Horizontal careers

Have you ever heard about a horizontal career? 

(If not, read about it here, in this post of Sarah Blackford on career directions.)

A horizontal career is something that I'm trying at the moment, an opportunity that I fought for together with a leap of faith that appeared to me some months ago. After a long brainstorming, I decided to challenge myself once again, and I started to work in industry, in a completely new (at least for me) field of science.What a change I've made!

When I look backwards, I realize that this was THE career move I wanted to make. And when you want something, you should never give up (even if everything around you say it so)!!! 

New Beginnings = New Responsibilities

And I know that it shouldn't be an excuse for being idle for so long, but I am still re-organizing myself to come back here more often again...with something good!

Are you stuck in a job-condition in which you can't get out of it? 

Try something different!

What I've been doing...

Life is made of decisions... from the very moment you wake up until the last second you breathe... 

And as you may know, life is also too short to decide wrong about the things you want to do next.

After I finished my PhD, I had to make one of my hardest decisions: to move abroad or to stay home? And almost a year after, I can say that I chose wisely and I am very satisfied with I've accomplished so far.

But, precisely one year after that "big" decision, I've been deciding again: to go deeper into my scientific specialization or to broader my personal and professional knowledge?

I feel butterflies in my stomach again =)

I'm still here...

...and I will be back soon... 

Findings

The other day I found this Portuguese blog. It's about a woman of my age that had breast cancer last year. 

I truly and deeply admire those who have the chance to -and actually do!- fight this horrible disease. 

If you are a woman on your twenties, please have a look to this blog and increase your awareness to this problem.

Have a nice week!

The power of doing nothing

How many times do you do nothing?

And by nothing I mean:

- just you with yourself breathing in and out, and an empty (but at the same time, focused) mind,

AND

- no phone, 
- no internet (Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, etc etc etc...),
- no TV, 
- no distractions,
- no goals,
- no hard feelings.

I haven't been doing nothing for a while, but it is something that I really want to introduce in my daily routine. 

The Welness Warrior explains you the benefits of doing nothing: "NOTHING: WHY IT’S THE MOST PRODUCTIVE THING WE CAN DO".

Here you will find a small exercise, and also here, a quick guide on "How to do nothing".

Have a nice week and remember, once in a while: do nothing!

Multitasking?

Do you consider yourself a person capable of multitasking?

Scientific fact: 
"your brain simply doesn't have the energy to hold two or more thoughts in unison". (Read more here at Inc. and watch this).

The truth is that I've always considered myself a multitasking person but I do recognize that when I do 2 things at the same time, one of them is often done inefficiently. So now that I am getting older, I am trying to manage my attention*:

- It is simple: I try to do one thing at a time, and to be as much concentrated as possible.

- But it isn't always easy: so I try harder!



* More about this in here.

21h21 - time for listening to music: Today, Portuguese music

Two of my favorite songs from the last year:

"A pele que há em mim" by Márcia

"Amor afoito" by Ana Moura

Good evening!

Do you want to be productive?

8 Tools to Amp Your Productivity by Christina Desmarais.

Have a nice week!

Time logs & me

Time logs work fine with me! I enjoy a lot to know what % of time I am spending in a specific activity, and after that, I usually challenge myself to improve the quality of that time.

However, I do fail sometimes tracking down every single movement that I do. And this happened in the last 2 weeks: I was supposed to go to the gym, to improve the time I spend preparing myself to go out for work, and to improve my relaxing time but life happens between these plans and me, and I got sick.

So, I am no longer controlling the time that I have to do things (from time to time I intend to log my time but this is no longer a priority). I decided to do a wish-list strategy, as follows:

Let's see how this March will go! ;-)

(Home) Sick

"I told you" is the kind of thought that goes on my mind today. I am not (yet) a short sleeper and I do have a heart that is full of "saudade" (a Portuguese word that cannot be directly translated). In conclusion: 1+1 = I am sick, at home + I am homesick too.

After taking extensive naps along the day, I discovered an interesting Portuguese project: 

The André Leonardo Tour

André is a 24-years-old-Portuguese-dreamer-entrepreneur, which is (at this exactly&precisely moment) embracing a social expedition around the world. I definitely believe that his quest for new "inspirational stories" will boost "other people to do more".

Do something different today: have a look at this amazing adventure and contribute!

Have a nice week!

How do I spend my working-days' hours?

This was the query I have been curious to solve. And after noting down my last 2 weeks from Monday to Friday, here is what I found out:

Unusual things that I noted in my first week:

- I slept less than I wanted/needed, 

- I spent almost 6% of my time taking breakfast+preparing myself to get out and deciding what I am going to wear in the next day+organizing things for the next day, 

- Commuting is now improved (I discovered how to save 15-20 minutes by using the bus instead of metro), but even so, I want to occupy those ~7% of time in the bus with something useful!

