Productivity is not about doing more, it’s about effectiveness.
We have a limited amount of hours in a day. One they are gone, you can not get them back. The way that you spend your hours can be very important. That doesn’t mean that you need to stress out now though. It means that you should make a plan to get organised and productive so that you can spend your future hours more wisely.
You need to find a balance in life. Think of the yin and yang. You can only work so hard before you get burned out and you can only relax for too long before you feel sluggish. Finding balance in this is so important and it’s something that you will develop over time.
There’s a few different ways that you can build a productive system and you can start doing these things today. There’s no need to put things off anymore. Get started now.
I was reading blogs, as I spend the majority of my life doing and one of the posts that I ended up reading was Valentines Day Tag from Hey Little Tulip and it made me want to try the tag too.
Valentine’s Day has never been something that I really cared for but I’m trying to look at it more positively this year.
This year, Valentine’s Day is a day for CELEBRATING MYSELF!
1. What is your favourite Valentine’s Day treat?
Since neither me or Simon actually celebrate Valentine’s Day, I don’t have a favourite ‘treat’. Since I’m focusing on self love this Valentine’s Day, my favourite self care related treat would be eating some snacks and watching a film on Netflix.
2. Love Hearts or chocolate covered strawberries?
I do love Love Hearts but chocolate covered strawberries are the obvious choice for me here. Strawberries are my favourite food so if you add chocolate then I’m definitely going to be choosing that.
3. What is your favourite Valentines Day memory?
I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated Valentine’s Day with anyone who likes the idea of the day. Because of that, there’s not been a Valentine’s Day that particularly sticks out for me. Memory wise, an old friend of mine used to send me a Valentine’s Day card every year and I would send one to her too. It was something that we called ‘friendship day’ and it was actually really nice.
4. What film would you rather watch on Valentines Day, The Notebook or Titanic?
Both of these films are amazing but the last time that I watched The Notebook, I felt sad for about 100 years and never quite got over it. Because of that, I’ll choose Titanic because at least I won’t cry as much.
5. Meal in or Meal out on Valentines Day?
Both of these sound nice. I do like eating out and Simon and I go on a date night out at least once a month but I do love just sitting in the house with Simon, while we watch rubbish TV.
6. What would you do on your perfect Valentine’s Day date?
If I could choose absolutely anything then there’s only one obvious answer. I would be waking up in the morning after a great nights sleep in the Castle Club of the Disneyland hotel and head straight into Disneyland Paris for the day. Ending the day with a meal at Annette’s Diner too of course!
7. Red or Pink lips on Valentine’s Day?
If I’m wearing lipstick then it’s probably purple but I’ll choose red for this one.
8. What is your ideal Valentine’s Day outfit?
My ideal outfit would be a comfy, black dress with patterned tights. I always think that looks super cute!
9. Homemade or store bought gifts?
I’ve always believed that a gift with thought put into it is better than something just grabbed from a shelf. It doesn’t matter if someone bought the gift from a shop or made it with their own hands. If they put effort into the gift then it means the world to me.
10. Hair up or hair down for Valentines date?
I look like a 10 year old with my hair up so hair down of course!
What are your Valentine’s Day plans? Let me know if you do this tag too!
I’m pretty sure everyone knows Roald Dahl at this point. You have probably even come across some of his work whether it was by reading his books or just walking past them in the book shops. I’m pretty sure he is most famous for writing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and The BFG, as well as other short stories and children’s books.
He definitely did leave us with some grate tales from his imagination that helped us fuel our own, but he also taught us some very important lessons about life through his work.
Young Carers Awareness Day is an annual event, led by Carers Trust, and is taking place today.
Everyday, thousands of young people in the UK help to look after someone in their family who is ill, disabled or in a situation where they need help.
Young Carers Awareness Day is an annual event, led by Carers Trust. It raises awareness of the challenges faced by young carers and campaigns for greater support for them.
Recent research has shown that as many as one in five secondary school children may be a young carer. A lot of these children may have became a carer at a much younger age too.
Caring for someone can be isolating and stressful and it can put a lot of pressure on young people. Having so much pressure on them can negatively impact their education, have an effect on their future chances.
This is why Carers Trust want to make sure that all young carers get the help and support that they need and deserve. That is why they have launched the Count Me In! campaign.
Politicians in all UK nations can help by:
Monitoring the implementation of legislation relating to young carers, including how many young carers are identified and supported.
Make young carers count by collecting and acting upon national attendance, attainment and wellbeing data on all young carers identified by compulsory education providers.
Ensuring local authorities receive appropriate funding so they are able to fulfil their legal duties to provide young carers and help their families with the support that they need.
You can download these letters and use them as templates when writing to your MP, Member of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly Member:
Visit here for more information about the Count Me In! campaign and to download a resource pack.
Tweet your support using #YoungCarersAwarenessDay and #CountMeIn. Don’t forget to tag @CarersTrust, @CarersTrustWal or @CarersTrustScot depending on where you live.
Tweet a school, local authority or politician that you think should be getting involved with the campaign.
Write to your elected representatives to ask what they’re doing to support the campaign.
Please get involved in the campaign and help a good cause. Young carers need and deserve support and we need to help them fight for it.
I consider myself to be a part-time bullet journal user. Back in 2016, I was a hardcore bullet journal enthusiast. Now that it’s 2020, my life is getting busier and I don’t have time to make every page look beautiful and Instagram-worthy. The main thing that stopped me from using my bullet journal was that I’m not super artistic. My drawings and doodles tend to be a little bit all over the place which made me worried that I wasn’t ‘good enough’ to be part of the BuJo Community.
Anyway, now I have started to realise that each journal owner is unique. We don’t have to do things that way that all these professional planners do it. So, my mission from now on is to start using my bullet journal the way that I want to.
One of my goals for 2020 was to unlock my creative side a little more. I used to spend so much of my time drawing, painting, taking photos and writing. I miss it so much as I just felt so much more free when I was expressing myself through creativity.
As I’m trying to get back into the creative side of my brain, I thought I would make a list in my notes full of tips that would help me be more creative. While I was writing, I figured that this list could help others too so I decided to share it here on my blog.
Is your phone the first thing you reach for in the morning and the last thing you touch before bed? Do you frequently pick it up ‘just to check’, only to look up forty-five minutes later wondering where the time has gone?
If you do, then you’re like the 99% (this is not a fact, don’t quote me) of people who are also addicted to their phones. They are our life these days. They are full of all our details, plans and banking so we would be pretty messed up without them.
