Last week I decided for 7 days I was going to put a little more effort into how I looked and see if it made any difference at all in my life and in what way. (see post)

I posted my pics on Instagram under the tag #alittlemoreeffort and encouraged others to play along too.

This was the first picture I posted last Friday morning.

Day One

This was the first day. It was actually the hardest day for me to get ready. I couldn’t find what I wanted to wear. I ended up not actually shaving because I realized I could wear these tights, but I found myself standing in my room with a sort of anxiety about getting dressed. It took way longer, but when I made it to work I found that I had no attention on how I looked. For whatever reason I got a lot more done that day. I don’t know if the outfit had anything to do with that, but to have a productive day on top of feeling presentable??? BONUS!!!

Day One

This was after getting home from work. I walk about two miles home and usually leave to pick up the girls in sweaty clothes, but I decided to change into jeans and put on boots. Getting ready was a little easier and took about 3 minutes.

Day Two- Saturday

On Saturday I was going to clean and take the girls to Trapeze so I threw this outfit together. It was getting easier to pull together something cute.

Saturday Night

This was Saturday Night. You can’t really tell what I am wearing, but because I was in something I felt ok in, I was willing to have Steve take my picture when Phoebe ate her FIRST EVER solid food. I am so happy that I have this shot of us.

Hike Sunday

Sunday I almost took a day off from this experiment because how the heck do you make hiking cute? It was also going to be really hot, but potentially cold because we were going to the coast. But right before we were about to leave I threw this together. Shorts I bought last month, a jean shirt and an old scarf of my moms. It worked perfect for the day.

Monday

Monday I wore much nicer pants to work which I had always avoided wearing before because they were dry clean only. This is kind of like the concept of never using your good china. I have now discovered that concept is stupid. If you are never going to use the stuff, why have it?! I only work part time, so I am only wearing the nicer pants for a few hours. They don’t really get that dirty and can go a few wears before they need to be cleaned. (Baby wipes are great for any needed spot cleaning!!) I was doing the same thing with jewelry. I was not wearing my jewelry. So I stacked on these suckers. It made typing hard, but they were oh so fun.

Monday Afternoon

This was just a little dose of reality so I didn’t get too full of myself. I was running late getting the girls and had just gotten home from my walk. I was totally sweaty because it was really hot out and had different colored socks on.

Tuesday

I voted, I wore earrings, I carried a real purse instead of a diaper bag.

On the way to an audition

I had a call back audition with all three girls for a pretty major national commercial. We didn’t get the job, bur since I had already been practicing for 6 days, getting ready was not something that was stressing me out. The audition went great!

My final day

By day 7 I felt like a dressing ninja. Getting my outfit together, plus make up and making my hair somewhat presentable was actually easy.

So I have finally, at 33, figured out how to get dressed without stress. A week of practice is all it took.

An added benefit is I actually found myself talking to people a lot more. I think because I wasn’t trying to hide in my sweatpants I had more freedom to take my attention off myself and put it on others.

What I loved most about the experiment, more than any benefit to me personally was seeing what all my friends and readers did to put #alittlemoreeffort into their look. Many awesome women posted cute pictures of outfits, new boots, make up and rad accessories they were rocking on Facebook. Twitter and Instagram. Search the hashtag on Instagram and you will see some of their cute looks!

So if you didn’t get a chance to play last week, give it a whirl. Let me know if you notice a difference.

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Jennifer Latch