Productive Living: Financial Wellness, with Tamara Dias – TPW491

This week's episode features my conversation with Tamara Dias, certified financial social worker, adult learning specialist, non-profit executive director, and founder of Good Soil, talking about how financial wellness can contribute to living a life that matters. Financial wellness and productivity go hand in hand when making a life that matters I'm excited to share with you my conversation with certified financial social worker, adult learning specialist, and non-profit executive director Tamara Dias as part of our Productive Living series. Who is Tamara? Tamara is a former middle school teacher turned school principal. Her career then shifted towards being a certified financial social worker and an adult learning specialist who has twice been recognized as one of the nation's top leaders by Forbes Magazine. Her goal is to support people as they build wealth and to help them better understand money and how it works. She strives, as a former teacher, to bring that "teacher's heart" to everything she does. Tamara is also a runner who's training for her first marathon this Fall and a self-professed Peloton addict. She and her husband have been married for 7 years and live in Virginia. How Tamara got started Tamara began her career as a middle school teacher, soon transitioning into the principal. From there, she began to move her career toward helping others achieve financial wellness and health. She also founded her business Good Soil, which educates people on financial health. A typical day for Tamara Tamara's days typically start out with some kind of quiet time with her waking up early and sitting with her tea or coffee, her Bible, and a journal. She prays and uses this time to focus herself before her busy day begins. From there, Tamara heads to her home gym and gets a good workout in on her treadmill, which motivates her to begin her day. She tries to give herself a challenging workout to fuel her body and build energy for the day. She then showers, gets dressed, and begins mapping out her tasks. Her work days are usually filled with direct work, Zoom calls, and meetings. Tamara works from home the majority of the time but if she gets antsy, she will use a co-working space. She is always sure to take a minimum of a 30-minute lunch break each day with no work distractions. Tamara is not a fan of working lunches and feels this break in the day is really important, especially because she works from home. Her break is usually taken between 12:00-1:00. Around 5:00 p.m., Tamara tries to end her work day and transition to her after-work activities. Tamara is unapologetic about the time she takes for herself during the day, including her morning quiet time, her lunch break, and when she tries to end her work day. This is how she structures her days and makes time for what is important, including herself. Tamara's tips for working from home Tamara suggests you have a separate working space from your living space. It doesn't have to be a separate room or large area, but just somewhere that is solely for work purposes. She has found that when working from home, it can be easy to not set boundaries between your work life and home life. This boundary is important, though, so your home continues to be a safe and restful space for you. She also suggests that you make it a point to leave your home and get outside daily. Tamara has a co-working space she uses once a week or so. Get outside to take a walk and see other people, if only for a few minutes. These breaks can help you to clear your mind and be more focused throughout the day Productivity tools Tamara recommends Tamara juggles a lot of tasks throughout her day, between being a business owner and a non-profit executive.