My Favorite Time Management Tip (and a Giveaway! Free Stuff!)

Sometimes, it's the simple, seemingly obvious tips that are the game changers. You know, those little guys you blow off because, "That's so easy. No way that works."

Like, when someone told you to put a cup of water in the microwave when you're heating up pizza to keep the crust moist: so simple, it could never work. Right?

But let me tell you, it does. (And I take pizza very seriously, so I know.)

One of my favorite time management tips is one of those. You might read it and think, "This sounds too easy, and easy things don't work."

But it does. I swear. (And I take time management almost as seriously as pizza, so I wouldn't lie.)

First, let me ask you a question: have you ever noticed that when you're working under a tight deadline, you become a focused productivity ninja? Like, the night before you had a paper due in college: your brain was on rapid fire mode, and not once did you check Insta or Twitter.

But when you had attempted that same paper three days earlier, you were averaging about two sentences for every three cat videos.

Don't worry, it's natural. Most of us do it. We procrastinate until we don't have enough time to waste time.

And that's why this trick is one of my favorite time management tips: it takes advantage of something we all already do. Only instead of actually waiting until the last minute, the trick is to make a pseudo-deadline.

For example, I will look at all of my deadlines coming up in the next two weeks, and I will assign two or three tasks to every day. Then, I tell myself that I have to get those two or three tasks done before I can call it a day

It sounds silly, but by setting these self-imposed deadlines, I never fart around in the afternoons thinking, "Oh, I'll just finish this tomorrow." Because in my world, there is no tomorrow. The deadline is today.

Like I said—simple, but it works.

And now the fun stuff...

That being said, I have an announcement that is almost remotely related: I've decided to host a giveaway. It's been about a month since Audaciously So officially launched, so now I'm working on spreading the word and growing this community.

But instead of spamming every social media outlet I'm allowed on, I'm going to make this a little more fun by creating some good old fashioned competition.

So how does the giveaway work? Simple:

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is follow me on Pinterest (here I am!) and pin your favorite career-related pin using the hashtag #AudaciouslySo. I'm not a fan of hoops, so there will be no more for you to jump through.

The giveaway will end on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, at 12AM.

Once the giveaway is over, I will pick my favorite pin. Assuming that the lucky pinner is following me on Pinterest, she will win the prize! Specifically, whoever pins the most interesting pin will win:

This Gold and White Day Designer Weekly/Monthly Planner || to get your time management on

Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers || to help you stop sabotaging yourself

This Pineapple Pencil Holder || to help you pimp out your desk, blogger style

Sound good? Good. Because I'm so excited to see what you all pin!

What's your favorite time management tip? Did you enter the giveaway? Leave me a comment and let me know!

ESL Teacher

Amy "I'm currently teaching first graders in a bilingual school here in Budapest. As an ESL teacher, I've also taught in Prague. In Prague, I taught pre-school, kindergarten, English club, and had private child clients and private clients at businesses. It's a job that varies wherever you are in the world!"

Education

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Required License(s) Some countries require a TEFL/TESOL certificate

Required Degree(s) A Bachelor's degree

Importance of GPA not very important

What do you need to do to maintain your license(s)?

To obtain my certificate, I took a month long intensive course in Prague. There are many of these courses, all over the world.  As tempting as it is to live in say, Paris, for a month, it is best to take a course somewhere you will more likely to be able to find a job, since you'll have built-in networking at your program.

Amy's Highest Degree: Bachelor's degree (Bachelor of Arts) and Master's degree
Amy's College Major: Bachelor's in English and Master's in Psychology.
Amy's College GPA Range: 3.1-3.5

Salary

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ESL teachers have a huge range of pay, primarily depending on the country. Generally, an ESL teacher can get paid more in Asia or the Middle East. While I don't make very much here in Budapest, at least by US standards, my salary package includes perks: like a free apartment! Plus, the cost of living is quite low here. 

Getting the Job

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How did you get your job?

I found my job thanks to the internet (research!), and then I happened to meet a woman teaching for my current program in Hungary, which solidified my decision. From there, I reached out to see if there were any openings in the program, interviewed for a few, and the rest is history.

How important was networking to landing your position?

For this particular position, not so important, although it helped to have good references. In Prague, I found the best jobs through networking, so it depends on where you are.

Life on the Job

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What is a typical day (or week) for you like?

My days vary greatly, but here is one example: I wake up at around 6am, take an hour-long commute and begin teaching at 8:45am. I teach in 45-minute blocks approximately, with breaks in between, although my breaks still involve supervising the children. I have lessons until about 1.30pm, then a staff meeting, then planning for the following days. Depending on the planning and the commute, I get home anytime between 2-5pm. Often I plan at home, too.

How closely does your typical day (or week) match up to the general "job description" for your position?

My job description is not entirely accurate, as I am not a main class teacher. Rather, I co-teach with a Hungarian teacher. This is not necessarily unique to be an English teacher, although I wasn't expecting this dynamic in this particular job. However, I do teach less than I thought—and on the flip side, I plan much more than I thought I would have to.

Does being a woman affect any aspect of your career?

