The Container Store

I grew up in Springfield, MO where Wal-Mart is a one-stop for most of one's needs, from orange juice to trampolines. My first year at school in Manhattan, I remember feeling as if I was wasting vast amounts of my time going to separate stores for groceries and drugstore needs.

The Container Store is a place so specialized in its merchandise that it always feels to me delightfully, maddeningly Manhattan.

The Container Store is having an Organized Traveler Sale. This exactly reflected my container needs a few days ago. I went to the store, held travel-size bottles and vials and jars of various volumes in my hands, and imagined the empty spaces filled with the liquids that structure my daily routines.

Style Statement

The idea of verbalizing a "statement" to define your personal style isn't new. What's unique about Carrie & Danielle is that they're not into superficial Spice Girls labels like "Sexy," "Sporty," or "Posh" to describe your style.

Style is a broad word for Carrie & Danielle. It's the shoes you wear and your wildest dreams. It's your favorite movies and the way you organize your desktop. It's who you are and who you want to become.

This book will help you sum it all up in two words.

My style statement is at the top of this page: Sound Flow. The first word of a style statement represents your foundation; the second word represents your creative edge.

Whether I'm buying a new t-shirt or recentering myself in the middle of a busy day, I've found my style statement to be incredibly helpful in my every day life. In Sound Flow, I find affirmation, challenge, and ultimately inspiration.

It's both my aesthetic and how I tick. This blog is devoted to everything that says Sound Flow to me.

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Lucy Sun is on vacation until Monday, September 28, when regular posting will resume.

Google Profile

A Google Profile is an online calling card. A Profile links together your online presences of choice (ie. twitter, your blog) into one coherent web-identity. This can help you clean up your web-presence for college and job interviews, and it can help you start to take control of your own Google search results.

Although there are many online calling card services out there (ie. LinkedIn), Google Profile is the simplest and most viewer-friendly. I feel comfortable adding my Google Profile to the signature of my e-mails, even when addressed to friends and acquaintances, not just "networking contacts."

Plus, I prefer a life in which the line between friends and "networking contacts" can be blurry, anyway.

Laptop + Work Tote: Kenneth Cole Reaction

Junior year at my school is filled with interviews from the moment you step foot on campus.

Luckily, my little brother found me the perfect work tote.

Microfiber exterior with a convincing and durable faux-leather trim, the Kenneth Cole Laptop Tote is both practical and classy. It comes with a laptop sleeve that fits screens up to 15.4". The accents on the tote are silver in tone.

Plus, the tote was reasonably priced at my local Sam's Club. Check here for your local availability.

Sticky Note

The internet is my favorite mode of procrastination. The trouble with my work is that it often requires a computer. The trouble with the internet is that it never ends.

Enter Sticky Screen. When you need to get stuff done, you can type a simple note to yourself on the sticky note, set it as your homepage for the time being, and remind yourself to stay on the productive side of the internet, and to stay away from the dangerous abyss of facebook and lolcats.

Lijit

If you're a blogger, then Lijit is the diagnostic that you thought you needed an advertising budget to run.

Lijit is a widget that allows readers to search your blog content (mine is towards the bottom of the home page). You can see popular terms, as well as the geographic locations that your readers tune in from. Plus, you can link your Lijit to your other online presences (ie. twitter), synching them into one coherent online calling card.

wesabe

Want to know where your money goes? wesabe is the best free money flow manager on the net. Upload info on your bank accounts, cards, and cash, and wesabe gives you an ongoing summary of your income and expenditures.

wesabe is a more expansive version of mint.com. The bank options at mint are limited to large banks, while wesabe carries even my local bank (Bank Midwest).

imgfave

imgfave is delicious.com for images. Bookmark the images you like and come back to them later. It's perfect for saving design and fashion inspiration, funny images, and anything else you enjoy. Like delicious, imgfave gives you your own webpage filled with the things you've saved, so that you can share them with friends.

WARNING: imgfave can sometimes (but not always) become a stockpile of softcore porn, depending on what other users decide to "fave." Don't visit imgfave at work or with your grandparents.

imgfave is a more accessible knockoff of ffffound, the latter of which is an elite image-bookmarking website popular among professional designers. Images on ffffound tend to be a great deal more lovely than those on imgfave, but ffffound is invite-only, while anyone can start an account on imgfave.

Here's a link to my imgfave.

Internet Time Monitor

Every summer, I develop the habit of spending way too much time online. This makes going back to school rough.

I've decided to internet detox early this year. I'm starting by simply becoming aware of how much time I spend online. Over the next few days, I'll be trying out some internet time monitors:

Toggl

Tick

yaTimer

If you try these or any other timer, let me know how it goes!

MUJI

MUJI is short for "Mujirushi Ryohin," which is Japanese for "No Brand Goods." Most everything MUJI makes appeals to my personal style--not because I'm not interested in brands (they fascinate me), but because MUJI products are simple and functional, yet elegant.

The MUJI Business Card Case holds not only my business cards but also my GRE vocab cards. The case is currently on sale at the MoMA store. Not only is this case cheaper than most of the business card holders I've seen, but I just plain like this one the best.

[Yes, I have business cards. The president of the Columbia Women in Business Society somehow convinced me I needed them. So far, I haven't absolutely needed them, but they do make me feel snazzy.]

The Power of Less

Leo Babauta is the author of the popular blog Zen Habits. Leo teaches others how to become more productive and more chill at the same time. Most notably, he has great advice to offer on staying focused in an electronic age, goal-setting, and establishing lifelong habits (like exercising regularly or waking up earlier).

Leo’s new book, The Power of Less, is a compact form of the most practical advice found on Zen Habits. The book is worth borrowing from the library—even though I’ve been reading Zen Habits for months, I still learned tons from The Power of Less.

For me, the most helpful advice Leo had was on establishing habits. Leo says that most people tend to start on new resolutions with great enthusiasm, only to burn out within a month or two. Leo’s advice is to start small—very small. Even smaller than you know you’re capable of.

For example, if your goal is to exercise 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, Leo recommends starting out exercising 10 minutes a day, 3 days a week. That way, you conserve all that gung-ho new-goal energy, rather than spending it all at once. Each week, you can gradually up the ante until you’re at your goal, and it becomes a habit for life, rather than just a habit for the month of January.

Mind Maps

FreeMind excites me because it illustrates the flow of my thinking. FreeMind is open-source mind-mapping software, and the download is free.

It's going to change how I do everything--plan projects, outline papers, and study for my Game Theory class next semester.

You can open up a mind map to editing by by a team, and there are handy icons to help you prioritize items in your map.

There's even a smiley face icon to show when you're happy and you know it.

Mini Stapler

Getting a mini-stapler has added so much joy and happiness to my life.

A mini is small enough to fit in my purse, so I always have a stapler when I need one (which is often, as I'm a college student). The Swingline Tot Mini Stapler cost me less than $2, and now I'm going to wax poetic about its ingenious design. First, it uses normal-sized staples instead of those silly mini-staples that other mini-staplers use. Also, it's ergonomically-designed, with grooves on top and bottom for a thumb and forefinger to grip and staple. There's even a small staple-remover built into the bottom.

It's the simple things that make me happy.