2016

Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017!

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I know 2016 has been a brutal year celebrity death wise… or is it just that we have now become hyper aware of everything going on around the globe? I am not sure.

But personally 2016 has been an amazing year for me and I am extremely grateful for that. Obviously not everything is sunshine, gumdrops and roses but such is life. You can choose to focus on all the bad things or you can choose to focus on the positives.

In retrospect 2015 was a shit year because I lost both my paternal grandparents and it was hard. But you know what? Both of them lived extremely fulfilling long, healthy lives and I am blessed and grateful to have known them in life.

Anyways I digress, this post is not supposed to be a sob fest… I just wanted to say thank you for reading my blog this whole year and I hope to create more content in 2017! See you on the other side! ❤ Happy New Year!

Breathe… Relax… Let it go…

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Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, the holidays are a great time to take it slow… breathe… and let that shit go.

take-it-slow

Every year on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I like to do nothing except sit at home, eat and watch Christmas movies with my loved ones and that’s exactly what I will be doing this year. What about you?

Happy Holidays everyone! 🙂

Vacation Time & My Plans!

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Last week has been rather busy and hence the lack of posts. Though, to be fair, I have posted quite a bit in the last two weeks and will hopefully continue to do so over the next 2.5 weeks because vacation time!

vacation time

Though my vacation is going to be more like this…

winter-time-vacation

… because Canada!

I will be reading a lot and getting my apartment clean and set up for RLB and family to visit! 😀 we still haven’t hung up the paintings or even our clothes! LOL

But today, I am going to go watch Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with C and I am incredibly excited! Will leave a review when I get back.

3 Things I want to do for myself in the next 2.5 weeks: 
1. I want to get myself in the habit of eating healthy – so I will be keeping a food diary for the next few weeks
2. Make a list of all the books I have by author
3. Read 10 books

What are your plans for the holidays? 🙂

3 Books I’ve enjoyed reading this year | Morning Musings

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The year is almost at its end and I am kind of bummed to report that I didn’t read nearly as much this year as I did in 2015. Maybe this is due to the fact that my commute was much longer last year or perhaps the fact that I am now more focused on taking pictures of my bookhauls rather than focusing on the reading… ha!

But here are 3 books that I highly recommend you check out…

  1. While the World is Still Asleep by Petra Durst Benning
    Genre: Fiction
    fullsizerender-24
    This was by far my favourite read this year. It is a translation from the original German text but the translator has done an excellent job!The book is set in 1880’s Germany and revolves around our heroine Josephine and her new found love of cycling that she developed after she was blamed for the untimely demise of her 7 year old brother and sent to a village to recover from an ailment and psychological trauma 😔 🇩🇪

    She is even sent to prison because of her desire to cycle 😐 😵
    🔸Fun fact: Did you know that women were not allowed to ride bicycles in 1880s Germany?🚲  That is so messed up on so many levels and makes me so grateful that I was born when I was born. I know there is still a lot of work to be done.
    If you are a feminist, read this!
  2. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
    Genre: FictionScreen Shot 2016-02-17 at 12.13.49 AMI loved this book. It also happens to be my first Hemingway read. Not gonna lie, it was a tad hard to get into since Hemingway took his own sweet time talking about the surroundings and banal things but I started enjoying that a few chapters in.You should check it out if you enjoy reading fiction inspired by real life and reminiscing about Paris and its lost generation. Not going to do a review, you can google it!
  3. Fan Girl by Rainbow Rowell
    Genre: YA FictionScreen Shot 2016-06-11 at 1.48.58 AMSo this book! OH MY GOD! ALL THE FEELS! I even talked about it on my blog earlier this year! I really enjoyed my time in university (well mostly) and I love the feeling of falling in love. This book was perfect for anyone who likes all of the above! I don’t really read that much YA anymore but Rainbow Rowell is the reigning queen and I suggest you check out her work pronto!

What were some of your favourite reads for 2016?

Morning Musings – On Productivity & How to Get Shit Done!

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xjski_seizy-oli-dale

Here are three things I learnt this year that have helped me become a more productive person – still a work in progress.

  1. If it doesn’t fit on a post it note it is too much stuff! 
    Earlier this year, I sat down with Hana Abaza, former VP of Marketing at Uberflip and chatted with her about all things marketing and her best time saving skill.
    She told me that each morning when she gets to work, she writes down all her daily tasks on a post it not and if it doesn’t fit on a post it note it is too much stuff.
    Tasks can’t be things like “send email to Alan” but rather substantial tasks that can be broken down into subtasks.
    I’ve been using this neat little tip for almost 6 months now and I have to say it really works!

