The Traveling Introvert

Hello,  I want to talk about routines for your desk. Most of us now are working from home. And we probably have a work space, it might be the work space of your dreams because you've had time to craft it. Or it might be your kitchen table. And so, because of this in the current situation, one of the major sources of overwhelm for many people is clutter. piles of stuff everywhere means they're not conducive. It's not conducive to concentration and the sense of calm and organization so you can get things done. And there are many techniques and you can, you know, use to cut down the clutter. But here's a couple of simple things that you can do to make a major difference to your workspace in general. Set aside at least 15 minutes of your workday. putting things away time, stop, especially if you have a lot of like pens and papers, notes and cups and sources and that sort of thing. And start by stripping up everything that is on your desk and other surfaces and finding a home for it. And eventually what happens is instead of having to decide where stuff goes, everything will have a place. And that will cut down into the decision making that you have to do. And for most of us, to be honest, the last 15 minutes of a work day isn't the most productive part of the day anyway, you're probably worn out from your your day and looking for a mindless task to do to finish your day. So for these last 15 minutes, get up from your desk and get physical putting away the things that you use during the day that will help stretch and you know, get the blood flowing. Not only does it help you stay organized, but it also provides a psychological benefit. You're cleaning up your tidying up with signals to the brain that your workday is finished. It becomes a ritual. And this ritual sends you off with a tidy workspace after a long day at work. Another great benefit is obviously the next time when you come and sit down at your workspace, it'll be neat and tidy and everything will be in its place, especially when you come back the next morning, which What better way to start the day. In fact, you might even extend this ritual a little more than just putting things away. Once you get into the flow of doing this daily and seeing results, you might want to add another 15 minutes and dedicate this time to some deeper organizing. And you could extend it to do stop mindless tasks that get lost in the shuffle, like backing up files or watering plants. What you could also do is use that time to help set up your next day. One great thing to do and get into the habit of doing is planning your day the day before. And the reason I say this is a lot of the time you'll you'll come into work or come to your workspace, open your laptop and look at your email. And overnight, there's probably another 510 15 2035 emails in there that you have to go through. And all of a sudden your email becomes your to do list. And whatever else it is that you plan to do kind of gets left behind. And before you know it, it's lunchtime, then you haven't even started on the task, or the projects that you were going to do that day. So if you plan in advance the day before, or what it is that you want to work on, it means that you're primed and ready, you're gonna sit down and have to do these things. And maybe don't even open your emails until you've done an hour's worth or 100 minutes worth of other work of that project that you wanted to do. Or that organizing or that setting up a project management tool or whatever it is that you wanted to do. Why don't you try just for a week doing other tasks before opening your email and see what a difference that makes for your feeling of being overwhelmed. And I know it can be hard, because the anxiety kicks in and you desperately want to open that email. And to help you with this you could download, especially if you're using Gmail, there's a pause app that you can use that will pause your email, so it doesn't look like you've had any emails overnight. And so then when you're ready, click the pause and you know, all the email will come flooding in. So those are just a few suggestions of how to start creating your routines for your work space. Now that you're in a different place. I'd love for you to email me and let me know any other routines that you have, or things that you'd like to try things that you've heard of. Please feel free to email me at [email protected], helping introverts build their brand and get hired. Thank you for listening and have a great and healthy week

