Ninety Days of Summer: Focus, Plan and Get Things Done

Remember when I made a vow to get my sh*t together?  Me neither, it was quite a long time ago, and after that post the subject was never brought up again on the blog. At the time, I had become acutely aware that my life wasn't as together as I wanted it to be, but I hadn't quite reached the part where I knew how to go about doing that. How does one go about getting their life together? I continued to float along in my unsatisfied uncertainty until I became so frustrated with my lack of progress that I sat down one evening and came up with a solution: I would only focus on 75 days at a time.

65 DAYS AGO

Exactly 65 days ago, as I poured my heart out into my journal, I realised that I was frustrated, overwhelmed and reaching worrying levels of anxiety because I was trying to focus on too many things at one time. I'd just come to the realisation that I needed to stop envisioning a future here in Belgium when deep down I had my heart set on moving back to England, exams were beginning to feel menacingly imminent and I was squaring my shoulders to spend hours studying a subject that I was far from passionate about (Belgian Law and I do not get on), I wasn't happy with my blog and I was still nursing a broken heart back (though luckily I had reached a bearable level of heartache and only belted out 'Someone Like You' on a weekly rather daily basis). 

It felt like there was so much to do and I didn't know where to start unraveling it all. 

So I decided to focus. Looking at my calendar, I picked the 1st July as the figurative date for the start of the Next Chapter of My Life. This gave me 75 days to focus on the things that I needed to do right now to close the Current Chapter of My Life. I wouldn't be moving until after that date, so there was no need to send myself into a spiral of unnecessary worry over whether David Cameron would even let me back into the country or if I'd find a job or a place to stay or if now was really the right time to move out. Since I wasn't planning on getting married and settled down in the next 75 days, my heart ache took a backseat and I promised myself I could go back to binge-watching Pretty Little Liars with a tub of ice cream after the 1st July if that's what I really wanted. 

I had no idea what I wanted to achieve or do when I made this decision, but I knew that I wanted to do my best and I wanted to persist until I reached the end. 

So I picked out a notebook I had in my ever-growing stash and dedicated myself to writing in that every day. A new page would signal a new day, and at the top I would write the date and how many days were left to go. As the days went along I figured out the areas I wanted to focus on, my daily priorities and the short-term goals I wanted to achieve. I'd write out a schedule for myself nearly every day, and even though most days I failed to stick to it, I still made one for the next day because all that mattered was that I gave my all each day. 

I wasn't after a specific result: I just wanted to stop feeling so aimless, feeling so overwhelmed and feeling like I wasn't giving my all to a life that I had come to realise I am truly blessed to have in the first place.

And 65 days down the line I can say that this is a method that has worked for me. Therefore I wanted to refine it, not only for myself but to be able to share it with others who might benefit from it. 

FOR EVERY THING THERE IS A SEASON

"For every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven." 

- Ecclesiastes 3:1 (KJV)

When I came across this quote, what I was doing seemed to make more sense. You don't have to be a Christian to appreciate the idea that everything we do in life has a time for it. There are times when your studies will take priorities, there are times when your work has to be a priority, times when your friends and family require your undivided attention and other times when you have to make yourself a priority above everything else. The way your priorities are arranged will always come to change, as surely as the seasons. 

This inspired me to stop my 75 days just a little bit earlier, and to use the actual seasons as markers for different phases in my life. A season is roughly 90 days long and this appealed to me because:

• 90 days is three times the time it's said to take to build a habit so any changes I made and stuck to would definitely end up becoming habits.
• 90 days is long enough to see if something is or isn't working but it's short enough not to feel like an overwhelmingly long time to plan for.
• Using the seasons means that I can use the weather or certain events to shape my days, so I'm not always lost or unprepared for upcoming events. For example, summer is the time for outdoor activities, autumn has Halloween and things like National Novel Writing Month and winter (obviously) has Christmas. This would be great not only for my personal life, but for my blogging life. 

So how exactly am I planning to go about focusing, planning and getting things done throughout these next 90 days?

NINETY DAYS OF SUMMER

You Are Not Your Negative Label

Do you ever decide that you're just too lazy to go running every day? That you're a bonafide couch potato and nothing is ever going to change that? That you're too unorganised to ever use a planner, and that productivity is something that other people possess but most definitely not you? That you're too shy to ever go out on your own and try that class that catches your eye every time it's advertised, too reserved to ever be that person who makes new friends easily? That you're a natural pessimist who could never in a million years be considered to be positive?

Do you ever take a negative quality, whether it's truly negative or perceived to be that way (by yourself or others) and decide that it's your identity? 

I did that for a long time.

At first it was a subconscious thing - parents and teachers mean well but often they don't realise that after being told you are a certain way enough times you begin to believe it. The young me wasn't a fan of cleaning her room or being interrupted during her Saturday morning cartoons (or after-school cartoons, or any time Dragonball Z was on) so I was considered messy and lazy. During parent-teacher meetings, the terms 'shy', 'quiet' and 'slow' were regularly thrown around. I quickly figured out that I could change those labels if I wanted to. I especially wasn't a fan of being labelled slow.

So I decided to work hard to get to the top of the class: I don't think I was ever labelled slow again by another teacher (except maybe my P.E. teacher). At home, I stepped up my efforts and became neater so that messy was no longer my identifying label. I'd figured out that I could change the perceptions others had of me that I perceived to be negative. But then something strange happened. As I hit my teenage years, I got it into my head that it was "cool" to be lazy, unambitious, unorganised, unpunctual, etc. I called myself an "underachieving overachiever" like it was something to be proud of. It was an...odd time in my life.

