Happy Friday and happy first week of ‘lattes with lauren’! If you follow me on instagram you’ve already heard this, but, essentially I wanted to start a weekly q&a series where you guys can ask me ANYTHING you want. I want this to feel like we’re just chatting over coffee – whether that’s about faith, marriage, hair products, laundry detergent, or anything else you can think of!
Going forward, I’d love for y’all to leave a comment on the ‘lattes with lauren’ blog post (so, this post) with the questions you’d like for me to answer next week! Since this is my first one though, I had you guys leave questions via a comment on this instagram post.
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I will be picking 5 questions to answer each week, hopefully from all different kinds of categories. The majority of questions I got on my instagram post were in regards to blogging – my story with blogging, blogging as a career, etc. Since there were so many questions on that, I will try and do a separate blog post answering as many blogging questions as I can sometime in July. For now though, I’m going to pick 5 other questions to answer from the instagram comments!
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One // What are some tips and tricks for working from home? How do you maintain balance and routine? I work from home some of the time and have a hard time balancing cleaning, gym, and work.
This is definitely something I am still figuring out myself, but I do have a few tips that have helped me out. I swear by two things: time blocking and to-do lists. When you work from home, the options of things you could or should be doing are endless – laundry, dishes, e-mails, editing pics for a blog post, calling your mom, etc.
I make a to-do list every single day with two categories. One is “work” and one is “life”. After I make my list, I time block. I tell myself ‘you have from 8am-10am to workout and eat breakfast’. After that, I say ’10am-6pm is your work to-do list’ (and often I will break things up into categories within that time slot). Then, after I’m done with my work list, depending on how much time is left in the day I’ll say ‘you have from 6pm-8pm to do your ‘life’ to-do list’ (ie: laundry, grocery store, run errands, etc).
These are obviously big time blocks and I usually break it up into smaller chunks, but this really helps me to focus on one thing at a time! I also try and get alot of house stuff done on the weekends (cleaning/laundry), so it’s less distracting during the week.
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Two // How do you stay connected with the Lord as you travel and is it easier when you are home or traveling to “stay connected”?
This is SUCH a good question because it’s such a struggle of mine. Prior to blogging, I found it much easier to spend time with the Lord on vacation, because I could just sit and read and journal for hours. Now that traveling is also ‘work’ for me, this isn’t the case. I now find it much easier to spend time with the Lord when I’m home, because I’m in a routine. I wake up at 6:30, get my coffee, and spend time in the Word first thing. This is really hard for me to do when I travel.
However, even though it’s harder for me to specifically sit down and read my Bible when traveling…I still feel really connected to the Lord. When I walk on the beach I sense His peace, and when I’m in the middle of His beautiful creation I can totally feel His presence. In those moments, I still try and take the time to just talk to the Lord, and thank Him for who He is, and where he’s brought me. Spending time in the Word is still so important though and something I’m working on when we travel! It definitely helps if you have your Bible either on your iPad or nook so it’s easier to travel with!
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Three // How did you stay eating healthy when you lived in Texas and not cave to all of the fast foods Dallas/Fort Worth loves?
Obviously this girl loves her tex-mex and ice cream so I feel your pain! I might not be the best person to ask because we definitely had tex-mex at least once a week when were in Dallas! BUT, overall feel like we stayed pretty healthy/fit and active.
My advice can be summed up in one word: balance. Dallas has a lot of healthy options in addition to the surplus of queso options. So, I’d encourage you to make healthy choices overall – True Food Kitchen, R&D Kitchen, Chipotle salad, Mod Market, a burger at Hopdoddy on a lettuce bun…a few of my favorite healthy options. The key to choosing healthy is giving yourself alot of options that AREN’T boring options. Eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to just have a salad with chicken 24/7. Explore new healthy spots in your area, and find healthy options you like.
At the same time though…let yourself enjoy the food you REALLY love every now and then! My advice is to eat healthy overall, be active/workout, but if you want a burger once or twice a week, get a burger. If you’re craving queso on a friday night, get queso. Everything in moderation! Michael and I both LOVE Chuy’s (obviously) but 9 times out of 10, we split! So, let yourself enjoy whatever your favorite less healthy spot is occasionally, but maybe consider splitting your meal, or taking part of it home after you feel satisfied.
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Four // What is your favorite part about blogging?
Okay I lied – I’ll answer ONE blogging question today haha, because I really liked this one. I love that blogging gives me the opportunity to connect with and hopefully encourage SO many amazing women like you guys. I feel so thankful to be able to make shopping a little easier for y’all, share my favorite beauty products, but above all…hopefully encourage you in your true identity in the Lord – helping you remember that you are so intimately known and loved by your creator, and that that is where true beauty lies. This social media world is throwing info in your face all day long about how to be better, prettier, stronger, etc., and I love that blogging gives me a platform to just remind you: hey, who you are is enough, because of Christ.
Overall though, I just love connecting with you guys, hearing feedback from you, and having the opportunity to encourage you in your true identity as a daughter of Christ.
Five // How do you keep yourself organized with your career, multi-social media accounts, and appointments? Do you use a planner? Or an iPhone app? Basically asking for tips for organization!
I’m far from being the queen of organization and am trying to grow in that area, but there are a few things I use that really help keep me organized. I have/use the app Evernote for so many things. For example, I have a note in there called ‘Martha things’ (ps Martha is my new assistant and she is AMAZING and I’ll be doing a post on her soon!) and anytime I think of a new project for her, or something we need to discuss, I add it to that note. If I have a conference call with a brand, I’ll start a note in there that says ‘Call with Leah’ and take notes as we talk. It’s so nice to have all my notes organized and in one place. The other great thing about Evernote too is that you can download it on your computer – so I have the same notes both on my iPhone and my Mac.
I also use google docs and google sheets for similar reasons, but more blog/social media related. I keep an editorial calendar in google sheets which is how I schedule out my blog posts, and we also have a ‘master list’ in google sheets that keeps track of all my collaborations/deadlines, etc.
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Outfit details: denim off the shoulder dress | bandana | slide sandals | suede bag | round sunglasses | earrings
That’s it for this week! I feel like all of my answers were really long haha but these were such great questions. I can scale it back next week if y’all want. But, if you have a question you’d like for me to answer next week for lattes with lauren, please leave it in a comment below!
Thanks for reading!
xo Lauren
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