Closet Cleanup

February 12, 2015 Pamela Stephens

My name is Taylor. You may have heard of me, I am one of Pamela’s lovely assistants! She is out of the town for the week. You can read more about where she is and what she’s doing here. So, I am filling in! Hope you don’t mind! Now, I know that most of the time when you have a guest post, they’ll often link you back to their personal blog site. Well I don’t have one yet. This is me getting my feet wet. If it works out for me, I may try my hand at blogging. Enjoy!

I recently went from living alone to being married… and Pamela taught me well in the whole “we need all the clothes/shoes/jewelry/things” lesson of life. My closet was the proof. Now, my husband and I share the world’s tiniest mobile home which also means we now share the world’s tiniest closet. Something that I am NOT the biggest fan of but for now it’ll have to do.

Pinterest is my favorite. I am on it everyday searching for things I can do to make my home a more functional and happier place (Pamela also talks about this here). While searching one day last year I came across this pin. It gave great advice about how to slim down your closet and realize that you don’t really wear everything in there. Since the now “shared” closet was beginning to be so packed that it was dysfunctional, I decided to give it a try.

The pin’s suggestion was to turn ALL the hangers in your closet backwards and as you hung up items that you have worn you hang them up correctly. At the end of the season you will be able to really see the items that you never touched. I thought that was great and all, but I could BARELY hang one more item up let alone re-hang everything backwards without having to go to physical therapy for all the lifting. So, I decided to just hang the items that I knew I didn’t wear often backwards (nice party dress and a a sequin top that I only pull out for new year events.) Then everything I wore recently was to be hung on the opposite side of these items.

(I also did this to my husband’s side but he doesn’t know this yet! Shh…) Can you find the dividing hangers?

I loved how this not only would lead me to clean out my closet at the end of the season, but it also:

made me aware of what I wear TOO much
allowed me to see growth in the side of recently worn items
allowed me to see a shrinkage of clothes on the never wear side
forced me to wear more clothes on the never wear side for fear I would lose them
forced me to throw out items that were too small or not flattering as I tried them on instead of waiting until the end of the season.

In January I started working at a physical therapy clinic. This means that I have to wear scrubs on the regular. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather wear something a tad more fashionable. So I began to really love Friday-Sunday. These are the days that I could look and feel my best. This month I began to notice myself pulling more and more from the recently worn section, and I have way too many clothes to be limiting myself so soon.

We spent the last weekend in Baton Rouge/New Orleans and I made a point to ONLY pack from the other side of the backwards hangers. The Abyss.

And I was thrilled with my outfits!

Maybe this idea works for you, maybe it doesn’t but I challenge you to evaluate your closet. Notice what you might be wearing too often or not enough. Throw things out that make you feel uncomfortable (trust me, this will make you feel like a million bucks when you’ve thrown out the tight, uncomfortable things and the rest of your clothes truly fit and flatter you). Do you have any tiny closet tips? I would love to hear them!

Keller Williams Family Reunion – Phoenix, AZ

February 9, 2015 Pamela Stephens

I wrote this post after returning home from Family Reunion in Phoenix, AZ last year, but I never got around to sharing it here on the blog. In honor of being in Orlando for Family Reunion 2015 this week, I thought I’d finally share the post. Enjoy!

I spent five days in Phoenix for the Keller Williams Family Reunion last month, and I’m totally fired up about what 2014 will hold for my career. (For the record, Family Reunion is an annual conference where our agents get together and discuss trends, ideas, the past year, and what’s new for our company.) There were over 10,000 agents flooding downtown Phoenix for this event!

There were 16 of us from Monroe/West Monroe, and I loved getting to know our team a little better. Even though we work together on transactions and see each other around the office every day, you don’t really get to know someone until you spend a solid 5 days with them!

Unfortunately, my brain was on real estate overload most of the time so I didn’t even snap many photos. We were in back-to-back sessions every day and any free time we had was primarily spent eating. If you’re ever in Phoenix, you must try the key lime pie at Fuego. It was simply delicious. It wasn’t like your regular key lime, and if I ever make it back to Phoenix, I will definitely be stopping by for a slice.

The atmosphere at The Old Spaghetti Factory was fascinating. After making our reservations, we found out that it’s known to be haunted! One of the A&E shows came and agreed that their were indeed spirits present there. The decor was very cool but also a tad creepy considering the place is supposedly haunted. I have several photos from this place, so I may make a separate post soon. Believe in spirits or not, I didn’t go to the restroom alone!