  2. Plan your day the night before
    When I first started my career I did everything as and when I remembered them. Either that or I made a giant to do list with no deadlines in mind. Hey! I am just being honest!
    But since discovering Intelligent Change Productivity Planners, I have started planning not just what I want to accomplish during the week but also on a daily basis. At the end of the day I get to rate myself on how productive I think I was. I have to say gamifying it really helps!
    intelligent-changeTo be honest, I don’t think you need a fancy planner to get shit done but this one seems to work for me. If you don’t feel like spending the $$$, you can write out your weekly tasks and daily tasks on a blank journal.
    The important thing is to identify your tasks in varying degrees of importance and time yourself on how long it takes you to finish a task as compared to how long you thought it would take.
    Oh and plan your day the night before if possible!

  3. Make a To Don’t List 
    Yup! Make a list, on a post it note, where you write down what you don’t want to do that day. For instance if you don’t want to use social media during the day or certain hours, write it down and stick it on your screen. Other examples include stuff like not replying to emails as soon as they come or anything that takes you away from your work.

At the end of the day you know yourself best. What works for me, may not work for you, so use these tips at your own discretion! 🙂 Have a wonderful week!

Morning Musings – Resolutions vs Projects

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books

You know how I made resolutions earlier this year and then kept up with very few of them, if at all?
Yup I’ll be the first to admit that I am not very good with keeping up with resolutions and they really don’t work for me. Instead, what works is coming up with projects and working on them and one of the projects I want to work on next year is borrowing more from the library instead of buying books – well at least for a month!

Books are the best investment but lately this is how I’ve been spending my money…

How I spend my money

To make sure that I am on the path to success, I am starting out my resolutions a little early and starting December I am no longer going to be buying books. Let’s see how long this lasts.

Have you already started working on your resolutions?

Morning Musings – 3 Things you can do Today to Build your Personal Brand

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If you google “how to build your personal brand” you will get tons of articles touting the power of social media, setting up your own blog or even doing speaking gigs. While all of that advice is valid, most of us –
a) don’t have the experience to land constant speaking gigs
and
b) don’t have the time to blog or be on social media 24/7 or , let’s face it, the discipline to do all of the above all the time.

build

but there are some simple things that you can do today to build your brand and no sending out a tweet a day doesn’t count. Yup I have tried all of them out.

  1. Build your brand one connection at a time 
    If you are someone who like to go to events just to network and then get extremely frustrated when people don’t respond to your emails, you are doing it wrong! Stop trying to gather business cards and start building connections. and how exactly do you do that? By figuring out who your tribe is.
  2. Figure out who your tribe is 
    No matter which platform you use – instagram, blog or twitter, you need to figure out what kind of community you want to build.
    For example I want to connect with other community builders and women in STEM so I seek out events where these people will be or follow them on social media platforms.
    Keep in mind that building a connection doesn’t mean that you have to tweet at them every 5 seconds but rather get involved in conversations and add value instead of just taking value.
    P.S: find some good twitter chats – yes they are still a thing
  3. Mix IRL with online
    If you are just starting out your career, I’d recommend finding some events where your tribe will be and make it a point to show up. Because tweeting or sending LinkedIn invites is great but that can’t beat the magic of a real life connection.
    If you are in the startup world, startup digest has a good amount of event listings, you can check meetup.com or certain blog. If all else fails google “events in …..” and you should be on your way to find some!
    Most events have hashtags so follow those and become a part of the conversation even before the event.
    P.S: if you really love an event consider volunteering for it!I hope this helps and rest assured that I won’t dish out any advice that I haven’t tried out myself.

Morning Musings – How to make the most out of your job

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Blogging every day – Day 1

I am doing this thing whereby I start my mornings by writing a short blog entry, it could be anything from something I am grateful for to whatever I am planning on accomplishing that day or what’s on my mind.

hustle

For today, I want to chat about how you can start enjoying each day at your job. This is a conversation I had with 4 other people yesterday.

  1. Know what you want in life
    I know this sounds a little cliché but it is also super important. You really need to know what you want in life. I have always wanted to be a writer and becoming a marketing manager means that I do get to write and practice my craft lots.
  2. Set goals for the month
    Try to learn or improve on one thing per month. For example I want to get better at email marketing so for the month of november I have read a shit ton of email marketing books and written draft nurture campaigns. If monthly goals are too much, set smaller weekly goals.
  3. Bring new ideas to the table and implement them to hone your skill set
    When I wanted to get better at running events, I volunteered my time to community organizations but when I wanted to run the show and really learn A-Z of everything, I decided to propose it to work. Thankfully they were open to the idea and the rest is history.
    If your work is not super open to new ideas (MAJOR RED FLAG or a sign that you work in a super corporate environment) then volunteer your time on different teams. Make it your goal to volunteer at least once a month.

That’s it for now! See you tomorrow!