Hello, and welcome to the not so traveling introvert. Today I want to talk about managing multiple projects or multiple clients. Because a lot of people are now working from home. And this is for you freelancers out there, you consultants out there. And to be honest, even if you are a career person working in a department, you might have more than one boss, or even within that department working on more than one project. So I want to talk about a couple of things with having a simple method for managing multiple projects to make sure you don't feel overwhelmed. One of the biggest causes of overwhelm is managing multiple projects at the same time, and they might not have the same timeline and that sort of a thing. And there's hardly a business owner or Freelancer who doesn't have to work this way, at least some of the time. So how do you go about managing multiple projects without feeling you know? overwhelmed, don't multitask. That's the first thing as this contributes to more stress. Instead, give each project the time it needs every day in order to feel like you're making progress. So let's say you have three projects A, B, and C. Ooh, imaginative. All right, so set a time limit such as an hour or 20 minutes for you to each project, whenever project a one off project D when after project C, setting aside daily time for each project, in a balanced way prevents one from taking over your whole day and preventing you from getting anything done on the others because you know, once you start fires occur, or you need to wait for emails and that sort of thing. It also helps you make take control of your daily schedule, because there's other things that you'll be doing. And this ensures that the other things that you must get done you have time for as well. And you know, you need to consider does each project need an hour do certain projects need more, you can adjust these time boxes accordingly. And you might set more time for a project that is bigger or has a closer day. deadline, that is for sure. But try and give roughly the same amount of time each day. And when you're approaching a deadline for the, for a, for example, you'll have a sense of how far you've come and how far you need to go. And if you need to make adjustments. Now, you also need to think about if you have more projects coming down the line, can you fit your schedule and plan ahead. For example, if you had a project slated to start Friday, can you block out time starting Friday to give that bit of daily time it already needs and I talked about sort of blocks of time and that's the other part of dealing with different projects and that sort of thing. You know, it's a case of time blocking what you're doing. And I find this really important and I do it myself and sometimes I forget and I have to go back. And there's only so many hours in the day and so much needs to be done. And as I said before, you know you might spend too much time on task a and then you get nothing done on task or project being seen. Nevermind the routine daily stuff that you need to do. Do So, time blocking involves taking each regular task and giving it its own time block in which to work on it. And this works great because it takes each task and treats them all equally. And so you get some work done on something. For example, say your daily to do list is something along these lines, social media work information on a product, you're creating work for client project, think about marketing and conduct market research, right? That's each of these items are super important. However, the client project and the information product a big task and you should work on those each day, you might want to put the client work first because it has a deadline and it means you get paid, and there's consequences if you don't finish. But what if you get engrossed in it and realize it's much bigger than it expected and it eats up into your social media and planning time. So Time, time tracking or time blocking helps you balance all your to dues by assigning each one a daily timeframe and it could look something like 30 days for social media, one hour for the information project, 90 minutes for client work 30 minutes planning your business and like an hour for research. With time blocking, you can make steady progress on each task and nothing that way can kind of slip through the cracks. The other huge benefit is you don't need to multitask because you know that you're going to spend another 9am to 930 on one thing, and you will be focused on that designated activity. So these are a couple of ways that can help you focus and get more done. Try the these time management strategies and see how it works for you to do this, you know, give it a week or two and see what happens. All right, thank you for listening. This is Janice from the not so traveling internet. And I am founder of the career introvert helping introverts build their brand and get hired. If you have any questions, please email me at [email protected] Thank you for listening and I will see you next week.

Hello, and welcome to the traveling introvert. I should say they're not so traveling internet. Today, I would love to talk about your work style. I know that okay, we, we all might know those with the lesson that we are introverts. And that can dictate to a degree, our work style. But I'm not just talking about that. I'm not just talking about the fact that you might be a morning person or a night owl, on about a combination of all of these things. And I know that it can take years to figure this out, and it shouldn't really you just actually have to pay attention to yourself and your body and what your mind and your body is telling you. Sometimes we end up feeling like overwhelmed and stressed out because we're forcing ourselves to work in a way that no other Natural but doesn't jive with our general flows and rhythms. And working styles vary from person to person, knowing your own welcome start working style enables you to work with it rather than against it. And it helps you tell others what you need to work better rather than them, you know, going against the grain and also helps when you are leading or managing other people if they know their own styles, and they can tell you what they need rather than you having to guess. But how do you go ahead and discover? You know what works for you. And I'll tell you now, no productivity expert can tell you what your own style is. Because it's possible just like a lot of things. It's very individual and personal to you. However, there are some things that you should think about, and that will help you figure out what your style is, and there's not necessarily a name for the style. It's just the case of these are things that work for you. So first thing is Your best working times. Everybody has a time that's the most productive time to work. It's when the most can do their most focused work. It could be in the morning, it could be at night, it could be late morning or early afternoons. I know for me, it is probably from about 7pm to about midnight. I'm not exactly a night owl, but I'm leaning towards that anything in the morning is not the best time to get me or not cognitive and creative and just for different things. And it does depend on the tasks you're doing some tasks, you might find that you do better in different times of day. You also need to think about how you recharge. Just as we all have our different style of working and taking a break. You need to think about how often you need to recharge and how you do it. Do you happen to know your natural energy cycles? Can you work for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes an hour and without too Taking a break? Or do you need to do just like eating little? And often, it really does depend but figuring that out, and also what things recharge you better? Is it getting up and stretching? Is it totally getting away from the screen and reading a book or coloring? Or going and putting your feet on fresh grass? Knowing what recharges you and how quickly and from what type of task is really insightful and something that you should try and pay attention to? Are you an independent kind of worker? Are you a collaborator? Do you work well with others? Or would you rather work alone? Along with that think about which tasks are better for group work and which are best done solo? Because sometimes they're not what you think it is. Another thing to be really cognizant of and pay attention to is whether you're a big picture thinker, or you will like get super granular, granular and into the details. Are you the kind of person that looks from the big picture aerial view Do you work better when you get to dive into those fine details and the nitty gritty, because knowing these things helps you in your career, figure out the kind of career you want to have the kind of roles that we would be better suited for you. And are you a thinker? Or do people tend to be doers or dreamers? And you can be both, but you clearly more likely to be one type of Van another. Ask yourself these questions and spend some time reflecting on them. And the answers can be quite revealing. And you can also figure out how you work best by asking others especially people who you work closely with, by asking them some questions because they see it from the outside point of view and not you making assumptions. You will get a better idea of what is true, rather than what you are assuming or what you think. I'd love to know if you have any questions about working styles or working online and your working styles. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] I look forward to hearing from you the career introvert helping introverts Build that brand and get hired. Thank you for listening and speak to you next

