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Life

8 Things To Do When You Unplug

March 21, 2014 By Alex Masica 2 Comments

8 Things To Do When You Unplug

Have you heard about the term “unplug”? It’s been around for a while now so I’m sure most people know what it is. For those of you who don’t know, it’s the act of disconnecting from our digital lives—email, phone calls, Facebook, blogs. You get the idea. It’s finding that peace with the real, raw world instead of getting lost in the digital space.

For a lot of people, unplugging can be a very difficult thing to do. Take a minute and think about all the times you rely on technology to get something done. Sometimes, it’s a task that can be done in a different way, like sending an email versus talking to someone in person. Other times, these tasks we do completely depend on technology, like crunching numbers in a spreadsheet or coding a website.

Unplugging has become a new fad, if you will, for people who seem to always be paying more attention to their devices rather than what’s right in front of them. It’s especially popular for people who go on vacation.

Even 10 years ago, it was easy and the norm to go on vacation without worrying about responding to emails, virtually attending a meeting, or approving a last-minute item. But now, there are countless stories of people who are afraid to unplug while on vacation (or aren’t allowed to), for fear of missing out (or FOMO) on what’s happening back at the office.

I find myself getting sucked into the plugged-in world more often these days. And when that happens, I know it’s time to find something else to do that doesn’t rely on my laptop, iPhone, or iPad.

Here’s my list of eight things do to when you unplug. 

Read a book.

This is probably one of the simplest, most classic things to do. And this is, without a doubt, the first thing I turn to when I need a break from the screen.

Walk around a park with a friend.

Grab a friend and walk around a park, pond, or a hiking path. Catch up. Get to know them on a deeper, more personal level than what you find out through Facebook.

Make food.

I’m not talking about a grilled cheese here. Pick up a cookbook or print out a recipe (the day before, of course) for something you’ve always wanted to try but have been too scared to attempt. I’d recommend chicken tortilla soup, Butterfinger cookies, or roasted vegetable wraps.

Go on a day trip to a new town.

Hop in the car and stop when you get to a town that looks interesting. Eat at a local restaurant. Walk down Main Street. Check out the library. Strike up a conversation with a local. You’d be surprised how much you can learn and enjoy yourself.

Take pictures of your neighborhood.

This was one of my favorite things to do while living in Chicago and New York City. I’d leave my phone at home and just take my DSLR camera. Buildings, trees, people, signs, and water are great things to look at and understand through a camera lens.

Write a handwritten note to an old friend.

Sending snail mail has really turned into a lost art. I still can’t get over people who don’t know how to address an envelope. How great do you think someone would feel if they received a one- or two-page letter written to them with good, old-fashioned pencil and paper?

Read a paper newspaper.

When’s the last time you caught up on the news from a print edition? There’s something about the smell of paper and the feel of it between my fingers that gets me every time.

Redecorate your bedroom.

Make a day or weekend out of redecorating your bedroom, or any other room you feel needs a little change. Start by walking through a fabric or crafts store, grab some items, and head back home to piece it all together. I could spend hours and hours in Hobby Lobby.

So that’s my list. I’d love to hear from you. What have you done when you unplugged? Do you have anything on your list for when you finally get to unplug?

Filed Under: Life

3 Reasons to Smile and Be Happy About Life

March 20, 2014 By Alex Masica 4 Comments

3 Reasons to Smile & Be Happy About Life

Do you ever have those days where you’re just, like, man, life is so good? I’ve been having a lot of those lately and, man, it feels really good.

Ever since graduating from college, I’ve been so self conscious about a lot of things: finding a job, keeping a job, performing well enough, paying bills on time, meeting new people, finding myself in reality.

You know what? Worrying about so many things is so damaging and draining. When I moved to Minneapolis from New York City, I worried every day for a month about if the person who took my spot on a lease actually moved in to the apartment. Instead of just emailing my old roommates to find out, I stressed for a good two hours every day about the problem.

Come to find out, she did move in (like I knew she would). Now it’s just a struggle getting my landlord to hand over the money for my security deposit. If you’re an expert in getting money back from a landlord, hook. me. up.

I thought if I was having trouble letting go and being happy, there must be some other people out there going through the same thing.

I’m hoping these three reasons to smile and be happy about your life will be help make your day a little brighter and a little less stressful. I think about these almost every day as I continue on a journey to become more grateful.

1. You’re able to read this

Sounds a little vague and, well, out there, right? But do you ever stop and think about how lucky we have it with this whole “I know how to read” and “I can access the Internet whenever and wherever I want” thing? I thought about what life would be like without the ability read, write, and communicate with people through technology. I couldn’t even imagine it. We’ve got it so good. Take a minute and be thankful for something we take for granted in our society.

