HOW I STAY ORGANISED AND STRESS FREE

As we've entered the new year I imagine many of you, like myself, have set yourself many goals for 2017. I have to admit, organisation and time management never was one of my strongest points, considering I always had my mum nagging and reminding me of all the things I hadn't done that day. As a student, shuffling my studies, employment, finances and of course socialising isn't always a success, but since moving away and living on my own i've found what works for me to keep me organised. 

Even though I am only in class for about 9 hours out of the whole week, I still have a lot to do with the remaining hours. I invest a lot of my time cooking meals and going to the gym, I also prioritise my well-being, so I make sure I allow myself 'me time' too. So, I hope this can help you all and you can take some of these tips away with you to help you become more organised. 

Buy a diary

Buying a diary to stay organised is an obvious one, but since I've been at University my diary has been my best friend! You'd be surprised at how many people do not own a diary. As easy as it is to organise your days on your smart phones, a physical diary really makes a difference to me, especially if its a cute little number. So even if you think owning a diary that sits in your handbag is really old fashioned give it a go. Make that diary headline your stationary selection and let it be star of the show! I promise you now, if you buy smart stationary you will be more inclined to use it. 

Plan a day ahead

This is something I get really excited about doing. Every night before I go to sleep I plan out the following day. By simply writing down all the things I wish to accomplish on that day, I can see how busy I will be, make changes, and then follow that scheduled plan. This may not suit some people, especially if you have a spontaneous personality, but for someone like me who adores structure, this really seems to help!

Calendar

It goes without saying that a calendar is great for maintaining organisation, especially if you shuffle between so many agendas. As much as I find my phone calendar helpful I highly recommend buying a physical hang on your wall one too. I believe it to be so much easier to visually see what is around the corner throughout the month, it's also great when you live with multiple people as you can all contribute to the calendar with your own events, because someone is bound to forget...

Stay focused on the priority

Nowadays I never experience a day where I only have one thing to worry about, I'm constantly thinking about my next gym session, what deadlines are coming up, and my priority, when and what will I be eating next. I've learnt that worrying and thinking about all the things that do not currently matter is not going to help me at present time, otherwise I cannot truly focus. If I know I am going to be essay writing tomorrow, that is not something I need to be thinking about today.

Make a meal plan

So many people decline the idea of a meal plan, because seeing what they're going to eat over the next few days can apparently be miserable, whereas I absolutely love it! This doesn't need to be done if you are hopping on the health and fitness bandwagon, any diet and lifestyle will benefit from creating a weekly meal plan. By writing down all my meals, I can see when I'll be eating and manage my time around that, and I can also manage my finances a little better by not buying food I do not need (which happens a lot). 

Me time 

Most importantly, it is vital that you allow your self to unwind and simply chill out. If you're a person on the go, and constantly doing something, taking that little bit of time out can really help maintain focus. I'm not saying that laying in bed for hours on end watching Netflix is beneficial, but getting out of the house and doing something that you truly enjoy will make your week a whole lot better when your agenda is fully packed! A few hours out at the cinema or a lunch date with your friend could completely change that mind set.

So there we have it, a little breakdown of what I like to do to keep me organised and stress free. Please let me know what you thought about this post and comment freely, and also let me know what you do to stay organised ad stress free because I am open to experimenting! You'll be hearing from me again next week, thanks again for reading...

GOALS FOR 2017

Welcome back everyone and welcome back to me! Unfortunately me being my true forgetful self has forgotten the password to my other blog, which I loved ever so much and worked on throughout my first year of University. So you will probably notice a jump in blog posts and a jump within myself as we have now entered 2017! 

So, first of all I would love to wish you all a Happy New Year and I hope it has started off relatively well. I can honestly say I am super excited for the new year, considering I never really grasp onto the changes I hope to make. Since starting University I have noticed how quickly we are going through the years, and how much I am maturing, and the things I want in life are a little more practical than make up and an expensive handbag. 

With this being said, this post will not necessarily be a list of new years resolutions, because for some reason I have no luck with those, so lets think of these as 'achievement goals' for 2017. So here it goes... 

Savings.

I have always been an average saver, not great but i'm always trying. As I will be finishing University next summer, I really hope that I will be able to get a job in the city, but along with that, afford to live there. So as much as I love travelling and do have some plans, all the travels I want to do will have to go on pause for the moment. Realistically I hope to save around £1,500 - £2000 to add to my current ones, now that may not seem a lot within a year but on a student budget will be pretty impressive. 

Go to America.

My brother and I have always wanted to take a trip to America and we literally just booked our tickets about 3 hours ago! Due to unfortunate events on my dad's side of the family, we suggested we take a trip to California. The plan is to see family in Sacramento for a few days and then stay in LA for the remaining time, strolling down Hollywood, going to Universal Studios, and course seeing a Lakers game! I honestly cannot wait!

Internship.

I have been saying this for so long now so I hope that this year I actually go through with it. Since last October I have been an Intern for a music record label. I am enjoying myself so much there that I really want to get in as much work experience as possible during my final term of second year. I had an interview with a radio station in London and it sounds promising. I can't wait to update you all on this when the time comes!

Maintain my fitness journey.

To those who do not know me very well, my boyfriend is a fitness and health enthusiast and ever since he began, he has tried to take me along for the ride with him. I'll give myself some credit, yes I go to the gym and yes I have completely changed my eating habits however, I tend to do them in stages. I'll be great at it for two months and then give up for the next month. 2017 is the year I will make that change and I am more motivated than ever to do just so. 

University Studies.

I am not going to sugar coat this, second year has been hard. Living on my own away from my family and friends isn't the problem, unfortunately it's the studying part i'm struggling with. I've had some amazing grades but some not so great. This year I am really going to push myself so that I can secure at least, the very least, a 2:1 overall. 

Be super busy all the time.

And lastly, this will be the hardest goal to achieve. Me being a pro at procrastinating, absolutely loves laying and doing nothing with my time. This year I need to make the most of my time to be able to accomplish all my other goals. I want to be super super busy so that I am running from one thing to the next. I aspire to be one of those people that if you don't see them in class, they're either working, at the gym, studying or being productive in other ways rather than binge watching Netflix (which I am very guilty for). So wish me luck with this one.  

I hope you all enjoyed this post, I really enjoyed writing it, as it's been a while! I really hope I can write content more regularly (Be super busy all the time) and maintain this blog (I may re-post some content from my other blog for you to see here at Marnie Eden). Let me know what you think of my 2017 achievement goals and let me know what yours are too! Thanks for reading...