January 2017

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Hello everybody. It's January.. that means everyones doing their best to be fit, healthy, organised. This means less procrastination and more action. We all have these 'new year, new me' goals like.. this year i'll get all my work done and I won't get distracted. We all say these things. But how do you actually stick to it?

People often ask me "How do you do it all? Volunteer, do your assignments early, go to the gym, watch TV everynight...". I can do it because i've found a way to organise myself and make sure i'm efficient with my time.

I'm going to share some of my top tips on how I stay on track with my health, fitness and work (university work.. but work nonetheless) goals. How I keep myself organised on a day-to-day basis. Keep reading for all the deetz...

1 - Get a weekly planner

Having your week (or even month) set out in front of you in SO helpful. It really helps you to see what you have on a daily basis across the week. You can see what time you have free to fit in the relaxing stuff (Netflix, facemask, exercise...) or the stuff on your to-do list. I fill out my weekly planner at the start of the week and add things to it as the week goes on. In my 'free' time (the empty spaces in the planner) I jot down all the things on my to-do list e.g. write a blogpost, return some library books, charge my laptop - yanno, silly reminders basically so you don't end up wasting your empty time scrolling down instagram.

Takeaway: Jot down reminders and things you need to tick of your to-do list on that day. Write down any important meetings or times that you must stuck to so you can see it in one place.

2 - Now plan your day..

This is what I use my day-to-day view diary for. I will literally fill out my whole day into a schedule. Too organised? I think not. This is where I put my lectures, meetings and all the mandatory stuff that's on the weekly planner. What's different? In my diary it's more detailed. I'll have the time, the time frame, the room/place etc. On my weekly planner I just have it there in front of me so I don't forget. I will also then jot down the things on my to-do-list that I want to get done THAT DAY with a specific time-frame. I might not complete things on my weekly planner on the day I have jotted it down, so i'll schedule it in for the next day in my diary.

Takeaway: Use a diary to schedule your day in chronological order so all the scribbles and reminders on the weekly planners make more sense. A plan for your day.

3 - Give yourself a time frame

This goes on from my diary point above. Give yourself time frames for everything. This can seem a bit extreme but it's really helpful for staying on track. Some things might run over or need more time but do your best to stick to the allotted time. This really gives you a motivation to get it done. I like to tick things off when they're done and even give myself a little treat e.g. finish my coursework by 1pm and i'll make myself a cup of tea. It's a really satisfying feeling. Also, you'll soon get to grips with how to prioritise your tasks and get your timings right.

Takeaway: Prevent procrastination by giving yourself a deadline, a time-frame, a goal to work towards.

4 - Schedule exercise

You might wanna jot down 'push day', 'yoga', 'run' etc on the appropriate days on your weekly planner. Don't just write it down, that's not enough. Enter it into your diary as part of your scheduled day. Pick a time that's available to do your workout and treat it like any other appointment - unless there's a real emergency of course. A lot of people tend to ditch their workout because they forget about it, push to the end of their to-do list. Make it a priority. This also applies to your 'you time' and your facemask dates with a film. SCHEDULE IT IN.

Takeaway: Whatever health or fitness goals you have.. schedule it into your daily routine and tick it off as you go through your day.

5 - Deadlines...

I like a monthly wall planner for this or a calendar. Anything that has a little square for everyday of the month. I will jot down my deadline e.g. 'marketing presentation', '401 essay due' or 'Psych exam' with stars next to them. I will then write a little reminder on the square one week and two weeks before as a reminder of how long I have left. This helps with prioritising. Seeing it all laid out across the month is much more helpful. For me, a weekly view or daily view doesn't help to put it into perspective. Obviously as you get nearer the time you can schedule specific tasks e.g. 'work on introduction' in your weekly and daily planner.

Takeaway: Get a perspective that works for you - a month view or a list is always helpful to see this in a timeline view.

6 - Another health one.. MEAL PLAN.

On my weekly planner (or on My Fitness Pal if you're counting calories) I like to write down what food I'm eating and plan ahead for the majority of the week. This really helps so you're not panicking in the morning trying to make some food to take with you for after the meeting. If I can see that on Thursday I won't be home to make food, I can make doubles on Wednesday to take with me. This also helps reduce waste and make sure you're using up leftovers. It also helps to make sure you don't cave and go get that McDonalds on Tuesday lunch time because you 'didn't have time to make something'. This Kikki Food planner is the queen of health planning.