Unfortunately this habit of identifying myself by my negative qualities led me to forget that they weren't all I was about. They became a source of comfort because I had all the excuses in the world to never reach outside my comfort zone: I was too lazy to ever get into shape, I was too shy to go to this party or that event, I was too pessimistic to ever look on the bright side of life.

I remember getting really annoyed at a friend who turned around and said "You are not lazy. That's just your favourite excuse." Those words stuck with me for a long time after that. I remember I was so angry with him. I mean - how dare he tell me that I'm not lazy? Of course I'm lazy! Then one morning I woke up and realised how absurd I was being. I was fighting tooth and nail to keep my glass half empty, but why? 

I can be lazy. I can be shy. I can be pessimistic and prone to negative disaster-type thinking. I can miss the mark and not do my best. I can have days where I exhibit all of the negative qualities a person can have all at once - but that's not all I'm about. Just like I'd missed the memo about learning involving actual learning, it hadn't occurred to me that it wasn't "cool" at all to identify by my negative labels - and it was definitely time I stopped. Little eight-year-old me had figured it out once, but hey - what do kids know? So I've since started focusing on all my positive aspects and identifying and working on those, and it has made an extraordinarily difference.

If you'd told me this time last year that I would be voluntarily waking up at five a.m. in order to make sure I have time during the day to blog, exercise and journal, that I'd be volunteering at festivals and enjoying myself and that I'd have a generally positive outlook on life and a 'can do' attitude, I would have laughed in your face. Even blogging seemed inconceivable because I'd branded myself "the type of person who starts things and never finishes them". That's why it was so important for me that my word of the year be 'persistence'. My goal this year was for that to be one of the many positive qualities I can be identified by; my New Year's Resolution was to become the type of girl who keeps going, no matter what.

If you do the same, it's time to turn over a new leaf. You are not your negative qualities - you are so much more than that. You are also kind, trustworthy, loyal, fun, funny, hard working, or whatever other positive quality you also possess alongside your negative ones. Highlight those. Or if there's a quality that you admire in someone else and don't currently possess, then slowly begin to adopt that into your life. When it comes to who you are as a person, our parents were right about one thing: you can be whoever you want to be. 

The Monthly Round Up #2

BLOG

This month has been a really fun month blogging-wise. I got to work with a brand for the first time which I think is an exciting milestone for all bloggers! If you haven't already, definitely check out my The Staycation & The Dress post, a mix of summer plans and the £10/€15 dress from George@Asda you can wear pretty much everywhere. I was a little apprehensive of doing the post at first, because I would say I'm far from a fashion blogger, but I really enjoyed doing it (though it took me quite a few takes!), and the reception the post received was so much better than anything I'd hope for! 

It got me to thinking about mixing in more fashion-orientated pieces into my blog, because fashion is a part of life - we wear clothes no matter what we're doing, and it'd be fun to share with you all my love of lounge wear and pyjamas! But first, I think it's about time that I got a new camera, as I've been really frustrated with the qualities of my pictures of late. Once exams are over, the hunt for a new camera (hopefully my first DSLR! ) will begin. 

I also started setting aside time every day to spend at least half an hour commenting on blogs on my 'Bloglovin feed - and I'm really glad I did. Reading other blogs is a great source of inspiration (and a sure way to make your wishlists longer than they already are!) but I also feel like I'm getting much more out of the blogging experience by slowly becoming more involved in the community. I've also been spending a little more time on Twitter, and make an effort to schedule my tweets. I think once exams are over, I can really find a way to get into the whole social media thing. 

If you have a favourite Twitter chat you love to participate in, let me know! I'd love to join in. 

LIFE

If you hadn't guessed by this post, and this post, and this post...aaaaand this post, I've been busy revising this month as my exam session begins on the 1st June. In the spirit of doing things differently than I've done before, I made sure not to centre my entire life around revision: I'm aiming for my best this time around, not perfection (which, f.i.y. is not an attainable goal).

Other than making time for blogging and leaving the house for regular bouts of fresh air, last weekend I also attended The Cover Festival, Seneffe a local cover festival that is a pretty big deal to us locals. It's a two day festival, and the first day I was just your average attendee. Mister Cover confirmed that I do not like U2 (like, at all), Majestic Mojo & The Old Bananas taught me that swing covers are awesome and the double bass is sexier than the guitar, and Cookies & Cream made me realise that I love David Guetta and all things pop and there is nothing to be ashamed of. On the second day, I was a volunteer and I spent the day working at the entrance: I was in charge of VIP tickets and it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. VIP attendees can be quite cheeky, especially after they've already drunk someone else's drink tokens and come to claim they never got theirs! Overall it was a good two days, and I'm already planning on coming back next year and maybe volunteering at bigger festivals. Or attending them. Or both. 

I've been keeping up with exercise and I love Joanna Soh's workout videos to the point where they've actually become a reward for studying. Nothing like good intense interval cardio to make you feel alive. I also finished the Forza Multivitamins "for dieters". I wasn't impressed - but that's for another post. 

TV, MUSIC, ETC. 

I've not really been sitting down to watch television shows - I plan to binge on everything post-exams. I finish my exams on the 15th but I've been telling everyone the 17th because I don't plan on doing anything but hibernating, eating copious amounts of junk food and catching up on my favourites during those two days. (I'm not even watching Game of Thrones - can you believe it??) 

