Don’t Underestimate the Power of a Smile

By Roz Jones

This month, we’re discussing how you can have better conversations by utilizing different social skills, or “tools”. As a caregiver, your chance for having deep conversations can be more limited than the average person – and I want to help you make the most of the opportunities you have for connection and deeper conversations, whether that’s with your loved ones, or with a stranger in a doctor’s office.

Let’s talk about one simple gesture that is important in every conversation and encounter you have: Smiling.

Don’t underestimate the power of smiling. A warm smile is your best friend when it comes to starting a conversation. It’s the most important non-verbal cue you can give someone.

Marianne LaFrance, a Yale University psychology professor writes in her book Lip Service that a smile creates a subconscious emotional current in people who see it.

Smiles can be interpreted in a variety of ways such as friendly, mischievous, or as flirtatious. But the most preferred smile is the classic “Duchenne” smile. Named after the researcher who described it, the Duchenne smile involves moving the major muscle that pulls the corners of the mouth up in combination with the muscles that circle the eyes.

This more genuine-feeling smile stimulates the reward centers in the brains of people who see it. When you smile this way, people see you as friendly, intelligent, kind, sincere, attractive, and likable – which is a great way to start off in a conversation.

I’ve just launched Shop With Roz, my online store filled with supplies and gifts for every caregiver. You can find a wide variety of products in the store to help yourself and your loved one. Check it out here!

After you have a look through the store, see any products you use and love as a caregiver, and think we should share them with everyone? Let me know!

It’s here, I am so excited to share a new caregiver app called CircleOf….This app will allow you to surround yourself with resources and experts from your community including ME!!!! As you are looking through the app, you will see my familiar face. I’m excited about this partnership and new ways to support you as you support your loved one. Here’s the link so you can explore the app. I would love your feedback and spread the word by sharing the link to family and friends.

Visit http://www.rozjonesent.com for more information on addressing mental health as a caregiver and check out my upcoming book!

Increase Productivity with Mindfulness

By Roz Jones

It’s amazing how people ignore or squander the most limited resource they have, time. We are all given the same number of hours in a day to get things done. Why is it that some people are so fruitful, and others aren’t? If you’re always busy but don’t accomplish your goals, why not?

For the most part, it’s all about being mindful. If you are going through your days without any idea of what you’re going to do each day or what your goals are, it’s very easy to be distracted and flip from this thing to that thing without ever finishing anything. To start being more mindful about how you’re spending your time so that you can increase your productivity, try the following strategies.

Turn Off Distractions

When you are trying to experience anything from work to pleasure, turn off the technology that can distract you. For example, if you’re at the park with your kids, turn off your phone, and live in the moment with your children. If you are entering data for work, stop all phone calls and interruptions and enter the data.

In the first example, you’re going to create a wonderful memory for your kids, and in the second, you’re going to get done with the task at least 30 to 40 percent faster because humans cannot multitask efficiently. Instead, we just switch back and forth between focuses, taking longer to do the important task and even longer to readjust from where we left off, originally.

Take Mental Health Breaks

When you are having trouble focusing on something, instead of doing something that is going to further engage your brain, find a way to engage your senses by getting out in nature. Go for a walk outside if you can. If you cannot go outside, at least find a way to look outside, and taking some deep breaths can help too.

Taking even a five-minute break as you transition from task to task can make you much more conscious and aware of how you’re spending your time. Try to take a five-minute break between tasks and then every now and then take a more extended break to recharge your mind.

Finally, keep a journal so that you can reflect on your day. Write down what you accomplished today in bullet form. What did you do well? What would you do differently next time? What would you do to change the results you received? After all, knowing the results helps you stay aware of what’s happening at all times.

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After you have a look through the store, see any products you use and love as a caregiver, and think we should share them with everyone? Let me know!

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Visit http://www.rozjonesent.com for more information on addressing mental health as a caregiver and check out my upcoming book!

Three Productivity Book Suggestions

By Roz Jones

One way to increase your productivity is to read about how others do it. These three books are some of the best books about productivity that give you some out of the box ideas, as well as some science-tested ideas that will help you get more done each day.

Any time you want to improve something in your life, reading about it is a great way to do so. It can motivate you to learn about whatever it is that you’re trying to change. These three books are all about how to stop procrastinating, create habits, and get more done in the time you have.

Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

This book has 21 ways for you to stop procrastinating so that you can get more done. He uses the frog metaphor to teach you to do that thing you don’t want to do to get it out of the way to stop procrastination so you can get more done each day.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

One of the ways to be more productive is to create good habits. This book helps you learn about how you can use habits to create an almost automatic way to succeed at what you want to do in life. Whether it’s weight loss, business success, or parenting, you can automate success through habits.

