Productivity hacks: getting the most out of your day

It’s easy to be overwhelmed these days. Our schedules are busier and busier and I for one am a total advocate for people being able to work from home. Think about it, the amount of time we all waste commuting to and from work is ridiculous. Especially if the work is office work and you’re stuck at your computer all day. I personally don’t see the benefit of having people all sit in an office to do their work. I mean, I get that it can be misused and I know there are people out there who are stupid enough to do that, but imagine the productivity from staff if you said, “hey guess what…you don’t need to be losing 3-4 hours daily travelling to work.” I can guarantee you that the masses will be much less stressed and have better opportunities to spend the money required for commuting, fuel, tyres maintenance and parking fees (and the odd speeding fine) on better things.

I mean, it isn’t revolutionary you know. If you want to help reduce household debt issues, don’t force people to drive into work to physically sit at a desk. Everyone has phone, laptops and tablets these days – digital and online security is ridiculously well encrypted and large companies and government agencies have some of the best protection going.

But I digress. I get so fired up about this topic. Obviously there are many professions that require people to be on site, and that’s fine, but if you want to make a difference to not only people, but communities, local councils, road ways, traffic, house hold debt and affordability, guess what, let people work from home where they aren’t congesting the roads, causing accidents, driving tired or other such nonsense. It’s such a simple answer to a question that affects so many facets of our lives.

So considering this, and considering all the extra time you use throughout the day that you don’t have control over, it’s important to be able to schedule our days in order to get the most out of what time we do have. This blog spends some decent time going through productivity, making lists, being more efficient and developing habits and routines. It’s important to be able to manage your life this way, but also not be so strict that you don’t have any fun or down time.

I’ve discussed this before – the importance of making lists, writing in your diary and planning tasks/action is really important especially when you have a lot of things to get to. But some organisational hacks work better than others, so let’s see if we can identify these and implement these into our lives:

1. Use effective tools to helps you manage your time and productivity. There are apps out there these days for time management, social media management, saving articles offline and even those who remember and create new passwords (think LastPass). Many of them are cross platform and have a variety of login options, meaning you can manage your personal, small business or online personas as you see fit! (Buffer, Pocket, Evernote, Wunderlist and StumbleUpon are some that I use for these tasks).
2. Implement the 2-minute rule: the notion is that if it takes less than two minutes to do, complete it immediately. If it is a short task such as responding to an email or meeting request, getting these small tasks done feels very productive and encourages you to have better insight for larger tasks.
3. Get used to planning and try to implement it every day to encourage your next day work to have a head start. Think of certain recipes you make that require a day or two of prep or planning. When you know you’re going to make those items, you put in the ground work to ensure you have all the ingredients, resting time, etc are in place so that your recipe doesn’t fail. The same applies for work tasks – if you know your boss wants a proposal by a certain day and you need to do specific work to it or for it, make sure you nurture that project daily, put in your stakeholder meetings and requests, do your research and write your notes. You never know when, randomly, an emergency meeting will be called or you might have to discuss your preliminary findings with other senior staff. Happens in my profession all the time, but I never go to a meeting with a senior stakeholder not knowing my shit.
4. Have realistic goals in achievable chunks that you can work towards each day.
5. Develop good habits. This includes developing ways of filing things in your brain or in your work station so you can turn back to them, respond to them, provide additional advice on, etc.
6. Turn off your alerts, remove white noise and give yourself time to just work. Dedicate small chunks of time where you do not look at your phone, put yourself on do not disturb and don’t open social media or any other browser. Just work steadily for that space of time to ensure you get some quality work done.
7. If you’re a meeting manager/leader: reduce your meeting times to 15-30 minutes. Be short and snappy and concise and get to the point. There is no need to waste valuable working time in excessive meetings.
8. Don’t get in over your head, or do work that’s excessive or not relevant. And don’t be afraid to say no.
9. Use lost hours to catch up. I have a massive commute every day for work and I utilise that time to catch up on my podcasts. When I get to work, I have a half hour before my shift starts which I use to update my work and personal diaries, plan the week, do some reflection exercises and make lists of tasks that need to be completed.
10. Introduce scheduling where possible. For example, if you spend a certain amount of time managing your finances with regular transfers, see if you can automate some of them. This will automatically send your money where you need it to, saving you time in the process. It might not be a lot of time, but it’s still something you don’t have to remember to do, as it is being automatically done.

What productivity hacks do you use to make your day flow better?

