The past few weeks with the COVID-19 pandemic have been stressful in nearly every area of our lives - work, home, physical health, and mental health. Social distancing may make you feel isolated. You may feel less productive when working from home. You may be worried about your own health, or those of your loved ones. 

Today, I'll share some tips on adapting your day-to-day work style from the office to working from home. I'll guide you through how to create a routine, how to avoid distractions, and provide an overview of useful communication tools to keep you connected and productive.

With the major changes occurring in every part of life during the COVID-19 pandemic, most if not all of us have transitioned to working remotely (or working from home, #WFH). 

I've put all my productivity posts, especially those focused on working from home, here in a single post for your convenience. 

What do you find most helpful when adapting to new situations?

If you're like me and have started a small business in line with your passion, accounting probably isn't your forte (or passion, for that matter!) So how can you make sure that this key financial part of your business is not only efficient but done correctly?

Minimizing the effort it takes to manage your finances - as a small business owner or as an individual - is key. Why? So that you spend time on your passion and not the logistics.

Read on to learn about 3 ways to manage your finances in your small business

1. Manage it yourself
2. Outsource your accounting
3. Use cloud-based accounting software

As we launch headfirst into a new semester, take advantage of the slow first week of classes to make a strategic plan for this term. Think about how you studied for your exams last semester - what worked, what didn't? 

​Today I share 3 tips to consider when revamping your study strategy.

Having an idea of what you want to do after college is key in making sure you graduate with the necessary knowledge and skills. 

Some careers require a 2-year degree, others a 4-year degree, others post-graduate education like a masters, doctorate, or professional degree.

It's common for students to change majors partway through school, or go back to school to complete necessary requirements - full time, part time, or through online courses. With this need has flourished a new industry aimed at helping adults of all ages acquire the skills they need for the career they want. 

Graduate school is often a time of both professional and personal challenges, namely because you're now in adulthood. But why am I writing about end-of-life planning on a grad school lifestyle blog? Because you may have a sick parent, and experience the importance of having an advance directive, power of attorney, and updated will on hand. 

Tragedies, like unexpected illness and accidents, can strike any time. Having your documents ready and documented means you get to decide the details of your health journey, while also saving your family from extra stress and arguments.

The infographic below guides you through end-of-life planning and advanced directives.

Happy New Year! If you're like me, you spent your winter holidays on a soft and cold diet after getting your tonsils out. 

Chances are, you're not like me in this department, but maybe you've clicked to this page because you're thinking about getting a tonsillectomy.

Your doctor, the Internet, or friends and family may have told you that getting your tonsils out as an adult is a harder recovery than having them removed as a child. Many of us grew up with friends or siblings who had their tonsils out. It used to be routine to remove children's tonsils, however recent research revealed that children who get their tonsils removed before the age of 9 or 10 may be at increased risk of upper respiratory issues as an adult, like asthma. 

Tonsils are part of your immune system, and your immune system isn't fully developed until late adolescence or early adulthood. Researchers think that children having their tonsils removed at an early age can impact their immune system, affecting future disease risk.

However, when adults get their tonsils removed (typically for chronic sore throats, less so for sleeping issues), research shows that the benefit of reduced sick days and better quality of life means the 2 weeks of recovery is worth the pain.

Read on to learn about my experience getting my tonsils removed at age 28, on grad school holiday break.

With an arctic blast dropping temps to 100-year record lows across the US, it truly feels like winter is here! 

When we think about our winter health we often think of cold, flu, and mental health. Being indoors more often means we're more likely to catch a bug from our cubicle neighbor, and less time spent outdoors and/or less sun exposure can contribute to feelings of isolation and depression.

Photo by Brigitte Tohm from Pexels

College is a unique life experience - independence from family members and high school teachers comes with new responsibility over your time and self-care. 

Peer pressure to socialize at the expense of your school work can lead to you falling behind, or the abrupt change in classroom style may lead you to struggle with your material. Being away from home can be lonely, and the added stress of school can make you shy away from meeting new people.

Some quick tips? Pay attention at orientation to what resources your school has available for you, from tutoring to counseling, to interest groups to help meet new friends. Tutoring can help you learn how you learn, overcoming difficulties in new coursework, while counseling can help you identify negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. You can also learn positive self-care coping strategies. Finally, develop your time management skills by utilizing assignment and quiz dates to stay up on your materials, blocking your time around classes to be efficient while on campus. 

​Read on for more tips.

Writing a literature review is daunting (hey, writing a dissertation is daunting!)

While dissertation formats vary between universities and disciplines, most (if not all) require a literature review.  

In this post I'll walk you through my process in developing an organization system that helped me write my dissertation literature review. It's a long post, but I wanted it all to be in one place for you so it's not broken up into different articles. 

First, I'll walk you through my back story in the dissertation literature review process, and describe my overall system of organization.

Then, I'll describe 2 methods to take you from reading articles to taking notes to organizing your notes into themes.

Lastly, I'll wrap up with thoughts on how to continue your literature review in a cohesive and transparent way.

All external links open in a new window.

Background photo by freddie marriage on Unsplash