Tap Into Your QueenPower

How About a To-Do for You?

Why do we consistently put ourselves last? Why is it so hard to get at least one item on my to-do list about me, and only me?

A while back, I wrote about removing one item from your to-do list to simplify your life. If you took that advice, what would be the item that comes off? My guess is that it would be the one that didn’t apply to someone else in your life. So today I’m amending my advice from that article:

Add one item to your to-do list that is all about you.

Need some ideas? How about these “To-Do’s For You”?

1. Get a “do not disturb” sign for your bedroom or bathroom door.
2. Take yourself out for lunch—eat at a new place, get yourself a picnic, or go for a 20-minute walk.
3. Read the first chapter of that book you’ve been dying to get to.

And to make sure you don’t cross it off almost as soon as you write it down, add a comment to this post and state your commitment. Go on! OK...here's mine, so you won't be the first:

I will spend at least 20 minutes before bed reading fiction or doing the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle.

Now you...what's your to-do for you?

Technorati Tags: to-do lists, priorities, commitment

What?!?!? You Mean I Can't Control Everything?

OK. So I'm planning to get on a plane with my daughter and my dog on Sunday morning. A one-way ticket to San Francisco. And I wake up to the news of raised threat levels, the fact that nobody can bring liquids onto a plane, and the prospect of leaving my home at 5AM to make an 11AM flight. Then I read my horoscope on Yahoo! this morning:

To make the next few weeks of your life easier, let go of what you can't control.

No lie. This is really what it said. Those of you who really know me are falling off your chairs laughing right now. For those of you who don't know me, I usually don't do anything I can't control. Nothing like a giant dope-slap from the universe...


Technorati Tags: travel restrictions, letting go, horoscope

American Idol? Not Today...

The American Idol auditions start today in Pasadena. I couldn't make it.

The movers arrived today to take away my boxes. I spent the day in an old pair of shorts and a tank top, sweating in the humidity. You know that wouldn't work for Simon. Am feeling terrific that I packed up all the stuff that's moving, and was ready for the truck when it showed up this morning. Everything got loaded and carted away without incident. Even better, the driver called and said he'll have my stuff in California a week earlier than originally estimated!

American Idol? In my own mind at least.


Technorati Tags: American Idol, moving advice

Record Heat, Laziness or Something Bigger?

These are pictures of my current office. Today I'm wrestling with trying to pack it into boxes to be moved to California.






Why is it so difficult? I have everything else packed up and ready to go. The moving truck arrives on Tuesday. It's not like I don't have a cool place to put it all when it gets to California. See?

There's even a bed that folds out from the wall...my, that could be dangerous! So why am I dragging my feet getting my office stuff packed up? Part of it could be the 100 degree temps we've had the last few days. And I'm sure part of it is "OMG, what if I need something during the time it's on the truck?" Why is it so hard for us to let go of our work?

We go on vacation and take our laptops. We go out to dinner with family and take our cell phones. We check email at home before we go to bed and as soon as we wake up. Why are we so bizarrely attached to what we do for money?

I have no answer right now. When and if I find one, it will probably be easier for me to get my office packed up.


Technorati Tags: working too much, packing an office, moving

"Devil Wears Prada" Puts Heat on Women Bosses

The latest from Women's eNews:

"The Devil Wears Prada" may demonize a female boss for dramatic effect, but studies point to young women's disaffection with female superiors. Joie Jager-Hyman ties the hostilities to a workplace that often remains unfriendly to women.

You can read the whole article here: http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=2847 The crux of the matter for me...

In an age in which women continue to earn 23 cents on the dollar less than men in the same position, it is time the Mirandas [older women bosses] and the Andreas [younger women employees] started working together to improve a corporate environment that has failed to truly embrace them.

Why can't we do that? It's the key issue I've wrestled with throughout the lifetime of my consulting practice. What will it take to get women to band together to solve the issues that are important to them? Why do we continue to behave like many separate groups instead of one united? Technorati Tags: Devil Wears Prada, women bosses, working women All thoughts/ideas are welcome...

Demand to Be In Shape!

I can't believe I haven't told you about Demand Fitness yet! I found this site about two months ago. It's a subscription site, where you can access videos of all kinds of fitness classes--everything from warm ups to yoga to fitness ballet to cardio kickboxing! They even have treadmill and indoor cycling classes. Now I have never stuck with a fitness program for longer than a week, and I am all over this stuff.

Oh yeah, and it comes at the ridiculous price of $14.99 per month, or $99 for a one-year membership. You can even try it for a day for 99 cents! Give it a shot...