How to get your groove back in 3 quick steps.

I’ve been sick. In fact, I’ve never been so sick as I was recently. It was the flu on every performance enhancing drug known to mankind and I was its victim. Feverish, sweaty and viral, I lost 10 days or so from work and was quarantined at home because the doctors had no clue what it was. No medicine, and lots of tests. Thankfully, I am feeling a hell of a lot better, still a little meh…but better than I felt the last couple of weeks.

With that body aching lethargy also came the loss of incentive, an increase in sickly procrastination and just general lack of groove. I’ve planned nothing for my blog, haven’t done any writing or image prep, and have a bucketload of cleaning and chores to catch up on. I haven’t even updated my journal which has been instrumental of late in giving me time to reflect daily on things, and make actionable lists. Today in fact, I listened to a new podcast Simplify, and in one of the episodes they spoke with a gent called David Allen all about productivity. He said something which really stood out. I’m paraphrasing here, but he said something like grab a pen and paper, and write shit down. Don’t try and be a hero remembering everything when you have so many tools at your disposal to make notes and references for yourself. He basically said we lose our creativity as we try and cram so many little projects and ideas into our head alongside the mundane.

I like that analogy, and found it made me think of my own memory keeping abilities. It has helped so much having a journal to jot ideas and thoughts into and I found I can always reflect back on it later for context.

So now that my sick has mostly gone and I have a little more pep in my step, how do I get my groove back?

1. Spend some time writing down all your chores, errands, activities and goals for the week, give yourself the time to get back into a schedule and plan some productive action. Being able to check things off a list will show progress and make you feel a sense of achievement.

2. Give yourself me time to go out into nature. Go for a walk with the dog, take some random photographs and just get some of your equilibrium back. When you’re sick or otherwise ungrooved it’s because the candle has been previously burning slowly at both ends, equally and peacefully making its way to the middle. When something knocks you about, the candle tips fiercely and suddenly you are completely unbalanced. Basically, feed both left and right sides of your brain so that your relative and logical sides can flourish.

3. Google groove and you will see many infographics on “girl power” songs or “summer dance hits”…the last clue? Put some of your fave music on and do something that will make you really happy. It sounds simple, but its really true. There’s no point in trying to be productive, or creative or groove like if you’re in an endless funk. Take some true time out for yourself and do something that will give you joy. For me, I spend time with my animals, listen to my favorite songs or watch a movie like The Help or Steel Magnolia’s that makes me cry and laugh all at once. Remind yourself you’re real, and you’re here, and put a smile on your face.

So now that we’ve covered that and the week has ended, what are your tips for getting your groove back? It has to be full proof, tried and tested!

Wasted energy, focus and the basics of habit formation

We don’t often think about wasted energy, and to be honest, the only reason I’ve been confronted with it is because my weightlifting coach is always reprimanding me for getting upset when I fail a lift, or continue to do a bad habit I am trying to stop. I often get pissed off or cuss at the bar or crack the shits right under my breath and all he says is, “walk away, walk away”.

And so many times I say the same thing to him – but I can lift it. And he says to me, ‘’it’s not about you lifting it, it’s about the way you’re approaching it.’ Without fail I walk away, frustrated, squeezing my hands and kicking out my legs and when I come back, something happens…. I’m focused. I’m in my head giving myself steps, number 1, do this. Number 2, do this, number 3, do this….and as I go through these steps I also have in the background the other habits I’m trying to break – don’t wiggle your toes, heels into the ground, elbows up, elbows not on knees (failed lift), push with your legs, get off your tippy toes…..all of these little things which might seem ridiculous are actually things that I currently do in a variety of situations for my lifts. Part of it is habit formation I need to break, and part of it is learning and implementing these new motor skills to help make breaking those habits, easier.

Think about what happens when you have clarity and focus comapred to when you don’t. Things seem blurry, like bokeh pictures from a digital camera. You can see the shapes, but you rub your eyes because it’s all a little bit fuzzy. Now think about when you have clarity, and things seem sharp, in focus, achievable and reachable. This all happens when we have that momentary break from that focus, when something fails. Wasted energy is energy that hasn’t been applied to where you want it to, so essentially, by blowing up or getting upset, you now use that energy to cuss and carry on, instead of doing what you intended. This messes up your focus, clarity, planning and habit formation in a variety of ways.

