Personal Essay: Corporate life, but make it ✨me✨

Part 1/3 - My desk as my mood board

Hello dear reader,

If you’ve been following me here for a while, you know that I don’t usually write personal essays, but I got inspired to write about my work-life, which is not (yet 🙏🏻) the glamorous life of a published poet. Still, I have been thinking of ways to share with you how I manage to reconcile creativity, craft and soul within the pragmatism of an office job. As you will see, it could not be fit into a poem, so here I am, diving into the uncharted waters of essay writing! ◡̈

This post is the first in a three-part series, each chapter will walk you through my corporate girl’s toolkit— the setups, personal belongings, and little habits that help me stay sane and keep poetry alive while getting paid to play the capitalism game (sadly, no heirs around here 😂).

So, today’s first chapter is called “Workspace as self-expression, my desk as my mood board”; The second one to be will be shared in the next post is “My colorful digital systems, organization as my compass”; And the third and last one, “Making room for rituals of care, only health keeps me standing”, where I’ll also wrap up and talk about why it all matters to me.

Hope you stay with me in this very cool series and get to know more about me and my little whimsical professional world! Maybe it can inspire someone’s 9-5 life to be a little softer too. 💕

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Workspace as self-expression, my desk as my mood board

Well, my job title says I’m a Finance business partner, working for one of the largest companies in the world (JBL speakers, if you’re curious. And yes, the company is very cool though the job itself can be really stressful). Anyway, my LinkedIn profile holds a degree in business administration, a postgraduate degree in accounting, several certificates and even programming skills. My office desk, though, doesn’t agree with any of that.

Impostor syndrome aside, I am a very good employee; my reports and tasks are always delivered efficiently and I’m constantly bringing improvements to the department. But how do I boost my own motivation in a corporate environment, handling countless numbers and formulas, endless meetings that could’ve been emails, and emails that could’ve been chat messages?

The answer is: ✧ art ✧.

From my physical set up to the digital one, I use every single opportunity to add it to my daily life. A pinch of sparkles here, color-coded Excel spreadsheets there, a cozy croissant mug with a blend of natural teas in my hands: The vivid aesthetic in my work routine makes it more like a personal ritual than a monotonous commitment, and I want to share it with you!

I believe you’ve read or heard about studies showing how keeping your physical space organized and clean can regulate your cortisol levels (the stress hormone), as well as supporting you to be more focused in your tasks and goals, since chaotic visual environments steal your attention, making it more difficult for you to concentrate on what really matters. Well, I’ll leave references for these studies at the end of this post in case someone is interested, but my article goes beyond the organization itself, focusing on personalizing your environment. Either working from home or having your own little corner in the office, it’s about making it more “you”. 𓍯𓂃

Since I was a kid, I’ve been a unicorn, rainbow and glitter enthusiast, and I love bringing the magic from my childhood to play adult life with me. Since I am also the main character of my professional life, it might as well feel like me. So below I’ll share a few ways I connect with my workspace, looking at and creating beautiful things, other than just accomplishing tasks.

1. My cute physical desk setup: I have a pink-purple desk organizer that holds my pens, pencils, highlighters, sticker sheets, cute page makers, work journal, amongst other things. Yes, I feed my inner child with cute office supplies. My work journal can show you all the process guides handwritten with colorful pens, important information highlighted within Post-its, and motivational cute stickers all around the pages— to make it charming, of course.

(Yes maybe I go overboard with the stationery addiction, you can try to be more ecofriendly than I am and keep it minimalist 😂).

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2. Planning as a mindfulness act: So you might be wondering if I use all this stuff, and the answer is: yes, frequently.

   I take the “planner” ritual seriously! Below is a picture of one of my planners throughout the years (it has been a tradition to me for the past 7 years). I take some time of my week to not only organize all the things I need to do, but also to design them with my style. The act of decorating it not only motivates me to keep track of my productivity but most importantly: stretches the space between my thoughts. Of course, every person has their own taste and aesthetic, but the pure act of decorating your planner/agenda might be a fun activity if you also like ✨ everything that shines ✨.

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✰ Off-topic curiosity about me #1: Not only I decorate my planner, but my personal poems-insights-everything journal is also customized with stickers, collages, glitters, cute little drawings, washi tapes, etc.

I don’t only write poetry, I handcraft and adorn it too. 💖

I already shared some photos of it on my Substack page, but if you haven’t seen and want to take a sneak peek in and out of my daily journal:

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3. A handmade manifestation tool: Now related to both my poet and finance girl life, at year end, I make a beautiful and aesthetic dream board for the next 12 months, and it’s also disposed inside my journal for easy visualization. It’s basically a collection of images, drawings and other visuals arranged together to represent my goals and dreams for professional and personal lives. It’s just so pleasant to open it on a random day and think about all the things I am working for! ❤︎

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✰ Off-topic curiosity about me #2: I also love crafting memory boxes with old magazines cut-outs, stickers and printed photos such as below. When designing those I can express all my creativity and have fun. Besides, it has real potential therapeutic benefits and the result is literally preserving memories. 💖

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4. Visual and emotional anchors: Not less important than my ✨ magic ✨ craft making, I also make sure that I have other cute and personalized belongings in my eyesight every day, such as trip’s postcards and souvenirs (to remind me of experiences that my work can afford me), polaroid’s and photo booths pictures of memorable events with family and friends (to remind me of what really matters), and of course, floral arrangements to add texture and color to my tiny and delightful physical corner in the world (which doesn’t wait for the weekend to be cool). 🌷💐🌸🌻

   

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Well, as you can see (besides that I’m a swiftie 😂), my office setup is not just where I sit every day to get tasks done, but also where I exist, feel, and remember. It’s part of a return manual to myself— where I face the childhood version of me and make her cheerful. 💖

And to wrap up the first chapter, I would like to thank you for getting this far! I’m surprised myself by how long this turned out, didn’t know if this was something people would like, but anyways I am happy that I’ve finally started this project, I’m really loving writing it.

So if you resonated with this, please let me know in the comments: Do you also personalize your environment and love keeping things organized, cute and colorful? Are you also in corporate world and if so, what do you do to keep your sanity alive?

⤑ In the next chapter I’ll delve into my digital environment: how do I make my online workspace and systems organized, structured and of course, beautiful with intention. Hope you’ll follow along and thank you again for reading it!

Remember: Corporate doesn’t have to be neutral. ✨😊

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References:

1. https://www.celf.ucla.edu/2010_conference_articles/Saxbe_Repetti_2010b.pdf

2. https://www.verywellmind.com/decluttering-our-house-to-cleanse-our-minds-5101511

3. https://lifeat.io/blog/how-your-surroundings-shape-your-productivity

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