Organisational

Positivity In My Planner

Emma-Louise Inspiration, My Life, Organisational Tags: , , , , , , , 5 Comments

I have a section in my planner dedicated to Inspiration. Part of that is everything to do with keeping me positive.

To start with I have my gratitude wheel. I have this at the front as It is my go to thing when I need a bit of a nudge in the right direction and I am feeling sorry for myself.

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After this I have my Mission Statement. This is my mission to myself for 2016.

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Next I have a list of Affirmations. I need to add some quotes to this too as I currently have them all set up in my Leuchtturm.

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I then have my top list for remaining positive. Suffering from depression means that some days are really bad days and it takes a bit more to pull myself up. I like having this list as a quick go to for ideas to try.DSC_0019

Finally I have my life goals map. This is to remind me of the things I want in life. Been positive is a must If I want to achieve even a fraction of these things. It’s always good to remind myself what it is I want and what I have to keep fighting for. This is my purpose!

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I am sure this part of my planner will continue to evolve as I find things that give me inspiration and keep my outlook on the up.

Do you have a journal or section dedicated to positivity and/or inspiration?

Thanks for reading

The Stationery Geekette x

 

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10 Tips For Positive Thinking

Emma-Louise Inspiration, My Life, Organisational Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

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There are many different ways in which people remain positive and they may differ from person to person. These tips are things which I have found help me personally and I am hoping that they may help you even if it is with just one little tip.

  1. Wake Up To Positivity.

When you get up on a morning do something that makes you happy. A happy mindset is a positive one. It is the best way to approach the day ahead. For me this is having a cuppa and organising the day ahead in my planner.

2. Be Grateful

Write down what you are grateful for and keep revisiting the list. If life is feeling overwhelming or taking a negative turn remembering what you are grateful for helps to remind you that life is not as bad as it feels.

3. Affirmations and Quotes

Tell yourself how awesome you are and what you can achieve. Affirmations strengthen your core belief and are great for your mind and soul. Quotes can restore inspiration and motivation.

4. Remove Yourself

If you are in a negative situation take yourself out of it for a breather. Even if it is into another room for 5 minutes it can help restore calm and balance. I often got for a walk to disperse the negative energy.

5. Visualisation

Visualisation of your desired outcome, life or job. Imagining what you are striving for helps create the determination you need to succeed.

6. Positive People

Surround yourself with positive like-minded people. Negative people have a way of bringing those around them down to their level. Positive people help spur on motivation.

7. Write It Down

If you write down your concerns it instantly makes a difference. Things feel much better when it is all out there, as the old saying goes “A problem shared is a problem halved”.

8. Pace Yourself

Don’t rush yourself, pacing yourself means you are less likely to make mistakes.

9. Change Your Approach

When faced with a negative thought or situation change how you approach it. Ask HOW you can move forward and what it will achieve.

10. Repeat If Necessary

Try, try and try again. Perseverance is key. If you fail the first time get up and get back on it. Every fail creates strength. We naturally learn from our mistakes. Knowing WHAT NOT to do is one step further to knowing WHAT to do.

Thank you for reading:)

The Stationery Geekette x

Upcoming Post : Positivity In My Planner

Previous Post: It’s All About Perspective…

 

Get Your Spring Clean On…

Emma-Louise My Life, Organisational, Productivity Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

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It is that time of year where the majority of us want to Spring clean. The sun is shining more, the day is brighter, warmer and we feel stale!

I love a good clean. It feels so good to be in a house completely dust free and fresh.

This year I am moving on April 1st so my Spring clean came in the way of packing and de-cluttering. However I usually have a check-list which I go through in order to bring my house into the new year.

I had intended to provide you a printable my lack of time to figure out how to add it meant that it will just be some photos of my planner and handwritten check-list.

Once I have moved I will look into adding a printable for you.

So for now here are the things I have on my check-list.

Apologies for the darkish pics, my paper is yellow and doesn’t photograph well.
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Thank you for reading:)

The Stationery Geekette x

Upcoming Posts: The Change Your Outlook and Be More Positive Series including posts on Changing Your Outlook, Top Tips for Positivity and Positivity In My Planner

Planning Your Goals and Achieving Your Dreams.

