I’m very organized. Before the holidays even rolled in, I have already drafted a gift budget with a list of suggested gifts for friends and family. Neatly wrapped and handsomely ribboned boxes were already laid perfectly underneath the tree well before Christmas day. Whenever I am invited over for an occasion, I see to it that I get the host a gift – a bottle of wine, a box of cookies, a jar of gourmet preserves. Otherwise, I send a digital gift.

My brother is a terrible gift giver. He sometimes ends up paying more for last minute gifts (more on that later) or not giving anything at all. No, he’s not stingy, he’s the most generous person I know, he just sucks at gift ideas. His gift inspirations are anything but inspired. He got my mom a nebulizer for Christmas. Practical right? Also, why though? We all thought it was funny.

I’m not sure what thought process goes into your gift-giving habits. Maybe you’re a researcher who puts too much thought into what to get for your friend who is celebrating a birthday. Maybe you’re a last-minute purchaser who swings by the store to buy wine for your aunt’s housewarming party. Maybe you’re a wishlister who saves items online and buys them in time for special gift giving occasions. However which way you want to do it, here are some digital gift ideas to make your gift giving easier.

Subscriptions
Dropbox – While already awesome, Dropbox basic just gives you enough data storage for @GB of space. However, if you take a lot of work home or work from home an upgrade to 1TB of storage is a really big convenience. This is a great gift for college students or for people who are mobile, telecommute, or work with huge files daily. It’s great and it gets them optimized for working and accessing working documents and other files on the go.
CrashPlan – This is a great gift to give small business owners or your loved ones who work from home. CrashPlan makes sure that their data is safe and always backed up. It’s like giving the gift of peace of mind. How amazing is that?
Spotify – I love the idea of creating your own playlist. I have one for every activity; exercise, work, sleep, even for waiting at the dentist’s office. A Spotify Premium subscription is one of my go-to gifts. They recently ran a promo where you can get the 1st three months on a huge discount and then it reverts to the usual price after the 3-month period. I got that for my family and friends. It’s cool because with a premium subscription, you can use the app uninterrupted with ads. You can even listen to audiobooks and standup comedy playlist (what I listen to during a long commute or while stuck in a waiting room somewhere).

Gift Cards
Gift Cards have always been the go-to or emergency gifts we always have at the ready. They’re convenient, fun, and readily available at retail stores. There is a multitude of gift cards to choose from. You can give your friends store cards to their favorite retail shops like Target or Starbucks, online gift cards to online shopping sites like Amazon or Sephora. You can also give them subscription cards like Netflix or Hulu Gift Cards. You can give them gift cards to buy apps like iTunes or Google Play gift cards.

eBooks
You can send your friends and family eBooks for their tablet and mobile devices. Most eBooks have an option to be given as gifts when you purchase them online.

Games and Apps
Or you can gift them an app or a game directly via the App Store

How about you, what is your last minute or go-to gift idea? Share them with us in the comments! Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

I spent the holidays at my mom’s house and it’s quite an experience. You see…my mom is an early riser. She gets up at the crack of dawn before the sun is even up, makes coffee, and waters the plants. She then proceeds to tinker around the house until one by one all its inhabitants are up. The last one up would be me.

I am not a morning person. Never was and probably never will be. I am more of a “sun is up” person. I love to snuggle deep into the covers until the sun is already up and brightly shining. While some people rise with the sun, I find that waking up at dawn when it’s still dark out makes me gloomy.

Now, before you judge me as being lazy (and you all know that I’m not), I’d like to tell you all about the study of Chronotypes. “Chronotype refers to the behavioural manifestation of underlying circadian rhythms of myriad physical processes. A person’s chronotype is the propensity for the individual to sleep at a particular time during a 24-hour period. ‘Eveningness’ (delayed sleep period) and ‘morningness’ (advanced sleep period) are the two extremes with most individuals having some flexibility in the timing of their sleep period [1].

There really are underlying biological reasons as to why some of us are “morning” people or Larks and some are “night” people or Owls.

Some core biological differences are:

Body temperature: There is a difference between the occurrence of the lowest body temperature in morning and night people. Night people experience their lowest temperature drop two hours later than morning people. So if both types of people go to bed at the same time, let’s say 10 pm, the morning person’s core body temperature would have already dropped to prepare for rest while the night person’s core body temperature might still be higher and they will be less sleepy.