I can’t recall now which podcast episode it was, but there was recently one I listened to about habit formation. It basically said that it’s very difficult to break old habits, almost impossible. But the way that we as humans have learnt to do this or do something similar is by learning a new habit (there was a specific reference in the podcast to addiction treatment). By learning a new habit our motor skills are fleshed out and doing something new. Think about when you first start some type of new training. I’ll use weightlifting as an example. When you first do the snatch and clean and jerk movements, it is the strangest feeling. You don’t know how your body is supposed to react, you don’t know whether your body is doing a strange movement or not. And then you work through your first program and soon enough, the motions and the positions become more comfortable, so that by the time you’re facing your second program, you are now defining those steps and breaking them down to ensure that each fragment of the lift is the best it can be. By the time you’re inching closer to your third program, (so 3-4 months has already passed), you can now identify sections where you need work or help, or when you fail a lift. All of this is important in developing your skillset, but also in the formation and learning of new habits.

I did an open source search on the phrase wasted energy and failed to find anything relating to self-help or self-progression where wasted energy was better identified. All of the first few search pages identified wasted energy as actual electrical energy and how electrical devices waste energy, but only one 2014 Yahoo! Answers search stated it as the following:

“A wasted energy is an energy which is transformed without significant use…”

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred from one form to another or moved. Energy that is wasted, like the heat energy from an electric lamp, does not disappear. Instead, it is transferred into the surroundings and spreads out so much that it becomes very difficult to do anything useful with it.”

(Search reference: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140101175502AARVxu8)

Think about instances where you get frustrated, upset or annoyed and instead of just walking away and using a few spare minutes to refocus, you probably keep hacking away at whatever it is you’re doing, getting more and more frustrated. Happens to me all the time. So what’s the solution, and how do we learn to move past this?

Only today I purchased the book “Focus” by Daniel Goleman, so I can come back and revise this. His specific examples of refocusing however, can be found here, at the mindful.org post he did in 2015. However, this is what I’ve been doing to stop the wasted energy flux and have the ability to refocus on my task:

1. Stop and think about what you’re doing. Actually witness the action play out like a movie so you can observe what it is that is upsetting you. Use your ability to analyse the situation quickly, and identify your trigger point.
2. Now that you’ve found the source, minimize it. Make it small, make it change color, make it diffuse. Do whatever it is you need to, to remove that issue.
3. Give yourself some breathing space and do some of your own self soothing or self meditation. For me, I find just walking, pacing has always been my thing. My late grandfather used to do it, my dad does it, and I do it. Somehow pacing lets me count, and the count is like a background noise, or a beat, like a heartbeat that I can start numbering off.
4. Work back through what failed – for example, in the weightlifting example I gave, it might have been a failed lift. Go back and revisit the lift and see what it is you messed up. By doing this, you play it out visually, and can make the change where the issue was in the first place. Think of it like those time travel movies, where they show them going back and changing that one thing that changes the course of nature, and of the future. You sort of do the same, but it allows you to rectify the problem for the next go.
5. Go back to counting – and count your way through the steps. Break down your action – this is what I do first, this is what I do second, this is what I do third…
6. Re-attempt the action or activity, and you will find not only are you focused, but you’ve also planned steps, and are self aware of what you need to do to break the habit, or break the activity from occurring again.

Now that we’ve spoken about wasted energy, refocusing, and a little bit about habits, what do you do when confronted with situations like this? Have you found certain methods help, and others don’t?

Coming up: habit formation and habit foundations, and hopefully some downloadables for your journals!

Until then.

Time, is on my side, yes it is

Gah! A little late in last week’s posting! So there are a few reasons why but rather than get too much into it, I wanted to outline what I will do, because as a result of being late for last week’s post some new things have popped up which I think are really exciting!

First: I’m working on an LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) meal plan for my mum. I made her a 7-day meal plan and am halfway through calculating the macros. And then I thought, this would actually be an AWESOME free downloadable I could provide for the site, since it fits into the theme of living a fitology life. So keep posted for that because I will hopefully have it done within the next few days and as a result, I need to possibly add an LCHF page, or a recipes page, or a something page to the site. I’m still thinking, but I would really like to incorporate some of the LCHF stuff I’m doing to thatfitologylife. I also would like a space where I can update specifically about that, without it affecting the rest of the site. I want it to be a standalone but connected endeavor.

Also, I really wanted to review the documentary movie “The Magic Pill”. So I will link to that when I’ve written it because I wanted to make sure I covered all the important elements off. I think everyone needs to see it.

