Category: Fashion

Happy Monday! Today I am sharing a super chic work wear suit with a pop of color to bring some excitement to this Monday haha! I am also sharing 3 work productivity tips that are super simple to implement and have helped me get the most out of my work days!

Every time I ask you all what topics you want me to write about on the blog an overwhleming number of you ask for tips how to manage being a mom and working full time. Honestly, most days are so different. I have really great days and I have not so good ones. And if I am being a thousand percent honest, the main reason I am able to manage a full time corporate job all while being a mother and running a blog is because 1) I have an amazing husband who helps in so many ways when I am busy trying to hit deadlines and 2) I don’t sleep much. I legit can feel rested after 3 hours of sleep. 4 is actually a perfect amount for me. I do crash once a month but then I start all over again LOL.

So although I wish I could give you one main secret that would help, I would never tell you to only sleep 3 hours a night LOL. In the next couple of weeks I will share some apps, small shortcuts and daily habits that help me manage my daily tasks. Today I am sharing 3 helpful tips that help me to be more productive in the office.

Outfit Details: Purple Top: Gibson Look | Blazer: Express | Pants: Express | Heels: Sam Edelman | Handbag: Target (similar)

3 Tips To Help Work Productivity

1 – Quit Multasking

What?! Yes, you read that right. For years, I had so much pride in the fact that I could multi-task but not until the last year I realized multi-tasking actually made me take a little longer on finishing tasks. Yes, multi-tasking can work on some things like cooking dinner, feeding you toddler all while listening in on a conference but trying to multi-task at the office or while finishing up a project does not allow you to put your full concentration on the main task at hand causing you to either 1) not finish said task with your 100% full effort and/or 2) taking you much longer than it would have if you just were concentrating on one thing.

Don’t me wrong I can respond to emails when I listen in on group conference calls but working on a full analysis while listening in on a conference call won’t work. Not for me at least.

2 – Cut Down On Meetings

Before you schedule a meeting ask yourself if taking 30 minutes out of someone’s day is truly necessary. Also, when you are invited to a meeting I would really consider whether it is truly beneficial to you or your role in a project. Personally, if I am not leading a project firsthand and I have a team member attending the meeting that I can trust, I will just ask my team to give me an update afterwards. Most often than not their 7 minute recap will provide me the same if not more information than sitting in a conference room for an hour waiting for everyone to arrive, catch up and wrap up would.

I think a meeting can totally be necessary if multiple people are responsible for different aspects or a project but sometimes a group email update can be sufficient rather than a repeating meeting. Again, I do think meetings are necessary but not always, so before you block off yours or someone else’s valuable time ask yourself if it could be done over a quick phone call or email.

3 – Minimize Interruptions To The Best Of Your Ability

Yeah yeah, I know, there are always those people who always want to chat but sometimes even those brief interupptions can throw me out of “my zone” and will take me some time to get my train of thought and motivation back to what I was previously working on. One of the nice things about my company/department is that most of us are able to choose one day week to work from home. There are projects that I intentionally leave for those days because I know I can get through them quickly without any interupptions.

However, if you do not have that luxury, I would recommend closing your door if you have an office or even stepping away from your work area if you are working on time sensitive projects. Before I had an office, I would tell my team I was going to work in the conference room to work on a project or if a conference room wasn’t avaialable I would kindly tell my team that I was trying to hit a tight deadline and would appreciate no one talking to me LOL. Just tell them nicely, they totally get it.

Other types of interruptions you can avoid are phone notifications going off. Like text messages, emails, social media notifications, all of the above! I turn them all off and sometimes I will even turn my cell phone completely off yo keep me from turning my phone over to see I have a hundred group text messages LOL. When I have my phone off, it keeps me from getting easily distracted.

I hope my 3 productivity tips help you like they help me! As I mentioned, I will be sharing more work tips in the upcoming weeks!

Wishing you all a great week!

If you like this post you may like “Tips for a Productive Work Day“.

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Outfit Details: Dress: Amazon (wearing a medium) | Heels: Target (Sam Edelman Dupes) | Handbag: Fashionphile

When I was in Utah last week I went to dinner with a sweet blogger friend and we got into the conversation about how it is so hard not to compare yourself to others. Even with personal successes, social media really has a way of putting someone in your face who is “doing so much better than you”. I know it’s tough not getting caught up in the “Keep up with the Jones'” mentality or I guess this day in age “Keeping up with the Kardashian’s. With social media being such an important factor in my job in the blogging world and as it rapidly continues to grow as a marketing strategy for every company I really have to check myself on this topic more often than I can count.

Today I wanted to share 4 reminders I continually have to tell myself and maybe they will be helpful for you too!

4 Reminders To Stop The Internal Comparison Game

Quit Focusing on the Wrong Person

When you compare yourself to others, you are focusing on another person what they have done, what they have achieved, and what they are doing. Remember, you have no control over this other person. All you can control is you. So check yourself (as I say this to myself) and your attitude.

Remember You Do Not Have The Full Picture

When you look at someone else’s success, you only see the result. You may be looking at years of effort, comparing your beginnings to their end. By now we know that social media is the curated highlight reel of other people’s lives. To achieve the success you desire, you need to walk the road to success. It never helps to jump to the end and make comparisons to those who have already arrived.

Life Is Not A Competition

Since life is not a game, we should stop competing. Life is something that happens every day, every second. It is something to be enjoyed. Many individuals who are super successful in one aspect of life may be complete failures in other aspects. We do not know what they had to endure to get there.

If You Have To Compare, Compare Yourself To Yourself

Instead of comparing yourself to other people create the habit of comparing yourself to yourself. Look back on how much you have grown, what you have achieved and what progress you have made towards your goals. Embrace the journey and celebrate your wins. This habit creates gratitude and is a reminder for you to celebrate all of the great things you have accomplished and how far you have come. Your self comparison is the only comparing that should matter. **said to myself in the mirror every week. If you are improving, that is all that matters.

I hope my 4 tips on comparison really brought something to you today. Comparison is something I battle often and I just want you to know that you are not alone. We ALL do it and hopefully these 4 tips will help us do it less!

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