Auston Grove Apartment Homes Blog

If achieving a “work-life balance” were easy, there wouldn’t be so many articles and advice books on the subject. But what does it mean to achieve a “balanced life?”

When you are able to maintain balance, you don’t feel as if your life is overwhelmed by any one task. You’re not spending so much time working that you don’t know what your non-work self is like, and you’re not constantly stressed by an unmanageable to-do list. You feel that you are actually living, rather than just rushing through the days.

Here are some suggestions on how to bring your life more into balance.

Prioritize sleep, exercise, and eating
When many responsibilities all call for our attention, it becomes easy for us to allow some of our most basic and healthful needs to be downplayed. Proper sleep and exercise help ensure our bodies are operating at full capacity, and they leave us feeling more relaxed as we live out each day. Pay attention to your body’s needs and rhythms, and honor them as best you can.

Prioritizing eating and the food you choose does not necessarily mean that you have to spend more money on food, or even force yourself to eat more healthily. It does mean being mindful of what and when you are eating. If you know you spend four out of five work lunches wolfing down something at your desk, allow yourself the freedom of a planned lunch out. And if you’re going to eat ten Oreos in a row one afternoon, make sure you enjoy them.

Identify and rethink your coping behaviors
If you’re very stressed, chances are you’re using something - maybe shopping, alcohol, or those Oreos - to help you feel better. While coping mechanisms are understandable human traits, you may want to think about alternative healthy activities that would allow you to relax without potentially draining your budget or leaving you feeling poorly.

Maintaining balance in your life means being aware of the things that stress you and attempting to change them or cope with them before you feel compelled to resort to behavior that will be counterproductive to your well-being. Instead of spending money, for instance, focus on another activity you enjoy. Instead of drinking or eating more than you will enjoy in order to relieve your stress, take the time to figure out why you would want to do those things in the first place.

Schedule time for quiet
Whether it’s prayer, meditation, yoga, writing in a journal, or just sitting and paying attention to your breath, having a few protected minutes of quiet in your day can be healing and revitalizing. Invest this time in a restful activity — watching TV, checking Facebook, or playing video games may not work as well for helping you feel more balanced.

Figure out what you can let go of
If you are simply trying to cram too much into 24 hours, you may need to cut some activities out of your packed schedule. It may not be obvious at first what you need to drop. Some experts recommend tracking your time; others, tracking your moods. Has one of your friends turned into an emotional vampire? Is that side project that once seemed so exciting now exhausting? Is your Saturday night out leaving you feeling bleak on Sunday? An honest appraisal of the events and relationships in your life may help you prioritize and potentially change some of them for the better.

Assess the “work” part of the work-life balance
Keep in mind that taking steps like these to improve your work-life balance may not go far enough to mitigate the negative effects of a job that is simply not suited to your personality, no matter how much that job pays. If you can’t leave a job that you find awful immediately, then make yourself a promise that at a definite date in the future - three months, six months, a year from now - you will re-evaluate your options. Write down your escape plan, as if you were formalizing a contract with yourself. If you find you have trouble clearly evaluating all the pieces of your life, you might want to consult a therapist, spiritual leader, or trusted friend to help you talk it all out.

Whether you “live to work” or “work to live,” you can always strive to streamline your life and make all its pieces work together more smoothly. Balance is an important goal for being happy with the things you have to do, as well as the things you want to do - and may help you deal with the difference between the two.

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Do you like to keep a journal as a record of your life experiences to help you remember and catalog the fleeting thoughts of daily life? How would you feel about sharing those thoughts or observations with others?

If this interests you, you might wish to start your own online blog, which is like a journal that you compose in cyberspace.

A blog can be a place to share your expertise or interests, collect your thoughts, or even market a business. Read on for reasons why creating a blog might be for you.

What will your blog be about?
If you decide to start a personal blog, the sky’s the limit in terms of what you can write about. In keeping with the old axiom to “write what you know,” sharing information or insights about your everyday experiences is a great way to start blogging. Linking your observations to facts and information that can educate and entertain others is a bonus that will likely keep readers coming back.

Whether you choose to write a food blog, a travel blog, a political blog or one about garden gnomes, you may very well find an appreciative audience interested in what you have to say.

For business sites, of course, blog topics should relate to the product or service being promoted.

Which blogging site will you choose?
There are a number of different interfaces you can use for your blog.

