by Solange Lopes | Oct 27, 2017 | Career
Welcome to our weekly career, entrepreneurship, lifestyle and fashion news roundup! Think of it as your online watercooler/work gossip station/coffee break spot for now…Want to add anything to our list? Email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
- Black Enterprise lists 7 business grants to help women launch and grow their startups;
- The Daily Muse lists 10 amazing companies hiring right now;
- Glassdoor lists 11 companies that will pay for your vacation;
- Ellevate Network shares the painful but rewarding journey of starting a business;
- Business Insider reveals that millenial workers care most about highest salaries;
- Recruiter shares that dealing with difficult co-workers can help you improve your performance;
- Ellevate Network tips you off on finding your calling when you don’t know what you want;
- Looking for small business ideas? Recruiting Blogs shares 4 ideas you can start working on under a month;
- WhoWhatWear shares 5 style habits that will make you look more professional;
- Food52 has tricks to clean your home in 30 minutes or less.
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Oct 25, 2017 | Career
If you’ve ever found yourself wishing for more hours in the day, then you know that time is one precious commodity. Even more than money, time allows us to pursue our goals, live fulfilling lives and ultimately fulfill our purpose.
Not managing your time effectively can prevent you from accomplishing your goals, whether it’s through procrastination, distractions or endless planning. This in turn creates less balance, more stress and a general sense of frustration in our lives.
While a number of distractions are caused by apps, there are some out there that can actually help us manage our time more efficiently. Here are 7 apps that can help you create more time through the power of organization and focus:
- Workflow
Do you spend too much time on the same tasks every day. Workflow can help you create shortcuts so you can batch a number of tasks on your phone instead. It helps you create customized workflows to perform tasks such as pulling directions for an event, for instance. There are over 200 actions and integrations with and between apps such as YouTube, Uber and Facebook.
- Wunderlist
Does your to-do list look like a gigantic pile of deadlines, half-confirmed meetings and other open items? If so, Wunderlist can help.
This to-do list app actually helps you collaborate with friends, family and colleagues by allowing you to share your goals, assign tasks, due dates and reminders. It keeps your family, friends and team in the loop, while helping you remember important deliverables.
- Rescue Time
Spending too much time online? Rescue Time analyzes your online activity, and provides you precious feedback as to where you spend your time online. This is a great way to uncover the activities that are making you waste time, and actually block them.
You can get alerts when you spend too much time online, while also helping you focus on spending your time more effectively.
- Timely
Do you tend to under-estimate, or over-estimate, how long certain tasks are going to take you? Timely is a great tool to help you plan your week ahead of time, as you estimate how much time it will take you to complete your tasks. You’re then able to compare your own forecast with the reality and adjust your schedule accordingly.
It’s a great tool to keep you and your team on track, while holding you accountable to complete your goals.
- Pocket
If you’re a fan of saving links and content online, Pocket will save you enormous amounts of time. Instead of being thrown off by a great piece of content, this app allows you to save it so you can read it later.
It stops you from getting distracted, while making it easy and practical to save new content.
- Break Free
Break Free is another app that lets you control your digital life by helping you understand how you spend your time on your phone. This app monitors how much time you spend on the apps on your phone, and sends you a reminder when you exceed your “allowable” time on any of them.
- Cozi
If you have a hard time getting your family life organized, in between getting the trash out, dropping off the kids to soccer or shopping for groceries, then this app is for you. It stores all your information in one place, including your to-do list, calendar, journal and shopping list, which can be shared with the whole family.
Which apps do you use to manage your time more effectively?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Oct 24, 2017 | Working Mom & Woman Tips
If you’re getting in the Halloween spirit at work, you don’t have to restrict yourself to only decorating the front of your home. You can also take the season to work and brighten up your cubicle.
Here are a few ideas you can use to add some pumpkin spice and Halloween-style to your workspace:
Halloween Wooden Tabletop – photo credit: target.com
Fun signs are a great way to add some seasonal spunk to your desk area. This Halloween wooden tabletop sign is a sparkly and festive addition to your workspace to direct your co-workers to that coveted candy bowl.
