Strange & Charmed

The Basics of WordPress

Some time ago, I stumbled upon the book WordPress for Beginners and ended up a purchasing a copy of the book as a reference for me as a new user to WordPress. After reading through the book, I thought I would discuss the pro’s and con’s to this book if you too are someone who is new to WordPress and wants to get a good understanding of the basics so that you can optimize your current WordPress website or create a new one!

What the book is about

The book really is a beginners guide to using WordPress. It gives the user all the information they need, along with step by step instructions, to set up a WordPress website from scratch without needing to know or use code. The book also helps the user learn the important steps to take when building a website, like buying a domain name and hosting, and how to choose those services. It dives into the basics of SEO and even how to design and customize your website.

Who this book is written for

This book is for anyone who would like to start a blog or website and knows they want to use WordPress. If you have never setup a WordPress website before, this book will walk you through each step necessary to get your site up and running and looking the way you want. Because this book has to do with building a website, I think that a certain amount of computer experience is necessary in order to use this book properly, and one should also know how to get themselves around their computer fairly well in order to make use of this book!

Limitations of the book

To be completely honest, most if not all of the information in this book can be found online through some simple web searches, so if you are someone who is confident in their ability to find information online for free, you may not want to spend your money on this book. That isn’t to say that this book is useless to anyone who could search for the information for themselves as it would probably save you time to just buy this book and read it, but if you don’t want to spend the money, you can find guides on using WordPress and creating a new site elsewhere.

This book also only focuses on the basics of starting a new website so if you are trying to convert your blog from an alternate hosting site like blogger to WordPress, this book isn’t going to help you with the steps necessary in that transition, but it will help you understand how to set your website up before you make that transition, and how to use the tools available in WordPress after you have transitioned.

Overall, this book is very bare bones basic about using WordPress, but gives you some good SEO tips, suggestions for naming your domain and other tricks that are good reference materials even for those of you who are a little more savvy and have some website know-how. If you are looking for a book that will tell you how to do everything in WordPress, this isn’t it, but its a good starter guide for someone who wants to start a blog but has no WordPress experience!

Click the image below to purchase this book directly from Amazon.com!

lifestyle

How to Write a Thank You Note

Letter writing really is a lost art and sometimes I think a very undervalued one in our modern digital society! What is not lost or undervalued, however, is the art of writing a thank you note. Since the new year and plenty of holidays just passed, I thought this would be a good time to urge everyone to write someone a thank you note. Perhaps it is for a gift you received, or a favor someone paid you, or perhaps its just to thank someone for being there for you when you needed it, but right now I urge you to add sending a thank you note to your to do list for the day!

How To Write a Thank You Note

Writing a thank you note is easy once you know who you are sending it to and why. They don’t need to be long, drawn out letters, although they can be, but just a sentence or two written in gratefulness will do! It is very important, when it comes to thank you notes, that they be written by hand. That is really the only rule I think worth following when it comes to them. Timeliness is also important, but I always think that when it comes to gratitude, better late than never! So, here are a few rules for writing thank you notes that you can keep as a little cheat sheet for yourself!

1. Always write a thank you note by hand (You may need to decide which form of handwriting of yours is best and most legible, it doesn’t matter if you write in cursive or not!)

2. Mail a thank you within two weeks of receiving a gift (unless its a wedding gift in which a 2 month span is allowed for larger weddings).

3. Be sincere when writing the note, your tone will show!

4. Send thank you notes often, even for simple things and favors!

Now, to get you started, I have written a few little excerpts that you can copy and use for your own thank you notes in case you have trouble giving words to your feelings. Don’t be ashamed of this, people often find it difficult to express gratitude, and after a while of using the words of others, you will be able to develop some words of your own.

Dear NAME OF RECIPIENT,

Thank You so much for the GIFT HERE! I am very grateful and appreciative of your generosity!

Best Regards,

YOUR NAME

Thank you, NAME OF RECIPIENT, for the lovely gift! I am so grateful that you thought me on my NAME OF EVENT!

Thanks again,

YOUR NAME

Dear NAME OF RECIPIENT,

I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for DESCRIPTION OF FAVOR! I truly appreciate that you were willing to help me and I am very grateful for your FRIENDSHIP OR SUPPORT!