My other favorite, non-real estate experience was hearing from the Touhy’s, the real-life family from The Blindside. I’ve always found that movie to be so inspiring, and it was great to hear from the real family. The mom, Leigh Anne Tuohy, talked about how she keeps some cash in the console of all of their family’s vehicles so that they can easily give a couple of dollars to someone on a street corner. (For those who say they’ll just buy drugs or alcohol, she says that you’ll be judged on the kindness in your own heart. Let them be judged for what they do with the money.) The biggest take-away from their presentation for me was that you don’t have to adopt a neglected, homeless kid to make a difference in the world. (However, that would help.) I’ve talked about this several times, but even the smallest gestures can make the biggest difference. I’m sure you can think of instances where someone has said or done something to completely turn your day around. It was such a powerful experience.

While I am more than happy to be home to my fantastic husband and my normal work schedule, I am thankful that I had a chance to attend this event. I found some much needed motivation and came home full of ideas for better serving my clients. I am thankful for the chance to be “in the business of making friends,” and I look forward to knocking it out of the park in 2014!

Have you ever thought about a career in real estate or do you have any general questions? I’m willing to help in any way that I can, so feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email or text!

2 Comments Business - Travel 2015 - Keller Williams - real estate - travel

18 Years Later

February 5, 2015 Pamela Stephens

It’s been 18 years today since I lost my father to cancer.

Eighteen years later I:

am a much stronger woman than I would have been otherwise.
have a better grip on my emotions.
am no longer as sad or resentful as I once was.
still miss him terribly.
still hate that he’ll never meet my children.
miss his gigantic hands.
think of him often.
see SO much of him in myself.
have learned to control the temper I got from him. (for the most part..ha!)
am thankful for the legacy he left behind.
can still remember his infectious laugh.
miss his stories.
will forever cherish the memories that I have.
and am thankful for the person I became because of this experience, even though it hurts.

I started several posts for today, some celebrating his memory, some telling the story and what it’s meant for me. I wrote and re-wrote, but ultimately decided to share this list instead. The topic is painful. Writing about it stirs emotions that I typically try to keep tucked away. Some stories I’m not ready to tell yet, and some leave the biggest smile on my face. Either way, I’m thankful for how I’ve grown and what I’ve learned over the last 18 years. I’m thankful for the people who stick by me and for what this day will forever mean to me. I’m thankful for the time that I had, the memories I’ll keep, and the years that lie ahead. Hug the people that you love and do something nice for yourself today. Life is too short not to.

Leave a comment Inspiration & Thoughts 2015 - cancer - Daddy - family

Nail Holes & The Nesting Place

February 2, 2015 Pamela Stephens

This post is a bit of a combo post. First, I want to bring attention to the fact that I finished my first book in many, many years back in the fall. I honestly can’t remember when the last time was that I actually finished a book that I started. I was probably a little girl. It was probably Babysitters Club or Sweet Valley High. (Not kidding.) I’ve learned a lot about how I feel about reading lately, but we’ll talk more about that later. For now, let’s all celebrate the fact that I actually read a book from start to finish. Feel free to bring me celebratory cupcakes if you’d like.

Now, let’s talk about that book. I’ve been following along with The Nester’s blog lately, and I’ve seen her book mentioned here and there around the internet. Basically, this book is about designing a home that you love around things that you already have or can put together cheaply and easily. It’s not about going in debt to furnish a picture-perfect home and it’s not about following all of the rules.

Instead, The Nester’s motto is, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.” Honestly, this motto is what drew me to her blog and the book to begin with. We all know that I struggle with perfection. It’s not uncommon for me to just not do something if I don’t feel like I have the time to do it perfectly. This is especially true for decorating our home. I have hundreds and thousands of ideas, but I delay implementing any of them for the fear of finding a better idea or not haven’t enough time to plan it out completely. It’s quite tragic.

When I stumbled upon Myquillyn’s blog, her message struck me. I shouldn’t be waiting on perfection. Instead, I should be creating a home that works for Matthew and I, and I can do so without a perfect plan. There are many beautiful things out there that aren’t perfect. As a matter of fact, I tend to find that the imperfections are what’s most beautiful. Why, then, do I put things off in a quest for perfection when I don’t even want a perfect home?

