7 Steps to have a productive day

The other day it was a pretty good day. I slept in late, I had breakfast while doing laundry (hello, multitasking!), played an online game for a little bit, cleaned the whole house, organized the bedroom and the closet, and cooked chicken wings for dinner and cheesecake for tomorrow (that’s still in the making while I’m writing this).

I hadn’t cleaned my house in a *pretty embarrassing* long time. Who has time for that? Definitely not me.

At the end of the day I sat down (finally) and I thought that it had been a good day. Even if I’m harsh on myself a lot of times, I have to admit that I did accomplish part of what I needed to do. Sure, my to-do list is a few miles long and doesn’t seem to get shorter, but I needed to get organized and do some housekeeping. Tomorrow will be another day, probably full of blog stuff and other different things.

I am definitely not the most productive person in the room (well… I’m alone right now LOL), but I know that if I want/need to have a productive day I have to organize myself and follow the steps that I’m going to show you below. Tomorrow I have a few important things that I want to get done, so I will have to focus and be on my best behavior haha.

 

1. Write down what you want to accomplish and the amount of time that you think it will take you. Be realistic about the time, or your plan for the day will be destined to fail. If taking care of your email takes you 30 minutes but you had scheduled 15 minutes, you will most likely end up feeling pressured and maybe overwhelmed because you don’t have time.
2. From that list, make a schedule for the day. Schedule the most important/urgent tasks first so you actually get them done. You can spread them throughout the day if you want. The important thing is that you will actually do them.
3. Do not multitask. By scheduling the tasks you will create slots of time when you are just going to be thinking about that task that you’re doing, because you know you will take care of the others later on. I like multitasking, but I’ll admit that many times is the greatest way to waste time. You think you’re doing a lot of things in half the time when they are actually taking 3 times more.
4. Do.It. No excuses. Follow the schedule without getting distracted by social media, the phone, the internet, the TV, your friends… The secret to get things done is to be on them and not letting anyone/anything distract you from your goal. If you need to, put the phone on silence/plane mode and use some apps for the laptop (they restrict the access to social media and other websites).
5. Set a timer so you don’t overpass the scheduled time. If you gave yourself 1h to research on a subject, stick to that hour. We all know that we could spend hours and hours doing research, but if you’re on a tight timeline you have to make yourself stop.
6. Schedule some breaks too. Your brain also needs to rest for a little bit every once in a while. You will be more productive too if you allow some time off, even if it’s 10 minutes here and there.
7. Celebrate your success! Don’t forget to add your accomplishments to your success jar (if you have one) at the end of the day.

Do you follow any plans to be productive? Do you schedule your day or you prefer to go with the flow?

7 Tips to STOP Biting your Nails

I’m not sure how it started. Or when. Or why.

But I know it ended in the beginning of 2012. For the most part.

I still do it sometimes. When I’m stressed, nervous or I feel a little anxious.

I’m talking about my nail biting habit.

Really, guys, it is a serious thing. Think about it. You use your hands to hold, move and touch things that we don’t even know if they’re clean. And what do we do next? Take that same hand to our mouth to satisfy that weird… is it a need? Our mind tell us that we need to do it, the same way that some people (like my husband) need to keep moving or making noises with their hands or feet.

Anyways. Nail biting is a disgusting habit. Who knows what amount of bacteria (and other nasty stuff) are you putting in your mouth without even thinking about it? Yeah, I didn’t think about it when I was doing it. It was just a reflex action. And, sometimes, I would realize after a couple of minutes into it.

After a little research on the internet I have to say that my nails weren’t that bad. I always stopped biting when it hurt and, usually, before they bled. I have read stories and seen pictures of people that went waaaaaaaay further than I did.

For many years my mom tried to make me stop that nasty habit. She would use a special nail polish that didn’t taste good, garlic, the slap technique… Nothing worked. And then, in 2012, after a bad break up, I stopped. Maybe it was a sign that it was actually for the best LOL

The other day, though, I realized I was biting my nails again. That’s something that I still do every once in a while, when I’m stressed out or something. And lately I’ve had so many things in my head that it’s not weird that my mind reacted that way.

Also, I wasn’t paying that much attention to my nails, so they had some edges that I had to get rid of, you know…

I was thinking about the subject and I decided to look over the internet to check out some ideas to stop this bad habit and I gotta say I tried most of them. Below you will find a few ideas that you can follow to stop biting your nails.