Thoughtfully,

YOUR NAME

I hope this inspired you to start writing thank you notes to those in your life who show you their generosity and support! Do you have any tips for writing Thank You Notes that you can share in the comments?

Tips for a Great 3 Day Weekend

This weekend is the first three Day weekend of the year if you live in the US! YAY! I love three day weekends because they are like mini vacations spread throughout the year. They can be a great time to catch up on sleep, binge watch your favorite TV shows or finish a home project. So, here are my tips to making the most of your long weekend!

1. Plan Your To-Dos before the weekend begins: On Friday afternoon, I often find myself thinking how exciting it is to have a three day weekend ahead of me! THREE DAYS OFF! That seems like so much time to do WHATEVER I want! But inevitably by Sunday night I find myself wondering where the weekend has gone? Tomorrow is the last day? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!! I think you know the feeling! So, if you want to fill your weekend with fun and awesome things to do, you should probably plan out your time before the weekend starts (about Friday at 4:30pm)! You don’t have to make an hour by hour schedule, but have a general idea of what you want to do and who you want to do it with. Make sure plans with friends are hammered out before the weekend begins so you spend more time having fun and less time getting people to agree on dinner reservations!

2. Put your space in order: Whether you have your own place or share with roommates or family members, get your space in order and tidy up before the fun begins. Get your chores done, send off your bills, and get your life in order so that you can maximize your weekend time and not have to worry about the minutiae of daily life for approximately 72 hours!

3. Have at least one adventure: By this I mean, leave the house at least once! Yes, you can break from your Game of Thrones marathon weekend to run out for pizza or something, but make sure to get some fresh air! Lord knows you don’t get enough of it in the normal work week!

4. Manage your expectations: I know I am totally guilty of over hyping my weekends before hand and then feeling a major crash when everything doesn’t work out perfectly or when I don’t feel like I have done enough! Give yourself reasonable expectations of how fun/exciting/productive/amazing your weekend will be so that you can focus on enjoying everything!

5. Take time to breath and relax: The weekend is about decompressing from a week of work, and long weekends give you even more time to decompress. Make sure to relax and just enjoy your weekend, whatever it may bring so that you are recharged for work and life in general once Tuesday rolls around!

How do you like to spend your three day weekends? Share more of your tips for a great three day weekend by letting us know in the comments!

Career lifestyle

What’s in my Mini Folio?

As you may remember, a few months ago I bought myself a mini gadget folio for work and travel, so I thought it was about time that I showed you all how I use it most frequently! This folio is great because it can fit an iPad mini as well as multiple other gadgets, chords, and other loose items, however, I have stopped using it to house my iPad mini (because I ended up picking up a new iPad mini folio from Kate Spade) and started using it as a quick grab pouch for my bag. This is what you will usually find inside the folio!

What’s Inside

1. A Personal Sized Agenda: Since this folio can hold an iPad mini or other small tablet, its actually perfectly suited for a personal sized notebook or planner! I find that keeping my daily planner in here is a great way to keep my paper planner safe from debris in my bag and means that even if I leave my bag behind, I can take my folio along and have my planner handy!

2. A Pen: Yes, it matches my planner, and Yes, I did plan it that way! A pen is practical for obvious reasons so we don’t need to dwell on this too much!

3. My Earbuds: My new favorite Earbuds are these black skulls that I got from 5 Below! I was worried about the quality when I bought these but they ended up be very reliable. I keep them in my folio to keep them safe from tangling in my bag and also so I can listen to music or a book on tape when I am in a waiting room or have downtime!

4. Business Cards: I like to keep my blog’s business cards in this folio so that they are separate from my work business cards, just in case I meet someone who wants to know the link to my site and social media feeds! You never know when your gonna find a new subscriber!

5. Other Things Not Pictured: At any given moment, this folio can also house my credit cards/cash in case I use it as a wallet (rarely happens but it does happen) and other miscellaneous bits of paper! If I end up carrying just the folio with me, I stick other business cards inside for safe keeping and other papers I may collect fit in fine if I fold them in half!

How do you like my mini folio? Do you happen to use a similar folio in your day-to-day life? What sorts of uses do you get out of yours? Let me know in the comments!