As I read more of Myquillyn’s posts, I knew that her message was exactly what I needed to hear. I needed someone to coax me into just doing things, both at home and in my life in general. I hesitated to buy the book because I knew I had a terrible track record of not finishing books. I also didn’t want to read a design book that “showed you how to properly mix patterns” or some other surface level design strategy. Finally, I broke down and purchased the book for my iPad and then struggled to put it down again.

After reading the first few pages, I knew that I needed to really hear Myquillyn’s message. I knew that this book was far less about how do decorate and far more about why. After all, I don’t feel like I need help with how to do it. Instead, I needed someone to steer me towards actually doing things instead of waiting for the stars to align in a scenario where I have plenty of time and money and inspiration. The Nesting Place helped to me see all of the scenarios in which I was accidentally waiting for perfection. I was waiting for the perfect moment or the perfect shower curtain, and in reality, I had practically everything that I needed to at least make things beautiful for the time being. If I found a better rug/chair/ottoman/wall hanging later, then that’s fine! I could simply change it later. If you find yourself struggling with decorating your home or if you want some creative ideas for creating something beautiful on the cheap, I highly recommend reading the book.

This brings me to the second part of this post. There’s a section in The Nesting Place dedicated solely to nail holes. I almost shiver as I write this, because the thought of putting an unnecessary nail hole in my freshly painted walls, sends chills down my spine. After all, I paid a pretty penny (I suppose “pretty pennies” are worth more than ugly ones.) to have all of the holes filled and every single surface of this home painted. However, Myquillyn says, “Is there anything less risky in life than creating a one-millimeter hole in a wall that can be filled with your finger and some putty in two seconds?” She goes on to say, “Nail holes are just a part of living in a house. I’d say that a nail hole is the lowest entry-level risk-taking action you could have in life, other than getting no whip on your coffee.”

As crazy as it sounds, this section of the book was a huge turning point for me. I was putting off hanging things on my walls (something that I’ve desperately wanted to do for months) for the fear of putting a nail hole in the wrong place. How silly! That very day, I went and put a hole in the dining room wall. I hung a wreath as part of my Halloween decor…it’s wasn’t even a permanent decor item! As silly as it sounds, this was a huge step for me. I made a decision to not let such a tiny, little obstacle hinder me from having a beautiful home right now.

Each day that passes leads me closer to the day that Matthew and I will move from this home. I made a commitment that I wouldn’t put off decorating this home as I had done with our rent house. However, we’ve now lived here for 5 months and most of the house isn’t decorated as I’d like. Some of this stems from needing lots of new furniture. Some of it is from a lack of time. However, most of my hesitation to decorating has been a fear of missing the mark. It’s from a fear of hanging something in the “wrong” place or purchasing the “wrong” rug. These fears kept me from finishing our last home, and if I’m not careful, I’ll see the same thing happen in this home.

After reading Myquillyn’s book, I realized that most of my hesitation surrounds nail holes. I also realized that nail holes are really such a small issue, both literally and figuratively. The reality is, there’s a large chance that I’ll actually like where I hang something. The other reality is, if I don’t like where it’s hanging, I haven’t made some huge, life-altering mistake. I can simply move it. I can just as simply fill in the nail hole. After finishing this book, I decided to no longer let waiting on perfection be an obstacle for me in creating a home that I love.

How many areas of our life do we approach in a similar manner? I think it’s safe to say that we often let fear of the unknown be an obstacle for us in creating a life that we love. Maybe we don’t go after that promotion for a fear of being told no. Maybe we don’t tell someone how we feel, because we’re scared of how they’ll react. Maybe we don’t put nail holes in freshly painted walls, because we’re afraid that it will be the “wrong” spot. Whatever it is, these little fears can quickly and sneakily be a total road block for us in creating the lives we want. Rather than holding on to fear and the struggle for perfection, let’s tackle life, one little nail hole at a time. Sometimes the risks we need to take are tiny. Sometimes they’re large. Either way, we’ll never know the outcome without first taking the risk.

What is one thing that you can do today to take a step towards the life that you want? Whatever it is, don’t spend too much time thinking about it. Just do it! For me, that means going to out another hole in the wall. Use this link to order the book and I receive a small commission!

5 Comments Goal Setting - Home - Inspiration & Thoughts - Our First House #mapfirsthouse - 2015 - DIY - goals - home decor - husband and wife - inspiration - Pamela reads - What I've Learned

January Review + February Goals

January 28, 2015 Pamela Stephens

We’re nearing the end of January, so I thought it would be a good time to reflect on how I’m doing with my 2015 goals so far. In general, I’d say that I’m doing decently well with some and not as great with others. Some might find this discouraging, but I say it’s the nature of the beast.

