most Wonderful Time of Year is Almost Upon Us! So, I thought this would be the perfect time to do a short series of gift guides before Black Friday and the holiday rush begins. Of course, since this is a Strange & Charmed Gift Guide, my choices for 2016 will be themed into categories that pertain to my readers. The first Gift Guide is themed for the Planner Addict in your life. Whether that be you or a friend! The second Gift Guide is themed for your Business Bestie. This may be a fellow #LadyBoss or co-worker that you want to spoil this year! The third and final Gift Guide is themed for the Homebody. This could be someone who loves home decor and entertaining, or a book lover who prefers to stay in on a cold winter’s night to relax and enjoy the comforts of home. Of course, with all three of these gift guides for 2016, I will include links at the bottom of the post where you can check out these items, start making your 2016 holiday gift list and get to shopping. So, I hope you’re excited for this series!
I hope this Holiday Gift Guide gives you some great inspiration for the Business Bestie in your life! Feel free to leave your gift suggestions for #LadyBosses down below to add to the holiday gift giving goodness!
Hello My Charmed Ones! Welcome to The Strange & Charmed 2016 Holiday Gift Guide!
The Most Wonderful Time of Year is Almost Upon Us! So, I thought this would be the perfect time to do a short series of gift guides before Black Friday and the holiday rush begins. Of course, since this is a Strange & Charmed Gift Guide, my choices for 2016 will be themed into categories that pertain to my readers. The first Gift Guide is themed for the Planner Addict in your life. Whether that be you or a friend! The second Gift Guide is themed for your Business Bestie. This may be a fellow #LadyBoss or co-worker that you want to spoil this year! The third and final Gift Guide is themed for the Homebody. This could be someone who loves home decor and entertaining, or a book lover who prefers to stay in on a cold winter’s night to relax and enjoy the comforts of home. Of course, with all three of these gift guides for 2016, I will include links at the bottom of the post where you can check out these items, start making your 2016 holiday gift list and get to shopping. So, I hope you’re excited for this series!
I hope this Holiday Gift Guide gives you some great inspiration for the Planner Addict in your life! Feel free to leave your gift suggestions for planner lovers down below to add to the holiday gift giving goodness!
How to Create a Profitable Online Business in 2017
This time of year is always very special for me and my business because it was two years ago this month that I finally cracked the code on my online business and replaced the monthly salary I had left behind six months prior. You may have heard the story before of How I Left My Job, Built My Online Business & Replaced My Income in Six Months. Of course it’s a very compelling story for what is possible and how you don’t necessarily need a very large following or email list to start making a full time income online. Don’t get me wrong, having a large following or list is amazing and it’s definitely important to continue to grow your following online in order to grow your business, but the truth is, you only need a few very specific things in order to start a business online, and most importantly, to start a profitable business. Whether you are someone who aspires to start a business of their own, is desperate to turn their passion from #sidehustle to 9-5, or is already running a business that isn’t bringing in enough money, you need to understand what really moves the needle in terms of money and sales!
If building an online business in 2017 is a goal of yours or if you already have a business that just isn’t working, I want to invite you to a FREE Online Workshop I am hosting in just a few weeks called How to Create a Profitable Online Business in 2017! In this Live Workshop I am going to share with you The 6 Elements of a Profitable Online Business, what they are, why you need them and how to get started incorporating them into your current or future business for more sales and greater profitability!
They say it’s taboo to talk about money, but if you want a profitable business, you need to get comfortable and knowledgable about what you actually need to make your idea work. So I’m breaking the rules and talking about what’s holding your business back from profits, so you can make your goals a reality in 2017!
Click here to sign up to join me LIVE on Wednesday November 16th, 2016 at 3pm eastern/ 12pm pacific! My plan is to keep this workshop short and sweet, at about an hour before the open Q&A because I know we are getting into a very busy time of year and the last thing any of us need is a long, drawn out lecture! I want this event to be informative and engaging, so I am setting up a private watch page with an enhanced chat feature so that we can all connect, and I’ll be distributing a helpful workbook for you to use to follow along and get some extra value from the event! Of course, you will also get access to the replay of this event for a limited time, so if you can’t make it live on the 16th, don’t stress, I’ve got you covered!
I can’t wait to connect with you live on the 16th! It’s been quite some time since I did a live event and I’m looking forward to providing some great insight and answering all your questions about online business!
Oh October! In so many ways, you are my favorite month. You signal the true start of fall in my world, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that with the change in weather this month, you also brought a lot of change to my business. There is a quote I love that goes “It’s so strong that autumn is so beautiful; yet everything is dying,” and this almost perfectly sums up my month. It was a beautiful month in many ways that brought me clarity and even personal change, but in order to get here I had to watch certain things die. As they say, you win some, you lose some!
What I Didn’t Do
1. Spend enough time prioritizing myself: Maybe it was because last month, September, was so self-care focused, or maybe it was because once I got back from vacation I felt the time crunch to get work done, but this month I really dropped the ball on taking care of myself. For most of the month my meal schedule was out of wack, dinners were take out, and “me time” was minimal. Because of this, I was sick for most of the month (residual from a cold I caught on my trip), and then around the mid point, I struggled with anxiety and stress as I prepared for my 2017 insert launch. Luckily, the universe is always so kind as to keep challenging you when it knows you need to learn a lesson, so after a few sleep deprived days led me to the edge, I finally realized that what I had been missing was white space, rest, and lush baths!
