About Agni Skafidas
Congratulations! You’ve found your new home, decided on the moving day and are… anxious about the stress over the next few weeks? Don’t be! In the last post, I’ve helped you with an easy checklist: Things you need to do in your current (old) home before the moving day. Now, let’s focus on your new home. These tips will help you stay organised and relaxed during such this major event.
Get your new home ready before the move:
By now, I’ve moved 25 times across 3 different continents. Most of my moves occurred during the summer and many families are also using the end of the school year to move houses. Moving is never an easy undertaking: the heat, Ramadan, the never ending paper work, the hassle until you can settle in and feel at home. It all takes time and energy. Yet, the more prepared you are, the easier and stress-free the move will be. Take the pain out by following this simple checklist, which also includes tips for Dubai based readers:
2-3 months before:
Clutter is not just the stuff on your floor – it’s anything that stands between you and the life you want to be living. (Peter Walsh)
As temperatures are rising, what are you doing with your wardrobe? You’ve probably read articles on how to change your clothes. But why wait for the end of a season to do so? Now is the time!
I’ve started clearing my closet on a regular basis and couldn’t be happier. We only wear 20% of our clothes. So why do we keep the other 80%? I’ve consciously decided to part from clothes which no longer fit or I don’t like. Remember those Christmas jumpers. Well, they’re gone, too. If you’re in the Middle East, there’s no need to wear them. Not even at Christmas!
This weekend is the perfect time to give your wardrobe the make over it and you deserve! Here are 10 easy steps to create the wardrobe of your dreams:
Today was probably one of my most productive days this month. The UK and the US were off for their public holiday, I had blocked time for a project I procrastinated on for too long (yup, I also have weaknesses), defined achievable steps for an upcoming project with some colleagues and answered the majority of my emails (yeah!). Wow! By the end of the day, I felt ahead of the day and even week.
Want to leave your office with the same feeling of accomplishment and success every day? Feel at the top of the world? Make your purposeful planning and actions thrive you to reach your best? Here are some tips for you to increase your efficiency and productivity:
The more you have, the more occupied you are. The less you have, the more free you are. (Mother Theresa)
It’s now mid-May and many New Year’s Resolutions are out of the window. For me, I’ve used the end of the year as an overview for achievements and looked at my goals for the New Year and the next year’s ahead. Rather than a mainly short-term change, I’m nowadays focusing on far reaching and long-term changes helping me to live the life I’m dreaming of.
When determining your goals, you automatically look at your dreams. But what do you want? Have you sat down and thought about your vision for your future? Defining your vision and setting goals gives you a long-term view as well as short-term motivation and actions. It’s been proven that writing goals down will increase your achievements, yet, only 3% currently have their goals documented in writing.
Thinking of your home and office, use these questions to set your goals:
“Oh, I’ll need to make this one call.” or “Let me just wash the dishes and I’ll start.” These were some of my excuses when it came to writing this post. For some reason or another, I didn’t seem to find the right start and postponed and postponed and postponed writing.
For many of my clients, the thought of getting organised is overwhelming. How many times have I heard them say: “I just don’t know where to start.” Starting is actually easier than you think:
Spring time is always the start of the new travel season. You can still go to places in the South without having to suffer from roaring temperatures and peak season fares. And so I’ve decided to fly my mom over. In Dubai, it’s now just over 40 C (104 F) and Emirates offered a great promotional deal. How could I not do it?!
With everything else going on, I didn’t want to stress about preparing my mom’s room. Instead of doing everything in one big go, I opted for 30 minute blocks. A lot easier to digest. If you don’t want to break into a sweat, check out these tips:
Today was a great day. Starting with a walk around the lake, I’ve attended a very informative seminar about medical benefits in the GCC. The best was finishing my work day from home.
To me, working from home has many advantages: Less interruptions and less distractions, a lot more focus and productivity! Given my various deadlines (who doesn’t have them), it was just what was needed and I was so pleased to close a number of activities off.
To some, working from home is a very different story. The laundry basket is calling your name, you haven’t seen your neighbour for a while, why not catch up and oh, you haven’t decided what to cook for dinner yet. What can you do to treat your home office just like your regular office?