Apr15

What does your self care routine look like?

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What does your self care routine look like?

If you’ve been following us on this blog, you know by now that the secret to being a productivity powerhouse is investing in self care. You can read about it here: What is the Secret to Becoming More Productive? It’s Not What You Think. In that article, I mention that self care is more than just going to the spa or doing a face mask. The reality is that, self care looks different for everybody. Your version of self care would definitely be a lot different from mine. Mine would involve a lot of food and pet kisses, but I digress…

I have a box in my closet that holds “self-care” things. I take it out whenever I need a breather or whenever I need to take my mind off things that worry most adults (bills, work, relationships, health, etc.) Inside this box is a collection of diverse miscellaneous knick knacks that help me decompress: a coloring book, some pens, a compass (for making mandalas), old CDs, copies of my favourite cartoons and comedy shows, a calligraphy set…you get the idea. I don’t take away items in that box, I only add. All of these items are things that help me nurture my personal well-being.

What items would help you celebrate ME time? Out of ideas? Here are a few to get you started.

Physical
A jar or tube of face scrub – buy one of those yummy smelling one. If you’re a dude, the ones with coffee are very popular, and gives you the added bonus of smelling nice. Exfoliation is one of the self care practices that gets forgotten if it isn’t automatically incorporated in your skin care routine.
Face masks – same thing for face masks. This practice only get remembered when you finally find the time to decompress or when you feel you need to relax. So might as well get those that have skin improving benefits.
A jump rope – if you’re into fitness, you might already have exercise equipment at home Having this in your self care box will remind you that exercise is also, if not, THE biggest self care ritual there is.

Mental
Drawing or coloring materials – doing something creative is one of the self care rituals that not only improves your mental clarity, but also improves your cognitive functions by exercising your mental muscles. And it isn’t even hard, back breaking work.
Puzzle books – These are probably one of the best ways to improve your cognitive skills over all. Puzzles help exercise your logical faculties, without you having to feel pressured, tired, or burned out (very unlike solving problems at work).

Emotional
Pet treats or toys – these are things that will remind you to play with your pets or just go out for a walk with them.
Books – keep hardcover copies of the ones that resonate most with you, all the rest you can keep as e-books (or not, but if you’re doing Marie Kondo…)

Spiritual
Candles – light a beautiful beeswax candle in a scent you like and send out light and healing to yourself or those who need it.
Crystals and shells – if you’re into that sort of thing.

So here’s a question, if you were to put together a self-care box, what would be inside? Share them with us in the comments. Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Apr8

What is the Secret to Becoming More Productive? It’s Not What You Think.

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What is the Secret to Becoming More Productive? It’s Not What You Think.

When we think about productivity, we think about the people who seem to get everything checked, done, and dusted off on an arbitrary ‘to do’ list. We think about the account manager who has more work, more clients, more logged hours. We think about the parent who gets the shopping list right, the kids bathed and off to school, the bake sale cookies made, the house spotlessly clean. We think about the student who get to all the classes on time, passes all the papers, does extra curricular activities, and even has time for a relationship. When it comes to productivity, we think that the people who do more are more productive.

While these examples seem like the perfectly put together life most of us dream of, it is also a recipe for burnout. The truth is, doing more is not a very sustainable way of living. When you get stuck in the mindset that you have to do more in order to be productive, you paint yourself into a corner and start a mindset of being busy for the sake of being busy. So, do you want to know the secret? The key to being more productive is to carve out time for self care.

Now you might be this person I’m talking about. The one who has all their meetings scheduled, their work deliverables in progress, and their social calendar packed with engagements. I salute you. Most of us though, need a breather. Most of us need to take time for self care.

Before you go and book a spa session, let me explain a bit further. Self care is more than just going to the spa or doing a face mask. It could be, but it is more than that. Self care is any deliberate action that you make time for in order to nurture your mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing. At its very basic, self care is all about cultivating the relationship you have with yourself.

