“Oh, I’m Just Too Busy”

“Hey, are you free to catch up with me on the weekend?”

“Oh, sorry. I’m just too busy.”

We’ve all had that conversation, or something extremely similar. The frank reality is that it’s generally very far from the truth. Yes, maybe you have a lot on but most of us spend more time telling people we’re ‘too busy’ than actually, you know, doing the things we’re ‘busy doing’. Whilst it’s definitely vital to not overwork yourself, you shouldn’t work up a mindset that you’re always ‘too busy to do anything’ because you’ll miss out on opportunities that you’ll very likely regret missing later. We all have the same amount of hours in the day, it’s how we choose to use them that actually matters. I’m a firm believer in having wind down time, so definitely let yourself have an hour of Netflix each day, however, don’t tell somebody you’re ‘too busy’ and then proceed to watch Netflix for five hours. I myself am definitely an over-committer, I reached this conclusion when I realised I’d double booked myself for the about the tenth time, I’m not suggesting my approach, it suits me as I like being busy, however probably isn’t the healthiest approach to time management. What I am suggesting is saying yes to a few things every once in a while, go on that jog with a friend, sign up for that school club or say yes to the volunteer opportunity you’ve been wondering about. This is an approach I’ve adopted within the last year and it’s meant I’ve had some amazing opportunities to do some things I wouldn’t have generally experienced. You’re very unlikely to regret giving things a go but you will regret not taking the opportunity, and on that corny note, have a great week!

 

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The Benefits of Being Organised

Organisation. It brings me joy. Yes, I think I’m funny, yes, I know I’m not. Anyway, being organised is so important in achieving a productive lifestyle. If you’re living in a mess of a bedroom where you can’t even see the floor, you definitely won’t be prodcutive. It’s so important to keep your spaces tidy so that you don’t waste time searching for things.

There’s a few simple ways you can keep your spaces organised but it all starts with organisng your things in the first place, I love to use the bed method, which means I get everything out and put it on my bed, ready to sort through it. I go through and declutter, then place everything back in an organised way. After you’ve actually organised your space it’s very important to then keep it that way. This requires getting into the habit of putting things back were they were, do I sound like your Mum yet?

When you’re organised, everything goes smoother, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment and it will be one hundred times easier to get things done. When you’re sitting at your desk doing your math homework, it’s so much easier to quickly grab your calculator that’s sitting neatly in your drawer than search through the pile of clothes sitting on your floor, plus you’ll save so much time, which means you’ll get your work done much quicker and have more time to relax. Being organised is just so important for living an easy and productive life.

Morning Routine Habits

Majority of us can’t wake up at five am, go for a jog, do yoga and cook a whole stir fry before we head out for the day. However, there are a few simple habits that you should do every morning in order to have the best day possible!

Make your bed. It’s my opinion that a made, or rather unmade bed can make or break the overall neatness of a room, so making your bed will give your room a neater vibe. Not only does this just keep your room neat, but I believe it also gets your day off to a great start, simple things like just making your bed are so important in establishing a productive day.

Eat a good breakfast. The amount of times you’ve heard this is probably ridiculous but it’s true. Eating a healthy and sustaining breakfast will make sure you have enough energy to get everything done!

Don’t start with the phone. Don’t grab your phone the minute you wake up, wait until you’re eating your breakfast. I personally don’t have my phone in my bedroom at night but if you do, resist the temptation to grab it the second you open your eyes. Rather get up and do a few things before you check your social media feeds, this will help you feel more productive.

Drink Water! A great habit to get into is drinking a glass of water as soon as you get up, this will keep you hydrated throughout the day.

As I said before, we can’t all have the Instagram worthy ideal morning routine we’d love but these habits will certainly get your day off to a great start!

“When in doubt go to the library,”-Hermione Granger

 

 

My desk organisation

As much as this is an extremely dorky thing to say, my desk is one of my favourite places. The layout works for me and I have a colour theme that is very ‘me’, it makes me happy to sit down at my desk and this motivates me to do my work. My system may not work for everyone but here’s a simple outline of how it’s laid out.

Let me start with my desk. I have the Ikea Micke Workstation, it has so much storage space and I’d highly recommend it.