Another thing I’ve been thinking of lately is making a suite of downloadables I use often. I always talk about productivity, habit formation, motivation and goal setting, yet haven’t materialized any of that formally. So I am working on a suite of organizational tools for download or to be included in your existing planners and diaries. And, it will be FREE!

In other news, the ducks are settling in really well. We calculated that they’re about 7 weeks old and I think the fact that there was 4 of them ensured they weren’t picked on by the chooks. They LOVE bathing in their little tub and no wonder the water gets so dirty! They jump in with dirty feet and splash around. Hey, if it works for them, it works for me. So far they’ve been very low maintenance and incredibly intelligent. By the first day at home they already knew where the house was and where the food was, and now they know when I come home from work usually means they can be let out of their yard (they have half an acre) to fossick around. It’s like they’ve been around for ages. We don’t know their sexes yet, but are eagerly waiting for them to mature a little bit so we can see if we’re going to have a layer or two.

I’m also trying to develop a network on G+, Pinterest and Instagram and that is proving much trickier than I originally thought. So, as per last weeks post about boycotting Facebook and Twitter, I need to find new ways to reach readers and so I’m trying to get involved in other networks for new blogs, group boards on Pinterest, in guest posting and other collaborations. I don’t want to lose time by doing nothing, but I’m also trying to do things about branding and marketing whilst learning, about branding and marketing…There’s a whole suite of apps and sites that have been recommended to me, and it’s just about scheduling time to review them and learn the basics of how to use them. The other thing with this is, when it comes to using scheduling apps for posting, I also then need to make some original image content because I don’t want to just use something that someone else is doing. So, finding the time to cover off a bunch of tasks on blogging day ends up being an entire day and then I always miss something.

Sometimes I wish I could do this full-time for a good like, 6 or 12 months or something so I could really kick it off and make it viable without being intrusive or using overt advertising to make money. When it comes to blogging one thing that really resonates with me so far is how much people talk about it being a full-time gig. Like, it isn’t just a random thing. Well it could be an entirely random thing, but when you have it in mind that you want to share your views and thoughts and message to the world then it becomes something you’re really passionate about. Ideally, I’d love for it to be viable enough to supplement income. So if you want a blog like that, you need to be able to invest a good chunk of hours to blogging, to making original content, research and writing and some marketing, promotion and branding. And all of that plus working full-time can be overwhelming. It’s about finding the right balance and I haven’t found the correct combination for me….yet.

I did also mention last week about wanting to talk about wasted energy. I wanted to dedicate at least a post on this, as it resonates a lot with what I learn from my weightlifting coach right now, so I won’t tackle that today. But I will make sure to link through to it when done.

And with that…I must go. I’m starting to feel the early stages of the flu (which I thought I could beat this year, but, that seems unlikely) and still have afternoon errands to run. Luckily for me though, I got to work out of another office today and my travel time was reduced to an hour return trip as opposed to 3-4 hour trip from my normal workplace. Definitely something to negotiate about with my boss. But I just wanted to give an update, and provide a landing page of sorts for some link throughs to new posts I will be doing this week.

Until then!

p.s No music list today. But I was thinking to have an active playlist feature on the sidebar too….so many ideas in my brain right now!

Important life lesson learnt recently

Those that have been reading my blog have heard numerous times across my writing about my experiences of the year, so for the sake of the regular readers I won’t rehash them. But this year I went through quite a shakeup in work related matters and it wasn’t for the best and unfortunately it tipped my world upside down. I have felt for the longest time that I wasted this year and that all the work I did to get to this point has been in vain.

You may also know that I’ve started reading a lot about personal psychology, critical thinking and self-development. Because of this, the one greatest message so far that I’ve taken from the experience of 2016 for me personally has been the notion that I am in charge of my own destiny and fate.

Let’s dissect this a little because this will help explain what I have learnt about life and what this blog post is about.