2. Finish a project that was scheduled: New inserts were not the only product I was hoping to complete this month. I also had a second project on my list that had been there all year, researched and ready to be completed, but I ultimately decided to let it go until next year. I had even spent much of the month working on, trying to make it work and get it done by the due date, but after breaking down from stress and anxiety and lack of self care, I decided that it needed to be shelved. It was a very scary decision to make because my heart wanted to complete it but my head and timing said no. Once I made the decision I felt like a massive weight had been listed and began to see a path out of the overworked mess I was in.
3. Get out of my comfort zone: I know this may sound a bit odd to be on a business recap, but there were things I did and didn’t do this month out of fear and I don’t really advocate living your life or running your business this way. Now that we are at the end of the month I can see that there are some tough or uncomfortable choices ahead of me that if I am able to break out of my comfort zone and reach for them, it could be a major boost for my business. Or I could let myself be controlled by fear and doubt and keep doing what I’m already doing. I’m not doing bad right now, in fact, I think I’m doing pretty well! But I need to face myself going forward and decide if I want pretty well or if I want great and how far I am willing to reach outside my comfort zone to achieve it.
What I Did Do
1. Launched a new product: I was very excited to launch my 2017 inserts because with them came a new addition to my existing lineup. A Full Size US Letter/A4 planner design that had been highly requested by my audience for a while now. It actually took me a long time to really understand and decide what I wanted to do with this design to make it unique, but one day the vision hit me and I was off executing immediately!
2. Ran a promotion: With my 2017 insert launch, I also ran a promotion for my email/newsletter subscribers. Promotions are great, but I had been struggling with how I could give more value to those within my community who are the most invested in me and my business. Ultimately, I decided to give my email subscribers a special discount code in addition to some bundle deals that were made public. It was simple but effective and my insert launch was very successful this year outside of a major tech issue that occurred on launch day.
3. Invested in necessary upgrades: Overall, my insert launch and promotion went great this month in terms of engagement and sales, which I am always grateful for, but when high volumes of traffic came to my shop that morning, it ended up crashing my site! This had happened to me once before with a promotion so I knew what was going on, so I spent the morning on the phone with tech support and ended up investing in some upgrades to my site hosting that would allow for more traffic and resources to be allocated to my site during peak times. It wasn’t necessarily money I was expecting to spend, but I had it and knew it was going to be a good investment for the future of my site.
What I Learned
1. I need to always prioritize myself first: I know this, this isn’t anything new to me and if you look back over the year of these posts, self-care is something I have been working on all year. I wouldn’t say that this month was a self care fail because it’s not a topic that one can fail at if they are constantly trying and learning. You really only fail when you refuse to try or give up completely.
2. Sometimes all signs can be pointing to yes, but the answer is still no: I consider myself a pretty reasonable and logically person, so I run my business with common sense and strategies I see working for me or others in a similar situation. When it comes to my products especially, I love to create, that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who follows me on different platforms, and when I feel like a product or offer is right, I usually get so excited and worked up about it that I am able to make a plan and execute quickly. But, I’m also an intuitive person, and even when everything seems to be right, right product, right time, right plan, I can always sense when something is off and I need to take a step back. This is basically what happened to me this month with that second project. I loved it, it was the right time, I had a plan that seemed flawless. Logic and reason would tell me, move forward right now with this, work hard, get it done but the more I worked on it, the more I felt like this wasn’t the right time for me to do this project. I have nothing logical to point to, except that I don’t feel like I am able to execute my best on it right now. So for quality sake and for mental clarity’s sake, I put it away and hopefully, I can come back to it in 2017 and knock it out of the park.
3. How important it is to stay on brand: This is another concept that is by no means a new idea to me, but you’d be surprised at how distracting social media and the online business world can be even for someone who is pretty crystal clear on their branding and goals. I’m not sure if this month was a success or a flop for me and my business. On one hand I had a great launch, brought in a respectable income and brought some quality content and products to life. But on the other hand, I had to let go of a project I was passionate about for a very vague reason, and I also felt like I got caught in a trap set by social media that ended up distracting me. That’s why the title of this post is “You Win Some, You Lose Some.” With tools like Instagram and Snapchat its easy to share and consume so much different content. To be honest, most of the content I consume online, is actually not related to the content I create. That may seem odd, but I find that it’s easier for me to create great content when I have kept my eyes on my own paper, and because of that, I like to use different platforms to enjoy content that is more passion or interest driven for me than it is business related. But watching different content means I start wanting to share different content because social media makes you want to share. Then before you know it, you’ve been knocked off course and off brand, and I think this is actually what causes a lot of online businesses and blogs/youtube channels specifically to fail because they had a good thing going that was them, but then they let the world influence them to the point that it changed them. I saw myself falling into this trap this month and made a hard and fast decision to break out of it. I deleted Snapchat off my phone, made some decisions about how I will be using a few other platforms as well, and have basically sworn to myself that I will stick to my content, my brand and my main platforms to give them and my existing following there more time and attention.
Looking back at my month now that I’ve reached the end is a funny thing. There was a lot of struggle this month, but from where I am standing right now, I feel more empowered and prepared than ever for the future. Most of all, I feel very clear on where I am going, a feeling I don’t often get in my business, and one I am sure I will soon lose as I begin working on new plans and projects. So, for now, I am going to do what I can to capture my ideas and goals for how I want to move forward for the end of the year and what I want to achieve moving into 2017!
It’s time for another link roundup! Here are my picks for this month’s best reads around the web to help you with your Personal Development, Productivity and Business! Enjoy!
As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed these articles and I’d love to read anything you found informative this month, so please feel free to leave links in the comments below!