Emma-Louise Inspiration, My Life, Organisational Tags: , , , , , 3 Comments

After reading numerous ‘self-help’ books I have given a lot of serious thoughts to what I really want from life. I am 33 almost 34 and not getting any younger.
I’ve always felt that life has been pretty average,  I haven’t been seriously unhappy with it all overall but I haven’t been ecstatically happy either.
I have always blamed certain circumstances for me not quite achieving the things I want, excuses for my lack of effort. Whether it is the fact I have the children to consider, not earning enough money,  not earning any money etc, there is always something.

The reality is though that non of these things really stop me, I allow them to become excuses because I either fear rejection or failure or it just feels too hard.

I want to tell my children and really believe it when I say “You can do anything you want”, the best way to show this though is for them to see it through me.

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So I wrote down what I wanted and with the help of The Miracle Morning I started visualising myself living my desired life.

Once I have this done I then took each dream and wrote a list of goals that I would need to achieve in order to have the dream become a reality.

Once I had it all seperated down step by step I looked at the easiest/first steps of each and then narrowed it all down to prorities. What did I need to start with and what would come next. Each goal taking me a step closer to the dream.

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Doing it this way makes things feel manageable and realistic. I want to live in Canada and that is no longer a pipe dream, it’s something that I can actively work towards, many of my goals intermingle and lead that ultimate big dream.

You need to ask yourself some questions when looking at what you want from life and be 100% honest in your answer.

I asked myself
1) Are You Happy in all areas of your life? (health, financial, career, home, family, friends, spiritual, relationship)
2) If not, why? What is missing?
3) If achieving just one of these goals would change your outlook and positivity?
4) Would I be happy not trying vs trying and failing?
5) What do you have to loose?

I personally believe if you want something enough you cannot fail, you can get knockbacks but you cannot fail.

Things to Remember :
~ EVERYTHING is achievable.
~ Faith in yourself is a necessity.
~ Don’t let anyone make you feel unworthy.
~ Surround yourself with positive people and distance yourself from those who bring you down.
~ Your desire for a better life will be stronger than your fear of failure.

This is a bit of how I have organised my Life Goals 🙂

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I hope you enjoyed reading:)

The Stationery Geekette x

My Miracle Morning Journal

Emma-Louise My Life, Organisational Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

When I had finished reading The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod I really wanted to implement some kind of journal with everything I would need for my new morning routine.

I had a Traveler’s Notebook which I loved but had been seriously under utilising so I decided to transform it.

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Inside I have 3 books, numerous card wallets, zipped wallets, photos etc.

My first book is a personal journal, this is for when I want to write about my life, feelings and how things are. This is private and not written in daily, only when I feel the need to.

My 2nd book is my TMM journal. In this I write briefly about my day/plans, I make a note of my gratitude, wake-up time, reading material and SAVERS tracker. For this I use the Midori 019 refill which has the week split into 7 on one day and empty on the other.

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My 3rd book is one which I have listed my affirmations, life goals, aims, Level 10 life wheel, Hal’s downloads and notes from the books I am reading. I am also working on a layout for my visualisation aide.

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This is still very much a working progress and it will evolve and change as I do and as my needs do.

If there is anyone else who has a TMM journal I’d love to see what you have done:)

Thanks for reading

The Stationery Geekette x

 

Book Review: The Morning Miracle

Emma-Louise Book Reviews 2017, Organisational Tags: , , , , 2 Comments

I was a little apprehensive about reading this book. Like most who pick up these sort of self-help things I did think it was going to be a load of wishy washy advice that is impossible to implement and actually work. The book was written by Hal Elrod.

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The book started with a bit of a lowdown on Hal Elrod’s life. The car accident that could have killed him and his subsequent downfall into a pit of debt and depression. However this wasn’t written in a way that was sorrowful, it was written with purpose.

Hal then goes on to explain the things he did that started to improve his quality of life. These things weren’t particularly enjoyable to him at first but it showed strength of character and perseverance.

The method that Hal recommends is actually very simple and I feel most people would benefit from even a few of the changes.

According to the methodology the key is to add to your day certain actions, 6 of them to be precise. It is advised that these should be done in the morning  and last 60 minutes to give your day the boost it may need and set you off on the right step however they can be implemented at any time. Even split out throughout the day. They are completely adaptable to any sort of lifestyle.

The 6 Actions are:

S – Silence. Allow yourself a dedicated amount of time each day to spend in utter silence. To let your thoughts drift from your body. Meditation is highly recommended for this.

A – Affirmations. These should ideally be specific to you. How you want to be, what you want and how you see your life to be with all your dreams come true. I like to refer to them as a mini-pep talk from my brain:)

V- Visualisation. This is pretty self-explanatory. Visualise where you want to end up, imagine yourself doing the things you dream of, living the life you want.

