Cut the interruptions: be productive

I surf the internet everyday looking for new and interesting content for my company's profiles on social networks. One of my favourites is Magazine Inc., an online publication focused on the business world, in general, and in companies, innovation, management and working people in particular.

This morning I found myself reading a really useful and simple article about how to stay focused at work. The writer of the article, a company's CEO, spotted 4 tricks she always keeps in mind to be more productive in her daily work. These are:

- Don't surf the internet: "if you are at work, work", she says. So don't chat with your friends or family and neither check Facebook or Twitter. She recommends to keep different email accounts for work and personal life. Doing that, you won't need to struggle to not open an email from a friend you don't know about for months.

- Get a routine: figure out which bar you are taking your customers/providers/collaborators to so you don't need to spend time thinking of it and go always to the same place. You are not only going to know how its service and food is, but also you will be conscious of the average time the meeting is going to take you off. The writer algo suggest that for the days we don't have gatherings, we should carry breakfast and lunch within a tupperware so we will be able to stay at work during the breaks (I personally think that's way too much!).

- Be prepared: I found this point to be the most useful one. The CEO says in the article that before going to bed she always do 3 things. It's a ritual. She checks the forecast, the calendar and write down three thing she wants to do the next day. So, if it rains, she will be prepared with an umbrella. If there's a meeting, she will have prepared a nice and appropiate outfit. And she will remember what three thing need to be done before the day ends. I will try to take this routine because I consider it very useful. I have been wanting to prepare my tomorrow-outfit for years! But, I'm too lazy. I crawl to bed and give a very pleasant and recovering sleep to myself. Let's see if this time is the right time!

- Save time for meeting and emails: I think this is also a good advice. What she says is that is much more productive to set apart some time just for meeting, to reply emails and to answer colleangues' questions. The difficult part of it is that you need to be accurate and respectful with the schedule, so if it's not the moment for replying the emails, don't do it!

I hope you find these advices interesting aswell. Let me know which are your tricks for making the day longer!

Do's and Dont's from the Emmy Awards Ceremony

The new Emmy Awards ceremony took place a couple of days ago. In its red carpet everyone could see the most reputed actors and actresses parading on it with beautiful and not so beautiful suits and dresses. I have made two lists dividing the dresses I loved which the dresses I would never chosen if I would have been invited. In the middle, there are several dresses I neither like or dislike.

Let's start positive. These are the dresses I liked:

Rose Byrne in a Calvin Klaine dress. Straight lines. Really really nice.


Very beautiful, January.

Amazing dress and look! 10 points.

One of my favorites. 

Coloful and risky. I like it! Specially the kind of fabric it's made of.

A romantic one. Spectacular colour and shape.

Sensual lines. You need an amazing figure to wear that dress! But obviusly Shashi Wells does.

On the other hand, some of the star's choices were not my stile. There are the ones I didn't like:

Claire, what a horrible neckline!

I just don't like. It's boring.

I don't know if it's the colour... but it doesn't work for me either.

Really bad choice.

What is that black piece of leather???

No. Nononono.

Colour waterfalls? Ugly.

What do you think? What are your chosen ones?

Leather meets Denim

I've been following (kind of) New York, London, Milano, Madrid Fashion Weeks through different online publications and blogs. Thanks to this, I have been able to spot some of the most importants fashion trends for 2014:
- prints, prints, prints: squares, dots, flowers...
- grunge is back
- mix of chic and grunge: very feminine dresses with smoky eyes
- oversize and masculine cut
- black and white stay for another year
- paisley also stays
- transparencies

One of the trends I absolutely love is the combination of leather with another type of tissue. My favorite one is leather mixed with denim. I find it up-to-date, comfortable and easy to combine with dresses, jeans, skirts...

Lady P with a combinated jacket (leather+denim). www.patatocracia.blogspot.com

I've saved 4 photos I found on Zara's web about other types of combination of leather + another kind of tissue. This is Zara's coat line for this winter:


leather + geometric cloth


leather + geometric cloth


leather + cloth

leather + padding



On the other hand, and having nothing to do with the post I've written as far, I want to show you a pair of boots I've fallen in love with:

 



Aren't they absolutely amazing?!?!


SEO Trends

Altough we are already facing the last part of the year, I want to write down some of the most effective SEO techniques that have been essential during this year. Actually, since Panda and Penguin algorithms were introduced in 2012, this techniques haven't changed that much.

- The firts and most important one: quality is best than quantity. Google algorithms would rather seek for quality content than for new content. As much effort you put on your work creating content for the website, the best score Google is going to give you.

- Design. just 3 words: Responsive Web Design. It is very important to adapt your site to every kind of gatchet a visitor can use. It's crucial to provide an optimal viewing experience.

- Google is going to eliminate fake linkbuilding pages. SEO specialists need to build high quality links. Again, the quality of the information and links matter most.

- Social Media Optimization (SMO): as Google introduced in 2012, our work in the social networks is really important. Not just because it is an efficient way of creating engagement with out customers, but also because making efforts in this direction will pay back in google's results.

Having all these tips clear, we can keep on working on our SEO techniques waiting for 2014 updates!


Run

Since a couple of weeks, I had always hated running. I thought of it as a boring and tough "sport". You just need to keep your legs on going. That's all. Boring.

Nevertheless, after I realised that I was a little bit out of shape, I tried to make an effort and practice a little bit more of sport. The part that worries me the most was how to find an sport that I could daily practice and keep it constant.

With that thought in mind, I got to the gym to work out. It was monday, a very hardcore day, so I stayed there, looking at the treadmill. That day, I run 40 minutes and I got rid of 330 calories up on that machine. So I decided to keep on with my training and I did also toning exercises for 20 minutes.

That day, when I was going back home, I was feeling very comfortable, apart from really sweaty, seeing myself capable of enduring the training. That feeling was so strong and nice that pushed me to the gym on tuesday. And wendesday and thursday. 4 days in a row. Wooooooow! It was too much for me. But the best part is that this week I've started going running without even thinking. Today is wednesday and I've already run 80 minutes and made 40 min of toning training. Today, right afterwork, I'm going for my daily session. And what makes me feel really good is that as the days go by I felt less tired, more fit and resistent.

Chie Mihara

I found out about this shoes designer reading an entrepreneurial magazine and I instantly loved her work and the way she works. She uses quite interesting work methods which help her in the design process and that I think could be helpful in other areas.

She studied in NY and Japan and settle down in Elda (Alicante) with his husband. She has been living in the south of Comunidad Valenciana for 20 years and I think she doesn't think in moving elsewhere. From Alicante, she has built a great brand and a professional team, who has been by her side to get these amazing results.

Below these lines you can find the presentation video of the company. I hope it inspires you as well as it has inspired me. I leave here the website with the collection.