Hello again friends,
My "Day In The Life" has had a birthday since my last post so I thought I would share it with you and give you all an update. I've really honed in on and loved "batch working" and have actually found this to be the best way for me to work - I am more efficient and focused. I focus on one type of task for the entire day which means I reduce the amount of chopping and changing throughout my day and can power through.
My schedule is now a 14 Day Roster where each day is dedicated to something different. I make sure I have a good balance between painting days, computer days, learning days and paint making days. I have really loved this way of working and by alternating through different days I can come back to certain tasks or projects with a set of fresh eyes and pick up things I had missed before.
I am still using my Kanban system to organise all my tasks and projects and the list of projects is forever growing (which I love). I still go through my usual routine everyday - the only thing that changes are the tasks I am focusing on that day. By having my Kanban system, I can easily see all my tasks for a particular day. You can see both my Kanban system and Roster below:
WAKE UP & EXERCISE
I am still an early bird and love to start my days quite early. I generally wake up between 5:00 - 5:30am and spend about 20 minutes in bed doing a jaw massage (my jaw muscles are quite tight and can cause head tension/headaches during the day).
After that I'll slowly get ready to either run or go to the gym and will usually be out of the house by 6:30 - 7:00am. If you're like me and don't like exercise then getting it over and done with first thing in the morning is a big win, and I don't have to worry about it for the rest of the day. It's also a good mood booster - I always feel great after exercising and it puts me in a good mindset for the rest of the day.
Depending on my workout - if it's a long run I'll be home by about 8:30 - 9:00am but if it's a 7 - 10km run or a gym workout then I'll be home by about 8:00am. I'll have a quick shower and freshen up.
SELF-CARE & MINDFULNESS
If I could I honestly would just jump straight into work at this point (because I love it so much and I have so much to get through) but there are things I know I need to do that are all about self-care and bringing myself into a greater state of presence/awareness, love and gratitude throughout my day and my life in general. Life is a constant battle between doing things we want to do and doing things we need to do. This quote I read the other day really resonated with this:
"The moment you forgo a practice/habit that benefits your being is the moment you give up on yourself. If you truly want to be healthy, both mentally and physically, you wouldn't skip the things that benefit you a day in your life. Do the things you need to do, not the things you want to do. The mind and body don't want change, even if they are for the better. You have to have a great will to overcome what the mind and body want. Your current state shows how bad you really want it.
Keep going, today feels like the day before, and the day before that, but in due time, you'll see results pay off. Things will start to look different, but you have to go through the mundane and those who can consistency keep pushing will live to see a better future."
So, drama aside - this part of my day consists of:
a 45 - 50 meditation (instrumental music)
a 30 - 45 yoga practice with Yoga with Adriene
a 30 minute "Morning Pages" journalling session
I have found these mindfulness and self-care practices life changing. It has been almost a year and I truly love where I am going even though some days have been tougher than others and I am faced with my monkey mind.
WORK, WORK & WORK
By 10:00 - 11:00am, I’m usually at my desk. I will jump straight into the tasks I need to work on for that day and power through until about 2:00 - 3:00pm. I'll generally take a 30 minute or 1 hour break and go for a walk down to the beach to read and ground (plant my bare feet into the sand!). I'll then continue to work until about 6:00pm - 7:00pm. Before the day is over, I'll check my roster to see what my focus will be for the next day, brain dump, add any notes and project ideas into Trello and plan out the next day in my planner before calling it a day.
NIGHTTIME ROUTINE
I use this time to clean and wind down. From 7:00pm - 8:00pm I'll have dinner and clean a section of the house. I have a cleaning schedule and like to tackle different sections of the house during the week so that my weekends are free. From 8:00pm - 9:30pm I'll shower and read a book before I sleep. And that is my day!
Thank you for reading. I hope this was inspiring for you in some way or helped you with planning out your day!
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