I did, however, get a Spotify Premium subscription in place of my Netflix one so I could have music to study along to and have been loving their playlists especially 'Have A Great Day' which gets me out of bed with songs and belting out 'Respect' by Aretha Franklin even if I'm half asleep or feeling cheerful about my perpetual singledom with The Supremes 'You Can't Hurry Love'. Similarly 'The Ultimate Throwback Party' has been great for in-shower listening with classics such as J-Kwon's 'Tipsy' and Shaggy's 'It Wasn't Me'. You might have noticed in my Staycation post that the 90s are having a revival in Ornella Land. 

READING

I've not really been reading anything other than my textbooks and blog posts this month. Susan Jeffers 'Feel The Fear...And Do It Anyway' has been relegated to toilet book status (before we scrolled on Twitter during that time, there were books) but it does mean that I have been getting daily doses of encouragement, however short they are. I doubt I'd have taken the opportunity to work with George or gone to the Cover Festival if I wasn't in the frame of mind to move past my fears and do them because I wanted to.

Here are the blog posts I really enjoyed this month:

Autumn Leaves | Find Your Voice 

Alzgalz | Lush Shampoo Bars 

From Roses | My Blogging Essentials  - Creative Things I Want To Learn - The Typical British Summer Outfits 

Avec Danielle | Current Favorite Blogs 

Chelsea Loves | Lush Ultrabland Cleansers
Wonderforest | How To Create Outfits From Clothes You Already Have

Ana Celine Labod | The Best of French Pharmacy

In The Frow | Never Give Up What You Love

Beautylymin | About Me, M.E., Lyme and Invisible Illnesses

What about you? What have you been up to this month? 

Also, I'd love any recommendations for first time DSLRs or on which are the best Twitter chats to join!

The Staycation & The Dress

Sometimes when all the helpful tips on getting through your revision session fail (such as these and these), you have to find other incentives to get you out bed, alert and motivated and in front of those books. Usually that incentive is a bit of (ahem, a lot of) retail therapy, but this time round, I got to thinking about what my post-exams 'I'm finally freeeee' summer activities would consist of. With a long beachy holiday not an option this year, my thoughts turned instead to the staycation: exploring and making the most of the activities my local area has to offer. It's a shame to say that I'm fairly sure the average tourist has seen more of Belgium than me and I live here. 

So I had this in mind when I got invited to participate in a campaign with British high street brand George at ASDA. I got the chance to peruse through their summer categories and pick one item which stood out to me the most, and despite the lovely array of summer brights and florals amongst their dresses, it was this black Cut-out Shoulder Dress*: it captured my heart upon sight and refused to let it go. I just knew that it would be my go to dress for the summer, and once it was in my possession, all my thoughts were confirmed and more.

While I was terrified that the light-weight stretchy fabric would cling to my pear-shaped curves in all the wrong places, it skimmed over them instead, drawing attention instead to my shoulders - which I have now come to realise are one of my best features and should be accentuated, like, all the time - and coming to a stop at a perfect wind-defying length. Plus, it fit in with all my holiday plans.

JAMMING OUT AT SUMMER FESTIVALS

Dress* | Sandals* | Watch* | Sunglasses*

Belgium may be best known for it's chocolate and waffles, but it also knows how to do music festivals. There are the big ones such as Rock Werchter, Tomorrowland, Pukkelpop and Dour, but after heading to Cover Festival, my local festival and having an absolute blast, any size will do (though next year, someone is coming with me to Dour!). 

This dress is just the right canvas for bright accessories: I can flower crown all I want, and wear these gorgeous bright floral sandals* without fear of anything clashing with anything. Sunglasses are also a must for when the sun decides to be generous and come out to play, and I loved the look of these cat-eye metal-detail pair*. I like how versatile this dress is: I can choose to go for flowy, hippy chic with this dress and wear it nice and loose or cinch it up at the waist with a pastel belt for a more structured look. 

EXPLORING THE CITY

Dress* | Shirt | Plimsolls* | Watch* |

With my final exams over, I will have absolutely no excuse not to explore all that the Belgian cities have to offer: whether it's hitting the capital and checking out an exhibition at the Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts or rubbing shoulders with tourists and locals alike at the Grand Place or heading out to the likes of Ghent, Antwerp and Bruges to drool over the beautiful medieval architecture. 

Walking around for hours calls for comfort, and these black and white plimsolls* do just the trick. A red checked shirt acts as the perfect cover up, because when it gets too hot for comfort, you can just take it off, wrap it around your waist and showcase those shoulders all whilst channelling effortless 90s chic (or so I like to think).

NATIONAL DISHES & EVENING DINNER

Dress* | Cardigan* | Flats* | Bag* | Watch* 

If I've seen little of Belgium, I'm much more familiar with the national cuisine, and there's nothing nicer in the summer than heading out for dinner with friends and family, and enjoying a delicious meal out on a terrasse. Summer in Belgium means moules-frites (mussels and fries), though I'm more inclined to go with something stodgier like boulettes à la sauce Liégoise (meatballs in a delicious, slightly sweet sauce also served with chips) or some chicken or salmon vol-au-vent. I'm also curious about waterzooi and carbonnade flamande, apparently staple dishes that I have yet to try (and I've tried snails).

It's always nice to get a little more dressed up for dinner, and this dress is elegant on its own, especially when cinched at the waist with a simple belt and paired with simple pointed black flats* (which have gorgeous crochet detailing which the pictures don't do any justice). It often gets chillier in the evenings, especially if you're sitting outside, so this jacquard fringe cardigan* is great for that, warm but not too warm, with little details that add a little something to the outfit. You can also add a snood* (as in the top picture) for a pretty and practical look. I'm never without a watch, so I love that this rose lens watch* looks good in every outfit, but looks especially classy when paired with this large tote bag*.