Career lifestyle organization printables Productivity Solutions

How to Set & Achieve Your Goals

Whether you set resolutions for yourself on January 1^st or not, goal setting is an important personal and professional exercise that will help motivate you to achieve your dreams or to discover them! This is an exercise that you can work on as frequently or infrequently as you want throughout the year, but I suggest doing this twice a year, roughly every six months to help you evaluate your progress in your goals or to adjust them as changes occur in your life.

Now, before we begin, I suggest downloading my free set of productivity printables here and printing out the sheet titled “My Goal Tracker” on page 4 of the packet. This sheet contains most of the steps in this goal setting exercise and is a great resource to keep with you to track your goals! If you do not want to use the print out, no problem! You just need a pen/pencil and some paper to proceed and YES, it does need to be paper because this is a very personal activity and the act of writing on paper will help solidify your goals in a visceral way!

Step 1: Select 3 Life Goals

The first step in goal setting is to choose the goals that are most important to you! Some people may have multiple goals that they wish to set in motion now, but I suggest only focusing on 3 at the most at one time. Trying to track too many goals will make things more complicated for you and decrease your chances of success by diverting your attention to often! Now, if you would like to select 3 goals, you may want to choose one personal goal, one professional and one other of your choice. Remember, even if you think everything is going well in your professional life or perhaps in your personal life, that doesn’t mean that you can’t set a goal for that area of your life. I suggest thinking about what is important to you and how you can either a) improve that area of your life or b) continue an already successful or positive trajectory. Maintaining success in an area of your life is often just as difficult or sometimes even more difficult than achieving initial success!

Step 2: Decide on 5-10 steps you can take to set your goal in motion!

A good goal is one where you can see a path of success that can be taken through a series of steps! If you are trying to loose weight you know that these steps may include following a healthy diet plan that can be tracked via a daily caloric intake and an exercise regimen that includes working out a certain number of days a week for a certain amount of time. However, unlike a weight loss goal, many personal and professional goals are not as scientifically precise! Achieving a professional goal to get a specific job may include getting additional training that would make you qualified for that job as well as a discussion about your professional advancement with your supervisor or someone who can help you learn how to position yourself as a desirable candidate. If you do not already have an idea of how to achieve your goal, I suggest researching your specific goal and discussing it with those who may be able to give you insight on the matter!

Step 3: Set parameters for your goal.

It’s all well and good to set a goal, and list out the steps you need to take, but you also need to make sure you have set parameters for when you will start your goal, when you want to have it completed and most importantly, how you will reward yourself for achieving it! The reward is particularly important because this should be something that will highly motivate you and be a constant reminder of the goal you are working towards and why!

Step 4: Take your first step!

As I like to say “once begun, it’s nearly done!” I’m not sure where that comes from, or if I have simply created my own version of another popular saying, but I still consider it truth! Sometimes the hardest part of getting to a destination is starting the journey. Once you take that first step you are invested in your goal and you have made progress! Take your first step as soon as possible, while you are still highly motivated, as this will hopefully propel you to take the next step and the next, until you have reached your goal! Remember, its natural once you have started your journey to tweak your path as needed, don’t be afraid to add steps to your goal or adjust expectations as you go along! Good luck & may this advice help you turn your dreams into a reality!

So, will you be setting goals for yourself this year? Did you find my free printable helpful with helping you track your goals? Let me know any other tips, tweaks or advice you have to help others set and achieve their goals this year but leaving a comment!

Career Solutions

Winter Work from Home Day

Last week the Northeast of the US was hit with an overnight snowstorm that dropped something like 8 inches of snow in my area. It was no wonder that both myself and my husband got an unexpected snow day at home together! However, it wasn’t all fun and game for us as we both have the ability to work from home, and so we ended up working nearly a full day together from our living room. Since I am sure this was just the first snow day of many we are sure to have in the next few months, I thought I would write about my suggestions for a Winter Work From Home Day in case any of you also get to work from home when it snows!

Winter Work From Home Day Must Have’s

A Computer: Whether you will be working from your own personal computer or from your designated work laptop, for most at-home workers, this is your key to getting things done! Make sure to find a nice comfortable spot in your home to set up shop (if you don’t already have a designated office area) and make sure to stock up on pillows and blankets to keep yourself warm in your cozy spot!

Your Favorite Mug: Hopefully you didn’t leave your favorite mug in your office, but really any mug will do! Make sure to keep yourself hydrated with your favorite coffee, tea or other hot beverage!