2. You’ve got friends who are rooting for you

Sometimes, we forget there are more people in our lives than we realize who want us to be happy and are willing to lend a hand. The person who comes to my mind these days is my friend Mandie. We worked together while I lived in Chicago. She’s turned out to be one of my best friends and I have leaned on her so many times. I’m so thankful for our friendship. You want an easy way to find out who’s rooting for you? Take a look at who’s liked or commented on some of your recent Facebook posts. You might think I’m crazy, but take a look and think about your relationship with them. I bet if you think about it hard enough, there are plenty of people who would care about your well-being and want to help you succeed.

3. Life’s going to be OK.

This is one I need to work on more. When I start to worry, all the worst-case scenarios start coming to mind about how my world is going to come crashing down. But you know what? Those things have never happened. So when you’re stressing out and you think life’s giving you the stink eye, step away and focus your attention on something completely different, like working out or reading a book. It’s amazing how powerful attention diversion can be to our well-being.

That’s it from me. I’d love to hear some of the reasons you’re smiling and loving life today. Let me know in the comments below.

Filed Under: Life

Learning to be more grateful

March 18, 2014 By Alex Masica 7 Comments

Learn To Be More Grateful

You’re rushing out the door to work because you’re late for work. You swerve out of the driveway and push the gas pedal down so you can make that dreaded stoplight. And just as you swerve into the fast lane, somebody cuts you off, causing you to miss the light. Now you’re really late for work.

I get it. Some days, you just want to hate the world and everyone in it. I have those days, too. It’s so much easier to see the glass as half empty than full, and it’s sure as heck a lot more enjoyable to pinpoint the qualities you dislike in a person than point out everything you love.

But after a while, this becomes draining on you. Your friends know you as the person who bitches about everything and your coworkers are afraid to come ask you a question. So you realize it’s time to make a change. You set out to be more of an optimist and learn to be more grateful for the things in your life.

I came to this realization a couple of years ago. In some respects, I’m still on the journey to acceptance. Many days, I feel like it’ll be a lifelong struggle. We live in a world where it’s more of a social norm to tell someone to go to hell because they budged in line at Starbucks than to call up long-lost friends and tell them how much you miss them and wish to catch up.

When I started to think long and hard about how I could consciously change my habits and evaluate my life more positively, I came to three realizations.

It’s not them, it’s me

Yes, you read that right. Most often than not, we get angry about a situation because of our own fault, not someone else’s. While you might be quick to flash a certain finger to the driver who cut you off in traffic, it’s probably more your fault that you left the house 10 minutes late. When I started to think about problems from their origins rather than their endings, I found myself at fault nine times out of 10.

It takes energy to be more grateful

It’s crazy to type a statement like that and even more crazy to say it out loud. In the first few weeks of trying to be more positive and grateful for the people I interact with, I found that, like anything else, if I didn’t work at it and invest a decent amount of time each day into recognizing the good things, I slipped back into my old habits. So I started making a list at the end of the day and re-reading it when I got up the next day. I still do that each day. Slowly but surely, it was easier to find the happiness in the little things and the good in people.

Most people have good intentions

One of the biggest things I worked on in the first year was recognizing the good in people and their intentions. In the past, I was so, so quick to completely write off someone based on a single decision he/she made. But when I looked more objectively at situations and conversations, it’s easy to see that emotions get heated in many situations and I usually set people off long before the situation at hand. My resolution? Take more time to think before I speak, send an email, or respond to a text message. And during that time, I’d find a few things I liked about the person. You probably think I’m crazy, but it feels so good and helps to counteract a lot of negative emotions.

What does all of this mean? I’m not sure, to be honest. I just wanted to share part of this journey with you. I’m far from finding the finish line but I’m actually enjoying the time it takes to find it. Because when I look around, I see there a lot more people cheering for me and my success than I originally saw.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on gratefulness. Is it something you’re working on in your life, too? Let me know in the comments below.

Filed Under: Life

10 Apps I Currently Love

January 22, 2014 By Alex Masica 1 Comment

10 Apps I Am Loving - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

10 Apps I Currently Love

Feedly

Feedly iPhone App - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

If you’re obsessed with reading blogs like I am, you should be on Feedly. There’s probably a great debate between Bloglovin’ and Feedly (and all other feed readers, really). I think Bloglovin’ and Feedly both have their pros and cons but tend to learn more toward Feedly due to its cleaner design.

