Five Things That Are Making Me Happy Right Now

You’ve heard the whole ‘social media is just a highlight reel of someone’s life‘ a million and one times before, but you know what? It’s always wheeled out because it’s so true. On the whole I feel like a pretty put together, happy chappy but there are times that suck balls too. A few months ago I was tired and stressed, I couldn’t keep up with work (hello one week blog break back in May!) and I just couldn’t seem to muster up the enthusiasm to jump back into things with some proper gusto.

However, over the past couple of months I’ve pinpointed exactly what I needed to tweak in order to turn up my motivation levels and tune in some focus. IT’S BACK! I feel so much more relaxed, like my brain has taken a long-overdue dump (that’s a mental image for you there) and I’ve got my Cheshire cat smile back on. Here’s what I’ve been working on…

GETTING ORGANISED

Since the beginning of the year I’ve been getting less and less organised. I don’t know why, but I’ve been losing my Virgo edge and haven’t had as clear focus when it comes to goals and to-do lists. I think things just got busy. Like real busy. Busier than they’d ever been, and with more plates spinning than before – podcast, wedding, keeping my videos and posts going as normal – I began to not even write to-do lists. I KNOW. Let’s all just let that sink in for a moment… 

Now that things have calmed down a bit (see final point about saying ‘no’ all the damn time), I’ve put pen to paper in my BulletJournal and I’m planning again. I have tick boxes coming out of my ears and am colour co-ordinating everything in sight. I have my list mojo back and I’m feeling organised and on top of work in a way that I haven’t been in a long while. It’s amazing what a list or two can do, eh?

AN OFFICE MAKEOVER

Part of my new surge in productivity has come from switching up my workspace. Not only have I joined a co-working space that I plan on dropping into once or twice a week, with the main aim of meeting people and therefore no longer waiting for Mark to get back from work like an excited puppy at the top of the stairs. I’ve also rejigged my home office. Whereas I don’t see us re-buying furnishings for other rooms in the home for years, I feel like a home office deserves freshening up every now and again. It’s looked the same for pretty much two years now so I felt that it was time to update and give it a little millennial pink makeover.

I’ll pop up a haul and a made-over office tour when it’s completed, but I’ve treated myself to a new chair (this blue velvet one from West Elm), some prints for the walls, pillows, storage and a few other bits and bobs to tone down the green and inject a bit more feminine flavour to the room. It’s fast becoming my favourite space and I can’t wait to see the end result.

READING

I blame Love Island for my lack of pre-bed reading. For the past two months I’ve been laying in bed, headphones in, iPhone propped up on a stack on books left unread as I binged watched the TV series of the summer, whilst Mark slept and stuck his elbow in my back (a new habit that he has picked up now we’re married which is great). But now I’m back on the bandwagon thanks to some reading recommendations from the One Girl Band newsletter. On the topic of newsletters I have to say that I love getting stuck in to one these days – are there any others that you’d recommend?

Book-wise though I purchased ‘You Are A Badass’ and ‘You Are A Badass At Making Money’ by Jen Sincero and ‘Little Black Book: A Toolkit For Working Women’ by Otegha Uwagba. I love this genre of reading; I like to feel like a book is giving me a swift, hard motivational kick up the rear and I feel like this trio will do the trick. I’ll report back.

FREE WEEKENDS

There’s a great game that we all seem to be playing these days called ‘When’s Your Next Free Weekend?‘. ‘Free‘ being defined as no family or friend engagements, no weddings, parties, hen dos, dinners or BBQs, just a free day with absolutely zero plans for you to re-enact that Kim Kardashian GIF of her lying in bed with a full face of makeup on, if you so wish.

I’ve recently just done a stint of pretty heavy weekends, doing lovely things with family and mates, but with little time to sit/lay/binge Netflix/think that I should spend the time being productive/continue to lay on the sofa in my PJs. You get the gist. Now for the rest of month we’re looking pretty free at the weekends (Mark has told me to keep this a secret, so perhaps writing about it on here isn’t the most discreet) and I can’t bloody wait. We’ve been meaning to finishing renovating our flat for about the last year and a half and hopefully with a bit of spare time at the weekends we’ll actually be able to start planning it. I look forward to shopping for tiles (NOT!) and partaking in an epic five hour nap.

HOMEBODY HEAVEN

I’m a complete homebody. Always have been, always will be. There’s nothing quite like a big ol’ dose of home to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I think I say the phrase ‘I LOVE MY BED‘ approximately 9 times a day. My work means that the majority of the time it’s more beneficial for me to be at home because it’s easier to film and edit and nice and quiet for me to tackle my inbox and bash out posts. However I often find myself up in London for meetings or events, or on trips, which is lovely too (trust me I ain’t complaining – teenage Anna would never have dreamed that traveling for your job was even a possibility!). Sometimes being away from home though isn’t the most effective use of my time and things can often get a bit backlogged upon my return, although travelling does make me feel super glam and like teenage Anna would be so proud.

So for the month of August, I’m rooting myself in Brighton (almost!). I’ve condensed my London days down to just a handful and there’s no trips on the immediate horizon. Instead I’ve been spending my time squirrelling away at my desk and cracking down on my to-do and it’s felt rather lovely. Sometimes you have to say no, put yourself first and prioritise your time and your wellbeing. It’s all about self-love and bed-love. See? Here I go again for the sixth time today…

Photos by Lauren Shipley

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