Comfortable Headphones: Okay, so you don’t need a set of headphones that look like ear muffs (those are just my personal favorite on a cold winter day!) but you will probably find a set of headphones or ear buds a good idea to keep you in the zone and focused on working if you aren’t used to the treat of working from home!

Adorable Office Supplies: Nothing is more fun or can keep you focused on getting things done like lovely office supplies! Hopefully you have a nice notebook at home and some matching pens & pencils! Okay, they don’t have to match, but it all adds to the ambience!

A Fun Gadget: Whether it’s an iPad, iPod, or just your TV with Netflix, you will want to have a fun gadget with you to take your mind off work every once in a while! Just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you can’t take a break, so make sure you take a lunch and at least one fifteen minute break to decompress!

A Hydrating Hand Lotion: If you’re working at home because of a snow day, be sure to keep a nice hydrating hand lotion around to keep your skin hydrated and to defend against the chapped skin created by winter weather! Make sure to apply often!

Do you get to stay at home to work during snow days? What are some of your favorite tips for working from home? Make sure to share your experiences in the comments!

lifestyle Solutions tech

How to Stick to New Year’s Resolutions

Have you ever heard of an app called Everest? Everest is an app that helps you track your goals, so it’s a great resource to use to help you keep track of your New Year’s Resolutions! When you first open the app, it urges you to enter in your first goal. After categorizing your goal and deciding if you want it to be public (for friends to see) or private (for your eyes only), it then gives you options to add steps to getting to your goal. Each step can be given a specific time frame, where you can set reminders for yourself so that you are keeping on track to complete your goal. This app is a great way to manage your expectations and break down your goals into steps that you can take each day that will make achieving your goals a series of steps instead of a giant feat! After all, you can only climb a mountain one step at a time.

Now, the fun thing about the app is that in addition to creating your own goals, you can also accept challenges from the Everest community that range from health/physical challenges (like doing 50 consecutive push ups!) to personal challenges (like finding a job you love). These challenges are of course optional, however, they are a good constant reminder that everyday you could be taking steps to give yourself a happier, healthier and wealthier life!

So, this year I plan to use Everest to track my resolutions and set small realistic steps for myself to take each week to achieve these goals! Do you plan on using Everest or another similar method to help you break your goals down into small manageable steps and then to keep you accountable for achieving your goals?

lifestyle tech wallpaper

New Year Tech Wallpapers!

So, it’s been some time since I have made a new set of wallpapers for you guys, so I thought I would create a special design for the New Year! This quote “Start Something New” happens to be on the first page of my 2014 Kate Spade Agenda for January and I think it pretty much sums up the start of a new year! This time around I went ahead and created a Mac or Macbook Wallpaper that should fit up to a 21″ iMac, an iPad/iPad Mini Wallpaper and an iPhone 5/5s/5c Wallpaper!

chevron-mac-wallpaper-jan — iMac or Macbook Wallpaper {right click image to open in new tab & save}

chevron-ipad-background-jan — iPad/iPad Mini Wallpaper {right click image to open in new tab to save, or if using your device, tap image to open it in new window and then tap and hold until save options appear}

chevron-iphone-5-wallpaper-jan — iPhone 5/5s/5c Wallpaper {right click image to open in new tab to save, or if using your device, tap image to open it in new window and then tap and hold until save options appear}

So, how do you all like these wallpapers? Let me know in the comments below!

Career lifestyle organization

Organizational Tips for the New Year!

Happy New Year Everybody! Is one of your New Year’s Resolutions to be more organized? I have to say that next to getting in shape, I think getting organized is a very popular wish for the new year! So, if you are looking to get yourself more organized this year, here are a few tips that I find can be very helpful!

1. Get yourself some new supplies: I recently went to Target to get myself a bunch of new office and organization supplies for the New Year. I think getting new notebooks and pens is a very easy way to get yourself excited for the task of organizing so that you will be more likely to stick to it! I would make sure to pick up an agenda, cute pens & pencils, some sticky notes, as well as any bins, file folders or other accessories to wrangle you daily tasks! It doesn’t have to be an expensive trip, but I believe that the act of buying these things signifies a metamorphosis that from now on you will be organized!

