Happy New Year and welcome to the next 12 months of endless possibilities! I have come to realise that making resolutions doesn't seem to work out for me. I've heard people say, 'Don't wait for the new year, start now', which is a great mindset if you're strong enough to commit to something straight away and not wait til tomorrow, or next Monday or the new year. So in order to combat this I've decided to employ a few changes (nothing wild or way out of my comfort zone and these are quite obvious things that a lot of people do anyway) that I can do on a regular basis in order to have a more semi-organised and fulfilled life. 

1. Have a daily schedule
This may sound like an easy feat right? Note down the hours in the day, add the activities you need to accomplish within those hours and stick to it... Ummm nope! Working from home with a 7 month old who is not on a schedule makes every day unpredictable and sometimes very unproductive. So how do I organise my day? I've started making notes of wake-ups, feeds, naps and playtime in order to find a pattern and then figure out the times I have available without a baby wanting all of my attention. Based on that I am creating loose itineraries of what I need to do each day. Along with the workload, there's house chores, dinner prepping and general tidy-up to add to my list. It's highly likely that some of these will be done after hours, within reason and whilst also considering rest time. Having a plan for the day where I can tick off the 'to-do's once they are done really does give a sense of accomplishment and sets me up for the following day. 

2. Declutter your space
I will admit that I am one of those people that lets things pile up over the year (hello laziness) - not anything like a full on hoarder - but instead of getting rid of items when I don't need them, I've held onto things in case there will come a day when I will use them. More often than not this doesn't happen and the box of ribbons or coloured paper or random envelopes that has been kept in the corner of my studio never gets a second look... we are all guilty at some point of doing this but I'm here to tell you, it's really not worth hanging onto. I really believe an open usable workspace make a positive change to your productivity and also your mind. There's no need to add extra frustration to your life over the things that clutter your home or office. If it hasn't been used in the last 6 months do yourself a big favour and get rid of it. Instead of going on a 'lets throw everything out' rampage once a year when it all gets a bit too much to handle, I'm now doing this on a monthly basis to ensure I have an uncluttered breathable space throughout the year.

3. Meal prepping
This doesn't seem that important however I've come to find that it saves so much time and knowing exactly what you need and sticking to your list saves money your grocery bill each week. I hate throwing away food but yes I have been guilty of this unfortunately. Being disorganised with meals sometimes leads to vegetables in the fridge going unnoticed then going off, and ending up in the bin. Shopping smarter eliminates this wastage and having a plan also stops the daily conversation of 'what are we having for dinner?'. It also mean less take out - again since having a baby this has been a common occurrence in our house. I used to love cooking and trying new recipes however lack of time has changed this dramatically and for a while we found ourselves basically eating eggs with whatever veggies we had that week... it's actually not a bad dinner but this year I'm looking forward to re-spark that love of cooking and I know that prepping once a week will allow me to accomplish that.

I could add another 5 or 6 points to this but I'm not going to overload myself this early on in the year. Trying to turn these into habits before committing to other weekly duties.

Whatever your resolutions are remember that doing little things each day is a great start and if you slip a little off schedule that's ok too, it's not a failure unless you completely give up.

Set realistic goals and good luck with it! Wishing you the best year ever, happy 2019!!!

Frankie's Girl xx 

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