• Trim your nails. If your nails are short, you will probably have nothing to bite. And be careful not to leave any edges so you don’t have a starting point. How many times I started with a very tiny edge and I destroyed the rest of the nail! *Answer: too many to count*
• Use a bitter tasting nail polish. I didn’t knew it was a thing until my mom brought it home. I don’t think it worked with me that much. I think you can get used to the taste or just be careful to use only your teeth. In any case, I think the main reason for it to work is because it makes the nails shiny and they look pretty. You can also put garlic on your nails to get the same result (except the pretty part).
• Get a manicure. Either if you pay for it or it takes you some effort to go through the “filing-trimming-coating-waiting-coating-waiting” part. You don’t want to destroy something that costs you money or time, right? And they look so pretty, you won’t want to destroy them either!
• Discover what triggers this impulse and find other ways to manage the situation. Yoga, meditation, breathing…
• Tell your friends and family to let you know when you’re biting your nails. Many times we don’t even realize that we’re doing it until someone points it out (or it hurts).
• Whenever you feel the urge to bite your nails, try playing with a stress ball, snapping a rubber band in your wrist or something similar. That will distract you from the bad habit.
• As motivation, you can take daily pictures of your hands and track your progress with them.

 

Tell me, have you ever bitten your nails? What did you do to stop? And, if you are still doing it, are you planning on stopping? Let me know in the comments!

Easy (and free) ways to help the planet + cruelty free makeup brands

Happy Monday everyone!

I was planning on doing a loooooooong post about how bad we have treated (and are treating) this planet, but I just decided that, instead of focusing on the bad stuff, I’m going to talk about a few small steps that we can do to better things. I am a firm believer that if everyone and each of us did a couple of things every day, we can enjoy a better life together!

Below I talk about a couple of those actions that we can take in our every life. They are not hard to follow everyday and they will have a good impact in this planet that we call home.

With all the trash and residues that a person produces every day, I think is very important for us to follow the three R’s:

• RECYCLE. I find it difficult to do in the US. In Spain we had pretty clear how to separate and there were colored dumpsters in the street to divide the trash. My complex, for example, doesn’t have any recycling bins anymore; they took them away a few months away. How can it be so difficult to recycle?
• REUSE. I’ve been looking to some DIY projects that I’ll explain in future posts) the trash that I produce
• REDUCE. I always go grocery shopping with my huge Ikea bag and other reusable bags. Some cashiers in Walmart seem kind of bothered by that, which is weird for me. In Europe it’s very common for grocery shops to charge for bags

Also, I found this website with 50 easy ways that we can help the planet. Remember that simple things can make a difference! Number 19 is a great idea to do as a family. And don’t tell me you don’t like number 17! 😉

• http://www.50waystohelp.com/

 

Another thing that we can do to help is using make up and beauty brands that don’t test in animals. That’s something that I’ve been researching pretty recently, but I am making part of my life. I have seen terrible pictures of those testing – I’m obviously not going to post them here, but you can write on Google “make up animal testing” if you want to check that out.

With a quick Google Search we can find a list of those brands so we can look at it next time we go shopping. I have learnt very interesting things through this search and I encourage you to take a look. I’m just going to leave a couple of links for you to check if you’d like 🙂

• http://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/cruelty-free-drugstore-brands/
• http://www.crueltyfreekitty.com/ultimate-guide-to-cruelty-free-makeup/
• http://www.thegoodtrade.com/lists/cruelty-free-makeup-brands
• http://www.logicalharmony.net/cruelty-free-vegan-brand-list/#axzz3sFm1IxHO
• http://features.peta.org/cruelty-free-company-search/index.aspx

Let me know in the comments what you think about this post and how are you helping the planet!

Why you need to drink more chamomile tea (and use the bags too!)

I’m going to say something that has shocked family members and friends for years. I. DON’T. LIKE. WATER. Just drinking plain water. I know we’re about 50-70% water and drinking it has a ton of benefits, but I have struggled with that since I can remember. And I have argued with people telling me that water has no taste. Sorry, not sorry to disagree.

I have to really make an effort sometimes to drink it, but something that I like is tea. Not a super huge fan yet, but I’m working on it!

Long story short, the other day my left eye got super swollen and I didn’t know why! Apparently it’s a sty, and I found out that if I put some chamomile tea bags on it, it would get better. I looked on the internet the benefits of chamomile tea and I knew I had to share them here. I didn’t know it had that many!

• I have always known that it calms your stomach if you had a heavy meal or if you have nausea. When I was little, my mom used to give me some if I didn’t feel well. It also helps to prevent and get rid of colds.
• Drinking chamomile tea is another way to relief some stress, as it has some sedative power, which makes us sleep better at night.
• You can use chamomile oil after shaving/waxing to relieve the area too. Your skin will thank you for that!
• Prepare some tea (preferably with fresh herbs, not with the little bags), strain it and let it cool. You can use it as a facial tonic and it will deeply cleanse your skin.
• Did you know that you can use chamomile tea to lighten your hair? And it helps you get rid of dandruff and to keep greasy hair on point too!
• If you have dark circles like me, you can put the tea bags on your eyes for about 10 minutes.
• Lastly, for woman that suffer severe cramps during their period, they might want to try and drink chamomile tea a few days before the P day. Apparently it has a relaxing effect in the body that makes a difference.

I’ve been drinking a cup everyday and using the bags for my swollen eye and, at least for the eye, it worked. It also helped me with the cramps, so it is definitely something that I’ll have to add to my routine! Let me know in the comments if you drink tea and how it helps you!

Have a great week!