Teaching is often a female-dominated field, especially while working with elementary age children, and in more old-fashioned countries, they still don't hire men to work with very young children. Since I am newly married, many people have questioned if I will be leaving soon to have children—perhaps if I ever say yes to this question while being interviewed, I wouldn't get the job!

What is the best thing about your job?

The students!

What is the worst thing about your job?

The politics!

How demanding is your job?

It was quite demanding at first, but now that I have been here over 3 months it is getting better. I always get very invested in my students, so it is hard on me mentally and emotionally if I don't practice self-care. Physically, I am on my feet and moving most of the day, which is great for my health but also exhausting!

Do you have any advancement opportunities?

In my current position, there is little room for advancement, unless I stay for over 5 years. However, I will be taking a different position next fall—same job at a different school. I'm not sure how long I will be staying there, but there is more opportunity for advancement.

Advice for You

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What are the skills, characteristics, or talents that are most important to be effective in your position?

Creative, open-minded, interest in new cultures, adaptability.  Teaching is not easy, and going overseas will present its own set of different challenges.

What advice would you give to someone thinking about pursuing a career like yours?

Do it! ;) It's amazing to get the chance to live somewhere else and have a job, which is the main reason people are drawn to this career. Many people do it for the short-term, however, and it is a great experience just for a year or two. I would recommend, though, that you take the teaching aspect seriously as well as the traveling aspect, no matter how long you are going to do it—it might be just a way to help you fund your travels, but for your students, their education will impact their whole lives!

If you could do it over again, would you still pursue the same career?

Yes! I love my job and I love that I get to live in different countries while I do it. I would do a few things differently, however: get started sooner, maybe right of out of my undergrad, and I would get certified to teach in the United States as well.

Follow Up

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Want to learn more? Check out Amy's site here. Want to read later? Pin me -->

How You're Sabotaging Your Creative Ideas by Not Taking a Lunch Break (Seriously, It's Science)

As an introverted person (shout out to all my other INFJs), I am the queen of avoiding social situations. Especially when I've been around other people for a while, I can morph into a ninja of evasion.

For example, when I used to work in an office, I had a mental handbook of reasons why I had to eat lunch at my desk. The handbook included things like, "I have to finish this report." Or, "I'm on a budget so I can't go out."

But in reality, I just wanted to be alone. No harm in that, right?

Well, it turns out there may be. According to a German research group, eating alone in an office could actually affect how your brain works later in the day.

How eating in your office affects your brain

To figure out how your lunch affects your work, the research group set up an experiment to determine if meal situations—independent of the caloric and nutritional value of the food—affected people's cognitive processes.

To do this, they first had two groups of people do a series of mental tests before lunch. The first group then ate a lunch selected by someone else in a bland office environment, alone, and without much time to enjoy their food. Think PB&J in the office lunchroom.

The second group had lunch with others in a restaurant, had a choice of food, and had enough time to enjoy their meal. The second group also had time for the 15 to 20 minute walk to and from the restaurant and the lab where the experiments took place, whereas the first group ate lunch next door to the lab.

After lunch, the researchers had the two groups do another series of mental tests, and compared the results. And what they found was surprising: the group who ate at the restaurant showed a lowered cognitive control after their meal, while the office-eating group did not.

What is cognitive control?

For those of you who are not psychoanalytical researchers, cognitive control is "the process by which goals or plans influence behavior." Basically, cognitive control is how we actively control our response to certain situations.

For example, we as humans have the ability to stop ourselves from eating all the doughnuts (as much as we want to) because we know what they do to our booty, and we don't like that. On the other hand, my hedgehog Penelope does not have cognitive control; if presented with a mealworm, her reaction will not be shaped by how her past experiences with mealworms mesh with her current body goals. She's just going to eat the mealworm.

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According to a German research group, eating alone in an office could actually affect how your brain works later in the day.

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So back to the study—in this case, the researchers found that the group who ate at a restaurant had less cognitive control after their meal than the office-eating folks. More specifically, the restaurant-eaters were less concerned about the errors they made in their post-meal tests than their office-eating counterparts.

Wait. Isn't less cognitive control a bad thing?

I know what you're thinking: less cognitive control sounds horrible. And in some ways, it is. I mean, how would we feel if we ate 24 glazed doughnuts every morning?

But in some situations, like when you want to be more creative, reducing your cognitive control can actually be a good thing.

To explain how this works, a group from the University of Pennsylvania gave this example: children are often better than adults at trying to think of atypical or creative ways of using an object. The reason adults often struggle is because their prior experiences with the object shape the way they react to it. Children's brains, on the other hand, are less likely to bias their response to the object based on pre-existing knowledge.

So, without as much prior experience (and thus, less cognitive control over their responses), children are more likely to come up with more creative ideas for using the object.

The German group did point out, however, that less cognitive control isn't great in all situations. For example, if you work in a lab or factory where attention to detail and close self-monitoring is important, losing some cognitive control may not be awesome.

But if your job requires flexibility and creativity, maybe it's time to ditch the tupperware and treat yo' self to a nice lunch with friends. After all, it's just plain science.

Do you eat lunch alone or with someone else? Do you notice a difference between the two?