Hello and welcome to the traveling introvert. Today I am going to be talking about supporting extroverts. During this time, a lot of us are in what Bill Gates is calling a lockdown, quarantine and staying in place self isolation. There are many different words for it. And what I found in the past week is that there are a lot of memes around. Say, you know, introverts being like, Oh, this is this is what I normally do. This is my life. I don't know what you're all you know what all the excitement is about. However, what I have found is that I have been pouring a lot of support into or supporting people in general. But generally, I've realized that I've been supporting a lot of extroverts. And for us introverts what we do on an everyday is normal to us, and possibly staying in and keeping ourselves occupied Just one on one or, you know, just with one other person we have possibly arranged for hobbies that we do to recharge, but that we can do by ourselves. And a lot of extroverts don't have that. And instead of us versus them, and us being like, Well, we know how to do this, why don't you figure it out? It would be really good for introverts to support extroverts in any way that they can to try and help them through this, this phase. And it but there is the flip side of that is helping too much. So what I've discovered in the past couple of weeks that I've been spending so much time on zoom on Skype on phone calls, that sometimes work isn't getting done, but also I'm just drained because it is still draining. There's a reason why I set up my business so I don't have to do that amount of calls and that sort of a thing. And now I'm doing it into supporting other people. Obviously there's that extra emotional level to it. So it's hard to figure out the perf balance for you of how much time you spent supporting other people and how much time you still have for yourself. And when you're thinking about extroverts, reach out to them, see if you can do a big zoom call, get all the extroverts on one zoom call that we have to do multiple one on one calls. Not great for you, but great for them. And they feel like they have a community. Anything that you hear about which has online communities where people can work online, co work online, do activities online, there's an cooking one of my friends started a cooking show. People are spending a lot more time on social media, but there's so much negativity and scare and fear information out there that people are getting very depressed. And there's going to be a spike in suicides, depression. And so what I want to do is have content out there that is uplifting and helpful, rather than fear and scare mongering is a part of that is you know, making people happy. playing games with them having a co working session where we don't talk about the C word, anything that you can do to show people, hey, this is how I do introversion and this is how I do self isolating and quarantining. You know, what do you do share with me? Yeah? Can you make your home office? Awesome? Does it change every day? Can you change your background color, things to do with zoom or Skype, and team building activities, communication, communication is key through all of this. And so and so companies are starting to figure out how they're going to communicate with their staff during this time. And some people have just become managers. They become managers of a remote workforce, and they've never done it before. So figuring out how to keep your team motivated and strong while all of this is going on. I know some people have a lot of work and some people have less work and some people have no work. So try and be as supportive as possible as you can during that time, but those of you who don't have any work, don't assume that everyone else is the same and has all that time to devote to you. There are some people who are overwhelmed with work because I tried to make sure that people get paid, that nurses get paid that people have equipment. There are some really vital services out there, that people don't realize what's going on. Even though they're not nurses or doctors, payroll companies, they are vitally important. If you used to get paid by cheque and had to go into the office, they are doing everything in their power to make sure that your check either goes direct deposit or gets to your house. They are working overtime to make sure stuff happens, but they are the unsung heroes. So just be aware of what other people might be going through and take some compassion instead of that, Oh, we've been doing this our entire lives in Japan. It's a wonderful show. compassion, it goes a long, long way. Thank you for listening. This is Janice from the career introvert and the traveling introvert. Stay safe and speak to you next week

