How to make better to do lists!

Planner, Crystals, Productivity, Smart Goals, Work Smarter, Women in Tech, Lifestyle, Life Lately, Life Tips

To do lists are the micro levels of my big dreams.  Big dreams are astronomical, may take months or years to achieve them, require persistence and consistency.  Consistency is where our daily to do lists come in.

I do want to preface this post by saying the following:

  • we shouldn’t be slaves to our to do lists
  • to do lists don’t own us
  • to do lists are meant to serve us 

So if your daily to do list, post it or weekly planner spread is making you feel bad about yourself – throw it out, take a beat and start over again when you are ready!

We shouldn’t feel productivity debt (feeling like you always need to be doing something and rest is not deserved unless your to do list is completed) from not completing everything on our to do list & there is nothing you NEED to do to earn your existence.

But when you are ready to schedule the day you want to make it amazing – read on!

Side note: I’m writing this as I was feeling overwhelm trying to use notion.  Notion is meant to be a tool to keep your life organized but there was too much scope creep in their product – for me at least.  The idea that it might also need to look aesthetic, link to a Spotify playlist and my Pinterest mood board was a little too much.  So I realized I need to step back and figured others might need to too.

So how do we make our to do lists work for us?

  1. Figure out your big dreams, goals, priorities and projects.   But also think about the habits you want to build and routines you want to have.
  2. Pick a medium that works for you.  Could be paper or digital, simple or complex.  You’ll also want to choose a template: Is it just 1 sticky note for the day, or multiple colour coded ones, is it a weekly spread planner or an hour-by-hour list of tasks.  This can obviously change but it’s a great idea to try something out.
  3. Fill your list with your daily living + tasks that will help you got to your big goals.  Example are meetings, but also your workouts (goal: to focus on fitness).  It could be having lunch with someone and blocking 2 hours in the morning for writing (goal: to write a book).  
  4. Pick something to fail at.  Not everything has to be checked off and not everything has to be done well.  So knowing what can be moved to another day vs a non-negotiable will help you stay intentional and not feel like you aren’t moving forward.

Remember – it’s all about getting to outcomes (not getting things done).  Your to do list should be on your side helping you build intentional habits and keep you 1 step closer to your goals!

Planner, Crystals, Productivity, Smart Goals, Work Smarter, Women in Tech, Lifestyle, Life Lately, Life Tips

A Dreamy Nutella Crepe at @Sugarhill_Desserts Vaughan

I love desserts and specifically chocolate desserts. Chocolate chip cookies are my fav!

I’ve tried creating cleaner options of my most treasured dessert (which you can find here, here, here and here).

BUuuuuuut once in a while, I’ll indulge! And I’ll go all in!

Into the richness of the chocolate and sugar at an actual dessert shop. I don’t do it often and because of that – I really savour the experience 🥰

The last time I had dessert shop dessert was in Las Vegas (Sugar Factory).
We had a waffle and crepe and it was covered in Nutella and cookie crumbs and it was pure joy.

I definitely felt like I didn’t need to eat dessert again for at least a month
(spoiler alert: I had desert before that)

Enter Sugar Hill Desserts 💕

This cute little place was lively, modern aesthetic decor, had a heated patio and an amazing variety of desserts.  

Of course I opted for yet another Nutella crepe & and did no disappoint. Nutella spread inside, Nutella drizzle outside, Nutella-esque ice cream on top, Oreo crumbs for the crunch & bananas (because balance – right?!)

Conveniently located across from Vaughan Mills and right off the highway exit this is a MUST try any time you are in the area, on the way to or back from cottage country or even if you are a local looking for a fav dessert spot!

9 Habits to become unrecognizable in 6 months

I cannot take credit for this. But I really wanted to share it.
(Edit: all pictures are from Pinterest)

I’ve been following @Art0fLife_ on twitter for a few months and I love when people re-share their content. It means 1) it resonates with folks and 2) it needs to be shared more.

The 9 habits shared by @Art0fLife_ are very specific, so I’ll be sharing them with a more consistent mindset as opposed to a “follow this exactly to find results”.

Should preface by this saying, I’m will a Work in Progress. I do do a handful of these, but there are areas where I know I want to improve.

