Homesickness

<< This picture reminds me so much of living at home this time last year >>

So a crazy thing happened over this past weekend: I felt homesick. This was a feeling that I was not expecting seeing as I basically ran out the door without looking back.

I was missing the comfort of home, the home cooked meals and the warm freedom of having a car and most importantly: the people. I wanted so badly to just spend the day on the couch with the people I love but instead I was on my own couch, feeling sorry for myself and crying (wahh wahh wahh).

Eventually I pulled myself out of my funk but I've come up with a list of things to do when you are feeling the tug of home as well.

1. Call home
    So…this may have made me a little more homesick but it was still something I needed to do. It felt good to hear the voices I was missing.

2. Plan a time when you can go home
    Give yourself something to look forward to and something that will help ease your homesickness. I've been home this weekend and it's been a nice, relaxing break from my life of work, work, work in Toronto.

3. Do something to make yourself feel better
    You may be planning a trip home soon but that won't help you right now. Journal, watch a funny movie, bake some cookies, go for a nice long jog, do something that will occupy you and be a little therapeutic.

4. Spend some time with a friend
    If you can't be near the people you love at home, surround yourself with the people you love who are near you. Remember who is important and around you right now.

5. Make a list of things that you are grateful for in your current situation
    Whether you write it down or just take a mental note, remind yourself about things that you are grateful for in your current surroundings. I reminded myself about all of the things that I love about my life away from home and that made me feel a bit better.

Of course, being away from the warm comforts of home for one of the first times in your life will inevitably lead you to miss it, especially when you're having a hard day. Don't let it get you down. Enjoy your life as it is now and consider yourself lucky that you have a wonderful home to miss.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Half adult/half baby (but I'm working on it)

Grin and Bear It

I tend to think of myself as a pretty laid back person. Yes, I'm a stickler for being on time and I thrive on organization, but I also am less likely to find myself in conflict or confrontation with another person. I may be bothered by what others do but I tend to keep it to myself and only vent to those closest to me.  Truthfully, I am just terrified of confrontation. Any time I've ever been confronted in my life I usually end up crying and looking like a big weakling. I've found that it's simply easier to let people do what they are going to do and to not let it affect me too much. I know this may seem like a pushover move but I'm here to tell you why it's better to not rock the boat.

1. You'll be happier if you're not surrounded by conflict
    Any time I've ever been in a state of conflict in my life I tend to get extremely stressed out. I find myself more stressed out by the conflict than by what was bothering me before.

2. The problem usually takes care of itself
    I've found that the problems I usually have, usually get taken care of. If I'm afraid that my friend is acting weird, I find that if I wait it out, they'll usually go back to normal. When someone is bugging me, I usually find that by not engaging in conflict with them then I can usually get to know them better, then I can better communicate with them and then I don't have to create a conflict, I can have a kind and understanding conversation with them.

3. People will appreciate your positive attitude
    I'm not even going to try and lie to you by telling you I'm a positive person. I can definitely be negative. Sometimes I find myself only spewing complaints out of my mouth, but who wants to be around that person? I find that when I try my best to be positive and not engage in gossip and bashing then I'm able to be seen as someone who people can trust and who they want to be around. Also, we aren't in school anymore kids! There is no longer a space for negativity and gossip. We have to be adults about our problems now.

If all else fails grab your closest and most trusted friend and let it all out. It's healthy to just talk it over but make sure you aren't doing it with every single person you know. Keep your complaining to someone you trust who will actually want to listen and help you with your problems.

And remember:

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Laid-Back Lady

Shameless Money Saving Trick

Never get dressed..

Okay…so I know that this tip probably doesn't work for everyone, but it's something I've realized about my life as it has become. I basically never get to wear 90% of my wardrobe. Why's this? Because I'm either in my pyjamas or dressed in my work clothes which are only allowed to be black and white. This leaves so much of my wardrobe unused. This means that I don't feel the need to buy new stuff as much recently because I forget about my clothes and then when I remember an outfit it seems brand new again. Score.

How can this tip apply to you?

Try this trick: challenge yourself to not wear the same thing for two whole weeks.
Instead of letting yourself fall into a fashion rut, try mixing your wardrobe up a bit. Dig into the back of your closet and find new ways to wear things. Pair different tops with cardigans and blazers. Layer your button up under a a comfy crew neck sweater. Turn your spring dress into a Fall one by layering a long sleeve shirt underneath. Change.It.Up. If you can make it two weeks without repeating an outfit then you'll probably find tons a new outfits and tons of different ways to wear your old and tired clothes. Now you'll have gone two weeks without buying something new and will probably no longer feel the need to. Congrats, you're a tad bit richer.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Pyjama Queen

The Inevitable Breakdown

<< My general attitude conveyed through a facial expression >>

Today I had a little mini and mostly internal breakdown. At this point I've worked six out of the last seven days and the last three of those days I've worked two jobs. I feel like all I do is work and when I'm not working  I'm getting ready for work or traveling to work. I'm also finishing up my degree by taking one more pesky class. It's usually a breeze but I have a short paper due this week so I've been stressing about that as well. AND I have to travel an hour away to take the class once a week. 

Why am I telling you all of this? Am I looking for sympathy? Well…maybe a little. But mostly I'm here to talk about how sometimes, life is hard but that can be a good thing. 

I knew this day would come. I knew there would be a time when I was too busy, too stressed, too reliant on only myself and therefore would need to let myself have a mini breakdown. As I stood in the stock room at work today letting myself stress over how tired I was and how long it was going to take me to get home, where I'd inevitably need to go straight to bed, and how my paper wasn't even started and everything else…I felt the tears begin to well up but I didn't let them come.