I honestly never understood the true power of a LBD until now: one dress, a couple of cover ups, a few accessories here and there, and my summer staycation wardrobe is sorted. 

What are your summer plans? Vacationing or staycationing? Would you pick this dress from George or would you be more inclined to go for something else? 

PS: if you're a fellow European, be sure to check out George's International Delivery page and see if they don't deliver to you as well!

*Items marked with an asterix were kindly sent to me as part of the campaign. 

Five Ways to Mentally Prepare for Your Exams

Brace yourself. Exams are coming. 

I know a lot of people (who are still in education) have already started their exams - and good luck to you lovely people - but for other June examinees like myself, time is ticking and it appears to be slipping away awfully fast. Cue panic-mode, the desperate wish for some sort of Time Turner and repeatedly asking yourself why, oh why, did you not start revising much sooner, even though if you'd started any sooner you would have started long before the course even started. All of this, as you can imagine, isn't helpful thinking. 

It took me a long time to realise that no amount of exam stress will ever be productive - instead it increases the likelihood of the "what is the point, this is a lost cause" mentality settling with the more pressure and stress and worry that I pile on. It's hard to focus on remembering the facts when you're focused on the fact that you're probably going to end up forgetting them. So this time around, I am making sure that even if I'm fairly sure that I'm not academically ready to sit the exams, I am mentally prepared to go into that examination room, head held high, and simply do my best. 

Here are five ways you can mentally prepare for your exams: 

I. Put it into perspective || Yes, exams are extremely important during the course of your academic career as your success is what allows you to progress, and doing well is also desirable for many reasons (making your family proud, giving you an end over your competitors on the job market, etc.) but guess what? Exams are also not the beginning and the end of the world. In the grand scheme of things, success or failure is only relative to a tiny area of your life, an assessment of how well you did in a certain subject at a given time and under a given set of circumstances. Remind yourself of the importance of exams at this particular point in your life, but don't hinge your entire being or self-worth on their outcome. Pass or fail, you'll still be you, and still be as awesome as you were before you looked at that piece of paper with your grades on them.

II. Exercise || Whether you get your heart pumping with a decent round of cardio or take some time to stretch out your muscles through a yoga flow, it's important to try and incorporate 20-30 minutes of exercise as often as you can manage it (even a 10-minute walk will do). Not only is exercise good for your overall health, you will feel more energised and give your stress an outlet instead of letting it drive you crazy or settle somewhere in your shoulders.

III. Get enough sleep || Ah the temptation of all nighters. Whilst I can't personally pull them (the closest I get to an all-nighter is sleeping around 2 a.m. and then waking up again at 5 a.m.), I've noticed that even the loss of a couple of hours of sleep will have a negative impact on my energy, concentration and stress levels. I'm also more likely to reach for unhealthy foods, which in turn leaves me more sluggish, which in turn affects my productivity levels. Do your best to get your 7-8 hours of sleep, sacrificing something else during the day if possible, to ensure that you get a good night's sleep and wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day. 

IV. Take a bath || I know, I know, sometimes it seems like there just isn't time to run a bath and sit there doing nothing other than relaxing, giving yourself time to breathe and pamper yourself, but trust me, you will feel better. Baths not only allow you to mentally relax, they offer your muscles a chance to release some of the tension you've been unknowingly building up as the stress of approaching exams mounts, and if you're struggling to sleep, a bath before bed with relaxing, soothing scents like lavender or chamomile will go a long way to helping you get a better night's sleep.

V. Stay positive || The things you say to yourself will affect your overall performance. Repeating to yourself every day "I'm screwed, I'm going to fail, I can't do this" is, at worst, going to end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy, and at best, going to stop you from doing your best. After all what's the point of giving all you can when you're fairly sure that you're going to fail anyway? Instead of encouraging the rising panic in your chest when faced with the looming exam date and the realisation that there just aren't enough hours in the day to ever finish going over your notes with more negativity, confront your fears and stress with words such as "I will do my best and my best will be good enough" or even something more brazen like "I am going to ace these exams" (though obviously don't tell yourself that whilst sat in front of the tv with your unopened books beside you). The subconscious is a powerful thing - you'll be surprised at the difference a slight change in your inner dialogue will make to your overall exam performance. 

How do you mentally prepare for an exam?

(PS: If you're looking for a ways to make your revision session more productive, check out this post.) 

The Perks of Being A(n Extreme) Morning Person

There's being a morning person, and then there's being a morning person. For the past couple of weeks, I've been making an effort to wake up at 5 a.m. every morning. Not because I have to (when I have to, it's so much less enjoyable), but because I want to. And I wouldn't have stuck to it as long (and be planning to stick to it permanently) if there weren't some perks to being such an early riser, and today - on what is ironically my lie-in day, for Sunday is a day of rest - I thought I'd share with you the perks of being an extreme morning person:

• You've already completed half your to-do list by the time most people are just waking up. Cue feelings of hyper-productivity, elevated motivation and just a touch of thinly-veiled self-satisfied smugness. 

• It's a daily strength workout for your willpower. If you can get up at five a.m. on the daily simply because you chose to, then you can probably do anything.

• Breakfast. You have more than enough time for it, meaning you can get all creative and savour it without having to grab and go (or just skip it all together). 

• If you're an introvert, then you're always guaranteed to have some time yourself to replenish your solitude reserve, so that when it does come to socialising later in the day it won't feel intrusive or way too much because it's been too long since you had some Alone Time. In fact, since you've been up since five doing your thang, seeing people actually feels quite nice.

