Whether it is renovating a tired a room in your house or taking the steps towards catapulting your business to the next level, we have some advice on how to go about meshing relaxation and motivation. All of us business owners and hustlers know that it is so easy to get caught up in the bustle of our career life — between managing clients, maintaining our online presence and working on getting new business, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. On top of our career, we have families, social lives, hobbies and everyday activities that we are somehow expected to juggle. Sound familiar? Have no fear, the ladies of the DSA are here! After literally decades of dealing with what we just explained, we have picked up a trick or two along the way.
Getting Real … Real Relaxed
Rather than sweeping generalizations, we decided to get concrete examples from our very own trainers. Carol Bass, also known as The Practical Decorator, had a great piece of advice and said that no matter what is happening in her busy daily life, she “does something every single day that helps her business grow”. Unsurprisingly, she admitted that that “one thing” usually snowballs into two or three, thus creating a productive environment that makes her feel accomplished and betters her business simultaneously. Carol also explained that over the course of her career she has discovered that in order to truly disconnect and be present with her friends and family, she needs to physically turn off her phone at a certain hour and tell herself that enough is enough. Her clients and work-related phone calls will still be there tomorrow and making the time to unwind and enjoy her home and family is essential in retaining the balance she has strived to achieve.
What Works for Me
Sandra Racz, Executive Director of The Decorating and Staging Academy and owner of Signature Redesign, LLC had a few other tips to share. She shared a unique hack she does a couple times a year that blends fun and productivity perfectly. Sandra explained that she literally sits on the floor with all the magazines that she has not had time to read. Then, she explains, “I make two separate piles, the first is compiled with magazines that are ‘just for fun’ and the other contains material with creative ideas that I would love to use in jazzing up a client’s home”. What starts off as a fun, rainy day activity, doubles as a productive exercise.
Calming Colors
As professionals in the decorating and staging industry, we spend our fair share of time crafting staging assessments, researching new designs and managing our social media accounts from our office. So why not have a place where you feel you can be productive yet comfortable. A quick trick is to paint the walls of your workspace or any area where you tend to spend a lot of time, a tranquil and relaxing paint color. Fortunately for us all, there is science behind these paint colors and they truly will trigger relaxing bodily reactions. Our personal favorites are Quietude Sherwin-Williams 6212, Stonington Gray HC-170 and Skylight 205 Farrow & Ball.
Spruce up your Space
If you want to further this office revamp even more, go paperless! We have found that it is SO much easier to find important docs from prior clients or just about anything when it is searchable in a computer folder, rather than filed away. It is 2018 people and there are brilliant/inexpensive scanners available. So utilize them! You will save yourself space and headaches.
We are just scratching the surface with this stuff, but hopefully these tidbits of information will be enough to get you started. Stay tuned for more advice, hacks and all things decorating and staging from the ladies who truly know best!