Here are the things I’m doing well at:

Waking up by 6:00-6:30. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this one is probably the toughest goal that I’ve set. Maybe ever. I seriously hate getting out of bed in the morning, and it’s been quite a struggle. However, there have been two instances where I’ve slept well past the 6:00-6:30 goal, and it’s had a tremendous, negative effect on my day. I’m going to keep this one up, but I’d say that we have a love/hate relationship at this time.
Blogging 2x per week. I had to make 3 posts one week to make up for missing a post the week before, but I’ve met the monthly number. In my mind, that totally counts. I only made 4 posts in January of last year, so the fact that this is my 9^th post for the month feels like a huge accomplishment…that’s more than double! I attribute a lot of the success so far to having a good deal of help from my assistants. (Thanks, girls…you’re the best!!) I can’t wait to see how this plays out as my work schedule fills up, but we’re headed in the right direction for now.
Monthly quality time days with Matthew. I marked this one off too! I can already see that the first half of the month is going to fly by, and we’ll likely be squeezing this time in at the end of each month. However, the purpose of this goal is to make the time happen, so as long as I can mark this off by the end of each month, I’ll be happy.
Host a party. I wouldn’t exactly count this as a party, but I did have some friends over for my birthday. Since the big goal here is to spend time with the people I love, I’m counting this as a party…and filling in a bubble on my goal sheet. 🙂
Replacing mediocre things. I wouldn’t say that I did anything major towards this goal. However, I did make a pretty big step for myself. Hold on to your seats…this is a big one – I replaced the hand soap in our bathroom. Riveting, I know! On a serious note though, I was forcing myself to finish this bottle before buying a new one. The bottle was old and dingy. The nozzle was nearly clogged, and I didn’t like the texture or smell of the soap. The worst part was, it always seemed to leave little specks behind in the sink, so I was constantly having to clean the sink after washing my hands…so counterproductive! Nonetheless, it was still an unfinished bottle of soap, so I figured I needed to finish it before buying a new bottle. Not true. I threw this disgusting nuisance away and replaced it with a fresh, new bottle that smells lovely and doesn’t make a huge mess. One small step for mankind, one giant step for me!

While I did made some progress towards these five things, I didn’t do so well at working out regularly, random acts of kindness, or volunteering. Some of these are more annual or quarterly goals though, so I’m not too discouraged. Regardless, I feel like this month was pretty successful, and I’m excited to keep working towards all of these goals.

As we wrap up January, I’ve been thinking about what I want to do in February. Honestly, I struggled to set goals for February. For some reason, I just couldn’t really wrap my head around what I wanted to do. Finally, I settled on a few simple goals for the month.

Leave with at least 3 big things (but no more than 5) from Family Reunion 2015. Family Reunion is the big, annual conference for Keller Williams. Agents from all over the world come together for a jam-packed week of training, networking, and planning. It’s nothing less than overwhelming. Since I tend to want to do all things at once, I hope to pick just 3-5 things from the conference that I want to implement in my business this year.
Actually celebrate Valentine’s Day. Since we’ve been married, Matthew and I have never really celebrated Valentine’s Day. Honestly, I’ve always thought it was a pretty dumb holiday. This year, though, I’d like to make a little bigger deal of it. I think Matthew and I will do something special! (Side note: I can totally count whatever we do as a QT day and mark it on my sheet!)
Hang at least 3 things on the walls. You’ve seen this pop up on several of my monthly goals lists. I have made a tiny, little bit of progress, but not near as much as I’d like. If I were being completely honest, I’d say that I struggle with just doing things. Instead, I have to plan everything out perfectly first. This is especially true for putting holes in my new walls. (Read: On Waiting for Perfection if you don’t believe me.) However, I’m growing a bit tired of bare walls. This month, I’m hanging some things. Period!

How are you doing with your goals so far this year? Don’t be discouraged if you haven’t knocked them out of the park yet. I haven’t either. We still have hundreds of days left in 2015, and there’s plenty of time to work towards whatever dreams you may have. Join me in setting a few small goals for the month, and let’s show February who’s the boss!