• People think you're insane - in that genius-like, determined, brilliant kind of way. 

• It's a great time to get on with your creative endeavours. It feels like the rest of the world is still asleep, the sunshine is slowly filtering in and growing brighter, the smell of coffee fills the entire room and progressively perks you up, and as you get settled in you feel more inspired than you've ever been.  

• Sunday lie-ins feel absolutely glorious. And since a lie-in means getting up at 8 or 9, you've still got the whole day ahead of you. 

• You have more time to procrastinate. I can watch four episodes of Pretty Little Liars, and it's still only 9 a.m. Yeah, that's right - productive procrastination is possible.

• You have more time for everything. All the things you didn't have time for before suddenly just become a question of scheduling. Carpe Diem, right? 

What about you? Are you a morning person or a night owl? 

Five Tips For A More Productive Revision Session

As I mentioned in this post, for me May marks the beginning of an intense revision sessions before exams roll around with the month of June, and I'm doing my my best to keep my revision at optimum levels. Some days are better than others, but what's important is to not stress and beat myself up about all the things I didn't do or could have done and didn't do, but rather stay focused and determined to get to the end of this exam period having done the best that I can. 

Today I thought I'd share with you five ways I've found to have a more productive revision session. 

I. Break your time up into chunks || I've noticed that I work much better when I break down a three hour revision session into smaller chunks of anything from 30-50mins, rather than attempting to sit down in front of my books for three hours straight. Chances are my mind is going to start wandering after an hour, and instead of taking in new information, I'll be desperately hoping for the time to be over. Keep your breaks to 5-10mins between each study chunks (but no more or you risk never coming back!), and get up to to stretch your legs, maybe dance to your favourite song to get your mood back up, or reach for a nice cup of green tea to help with an energy slump. To help set your times, I recommend using the 30/30 App, which has to be one of the best productivity apps I've used to date. 

II. Start your revision in the morning || You may not be a morning person but for the sake of your revision, you are now! When you get your revision over and done with earlier in the day, it leaves you with the late afternoon and the evening to chill out rather than having to push yourself to revise when you've more than likely already used up all your reserves of motivation. Plus chances are your exams won't be at one in the morning, so being a night owl doesn't actually do you any favours! Which brings me to my next tip:

III. Make sure you get enough sleep || This is a no-brainer, so obviously it's one of the hardest things to do. I often catch myself procrastinating on going to sleep, finding a whole host of different things I just have to do before I go to bed, only to wake up the next morning still tired, groggy and in absolutely no mood to get stuck into my textbooks. If you can't get the sleep during the night, then don't be afraid to take small naps during the day and incorporate them into your revision schedule so that you're actually alert enough to take in what you're studying. If you're sat in front of your textbook falling asleep, taking a small nap is much more productive than telling yourself you've studied just because you stared at the text for the amount of time you'd set yourself.

IV. Learn the structure of your course || I have this one lecturer who since I first had him in first year when pressed for advice on how to pass his exams, had only this to give by way of advice: "Learn the table of contents". Naturally, I thought he was a little...eccentric until recently it finally clicked in my mind as to what he meant by that. When you know the structure of your course, it allows you to place information within that structure. This makes it just that bit easier to recall the information, especially when you're in the exam, sat in front of your exam paper and your mind is going blank on you. Even if you aren't able to recall the little details, you'll at least have the general framework, and usually, the more you relax, the more information your brain will give you as it remembers the connections you made between the details and the overall structure.

V. Don't give up on your hobbies || This might sound like strange revision advice but experience has taught me that nothing causes revision burnout faster than having nothing to look forward during each day other than...more revision. If, however, you schedule a coupe of hours where you take the time to do something that you enjoy or renews you, revision will feel more like something that you just happen to have to do in preparation for your exams as opposed to something that is slowly but surely taking over your life and sucking the joy and energy out of you. Remember, revision is important, but revision isn't life, and doing your best isn't about pushing yourself until you're miserable.

What are your tips for a more productive revision session?

Thoughts on Sunday | The Difficulty of Following Your Own Advice

Thoughts on Sunday is back! It's a feature that I had when I started the blog, but eventually, perhaps because I was impatient for a response, my interest faded slightly and I convinced myself that it wasn't something that I wanted as a part of euhnella. Oh, how wrong I was. It turns out I actually really missed those weekly reflections on things in life, and every Sunday since I stopped writing the feature, I've been asking myself "Why don't I bring it back?" With no reason not to, Thoughts on Sunday is officially back. 

This week, I wanted to touch on the difficulty of following your own advice. As I was scrolling through the archives, looking at my past posts on this feature, I realised I had some good advice, or at least pieces of motivational tidbits, that if applied to my life could make it just that bit easier (and hopefully those who eventually read it). So why wasn't I following any of it? It wasn't like it was some stranger who had written a post and said, 'Hey, you - go and do this' - it was me. I had actually taken the time to ponder through all of these things and processed them enough to write them out into a coherent text.

Apparently, just because it's your own advice, it doesn't make it easier to follow. Sometimes it might even make it harder, because you know what you're doing, so you think that's enough: you don't realise that implementing your own advice, more often than not, requires a change of habit, and that usually takes about thirty odd days of consciously trying to to change that habit.