E – Exercise. Hal emphasises the importance of exercise, even just a few minutes a day can get your blood pumping.

R – Reading. Use this time to read something that will improve you, help you etc. To me this could be fiction or non-fiction as both have their merits.

S – Scribing. This is the time you take to journal or write. Write down what you are grateful for, how you will move forward, what are your plans etc.

At the end of the book Hal recommends doing the 30 day challenge, he advises that it takes 30 days for your body to fully adapt and change to the new changes. There are some freebies you can download as well which really help with this.

The other part of this book which is not as emphasised is Level 10 Life. This is where you assess every part of your life, break it down into categories and rate it out of 10. That way you can look at where you are, this will help you to see what you need it improve which in turn will help you decide how. Ultimately by improving these areas you can live a level 10 life in all areas, without sacrificing one. You can have the career and relationship you want for example.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to make improvements, whether it is for a certain area of your life, or like me for a major overhaul.

I am almost at the end of my 30 day challenge and I have a special TMM journal I have with all my affirmations, goals, visuals, and thoughts in. I will be doing another post on this very soon, and also showing how implementing this methodology has worked for me.

Here are a couple of my favourite quotes from the book 🙂

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Hope you have enjoyed my review:)

The Stationery Geekette x

The Leuchtturm 1917 – Things I’ve Added

Emma-Louise Organisational Tags: , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

If you have read my previous post on the Leuctturm 1917 which I started using at the beginning of January you will know that using this type of journal was entirely new to me.

I wasn’t sure entirely how it would progress, what bits i would implement and utilise and what I wouldn’t need. It was all new, shiny and exciting.

I have learnt many things over the last month and I have to admit I am LOVING using it and it works in sync with my Filofax Malden perfectly.

I have learnt that not everything has to be perfect. I rarely draw things out in pencil first now I go right in with the pen and hope for the best. I have made mistakes, plenty of them but that is life and it makes it mine 🙂

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I have also started adding a few more decorative things like stickers and a bit of washi here and there but not too much. I want it to be pretty but more so functional.

Let’s take a look at what I have added….

First off I have added a Blog states tracker page. Very simple, no need to mark the actual stats as they are recorded elsewhere but this is to remind myself to take note of them and to look at how I want my blog to progress in simple terms.

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Next we have a Current Watch List. This is all the programmes I am currently watching. I have a list of all series I watch throughout the year elsewhere. This is just for right now.

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Then we have a penpal tracker. I decided to up my penpal game. Handwriting letters is such a nice thing and I love receiving them from people and finding out about different cultures, lives, hobbies etc. However I did start to get a bit confused over who and when I had received them so this seemed like the best way to go.

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The Review pages. These will be added at the end of each month to review the previous month and ascertain my goals for the following month. I also add my blog stats here too.

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Finally the Monthly Tracker. I really wanted to be more aware of what I needed to do daily, and somewhere to prompt me of the things I sometimes forget to do or make time for. I added a few extra boxes incase I thought of other things I wanted to add. I didn’t start this until a few days ago hence why many of the boxes are crossed out as they had already passed.

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I am really happy with how things are progressing with this new method. I would advise anyone who is thinking of trying something similar to go with it and just be yourself.

The Stationery Geekette x

20 Uses For Your Planner

Emma-Louise Organisational Tags: , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Quite often in different Facebook groups and among friends I have been asked or seen the question asked “What do you do with your planner?”

There are so many different uses for a planner, it doesn’t have the be the traditional way. One of the best things about planners are their customisability. You can make it whatever you need it to be.

Below you will find a list of the most common 20 uses of a planner.

  1. Diary and/or Calender
  2. Lists – To-Do, Shopping etc
  3. Gratitude Journal
  4. Faith Journal
  5. Art Journal
  6. Project Planner
  7. Blog Planner
  8. Food Diary
  9. Meal Planner
  10. Health and Fitness Tracker
  11. Finances
  12. Contacts
  13. Penpal Tracker
  14. Journal
  15. Household Planner -Children, Chores, Finances, Appointments etc
  16. Study Planner
  17. Work Planner
  18. Pets and Animal Planner
  19. Reading Planner
  20. Christmas Planner

Whatever you use your planner for just remember it is yours, no-one else’s. So make it what you want it to be. Mix it up, Make it shine! 😀

The Stationery Geekette x

My 2016 Books to Read…

Emma-Louise Organisational Tags: , , , 6 Comments

Since I had my baby back in October 2014 I have seriously lacked the time to indulge in a good book. Towards the end of 2015 I picked up reading again and managed to finish the whole Harry Potter series in a few weeks.