Blogger, now a Google property, was one of the first blogging sites. Tumblr has a simple, yet sophisticated format, and Posterous makes setting up a blog quick and easy. WordPress themes allow for a very smooth, professional look.

LiveJournal, as the name implies, has a more personal than professional approach. Like a MySpace for the blogging world, LiveJournal’s focus is on community and groups gathered around shared interests. Its options allow users to make their journal as private or public as they like. Diary.com is a similar option that also lets you sync with task, calendar and social media applications.

A live journal…and more
Blogging began as a way to expand a personal Web presence by talking to friends and strangers about what you love - or hate - in a ‘dear diary’ style. With a blog, you can get personal in a timely way, updating it whenever you want. You can create an online journal that just might become “appointment reading” for friends and fans.

Fame can be achieved through blogging. In 2003, a frustrated temp, Julie Powell, decided to cook the 524 French recipes in Julia Child’s book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in the span of one year - and blog about the experience, at the same time. Her Julie/Julia Project project gained a large following and was adapted into a 2009 major motion picture, called “Julie & Julia” - the first time a blog had been brought to the big screen.

Powell’s blog ultimately had a dual purpose: it was both a personal expression and a professional outlet for her as a writer. This is common: a popular blog may take the form of a professional (or intentionally unprofessional) observation about a person’s experience in his industry or a citizen-journalist’s update on a particular subject.

Though the blog - and its new media cousins, Facebook and Twitter - have institutionalized the habit of sharing personal information with scores of complete strangers, the most-read posts of today are either truly informative or else very funny, offering readers tips, insight or humor that they can’t get anywhere else. And as businesses make blogging a part of their marketing plans, it seems everyone is bidding for the most eyes.

Perhaps you don’t care about publicity; you may just have something to say and don’t really care how many others will read it. Either way, if it’s time for you to blog, there are more ways to do it quickly and easily than ever before.

Like a pen-and-paper journal, a blog is the perfect venue for stream-of-consciousness creative writing and sharing about any number of topics - for all to read and share. Choose your blog host, your topic, and your style - the only limits are the time and energy you find to post what you have to say!

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Posting your resume online can assist you in your job search by making your unique qualifications known to thousands of employers who scour the Web for job candidates. But simply posting an online resume won’t get you hired. Find out how to leverage your online resume to help you find the job you’re looking for with these tips.

Why should you have an online resume?
Online resumes are fantastic job search tools because they’re efficient. Just think how long it would take for you to mail a copy of your resume to every potential employer - the time and expense would be staggering!

But with an online version at the ready, you can distribute your resume to hundreds or even thousands of potential employers and networking contacts quickly - and that’s an important advantage. In a job search, speed counts.

Online resumes are also convenient. Let’s say that you start your job search by informing all of your friends and contacts that you’re on the lookout for a new job. That’s a great beginning-of-job-search strategy, but your friends aren’t going to carry around paper copies of your resume with them everywhere they go. If a friend has a contact with a potential position for you, however, that friend can easily share the link to your online resume with a potential employer. Online resumes really can help your contacts help you.

Online resume tips
Once you realize how important it is to have an online resume, it’s good to know how to make your resume stand out in a crowd. Start by making sure that your online resume is filled with strong keywords. If you post a resume to a large job board like CareerBuilder.com or Monster.com, you should know that employers search for candidates on these sites by scanning resumes for keywords, specific search terms that illustrate the qualities and skills employers want. If you want to work as a software engineer, for instance, then a few good keywords to include in your online resume might be:

• Master’s degree
• Linux
• Software design
• Algorithms
• Network security

These terms are good keywords because they are specific to a software engineer’s job. Remember that employers will be looking for different keywords applicable to skills required in their industries. If you have created a well-crafted resume, the right keywords should be there.

Keep in mind that you can do more with an online resume than simply post it on job boards. You can attach the link to e-mails for quick responses to job inquiries or for dispersal among networking contacts. (If the print version of your resume has fancy formatting, you may need to convert your resume to plain text format so it is easily readable when copied and pasted into an e-mail.)

Remember to keep your online resume current. You should always keep your current resume online so that it accurately reflects the breadth of your skills and achievements. Certain job board sites also push newly-updated resumes to the top of the heap for employer searches - another reason why keeping your current resume online is a plus.