1 Comment Business - Goal Setting - Home - Our First House - Travel 2015 - goals - home decor - husband and wife - monthly goals

Happy Mail: Love

January 26, 2015 Pamela Stephens

Happy Mail Package As you may remember, I was thrilled to be one of the first to sign up for the A Beautiful Mess Happy Mail program I’ve received three editions of the mailing so far, and I thought it was time for a little recap. I also had a bit of a revelation around this product that I figured I’d share.

After sorting through mythird package, I began feeling a little discouraged. I now had several “I love you this much” and “I love you because” cards, and I felt like I didn’t have anyone to send them to. Matthew would be getting a card from me daily if I reserved all of these cards for him! Frustration began to set in because I really wanted to use these beautiful cards, but I didn’t want to give every single one of them to my husband. Then it hit me.

I love more people than just my husband.

The more I thought about it, the more that I realized how appropriate these cards were for other people in my life. Honestly, I don’t think that we tell others how we feel about them nearly enough. I know for a fact that I don’t. Sending cards are my top way of communicating. Get a card from me? It means that I care. Sending a card with a little note is how I communicate best. After some thought, I saw a way to use these fantastic “love you” cards to show people that I truly care.

I came to this realization while reading through Elise’s Use Your Stash E-course. I’m pretty sure that this course was written for me. I am the queen of holding on to things for later. I save my favorite things for a bigger and better project, which means most of these things never get used. This is especially true for greeting cards. I save the fancy cards for the perfect person/occasion, which means they usually stay tucked away in a drawer. When I signed up for Happy Mail, I made a commitment to myself to use these products. I knew that I’d want to hang on to them. I knew that it would take some self-talk and hard work to make myself actually send these items instead of keeping them to look at. I happened to be reading through the stash e-course on the same day that I received my third kit, and it was a great reminder to just send those cards!!

Here are a few people that might like to know that you care:

parents and grandparents
siblings
aunts and uncles
friends
coworkers
your hairdresser
that store clerk that always brightens your mood (Hey, you might even marry them one day!)
your favorite barista

This list is just a starting point for the people that you could reach out to. Take some time to think about who those people are in your life that always bring a smile to your face…those people that always go above and beyond to help you. Do they know how thankful you are for them?

I love that the combination of this e-course and the Happy Mail subscription opened my eyes to ways of showing people that I care about them. I’m very excited to be sending out “I love you” cards to friends and family instead of reserving them all for Matthew. (Sorry, babe.) You can never tell someone that you care too much. You’ll most likely regret not saying “I love you” enough rather than too much.

Make it a point to tell someone that you care today! Better yet, send a few cards (or texts or emails) letting someone know that they’re loved. I guarantee that’ll they be immensely grateful, and you’ll probably make their day. If you make a commitment to show your love this week, please let me know. We can work on this together!

Leave a comment Inspiration & Thoughts 2015 - inspiration - my favorites

DIY Wall Hanging

January 22, 2015 Pamela Stephens

When I saw this wall hanging on A Beautiful Mess, I knew that I needed to give it a whirl for my own home. Rope is one of my favorite things ever, and I’ve been drawn to anything copper lately. Perfect combination! Plus, the world is being taken by storm with textured wall art and weavings these days, which I’m totally fine with. There’s some pretty awesome work making its way around the internet, if you’ll look around a bit. If I’m not careful, my home might end up with a weaving or rope/yarn art on every wall!

I actually started on and completed this project months ago. It was finished (with the exception of trimming the edges to level them out) months before we decided to move from our rent house. Now that I think about it, I may have actually purchased these supplies this time last year! (Take you a year to get something completely finished? Me too…don’t feel bad.) I planned to hang this in our master bedroom….that I never finished. Instead, this little guy just hung out in a laundry basket until we moved. However, it was one of the first things I planned out for the new house. I knew right away that I would hang it in our dining room, and I was excited about how it would pop on the dark gray wall.

I’m not sharing much of a tutorial here since you can get all of that from the ABM link. I will say that all of the supplies came from TP Outdoors. The rope was a 3-strand rope, and I unraveled it to use the individual strands. I also taped the ends with scotch tape before cutting them to keep them from fraying quite so much as I worked. I removed the tape after hanging it on the wall. For the most part, I followed the directions pretty closely. The hardest part of this project was cutting all of the rope and getting the knots to line up. However, after you get going with a few strands, it’s pretty easy to work out a system. Don’t worry too much about the ends being the same length at this point. It’s much easier to make them a tad longer than necessary and then trim to the correct length after that.

