Work From Home: COVID College Back to School Tricks for Fall 2020

So school is starting back and with COVID a good work from home set up is essential. As someone who has been exclusively working from home for about a year and a half, I have a few quick tips and tricks I've learned from grad school for ensuring a successful and productive semester.

1. Set up space and ambiance. Setting the mood will trick your mind into being productive every time. Dedicate a space away from your bed so you don’t bring work into your rest space. I recommend an office space or desk, to keep your work consolidated. I also make my way to the floor often, but in the same workspace, my desk is in. Also, light helps with mood and a positive mindset. So, light a candle, get a nice lamp with a daylight bulb, and tons of windows. If you can't get near windows, make sure you get about 30 minutes of daylight a day to help with serotonin levels. Lastly, if you need your space to stay neat, ensure that you dedicate a space for everything you need. If clutter doesn’t bother you, try to keep a nice space to try something new. 

2. Organize your time. If you don’t tell your time where to go, you’ll have your time telling you where to go. Put together a schedule. I recommend adding your course times and dedicated study times to your google calendar, so you never miss class times. (Hint: add the zoom links to the calendar so you just click and join the course.) With this, also, give yourself dedicated work times. Know when to stop working, so you don’t become a work-a-holic.

3. Try to work un-bothered. Distracted working makes it take much longer to get tasks completed. Work under time blocks that dedicate specific times to different tasks. Turn on background music, preferably without words, and knock out tasks. I don't recommend listening to podcasts or watching anything, as these split your effort for concentration. 

4. Set weekly planning meetings. I use a very minimalistic bullet journal system coupled with the top 3 methods to organize my entire life. Once a week, I put in my weekly objectives, and categorize them into the course of the next days. As things are completed, I mark them off the list, so by Friday, I have a record of my productivity. Whether using a bullet journal or a planner, ensure that you are planning out your week and objectives to make your organized time productive. 

5. Deeply enforce a work-life balance. Go to class. Study. Do all of your assignments early and on time. BUT never forget to have fun. Take advantage of not having to travel. Collaborate where you can virtually. Pick up a side hobby outside. Learn to garden. Whatever it is that you like to do for a release, that’s COVID permitting, do it! 

It’s just that simple. With a formulated workspace, a solid schedule, planning sessions, and boundaries between work and life. You can crush the semester with a breeze. 

For those who are teaching from home/have smaller children, enforce these same principles, but modify them for your child’s needs. Ensure that they have a workspace that’s clear from their favorite distractions. Plan out their weekly objectives. Make them work during dedicated times on a schedule so they can anticipate playtime, and let them play when they’re not working. While it may be different, we all can still succeed while social distancing and taking care of business from the comfort of our own homes. 

I'm Called, but I'm Scared: Walking into Your Calling NOW!

The Lord rarely places you in your calling at the time you're called. More often than not, in the examples of Joseph, David, and Jesus in the Bible, the Lord will call you and have you wait and mature before giving you the position. These passages are commonly preached from a position of being patient in the waiting and the preparation. But what happens when God says to go?

Recently, I've started two small businesses. In the middle of a pandemic, I thought that I had more waiting to do before these businesses were established. KandidKare, in particular, I've been working in my waiting for 3 years. When the Lord said it was time to launch, I had gotten so comfortable in the waiting I wasn't ready. I had done all of the prep work and all of the formulating, but the feet to faith stirred immense fear. 

The nice thing about God is that He will tell you to go at any time, so we must be ready at all times. Had Joseph been too proud to interpret the other prisoner's dream, he would've never walked into his elevation. If David was not confident enough to choose to slay Goliath, he would have never walked into kingship. If Jesus had been to fearful to take up his cross, none of us could be saved. While Jesus is perfect, His example, as well as the others mentioned, proves the point that we must always be ready. 

