Close a tab or two!

It can be so tempting to have tens of tabs open but I'm here to warn you against it! Not only can you relieve stress by closing a tab or two, you can achieve more in shorter periods of time.

From my personal experiences, I would suggest having 5-7 tabs open at maximum. After 7, it's harder to stay focused. I know it's tempting to click on links and leave each tab open as your peruse through a website or catch up on the news but this practice is not effective.

Let's think about why you clicked on the link or opened the new tab in the first place. Perhaps something caught your eye that you wanted to learn more about or perhaps you remembered that you needed to look something up. In either case, it's more effective to stay on that tab, do what you need to do, gather your information, close the tab, and move on. There's a higher chance that you will get more things done effectively this way since your focus is more....focused!

So you're reading this and you're thinking, "Really Jewel, sometimes I don't think a maximum of 7 tabs is realisitic!". Well, I agree. Sometimes you want to have access to mulitple pieces of information located on different sites. In such cases I would suggest opening new windows and maintaining the 7 tab maximum in each window. You can even organize which tabs you place in which window to keep yourself on track. If the sites are something you want to access later but don't need immediately, bookmarking each page is always a great option!

Jewel's Random TidBits - There are extensions you can add to your internet browser to help you limit your number of open tabs. Currently xTab exists for Google Chrome and Max Tabs exists for Mozilla Firefox.

Image Source: popularpaleo.com

This summer I learned a lot more about Austin. I say it so much, but it's really true that I love my city!

Austin is the perfect college city and the perfect internship city. Many of my adventures in Austin are enriched by the fact that I use the bus to travel 85% of the time. When traveling by car, there's so much you can miss. Taking the bus (or train, trolley, etc...) allows you to discover more of your city. Not only do you have more time to soak in your environment, you are more able to pinpoint local attractions that you have yet to visit.

Generally, when driving by car, you just enter your destination address into a GPS and follow directions until you arrive at your destination. That approach to navigating your city is fine and dandy for getting to interviews, appointments, and jobs on time. But, what about when you're running a simple errand or when you just want to grab a quick snack. Hopping on the bus might take you to your next favorite restaurant or help you discover a dry cleaner that's closer to your home!

Don't let the idea of hassle and frustration deter you from exploring! There are many ways to simplify using public transportation. Google Maps has an option for you to choose public transportation and your directions will be calculated using local schedules. You can also check with your city's public transportation system for an app or mobile site that will enable you to look up schedules on the go.

Think about this the next time you're bored on a Saturday morning! Take a random bus ride and discover your city!

Jewel's Random TidBits - I know public transportation routes can't always take you where you need to go exactly. Another option to help you get to know any city is ride-sharing. I did quite a bit of ride-sharing this summer so look for an upcoming post about its benefits!