A work fashion blog offering fashion, lifestyle, and career advice for overachieving chicks
For some reason I’ve been in a big mood to organize our closets, so I thought we’d discuss — what are your biggest pain points when it comes to closet organization? What solutions have you found that you love? What are your best closet organization hacks?
Pictured, clockwise: hanging necklace organizer / sweater bins / modular bag organizer / anti-tarnish zip bag for silver jewelry
Speaking of focus and time management, now is a great time to mention: our friends over at Women’s Lawyer News have a new and updated version of their Billable Hour tool available just in time for 2017. After a 60 second setup, this spreadsheet will help you estimate where you are now versus your billable goal for the year, as well as show you how many hours you need to bill each day to hit that goal. Heading to a conference or taking a few days off because you’re sick or on vacation? The spreadsheet can tell you instantly how many hours you’ll need to make up those unbillable hours. The tool is $35, available for download here. 2017 (Kind of Magical) Billable Hour Tool
Wall organizers with pockets are great for storing sunglasses, earbuds, gloves, winter hats — anything that you want to have handy to grab when you’re on your way out of the house. You can use a hanging shoe organizer to do the same thing, but I thought this one looked a little bit nicer. It’s perfect to use in a front-hall closet or even to hang behind your office door if you need more storage space. Home-Cube Hanging Wall Organizer
2017 Update: We still think this is a great discussion of how to find the best planner, but you may also want to check out our latest discussion on our favorite office supplies.
We’ve gotten a few requests for a post on how to find the best planner for you — and I know the readers have been talking about it a ton! — so I thought we’d have a post today. How do you find the best planner for you? Reader J asks:
Can you do an update on the perfect planner post from 2012? I find that I need to use Microsoft Outlook for my corporate calendar to keep in sync with work commitments and colleagues. I dabbled with the Bullet Journal but couldn’t make that work and yet I feel like I need/miss the writing down aspect of using a paper journal.)
In our older post, readers recommended Levenger Circa, Staples Arc, Filofax, Russell + Hazel, Quo Vadis, Moleskine, Cavallini, Planner Pad, Exacompta 24, Erin Condren Life Planner. In addition to those, readers more recently have recommended the Bullet Journal, ShePlans planners, and the Simplified Planner. I’m still figuring out my own system, so I can’t wait to hear what recommendations you guys have today!
Whether you’ve got a small apartment closet or yours rivals that of Kim Kardashian’s, reviewing your clothes on a seasonal basis is still a great idea. I’ve always been a fan of seasonal clothes storage, using clear sweater bags to store out-of-season fabrics, colors, and styles — as well as physically moving out-of-season clothing to the back of the closet, and moving more seasonally-appropriate clothing to the front. I even do this with socks (I only wear no-show ankle socks in the summer) and lingerie (I don’t wear lacy bras with summer t-shirts and dresses, and I’ve also found I have a preference for unlined bras in the summer, as a foam lining or whatnot can feel a bit hot). Some pros to a seasonal clothing review that I’ve found over the years:
One of the things that came up in the comments on our diets for busy women post was the idea of prepping meals and snacks on Sunday for the week ahead — and I’ve read a ton of advice saying that you should steal an hour during the weekend to review the major tasks you need to accomplish in the week ahead. So I thought it might be an interesting open thread today: Do YOU do weekend prep for Monday or the week ahead? When do you do it, and what do you do?
Pictured: veggie meal prep from @squirrel_kitchen, featured in this DailyBurn article about 21 inspiring instagram accounts for meal prep.
For my $.02, when I was working in BigLaw I liked resting/playing on Saturday and coming into the office on Sunday for a few hours if I needed to do some work. Because I was well rested and there was no one else in the office (or, at least, vastly fewer people, and everyone was there to work), my focus was so much better — I used to call them “Super Mondays” because I was so productive. These days, I often try to get at least half of the short morning and afternoon posts written for the week on Sunday afternoons, putting in a few hours of work while my youngest son naps. If at all possible I also try to write a to-do list of my tasks for the week ahead, and put papers to review on my desk so I can get some focused work done before turning on the computer — easier said than done when your business is online! This probably isn’t even that noteworthy, but another thing I try to do is look at the NYT and WSJ and other news outlets on Sunday, because I’ve found that I waste far too much time looking at articles on Monday, particularly the longer magazine articles.
So ladies, let’s hear it — what routines and practices have you put in place for your weekends that lay the groundwork for a great week ahead? For those of you who do meal prep or have other healthy habits on the weekend, I’d love to hear what you do!
Psst: here’s our last discussion on morning routines for successful people.
