For Busy Women… to ward off unlucky Friday the 13^th

Everyone dislikes a day when everything seems to go wrong. It doesn’t have to be Friday the 13th for it to feel like your unlucky day. Little things can change your day for the better or the worse, so here are some super simple life hacks to help you stay on top of the little things that drive you crazy.

1. Dry Lips
Do dry lips have you surreptitiously chewing dead skin while hoping nobody notices your vague resemblance to a cow chewing its cud during the board meeting? Grab a sugar packet from the coffee bar and head to the women’s restroom for a quick scrub. Wet your finger and moisten your lips with a little water. Dip the same, damp finger into the sugar packet (Become nostalgic remembering your childhood days eating Jello or KoolAde powder in the same way) so that sugar sticks to your finger. Now gently rub your sugared finger over your lips in circles. Repeat until all that dead, dry skin is gone. Rinse your lips, mouth and fingers. Pat lips dry. Top with lip balm and lipstick to protect.

2. Date Your Mascara
By now we all know that we should be tossing out our mascara at the three-month mark to avoid eye infections due to bacteria overload. But who can remember if it has been three months or six? (Hint: if there are clumps of gunk under the cap or the product is thick and dry, it’s time to toss) Date your mascara. Not as in take it out, as in toss it out. When you open new mascara, take a permanent marker and mark the date on the tube somewhere. (We like to date the little sticker on the bottom of the tube.) Voila! No more trying to recall when you purchased the tube or when it’s time to replace it.

3. Break in Your Sharp Heels
You found the perfect heels to go with your dress for the wedding on Saturday, but they are a little snug and you know you will be standing, walking and dancing all night. Put on a pair of slightly damp socks, don the new shoes, and blow them dry with a hairdryer. The combination of damp socks and the heat from the dryer will gently stretch the shoes and form them to your foot.

4. Add Peppermint
Peppermint might just be one of nature’s best pick-me-ups. Peppermint improves mental clarity and helps clear brain fog, so try peppermint tea when you’re in a slump. It aids digestion and settles upset stomachs, too. Peppermint oil can help relieve congestion. Peppermint lotions and creams are a great pick me up to cool and soothe tired feet after a long day at work. Want to feel more hydrated and refreshed? Sip water flavored with peppermint.

5. Journal
We kept diaries as young girls in which we listed hopes, dreams, and happenings. They helped us to process the world around us and center ourselves. Growing up shouldn’t mean we stop chronicling important events or keeping track of our dreams and goals. Writing in a journal, whether it’s a leather-bound book or a document on your laptop, is a great way to help you process and center yourself everyday.

6. Manage Your Time
You probably can squeeze in that fundraising event next Thursday for the women’s club, but should you? Time management does not mean accounting only for the hours on a clock or calendar. True time management involves the best allocation of your time for maximum benefit. Be realistic. Is attending the event with the hopes of being “seen” at the right function going to benefit you as much as being alert and prepared for the big meeting the next day will? Know when to say “no.” Stop feeling guilty about needing some downtime to recharge your batteries.

7. End Mealtime Mayhem
Create a list of 10 Go-To meals that you and your family enjoy. Keep the recipes and the ingredient lists handy. Try to keep the ingredients for those meals on hand at all times. Think about the benefits to your Go-To menu: you won’t have to stop at the store to pick up ingredients because you always have them on hand, you won’t feel as compelled to drive through whatever restaurant you pass on the way home or to order in takeout, and you will no longer need to stress over what’s for dinner.

8. Buy a Backup
There are items you use everyday. Deodorant, feminine products, contact lens solution, baby diapers, pantyhose, hair products…we could fill volumes with our list of daily use items. Nothing makes the day feel more like Friday the 13^th than realizing, post shower, that you don’t have any antiperspirant. When you purchase these items, buy a backup. When you take the last one from the cupboard, take a picture of the item and email it to yourself to add to your calendar for shopping day.

9. Stockpile School Supplies
Along those same lines, if you are a working mom, you need another stockpile as well—school supplies. It has probably happened to you before, you’ve just changed into sweats and a stained t-shirt to make dinner, when your 10-year-old son comes in to announce that he has a project due tomorrow that requires poster board and puffy paint. Never fails. Keeping extra school supplies on hand can help reduce the madness. August–when you are already buying school supplies and all the stores are running sales–is the ideal time to purchase some extra items for at home. Keep extra notebooks, paper, glue, markers, poster board, paints etc. on hand for the coming school year…just in case.
The same is true of office supplies. Buy backups of your favorite gel pen ink refil, printer toner, copy paper and steno notebooks, so you don’t have to stop working when you’re on a roll.

10. Hire a Virtual Assistant
Good news! Your business is booming and growing bigger everyday. Bad news. You need help at the office, but you only need someone a few hours a week. Hire a vitual assistant for those few hours. Virtual assistants can help you with bookkeeping, scheduling, writing web copy or research. Several online sources are available to pre-screen candidates and handle their payment for you.

11. Eliminate Clutter…Everywhere
This might seem a daunting task, but clutter saps you of creative energy and creative energy is exactly what keeps highly productive people jazzed for each new opportunity. Your workspace reflects your work mind. Create a system and stick with it. File those papers into the appropriate folders or trays. Gather the 100 or so paperclips that are collecting dust bunnies on your desktop and put them in a bin. If you absolutely cannot conceive of tackling the organization yourself, consider hiring a professional to assist with the arduous task. Then, take 5-10 minutes every evening before you leave work to reorganize your space for the next morning. You’ll be glad you did.

12. Two-Minute Rule
This little gem can enhance your productivity immensely. Rather than end up with a to-do list that will take hours to accomplish “later,” tackle any project that comes across your desk that will take two minutes or less, now. And no, we don’t mean catching up on the Kardashians in those two minutes. Adding an item to your calendar, responding to a short email or locating the name of a contact you met for someone on the salesforce is fine. Interrupting your current project to revise yesterday’s project might not be the best use of your time and could hurt your mojo.

13. Delegate
The most effective business people learn to delegate. You cannot accomplish it all yourself, and with some items, why are you trying? Delegate first those items you dread. If you don’t enjoy it, you probably will postpone it. Delegate the things you just aren’t as good at. While it might be nice to know how to replace your own hard drive, leave that to the experts and move on to those tasks at which you excel. Delegate jobs that will take you too long to complete; your time is valuable.

One more for extra good luck:

14. Exercise
… your desk! Replace your chair with an exercise/balance ball. The ball requires that you engage many muscle groups including abs, back, and legs just to sit at your desk. You tone while you type away. Need to noodle on some ideas? Pace around your desk while you’re thinking or, better still, take a brisk walk outside to get some exercise, clear your mind, and increase productivity when you return to your desk.