• I’ve learnt that I am in charge of my destiny, my actions, my habits and behaviours, my choices, my feelings and experiences.
• Therefore, I am in charge of doing something about my negative situations by changing my perception of my experience. Instead of thinking and dwelling on ‘how I have wasted’ 2016, I needed to think about ‘what lessons I learnt’.
• My motto in life has always been, ‘everything happens for a reason’ and I forgot that motto. But, everything does happen for a reason. I wouldn’t be sitting here right now writing this blog post if I didn’t experience the events of this year. My life would’ve been on a different path.
• There are no mistakes and failures. Everything is a stepping stone, something you have learnt.
• Despite many setbacks, I never gave up. I broke down, I cried, I felt sorry for myself, I closed myself in my room, watched Youtube videos and didn’t speak to anyone for two days, but after I did all that, I got straight back up and tried again. You are not a failure for continuing to try, you are only a ‘failure’ if you give-up when you don’t get it the first time. So, I haven’t failed this year – I’ve just proven to myself that no-one and nothing can knock me down because I can pull myself straight back up.
• I am mentally stronger than I perceive myself to be. I am also pretty physically strong. I am getting stronger.
• There is a lesson to be learned in every experience. I haven’t wasted this year, nor have I failed this year. I’ve just learnt more about where I want to be, what I want to do, and what achievements I need to give me the career satisfaction I crave.
• Habits can be changed.
• Behaviours can be learned.
• ALWAYS trust your gut…and lastly,
• I am a hell of a lot smarter and more talented than I give myself credit for. My self belief needs to be better, but I need to learn to stop doubting myself and my abilities. I need to stop letting stupid people think they have power over me.

When I first sat down to write this I thought, hell, I haven’t learnt anything that monumental. But writing it down just exemplifies this entire concept of personal growth and change whereby, you have the cognitive ability to self-reflect and realise that no time is wasted. Just because something doesn’t go your way doesn’t mean you’ve wasted that as an opportunity. Everything is a learning experience, a new opportunity, a new path.

What have you managed to learn about yourself, about life, about your career? How has this changed your outlook?

Blog writing process: 5 steps I take when researching and drafting a post

I’m no expert. But I do know how to write, albeit that which I normally am accustomed to writing is quite technical written analyses and assessments for work. So blogging for me has been that foray into thinking a little more creatively. I’m all open for pushing myself creatively right now because I feel that is an element of my life that is lacking.

Some things are easier to write about than others. So some things will flow right out of you and you won’t need to do much to it. Sometimes it flows so well that you write half a novel and realise people are either coming to your blog for something snappy and witty or something more serious so you need to review what you’ve written to make sure you are not straying from your subject matter. This is an important factor to consider when you do pick a blog post topic because you need to make sure your post is either going to maintain your existing readership or garner new ones. You don’t want to be losing readers because you’re fluffing about and getting too wordy (which I am totally guilty of!)

Here are 5 steps I take when researching and drafting a post:

1. Get into your blogging zone! I prefer to put some music on in the background, grab a coffee and some food. This time needs to be dedicated just for you and your blog, so if possible, make sure you have no distractions.
2. When writing down post ideas and planning theme weeks, I often group like type topics together so that I can research many things in one sitting. If you still work full time and have a household to manage, you don’t have a lot of time to spend on research (but this is a critical thing to do). Use a brainstorming technique like visual plotting. (template to follow)
3. Research your topic: review other blog posts and blog types like your own. I also use an app called Bloglovin’ which is phenomenal for managing and monitoring trends in the blogosphere (you do this by subscribing to a feed of blogs and blog posts you like). Make note of hot topics, buzz words, keyword usage, linked topics of discussion, mediums used to convey the message and the type of response the other author is getting about the topic.
4. Plan your blog post: set-up a simple word template (or if you prefer hand writing) that outlines a plan for how you will write and topics you will discuss. This is much more important for large posts or posts that will be part of a series. It also helps keeps you on track and in many instances identifies opportunities for follow up or series type posts with linked topics. ***I am currently developing some free templates on blog post planning and will provide them when available.
5. Just write down what it is you want in your first draft. When you finish, look at formatting. Make sure you use a word processor for this to do spell and grammar checks. It also helps if something else comes up and you need to stop working, you have the ability to save your work and come back to it. It also helps you plan your scheduled posts.

What techniques or planning do you use when drafting posts? Let me know your ideas J

Fitness Fitology 2: 5 tips to buying used gym equipment

Some of you may know that I recently made my own home gym setup. I was looking for items that had multiple use, but that were also sturdy, good quality with the ability to modify the weight range (using plate weights). I was lucky when I stumbled across my find because it has been excellent in allowing me to continue my workout almost the same as if I was still at the gym, bar a few machines here and there which I’m simply doing alternate exercises for.

Before we get into the gear, lets review the top 5 tips for buying used gym gear (which should be applied to any 2nd hand purchase).