This is one of my first DIY projects to make from ABM (They share so many good ones!), and it’s one of the first that I’ve done that turned out pretty much exactly how I’d hoped! It’s been a bit of a conversation piece in our new home and most people are shocked to hear that I made it.

How about you? Have you made any awesome DIY projects lately? I’d love to see them, so send me a link! I actually have another project that I made from ABM that I hope to share soon…just gotta get to work in that closet room of mine!

Leave a comment Home - Our First House - Projects #mapfirsthouse - 2015 - DIY - home decor

How ‘Do Not Disturb’ Changed My Life

January 19, 2015 Pamela Stephens

This fun fact is really only for my iPhone readers, although I’m sure there’s a similar function on most smart phones. It probably sounds a little dramatic, but I seriously can’t describe how big of a difference this new discovery has made for me.

As a realtor, my phone rings literally all the time. If I’m not chatting with a client or lender, an attorney’s office is calling. If I’m not scheduling an inspection or appraisal, someone is texting me about a new listing. (Let’s not even mention emails.) I blow through a full battery in the blink of an eye, but I’m practically always on my phone. This isn’t a complaint…it’s just part of the business that I’m in. (It’s also part of the reason I don’t really get a “day off.”)

What does this really mean though? It means that my phone is still going off when I’m home for the night. It means that during family functions, I can feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. It means that during a meeting with a client, they see my phone going off nonstop, and they feel rushed. None of these things are conducive to a well-balanced, happy life or a successful business. I got 11 texts back to back at 3:00 am once! I do work a lot, but I’m likely sleeping at 3:00 am. My phone has literally rang at all hours of the night. Then, I’m awake with work on the brain, and I can’t go back to sleep. This I how I come to explore the world of do not disturb.

At first, I was hesitant to use this iPhone feature because I was afraid that my mom would need me in the middle of the night or someone would call with an emergency. However, I learned that a call from anyone in your favorites list would come on through. How perfect!

For several months now, I’ve been putting my phone on do not disturb when I get into bed at night. Calls and texts still come through, but I’m not notified. This way, I’m able to sleep peacefully through the night (most of the time) and yet still be able to receive messages that I need to handle the next day.

On a usual day, I switch my phone back to its active mode once I’m done getting ready in the morning. I’ve talked about things that I’ve learned, and one of those is that if I get a call or text early in the morning with something that needs to be handled right away, I immediately start rushing through getting ready and my day starts spiraling out of control. I’ve also learned that being able to get ready in a slow, easy pace is like heaven to me. There’s just something so refreshing to me about being able to take my time getting dressed in the mornings. Almost all of my best days start with this. Therefore, I quickly learned that leaving my phone on do not disturb until I was done getting dressed made a world of difference for how my day developed and my mood. After all, I think it’s best to try to keep work to “work hours” as much as possible. (That means I’m probably not going to text you back at 6:00 am. Honestly, I’m not much of a morning person, so you really don’t want to hear from me that early. You’re welcome!)

I say all of this, not to discourage anyone for reaching out to me at any time. (I don’t get phone notifications for emails, so feel free to send those at any hour!) Instead, this post is about learning what works for you and makes you most productive. I knock out such a tremendous amount of work in the daytime hours, that I know I can limit the late evening and early morning hours for my personal time. I know that my entire day (which in turn means my mood and my ability to help my clients) becomes so much better when I give myself some disconnected time.

I shared the foundation of my productivity method last week, and I’d have to say using do not disturb would be my next big thing. If you struggle to disconnect or carve out time for yourself, you’ll want to give this a try. No one will know that you’re using the feature (calls don’t go straight to voicemail), and you can be in better control of your time. I honestly feel like I’ve been a ton happier and way more productive by using this tool.

What about you? Ever used the do not disturb feature? Have any other tips for ways of limiting your connectivity? I’m all ears!

*Again, of you’re a client or friend of mine, don’t hesitate to reach out to me if needed. I’m nearly always available and if you don’t get me right away, I’ll respond as soon as possible. I’ll just be sleeping (hopefully) during the night time hours. 🙂

2 Comments Business 2015 - Business - Keller Williams - real estate - What I've Learned

It’s My Birthday!

January 16, 2015 Pamela Stephens

Last week (January 9), I turned a whopping 29 years old. This post is somewhat of a recap of my birthday festivities. I’m a huuuuge birthday person. I proudly celebrate birthday weeks (sometimes months), and I take them very seriously.