Take a step back. Do you like being the go to person for all things at work? Do you like having your social calendar filled to the brim? Do you like being able to take care of everyone, all the time? These are all things to aspire for but are outside of yourself. All of them are about other people. In order to be more productive, you have to invest in giving your whole self (mind, body, spirit) the care it needs in order to function and flourish at your highest level.

The science backs it up: people who invest in self care have better cognitive abilities. They have better focus and concentration and perform better over all. They don’t run themselves to the ground and they know when to take the time out to focus on themselves.

You are an investment, treat yourself as worthy.

Do you have self care tips that you want to share with us? Share them in the comments! Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Apr2

Note Taking: A Skill that could Get you Ahead of the Pack

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Note Taking: A Skill that could Get you Ahead of the Pack

In last week’s article, This is why you spend so much time looking for missing things, I mentioned an interesting study that shows why taking down notes by pen and paper is far superior for memory retention than using laptops. The premise is that, the act of writing down information helps people remember the information better.

People assume that note taking comes naturally and that we all write down the important stuff when we take down notes. But not all notes are created equal. Ever had a moment in an exam where you try to shuffle through your memory for an answer but then give up and say “this wasn’t in my notes!” Those moment come up a lot of times. It doesn’t matter if you’re in junior high, uni, grad school, or even at work – “this wasn’t in my notes” moments come up often and to embarrassing results.

No one teaches note taking when you’re suppose to learn the skill. When you start school, no one expects you to take notes. They hand out books for that. When you move up to college or grad school, teachers assume you already have the skill of note taking down pat. No one expects you to copy what’s written on the board or to transcribe the lecture word for word. They hand out syllabi for that. When you’re already working, bosses and colleagues assume that the sales presentation is available in digital form somewhere, so no one is expected to take notes. They hand out presentation deck for that.

So what use is note taking anyway?
Easy. Notes help you retain information more quickly. Let’s go back to that sales presentation example. If you were in that meeting and you know that the information is readily available as a slide deck, how much of it do you really retain. If we both were completely honest, I’d say none! Ever wonder why? Because you weren’t paying attention the first time.

Note taking forces you to pay attention and sift through the noise to capture only the important things – things that are relevant to you. This is a skill that come in handy and could set you apart from the rest, career wise. If you are able to wade through the clutter and retain important information, you’d be an asset to your team and a very valuable resource for your boss.

What makes it good?
There’s no need to write down everything. You should focus on two things, capturing what is new to you and what is relevant. Pay more attention to things like dates, names, main points, and definitions. It would be best if you can summarize meetings or write down your own questions. This will allow for maximum info retention. Practise this every time you’re in a meeting. Write down your own summary or your own questions. It will exercise your memory and you’ll come across as someone who is interested and invested.

Note taking seems simple but is actually a great career skill to have. What other seemingly mundane skills do you think are good career skills to have? Share them with us! Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Mar29

This is why you spend so much time looking for missing things

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This is why you spend so much time looking for missing things

Despite our best efforts of decluttering our work stations, the average office worker spends 13 minutes and 13 seconds every day searching for missing things on their desk – like paperwork, desktop files (yes, those explode into chaos, too), and stationery. How do our work stations explode into chaos when a fourth of the office budget is spent on filing systems and organizers?

A place for everything and everything in its place
It would be nice if we had a place for everything and if we could find everything at that place we left it. Sadly, that is not the case. And that is the reason why we spend too much time looking for missing things – be it computer files, staplers, or paper documents. We tend to think of our desks as a catch all for all things work related – and sometimes, even non work related things like our bags, makeup, and lunchboxes. So we leave them there to pile up and left to be sorted out for later.

Labels aren’t only for relationships
It is time to embrace labels. You don’t have to stick a bright neon sticker label to everything on your desk. You just have to make sure that you have good naming conventions. Yes naming conventions – like how you name your PC files very specifically (Feb 24 Meeting Minutes.docx) and save it in a very specific folder (saved to Organised Meeting Notes folder) Or, wait…do you botch that up too? (hello filename: Feb24mtgmin_draft1 saved to desktop to be organised later?)

