life hacks

Welcome to Adulting Camp: Which Side Are You On?

/ Lindsay / 1 Comment

“Like a Boss” vs. “Adulting is Hard”: Life in the Modern World

If you believe social media, which you’ll say you don’t but you and I both know that you spend at least three hours a day on there so who are you kidding, how could you not internalize it all?, you likely fall into one of two camps.

The first is Camp Type “A,” where campers frequently shout “Like a boss!!” while fist pumping; live life by bullet journals or tidily organized To Do lists; and probably stay up all night drinking caffeinated gin while sewing their kid’s school play costume with one hand, freelancing with the other and, if they’re really good, having an orgasm at the same time.

The second is Camp Adulting is Hard, and their motto is “Nope.” They’re uncomfortably honest about their failing relationship, the fact that they have literally never gotten their kid to school on time, how early in the day they open the wine bottle, and how disgusting their bathroom is. Continue reading →

Advertisement

Day 5 of 28 Days to Simplify My Life a la Pinterest: Work Fast

/ Lindsay / Leave a comment

Today’s tip is another from the productivity infographic pin by Anna Vital: How to Work Fast.

From an infographic by Anna Vital.

From an infographic by Anna Vital.

Here’s a slew of tips for getting more work done in less time. These are some good tips, although, I realized once I was doing them, they are specifically geared toward a certain type of work.

I think that these are great tips for a university student writing a paper. Most of them centre around writing, especially writing a draft. There is also the tip about writing 140-character emails, which, frankly, is tough. I think that the point is to keep it concise so you don’t lose people.

To follow the tip of keeping the lights bright, I worked in the sunny living room (that was nice). I put on music, which I do always find helps me to be more productive. And when I work at a desk, I usually make an effort to have it clear, though now I’m making more of an effort.

There was nothing groundbreaking that came of these tips today, however I’d say that for anyone doing a lot of writing, these could be really helpful. I’ll continue to aim for bright light, music and a clear desk for my writing environment in the future.

Tomorrow at work, I’ll get up every 45 minutes and move around, as suggested by this pinned piece from Buzzfeed.

As always, feel free to check out the entire Pinterest board for this series.

Day 3 of 28 Days to Simplify My Life a la Pinterest: “Start the Day”

/ Lindsay / Leave a comment

The real name of this tip is “How to… Start the Day,” and outlines the things that different very successful people do first in their day. Pin here.

“How to Start the Day” – part of a life-hack pin by Anna Vital.

When Day 3 came around and I looked at this a little more closely, I realized that this tip is actually six different tips, two of which I will be doing on other days and one which is not applicable (no opportunity for customer service this morning!). I chose Steve Jobs’ quote: “Every morning I asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?'”

We were having a snow day, and didn’t have anything to do or anywhere to be. The plan for the day was to stay in bed until about noon and spend the morning drinking coffee while watching New Girl on Netflix. If today were the last day of my life, is that how I would want to spend my morning? Yep.

Not a real goldmine of a tip here, but given that I fulfilled my plan for the morning and it felt great, we’ll call this a win.

Tomorrow, I’ll be identifying what is unessential in my life, and eliminating it, apparently. I am not quite sure what I am going to eliminate… hopefully I can come up with something. Pin here.

Once again, the dedicated board for this series is here.

Day 2 of 28 Days to Simplify my Life a la Pinterest: Pick Out Your Clothes and Shoes the Night Before

/ Lindsay / Leave a comment

I liked day one, and this idea for day two seemed great. Although really, do you save that much time? Either way, you have to pick out clothes. Five minutes in the morning is just being moved to nighttime, right? Oh well. Mornings are tough – maybe the point is to start the day with as little stress as possible and set a positive tone. Sounds good to me!

This is one of those suggestions that came up again and again in my Pinterest mining, but I took it from Stylecaster, where author Perrie said:

“Pick out your clothes—and shoes—the night before.

We realize that you’re not an 8-year-old girl, but laying out tomorrow’s outfit tonight, intuitively, is a huge time-saver. Be sure to iron, steam, lint-roll, or treat anything else you need to the night before as well, and hang your outfit on a hanger outside your closet, so all you have to do in the morning is reach for it. It helps to keep your shoes out, too, since digging through your footwear collection in the morning could get distracting (the “this shoe or that shoe” game can be a massive time suck, right?).”

Check out all Perrie’s tips on getting dressed more quickly in the morning here.

Pretty standard - tunic, tights, legwarmers, cardigan. Add some wool socks and sneakers and I'm out the door.

Pretty standard – tunic, tights, legwarmers, cardigan. Add some wool socks and sneakers and I’m out the door.

The verdict? I think I’ll try to do this on a regular basis. It did save me a couple of minutes in the morning, and I actually got out of bed more quickly because deciding what to wear was one less thing to dread and feel anxious about. I really did used to do this when I was eight, and reinstating this habit doesn’t seem like a bad idea at all. We have another winner!

Tomorrow, I’ll be trying this slightly more complicated set of suggestions for how to “Start My Day.” Pin here.

And of course, the dedicated board for this series is here.