Takeaway: Make sure you have an idea of what you're eating for what meal and what you will need to make it. This way you can 'meal prep' and make doubles to keep yourself on track.

7 - Habits and goals

Set habits and goals for each week or bi-weekly so make sure you're doing the things you want to be doing and the things that will keep you in tip top condition e.g. sleep 8hrs per night, drink 2lr of water. This Kikki K 'Weekly goals and habits' tracker allows me to tick of my goals every day and give myself a little reward for doing it. For example my reward for 3 gym sessions this week will be a Costa coffee. It also allows me to clearly see my top 3 priorities for the week and what i need to do to achieve them (this is what i'll schedule into my daily diary).

Takeaway: Set goals and intentions for the week to prioritise what is important.

p.s. this is not a Kikki K advertisement I pinky promise. I just like their products.

I've been using:

Diary - mine is a day view from Card Factory, similar to this one from Kikki K but much cheaper.

Weekly planner - I really like this one from Not on the high street but, you can get them from most stationary/pound shops nowadays. The Zoella Stationary book is a bit too small for me but comes with a range of helpful bits.

Food, exercise and sleep planner - this is from Kikki K to keep a log of health related bits and bobs.

Monthly wall planner - At the moment I have this FREE January printable from Plainly but any monthly calendar will do.

Little tips:

Use pencil - nothing worse than having to scribble out a change of plans.
Use coloured pens to tick of certain goals or highlight certain important tasks or meetings that aren't going to change.
Check your diary daily - morning is usually best because you don't want to be thinking about it all night.
You forgot something on your to do list? Highlight it, underline it on your weekly planner or stick a sticky note somewhere you won't miss it.
Spend time going through your planner and diary - don't neglect it and worry about going OTT. It's important to ensure your organised. In the long run it will really help you stay on track and be more efficient with your time.
Habits take time to nurture so spending a month giving things a go and finding a system that works FOR YOU will be beneficial.
Put things where you're going to see them e.g. on the wall in front of your desk, a sticky on your laptop or stuck onto your fridge.

I had a random urge to write this post. I've been loving getting organised recently. My inner nerd is coming out. I've found this system: weekly planner on my desk with stuff jotted down and my diary with a more detailed schedule to really work for me. All these tips really help me to organise my life so that I can do my work, fit in my exercise and also schedule in some social or me time (or both!). It also means I never forget anything.

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You might remember that back in September I wrote my 'September Healthy Habits' post (if you don't, you might wanna go read it here!). I set myself a monthly challenge to help reduce some not-so-healthy habits and try to create some healthy(er) habits i.e. drink more green tea and less coffee :( It worked. It really helped. I really enjoyed it and it really gave me something to track on a weekly basis. Bullet journal lovers you will love this. In fact i'm doing mine on these free January bullet journal printables by Sandra at Wundertastisch using the 'habit tracker' page.

I'm not the 'new years resolution' type of gal. Instead I prefer to set myself monthly challenges to keep things new and work on things that really need working on. Setting yourself a yearly goal is far too broad. It doesn't help you to improve. Without further ado, let's get on to chatting about my health goals for January - what they are and how i'm going to achieve them...

Eat legumes 3 times a week

Legumes or beans are the perfect source of vegan protein and i'm guilty of not eating enough of them. I love myself a veggie curry but I often forget to add some kind of protein to it. This is something I shouldn't neglect since I strength train and workout on a regular basis. Protein is so important for your body and so this has to be a focus for me in January. It only involves opening a bloody tin for goodness sake.

Run a 10k

Eek this is a challenge an' half considering I don't really love to run that much (it's alright sometimes, in summer, or by the beach). But hopefully me and my flatmates will be taking part in the Wolf Run in April which is 10k + obstacles so, i'd like to be able to run a 10k quite comfortably by that point. So my aim for this month is simply to run a 10k. Send help!

Complete 5 unassisted chin ups once a week

This is something I can do, I just don't. I really want to add more pull ups into my weekly workout routine. They're such a good upper body exercise and a great addition to any workout routine. I want to practice as I used to be able to do a lot more and there's no better way to improve at them. This shouldn't be too difficult, just a nice reminder to add more compound, function moves into my workouts.

8,000 steps per DAY

This is going to be hard for me. Walking was also part of my 'September Healthy Habits' as it's something I definitely let slip. I can probably hit 6000 quite easily on a day of lectures and walking to the gym. It's the other days that will be more difficult. You know what it's like when it's cold outside and you're all warm and snuggly inside - you don't want to leave do you?!

