Getting Your Life Together

It's absolutely crazy how we can get so wrapped up in our own lives that we begin to forget how many hours there are in a day. When we have lots of stuff to do it so easy to just keep going and going and going until, before you know it, you're trapped in this never-ending cycle of work, study and writing.

I don't know about you guys but I am so grateful for breaks. I try to take it a little easier when I'm on one by just saying no and learning to live in the moment. However, recently I find myself working more in the time when I should be relaxing. Nowadays, that work ethic or 'grind' is heavily glorified and while, yes it is good to work hard, it is just as important to know when to slow down.

Fortunately, during this Easter/Spring break I've been living quite comfortably baby-sitting my niece every single day. She's only four and her care-free nature and aptitude to just have fun has honestly re-ignited the child in me. She's taught me that it's okay to relax sometimes and enjoy the moment right here, right now. So, in this blog post, I want us to re-learn how to appreciate life and all its small moments.

But, one sec! If you're new to my blog, hello there, it's great to meet you! You should seriously consider subscribing because I kinda do stuff like this all the time over here and you can get notified every time I do! Also, when you scroll down, you're gonna see a little heart icon. Yeah, just tap that. Rumour has it, if you do, a unicorn is born. While you wonder is that's true or not, this is: Getting Your Life Together.

Revise Don't Study

If you're a student, you know exactly what I mean. You get a break and you decide okay now is the perfect time to "look over" some notes and get my shit together. In reality, this decision only has two outcomes:

1. All your notebooks start catching dust

2. You try studying too much, feel overwhelmed and have a mental breakdown

At least, that's how it usually goes for me. I think breaks are designed to give students a little elbow room. We shouldn't go into it with all these expectation to complete everything we failed to do in the previous weeks. We should go into it with the expectation to refresh and revitalize for the future. So, start small. One subject a day, tell yourself you're just going to skim through your notebook for twenty minutes, maybe read a few concepts you find interesting/challenging and that's it. Trust me on this.

When you're relaxed your brain can absorb the information a lot easier and it keeps it in the deep subconscious of your mind. Sounds intense, right? It's really not. Most of the concepts that have stuck with me over they years aren't things that I studied before a final when I'm bawling my eyes out, they are the things I looked at while casually flipping through my notebook and going, "oh yeah. I forgot about that one".

Not only does revising help the information stick a lot better, but it also motivated you to actually take up a school-related book during break. As I said earlier if you go in with all those expectations, it can quickly feel like a chore and demotivate you. Just tell yourself, "okay, just for a few minutes" and I promise the task will feel a lot easier. It's a much smaller hurdle than "oh my god, I'm going to FAIL if I don't know every single one of these formulas *insert weeping here*". Trust me on this one readers. Thirty minutes, no pen, no pencil, no highlighter. Just you, casually flipping through some pages. Try it.

Read A Book

Finding time to read during an average week day is hell. But now that you have some free time, let yourself experience life a little. Grab that book you've been wanting to read and dive in. This month I'm reading a lot of books and it is so refreshing to just get back to a place of serenity and enjoyment in the little things. If you want to read some books along with me, I'll link my March TBR right here so you can check it out and pick up some of those titles.

Or, if reading isn't really your thing, now is the time to binge that TV show! I just finished Umbrella Academy last night so, I recommend that. It has the perfect amount of drama, action and suspense to make you love and hate all the characters at the same time. A real nail-biter.

Treat Yourself

It's called a break for a reason, readers! Treat yo self and don't feel bad about it! If you're on a strict diet, have a donut. It won't kill you (unless you have diabetes, then don't have that donut). Look for the things that you promised you'd stop doing and break juuusssttt one.

For example, I'm a huge miser. If anyone knows me in real life they can attest to this. I just really like to be money-conscious so I hate spending money, lending money, I just can't. But this break, I dusted off my PS4 and there was an Ubisoft sale going on and you know what I did? I bought myself a new game. I spent a whole $60. May not sound like a lot to you but to my cheap ass, it was monumental. Do I still feel bad about it? Yes. But, I feel great about it too. It's a good feeling to kind of cut the strings that control us 365 days a week and learn to simply, in the slightest ways, have a little fun. Do something you normally wouldn't do.

Similarly to how my game allowed me to "let loose" and enjoy the moment, you should do the same! You'll feel a lot freer and your mental state will rejoice.

Learn To Say No

It is incredibly easy to get trapped into a life in the fast lane. For me, I'm always editing/writing, I have four emails open at all times, I'm organizing school stuff, I'm debating etc etc. It's a constant back and forth between different projects. Not only can this be very unhealthy but time seems to fly by so much quicker and it's easy to miss out on a lot of good things.

Readers, now is the time to switch lanes. I challenge you to say no, either to yourself or to others. Value your mental health and take these few days to care for you. Respond to that email tomorrow. Miss one day of that workout. Let the people in your space know that for the next few days, your dedicating time to yourself. To feel good and to recuperate. You owe yourself that much.

Of course, don't get too comfortable because those days can turn into years. Ask them to also hold you accountable. So if you're not replying to texts today, tell them to call you tomorrow and remind you that your break is up. Speaking of which,

Getting Back Into Routine

When everything is over, you should feel well-rested, rejuvenated and ready to tackle life again. So maybe a day before break ends, use a few hours to plan ahead of what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. This will make the transition back into your hectic life a lot smoother.

Work hard, play hard, that's what I say. When you get back into the swing of things remind yourself to work harder than you've ever worked before so that next break, you can relax that much more! It's a real motivator.

Conclusion

But for now, live a little!

If you guys liked this blog post support ya boi by clicking that little heart icon below. It makes me feel very, very special. If you're planning to use any of these tips, comment down below as well and let me know which ones you found most useful! I wanna hear!

Lastly, don't forget to follow me on Wattpad to read all my works and Twitter and Instagram where I occasionally rant, share music and discuss the pains of being a creator. Oh, also, I share sneak peeks of my novel and new blog posts at times too, if you're interested in that. Relax, readers and I'll be seeing you next week!

P.S. Shout-out to my niece for teaching me these little things. Below is a picture of her!