Your eyes are getting heavy. The struggle to focus is real and your work begins to suffer. Classic symptoms of the afternoon slump. The good news is that there are three effective cures that I have been using, and I hope they can help you overcome this slump in your day.

When our energy levels dip in the late afternoon, our productivity, focus, and creativity can suffer, causing us to fall short of our best selves. So, what can we do to combat the afternoon slump? I have three ideas that may help.

Take Breaks

The first and most common cure is to take a break. Although it may seem counterintuitive to stop working when we're feeling unproductive, sometimes our bodies just need a quick reset. Getting up from your desk, stretching, or taking a few minutes to relax and refresh can help clear your mind and reset your energy levels.

To help myself take regular breaks, I use a diffuser in my office with a mix of doTERRA oils that help to focus my mind. The diffuser also has a one-hour timer...

Want to know the secret to getting ahead? I always cringe a bit when I hear these words “it’s simple but not easy”

The answer is consistency. Our work is extra demanding as female creatives, and we have to put in a lot of effort because it's not just our business we're handling. One thing you can control, however, is your consistency. My topic today is consistency, and why it is important.

Why is Consistency Key?

Consistency builds reliability and trust with your customers, partners, employees, and relationships. Let me share a cool story that I came across while researching for this post. Look up Newsette, a company that built a multimillion-dollar business on an email newsletter. The company founder attributed her success to consistency, simply showing up every day. They send a daily newsletter to ambitious businesswomen, providing them with top news and exclusive interviews. They've built trust by consistently showing up in someone's email box, and...

Have you ever been so absorbed in your work that you lose track of time and all other distractions just drift away? If so, you may have experienced the state of flow. But what exactly is flow state?

Flow state is defined as a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption and inactivity. The concept was pioneered by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and has since been researched and widely recognized as a beneficial state to achieve in work or other activities.

Skiing down the face of a mountain gave me that feeling for the first time. It wasn't long before I could translate that into my work. There are times when my fingers fly across the keyboard.

The Benefits of Flow State

Hopefully, you've experienced this before and can relate, but even if not, let's go over a couple of benefits.

• Increases happiness and helps you escape your everyday routine
• Improves focus and concentration
• Ties you into intrinsic motivation and provides clarity on what you're doing

Flow...

“Life can only be understood backwards; but It must be lived forwards.” Soren Kierkegaard

Ironic and a bit tragic, but you can learn a lot from your past if you take the time to pause and reflect.  Move forward into tomorrow a better version of yourself. Trust in a better tomorrow earned by the mistakes of yesterday.

A time like the end of the year lends itself to this kind of reflection. We don't need the calendar to flip to inspire this kind of reflection, but since we're here, let's do it.

Set a Vibe

Let's start by setting a vibe, because it's so much more fun. Get comfy and here are a few things to think about:

• Music
• Smell
• Lighting

Buckets

Don’t just look at one very narrow pocket of life. I want you to think about all of the buckets in your life. Revisit this post for a refresher. So yes, your business, your work, your relationships, your health. Lots of us think about our health at this time of the year. Think about your hobbies....

Kvetching means complaining in Yiddish.

It is something I have known since childhood. Having a Jewish mom and Jewish grandparents shaped my upbringing. Funny how we are influenced by our environment as children. 

Since becoming an adult, I have noticed I complain more than I'd like to, whether it is because of my upbringing or not. In today's post, I'd like to talk about why we complain and how to choose gratitude instead. 

Complaining Defined

Let's look at the definition of complaining: to express grief, pain, or discontent, but also expressing satisfaction or annoyance about a state of affairs or an event.

What's the difference between complaining and expressing emotion? 

In a conference, when you listen to a speaker, you may say, “that speaker was boring.” That's complaining, but you can also say, “I did not learn anything from that speaker.”

Reframing it as an emotion takes the complaint out of it, but it also gives you an opportunity to...

Can I have your attention?

It's a given that we ask for attention, but don’t give it away so easily. The purpose of today's post is to discuss why that is so critical. 

Mind wandering can be a good thing. It can inspire us to be creative. It is nice to get lost in thought when we are facing a difficult situation or want to relax on a Sunday afternoon. There are times, however, when you don't want your head in the clouds. 

The mind wanders a lot more than we would expect. A scientific study shows that 96% of Americans experience wandering minds. Our heads are off task up to 50% of the time during the day. 

Attention is what our brain focuses on, the boss of everything we focus on. Don’t you want a nice boss? We don't want to be led down rabbit holes we don't want to go down. 

Let's look at the definition of mind wandering. Mind wandering is you are not guiding your mind to remain on one topic. Your constraints are...

Focus is more challenging for those with attention deficit issues, and what can neurotypicals (without ADHD) learn from these tools?

I want to start with my journey with ADHD.  My daughter was five years old when she was first diagnosed. She had tics as a toddler so we were already really spending a lot of time in doctors' offices trying to figure out what was going on. 

The diagnosis came when we took her for extensive testing with a licensed educational psychologist. My husband and I wanted to try everything we could before using medications. There are a lot of differing opinions on this subject, but I want to be clear…there’s no shame in choosing medication. My son was diagnosed a few years later.

I have been very invested in trying to find tools and hacks to help my kids focus. School requires attention to things kids find very, very boring. ADHD kiddos tend to get into a lot of trouble and really struggle with focus. 

Why...

Goal-setting is a frenzy around the new year. Motivation is ramped up by a fresh start.

New beginnings don't have to wait until January 1st.

"Most of us have harbored a sense that beginnings are significant. Now

the science of timing has shown that they're even more powerful than

we suspected. Beginnings stay with us far longer than we know;

their elects linger to the end”

WHEN by Daniel Pink 

Pay Attention to Landmarks

As a child, my family moved from southern to northern California. On long weekends and holidays, we drove back and forth between the two.  A GIANT cattle ranch is halfway between the two (about 3.5 hours into the drive). Without even looking up from the movie I was watching, I could smell cows and feel excitement for getting to Grandma's.

Back to School is a landmark in time, just like the cattle ranch is a physical landmark. In an article published by the Wharton School, it was found that temporal landmarks, or distinct...

There is a real struggle at my house to empty the dishwasher. It's a kid's chore, but I find myself bracing myself every time I utter "empty the dishwasher."

A recent therapy session addressed this power struggle. One of the recommendations was to use a timer and make a game out of how fast you can empty the dishwasher.

I smiled because I instantly thought of the pomodoro technique. (Yep productivity nerd over here). Of course, why didn’t I think of that.  One of the advantages of pomodoro is gamification.  The race to beat the clock makes a boring task more fun.

What is the Pomodoro Technique

Pomodoro is a staple productivity technique for focus (and you’ve probably heard of it before) but before I get into more reasons why it works, here's a brief description of what it is…

In the late 1980s, Francesco Cirillo developed the Pomodoro Technique. It uses a kitchen timer to break work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in...

Still unpacking the glittery outfits from a weekend in Vegas.

This was unlike any other Vegas trip I’ve ever been on.  Yes there were bright lights and late nights but during the day I was at a personal development conference to LEVEL UP.

I won’t get into all the details of the event, but I will say it was AMAZING!

In the personal development world, we are often asked to look at what is holding us back from reaching that next level of achievement…regardless of what you are trying to achieve.

One thing that always that comes up for me is perfectionism and after sitting in room full of others going through the same exercise, I know that I’m not alone.

Perfectionism Defined

Let’s start by defining perfectionism. For me it has always been allowing something to take way longer than it should (or possibly never even completing it) because I want every detail to be just right.

After spending some time researching the...