What is Orange and Sounds like a Parrot?

A carrot :)

Hopefully that has brought a little more joy into your busy day!

New post soon- Promise!

Sugar in your coffee?

"The Balanced one maintains a perfect regime of healthy foods & exercise to add a great deal of natural energy to their life; not relying on caffeine to begin the day"

There are several blogs that deal with health issues. Several. No Really, There are millions. Well, at least hundreds... regardless of their quantity, they are most likely written by those with a great sense of achievement gained by jumping higher, lifting heavier & running further (take The Health Blog for example- a great source for all things fit). The unbalanced one is, however, (surprise!) not such a gym addict.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good run (Jog) 4 times a week (Twice) after work (If it's not raining), and we all know that salad is our friend (not necessarily sandwiched between two 4oz burgers); the point is- boosting your health, even only a little, is a great way to get sorted & balanced.

There are several ways to really help kick start a more energetic lifestyle within the balancing act of the world's workers; but are you going to try them? Most likely not- I know this as I often do the same, "Ah so a quick stretch in the morning helps wake you up? I'll give that a go..." Needless to say- those stretches stay in my mind & the yoga mat stays in the cupboard. The Yoga cupboard. or something.
So what can you realistically do to give a little boost to your body? well a little article here is an enlightening read- How many sugars do you have in your coffee? Possibly one to many; or even just a half to many... It all adds up!

So just think- the next time that you find yourself becoming the brewing barista of the office & you instinctively reach for that sweet sugary stuff; STOP and (before HAMMERTIME) try one less spoonful.

Because if your day doesn't start right...

How on earth will it get any better?

"The Balanced one sleeps for a solid 8 hours, every night; relaxing before bed and rising in perfect time to get ready for a full and stress-free day"

How do you wake up?


Whether it's the eternally hateful and universally hated buzzing of an alarm clock, or the melodious music of your mobile phone's few choice chimes; chances are it is rarely met with a smile and a sprightly leap out of bed and into the working day.


Over the last few days, the unbalanced on has found the best way to get up in the morning is not to drink an inordinate amount of water the night before and drift off to whale music; but rather on maximising the quality of the sleep & being slowly stirred with classic fm.


There are many urban myths that revolve around waking up fresh and smiley; but the best & easily most concise is as follows-  17 ways to wake up feeling fresh


and the most important of these-

•  Go to bed happy
•  Cut the noise- it's actually killing you!
•  Be Grateful for not Dying

If you get the sleep right, and can wake up looking forward to anything- Anything at all (Even that night out with an old friend on the weekend) then the rest of the day will fall into place like you wouldn't believe!

Google the Saviour

"The Balanced one always maintains a perfect diary; never missing an appointment and always on time."

 

For the unbalanced on, this is essentially impossible.

 

Social dates, meetings, dentist appointments, children's parties, hand ins, lunches, dinners- Where do they all go? how many diaries are necessary to ensure you always make these dates? Outlook is a great tool for the office, but the social side of life rarely fits into a 30 minute slot that's linked to 14 accounts...

 

So for all those that might slip through the net and cost you some valuable time in the dog house- Google (unsurprisingly) is the social Saviour.

 

Although google+ may not yet be facebook 2.0 (and I'm not insinuating that it one day shall be) the suite of software in place for the common man is everything you need to keep yourself on the straight & narrow. A great tool for emails, gmail also offers great synchronisation features which manage to do the almost impossible- bridging that divide between feature heavy technicalities & fantastic user interfacing with real usability. I should point out at this interchange that I also have two android mobile phones, both of which are integrated with google programs and as such any updates either at my laptop or on the move are all synchronised immediately. Thanks to this spilling over onto iOS platforms also, anything in my gmail inbox can be rapidly added to my 'iCalenders' also, another great marriage of softwares.

 

Because of this, I'm never without a chirpy assistant telling me where I should be, with whom & for what reason- occasionally sending me an email telling me to pull my finger out and get sorted.

Well maybe not that much- But I'm sure it'll be added in the next update.

 

It's always the smallest things that make the biggest impact, and this is no different- getting organised is all about the little changes- and just by using this powerful tool you can really kick your schedule into touch.

 

The real message here? Don't spend your time trying to keep up- spend half as much doing it before hand.

Working from home

Is hugely beneficial for a social life :)

But that's almost all.

Although today has been a great day for using those valuable minutes to get in touch with family, friends, sorting out my MOT, clearing some space on my laptop & MOST importantly; having a little flick through GQ... I can't help but think that it was somewhat less productive than yesterday...

There are a few truths to the idea that certain jobs are less suited to working from home- so in my experience so far; there are a few points that might help clarify this situation:

1. When you have the option to work at the office or at home, you will pick home. People like their homes, and rightly so- But working from the office is a great way to socialise, and it makes you appreciate your home so much more!
2. When you have a few minutes without the boss on the phone, and decide that you have earned a little break, it will not be little. Because there's always one more episode of Jeremy Kyle, one more page in that magazine, one more page on failbog.org or memebase.com so by all means take a break (They are smashing websites) but take many little ones; and you won't lose your flow
3. There is little more disruptive than a breakdown in communication, and it's more difficult to understand each other when you're 30 miles apart. We've all had that "Sure thing, I'll get right on it."*Hang up* "Crap. Was that in Power Point or Excel??" So make sure that the times you are talking are clear and to the point. It's easier to swivel around and ask questions at the office.
4. Finishing on time, is finishing on time. Today I had a call from my friend at precisely 4.30. I was picking up the phone, looked at the time, and told her I'd call back in 30 minutes. 4 minutes after, I called her back and had a damn good chat. It's so important to remember that just because you're at home you still work office hours; it's all the sweeter when you actually finish!

There are SO many more I'm sure, but these were the most pertinent to my situation today- I hope that I can remember to read this again the next time I get the option to WFH! 

Because every great Journey...

Has to start somewhere...

"The rules are: Tell the exhaustive truth, even if that includes judgment, criticism and asking and answering hard questions. We'll use this blog to achieve one primary goal -- to say what we think."

Leslie Morgan Steiner- "On Balance" The Washington Post [online]

I have stolen the above quote (although having at least referenced the author I suppose my thieving-ness has been somewhat quashed...) from a fantastic blog that I was lucky to find a few years ago; written by an insightful and frightfully sharp lady who embodies the majority of women running busy schedules worldwide. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/onbalance/2006/03/welcome.html

It is, therefore, slightly underhanded of me to be spring boarding from this to my own blog- as I subvert this into my own experience of an almost entirely more male experience. Only almost... I mean... We should all be in touch with our feminine side a little... Anyway, I've just left university and although all the options I thought would lead me to my new seat at the height of the world have been pulled from under my feet; I have managed to land on them regardless- More, it would seem, by luck than judgement...

But having moved an inconceivable amount of amassed university paraphernalia, and the totality of my life back into my hometown; keeping a job, my parents, my home friends, my university friends & my sanity in a state of harmony is somewhat difficult- So for all the people out there in similar situations, this is for you!

I hope to chronicle my little life from work to weekend, gadgets to help organise busy schedules, social situations & how not to get slapped (figuratively AND literally) and more than anything else; let everyone know that no matter how bad things get- there's always a way to get things identified, organised and dealt with.

And every now and then there might be a joke- Because life is boring enough...