It's like this: most of us know exercise of some form is good for us. Actually doing that exercise? That's something else. Similarly, putting into practise advice or motivational ideas is another step up from just knowing it, and one that's not always easy (or we conveniently forget) to take. And just like exercise, it's not something that you can think about once and put aside. The thing with advice or motivation, if you don't regularly re-contemplate them, you eventually forget that you were following them in the first place. 

Now that I've determined that it's not just about writing out these thoughts, and leaving them to one side, but now and then reminding myself of them, what useful thoughts have I had in the past?

The Monthly Round Up #1

I never realised how much I like April until recently when I fully took in the fact that the sun was now rising at time I deem acceptable and providing us with longer days full of sunnier, warmer weather that does wonders for my overall mood. I recently realised how much I love reading about what bloggers have been up to over the month (as well as their beauty favourites) when I was reading Dana Fox's from The Wonderforest Bi-Weekly Review and thought I'd try my hand at a monthly one.

BLOG

After my little hiatus, I've been getting back into the swing of blogging, which I've been really enjoying, if it is a little challenging time-wise. You don't realise just how much productivity and time-management is important until you're trying to figure out where to fit in blog planning, blog writing, social media scheduling, commenting, product research and all that lovely jazz into your day whilst also attending the last of your lectures and revising for your upcoming final exams. So far, my only solution has been to wake up earlier (a lot earlier) to give myself a few extra hours.

I also participated in my first blogger chat, which was quite a milestone for me. I'd always been nervous that I wouldn't have anything to say, my social anxiety transferring from my real-life to my online social interactions, but when Rebecca-Louise from Autumn Leaves was hosting her first Twitter chat, I just had to participate. The experience was fun, informative and a great way to connect with other bloggers, as it's not always easy to keep up with your Twitter feed. I'll definitely be looking for a way to regularly participate in Twitter blog chats.

LIFE

In the final stretch of my law degree, my life is currently fifty shades of revision. As someone who has always been a chronic 'do everything at the last minute'-er, I wanted a change from the routine panic a week before exams when I realise I underestimated the complexity of my course syllabus, and cramming weeks worth of studying into a couple of caffeine-filled hours. After all, one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the different results. So I've been trying to make sure I get a couple of hours of revision in every day instead, taking it at an easy, steady pace. With my exams starting on the 1st June though, I'm going to stepping up the pace in May, but hopefully avoid any and all panic and frenzy.

This month I've also been making a conscious to add exercise to my daily routine, mainly for the endorphins. I really enjoy doing Yoga With Adrienne when I feel like I need to wind down at the end of the day as well as give my body a lovely, deep stretch, but my wrists unfortunately don't agree with daily downward dogs. I recently discovered Joanna Soh's Youtube videos, and I have fallen in love - so much that they make up the bulk of my work out routine. If you're looking for fun, effective cardio interval-based workouts, then I would highly recommend Joanna.

To supplement this increase in activity, as well as my dairy-free, low-carb diet, I've also been taking the Forza Multivitamins for Dieters I got from this month's Lookfantastic Beauty Box. However much the name irks me, multivitamins are multivitamins. 

TV, MUSIC, ETC.

Netflix is a very dangerous for a student needing to focus. With the Easter break meaning I wasn't travelling to uni, so didn't have as much need for Spotify, so I swapped it for a Netflix subscription instead. The series which would win Most Binge-Watched Award would have to be Pretty Little Liars. I wasn't expecting to get into it as much as I did, but apparently there's something very intriguing about watching four young women from a small-town being terrorised by the mysterious 'A', who is never, ever who you suspect they'll be. I think the series finale of this show will rank up there with Friends and How I Met Your Mother. 

I am also a big fan of the Netflix Originals. House of Cards is a gritty political drama that had me gripped during the first two seasons, but the last season got a little too gritty for me. Daredevil also surprised me. I had no intention of watching it, but after hearing so many people raving about it, I checked it out and the next thing I knew it was three in the morning. There are perhaps a few too many action scenes for my liking, but it's one of those shows where there's a little something for everyone. 

Oh, and Game of Thrones is back, so that's self-explanatory ;)

READING

It annoys me that when my revision increases my time for reading decreases. I've been re-reading Feel The Fear...And Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers, which is a great book if you find yourself being held back in life by your fears. I really like it as an overall personal development book, but as I start thinking of what I want to do after university, it's helping me to see past my worries of failure and realise that I hold the tools for success.

I've also been trying to be a lot better with keeping up with my blog reading, though Bloglovin' likes to mockingly inform me there are a thousand odd posts I still haven't read. This month I liked these posts: 

A Little Boat Sailing | An Ode To Soap and Glory

A Little Opulent | The Creative CV

That Grace Girl | Best for Brows Prep & Care

A Beautiful Mess  | Elsie's Home Tour 

Autumn Leaves | Blog News & Top Content Creation Tools

Dizzybrunette | The Product That Stops Your Make Up Going Cakey

Being Erica | Update on dating

Emilade DIY | No Crease Hair Ties

What about you? What have you been up to this month? 

Forza Multivitamin for dieters

Meet Forza Multivitamin for Dieters. I received them in this month's lookfantastic box. I have a multitude of issues with the marketing aspect of these vitamins. They're specifically targeted at dieters, it's specifically tailored towards women, and there is a tad too much pink for me not to be dubious. I don't think the capsules needed to be pink. There's nothing wrong with pink, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the overall underlining message. 

My feelings towards the dieting industry aside, these are 30 capsules of multivitamins that are intended to ensure that you have enough nutrients when you're "maintaining a reduced calorie intake, avoiding certain food groups and increasing your level of physical activity". As I'm lactose-intolerant, I eat minimal amounts of dairy (I'm hoping to eventually cut it out), I'm also lowering my carb intake to transition into a Dukan/Paleo-type diet and I've recently started working out 5-6 time a week - so these vitamins actually sound like they'd be good for me. 