While the Bible doesn't talk about the frame of mind of these individuals in these times, we cannot omit that there may have been a level of fear involved. For Jesus, He asked the Lord to take the cup from Him. For Joseph, he was in the lowest position possible: prison. For David, he was the smallest of his brothers. Undoubtedly, if there was no fear, there probably should have been. But when God calls you and enables you, you must move despite.  

As I've discussed over the last few weeks, I have been attacked on every front possible when starting these businesses: the finances don't add up, someone tried to steal my ideas, my family has been attacked, I've lost loved ones, my AC has gone out, imposter syndrome has crept in, and my anxiety has been on 1000%. Even in all of these things, the Lord said NOW!

Even in apparent fear, when called, you go. God doesn't call the qualified, he enables the called. Knowing this, you push through the fear. As Isaiah 6:8 says, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'" Respond to the call, and go. 

I wish I had simple steps to help build the faith to overcome fear, but sometimes, it's just that simple. Step out on faith. You might not be able to see the next step, but take it knowing that God has called you and will instruct you accordingly. 

Update!

Hello Everyone!

To those who are new, welcome! For those who have followed in the past, thanks so much for all of your encouragement and support. A life update will be coming later this week to explain all of the many reasons why I keep neglecting this avenue of my life, lol. But really, due to the COVID-19, shelter in place, I am pushing to upload and push so much more content, and to really get creative in the way I deliver that. With that being said! This blog will be moving in a bit of a different direction, in that I’ve grown so much. When I started this blog, I was 20 years old, and all I cared about was looking cute, making money to stay cute, and making it to my next lecture. As you will hear in my update coming, I am more concerned with my overall health, wellness, and growth these days. That theme will most likely spill over to this platform as well. With that being said. I am so excited for all of the many changes and evolutions this will take. The first of which is our new Instagram page @kandidkayla.co! Here you will find more on-demand engagement. I am planning to use both this website and Instagram as our hubs for communication and content resource. Even in these uncertain times, I’m so excited to see the journey this will take all of us! So, see you on the journey!

Mi’Kayla

Major Key Alert: New Year, New life...

Coming into the New Year, we all desire to make life changes that would allow for us to improve our lives into the coming year.  So I’ll be doing a brief series that will discuss the major keys that I think are vital transforming our lives into the new year.  

Today’s topic is how to make relationships: friendships and beyond. 

From a survey of the friendships in my life and the comments that I see on social media, many people going into the new year are dropping friends or people from their life that they see as unnecessary.  However, In most cases this is a front for them not truly understanding that they have no friends or they are having many issues in their friendships that cause them to want to cut people off. The remedy to both of these situations are to make good friendships. 

To do so, first, you must know yourself.  The Bible says in Luke 6:31 that the most important rule in life is to “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” You can’t adequately have someone do to you if you don't know what you like.  With this, learn what you like.   If you don’t have a friend to do something with all the time, try some of activities on your own. 

Second, I recommend you do simple things in your daily life that make you seem available to more friendships: smile, speak to everyone in the hallway, hold the door, be kind, be patient, and don’t be afraid to give a compliment. These simple things turn even the shyest person into a conversation starter.  From the high school level to the adult life, these simple keys are gateway conversation starters.  

Third, start simple conversations.  Once you’ve held the door or smiled at someone a few times, you should actually say something.  It can start as simple as “I like your clothes” or my favorite, “I like your makeup”.  You can even just say “good morning”.  If all else fails, you can always ask a question about the day or the weather.  These may seem silly, but they do work.  

Lastly, I recommend you go to events where it’s easier to meet people.  If you are the clubbing type, you can go to a club or lounge.  You can join a club at your school or an intramural sports team. There are also social groups that are live on Facebook based on your geographical area.  All of these places are breeding grounds for friendships.  If you just start a conversation, you can make a friend for life.  

As it relates to relationships, most every relationship starts as a friendship. So if you can be a friend, your odds of being a significant other are fairly high.

