More "Staycation Tips"

Here are a few more tips to go from Vacation to "Staycation"!

-The 12 Steps

Even when on holiday many Americans only take a 'semi vacation". They lug their laptop to the beach and I have seen them talking on their cell phones while taking a hike. They allow themselves to work "1 or 2 hours" a day. If you aren't fully disconnected from your work, you aren't allowing yourself to truly replenish. A semi vacation isn't the real vacation your body needs.

How do you avoid that? The 12 Step Rule.

Take 12 steps away from your computer, blackberry, iPhone. If you can't take the 12 steps away from your computer for two days...you may be addicted to the over stimulation it represents.Take a real break for two days a month.

-It's Nap Time


"After the going's been tough the tough get horizontal." If you are like most Americans you have a sleep debt. Take some vacation time to catch up on your zzzzzz's. Studies show that lack of sleep is a huge stressor for your body. It feels luxurious to nap when your body asks for sleep.

-People First


Is spending time with friend pretty much the last thing on your To Do list? Now is the time to see how much richer and fuller your life is with the folks you enjoy. Potlucks, bike rides, hikes there may even be free concerts or gallery events in your town.

-Get International


If you can't leave town, find the international flavor where you live. This is one of my personal favorites! Eat a type of food you've never eaten before. Indonesian (my friend Annette and I had no clue of what we had ordered), Bulgarian, Ethiopian and Hungarian are some of the offerings in Los Angeles. Regardless of the city, I bet there is a sort of food experience that would be adventurous.

If you really want to feel like you have left town, go to a foreign market. I ventured into Asian warehouse market in a neighborhood called Little Saigon. It was like taking a trip to the Far East. I walked down entire grocery aisles of unknown foods, fruits and frozen treats. I brought home melons, pink rice like concoctions and Happy Bo coconut cookies. Yum!

-Dive Into Difference


Whatever your weekend rituals, break them. Do something different. (Always a mega stress buster.) If you take a walk in the forest, go somewhere else. Let the new location surprise you. I did this and went for my walk on a different beach. A family of dolphins "welcomed me." I walked along side them as they swam south for almost 45 minutes. Then I dove in to swim with them.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eli-davidson/7-tips-to-turn-your-long_b_277999.html

Drain Your Brain To Save Time!

More time management tips revealed!!

Drain Your Brain
Go Through Your Spaces At Work and Home.
Look through your desk drawers, desktop, in-basket, closets, cupboards, shelves and file drawers and make a master to-do list of anything that needs to be done based on what you see. For example: As you look in your file drawer do you: Need to clean out last years financial file and store the receipts, make file folder labels for the most recently added documents, follow up with a potential client, whose business card you found stuck in one of the folders.

Go Through Your Electronic Spaces
Look through your email in-box, PDA and voicemail messages and add any action items to the existing master to-do list that you are not going to handle immediately and are not recorded elsewhere. For example: An email from a colleague requesting you make a few changes to a report you wrote, a voice message from your brother about possible dates for a family reunion, an email from the professional association of crawfish-catchers announcing their annual crab feed fund raiser.

Go Through Your Brain
Look through your own mind and using the list above write down any relevant to-do items. Once you have done this final emptying out, you can keep this system squeaky clean by adding to your master to-do list anything that pops into your head.

Share your strategies with me! How do you make it through the week?