Funny story: Once upon a time, my best friend gave an ex boyfriend a copy of The Breakup for Christmas. Attached was a note that read, “This is Pamela’s favorite movie. Also, here’s a tip…her birthday is a huge deal. Don’t forget that or you’ll most certainly ‘break up.'” I thought it was so clever and simply hilarious. He didn’t….which is probably why we broke up.

Birthday Eve Ice Cream This year, however, was different. I wasn’t as excited as usual about my birthday, and it took quite a bit to get me in the mood. I attribute some of this to not feeling well and being incredibly tired. I also think that I’m so pumped about my 30th birthday, that this one feels a little blah. (I’m totally expecting my 30s to rock…not dreading that birthday at all!) Nonetheless, I finally got excited as the day rolled around. On Thursday, Matthew and I finished up work a little early, so we got ice cream, ran a few errands, and did a bit of shopping. I counted this as my birthday eve celebration, and it definitely helped me get in the mood.

It's My Birthday!

Social Bites Cupcake On Friday, I woke up to tons of messages and facebook posts and that made me so excited! (Seriously, if you took time to message me, I totally appreciate it!) I headed over to Ruston and had lunch at one of my favorites, Beau Vines. That lemon cake is amazing! Amanda surprised me with my first Social Bites cupcake! After lunch I went for a quick massage, and then met a few folks for dinner at Cascio’s Tavern. (The parmesan chicken and blackened chicken pasta are my favs there.)

Possibly the highlight of my birthday weekend is that my long term best friend, Naomi, got to come for a visit. I most definitely don’t get to see her enough and was thrilled that she got to come spend a few days with me for my birthday. Saturday, I had to work for a bit and then Naomi and I did some shopping. (I bought some Minnetokas from Salt & Pepper that I’m soooo excited about.)

Saturday night, a few friends came over for a pajama party at my house. I had a million plans for this pajama party but didn’t really get to implement many. Instead, I decided that my birthday reward to myself would be to invite people over to a less-than-perfectly-clean home that still has Christmas decor up and not stress over that. I didn’t get to do many of the cutesy things I had planned, but I did get to take a breather and spend some time catching up with friends and watching girly movies. For the record, adult pajama parties are the way to go. We’ll be doing this again soon!

I’ll tell the next portion of my birthday story, solelyto make you feel good about yourself. Seriously, if you’re feeling a little down today, you should read on. It’s bound to lift your spirits. I’d like to say that we wrapped up my birthday weekend by arriving on time and perfectly dressed to my family birthday dinner on Sunday. Not quite. Instead, we arrived to family birthday dinner (hosted for me by Matthew’s parents) 40 minutes late with me rocking greasy hair and no makeup. Why is that, you ask? I put it on my calendar for the following Sunday. If I were being completely honest, I’d tell you that Matthew and I considered wrecking our car on the way over, just so the family might feel sorry for us and forget about the fact that we totally screwed up. I tell this story in a joking manner, but I felt absolutely horrible. I guess if there’s any party that it’s ok to show up late to, it would be your own birthday party. Lesson learned. I’ll be keeping a closer eye on my schedule from now on.

The celebrating even stretched into Monday, as I had lunch with my real estate team at Waterfront Grill (and ate that amazing bread pudding shown above). Speaking of my real estate team, I stopped by the office to find 20+ of these “Happy Birthday Pam” signs spread throughout the office. On the front door…the coke machine…strategically placed on the top of the trash can…you name it. However, my name isn’t Pam. It’s Pamela – all day, every day. I enjoyed searching for the signs, but if anyone starts calling me Pam from these signs, I might have to murder a coworker. (Thanks for thinking of me, Shane.)

All in all, I had a good weekend. I enjoyed time with friends and family and felt so thankful to have so many show that they cared. I didn’t do this birthday in my usual birthday style, but it’ll still go down on the books as a success. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

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To-Do Notebook

January 15, 2015 Pamela Stephens

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m pretty much always going 90 miles an hour. I seldom slow down, and I always have a million irons in the fire. As I get older, I’m trying to really get a grasp on my daily life in order to take it a little easier on myself and eliminate as much stress from my life as possible. I hope that you’ll do the same because stress is really, really bad for you.

One thing that I’ve spent the last year or so working on is mastering my to-do list. One of the major productivity methods suggests that you write down every little thing that you need to do instead of just trying to remember things. It maintains that by not writing these things down, you force yourself to try to remember them wasting valuable brain space and increasing your stress levels. Once upon a time I was the person who never used a calendar or wrote out a grocery list…I did it all from memory. I shiver at that thought now!

