by Kara | Jul 13, 2018 | Organizational, Residential
Summer is now in full swing, and we all know that in the Northwest, those sunny days are numbered. If you’re missing out on this precious sunlight due to household chores and other indoor tasks, the time has come to set your priorities straight. Keep reading to learn why spending time in the sun is crucial and discover new ways to get outside.
How Sunlight Helps
Spending time in the sun can improve your well-being in the following ways.
Strengthens Your Immune System
When you spend time in the sun, your body produces vitamin D, which is necessary to keep your immune system going strong. A lack of vitamin D can also increase your likelihood of developing an autoimmune disorder. When paired with proper sunscreen practices, spending time in the sun can be an easy way to stay healthy!
Keeps Your Bones and Teeth Healthy
As long as you consume enough calcium, sun exposure can help keep your bones and teeth strong. This is because vitamin D makes it easier for your bones to absorb calcium. Having a vitamin D deficiency can even make you more susceptible to osteoporosis.
Potentially Helps You Live Longer
According to a study that followed nearly 30,000 Swedish women for 20 years, those who spent the most time in the sun lived an average of 0.6 to 2.1 years longer than the sun avoiders, primarily because they were less likely to have developed cardiovascular disease and other noncancer illnesses. Although the study’s authors can’t confirm direct causation, they do think that sunshine exposure may improve cardiovascular health.
Makes You Happier
Spending time in the sun causes your brain to release more serotonin, a hormone responsible for improving mood and focus. If you don’t get enough sunshine, your serotonin levels may drop, increasing your risk of major depressive disorder with seasonal pattern (depression caused by seasonal changes).
To keep your spirits high this summer, get outside and enjoy the sun!
How to Spend More Time Outside
We know that when the sun comes out, the number of items on your to-do list doesn’t decrease. To get outside without neglecting your responsibilities, consider hiring a personal assistant to handle some of your household management, chores, errands, and whatever else is keeping you indoors.
by Kara | Jun 20, 2018 | News
We all love the sense of accomplishment that comes with completing a task, but juggling too many items at a time can have some unwanted consequences. Read on to learn about the downsides of multitasking and how you can rid yourself of the bad habit.
Why You Shouldn’t Multitask
Your Brain Wasn’t Made for Multitasking
According to Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT and multitasking expert, our brains are “not wired to multitask well.” Rather than focus on multiple things at a time, our minds are quickly switching from one task to another. And the more you try to multitask, the more you lose focus on each task you’re juggling.
Multitasking Lowers Your IQ
Believe it or not, multitasking actually decreases your intelligence: A study found that distractions caused by phone calls or emails lowered participants’ IQs by as much as 10 points. The cognitive impact of such a decrease is the same as losing an entire night of sleep.
Considering this, it’s no surprise that multitasking reduces efficiency, quality of work, and overall productivity.
Multitasking May Cause Long-Term Damage
The damage might not end when the multitasking does.
A study from the University of Sussex performed MRI scans on people who used multiple devices — such as a cell phone and TV — at once. The study found that those who multitasked more frequently tended to have less brain density in the anterior cingulate cortex (the area of the brain tasked with emotional control and empathy).
Researchers still haven’t determined if multitasking is responsible for this, or if brain damage causes people to multitask. Either way, avoiding multitasking is for the best.
How to Stop Multitasking
Multitasking is so instilled in our daily lives that it may take some conscious effort to stop. Start by trying these methods.
Get Rid of Distractions
As obvious as it may sound, if you don’t expose yourself to distractions, you don’t run the risk of trying to multitask. Turn off your phone, close out of your email, and surround yourself only with whatever is necessary for the task at hand.
Give Yourself Less Time
The more time you have to dedicate to a task, the more likely you are to get distracted and start multitasking. The opposite is also true: When you’re on a tight deadline, you tend to block everything else out to focus on getting your work done as quickly as possible. To make this your norm, limit the time you allot for each task so that multitasking isn’t a possibility.