Image from Pinterest
Image from Pinterest
  1. Wake up early at the same time every day: really dependent on what time you go to sleep, but if you know the hours of sleep you need (somewhere between 6-8 for most of us) you can get into bed and get that sleep in consistently. Why wake up early? because you get time to yourself and it ensures you are ahead of everything and anyone
  2. Journal daily: Don’t know what to write? brain-dump, goals, gratitude list, thoughts that make you spiral. Getting things out of your head will dramatically improve your creativity and mental wellness.
  3. Learning/Studying for 30 min a day: This is so important for anyone and unfortunately we do less of it in mid life and beyond. Whether it studying certification material (hello scrum, agile, data or product) or hobby (wood work, coding, knitting, content creation). Learning creates increase neural pathways and can also help you create multiple income streams.
  4. Exercise daily for at least 30 min: not only for the physical side, but also for the mental wellness side. Consider ways to incorporate cardio (swimming, running) and resistance training (weight lifting, resistance or body weight exercises).
  5. Meditate for at least 5 min: Essentially sitting in silence or with a guided mentation will help you practice mindfulness and give your mind a break.
  6. Create a proper sleep schedule: including a wind down routine. This will do wonders for your performance, productivity and mood.
  7. Walk in nature: I love my forrest baths. Nature is a proven way to improve anxiety and increase happiness. It helps to also get the creative juices flowing. I would love to do this daily but it’s only once a week currently. Will be looking to improve this.
  8. Read 20 pages a day: read anything (fiction, non fiction, self dev, poems, history etc). Reading an actual book helps to improve focus and knowledge (even if that is just what a word means and how to spell it).
  9. Drink 2.5-3L of water daily: water is essential to our body and our recovery. So staying hydrated is key.
Image from Pinterest
Image from Pinterest

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Starting the new year with renewed focus and intention

It was a GREAT 20 days of blogmas! I am pretty impressed with my ability, consistency and ambition.  I think it was the longest streak of blogging I’ve had in a long time.  For January, I’ll be returning to more regular yet less frequent blog posts.  Maybe, it will be twice a week and centered around a new theme – I haven’t confirmed my creative process yet! :P

<Admin reminder for myself> I’ve also yet to share all the posts on Pinterest so that will take some time in January also. So between editing titles (taking out the word “blogmas”), promoting on Pinterest (and twitter & instagram for that matter) I know I’ll be scaling back.  </end reminder>

So here is my first post – post blogmas!  It’s a multi day vlog showing my routines & habits.  All things I want to continue focusing on in the new year.  Whether that’s nature works, morning workouts, journaling, reading, meditating, doing well in my career – it’s a reminder that my Focus and Intention needs be all about consistency.  So hopefully it inspires others out there who want to start (or stay on …like me) the journey of their personal development and self growth.


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My go-to healthy pancakes

So easy, yummy-hit the spot pancakes. I got you! These pancakes 3 ingredient (minus optional toppings) pancakes are refined sugar & gluten free – incredibly simple to make and you probably don’t even need to go to the grocery store!

Pancakes, Gluten Free, Healthy, Good Food, UGC, Ikea dishes, Window, Natural Light, Food Photography

I never liked making pancakes from scratch, the flour would be all over my counter and the batter was always clumping. The beauty of this recipe, any high speed blender does all the work!

What you need:

  • 2 spotted bananas
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup of quick oats

Instructions

  1. Put all ingredients in a high-speed blender, blend until smooth
  2. Heat a griddle or flat pan and greese with avocado spray or butter
  3. Turn down heat on pan
  4. Immediately, using an ice cream scoop, scoop 1 laddle full of batter and shape with back of spoon
  5. Cook each side for 3-5 min (golden brown)
  6. Let cool on a paper towel lined plate
  7. Enjoy warm, with berries, whip cream, Nutella or pure maple syrup. The choices are ENDLESS!

Pancakes, Gluten Free, Healthy, Good Food, UGC, Ikea dishes, Window, Natural Light, Food Photography, Christmas Morning Breakfast
Pancakes, Gluten Free, Healthy, Good Food, UGC, Ikea dishes, Window, Natural Light, Food Photography, Easy cooking

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Blogmas | Tech definitions for you and your grandma

I recently listed to Brit Morin explained a few tech buzzwords and I felt compelled to share!  Check out the definitions for you and your grandma below!

Web 3.0

This essentially means we are in the 3rd version of the world wide web/internet. But there is a very interesting difference between each version (shout out to all the folks who know how to swith their floppy from read to write). 

Web 1.0 was dial up where most of the users could only READ what was posted by government or other professional bodies.  Web 2.0 was where people started actually creating content on the internet.  Whether that was blog posts, facebook photo albums or youtube tutorials – meaning we were able to WRITE on the internet.  Web 3.0 is where it’s tricky.  We are still creating content, but we now are starting to realize we do not own any of that data.  Like I am writing this post right now, but I have no legitimate ownership of these words.  It’s technically owned by the companies that store the data (ie: go daddy and wordpress).  When we had floppy disks we could write to it and also share it with others without a real worry that it was going to be stolen.  But now because go daddy has got my blog post on their servers I can’t be for sure they won’t use it for their own gain).

It’s an interesting concept that brings up a lot of questions about control and ownership.

Blockchain

Think of block chain as at type of technology that acts like a ledger.  What is a ledger, it’s a term used in banking to document all transactions of an institution.  Blockchain can be used to track all types & details of transactions (details such as: who made the txn, when, was something bought, was something sold etc).  Why does this matter?  Well blockchain has the ability to be the bridge between moving society from only writing on Web 2.0 to successful ownership of one’s own data in Web 3.0 (because Web 3.0 was built on blockchain).  There are more uses of blockchain like identity and finance but just thinking of it as a book that records all the details of any type of transaction is key.

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