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I think I look to muscley

small achievements: productivity + self-care

today I really turned things around and I’m honestly pretty happy with myself.

I had a fairly productive day today and honestly made myself feel so much better. we all have good days and bad days and it’s important for me to remember both. it’s the small achievements each day that make the biggest difference to our overall happiness. I think as well it’s important to remember to have a balanced life as well as trying to work hard to achieve your best grades.

so here’s a list of what I’ve achieved/done today:

- made my bed

- wrote + finished my extended outline for my dissertation

- collected tickets that I need to sell for uni orchestra

- put away/folded washing

- loaded + unloaded the dishwasher

- collected a parcel

- tidied my room

- printed out all my readings for the week ahead

- batch cooked some food

- washed + dried my hair

- called my family

- messaged friends

- emailed to reschedule an appointment

- deleted old emails + read new ones

- listened to music v loudly

- watched b99

writing a list like this makes me see that I am working hard and achieving things even if I sometimes don’t feel like i’m making any progress.

[this might not seem like a big deal to some people but I’m happy]

Self care

Having seen so many posts about self care on the studyspo/studyblr tags I’ve always been a little dismissive of them - of course I’m taking good care of myself! I eat well, I have time to relax, I get enough sleep etc.

However, after having a pretty bad migraine on Christmas Eve that forced me to leave work early, I’ve realised that perhaps I’ve let things slide lately, with mock exams and the Christmas holidays. My migraines are always caused by a combination of things, mostly being run down or stressed.

So, starting today:

Always have water to hand. 8 cups a day right? While at school I probably get this, as I have a water bottle with me at all times and make an effort to have it out thereby encouraging me to take a drink. When we have time off though, the lack of schedule means that I do not have the water bottle with me and don’t tend to drink as much.

Enough sleep is not the same as a good night’s sleep. I’m a definitely the sort of person who thinks ‘if I go to sleep now I’ll get 7 hours of sleep, that’s fine - I've got by on that before’. However, the National Sleep Foundation recommends that teens need about 9 1/4 hours of sleep each night to function best . As a night owl, this one might be hard.

Be careful with work, by which I mean a part time job. This year I've had my first ever proper job, as a Christmas temp at the local supermarket. While having loads of money has been amazing, since breaking up for Christmas two weeks ago, I've worked an extra 10 hours each week, on top of my normal 11.Never again. The stress of preparing for Christmas at home, working in the stressful pre-Christmas environment and trying to start homework has gotten to me.

Partying is all well and good as long as it’s every once in a while, and not the night before a shift or day out. You might think that you'll be fine, if you've been fine before. But as I've found, sometimes it all piles up.

Having a lazy day or two every know and then is well earned. In 2015 i'm going to make sure that at least 1 Saturday a month is free so that i can do some homework, study, watch rubbish TV and lounge around the house.

Its going to be a big year and i need to take serious care of myself.