I like the fact that they contain 100% of the recommended allowance for biotin, as its the supplement I usually take for my hair and nails. I've also been feeling fatigued lately, so hopefully the 5 B vitamins will help with my energy levels. The supplements also come with a useful little booklet with healthy recipes, exercise tips, motivational quotes and a diet journal template. There's also an interesting FAQ section at the back with questions such as "I really struggle for motivation. What can I do to improve this?" and "I have started exercising regularly, but I'm actually gaining weight?".

I'll be taking these vitamins for the next 30 days and let you know if I notice a difference in the way that I feel. I'm doubtful that they're much different from any decent multivitamin you can pick up, but I will admit that sometimes when you're on a diet or changing your diet, it can help to have products specifically geared for that (or claim to be) just to keep motivated. 

If you like the sound of the vitamins you can get the vitamins from:

UK residents: Forza Supplements Website | £7.49

International: Lookfantastic | €10.41 

Do you take multivitamins?

6 things I've learned in 6 months of blogging

euhnella has been on the blogosphere for 6 months today! Yay! To think that six months ago today, was the day I finally gathered up enough courage to finally launch myself into something I'd been thinking about doing for at least six years. As someone who had a lot of false starts, I'm glad I've stuck to my word of the year and stuck with it, even when I have days where I think 'what the hell am I doing?'. Here are six things I've learned so far on my blogging journey:

I. To thine own self be true. Like seriously. This is a piece of advice that appears everywhere and will continue to appear everywhere in blogging advice until the end of Internet time, because it's important, and it's true, and you should always bear it in mind. So, of course, my natural inclination is to ignore it. When you first start a blog, it's usually because you've been inspired by others who have done amazing things with their online space and you want to do something similar. In all the uncertainty of finding yourself, it can be easy to compare yourself and want to be like the bloggers you admire and forget that what needs to be developed is your own voice. I do this all the time, and it leads me to feeling like my writing isn't my own, like my blog isn't my own, and doubt what I'm doing, and I'm sure I'm not the only baby blogger out there who feels like that. 

II. The niche thing is actually pretty important. When I first started out blogging and was reading the 'how to set up a successful blog' articles we know we're all drawn to, the word niche kept coming up. I understood what they meant by niche - finding your one area of 'expertise' that you're known for, narrowing down what you blog about specifically within a bigger domain - but I didn't get why it was so important when I just wanted to blog about beauty and lifestyle. How do you niche that? It's taking me 6 months to realise that what they really mean is: know exactly what you're blogging about, and narrow it down to a few precise categories that you can eventually be known for, and also make your life a whole lot easier because your blog has focus. That's what the niche thing is about: focus. And focus is pretty important in the grand scheme of things, and it also helps your posts, and you, not feel so all over the place. 

III. Not having a lot of readers in the beginning is a good thing. I go through phases where I worry about my readership size and my follower count, but at the six month mark, it worries me less and less. The more I read and discover about blogging, the more I want to adjust things, and so I'm forever changing up my content, sprucing up my layout or trying out different blogging styles and features, and whilst doing that my blog is all over the place. I'm trying to figure out what my niche/focus is going to be, and that seems to require a lot of trial-and-error. And it feels a lot better to trial-and-error knowing that at most about 50 people a month are seeing those errors. It's less pressure, and I think pressure and perfectionism are some of the things that kill potentially great blogs. Which leads me to:

IV. Blogging is a great way to beat the perfectionist bug. I am a perfectionist by nature, and sometimes the worst kind, because I rarely jump into an endeavour where I feel I won't get to be a perfectionist. There is no such thing as a perfect blogger. Aiming for high follower count won't necessarily mean that your content and reader interaction is at that same level; churning out daily high-quality content won't guarantee that people are reading it; being great at social media won't promise that you're also good at understanding what makes up a great blog. Being a good blogger means being a good all-rounder, and working at things that don't necessarily come naturally come to you but are needed in your blog, so you have to say goodbye to perfectionist inclinations. It's just not going to happen. I've come to see that it's just one of those things where you have to give it your best for that day, and wake up the next day and try and do better, rather than trying to be perfect. This mentality has definitely spread to other areas of my life, which I'm grateful for.

V. It requires self-discipline. I've come to realise that if you want to eventually have a successful blog, no matter what your definition of success is, it requires regular hard work. Even if you only blog once a week, you need to have that blog post up every week so that at the end of the year you can say 'look at these 52 posts I put that I'm proud of', and for those 52 posts to go up, you need to write them. And sitting down to write can sometimes prove to be the hardest thing, especially since most of us are also studying, working and/or trying to have a life alongside blogging, so dragging yourself in front of the laptop, and doing all the work that goes behind a blog post when all you want to do is curl up with a good book or your favourite show on Netflix, requires a lot of self-discipline.

VI. Community is a big part of it. I know this may seem obvious, but in the transition from only being a blog reader to being a blogger, I seemed to forget that you don't stop being one because you're the other. It's true that the time you spent reading blogs is suddenly for writing blog posts, but no blogger is an island. I think it's really easy to forget when you start blogging, since I do it all the time, that to really be part of the blogging community, you have to be active. I love it when bloggers share their favourite bloggers or give a round up of their favourite articles that week, or seeing how bloggers interact with each other on Twitter, and it's definitely one of the things I want to improve on as I think it'd not only improve my blog, but the blogging experience as a whole.