Complete one day a week 'raw til 4' style

This is something I naturally did quite a lot on holiday. I would eat lots of fruit and smoothies for breakfast, a salad for lunch and then have a cooked dinner. I really liked how it made me feel so it's something i'd like to add into my daily life. But it's winter and I prefer warmer food like oats in winter, especially for breakfast, so once a week is enough for me (for now!).

Take some 'me' time to read 5 days a week

Yes once a day. I was guilty of not really giving myself any chill time in the latter half of 2016 and as much as the fitness/food goals above are good, mental health is also equally as important. You can't neglect your mental healthy habits. So i'm really going to try to read (a non academic book) every night before bed. It really helps me relax and switch off. That 'me time' is just so valuable. The reason I have put 5 days is because I probably won't read at weekends if my boyfriend stays over.

January goals come at meh. Let's do this *flex emoji*

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Rewinnnnndddd. Let's take a look back at the goals and challenges I set myself in mid 2016. How many did I achieve? What exactly did I do in the latter half of 2016? Well.. I enjoyed myself a damn lot. As I expressed in my 16 things in 2016 post, I had a bloody good year.

Mid-year Challenges (5 things to do before 2016 is up).

So this challenge was one thing a month. Which (if any) did I do?

Complete a MOOC - Tick! I completed a beginners Spanish course in September.

Read 'The Importance of Being Earnest ' by Oscar Wilde - also completed back in August. I actually really enjoy this play, it was a fairly light and easy to read script.

One month no refined sugar - NO! This was most definitely not achieved. I had too many nights out and trips out for food for this to happen. I really wanted to do it and still do but, I feel like you have to be super organised and prepared for it. I do eat mostly plant-based but I do like my chocolate snacks. It will be hard to give up the chocolate for a whole month :(

Read 'Lord of the Flies' - I read this in December. Someone tell me why I even bothered to. I really didn't enjoy it at all but I persevered on through anyway.

2 weeks living off the £10 a week student challenge - This was definitely a challenge and a challenge which was important to me for quite a few reasons. Firstly, the way student finance works for MSc means I have no 'living' money at all therefore keeping food costs down to a minimum is something I need to do. Secondly, I don't like food waste so keeping your budget low helps to minimise overbuying and wasting products. Thirdly, I do eat plant-based anyway so I can get a decent amount of food to last me a while (it just means no treats!). I definitely did one week of this. I tend to stock up on my toiletries and all that jazz earlier on in the year. So I find it easy to live off £10 a week if I don't go out. I am happy to drink tap water in most places and make packed lunches to take to university with me. I find it easier and so much cheaper to cook myself 3 meals a day. I hope to continue this challenge (and do a blog post on it!). £10 food shop is such a good aim and I can't wait to show you just how much you can get for it when you shop savvy.

So there we have it. I completed most of the mid-year challenges. I found that setting this challenges gave me something to do. Like instead of reading celebrity gossip magazines I was reading Oscar Wilde (lol!). Instead of splurging on my weekly food shop, I had an aim. This is something i particularly stuck with throughout the last few months of 2016. My bi-weekly food shop usually cost around £20. This is definitely something i'll stick with in 2017 and hopefully shopping this way will help me eat more whole foods and less refined sugar. Although with the amount of vegan snacks I got for christmas, I don't think a refined sugar-free month will be coming any time soon.

So what did I tick off my bucket list last year?

Camping (a very cold, rainy weekend in Chester - fun though)
Ice Bar (in Amsterdam!)
Trampolining (who knew it could be such a workout)
Started to learn Spanish (that's kinda failing now.. I need to get back on it)

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Food: The Goodness Project Unboxing!

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Life: How I Stay On Track and Juggle Food, Exercise and Work!

1 - Get a weekly planner

2 - Now plan your day..

3 - Give yourself a time frame

4 - Schedule exercise

5 - Deadlines...

6 - Another health one.. MEAL PLAN.

7 - Habits and goals

I've been using:

Little tips:

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Travel: Dublin Photo Diary!

Pubs

The Medieval Area

Street Art

Parks

Guinness Factory

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Life: January Healthy Habits!

Eat legumes 3 times a week

Run a 10k

Complete 5 unassisted chin ups once a week

8,000 steps per DAY

Complete one day a week 'raw til 4' style

Take some 'me' time to read 5 days a week

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Life: Bucket List & 2016 Mid-Year Challenges Revisited!

Mid-year Challenges (5 things to do before 2016 is up).

So what did I tick off my bucket list last year?

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