It's known that colors invoke certain emotions. We associate colors with feelings and feelings with colors. Have you ever considered using colors to distinguish between different activities you complete throughout each day? 

Categorization is key within organization, which is why I find color coding to be an incredibly helpful resource. It is telling, easy to follow and fun to create.

I use color categories within my email to easily distinguish something I need to refer to repeatedly. 

Yellow = Todo

Orange = In progress

Blue = Link

Purple = Contact Information 

You can create other categories depending on the nature of your position, but these are the ones I have found to be universally helpful across all the jobs I have had. 

Additionally, you can use this concept within your personal life and via pen / paper. When using my daily schedule, I use a highlighter to further categorize my actions by identifying what larger goal I am working towards:

Green = Health

Pink = Relation...

I used to think my perfect day was one in which I was productive. If I was “busy” and consumed with outside tasks, it was enough to keep my mind from falling anxious, which is a total enemy of productivity. It was a constant battle between my mind and my body, and in this game, the body always wins. You can take as many Adderall as you want, but you’re still going to fall asleep at some point. It was this weird purgatory between too much time and not enough; anxiety and stress; wired and tired. I failed to find peace in this dichotomy because there was no balance. I treasured the hustle and resented the rest. I would get upset with myself for taking naps or needing a break, thus taking away the benefits of resting in the first place. While the body may have always won, the mind was always a very sore loser, and never let the body enjoy any victory. I just wanted to be going nonstop at all times.

But one day I broke.

I’m not ready to share what happened just yet, but I will tell you t...

Last week I wrote about the ways to cope mentally with a surplus of time, but what if you actually wish you had more time? If you’re like me, working from home exclusively and indefinitely is a total life adjustment. 

Sure, working from home gives you more time in theoretically, but it doesn’t literally give you with more time during the workday. You likely have all the same obligations and expectations you usually have at work with newly imposed limits in varying forms like physical space, privacy, or adjusting to a totally different work environment.

At home you have an influx of new distractions, such as pets, roommates, noisy neighbors (and these are just the distractions you don't have control over). We are treading uncharted water in these unprecedented times, and I find that in order to keep sane, it's important to focus on what you can control. 

I created the Daily Schedule as a means of putting myself back in charge of my day, because I felt like time was simply slipping aw...

Happy Friday!

Does every day in quarantine feel like a Friday, or just me? While I do love that feeling of Friday at 4:30pm when I get to close my laptop and look forward to 48 hours of uninterrupted time to explore my hobbies and interests, it's taken me a long time to get to this place and to gain this perspective.. The weekend actually used to cause me an insane amount of anxiety, which is why I think it's important to do a follow up to my post on Wednesday. 

The things that get me through quarantine now did not work for me when I was in a depressed state. Let's go down the list in a "swap this for that" format:

Walking (instead of Meditating)

Go outside with no headphones and just start walking. Start where you are with this one- it doesn't matter if it's 5 minutes or an hour, but you will find a similar sense of mental clarity from going outside, getting fresh air and moving your body.

When I was at the peak of my anxiety, I couldn't be alone with my thoughts, so I called my ...

Hi!

Hope you're enjoying quarantine- I know I am :) The next two posts are separate but related; they correspond to my ways of adapting to life when there's a surplus of time. Today's post corresponds to things that work for me now, but please note I was not able to do any of these things when I was riffled with anxiety and depression. I will post alternatives that provided me with comfort in that difficult time on Friday. I decided to write the posts in this order because it follows the natural flow of how I found what worked for me. I tried to do these things first, but when they didn't work, I sought an alternative. I find the strategies in today's post to be higher vibrational overall, but there is no right or wrong. You just need to do what gives you peace in an uncertain time. 

This is how I have been staying busy in quarantine:

Meditation

Literally anyone who speaks to me knows that I am obsessed with meditation and I attribute much of my newfound peace of mind to my practic...

Hi Friends! 

