Modish Biz Tips

August Goal Check-in & some Freebies!

Hi all! Sorry it was so quiet around here last week. I've been really pre-occupied lately with house hunting, and needed a little break with at least one blog for a bit. I hope you understand.

I wanted to be sure and pop in today though to give you a mid-month goal meetup reminder for August!

It's August 18th, you officially have 2 weeks left in the month to get those goals accomplished. How's it coming so far? If you haven't checked anything off your list yet, do so today! Just one thing. Crossing something off would feel sooo good, wouldn't it? You can do it!

Also, I've had a couple (super awesome and talented) readers email me recently offering some productivity freebies that I thought you might be interested in! 

FREE WEEKLY PLANNER

The 1st is Esther Coombs, an amazing illustrator who gives new life to vintage china with her hand-drawn embellishments.

She created a hand-illustrated little planner that she uses daily to keep track of her to-dos and organize her time. She thought it could help some of you stay organized too, so she's offered it here as a free download! Here's a mini-version of it so you can see what it looks like. Download the full size below and print out to use it yourself!

Take a pause. Be present. Breathe.

{cute gocco print by Argyle Whale}

I suggest we all take a moment on this lovely day to just slow down a bit. Be still. Be mindful. Be present.

I think all too often our minds are consumed with the past (all those things we didn't do, should have done, could've done better) and the future (all the to-dos, plans, schedules, things we still need to get done.) But while our brains are busy being consumed with thoughts, our bodies are here in the present moment, doing all they can do to keep up with the tasks that our over-active minds put upon them.

And yes, goals and lists and plans are good, otherwise it'd be nearly impossible to get anything done. But it's also good to pause and reset every once in awhile.

Think of your brain like a computer: it needs to shutdown sometimes to clear out its RAM (the energy and space it takes to run all the windows that are open, all the applications running, everything going on in the background, etc.) so it can focus better on the task at hand. It can get overwhelmed, overheated by trying to access and organize and process all the data that it's constantly inundated with. And often, all it takes to get your computer running more efficiently, is just to turn it off for a bit. For 5 minutes, 15 minutes...

So I suggest we take a moment to turn our brains "off" too. Shut them down. We need a moment to catch up with ourselves. To stop the in and outflow of data. A moment to just be, here in the present moment.

If you're up for hitting the reset button on your brain, continue on for a super easy guided meditation that you can do sitting right there at your desk.

Operation: Inbox ZERO! Get your emails under control

{illustration by m-c}

Emails. Emails. And more emails. They just never stop coming, do they? I often feel like the hardest part of my job is keeping up with all the emails. It can become so overwhelming! And I know many of you have the same issue, whether you receive a few emails a day or over 100, it can be hard to stay on top of them when you're doing so many other things at once. So what's the cure?

Inbox Zero.

Inbox Zero is an "action-based email" system that'll help you conquer all your email woes. It's main mission is to ensure that you end your day, everyday, with zero items in your inbox. Zero as in go to bed feeling productive, sleep easy and have a better day tomorrow kind of zero. Can you imagine?

And it does work. At one point, I had over 3000 emails in my inbox (amassed over months.) These were not all unread, un-responded to emails, but many of them were. Most of them were just sitting there, collecting dust, reminding me of all the people I did not answer and things I did not do, making me feel like a pathetic business person at best... and meanwhile, more and more emails just kept. coming. in.

So one day I decided to take back my inbox and get on the path to productivity. I took the 43folders' inbox zero approach to my email and within a few hours, I was down to zero. And it felt darn good.

Inbox Zero will help you:

• prioritize your emails and define which ones are "actionable" (things you need to do something with) and what to do with the rest
• not be afraid to delete, delete, delete
• devise a realistic system for answering emails that doesn't take up every ounce of your precious time
• see how filters can help you organize and get thru your inbox faster (I now have my blog comments, mailing lists, twitter and flickr mail and stats all filtered into their own folders that bypass my inbox completely- it helps a lot!)
• stay on top of your inbox for the long haul