Technorati Tags: Demand Fitness, get in shape, fitness videos

Staying Sane This Summer, Part III

Today I present my third, and final strategy to help you stay sane this summer:

Know your limits. This is the tough one. Summer places all kinds of extra demands on our time: parties, houseguests, vacations, etc. Know how much “fun” or “entertaining” you can really deal with, in addition to your regular activities. And know that it’s OK to say no once in a while. I learned this one the hard way a few years ago.

We were living in California, and had just bought our home here on Martha’s Vineyard. We were planning to spend our first summer here, and my husband and I had rearranged our work schedules and set up our new home with all the technology we needed to work remotely. Then we had tons of friends and family members wanting to visit, and we thought it would be great to show off our new home, and to share this place that is so very special to us. Before we knew it, we had committed to having houseguests for nearly every single day of our summer vacation. There were days when one group would leave in the morning, and another would arrive in the afternoon. Needless to say, that particular summer was more stressful than any other season in the stress-filled land of Silicon Valley, where we lived the rest of the year.

So please don’t let summer get the best of you. With a few minor adjustments, you can enjoy it just like you did when you were a kid!

Technorati Tags: setting limits stress-free summer families

Staying Sane This Summer, Part II

Here's the second strategy to help you stay sane this summer:

Go to the beach (or the pool, or just the back yard). I mean it. You don’t have to deprive yourself of summer fun. And you don’t have to skip work to do it. If you work outside the home, plan one evening a month (or more often, if you can), to bring dinner to the beach, or have a family swim at the local pool, or simply barbeque in the back yard and turn on the sprinklers. If you work at home, you might be able to be a bit more flexible with your time, and schedule some beach time during the day.

For example, based on the weather forecast last weekend, last Wednesday was shaping up to be a beautiful beach day here, sandwiched in between cloudy/rainy days. And it just so happened that I had only two appointments that day:  one at 10AM and one at 4PM. So I did all my “computer-required” work early in the morning, and gathered up all my writing/listening work to take with me. I told my daughter to be ready to go at 11AM, and to call her friends to join her (Having her friends there keeps her occupied while I work, and I’m lucky enough that she’s at an age where I am required to become invisible when her friends are around.). We enjoyed a lovely few hours at the beach, and I got a pile of work done to boot!

Technorati Tags: parenting, working vacation, summer fun

Staying Sane This Summer, Part I

Even though I haven’t gone to school in 25 years, June always means the end of the year to me. When I was younger, it signified a summer of sleeping late, going swimming, and doing pretty much whatever I wanted to. As a teenager, it meant I could work more, earn more money, and hang out more with my friends. All pretty great stuff, right?

Now it means frantically rearranging my own schedule to accommodate the newly flexible schedule of my daughter. There are weeks when she’ll be at a day camp; there are weeks when she’ll have nothing scheduled. It makes it harder to schedule meetings, client calls, and other work activities. Add to that the fact that summer is the time when a lot of friends and family think it would be really cool to visit us in our Island paradise. I guess what I’m trying to say is that now, summer means my schedule is almost totally not my own, and it has the tendency to become the most stressful of all seasons.

Over the last few years, I’ve developed some strategies for taking the stress out of summer. If the words “School’s Out!” or “Summer’s here!” send you cowering into a corner, I urge you to try at least one of these for yourself. Here's the first; I'll be sharing some more over the next few days.

Maintain your regular schedule. Back in the day, summer meant I could laze around and sleep in. Now I keep my alarm set for “school year” time all year round. It buys me an hour or two of quiet time each morning. Time to journal, to work without interruptions, to take a walk. And it creates a two-hour window during the high-activity time of day, during which I can be flexible.

If you’re a parent, get your child on a schedule, too. If you’re a parent who works outside the home, you already know a summer childcare program is a must. If you’re a parent who works in the home (either as a stay-at-home parent or in a home-based business), I urge you to consider summer childcare as well. Enrolling kids in a summer program (any summer program will do), will make them happier because they’ll have a place where they can blow off steam, play with other kids and possibly learn something. It will make you happier because you won’t experience any of the guilt of trying to get your work done while making sure the kids are entertained.

Technorati Tags: school's out, summer sanity, vacation

Ensler Turns New York Into Anti-Violence Showcase

From today's Womens eNews:

Ensler Turns New York Into Anti-Violence Showcase

New York City is in the middle of a 16-day, 60-event festival produced by V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. An emphasis on women in war zones provides a preview of the group's fundraising intentions for 2007.

Read the whole story...

Technorati Tags: stop violence against women, Eve Ensler, V-Day