When I’m not at my computer, the app is a great way to continue to read my favorite blogs and sort them. The user interface has a little bit of a learning curve in my opinion, but once you learn the basics, it’s a great tool to have on the go.

Directr

Directr iPhone App - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

Have any of you heard of this app before? I spotted in the App Store the other week and have been having a blast seeing what people come up with. Directr lets you create movies—without time limits—by piecing videos and pictures together, and then adding text and background music. I personally haven’t made any movies yet but if you take the time to look through the feed of random videos, you’re sure to find some you love.

Temple Run 2

Temple Run 2 - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

Temple Run is probably now considered a “staple app,” meaning everyone knows about it, has the app, and has probably used it at least once. Temple Run 2 came out this past summer and offers a new adventure. I go through spurts where I play it nonstop, and I just got off one of those a few weeks ago. I prefer to play it on my iPad, but that’s just because the screen is bigger. The game is great on both your iPhone and your iPad.

OpenTable

OpenTable iPhone App - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

When I’m in a hurry and forget to book a reservation for a restaurant (especially if it’s a hot spot), OpenTable always comes to the rescue. One of the features I love about it is that it will recommend other times for a reservation if the one you chose isn’t available. You can also enable notifications, so in case you make a reservation a couple of months in advance, you won’t forget about it.

AutoTrader

AutoTrader iPhone App - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

I’ve been looking for a car recently and AutoTrader seems to be the go-to destination to finding a car in a certain area. Before I found AutoTrader, I was researching individual dealership websites, which became time consuming and exhausting. I actually prefer the iPhone app over the desktop site. Don’t try out the iPad app, though. It’s terrible.

Google Drive

Google Drive iPhone App - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

I recently started doing more with Google Docs, and Google Drive is where Google automatically stores all of those docs. It’s great to have because I can edit from pretty much any of my devices—iPhone, iPad, laptop, etc.—and since it’s stored in the cloud, everything syncs automatically. I love it for keeping random notes about blog topics, to-do lists, and for collaborating on documents with other people.

Confide

Confide iPhone App

This is a brand-new app and I think it’s really cool. Confide is the “Snapchat for the office,” as it’s being called. Essentially, you type in a message, send it to the person you want, and then the person has to slide their finger across the message for it to appear, and then disappears once the message is closed out of. It’s next to impossible to take a screenshot of the message, too, since your finger has to be touching the message in order for it to be seen.

Pocket

Pocket iPhone App - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

A friend recently introduced me to Pocket and I don’t know what I was doing before I got it. Well, actually, I do remember what I was doing, and it was going crazy. Pocket lets you save websites to read later, even offline. Pocket saves itself as an email contact and then you send an email to Pocket with the URL you want to save, and it syncs with the app. Once you open the app, your stories sync.

Pinterest

Pinterest iPhone App - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

You know, Pinterest has really upped its mobile apps over the past six months or so. I still remember Pinterest’s first iOS app and it was so clunky and buggy. But now, I love how intuitive everything is and how much easier it is to get around and share content. My only complaint is that the menu bar disappears when you start scrolling down, and it only appears when you scroll back up. If I had it my way, that menu bar wouldn’t ever disappear.

Studio Design

Studio Design iPhone App - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

Studio Design is a photo editing app that lets you collaborate with friends on edits. It includes all the standard photo app features: filters, text, cropping, etc. What’s cool about it is that you add to your image in layers, similar to Photoshop. So it’s easy to go back and make a change (read: it’s not permanent until you push Save).

So that’s my list. What’s on your “I’m totally love these apps” list these days? Give me some suggestions in the comments below!

Filed Under: Graphics, Life

Must-See Monday

January 13, 2014 By Alex Masica 1 Comment

Must-See Monday - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

This past week has been such a learning experience for me. At every extra moment I have, I’ve been reading up on bloggers and how they got started, improving my site for SEO purposes, and trying to figure out at least an initial brand standard. I’m still working on that last one.

But I have to say, I’m not sure what was holding me back all those times before as I tried to start (and sustain) a blog. One of the easiest answers I have come up with is that I simply didn’t truly know what being a blogger meant. I thought if I wrote posts, people would magically start reading. And that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I really admire a lot of bloggers for all the blood, sweat, and tears they put into their blogs in the beginning, and how they’ve been able to sustain them since then. I also am loving all the bloggers I’m starting to meet. I (somewhat) knew Erika from college and she was really the one who spoke the words on her blog that got me going on this journey. I can’t wait to meet Kara when I’m finally in Minneapolis. I feel like Amber and I are on the same wavelength about life and how we approach situations. These are just a few of the people who have made my heart warm over the past week. I can’t wait to meet even more people as I continue down this path.