Did you miss me? Good, because I've missed you too! It’s been a world of change since 2019, and I’m not even talking about the *cough, cough* elephant in the room! Thank you for your patience with my little hiatus as I navigated several major life changes.

Since January 1, 2020...

I moved to Collingswood, NJ!

I signed my lease in February for a townhouse in Collingswood, NJ! Collingswood is an adorable town right outside Philly, which means I’m close to my sister and friends from college! It’s so liberating to finally have my own space again, and it feels symbolic of entering a new chapter of my life. My roommate is an engineer from Stanford, and we mainly keep our distance, but it is nice to not be completely isolated during quarantine. I opted to live in Jersey instead of Philly because it’s way easier for work and the city is easy to get into on weekends via train, car or uber. 

I made the big move because...

 I started a new job I absolutely love!

I started my ...

If you've been following me, you probably noticed I've basically stopped posting on my site and Instagram. To be completely forthright and honest, I got hit with a severe case of lack of motivation and inspiration.

Allison Ziggy is still alive. I still want to launch my own physical planner and digital course, but I needed to take a step back and hit pause before I felt able to move forward. 2020 is going to be the year I go past the point of no return with Allison Ziggy, so this was essentially the little breather I needed before going all in. I stepped back so that I can step forward. 

2019 has been the most challenging year of my entire life. I am ready to leave behind the trials and tribulations from this past decade in exchange for a much bigger and brighter future. This new decade is going to be the one where my big dreams come true and I am so incredibly excited for the future. The best is yet to come. 

xoxo,

Allison Ziegler

The relationship between planning and anxiety is complicated. You make plans one minute when you’re feeling great but when the time comes to show up, you get hit with one of those god-awful panic attacks. You want to stick to your word and stay in integrity with what you said you were going to do, but your body has its own plans.

 Choose Carefully and Don’t Over-commit

You know that cancelling plans or backing out on an obligation is going to make you feel badly, so stop saying yes to things you don’t want to do. Stress occurs when your body says no but your mouth says “I’d love to.” Really listen to yourself and how you physically react to the thought of doing something when you can't decide if you want to go or not. 

 Give Yourself Grace

In these moments, it’s important to talk to yourself like you would talk to a child. Imagine a child was supposed to go to a birthday party but threw a tantrum moments before you were supposed to leave and was visibly upset. You’d give the child ...

Someone captioned a photo on Instagram: "The best Sundays are a Saturday" and my mouth nearly hit the floor. I resonated with this way too much.

For those who aren't familiar, the Sunday scaries refer to anxiety caused by the daunting reality to the start of a new week. The Sunday scaries prevent you from being able to enjoy your day, because you know Monday is looming. You are more likely to experience them if you hate your job or have a demanding job, but fear not, because these tips will help you to make your Sunday more Saturday-ish and less Monday-ish. 

Stay Present

When you live in the moment, you find your peace. You are present to what's around you instead of worrying what is going to happen in the future or what already happened in the past. To practice staying in the moment, I sometimes like to repeat a mantra to myself such as "I am exactly where I need to be." Sundays are not the same thing as Mondays; don't mentally put yourself through that dreadful team meeting t...

If you aren’t familiar with browser extensions, familiarize yourself. I use Google Chrome, so all links will be specifically for this web browser, but they may be available on other platforms like Firefox as well. Extensions are little add-ins you can install on your browser. I use several and they help make life so much easier. I outlined my top 3 for digital organization below:

 Pocket

I like to use Pocket when I come across an article or video I want to reference later. It is like a pocket of websites! What’s really cool is that they make recommendations about other related articles based on what you’ve already saved.

Too Many Tabs? Use OneTab

This add in chrome extension consolidates all of your tabs into one itemized webpage where you can click to open them individually. It keeps a record even after you close out of Chrome, and the only time links get deleted from the list is when you do it manually.

 Keeper

I LOVE Keeper. It is hands down the best password tracking app. It ...