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam

Laura shows you that while we are all given the same amount of daily time at birth, you can choose to spend your time in ways that increase your productivity. You can have enough time to do all the things you need to do and want to do if you know how to plan it. You don’t have to do without.

Taking the time to read books about productivity is a great way to help yourself get on board with increasing your productivity with little tweaks to how you do things. You may decide to get up thirty minutes earlier. You may choose to go to bed later instead. It’s up to you, but you can increase your productivity if you want to.

After you have a look through the store, see any products you use and love as a caregiver, and think we should share them with everyone? Let me know!

Visit http://www.rozjonesent.com for more information on addressing mental health as a caregiver and check out my upcoming book!

Self-Discipline: Start the Year Off on the Right Foot

By Roz Jones

Self-discipline is an important skill every person who wants to achieve more in life should possess. Self-discipline is essential in every aspect of life. Even though most people recognize the benefits of self-discipline, very few do something to reinforce and grow this beneficial skill.

Contrary to some beliefs, self-discipline is not being harsh to yourself or living a restrictive lifestyle. Self-discipline also means self-control. It is a sign of inner strength and control of your actions, and your reactions. Self-discipline provides the power to stick to hard decisions, and follow them without changing your mind. This means self-discipline is an important requirement for achieving vital goals.

One of the main characteristics of self-discipline is the capability to reject pleasure and immediate enjoyment in favor of greater success, which is gained by spending time and effort.

Why self-discipline is important

The possession of self-discipline helps you to continue with your plans and decisions until you achieve them. It also displays as an inner strength that helps you to overcome addictions, laziness, and procrastination.

Self-discipline is an important ingredient for success. It is the ability not to give up regardless of setbacks and failures. In fact, it is an important pillar of stable, long-term success. It is a skill that will help you understand the importance of life.

Want to cultivate your own self-discipline? I’m continuing this discussion with my newsletter readers tomorrow, you can sign up to get part two right in your inbox here!

After you have a look through the store, see any products you use and love as a caregiver, and think we should share them with everyone? Let me know!

Visit http://www.rozjonesent.com for more information on addressing mental health as a caregiver and check out my upcoming book!

2 Weeks of Decluttering: Tasks for Daily Living

By Roz Jones

We’re finishing out our 2 weeks of decluttering with six small habits you can keep every day to keep yourself organized.

These few habits to do each day will make your world feel a lot less cluttered. Not only will your home be less cluttered but because of these tasks, your mind will also feel better too.

Make Your Bed — Every day, make your bed as soon as you get out of it. Shake out the sheets, fluff the pillows, and make the bed. When you do that, your room immediately feels cleaner, looks cleaner, and you’ll be more motivated to hop out of bed. It’s a nice transition before you get dressed to start your day.

Put It Away — If you take something out to use it, when you are done, put it away. That seems super simple to say but it doesn’t always work that way. You may have to develop habits, but you can make it easier if you have the right storage solutions that aren’t difficult to implement.

Take it Out — Every single day, get the kitchen trash bag and go around the other rooms to empty all the other trash buckets before you simply throw the kitchen trash out. This will create a habit that all your trash is gone at the end of each day.

Deal with Your Mail — Toss the things you don’t need to do anything to. File the things that need to be kept. Organize the bills in an orderly way so that you don’t forget to pay them on time. Set up an inbox so that you can put things you need to act on in the inbox to deal with if it’s something that will take longer than a moment.

Wipe Your Counters Daily — Before you go to bed, make it a habit to wipe down surfaces that have been used throughout the day. That way when you get up, you won’t have to do it again, unless you have cats. Then just wipe it down right before using to avoid wasting time, unless they are obviously dirty.

Clean Dishes & Sink Daily — One thing that also makes your home look and feel cluttered is a disorganized or dirty kitchen. It might seem like it’s okay to let the sink get full of dirty dishes but going to bed with that means you must wake up to that. Instead, load your dishwasher and run it each evening.

When you do these six things each day you’re going to feel much less mental clutter and experience less physical clutter on a daily basis, which is going to make you much more productive.

Here are my other previous blog posts of helpful tips for decluttering: Leverage Down Time, Create Habits to Get Things Done and Outsourcing.

After you have a look through the store, see any products you use and love as a caregiver, and think we should share them with everyone? Let me know!

Interested in making your own contribution to the Caregiver Cafe? There are guest blog spots open for December. Email assistrozjones@gmail.com for more info!

Visit http://www.rozjonesent.com for more information on addressing mental health as a caregiver and check out my upcoming book!