I have eight posts this week for Must-See Monday. I tried picking posts that not only really spoke to me, but hopefully will speak to you, as well. Enjoy!

1. Jess Lively suggested 10 books to read to help you accomplish your New Year’s goals.

2. I can’t wait to try out iBeacons at my new job. I think they’ll really change the way I am able to market to consumers.

3. I’ll be the first to admit that my food photography and styling right now SUCKS. So sorry for those images you’ve been looking at of the turkey subs and the white chocolate chip cookies. I hope this post and others will help me improve those skills.

4. I really love me some Iowa Girl Eats. Anyone else with me? This past week, she shared what she regularly keeps stocked in her pantry, fridge, and freezer. Some of the items she listed I never would’ve thought to always keep on hand but seems genius once you think about them.

5. Pinch of Yum wrote a great article about burnout and peace.

6. Between Dreams wrote a really raw and authentic piece about things you need to let go of in our life.

7. Amber at And Yes to Joy wrote 10 wellness reminders that are good to think about and remember in your life. All of Amber’s posts make you feel so alive and great after reading them.

8. Mel and The Nectar Creative wrote a great reminder about being grateful as an entrepreneur.

So that’s my list. What was on your must-read list for the past week? Which one of the above posts spoke to you the most?

Filed Under: Life

Doing What Makes Me Happy

January 10, 2014 By Alex Masica 5 Comments

Taking Charge of My Life & Doing What Makes Me Happy - Better with Family (www.betterwithfamily.com)

I forgot to mention one thing in the post I wrote last week about my New Year’s resolutions (even though I hate that term). Well, two things actually. But I think they relate to each other.

The first is I am going to try a lot harder to be happy, and make changes in my life if I feel like I’m unhappy. Since I started being a grown up (read: after I graduated from college), I figured I’d follow the status quo and climb the corporate ladder, get a house in the suburbs, take two vacations a year, and retire with a great nest egg. For a lot of people, that’s totally fine. But after I was working, I quickly found out that route wasn’t for me (minus the great nest egg—pass that bad boy my way any time now).

Amber over at And Yes to Joy recently wrote about five things that keep you from accomplishing your goals. It’s like she wrote exactly what I was thinking. All to often, we get hung up on what’s keeping us from accomplishing our goals or making ourselves that we never actually make it to the finish line and feel better about ourselves. I’m tired of feeling that way. It’s exhausting.

So I started to make changes. I quit my job, moved back in with my parents to work at a resort, quit that job to move to New York, and now I’m moving to Minneapolis. While I like to think that I’m just following my heart in these decisions, I know I need to slow down and (this is the second thing) be OK with what I have and quit desiring “more.”

And this is where the two start to intertwine. Instead of constantly striving for more money in my job (which isn’t a bad thing), wanting a better car, a bigger apartment, and more “stuff,” I’m going to focus really hard on being happy with what I have and making sure I need something new in my life before I pursue it.

And I’m going to return to my roots, of sorts. I’m going to take more pictures, write more, cook more (I’m eyeing this cookware set since I don’t have currently have a set and I cannot wait to break them in), and nurturing the relationships with the people in my life who matter the most. At the end of the day, coming home to a bunch of glamorous, material things isn’t what’s most important, nor will it make me happy in the long run.

Kara over at As Always, Kara recently wrote a really great post about unintentionally unplugging. This is something I look forward to doing in some respect. I’m going to designate one night a week as no-Internet time. I might take time to get ahead on a blog post for the following week, write a handwritten letter to someone, or FaceTime with a friend I haven’t talked to in a while. OK, the last one might require the Internet, but at least it’s having a face-to-face, one-on-one relationship with someone and not anonymously living life behind a keyboard.

Above all else, I am going to take charge of my life. Along the way, I’m going to eliminate the things that are keeping me from being 100% happy or reaching the goals I have for myself. And I’m going to immerse myself in new things—food, events, people, activities—to broaden my horizon on life. I’m going to take risks. I might fail a few times (in fact, I’m sure I probably will more than just a few times) but it’s going to be worth it. And I encourage you to do the same.

I’m not sure how well this is going to go, or how long before I become completely discouraged by this idea (which I know is going to happen), but I’m hoping I can find the strength deep within to make it happen.

Do you find yourself always striving for “more”? Do you ever feel overwhelmed by it?

Filed Under: Life

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Hi! Welcome and nice to meet you! I'm Alex: day-time marketer, night-time recipe creator and professional Netflix watcher. I live in Minneapolis and will never turn down a piece of chocolate. Still waiting for my Fitz Phone. Welcome to the Family!
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