Melatonin: Melatonin is sometimes called the “sleep hormone”. Its production in morning people happens earlier, thus causing them to feel sleepy earlier.

Cortisol: Cortisol is sometimes called the “stress hormone”. That is an oversimplification though, as cortisol is also responsible for making energy available to our cells. Morning Larks have higher cortisol levels in the first hour of waking up compared to Night Owls.

Aside from these biological factors, the reason you are a morning lark or a night owl may be written in your DNA. Yup, it doesn’t get much deeper than that. In a study of approximately 90,000 subjects, 15 versions of genes have been identified as being linked to whether you are a Morning Lark or a Night Owl [2].

So, the next time someone judges you for keeping a late schedule or for going to bed early, tell them this “it’s my chronotype!”

Are you a Morning Lark or a Night Owl? What schedule works best for you? Let us know in the comments. Stay humble and hustle hard!

Written by Jaie O. The Help

References:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronotype
2. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10448

Brain fogs, we all get them. Its symptoms include confusion, forgetfulness, and lack of focus and mental clarity. Sometimes you focus too much on work and start to get overwhelmed. You can’t think, you lose focus. You can’t concentrate on the task at hand. This can adversely affect our work and productivity.

Sometimes, we need to take a step back to regain clarity. We lose sight of the bigger picture when we’re too focused on the details and it helps to take small mental breaks in order to clear our heads and “get back in the game”

Stress causes knots and kinks in our bodies and that restricts blood flow and oxygen – just when our brain needs it the most! So, taking short mental breaks to de-stress is not only good for your sanity but for your body as well.

A good way to de-stress is to put on a diffuser and make a blend of essential oils to set the mood for brain de-fogging or try smelling some scents that can instantly give you a clarity boost. The right scents can boost alertness and increase brain power. Cary Caster, Certified Clinical Aromatherapist and founder of 21 Drops Essential Oil Therapy says, “Scents have a powerful effect on the brain and can give us an instant boost in productivity and focus.”

Here are some favorite scents to help you gain clarity and enhance productivity [1].

Frankincense
“The essential oil contains numerous sesquiterpenes which oxygenate and stimulate the limbic system, the seat of our memory and emotions, to improve memory retention and clarity of thinking,” says Caster. A study published in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology found that burning frankincense could have a Prozac-like effect on the brain by activating anti-depressive pathways and lowering anxiety.

Lemon
According to research from Ohio State University, sniffing lemon improved people’s moods and raised levels of norepinephrine, a brain chemical linked to executive decision-making and motivation. Lemon can really work wonders for keeping you motivated and productive.

Peppermint
“The uplifting oil is well known for its ability to awaken and refresh the mind, aiding in focus and mental clarity,” says Caster. Another study shows that the scent of peppermint can reduce mental fatigue and burnout. This is great news for those afflicted with brain fog.

Coffee
Of course, this list won’t be complete without coffee. In fact, no workday would be complete without coffee. A study published in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that just breathing in coffee’s bitter scent could reverse the effects of sleep deprivation on the brain and bust stress. So, there is science working behind the age-old adage that coffee is a great pick me upper. People instantly perk up not just from the caffeine but also from smelling coffee.

How about you? What are your favorite scents to induce clarity and productivity? Let us know in the comments. Stay humble and hustle hard!

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Source:
1. https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/wellbeing/best-scents-for-productivity-and-focus/slide/1

Everyone loves making new year’s resolutions. It’s like giving ourselves a clean slate and allowing ourselves a do-over of last year’s goals and ambitions. We know we can start working on our goals anytime, but the ring of the New Year just gives it more of an attestation that we are seriously leaving the past behind and starting fresh.

New year’s leave us hopeful. But new year’s resolutions are notoriously hard to keep. Statistics show that people fail to stick to their resolutions as early as February. Half of the total number of people who make them are not even confident they would be able to stick to those resolutions at all.

