Tag: Food For Thought

Home Sweet Work From Home

Happy Monday!

Today like many others, I officially started working from home indefinitely to protect myself, family, friends and others during COVID-19 outbreak. I am incredibly grateful to have the option to do so. To help with the transition from working in an office to home and to create a bit of balance between work and home life, I created myself a workspace that is both productive yet beautiful and peaceful to me.

The move to work from home means I will personally gain between 10 – 15 hours that I commute every week. For many of us that spend a lot of time commuting and/or are simply used to always being on the go, the next little bit may be exceptionally challenging and lonely as we socially distance ourselves from others to help flatten the curve. 

Thought I would share some ideas to help you embrace these changes in routine and all the extra time you may find yourself with over the next few weeks and potentially beyond. 

Professional and Job Search Ideas

  • Review and revise your CV
  • Make your CV Applicant Tracking System (ATS) compliant
  • Practice your interviewing skills even if you don’t have an interview scheduled
  • Develop or revisit your own personal brand
  • Update and complete your LinkedIn profile
  • Connect with others on LinkedIn by sending personal invites
  • Join groups on LinkedIn and follow others
  • Comment on LinkedIn posts and articles
  • Write and share your own articles and posts
  • Learn a new brainstorming technique like Mind Mapping®
  • Reflect on where you are at in your career, where you want to go and love what you do
  • Research companies you are interested in potentially working for to learn more about them
  • Find opportunities to learn formally and informally – read, listen to podcasts, webinars, lives, zoom chats, etc.
  • Sign up for a course you can complete virtually
  • Become a virtual mentor and help someone else
Continue reading “Home Sweet Work From Home”

My Year Tracking my Clothing Purchases

“We each buy almost 70 new clothing garments every year.” – Juliet B. Schor, Plentitude: The New Economics of True Wealth. After watching the CBC Marketplace clip about how many items of clothing we buy, I decided to track all my clothing purchases this year. As we wind down 2018, my list included 26 new items purchased including delicates and accessories (i.e. scarf, hat). I tracked shoes separately – three pairs purchased – a pair of open-toed shoes, a pair of Tretorns that cost $1.69 thanks to gift cards and a pair of winter boots for both work and casual. I also donated old clothes to my SIL’s family, the Salvation Army and Markham Recycles to give old textiles that could no longer be worn a new life. After no longer fitting a number of items in my closest or suited me, I definitely knew I had been much more mindful about what I purchased and was happy to see that was in fact the case. I will likely to continue to track in the new year.

Palliative Care is …

“Palliative care is not what happens when all treatments have failed. It does not mean “giving up” or “stopping the fight.” If you are fighting cancer or Lou Gehrig’s disease, palliative care means a team of people — such as doctors, nurses, social workers and others — will help make sure you have what you need to continue fighting.” Dr. Jeff Myers – University of Toronto

Job Shaming

It was really disheartening to see someone shaming Geoffrey Owens for working at Trader Joe’s. Sadly this happens to many famous or not. Life is challenging, sometimes unfair and despite hard work does not work out as one hopes. I have met many individuals over the years who fail to include their work experience at a coffee shop, retail store, gas station, construction site, etc because of what people say, think and perceive. We all gain practical life skills via every work experience. Sadly people who judge people for not holding what they consider a professional job says so much more about them than the individuals who are motivated to get up everyday, go to work to pay for rent or a mortgage, food, clothes, etc to just keep on the life journey. It is the people that will do anything that inspire me.