A Time for Summer! My Favorite Things
I’ve realized lately I really am a California girl. No, I’ve never been surfing, but to me I’m a CA girl because I love the sun and I love summer. I think summer weekends were meant to be spent by the pool eating cantaloupe and flipping through magazines. Nights are meant for evening barbecues with friends and of course, margaritas…or my new favorite summer drink, the Skinny Girl Pina Colada (vacation in a glass, trust me). So, I’ve compiled a board on Pinterest of all my favorite summer things. Seriously, pulling some of these items out are the trigger that lets me know it is summer. You can check out my board here and I’ll be adding more to it in the weeks to come.
What’s your favorite summer item?
A Time To Learn: Don’t Share Your Goals
Okay, so I listened to a new TED talk today (I swear I will write about other things in the future). This one was really interesting and I had to share. Derek Sivers spoke on the idea of keeping your goals to yourself. He stated that psychology tests have shown that when you tell someone your goal it makes the goal less likely to happen. Apparently, telling someone tricks your mind into feeling and thinking that the goal has been achieved so you never actually get around to doing it! I have actually heard something about this before. I’ve heard writers say that you shouldn’t talk about what you are writing, because once you write it you have no need to put it down on paper. I’ve also sort of experienced it for myself. When I start a new eating plan and don’t talk about it, I tend to lose weight, but the second it’s noticeable and people say something to me I start cheating. I feel like the pay off has come even though I’m not actually at my goal. Also, when I tell people that I’m dieting I seem to cheat all the time!
Now clearly, I have put goals on this site and I’ve talked about my weekly personal challenges, and for those I think it’s fine. You all are my accountability. I want to be able to come back and say I accomplished what I set out to do. And I’m not going to quit writing about the idea of goals or how to set them or even some of the mini-ones I set for myself, but for the bigger stuff, I totally get this line of thinking. Think of your goal, write it down, put it on your bulletin board, bathroom mirror, cell phone wallpaper. Make it as in YOUR face as possible. Just keep it from everyone else.
A Time to Learn: TED Talks
Has anyone heard of TED Talks? I’d seen them written about before and heard about the big conference they have, but you can go online and get a new talk everyday. Basically they are talks on a HUGE range of topics brought to you by people from Google, Disney, Apple, etc. They are meant to teach and inspire for the future.
I’ve got a new addition to my list of things to do. I’m adding one TED talk to my list each day. Some are only 3 minutes long! Um, I’ve got 3 minutes. With the amount of time I spend pinning, and going down the rabbit hole of blog after blog, I can take 3 minutes to learn from a TED talk. Consider it my daily, intellectual devotional.
Today’s TED talk was by Matt Cutts, an engineer at Google. He spoke on 30 Day challenges (strange that I picked this one first, right?) Obviously obsessed with 30 Day challenges (and weekly, and minute ones, etc.), I was curious what he would say. He first spoke to the audience about taking 30 days to do something to your life you’ve always wanted to do. Or take something away for that matter (i.e. not eat fast food). People talk so much about these types of challenges, and their results around each personal challenge, but what was different in this talk was he spoke of overall findings in doing these challenges.
- Time was more memorable instead of flying by. Because he had a focus for each day, time was appreciated more and therefore he never said, “where did the time go?”
- His confidence grew. I think this happens anytime you try a new skill. You learn something new, see it isn’t scary and are now more willing to try more things. Because of these challenges, Matt went on to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro!
- If you want it bad enough, you can do anything for 30 days. I totally resonate with this one. It’s very true and I’m glad he talked about the “wanting” aspect. Its actually a test I use in my own life. I know when I haven’t continued with a goal I simply don’t want it bad enough. It’s not true to me. BUT, if you really want something, 30 days is so motivating and doable.
- Small Changes=Sustainable. Matt spoke of how big ideas and grand schemes are great, but can you really keep them up? Small changes can be maintained. And just because you did it for 30 days, doesn’t mean you have to continue doing it after. One challenge he gave himself was No Sugar for 30 Days (I can’t imagine), and he said Day 31 was filled with candy! But he could still say he did it.
I love this type of thinking, and for me the hardest part is limiting the amount of challenges I make at one time. I do think
you can have more than one, but probably not more than one in a particular area of your life. For example: 1 new fitness/
health challenge, 1 new home challenge, 1 new professional challenge, etc.
What kind of 30 Day challenge would you start with?
A 15 Minute Day Planner
I know I wrote a while back on taking my to-do list and doing each item for only 15 minutes. Well guess what? I found a printable list that helps you schedule out those increments (and check them off!). You can find the list by clicking here.
I wrote out my list this morning, but you can do yours the night before if that’s better for you. I just tend to forget things when I do that and I wake up, think of new things and go, “Where am I going to schedule this?”
Here is how to use the 15 minute day planner:
1) This is NOT your to-do list. Do not put every item on your to-do list on this for the day. Normally to-do lists can contain items that will take more time or are done daily so don’t try and fit it all in. BUT, do have it out as a reference for things to schedule.
2)Put in appointments first at their appropriate times. Remember to leave time for driving! (You can also color code -like appointments in red, errands in blue, etc., but for some of us that’s just more work.)
3) Leave room for breaks. Some tasks will take a few minutes longer and you could get part way through your day and think of something you forgot to schedule, so leave spaces that can be filled. I recommend 1 15 min. break every hour and 45 minutes, so basically the last 15 minutes of every 2 hour chunk should be blank. And if you don’t think of anything, close your eyes, flip through a magazine, or get another task done early!
4) Put a fun or easy activity after a hard one. FYI-hard does not mean physically exhausting. I had to really gear up to send one email today, but I did it because I knew it would only take 15 minutes tops and after I got to do a mindless activity. So basically, after something that mentally is taxing or stresses you out, put a mindless activity. Today I cleaned out my brown sugar jar, and while it took no brain power, I got something done I really wanted to get done. (And yes, I know that’s a weird thing to want to get done.)
So those are my tips on how to schedule your 15 Minute Day Planner. I’ll be back tomorrow with some tips on how to use it throughout the day! Have a productive afternoon!
A Month Challenge: Photoshop Basics in 31 Days
Oh how I love Pinterest. Not only can you find amazing recipes for foods you never need to eat (like cake batter fudge), but also workout guides, free printables and tutorials for just about anything under the sun. I came across a pin for Photoshop Basics in 31 Days. In case you haven’t noticed, there aren’t a lot of photos on this site. That’s because editing photos stresses me out and seems to take me forever. I was getting into it with Picasa and Picnik, but now that Picnik is gone I’m just sad and frustrated. Sidenote to Google: The Creative Kit on Google+ is not user friendly and I miss Picnik!
So anyway, now I feel like I should become a big girl and give Photoshop another try. Maybe it will become fun to me. Maybe I’ll loathe every minute. Either way, I feel like I need to give this a try and this tutorial seems like a really good way to do dip my toe in the water. So, instead of a weekly challenge, this is a monthly one. We’ll see how I do. If you’d like to challenge yourself to Photoshop, here’s the link so you can join me in this challenge: 31 Days of Photoshop Basics.