Out with the Old, In with the New: Accepting the Old, Moving on with the New

Today is the four year anniversary of the day I started my journey to understanding love. On this day four days ago, I realized that there was a tingling feeling that I hadn’t experienced before concerning someone.  As thatexperience was good to have, it wasn’t meant to be forever, and I had to move on. Continuing with the theme ofout with the old, in with the new, our topic today is about accepting the experience of the old and moving forward into what is new.  

On Tuesday, I briefly discussed how God takes us through things to grow us.  In evaluating those things, I made it seem as though it’s all fine and dandy when you have come on the other side.  You can give God all the glory, but I neglected to talk about the process when you’re going through.  Trust, it’s not as fine or dandy.  Going through it is rough. In relation to the story above, I can thank God for being able to experience falling in love, but going through it was not as easy.  The thing that no one tells you about falling in love is that it is typically not easy.  It is a process of constantly weighing your thoughts versus your feelings, your emotions versus your personality, and your view versus your perception.  In all the great love songs they talk about the butterfly feelings, but never the hard stuff like allowing someone in and learning to accept someone’s faults.  Going through all of this was a struggle.  As suggested before, this love didn’t work out, and with that came heartache.  In going through it, it was hard to see God in all of it.  Thankfully, I did. Every time I was brought to tears, he was not only there to comfort me, but to help me see the hindsight.  

In seeing the hindsight, I can take that experience for what it was, a chance to understand the feeling and action of love, and move forward.  In most painful situations, it is easy to sit in what was and stay down.  In the case of situations concerning the heart it is easy to wallow in the what ifs, but we need not forget that God has a plan, that doesn’t stop at the heartache.  Think about it, if we stop at the pain we would never get anywhere.  I wouldn’t be writing this blog.  You wouldn’t be reading this blog.  You would never get to experience the greater that’s directly attached to the pain that doesn’t last. In every situation in life I think there is something to be learned, but most importantly, in painful situations, there is something to be gained.  You can gain patience, understanding, clarity, a spiritual gift, or even physical blessings.

In my case I gained perception.  My perception changed.  I had to experience the physical human to human manifestation of love and heartache to see the comparison of how God longs for us and loves us. Had it not been for the pain, I would have continued to take his love for granted. 

“But, Mi’Kayla you have seen the reason why you went through it, so you can better move on. What about closure?” you may ask. 

I think there is something strong about someone who can move forward without closure.  I am not that person.  So, to that my answer to you would be to ask God, and he will answer.  On the other hand God has not called us to be a people oppressed.  Many times, we can obsess over our pain and miss the real reason for the pain, and that’s growth. The only way to grow from situations are to move forward from them.  

Moving forward is not forgetting about what has happened. On the contrary, it’s taking that experience with you as a part of who you are becoming.  As I discussed on Tuesday, we are constantly changing when we experience God. Since God is the author of our lives, even in the bad times, we are growing daily. This growth is only truly happening when we take these experiences with us.  

To take the experiences with us we must first learn something from the experience.  In my case I learned a lot of things about love, myself, God, and my relationship with God.  

Second, you must understand who you are in God despite and in consideration of the situation.  It is so easy to start seeing yourself in a negative light when you are going through pain, but you must remember that you are God’s, made in his image, and adopted by the blood of Christ. With that, there is nothing that can separate you from his love.  

Third, you must accept the situation for what it is.  It is easy sometimes to fantasize or exaggerate a situation so that the memories don’t hurt as bad, but acknowledging and accepting the situation for truth as part of your life is the only way you will ever come to terms with the situation.  

Lastly, you must continue with your life.  For me, I made myself more readily available to new and other experiences to keep me busy, because I’m not really to potentially fall in love again. For you, it may be just stepping out on faith in the next venture of your life. 

Yes, it will still hurt to get up and move forward, but everyday it hurts a little less and less.  Until one day, you wake up and can thank God from the other side. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Psalms 34:18 “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

John 5:8 “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’”

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