2. Develop your own system of organization: What organization means to you and what it means to me are most likely very different things. You have an idea in your head of what organized looks like to you and that’s your goal! So, you need to decide on a system to organize yourself that fits your goals and also the way you work. You can devise a system in which all new tasks are entered into a to-do list in an agenda, so that as you get things done you check off the items and add new items as they come in, or you could use a physical inbox where you organize tasks and papers, or you could use an app on your smartphone to keep track of everything! The possibilities are endless, but the point is, you need to find a system and stick to it!

3. Put new tasks into your organization system first and then go back and take care of the past: I think one of the big issues people have when they start to get organized is that they think they need to organize all the old items sitting on their to-do list first. What ends up happening though is that many people find the old “stuff” too overwhelming because they can’t see any progress for their new “stuff”. I say to start your new organizational process with today forward, making sure everything from this point on is organized, then once you feel like things are under control with the here and now, you can then go back to old items and incorporate those into your new system as well.

4. If you have a hiccup, don’t fret, just reset: Another major issue that prevents people from staying organized is that when they have an issue or they stop using their system for a little while, they give up on it as thought the system as failed! The truth is, even the most organized person in the world has breakdowns in their organization system and routine. People get lazy for a little bit or they assume they can go it without their system for this project or these tasks. Just because you do this, doesn’t mean your system has failed, you just need to recognize what brought you back to that point and get back on the horse and keep going. Organizational systems are never perfect, people are never perfect, forgive yourself and get back into your system if organization is truly a goal for you!

5. Continue to tweak: Like I said above, organizational systems are not perfect, they require effort on your part to make them work and to fix little bumps in the road and even major bumps in the road. As you come across issues, think about how you can fix them and implement those changes into your routine. And guess what? You may eventually find that the system you put in place in the beginning of the year is not the same as the system you end up with by the summer or even by the end of the year, and that’s okay! It’s okay to change, it doesn’t mean you’re not good at organizing, it just means that people grow and their systems need to grow with them!

So, is getting organized one of your New Year’s Resolutions? Do you have any other tips or tricks that you find useful that may help others trying to get organized? Please share your tips in the comments!

lifestyle organization Productivity Solutions

Best of Strange & Charmed 2013

Since today is New Year’s Eve, I thought it would be a perfect time for me to reflect on the success and growth of this blog in the last year! This morning I woke up to an email from WordPress that linked me to a Stat’s page for the site that gave me all sorts of fun details about my top posts, my commenters, visitors and site views!

My Top 5 Posts from this year have been:

1. Synching Scrivener to PlainText

2. iPad vs. Filofax

3. How I Use Scrivener to Organize my Writing

4. Turn Your iPad into a Macbook Air with Clamcase Pro

5. The 5 Best iOS Apps for Writers

Now, although these posts were my most viewed, I, of course, have my own list of favorite posts! These are the posts that were some of the most fun for me to brainstorm and put together. Some took a lot of time behind the scenes in terms of photographing, organizing materials, and/or Photoshop skills, but in the end these are posts I am very proud I was able to bring to fruition!

1. Inspired by Kate Spade

2. Starbucks @ Home: Salted Caramel Mocha

3. 5 Things a Woman Can’t Live Without

4. My Blog Organization Binder

5. Must Have Apps for Working Professionals

The final items I wanted to include in this post were the articles I wrote outside of this blog! You may not have even been aware that I have been writing elsewhere this year, so I thought this would be a good time to review and link those posts, as they are all extensions of Strange & Charmed in one way or another!

The first site where I was able to publish a few articles this year was Levo League! You may have seen me mention them a time or two before, but Levo is a great website that I discovered last year, and this year I was given the opportunity to join their arsenal of amazing contributors with these two articles!

1. The Only 5 Productivity Tips You’ll Ever Need to Know

2. Productivity Tips from a Road Warrior

The second place you can find me on the web, outside of Strange & Charmed, is GeeksterLabs! GeeksterLabs is a website I have been following for years that focuses on all types of consumer technology. This summer I joined the team as a feature contributor, writing about fun and quirky ways to make the most of technology! Since I have written a steady stream of articles for them, I have included the direct link to my author page here, so you can check out all the articles I have written!

Overall, I would say that 2013 has been an amazing year for this blog! I have seen growth month after month and I hope that trend continues into 2014! So, let me know what you’re favorite posts were from Strange & Charmed in 2013 and the types of articles you hope to see more of in 2014! Happy New Year Everyone!