- I did not read any of my books (So sad to realize it!)

- I did not go to the gym (and I still haven't included that category in my time-management quest)

- I did a siesta on Friday. Yes, that's unusual for me!

So, I decided to keep logging my time for a second week, and here is the result:

Unusual things that I noted in my second week:

- I haven't increased my sleeping hours,

- I didn't improved the time I spend preparing myself to go to work 

- I started to organize my email box during the ~8% of time that I spent in the bus (but I'm far far away from having that task completed!)

- I spend +1% of my time shopping groceries (but that's not a problem, 2% is ok)

- I saw less TV than the first week (all my favorite TV series were paused for 1-2 weeks) 

- I added a new category: other relaxing, which is the time that I take to myself after work (e.g., drink some cañas with colleagues, go for a walk, listen to music, etc...)

- I read a little bit (Even so, only 0.4%! So sad to realize it! - again)

- I did not go to the gym (and I still haven't included that category in my time-management quest)

After this analysis, here is what I aim to do in this next week:

- definitely: go to the gym and read more!

- to improve the time that I spend preparing myself to go to work,

- to improve the other relaxing time-category.

Let's see if I can make it! 

And you? How do you spend your working-days' hours?

Time subject

It is known that I have been following what Laura Vanderkam writes about time management. 

In fact, when I became a job seeker, I started to read her book "168 hours: You have more time than you think" and I wrote down my time logs for 2-3 weeks. After this small exercise, I realized I actually had more time to do the things I liked most in the morning (and when you are a job seeker - or at least to me - this strategy may boost your mood/ego).

If you search for her book's reviews, you can find some good&positive ones, but also some discouragements too. It is true that I am not (yet) a mother, and the book gives you a lot of examples of successful women that have kids. But apart from that (which in my opinion that's not a problem!), if you need to re-organize yourself or just improve the way you spend your 168 hours per week, just give it a try and start to note down how do you spend your all day, 7 days a week. 

I made this exercise at the very beginning of my job seeker occupation, and now, I am doing it again while experiencing a new project. I will finish my first week tomorrow, and I will write about it asap.

Meanwhile, about the "morning person" that I would like to become, I could have a little bit of these 12 things successful people do before breakfast.

Have a nice week(end)!

I am a morning person now

I had always studied/worked/thought/executed/(...) better in the mornings. I am also more productive in the mornings. And it is crucial to realize this: what is your "best-self" time?

After spending some time working in a North European country, I realized I could get used to its "morning" routine: I enjoy to watch the sun risings, the quiet dawns, the fresh air, the empty streets...and most of all, I really love to get out from work with day light, with time to walk, to read, to shop, to cook and relax a little bit.

As I am working again now, I am still adapting my entire daily routine to wake up earlier and to get some more time for myself after work:

- Mornings are quite ok now: I have this little magic thing that helps me a lot!!! 

-Afternoons after work are still a little bit chaotic. Let's see if tomorrow I will do better!

And guess what? It seems that "being a morning person is the key to life". Here are 11 reasons why.

Have a nice week!

And the answer is...

I have been trying to re-organize my weekly 168 hours. 

But what's new in it?

I have been absent for a while (had you noticed?) because I finally managed to do something work-related. I am that kind of person that likes of new beginnings and this one has been taking some of my 168 hours. So now, my daily drill is to re-organize myself in this new adventure.

What's new?

2013 ended-up to be a great year in my life: I finally finished my PhD, I traveled and discovered new cultures and places, I moved abroad, I learned a new language, I made some new friends. In resume, I enjoyed life as much as possible, with all its "ups" and "downs".

The beginning of this year of 2014 was different: for the first time in 5 years, I didn't dreamed, wished or projected anything: New Year = New Opportunities.

I am just enjoying each day as a new opportunity to:

- do whatever I want to do

- learn a little bit more

- smile

- get used to myself at the tweenties-something-almost-thirties years old

- listen to good music

- meet new persons, new histories

- be with my old mates

Have you already tried to do not make such big plans for the new year? 

Gifts

As I mentioned before, my Christmas gifts were mostly handmade by myself. This was one of the things that I had always wanted to do but I hadn't time* while working as a PhD student. As a job seeker in the last December, I dedicated part of my 168 hours per week recycling, painting, etc... 

And, as I promised, here are some of the Christmas gifts that I made: Time + Imagination = Original Christmas gifts without spending much $$$ 

• Remember this egg box? It turn into a gift box:

• Origamis:

• Home Decor:

The best part of giving such handmade gifts is that I actually enjoyed to do them! They were made with love and care. 

And at the same time, it was a nice way to spend my time before Christmas.

* This is the excuse #1 for not doing what we enjoy! Let's try to use it less in this 2014!

Happy New Year! Welcome 2014!

...and to all my readers too!