Get the most mileage out of your online resume
In addition to keeping your resume current, you can help make your online resume work for you by maintaining active status on social networking Web sites where you post your resume. Each time you update resume information on one of these sites or interact with other uses in some way, the site informs all of your contacts that you’re active. LinkedIn, for example, does this via a weekly newsletter; Facebook uses a live feed. If a former coworker repeatedly sees your name in her weekly LinkedIn newsletter, for instance, she’s more likely to think of you when she hears of a job opportunity. In this way, networking sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo, or Facebook keep working for you even when you are not actively job searching.

An online resume really can be a tremendous asset to a job seeker. Follow some basic guidelines to keep your resume current and well-written, and you may dramatically increase your chances of finding employment.

Apartment in Raleigh, NC

Oftentimes, our furry friends make the best roommates. But renting with pets can be challenging. Some apartments don’t allow pets, and pet deposits can be expensive.

Ask the right questions before you move, however, and you can be sure to find a pet-friendly apartment.

Are pets allowed?
Question one in your pet-friendly research is probably the most important: Does your prospective apartment community allow pets?

If so, are there restrictions on species, size or breeds? Before you fill out an application for an apartment, be honest with your future landlord or apartment manager and tell them about your pet. Also, ask about the amount and the conditions of the pet deposit.

Is this a pet-friendly rental?
An environment that welcomes pets in apartments is not only tolerant of them, but also offers structural aspects that work for four-legged residents. Stairs, for instance, can be hard for some dogs to climb, especially small or older ones; a ground-floor unit might be preferable. Hardwood floors look great and make clean-up easier, but carpet is softer on dog and cat paws and dampens the sound if you have downstairs neighbors.

Some apartment communities offer a dog-walking area and clean-up stations, so tour the facilities to check for yourself. Find out if there are dog parks nearby or if there is a doggy daycare in the area in case your dog needs some extra attention during the day. Also, get a feel from your landlord for the number of pets in the apartment community and for other residents’ tolerance level when it comes to pets.

Renting with pets needn’t be fraught with stress and secrecy. Get the right details during your apartment search for a pet-friendly rental to share with your furry, feathered or scaled companion. If you are up front with your apartment manager and ask the right questions, you will have a better chance of finding a new apartment in which both you and your pet can be happy.

Apartments in Raleigh, NC

You’ve unpacked the boxes and arranged your furniture, but something’s missing: wall decor! Don’t get bored with blank walls; use your creativity and get something up there pronto. It’s easy to unleash your inner artist and decorate your apartment walls.

Set the scene
Painting your walls, or even just a single wall, makes a great backdrop for artwork. A neutral wall paint makes colorful artwork pop. If you are hanging black and white photos, try a bright red wall so the high contrast images can really shine. Another option is to let your wall paint be the decor. Painting stripes or geometric shapes can really add impact to your apartment walls. Here’s a tip if your painting skills aren’t so great. Try using removable stick-on decals. It’s a non-permanent way to add interest to your walls, and you’ll find hundreds of designs to choose from.

Pack in photos
Once you’ve got your walls painted the base color you want, it’s time to decorate them. Hanging photos is an inexpensive way to display your personal memories so that you can enjoy them every day. You can also use photos that other people have taken, even classic archival photography. Whatever images you select, get your photos framed (or frame them yourself,) and have fun with your frame choices. Try mixing and matching frames or pick a single color theme, but utilize different styles of framing and shades of color. You can also have fun arranging them, grouping the frames to create larger geometric shapes. Test your ideas by sketching sample layouts on a piece of paper to see which one you like best.

Invest in art
Original art can certainly add a unique touch to your apartment walls.  If you aren’t a photographer or artist yourself, you could invest in others’ artwork. It’s easy to find original art or affordable reproductions of art in home decor stores. These purchases don’t have to break the bank, though art galleries will usually offer a layaway plan to assist you in acquiring a pricey piece of art. Alternatively, you could ask artistic friends to create something special for your apartment, or you could create your own masterpiece. Take an art class and hang your homework on your walls!

Objectify
Unusual objects make wonderful decorative items for your apartment walls. You can display random items or hang a collection of vintage board games, watches, or plates — anything that you love looking at. Hang shelves to display your favorite collection of objects in a creative way.

Get the ok
Do check your lease or inquire with your apartment community manager as to whether painting walls or other decorative changes you might want to make to your apartment are allowed.

Wall decor ideas are limitless and don’t have to be expensive. Look at other people’s apartments for inspiration: you can search online for virtual tours of apartments where you’ll see some amazing decorating ideas. Exercise your creative side on your apartment walls, and those walls will never look the same!