Even on the verge of tears I took a second to remind myself: I wanted this. This is what I want. I want to work hard and take care of my bills on my own (and boy do I have a heck of a paycheque coming my way soon). I want to be independent and busy busy busy. So I took a second to be grateful for my life as it is, even with all it's silly little imperfections. 

Another thing I can be grateful for: an amazing best friend who I swear has some kind of sixth sense because she offered to pick me up from work tonight, on a night when I most definitely needed it. 

Life is still good, even when we just need to have a short and silent cry while standing over a box full of bras in a stock room.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Feeler of all of the Feelings

Tricks of the Trade

As your Early Career Spirit Guide (as I've just decided to call myself) I'm here to pave the way for your success. I am here to figure things out for YOU! No need to thank me, I do it all for my country...or you know, something heroic like that.

ANYWAYS...enough about me, let's talk about my newest discovery of productivity. I work from home, which means that the worlds of work and relaxation can get blurred for me. I find that I'm pretty good about being able to switch my work on and off but that also means that when I start working in the morning there are no cues for me about where I left off because everything just seems like my home to me. When you work at an office you can walk in, see your desk with all of your papers strewn out and think "oh yes, that's where I left off." For me, I'm just looking at my bedroom.

My problem was that I would get to the end of the day and think "I can get that done tomorrow." By the time that tomorrow came around I had already forgotten what I had planned on doing. To solve this problem I came up with a simple solution: at the end of each day I open a new page in my notebook, write tomorrow's date at the top and begin a to-do list for the next day. It's a simple idea that has gone a long way.

There's nothing worse than remembering you needed to do something the moment that someone is looking for it! This has also made me more productive. Instead of spending the morning trying to remember what I was going to do or planning out my day, it's already been planned out for me.

Moral of the story: always, always, always write down a to do list for yourself. Your memory will fail you but the ink on the paper will not.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Self-Appointed Early Career Spirit Guide

Bossy Pants

via

Being a boss to someone is a very foreign idea to me. I've always been someone who was at the bottom of the working food chain. Now in my role as an Associate Editor I have interns working under me. While it's great to have moved up from being an intern myself to actually being the person who has more responsibility and knowledge, it also means that there is more left on your shoulders.

The truth is that while having more responsibility means getting more rewards, it also can be scary and stressful. There are a few things that you should remember when you're expected to manage others:

1. Their mistakes are your mistakes
    When the people you are responsible for miss things it's your responsibility to be right behind them fixing them. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't rely on them to get things done, but you need to be able to train them well enough that you can expect a high quality of work out of them. You need to be a great teacher and a great mentor because if you aren't there to help them then you can't fault them for making mistakes and those mistakes don't reflect on them, they reflect on you.

2. You need to be available to your people
    Remember when you could just glide through your work days without being bothered? Well now you need to spend your time getting your work done and managing others. This includes helping them when they have questions, teaching them things and staying on top of them to make sure that you're getting deadlines met. Luckily for me, I really enjoy teaching and mentoring. It's very rewarding and once you teach them things it takes a load off of you!

3. You need to pick up their slack
    Guess what, if the person who works for you doesn't deliver then your deadline doesn't change. You still need to get your product in on time so that can mean doing the persons work for them. Of course, this isn't ideal and doesn't show signs of a good employee but guess what, the person you work for won't want to hear excuses as to why something isn't done. You still have someone to answer to so when worst comes to worse you'll need to pick up the slack.

4. You need to be their friend, but also their boss
    Okay, so not everyone will feel the need to stress the friendship part but let's face it, I'm no CEO, I really have no need to spend my time worrying about my work/personal life divide. I have no problem with being friendly with my co-workers. I also work from home, as do all of my other co-workers, so we really don't have to worry about crossing any boundaries. The point is that you should make your employee feel comfortable with you but remember that they work for you. You need to be able to reprimand them if needed or tell them if their work isn't up to par.

5. Don't be afraid to get anyone in trouble
    If your employee isn't working out for you and you can't seem to get across to them then you need to tell the next person up from you. Sure, you may be worried about getting them fired and that feeling is understandable but if they don't deliver then you can't deliver and their work will affect your work.

Most of all, you should enjoy the added responsibility. It means you're doing something right!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Semi-Responsible, Still Low on the Food Chain

The Struggle

I'm facing an internal struggle these days between wanting to do absolutely nothing and wanting to work hard and give all of my responsibilities the attention they deserve. I try to inspire myself by learning about other people's success stories. I really enjoy hearing about how people were just like me once and through hard work and a passion for their dreams, were able to achieve everything they hoped, and more. But then after that...I just want to lie on the couch and waste the night away. It's quite the predicament.

I just don't always know how to motivate myself. I want to work a lot and make lots of money, but I also want to be able to have lots of free time so that I can go for a jog or just watch Netflix in bed. I want to spend my night going above and beyond, working extra hours for my editorial job so that I can make sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed...but the next thing I know it's 11pm and I'm still on tumblr, mindlessly scrolling until my brain turns to goo.

I've found a few ways to make myself mix my work into my free time:
- Put one of your favourite movies on in the background so you can get work done while watching something you'll enjoy but won't need to pay too much attention to
- Listen to some happy songs. This one, this one and this one are my recent favourites!
- Take breaks (hey, it's your free time)
- Work near a friend so you can chit chat and pretend you're being social...but really, you're working
- Use it as an excuse to drink more coffee (mmm coffee)

It's not always easy to see the point in all the work when your goals get muddled by the drab and dreary details of everyday life but there's nothing better than working hard and being recognized for it. Mediocrity is for the lazy!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Coffee Enthusiast, Hard Worker with a Bad Case of Procrastinatia (I made that disease up...so what!?)