1: Buy 2nd hand commercial where available, or a really good quality home gym version. Don’t buy those all in one gyms that are made from flimsy material that carry minimal amount of weight on there.

2: Don’t be afraid of rust. You’ll find this on a lot of dumbbells and plate weights. Surface rust is easily cleaned with bicarb soda and vinegar.

3: Buy plate weights second hand. In Australia, 2nd hand plate weights are going for about $1.50-$2 per kilo. New weights are priced at about $4-5. Significant price difference. Also, don’t be tempted to stock up on 2.5kg because they’re cheap.

4: Visually inspect all items before purchase. Make sure all moving items on the machine (i.e cable) work well or if they’re close to being replaced, can be easily replaced.

5: Make sure your machines have replaceable parts whether from the original manufacturer or from the hardware store. Cables can be expensive!

(L to R: Bench press, Force USA Functional Trainer, bench) Not in this image: cable cross over machine as it was still on the trailer waiting to be moved.

Here is a list of the items I purchased, where I purchased them from, and the purpose I purchased them for.

The machines I sourced included:

Force USA functional trainer which is a Smith machine with pec dec, lat pulldown cable, tricep cable, seated row plate and bench with a section for preacher curls, hamstring curls and leg extensions. RRP about $1500 AUD – My price second-hand: $400 off Gumtree.

Cable cross over with low and high cables, and approx. 100kgs on both sides. Chin up bar in the middle. Purchased second hand off Gumtree for $230.

Bench press with rack, Olympic bar and barbell with some plate weights. Purchased approx. 8 years ago and never used. Bench has a section for preacher curls. Purchased brand new for about $800.

1-25kg dumbbell set with rack and 2x 25kg plate weights. Seller had two auctions on ebay ($390 on the DB rack and $60 on the plate weights). He had no bids so I emailed him and offered $400 for both auctions and we made a deal.

Boxing bag (not in picture) – bartered for a sewing table with a friend. His mum had better use of the table then I did because I needed something larger for making blankets.

Jigsaw mats (pack of 27) – ebay China $29.89 Link

Folding exercise floor mat – ebay AU $46.58 Link

Ankle strap (d-ring) – ebay China $3.70 Link

Tricep/Bicep rope cable (two handles) – ebay AU $21.99 Link

Barbell squat bar protection – ebay China $9.98 Link

Set 4x heavy duty resistance bands from Light to Extra heavy – ebay China $10.88 Link

Low weight speed jump-rope – Ebay AU $12.95 Link

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So there you have it! Have you made your own home gym setup? How did you go about it? Like, share, comment and stay tuned for daily blog posts on thatfitologyllife.com Fitness Week Series!

10 things I learnt about Pinterest (and why I still use it!)

Let’s face it, we’ve all been there. We’ve all been subject to the Pinterest frenzy, when you first stumble across it or your friend introduces you to it, it suddenly becomes the most brilliant idea you’ve ever thought of.

We’ve also all seen those posts (namely through Reddit) where people post expectation versus reality type comparison images of something they’ve seen on Pinterest and tried to replicate and that has miserably failed.

Despite that, I still love Pinterest and love using it to manage theme boards and plot my own creativity. It’s not saying that I need to 1 for 1 replicate something seen on Pinterest, but more often than not I am able to come up with my own ideas about how I want something (i.e a reno, cake decoration, sewing project, etc).

Here are 10 things I learnt about Pinterest (but still keep using it!)

1. Some people are just way more creative than me. Some people aren’t, and that is totally fine.
2. Pinterest does an excellent job at creative mood boarding. I like being able to save things for review later.
3. I dislike the number of adverts when you try to open another blog or page through the inbuilt web browser. Because of this, I don’t often click through to blogs.
4. The world of photography is a beautiful thing.
5. Infographics are totally an excellent way to convey information on how to.
6. Pinterest is a great source of inspiration and motivation.
7. Pin It buttons are fabulous for blogs, especially when the post is picture heavy (like a recipe or example of how to do something) because you can choose which image you’d like saved to your board.
8. Reviewing early pins or boards I haven’t pinned to in a while is a lot of fun! It helps remind me what mind space I was in at the time and how I’ve grown since.
9. Pretty imagery and typography are always better received than poor quality variants.
10. It’s a very easy way to consume a few spare hours if you have them.