Organizers
You don’t have to get fancy shmancy about organizers. They don’t have to be gold plated works of art in order to work well for you. You can buy organizers at a dollar store and use those.

For desks with drawers:
● Buy ice cube trays for smaller office supplies that tend to get lost underneath the carpet – ice cube trays can fit push pins, paper clips, and rubber bands and can fit in any desk drawer.
● Buy a plastic or rubber cutlery tray – you know, the ones that keep forks, spoons, and knives separated? You can use those for pens, whiteboard markers, and scissors. They usually come in 3 or 4 partitions.

For desks with shelves:
● Buy bookends – you can lump all those folders together as long as they are labeled and separated by bookends. I keep my notebooks (yes, I have those because I tend to write notes on paper for online courses – because studies show that you retain information better when you write it down) for online courses separate from my client folders with generic bookends that I got from the dollar store. I have sturdy, metal ones that are heavy and rust proof -a set of two for only a dollar. Buy as many as you need to separate your files etc.

For plain desks:
● This is a tough one because plain, big old desks have space but no real organizers to separate work tools and supplies. So, shuffle your PC or laptop off to one side and then make room for organizers. Buy a reasonably sized basket and put in a cup or two to organize your writing implements. Then use the leftover space to put your folders or notebooks in.
● Buy adhesive hooks – get those strong ones from 3M or something similar and stick them to the side of your desk- this is where you will hang your bag so that it doesn’t take up valuable real estate on your desk.

How about you? How do you keep your desk organized? Share your trade secrets with us in the comments. Stay humble, hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help

Mar18

Why you should hold company meetings around meals

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Why you should hold company meetings around meals

Mandatory work meetings are annoying for everyone involved – the organizer, the presenter, and the attendees. Nobody wants to sit through an hour long meeting that should’ve been just a very well written email. In fact, meetings are the biggest time wasters in an office setting. A few years back, emails were the biggest time wasters at work. Sending and replying to emails takes the top spot of biggest time waster at 57%. But if you factor in the amount of time spent on preparing for, attending, and extending the meetings, that takes up a much larger chunk of time compared to reading, writing, and replying to emails.

Don’t get me wrong, meetings are an important part of work life if done correctly. However, some meetings are unnecessary, too long, or too inclusive. Seeing that the average employee attends 62 meetings in a month, with half of those being considered as time wasted by surveyed employees – that would translate to a lot of wasted time…and apparently, money. Unproductive meetings cost US big businesses $37 Billion.

So how do you get your employees interested in attending meetings without having them feel that it is just a whole lot of wasted time? You introduce food! This is a great way to turn boring meetings into an activity that employees actually look forward to, again.

Healthy food for a huge productivity boost
It is a know fact that eating healthy foods boost productivity. Scheduling your meetings around a nutritious and well balanced meal would boost overall productivity around the office. It doesn’t have to be around lunch. A quick snack with a healthy salad or sandwiches, or even an excellent cup of coffee, instead of doughnuts or cake, would be ideal.

The team that eats together, works well together
Think of all the dinners spent around the family table, or the meals spent with friends, or the dinner spent connecting with a date – whatever the circumstance is – one thing holds true. Food connects people. Enjoying a meal with teammates and coworkers offers the opportunity to get to know each other better. I fosters a great atmosphere and encourages food feelings. Meetings with food helps foster a more positive workplace.

Food shows appreciation
Food is a great motivator. If meeting attendance is low, the promise of GOOD food will always drive attendance up. Not only does food serve to entice attendance, it also serves as a token of appreciation for a job well done. People want to know that they are valued for what they bring to the company They will appreciate the idea that their employer is willing to invest in them, too.

As mentioned earlier, team meetings don’t have to be centered around a full on buffet lunch. It could be small coffee breaks with artisanal bread and spreads. It could be sales reports with a healthy salad bar. It could be a daily huddle with berry smoothies. If it could boost productivity and camaraderie, isn’t it worth a try? Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. The Help