So how do you achieve your new year’s resolutions? Here are a few tips:

Make it specific:
Instead of saying I want to be better at my job, you can instead say that you are aiming for a promotion to (insert job position here). The first mistake of those who fail to keep their resolutions is setting a general goal. It must be clear in your mind and better yet, on paper. So, I suggest you write down your goals and list a few things underneath it that can help you achieve said goal. While “get a promotion” seems like a good motivational mantra, it won’t help you get direction.

Make it measurable:
Making measurable goals can help you see how far you’ve progressed. So, if you plan on bagging a promotion, you should tailor your goals with milestones in mind. For example, learn three specific skills needed for the position before mid-year evaluations. It helps you manage your expectations and set your path. “Sign up for online classes” already seems specific but “complete one online class per 2 months” makes it more manageable.

Make it attainable:
Now that you’ve already drawn out your plans and have broken them down into measurable pieces, how do you make them attainable? Write down your plans on how you can realistically make your goals happen. For example, you can say, “I will read up on industry news during my daily commute to work” or I will read class materials for 1 hour each night.

Make it exciting:
At some point, you’d be distracted or bored of your goals. Try to set milestones and equivalent rewards for reaching those milestones. As with the previous example, you can maybe treat yourself out to a fancy dinner once you’ve completed a course. Or maybe you can host a mini “graduation party” each time you complete an online class.

Make yourself accountable:
Write your goals somewhere you can see it and be constantly reminded of what you’re working towards. The first page of your planner perhaps, in big, fancy, bold letters. Or keep it on your desk or taped to the fridge. Tell a close friend or family member and hold yourself accountable for working towards that goal.

What are your tips on how to keep your new year’s resolutions? Share them with us in the comments. Always remember to stay humble and hustle hard!

Written by Jaie O. The Help

So here’s a funny story for you: One typical Tuesday morning, Anne threw together an ad copy for the new online holiday campaign catalog which offers free shipping for 3 months when you sign up for a subscription. She thought it looked solid enough to get sign ups but she wanted to get her co-workers’ creative input before sending it out to her editor. Anne thought she’d share the files up in the cloud for others to take a look at.

Bob thinks the copy should have more calls to action and needs a design update, so he tweaks the document and saves off a copy in the same folder.

Chrissy takes a look at a copy (there are 2 now) and immediately thinks of 100 images that can go well with it, so she inserts the images and saves off a copy in the same folder.

Dan thinks the paragraphs are too long in this version he’s reading (there are probably 3 versions floating around now), so he edits the ad and saves off a copy in the same folder.

Anne opens the folder to see a mess of multiple copies of the same document not knowing which ones have been edited and who did what. It is now up to her to organize the edits and update one final document with the inputs and changes her colleagues provided. This proves to be harder than actually writing the damned ad copy in the first place. Also, if she’s not very careful, her editor might publish the wrong version.

In an office setting where collaboration is the norm, there is bound to be a problem with duplicate versions or having multiple copies of the same documents. When you can’t find the original version or (more horrifyingly) when you can’t find the FINAL version for publishing, this small dilemma can turn into a big nightmare.

So how do you this stop this nightmare from occurring? Systems, people, systems!

The first system that you must have in place is an online collaboration system. You can use Google Drive or Microsoft Office Suite but you have to have a standard workspace. Although Google can open MS Word files as Google Docs, version should be compatible to start with to avoid having to download, convert, and rename files. Getting rid of the extra steps saves everyone from saving over other people’s work, working on a legacy version, or losing the files completely. So keep everything in one cohesive workspace.

The second system to have is a naming system. Many employees have used the v1, v1.1, v1.2 etc… file naming conventions. This is how software version is named. But you might have to develop a standard one for your company or team. Keep it short and concise. You don’t want to end up with a filename such as:

HolidayCatalogue2017AdCopy_Anne_Bob_Chrissy_Dan_edits_Final.doc

Other tips:

• Acknowledge that there is only one project and instruct everyone to work on only one
• Save the original copy in a local folder first (preferably somewhere only you can access) before you upload the working copy to the cloud for online collaboration.
• Don’t clutter your collaboration folders with unnecessary assets. Only include relevant images or resources in the collaboration folder.

Hopefully, these tips could help keep your office files from exploding with multiple versions of office documents. What are your office’s adaptations of version control? We’d love to hear your tips in the comments! Stay humble and hustle hard!

Written by: Jaie O. – The Help