Now to actually listen to my own advice for once, and put these things into practise so that I can continue to grow euhnella in the blog I've always dreamed of. 

What's one thing you've learned about blogging? 

GYST: To Know Is To Learn

Ever since I declared that I needed to get my sh*t together, I have been trying to wrap my mind around what that means to me exactly. Now I've set my intention, I have to figure out all the pesky details, because as much as I love it as a life motto "Be like Beyoncé" is just not specific enough. 

Truth is, I haven't got a clue what it means to me to have my sh*t together. Well, I do in a way since otherwise I wouldn't feel the need to "get it together" in the first place, but at the same time, it is a very vague notion in my mind, and as we all know, when it comes to sorting out your life, vague is bad. I can't achieve something if a) I don't know what it is that I am aiming towards and b) I don't know the steps that are needed in order for me to get there. 

I do know however, that like with most things in life, there isn't one, all-encompassing answer. Not only do we all have differing ideas as to what a person who has their sh*t together looks like, there's the the fact that there are different areas in our own individual life that need to be addressed. For example, I would say that I have got my sh*t together when it comes to sleeping, and I don't mean the number of hours I spend in bed, but rather the quality. Thanks to the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock, I can track my sleep, and make changes to ensure that the average 6-7 hours I spend in bed are the best (plus it wakes you up in your lightest sleep phase before the alarm goes off so you don't have a shock awakening in the middle of a deep juicy dream - I highly recommend!). 

It's a shame that I have yet to reach that level of quality in other areas of my life. 

The thing is, I didn't know about the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock until Tasha Green mentioned it in one of her favourites videos; I learned about it, figured out how to use it, and then used that to improve an area of my life that at the time didn't realise was really important for my overall health. I'm not entirely sure what other specific areas that I need to improve or how or where to start so I'm going to start by learning. The only way to know something you didn't know before is to learn about it, and thankfully for me, there are countless books, blogs, videos and other resources available authored by people who might provide me with ideas. 

So that's what I'm going to: I'm going to hit Google and search for books that might seem helpful, discover blogs on various topics that seem applicable to me, find videos by people who are going or have gone through similar things. I'm going to do as much research as I can so that I am armed and prepared to make the necessary changes. 

You know what they say: to get one's sh*t together, one must first know what that sh*t is. 

Do you have any books, blogs, resources that have inspired you to get your life in order? I would love to hear any recommendations!

A risk not worth taking.

There are some risks in life that are worth taking. One risk that isn't is: risking losing all of your documents, files and images because you didn't back them up. Now, if you're one of those ultra-sensible people who regularly back up to content of their electronic devices to secondary electronic devices for storage purposes or to the Cloud, then this post is probably not for you. However, if you're like me and when you're prompted to back up files you relegate it to the all-elusive later, then heed my warning and BACK YOUR THINGS UP. NOW. OR AT YOUR EARLIEST POSSIBLE MOMENT.

Trust me on this - it is absolutely worth the few extra moments it'll take to regularly do so because the risk you run in not doing so is much more annoying. My laptop gave up on me a couple of days ago (it was quite old in PC years - it was coming up to its fourth birthday) and it took with it the majority of my files. And to make matters worse, this wasn't the first time it had happened. I had to reset it to factory settings a couple of months ago losing a lot of files along the way and I still didn't get into the habit of backing up documents. And its not just with my PC - I've had multiple scares about losing everything on my phone after its had a misshap with tea, andyet I didn't back them up regularly.

I have learnt my lesson now though as I realise that losing all of my documents, photos and files isn't a risk I have to take. Here's what I'm currently using to minimise this risk:

An external hardrive || This is old-school but it works. The fact that I own an external hardrive shows that I have good intentions...that I never put into practise. I recently swapped out my old external hard-drive that weighed more than my laptop for a smaller Toshiba Canvio 1TB model. It's well-worth the investment, and once I get my hands on a new laptop, you can be sure I'll be setting an alarm to back things up on a weekly basis. 

Dropbox || Dropbox and I are en route to becoming very good friends. Dropbox is a cloud storage system that provides you with 2GB of storage (that can be upgraded to 1TB if you subscribe). What I like is that you can access it from all your devices, and their Carousel app, which is specifically designed for phone photos, allows me to back up all my pictures and access them without having to go through iTunes (which is very useful when you don't have a laptop).

Microsoft One Drive || I have a Microsoft Surface 2 which means that most of everything I do is connected to my Outlook account. Whilst this has a great deal of disadvantages, the advantage is that my files on there are easily saved to the Microsoft One Drive. One Drive is similar to Dropbox but gives you 15GB instead. Google Drive would be a great alternative if you're not an Outlook person, also offering 15GB of space for free.

Evernote || The only lesson I learnt from the first time my laptop went AWOL was that writing blog posts on a cloud-based program would be much safer than writing down ideas in Word Documents. As a result I started writing my blog posts in Evernote. Their new interface makes it much easier to use, and they even have a distraction-free full screen which is great for any type of writing. What I really like is that because you can get the Evernote app on your phone, when I'm on the go and get a sudden flash of inspiration, I can write it directly into the app, and I'll be able to consult it on a laptop later or on my tablet. You get a 60 MB monthly allowance, and it's comparatively much cheaper to upgrade to Premium at just €40 a year. 

I cannot stress the importance of backing up your things as someone who has spent the past couple of days despondently wondering why I didn't shift over to the Cloud or regularly back up everything up earlier.

How do you back up your work or avoid the risk of losing everything on your laptop or phone?