 Today I'm going to talk about selfish self care. And the reason I'm calling it selfish self care, or lazy self care is because this was spurned by a post I saw by friend of mine who mentioned that whenever friends cool, too lazy for taking a nap, and she was like, This is my business. This is how I run my business. If I am not well, or I don't feel like doing stuff, or I want to take a nap for my mental health. I can do so. It doesn't make me lazy

and

fascinated me because why would someone I kind of get why someone would think you're lazy if you're napping. But as long as stuffs getting done and you're living your life and you're not hurting anybody, why should it be a problem? And the reason is, although self care is very much a buzzword these days that you must take self care and you must do this self care thing and that other self care thing. If you actually Truly go ahead and do it in a way that isn't considered to be the norm or fashionable. People get butthurt about and I really don't understand why. If taking a nap works for you and makes you feel better or clears your brain or whatever it is that you have to do, go take a nap, that is your self care. If you need to do stretches, go ahead do that. If and this this is kind of seen this happen a lot new mothers if you need one full night's sleep, and it means that you have to pay for a hotel and leave your kids with your other half and you go and do that. That is fine. It gives you a full night's sleep. I have a friend who has been sleep deprived now for I think three years. She's actually forgotten what it feels like to have a full night's sleep that is not healthy for you. So going and doing whatever it is you need to do so you get one full night's sleep and you come back feeling

amazing. Go Do

that. So what if people think it's selfish? It's selfish to you, you have to put you first if you don't know what else is going to, and if you are not 100% Okay, no one's ever 100% 90% 99% How can you give to other people, people seem to think that you should just keep giving when your cup your energy, whatever it might be, is half full. And that doesn't help anybody. You need to be filled up first before you can go ahead and give and as interest. Sometimes we want to go ahead and take ourselves time or do whatever it is we need to do. But society is famous. Why are you so quiet? Don't you ever talk? Oh, you're just being alone again, why do you never come out and see as a very negative thing when you are very much doing your own introvert related self care. That's all you're doing. You are taking care of you. You are doing your self care. And it is selfish and that is fine. I don't think selfish is quite frankly the right word. But right now that's what we're going with. So you know what you need for your mind, body, soul, Allah, whatever it is that you need. So go ahead and do that. And if you don't know what it is you need, try and figure it out or ask someone

or,

or write down a journal what when you feel happiest and lightest and fulfilled? Do you need to go and do some yoga? Do you need to go and write a book? Do you need to go ride a bicycle? Do you just need to go for a walk? Or do you just need to put on noise cancelling headphones for 10 minutes? What is it that you need? self care can come in so many different things. And I think it's really good to have like a bucket, I say a bucket list of things that you can do for your own self care. Because sometimes, you know, the one thing isn't always the thing you need in that situation. So write down a list of things that you know help recharge you in various ways. You might do certain things. When you are feeling overwhelmed. You might do certain things when you've been socially accepted that you might do so things because of work, you might do certain things because you like doing certain things. Have this list and make sure you try and do at least one of them today. Because I think that's that's what we miss out on my say busy working and being on the internet and doing all these other things that just in one thing per day that brings you joy and peace and balance to your life can make a huge difference long term. So give me permission. Go ahead because some people need permission. Some people feel that they need to, you know, have someone tell them, go ahead and look after you are important. You know what you need. No one else can tell you what you need. Go and look after yourself. Make that list and do one thing per day off that list that brings you joy recharges you and brings balance back to your life. Thank you for listening. This was Janice at the career introvert, helping introverts build their brand and get hired if you have any questions or things you want me to

answer on the podcast please email me

at [email protected]