Books, notebooks and planners
- Bullet journal – This year I’ve decided to do a bullet journal instead of using a traditional planner and whilst my bullet journal spreads might not be the prettiest or the most artistic I have been enjoying being able to customise my planner. I’ve set 1 main goal and 2 mini goals to work on over the next 13 weeks and I’m using the layout below from The Skinny Confidential to plan out my days.
- Planner from Matilda Moo – I like to use a separate planner for work stuff and I recently bought one from an etsy store called Matilda Moo. It’s cute, simple and definitely an upgrade from the boring grey one I used last year.
- Journal – Another amazing etsy find was this years journal from RE:Stationery, they’re so customisable and cute you can choose a small symbol to go on the front as well as the colour and there’s 5 places that you can customise with text. Plus the paper quality is really good and you can use brush pens without any bleeding.
- Kindle – a kindle is my new favourite way to read ebooks I love that I can buy endless books without them taking up physical space. Plus it’s a lot comfier to hold and read in bed.
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Time management and productivity tools
- Alarm clock – getting an actual alarm clock has been a real game changer. I used to wake up to my phone alarm and then would end up going on instagram or youtube and then just laying in bed on my phone for half an hour. But now I keep my phone in a drawer (and don’t touch it for the first hour of the day) and use an actual alarm clock to wake me up. Mine has different sounds including a bird song and chimes so no more horrible beeping noises. I also love that this one lights up and mimics a sunrise and sunset which is perfect for the dark winter mornings.
- Timer cube – this is such a handy little thing for time management. It has 15, 20, 30 & 60 minutes and is great for using the pomodora+ technique. In fact I’m using mine right now to do 30 minutes of writing.
+ If you don’t know the pomodora technique it’s basically: work for 25 minutes then take a five minute break and repeat. It’s a way of breaking down your tasks and doing shorter periods with 100% focus rather than longer periods with 75% focus.
- Forest – another great timer is the forest app. I use this a lot to keep me off my phone while I work. Plus it’s really cute, you set a timer and it plants a little tree which grows over the period of time and if you leave the app and use your phone it kills the tree. I love how the amount of trees in my forest gives me a visual of the amount of focused time I’ve had that day/week. You can also earn points to buy a range of really cute little trees and plants plus if you get 2500 points they’ll plant a real tree on your behalf.
- Freedom – Freedom is an app and Chrome extension which can be used to stop you from going on certain apps. It’s a great way to keep yourself off social media over a certain period of time. I like to use it to stop me from using my phone too much before bed.
- Google calendar – I 100% prefer google calendar to iCal. I like to see what I’ve got on in the month view rather than just a bunch of dots. Calendar blocking is a great way to plan out your day into chunks of time rather than just writing a to do list and hoping it all gets done. Decide how long each task will take and put them all on your calendar. This way you can be more realistic about what you can get done in a day.
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Mindset
- Meditation – Meditation is probably one of the best mindset tools their is. Just a few minutes a day can be game changing. I’ve tried a whole range of meditation apps and Headspace, Calm and Insight Timer are my favourites. At the minute I’ve just been using Insight Timer I do a 3 minute timer with a 10 second warm up + an interval bell after 2.5 minutes and the secret garden background noise.
- Working out – Working out is not just great for your body but for your mind as well and is a proven stress reliever. Plus I feel like a morning workout increases productivity. My favourite workouts are by Lucy Wyndham Read, I love her workouts because they’re quite short (she’s become known for her 7 minute workouts) also they’re more focused on getting fit and being healthy rather than achieving a certain body type which I love since I’m trying to work out more to be healthy rather than because I don’t like something about my body.
- Vision boards – vision boards are a great tool to get a visual look at your goals. Sometimes you have to see it to believe it. I’m very visual and I enjoy being able to see a visual reminder of everything I’m working towards plus it makes a nice piece of wall art. If you’ve never made one before you really should.
And those are a few things to help you get it together this year! I hope you enjoyed this post and head over to my instagram where I’ve been sharing a bit of motivation.
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