Organisational Tips

I love an organisation post but the real reason I'm writing this is because I'm hoping I can talk some sense into myself in the mean time. This week has just been one of those weeks. Nothing has gone right, I'm always a step behind, I'm definitely coming down with something (Susie I'm blaming you for this, even if it wasn't you...) and to add to that, my coursework has been returned. My marks were surprisingly good for the amount of stress I had over them (but the old green eyed monster reared its head anyway). Just one of those weeks where I'm not happy with anything. I'm planning a relaxing weekend and a restart for next week. I want scheduled posts and seminar's completed. Food shopping done and maybe even some food prep too. I'm such an organised person usually so this is so unlike me! Let me share my organisational tips with you (and refresh my memory of them too).

Tip number one: PREP, PREP, PREP

The age old saying 'fail to prepare, prepare to fail' couldn't be more true. You put in the work early and it pays off. You can apply this to absolutely anything and you will feel better, more confident in what you are doing and just happy. This is a feeling I've missed this week.

Tip number two: Diaries and notebooks

This doesn't just apply to just blogging. I never really used a diary before last year but it came so in handy to manage my week and commitments. It also was great to be able to look back and know exactly what I was doing on certain days. I never really think about it but I run my blog, go to university, volunteer and belong to part of the netball society. It's a lot to balance and needs more time than it seems. Having a diary is invaluable. There is nothing worse than double booking.

Carrying a notebook is also good. Space in my bag doesn't always allow for it (damn you giant law books) but it's nice to have to scribble down extra notes and memos.

Tip number three: Time management

This one is where I've fallen down this week (and prepping to be honest). I've allowed myself to relax too many times when I should be preparing my seminars, making my lunch for tomorrow, doing washing, brainstorming blog posts (still in a real blogger's block), the list goes on. Miss Budget Beauty is my real inspiration when it comes to this one. She's a mother, works part time, has a baby, posts 3 videos a week on her beauty channel as well as managing two other channels and posts on her blog daily. Now if she has time for all that, why am I running out of time?! In one of her videos she said she gets many questions about how she does it all and it's simply that she doesn't just sit in front of the tv, she's blogging and editing during, she's making content whilst the baby sleeps. She just gets on with it (you go girl!!) and that's what I (or you even) need to do too. Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Tip number four: Lists

Lists are my god send. The satisfaction of ticking things off. Knowing what needs to be done. You can really get your creative flare on too. Prioritising things through colour coding, different lists for different things. It's perfection on paper.

Think this post has given myself a real talking too. I'm going to bed now (thank god for scheduling eh?) in the hopes to sleep off this god awful illness. I hope these tips have helped, you may (extremely likely) have heard them all before but a little reminder never hurts! Let me know your organisation tips and give me a kick up the bum in the comments!!

 

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Blogging advice #1- Being friends with friends who don't blog

I would normally have my very average, very mundane weekend to share with you today but to be blunt, last week was pooey, I intended to do work at the weekend and then spent majority of it curled up in bed, wishing the Christmas holidays had started already. I didn't want to scare you with a photo of that so I thought I'd impart some of my worldy wisdom.



 Being friends with friends who don't blog

Now it's likely that this is the norm. It's not a problem at all, but there may be the need for some adjustment/ understanding. Obviously majority of people don't blog but what I've found is, some people find it weird that YOU do. When I first started blogging, I shared it with my family only; I was proud of it and wanted to share the little achievements with them. They accepted it without question. I also told a couple of friends, if it happened to come up. The people I was most worried about finding out about it were my two oldest friends. I could imagine their reaction and although I (eventually) intended to share it with them, I was going to wait until it was a little more than just a fledgling blog.

Of course, these things never go to plan and one evening, they bought it up. I expected a bit of teasing; I am probably the least expected beauty blogger ever! I never wore make up until I was about 16 and showed very little interest in how I looked. Now of course, the teasing was in jest and my blog was still "young" so I was a quite sensitive about it, but that night I went home to my mum and told her I was going to delete it/ give it up. My mother gave me some stern words including that if I enjoyed it then for what reason am I giving it up? She was, as always, right. I love blogging, it gives me something outside of academic work and I love photographing, talking about the products and engaging with you lovely lot in the comment section.

However I think beauty blogging has a horrible stigma attached to it that it's trivial, easy and not a "real job" (for those who do it for a living). This baffles me as 1. it's anything but easy! and 2. if someone ran a food blog for a living, there wouldn't be the same reaction at all. Weird! I can understand the point that make up is hardly up there with the news but if people are interested in it, who are others to knock it?

I seem to have turned this advice post into an anecdote of my life and a rant! Bringing it back, my advice for those in a similar position to me is to talk to your friends about your blog, drop it into conversation every now and then and get them used to it. Currently, if my friends asked about my baby blog, I'd no doubt gush but apart from that, I keep it to a minimum. I can understand it's a weird thing to understand, however they're totally fine with it now they've had time to get their head around it. We all have different interests in life, blogging just happens to be mine.

I'd also like to say if you have recently started a blog but are unsure how people will react or feel disheartened, please persevere! It is so worth it when you get your blog just how you want it and people are interested in what you have to say! The time you put it in pays off!

I hope that this tiny bit of advice helps people or at least highlights that you're not alone if you've had worries about "real life" friends finding out about your blog. What advice would you give? Do you have similar worries?