Reduce Your Tasks
When you have an inordinate amount of things to do, multitasking is always going to be a temptation. The simplest way of solving this problem is to reduce the amount on your plate. Whether you’re a young professional, CEO, or stay-at-home parent, letting a personal assistant handle some of your tasks can help you avoid multitasking — and its negative effects.
by Kara | Jun 11, 2018 | News
Anyone who has done it knows that being a stay-at-home parent isn’t easy. Caring for children and managing a household is a full-time job in itself, and brings with it a unique set of challenges. In addition to the day-to-day difficulties of raising children, stay-at-home parents also experience feelings of loneliness, get too little sleep, and struggle both to find time for themselves and to finish everything on their to-do lists.
While every parent’s situation is distinct, a few best practices are universally helpful to avoid burnout, improve quality of life, and make time at home more enjoyable.
Build a Support System
One of the most jarring aspects of stay-at-home parenting is the sense of complete isolation. Before having kids, you may have enjoyed a robust social life, and at least the water cooler chat typical of most workplaces. As a new parent, you may go all day without any real adult interaction — except, perhaps, at the grocery store. This is especially difficult if you feel that you can no longer relate to those who were previously good friends.
To avoid this alienation, establishing a strong support system at the very beginning is crucial. Support systems can include family, close friends, and anyone else who helps you feel that you’re not in this alone. Parents who lack friends with kids may consider attending parenting events, joining a class, or even finding a group on social media to meet people they identify with.
Find Time for Yourself
Another downside of caring for children 24/7 is that the kids are there when you wake up, they are there when you go to sleep, and you must dedicate all the time in between to kids or kid-related activities. Even during nap times or play dates, you’ll likely have an endless list of chores to address, and may feel guilty about taking time for yourself.
But putting yourself first isn’t something to feel bad about. In fact, it’s completely necessary to maintain your mental health and keep you going strong. Remember that you’re still your own person, with your own interests. Set aside time to spend on a favorite hobby, treat yourself to something nice, or even just take a walk by yourself. Making this a regular part of your schedule can help ensure that you don’t overlook your “me time” and become burned out.
Get More Sleep
Sleep deprivation is an unavoidable downside of having a baby, and can be a risk even as your children grow older. Because your job never really ends, knowing when to call it a day and get some rest can be difficult.
Lack of sleep shouldn’t become a constant in your life, though: Sleep deprivation can affect both mood and cognitive function. So, if you’re not sure why you’re in a bad mood and can’t think straight, you might not be getting enough sleep! To get back on track, make sleep a priority (the unfolded laundry can wait) and enforce a bedtime for yourself. Establishing a regular schedule can improve the quality of your sleep.
Outsource
Although many stay-at-home parents think they should be able to handle everything on their own, the truth is that it does “take a village” to raise a child. If you don’t have a village at your disposal, bringing in some outside help can work wonders. In fact, outsourcing is doubly beneficial: It not only helps you relieve stress on its own, but also gives you more time to invest in building a support system, self-care, and sleep.
So, before you get burned out, accept that being a stay-at-home parent is a tough job, and just as deserving of a personal assistant as any other profession.
by Kara | Mar 7, 2018 | Residential
This year’s icy Seattle winter will soon begin to thaw, which means locals will soon emerge from their indoor sanctuaries and into the sun. As you gear up for another summer rotation of entertaining guests who are vacationing in town, hosting backyard dinner parties, and clearing room in your schedule for event season, this is the perfect time to get everything in order at home. After all, the spring cleaning phenomenon exists for a reason; not only does the spring bloom inspire motivation, it’s also a chance to brace for even busier times ahead.
Though it’s easy to let household tasks pile up, everyone benefits from a clean and organized environment. Whether you’re currently living with a season’s worth of clutter that is begging to be sorted or are itching to deep-clean your digs, here are some basic cleaning and organization tips to get you started.
Focus on Cleaning Products
You can often get good (and environmentally safe) results using products you probably already have in your pantry. For example, try scrubbing the inside of your refrigerator with a mixture of soda water and salt. The bubbling soda water combined with salt granules can make an efficient appliance cleaner.