Foam Pumpkin – Photo credit: www.target.com
This lightweight foam pumpkin is a great alternative to real pumpkins (which may rot over time). Place it on your desk, on a bookcase or on the floor of your cubicle or office, and welcome the season!
Happy Halloween Banner Set – Photo credit: www.target.com
How about adorning your cubicle walls with a fun banner set like this Happy Halloween set to welcome colleagues. I also like this fun shatterproof wreath that will look great on your office door as well.
Halloween Ceramic Pumpkin Bowl – Photo credit: target.com
Nothing like a fun serving bowl to add some candy swag to your cubicle! I love this cheerful and whimsical ceramic pumpkin candy bowl, perfect for your desk.
How do you decorate your cubicle or office for Halloween?
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Oct 24, 2017 | Working Mom & Woman Tips
If you look at your calendar as a working woman, you may be tempted to take a dive and just swim in it. As working women, our schedules can be closer to Madness Land if we don’t stop and actually re-focus ourselves every now and again.
I know my biggest struggle when it comes to being productive and effective is managing my time effectively. As a mom, a wife, an entrepreneur, a sister and friend, wearing the many hats life throws at me can be quite the juggling act. When you must be everywhere all at once, setting priorities is crucial.
Here are 7 questions to ask yourself daily to manage your time effectively as a working woman:
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What matters the most?
It’s one thing to make a to-do list, it’s another to determine what matters the most. However you decide to rank your priorities, decide what matters the most in order to accomplish your goals and objectives for the day. What has the most impact on your goals and success? That’s what you should zoom in on.
This may also mean making peace with not getting every little thing done, but focusing on what matters most.
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What can I say no to today?
We may tend to want to include just about everything that may fit into our calendar. However, mastering the art of picking and choosing what to say no to is crucial to meeting your goals. Every day, ask yourself what you can say no to, so you can actually say yes to what matters and has the biggest impact on your success.
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Why am I doing this?
Identifying the “why” behind your actions goes a long way towards setting your priorities in the right order. What is the motive behind what you do day in and day out? If the reason behind what you do is not tied to improving yours or someone else’s success, then it may be worth reconsidering whether it shoud be part of your to-do list.
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How can I do this better and faster?
Managing your time effectively also means creating systems and processes that allow you to perform certain tasks faster and better. Can you look at the tasks and responsibilities that fill out the bulk of your time and devise ways to execute them faster and better?
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When do I have to get this done by?
Deadlines are important, not just as gatekeepers of our time, but also as mechanisms to help us organize ourselves better. What is more urgent? What needs to be completed first? Putting yourself in a position to complete your tasks within their deadlines will not only make you more fulfilled and satisfied. It will also free up time to tackle other tasks on your to-do list.
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How much help am I getting?
Managing your time more effectively also means getting the right kind of support around you. How are you being supported in the achievement of your goals? Who in your network is offering their help and support? Answering this question will help you find out about your support network, and learn to ask for help as well, so you can save time and focus on your strengths.
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Is this going to matter in five years?
Whenever I face a seemingly impossible obstacle, I ask myself if it’s going to matter in five years. What’s the impact of your actions? Is this impact short-term or long-term? If it won’t matter in the future, you may have to either push it to the bottom of the list, or take it out of your to-do list entirely.
How do you manage your time more effectively?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Oct 23, 2017 | Career
Workwear: Striped Midi Sheath Dress – Photo credit: target.com
Our Workwear feature presents various pieces of work-appropriate attire at different price ranges and sizes.
This striped midi sheath scuba dress from Target is the perfect compromise between ’60s cool and modern appeal. I love how the horizontal and diagonal black and white stripes flatter any silhouette, while adding chic originality to this design. The midi length keeps it classic and professional, from the work meeting to happy hour. It’s available from sizes 4 to 14, and is $49.99 at Target.
Striped Midi Sheath Scuba Dress
What pieces of workwear would you like us to feature? Email us at corporate@thecorporatesister.com!
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To Your Success,
The Corporate Sis.