You can follow my Pinterest boards from the Home page link. Now, I probably should go back to whatever housewifey thing I was doing before…

3 things I struggle with as a new blogger: Part 1

I’m only new to the blog world, and to be honest it has been a bit of a journey to see whether or not this medium is suitable for me. Of course it is, (how silly of me to think otherwise!) because whilst I love cameras and photography, I don’t like videography, so vlogging may not be viable for me. I also love listening to podcasts, but my voice sounds horrendous recorded so I wouldn’t want to expose others to my weird tone. I perform better with written word; I can say more and I can say it more thoroughly then when I try to speak it. I’ve always been that way.

For today’s post I wanted to look at the things I struggle with as a new blogger because undoubtedly, it doesn’t matter which point we are at in this journey, we’ve all gone through these emotions at some point. Part 1 looks at fear and change. Part 2 will look at finding inspiration and part 3 will be consistency.

Fear & Change

We’ve all been down this path before, well, those of us on the journey to make life easier. I see making my life easier by starting a blog – starting a following of likeminded individuals who want to live a fitology life. Not being bound by conformism and modern day constraints…

Let’s just clarify my take on modern day constraints though…I’m one of those people who wants to be completely removed from the world, living on like 500 acres out in the bush, with quietness and serenity all around, having my own garden, and chooks, and some cows in the paddocks, but I totally want high speed internet connected to my house. I’m one of those people who hates other people’s noise, but don’t mind my own.

I’ve been researching MBTI personality types lately and I seem to qualify as an INTJ – it was the first time ever I’d read something that made complete and utter sense to the way I do things and the way I have always done things, even as a kid. The description above it seems, is something that is very much an INTJ trait, and I am totally okay with that.

So in my attempt to be a non-conforming, individual with my own rules and limitations, I don’t want to be tied down by typical constraints. I am sick of being a sheep, following the same path as everyone else to go to my 9-5 job every day, being stuck in traffic, wearing pooncy business attire with neat hair. That is so not me, and never has been. I don’t want to fit the mould like everybody else and I don’t want to follow the same societal rules as everyone else.

I want to be able to sleep in if I want, and not have to race around in the morning getting ready for work to go and sit in my car for an hour stuck in traffic to then work my ass off all day to finish and again sit in the car for an hour and be stuck in traffic. I don’t want to pay for parking. I don’t want to pay for lunch. I don’t want to be stressed because I have to be in the office with a complete fucking moron I can’t stand but have to be nice to because if I’m not then it isn’t okay. I don’t want to lose so much time commuting for bullshit reasons and wearing clothes that are so damn uncomfortable…

What I do want is to wake up, with messed hair and my pyjamas, a steaming cup of my own coffee with my own organic milk from the local farm and sit at the breakfast bar eating my own chook eggs and my dad’s homemade triple smoked bacon. I then want to go and write, all day, write and write and write (which I kind of do as a job anyway, just it’s much more technical) – I want to be creative, think outside the square and feel like I am being myself. I want to be able to take a break midway through and chuck a load of washing on, pick-up more eggs from the chooks and put my gym gear on so I can use my at home gym for a workout.

Surely life must be this easy? Surely there are people who have this experience and can live this life? The hardest thing I think is to not have that fear to move into a new direction which I so totally do. I’m fearful of not making enough money, of not being able to utilise my university qualifications I worked my ass off for in my new job and of not being successful enough. I don’t need to be a millionaire, but I do want to be an equal contributor to my household and I am afraid that by taking the leap into the unknown I will stuff it up.

As a new blogger, this is definitely my biggest struggle. I so want to branch out and do something else that is defined by me (and not Agencies, corporations or others in executive positions).

What are some of your tips for making this transition? And those who have, how did it work for you?

Topic 7: Best motivational blogs

This week we’ve looked at many things. We’ve looked at ways to stay motivated, motivational quotes, finding inspiration, gaining success with or without motivation, things that make me happy (and things to make you happy in 5 minutes!) and how to motivate yourself on off days.

To wrap this motivational themed week up, I am going to list my favourite motivational blogs (in no particular order):

http://motivationgrid.com/

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/

http://tinybuddha.com/

http://everydaypowerblog.com/

http://www.positivityblog.com/

Thanks for staying for the ride! I hope you’ve all enjoyed this week’s content. I was lucky enough to have some time off work in which I could focus on getting the blog up to scratch post wise. After this week, I’ll aim to do one themed week per month. Remaining posts will be weekly on a Sunday, unless there’s a need to go bi-weekly.

If you have any feedback, tips, tricks, concerns or comments, please add them below.

Until then.