Throughout this process, I’ve tried several different ways of organizing my life. I’ve used list software like Wunderlist. I’ve read pages and pages on processes like the Getting Things Done method. For a while, I used a combination of methods along with Wunderlist, and it actually worked pretty well for me. However, I soon fell off the wagon and quit using my newly developed system. I no longer had a grip on my days, and I didn’t have the desire to pick my old method back up. Then, I started using a little notepad to track my daily activities, and I felt in control again. Using this little notebook to keep track of what I need to do each day has made a profound difference in my productivity and stress level. Today, I’m going to tell you a little about my current productivity system and my beloved to-do notebook.

Tennessee5 First, let’s talk about my requirements for a notebook of this type.

Spiral Binding: I like my notebooks to be spiral bound so they stay open easily by themselves. I can’t stand when a book closes when I don’t want it to!
Size & Weight: I carry this notebook with me at all times, so it needs to be lightweight and not too large. Most of the times I prefer something around a 5×7 size…it’s not too big and not too small and can easily slip in my purse.
Paper: I do not like recycled paper. (I know, shame on me.) In theory I’d love recycled paper, but in most cases certain pens and highlighters will bleed through the paper and that can make a mess quickly! The pages must also be lined…it just makes sense!
Cover: The book itself needs to be very durable since I’ll be using it daily for months at a time. Furthermore, I need it to be fun and cheery. This book is what motivates me to accomplish my daily tasks every day. A boring, plain book is simply not going to do that for me.

I’m pretty sure that you don’t know many other people who are so peculiar about a notebook. You should discuss daily planners with my friend, Amanda, if you think I’m crazy! Honestly, I’ve learned a ton about productivity and organization from her, so don’t judge!

So now that we’ve thoroughly discussed my qualifications for a to-do notebook, let’s talk about how I use it. I have a few different to-do list pages. I have daily to-dos and overall to-dos. (While I’m referring to them as to-dos all throughout this post, I don’t actually use that term in my notebook. That term is known to cause some anxiety itself. I haven’t settled on another name for them yet, but “to-do” is never written in my notebook.)

The overall to-dos are things that I need/want to do eventually but aren’t time sensitive. For example, cleaning out the pantry and selecting a new rug would be on this list. These items don’t have to be done today or tomorrow, but I do want to get around to them soon. It’s important to write these sorts of things down because otherwise they’re clogging up your brain space and can cause anxiety when you suddenly remember that you needed to do something like pick up the dry cleaning. Ideally, you would transfer items from this list on to the daily lists as time permitted. You should reference this list often to be sure you’re working towards the things you want to accomplish. Be sure to understand that this isn’t the place where miscellaneous tasks go to die…it’s more like the waiting room.

The meat of my to-do notebook is my daily to-do items. Each day I have a page where I write the day and date as a header. It’ll say, “Thursday, February 7th” on the top and that page will include everything that I need to accomplish on that day. One of the important things that I learned during my productivity research is to not write down big goals. Instead, your list should be full of smaller items that can be accomplished quickly. For example, your list wouldn’t include painting the bedroom. Instead, it would include taping the edges, picking a paint color, buying paint and supplies, covering furniture, etc. Nothing should go on your list that isn’t a specific action itself. Therefore, my daily lists contain items like sending a contract to a client, returning a phone call, etc. I put any and everything on there that I need to remember with the goal being to not retain any of that in my head. I even include calendar items there like “lunch with Sheila,” but that’s mainly for the satisfaction of marking it off after lunch.

The goal of this notebook is to keep me from forgetting important things, but it has so much more value than just that. It frees up my brain to focus on more important things than trying to remember what 17 things I had to do today. It also helps me to stay focused and productive. More importantly, it reminds me of just how hard I worked that day. I’m quite the workaholic and I struggle with guilt issues on a daily basis. When I wrap up a day with a full page of items crossed off, I can remind myself that I worked hard today and I deserve to take the evening off. I can remind myself that even though the day may have been chaotic, I still knocked it out of the park and got a lot accomplished. The value of this little notebook has surpassed what I ever thought possible, and while I may switch to another system eventually, this method knocks my socks off right now.

What system do you use to organize your to-do lists and stay productive? As you know, I’m very goal driven, so talking about productivity methods gets me excited! I’d love to hear about how you handle daily tasks…please share!

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