While a lot of people won't talk about it that much, almost everyone has some type of security blanket.  For some, it's their iPhone.  For others, a piece of jewelry.  For me, it's my moleskine.  Although, I don't bring it everywhere with me because I'm afraid that I'll leave it and lose it somewhere.

But can a "security blanket" help you achieve work/life balance?  I've got two guest bloggers today that way in on theirs and how it improves their work/life balance.

First we have Jill from Writing My Life One Blog at a Time who wears many hats as a mom and a blogger, literally.  And Christie from ChristieCrowder.com talks about how her mug obsession helps her achieve balance.

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Jessica has very kindly allowed me to guest post for her Work-Life Balance feature....??In the early days of my WAHM-ness -- actually before WAHM was actually a word and I called myself a freelance editor AND a mom at home looking after my kids -- I had an extremely hard time adjusting to working from home.??Setting up my office was a snap -- desk from Costco, computer, printer, fax machine.

DONE.

Getting my daughter to nap while I worked was also easy-peasy -- bottle while I rocked her on the glider, lullabies, favorite blanket.

DONE.

The hard part was actually sitting down to work. I found that my adult-onset ADHD coupled with a house screaming for cleaning and laundry piled in front of washer was a serious deterrent to my work. I tried everything.??With a soundly sleeping baby who could sleep through the hum of a computer and the whirring of a fax machine, you would think that I could easily work. But, no I was constantly finding reasons to avoid my work. "I'll just put this load of wash in" or "I'll just call my friend to ask about [blank kid's issue]" or "I'll just make myself a snack and a cup of coffee." By the time I knew it the baby was stirring and I had done nothing. Cue another night of working into the wee hours after the baby was down for the night. I never got to spend any time with my husband since I was working all night.??The solution to my problem was literally staring me in the face.

A hat.



A long-abandoned hat sitting on a bookshelf beside my desk. A hat, you say? Yes, a baseball hat from our babymoon to the Bahamas. A discolored, slightly mangled hat from an unfortunate washing incident became my work solution.??  ??Once the baby was settled in for a nap, I would plonk that hat on my head. I was raring to go. Literally that hat gave me the focus and motivation I needed to tackle my work. It was my uniform...my superhero costume.??With the hat I was SuperMommy! Able to scale tall stacks of paper with a stroke of my red pen. Able to persuade an author that his chapter made no sense and needed to be heavily edited. Able to take a manuscript that was disjointed and disorganized and turn it in to a readable book. Able to prepare 10 packages for FedEx pickup. Nothing and no one could stop SuperMommy from doing her job! Not the phone. Not the piles of laundry. Not the dirty kitchen floor. Not the coffee pot. With that hat I was invincible!??To this day, I still wear a hat when I am working on projects, the laundry, or cleaning the garage.

I also have a folding laundry hat, a cleaning the garage hat, and my proud to be an American hat (I became a citizen in the 90s).

So, do you have a favorite hat? When do you wear your hat? Working on assignments? Playing with your kids? Gardening? I'd love to know. Add the photo of your hat to my Flickr photostream group: "With My Hat I Am Ready To Work!"

You can follow Jill on Twitter here.

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And now, a word from Christie:

Some of you may have recently learned that I have an unhealthy obsession with notebooks .  I must confess that I have another obsession but unlike the notebooks it is completely tied to how my day will go.  My mood and overall daily productivity is tied to my mug.

Yes, the mug that I drink my daily cuppa joe out of determines the course of activities.



I have tons of mugs.  My husband has threatened that if I bring another coffee mug into my house, I might as well pack my bags.  Do I use them all? Pretty much...yes!  How are my mugs tied to my mood and productivity you ask? Here are some examples...  Busy days always get the "big mug"...meaning, "I'm gonna need lotsa coffee to get through this day".  But even the big mugs get broken down...for instance, if I need to be upbeat and cheerful, like on my radio show days, my Mickey Mouse or my Doonsbury mugs are chosen.  If I need to really focus on writing, whether for a one of my many , many , many blogs or tinkering with manuscripts, I choose my Karibu Books mug because that was the bookstore where I had my very first book signing.  That mug gives me writing mojo!  On gloomy days, I tend to gravitate toward the dark colored mugs.  On days where I have coaching clients, I use a travel mug because I tend to walk around my office while I'm talking...don't want to spill on the carpet...or worse, my laptop!  As you can see, I am a bit particular.  If I don't get the right mug, it actually puts a bit of a hex on my day. Yes, I agree this is a bit quirky but I bet if you think about it, you probably have an interesting daily ritual that you do (consciously or subconsciously) that shapes the direction your day will go.  For me to have a good, productive day...I've gotta get my mug on!

You can follow Christie on Twitter here.

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