Above my desk

Above my desk is purely for aesthetic, up here I keep little decorations and knick knacks that add to the overall feel and vibe of my desk, my desk theme colour is teal so these objects go with that.

Top shelf

On the top shelf I have all my pens in acrylic organisers from MUJI, I’ve organised my pens by type of pens, for example I have all my mildliners together in one section. This system really works for me as it’s very easy to grab whatever pen you need. I also have my bullet journal down the side of the organiser because that was the best place to fit it.

Middle shelf:

The middle shelf is where I store a few things I need easy access to when at my desk. Here I store my pencil case for school, a box for my flashcards, my sprocket printer, a checklist pad, a pen pot filled with washi tapes along with a cup that contains a ruler, scissors, erasers etc.

Bottom shelf:

This shelf contains my hole punch, stapler, tape and sticky notes which are in a box.

Main desk:

My main desk is very minimal so that I have optimal room for workspace. It consists of only my alarm clock and a magnet board with a few things pinned up on it.

Drawers:

I really believe I’m not using my drawers that well for storage as I prefer to have everything I’ll need within reach but I do like to use my drawers to store extra stationery I’m not currently using such as paper and pens.

Cupboards:

My cupboards contain old school work from the previous year.

Shelves on bookshelf:

Two shelves on my bookshelf contain my binders I take to school, display files for other paper and my lever arch files I store old work in.

Hopefully this post has successfully outlined my desk organisation and has helped you in some way. I could definitely improve on how to use my cupboard and drawers for optimal storage space but oh well. Anyway, thanks for reading my blog!

“When in doubt go to the library,”-Hermione Granger

Study Sustenance

We all love food, or at least I do, whereas we don’t all love study but we could love it a little more when combining it with food. It’s important to keep yourself sustained when studying and healthy snacks are the way to do this.

My favourite snacks for studying are:

• A piece of wholemeal toast with a healthier spread such as peanut butter or vegemite
• Dried fruit; cranberries, sultanas etc.
• Nuts; my favourite are almonds but any type are fine.
• Fruit; cut up apple slices, grapes, berries etc.
• Cut up vegetable sticks; carrots, celery, cucumber. You can also pair these with a dip such as hummus.

It’s also important to keep hydrated when studying so drinking lots of water is definitely a must but a few more drink options are:

• Coffee in moderation.
• Tea, herbal teas designed for focus are good. I really like the Bright Spark Tea by Tea Tonic. Click here for a link
• Healthy smoothies full of fruit and vegetables.

When studying, it’s vital to fuel yourself with healthy foods, make sure to have everything ready to avoid breaking your focus to go get food multiple times.

“When in doubt go to the library,”-Hermione Granger

Preparing for the new school year

New year, new me? Nah, not really. New year, new pens? That’s more accurate, often the only thing that changes when the clock strikes twelve is the type of binders I’ll be using that year but oh well. Anyway, it’s only a couple of weeks until I start my next year of school and with that comes a plethora of things to organise. Thankfully for me organisation brings more joy than pain but I understand it’s not this way for everyone, so let’s get organised!

Let’s start off with planning. Write lists, lists and a few more lists. Plan what stationery you need to buy, how you want your routines to go that year and all the tasks you need to get done before school starts.

The next step is getting it done. Go stationery shopping, start following those routines and get all relevant tasks done. If you get everything organised in advance you have more time to enjoy those lasts few weeks of summer stress free.

Lastly, sort it out. Organise that stationery, fill up that pencil case, label those notebooks and premake your healthy lunches. Once this is all done you’re set and ready to ace the school year!

“When in doubt go to the library,”-Hermione Granger

 

How I Organise My Notes

I often mention organisations systems and note taking in my blog posts, so I thought I’d do a post on what my organisation system actually is. The system I’m currently using is working well, better than anything else I’ve used before so I’d definitely recommend it to someone looking for a neat and coordinated way to organise their notes and schoolwork.

I use a binder system. Just two binders, one for current classwork, basically the equivalent of having a notebook and a folder for worksheets, and one for each semester that I keep all the work for all my classes in.