I have since found that there is no excuse not to read, even with a lack of time I can manage to squeeze a few pages in here and there throughout my day and reading is good! It nourishes the soul. I am trying to divide my list between books of fiction and those to help me live the life of my dreams (cheesy but true). I am quite behind on the books that have been published so for some my list may seem a little dated.

I have already read 4 of my 16 and I’ve enjoyed every single one of them.

So without further ado, here is my list

  1. The Girl In The Spider’s Web – David Lagercrantz
  2. Brave Enough – Cheryl Strayed
  3. Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn
  4.  The Miracle Morning – Hal Elrod
  5. The State We’re In– Adele Parks
  6. Dark Places – Gillian Flynn
  7. Looking For Alaska – John Green
  8. Snowed In For Christmas – Claire Sandy
  9. After You – Jojo Moyes
  10. Follow You Home – Mark Edwards
  11. Tiny Beautiful Things – Cheryl Strayed
  12. Torch – Cheryl Strayed
  13. Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
  14. Into The Wild – Jon Krakauer
  15. The Girl On The Train – Paula Hawkins
  16. All The Bright Places – Jennifer Niven

I have ticked off the first four but the rest I will read in an order depending what I feel in the mood for.

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I have to say The Miracle Morning was brilliant! Completely inspiring and I cannot wait to write my review on it after I’ve completed the first 30 day challenge.

I’d love to see what you are reading this year. Are you taking part in any reading challenges, part of any book clubs etc? Feel free to drop me a line if you have any recommendations:)

The Stationery Geekette x

Similar Posts:

The Girl In The Spider’s Web review (no spoilers)

 

Project Planning The GTD Way

Emma-Louise Getting Things Done, Organisational, Productivity Tags: , , , , , , , 4 Comments

You may have heard me mention Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen in previous posts, this book is definitely worth a read. It has single handed improved the way I organise and manage my life.  Some maybe put off as I was initially thinking this was just for businesses but the methods can be applied to all areas of your life whether that is at home or at work.

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For those of you who are not familiar with the GTD methodology and do not have the book to hand here is a link to a 15 Minute Guide to GTD  which I use frequently when I do not have my book with me.

David Allen mentions in this book that our brain naturally goes through a planning model which he refers to as the Natural Planning Model. This the process our brain takes when accomplishing tasks and should be applied when we are planning our projects.

So let’s go into detail. There are 5 steps or phases to the Natural Planning Model.

Phase 1: Defining Purpose and Principles

This is where you ask ‘Why?’, what is the aim of what you are intending to do? This phase helps to set the boundaries and scope of your project and provide motivation.

Phase 2: Outcome Visioning

This is you visualise the end result, the outcome you wish to achieve. In order to plan a project you must first ascertain where you want that project to end.

Phase 3: Brainstorming

This is the phase in which you generate ideas for your project. David recommends that you put all your ideas on paper, get them out of your head so you can formulate them in some order. This will help focus on what tasks you need to do.

Phase 4: Organising

In this phase you take all of the ideas from your brainstorming session and formulate them into some form of plan. So you should hopefully have at the end a list of tasks that you will need to accomplish in order to successfully complete your project.

Phase 5: Identifying Next Actions

This is where you make a note of your first/ next physical action that needs completing before you can move on. What immediate action needs to take place so you can move the project on.

Another breakdown of these 5 phases can be found here at The Simple Dollar

I have found applying this method to my project planning extremely helpful when plotting and planning my projects.

To start with I wrote a Master Project list, this was the place I write down all of the projects that pop in my head I want to complete. This is a long-term goals list.DSC_2581

I then took the first project I wanted to complete and write it on a separate sheet of paper, following the Natural Planning Model. This details all the separate parts of the project that need doing for it to be complete. I also list my ‘Why’ and ‘Outcome’.

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The next thing that I do is write the first immediate action on my Next Actions list (the thing to remember with the Next Actions list is that it is essentially a To-Do Immediately list). Once I have completed the item I cross it off both lists.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I hope that it inspires you to go read the book or at least look at ways to help improve upon your organisational methods:)

The Stationery Geekette x