If you notice hard water stains accumulating by your faucets, soak some paper towels in white vinegar and lay them over the stains for 60 minutes. This softens the deposits and allows for easy removal.
End the Paper Chase
Paperwork is a major source of clutter at home. Eliminate piles by creating a filing system for the important documents you must keep. Label manila folders and file them immediately in a designated cabinet, bin, drawer, or box where they are easily accessible. If you run a home office or have a large number of paper documents that need to be organized, you might even want to invest in a small business document scanner to help make your office paperless.
Just say no to junk mail! Before stepping into the house, re-route your junk mail, magazine inserts and reply envelopes to the recycle bin. Keep a mini trash can inside of the car and dump it daily. It can pull double-duty as a container for items that need to go back into the car from the house.
Enlist Some Help
A personal assistant can help you tidy up this season, even as your own schedule starts to fill up! Your PA can be your partner in spring cleaning and organization in the following ways (and many more!):
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- Organize those pesky papers and files mentioned above.
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- Do some light cleaning (such as dusting, dishes, laundry, and more) to maintain your freshly clean spaces all season long.
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- Water your plants and keep them healthy as they bloom, further brightening your home.
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- Prep in-season veggies and fruits for healthy meals that are ready-to-go when you get home from work.
- Set up service appointments to take care of seasonal concerns such as landscaping, car maintenance, or roof repairs.
Don’t Stop There
Spring cleaning applies outside the home as well as inside! A well-organized shed can help you keep your lawn and garden supplies at the ready for seasonal planting and pruning.
Finally, once your winter clutter has been eliminated, relax and enjoy your clean and organized surroundings. Invite friends over and enjoy!
by Kara | Sep 24, 2017 | Organizational
Through the years as personal assistants, we’ve learned a thing or two about the types of tasks clients tend to need help with most often. Ultimately, no matter the task, what matters most is that it’s saving the client time. When you can outsource personal tasks it can make all the difference.
Of course, as you decide which personal responsibilities to outsource to your personal assistant, you’ll want to formulate a strategy.
Many of the tips businesses use to determine their outsourcing strategies can also be applied in the personal realm. Just as a business might allocate specific duties to contractors, suppliers, and other third-party partners to fortify in-house efficiency, you can rely on your personal assistant to lighten the load in your home life. Here’s how to approach your own task allocation.
Focus On the House You’re Saving Instead of the Tasks They’re Doing
Select personal assistant tasks that streamline your life and save you time. If you struggle with relinquishing personal responsibilities, try to outsource according to the number of hours you’d like to save, rather than hyper-focusing on the number of duties you’re giving away. Shift your focus toward what you stand to gain and don’t frame your outsourcing as a loss of control. After all, your PA is there to complete outsourced tasks according to your instructions and preferences — so you ultimately remain in the driver’s seat (minus the stress of steering)! Remember: there is no shame in asking for help!
Think in Terms of Daily Operations
Start by outsourcing a handful of the duties that are essential to maintain your day-to-day routine. Everyday household management tasks are the building blocks that allow you to run a tight ship, and if they aren’t completed, your more meticulous responsibilities may wind up falling by the wayside.
In the business world, a company might outsource foundational projects such as large-scale printing orders (for example, brochures in bulk or oversized banners), website design and development services, or legal consulting — all essential yet transferable functions that free up full-time staff resources to be allocated toward core operations. Similarly, you might outsource daily to-do list items such as grocery shopping, meal prep, laundry, and scheduling appointments so you can focus on the remaining work and home tasks that require your personalized attention.
Collaborate On Your Personal Priorities
At some point, you’ll need to prioritize tasks to determine which ones do require your personalized attention. While we’re happy to help you with a wide array of responsibilities, sometimes you may feel there’s just no substitute for face time or a personal touch. In these cases, consider collaborating with your personal assistant to get the job done! For example, we can:
- Purchase and mail cards and gifts and leave the handwritten note up to you
- Research wealth management companies, and you take care of the investments
- Screen nannies for final interviews
- Set up a personal shopping appointment and pick up the alterations
- Set up a system for your child’s school and sports forms and fill them out for you to sign