My current classwork binder is a small two ring binder that I take to school everyday, I have five dividers, one for each of my four main subjects and one for paper. The way I use this binder is that I keep paper at the back, which I take my notes in and then clip into the section for the class I took them in, I do the same with worksheets, albeit not until I get home as it’s really not realistic to carry a two hole punch around all day! I keep all the notes and worksheets in my binder until we finish the topic that they’re from. I then transfer all the work into my large binder, which also has a section for every class. I basically just grab the whole stack of papers and stick them into my semester binder, which is more of a lever arch file that I keep on my desk. This system works really well because it means I have everything within easy reach when trying to find old notes and I’d definitely recommend it!.

Let me end by saying, I really, really, really love binders!

“When in doubt go to the library,”-Hermione Granger

 

A productive evening routine

After a long day all I ever want to do is binge watch Netflix but unfortunately, there’s this little thing called homework that restricts me from being the couch potato I so desperately want to be. I generally like to keep to a system (as I do with most things in my life) when trying to have a productive afternoon. My evening routine usually goes something like this.

First things first. Food. One of the first things I do when I get home from school is grab a snack and relax for a while. I like to take 30 minutes to wind down after the day and scroll through social media. It’s important to have a break between schoolwork and homework or else you’ll feel overwhelmed.

After I’ve had a snack and relaxed for a little bit I’ll head to my desk and do my homework and a little bit of daily organisation. The first thing I like to do is clip all my worksheets into my binder, I prefer not to take my hole punch to school as it’s very bulky so I do this at home. Next, I’ll go through and write a key for my notes, when trying to get information down in class I shorten everything, it’s slightly ridiculous and often I can’t tell what it means when looking back through notes, so I’ll grab a sticky note the same colour as my notes theme and write a key for what my abbreviations mean. I also add calligraphy headers to my notes if I didn’t have time to in class. Next, I’ll check my planner and see what my homework is, I like to try to do all homework on the day it’s set. Once I know what my homework is I’ll start doing it. After I’ve finished my homework I’ll study for any tests I have coming up and spend a couple of hours doing that. It usually takes me about 1-3 hours to complete this routine depending on my amount of work.

After I’ve finished all my homework I’ll usually enter the potato phase, I’d love to be able to say that I workout next but that would be a very big lie and I like to be an honest person. I like to sit down and relax by watching Netflix for a little while, It’s highly important to take a few hours out for yourself every night, especially after you’ve worked hard all day. After I finish relaxing I’ll head to bed and read for a while which is another way I love to relax.

Hopefully, this post was slightly helpful. I’m definitely not the most productive person but I like to think I’m somewhat productive anyway see you in my next post which will hopefully be sooner than this one was!

“When in doubt go to the library,”-Hermione Granger

Getting things done

Do you ever have so many things to do but absolutely no motivation to do them?Sometimes it’s just so hard to find the motivation you need to get things done, we like to pretend we’re motivated and productive but most of the time we’re just sitting on the couch watching youtube videos or reading blog posts about productivity instead of being motivated and getting things done. I’m not a motivation queen or anything but I do have some motivational tips to share with you.

Remind yourself of the final product. If you have to tidy your room envision the cleanest room ever and you’ll feel more motivated to get your room looking like that. Just remind yourself why you’re doing whatever you’re doing and you’ll be more productive.

Have some fun. It’s no fun doing jobs and hating them, you may as well make the most of it and play some music or watch a movie. If you’re organising or doing work put on your favourite tunes and incorporate a jam session into the chore, I play music everywhere and anywhere and it makes me so much more willing to do a job. If you’re folding washing or washing dishes put on a movie or your favourite TV show and have some “you time” whilst doing a job.

Take breaks. Don’t try to do everything in one day. Maybe do two large jobs a day and have rewarding breaks in between. If you spend too much time working you’ll start to hate it and have no motivation so give yourself a break, you deserve it.

Get company.  My sister and I often help each other tidy our rooms and it just makes the job so much more fun especially if you listen to music and have a cleaning party together.

If all else fails. JUST DO IT (sponsored by Nike ;), no not really) and get things done sometimes you just have to enforce some self-control and turn off the TV and do what needs doing.

Hopefully, this post helps you get things done and have some motivative productivity, I’m definitely not perfect at getting jobs done, just ask my Mum 😉 but I still try my hardest.

What are your motivation tips? Let me know in the comments below.

That’s just my taste of B’liss xx