I am starting a new series called “Things I’m Loving Lately”. At the end of every month, I want to share with you all the things that bring me joy, that make me feel productive and that overall puts me in a really good mood. This can range from actual products I am using, a habit that I have stuck with or food that I’m really enjoying. Since I did not do one for January, this post will combine things from January and February. I hope you enjoy it!
The things that I have been loving lately fall within the categories of productivity tools (which is still coming in it’s own post, but you get a sneak peek here), habits that I’ve stuck with and food! All of these things have attributed to the great mood I have been in over the last few weeks, giving me a really strong start to this year!
Productivity tools
My Muji notebook
Yes, I am into bullet journaling, and it has made the biggest difference in my productivity after I really committed to doing it once the new year started. I now rely heavily on this notebook and if it’s not written down, it literally will not happen! My notebook is medium size and has clean dotted paper. I love flipping over to a new page to fill it in with all my to dos, reminders and events coming up. It’s small enough to fit into a purse or backpack, so it comes almost everywhere with me. When I take the few moments to write in it to plan for the day, week and month it gives me a sense of calm and also a small bit of creativity. I try to make my month spreads more decorative than the rest of the weekly and daily spreads to set the tone for the rest of the month. But, on a weekly and daily basis I keep it minimalist to make it easy and quick to plan effectively. I highly suggest this notebook if you want to keep your to dos and thoughts in a simple and clean notebook.
Evernote
I’ve been using this tool for years, but my use of it has been very on and off. Over the last few weeks, I have been more consistent. At the start of the year, I cleaned out my Evernote notebooks and notes to start with a clean slate – deleting notes that were irrelevant and archiving notes that might be helpful down the line. I have a notebook for all big projects I am working on and for each person on my team to keep track of conversations and to dos for myself. At work, we do use Google docs, so anything in my Evernote are just notes for me to remember. I like the idea of keeping my notes in a digital notebook, I like that you can make checklists and if you have your Evernote synced to your Google calendar, it will create a meeting notes template with all the details of your meeting for you to use right away without taking time to set it up. My favorite feature, which I do not use a lot, is that you can share notes to other people’s inbox so if it’s a meeting that does not have a Google doc created, I can still share the notes I took to my team without rewriting notes in a different format.
White Board Calendar
Jesse and I do a lot of things together and we like to plan ahead to know what we’re doing when. Last year, we had a small calendar that had enough space to write events and reminders of when we needed to do things. Once the year was over, we needed to find something new for 2020. I’m obsessed with those Ikea kitchen setups where they have the white board or chalkboard and all the family notes are written. I always wanted that. So, we decided to get a white board calendar to put in our kitchen. It has been a game changer, putting everything on the calendar and seeing a big month overview. We put our gym days on the calendar, when we need to go to Costco, when we’re going to the movies, birthdays and events we’re invited to. If it doesn’t go on the calendar right away, we will forget; we’re always looking for pockets of free days to relax. My favorite moment is when we’re eating in the kitchen and we’re looking at our calendar, planning our days together! A huge bonus is that we don’t have to buy a new calendar every year because it’s a white board, so it’ll last for as long as we need it.
Habits
Working out 3x a week using the Fit Body app
I am obsessed with my Fit Body app to help me keep up with working out consistently the past 2 months. I love how all the workouts are simple to follow and you can choose what types of workouts you want to do based on your goals – Shredding, Sculpting or Toning. I am using the Tone section to build more muscle and maintain the body I have now by using free weights – so I can do these workouts in the gym or at home. I love the countdown feature between each set and round. Although this app is designed for you to workout 6 days a week, it gives you the flexibility to choose whatever workout you want to do on whichever days work best for you. I don’t use every single feature in this app, but every once in awhile I will use the Journal feature after my workout to log how I’m feeling and take a moment of reflection on the day. There are a lot of apps out there that are very similar to this, but I love this one the best because it fits into exactly how I like to workout and the types of workouts I like doing.
Waking up early on the weekends
Admittedly, this has been so easy to do these past few weekends because I have not been going out! I think I’m living my best life not leaving my house and coming straight home from work (although by the time this post is out, I would have gone out a few times due to pre-planned events). The benefits I’m feeling on how my body feels and how productive I feel outweighs the thought of even wanting to go out (it’s also winter time, so this is much easier to do now – gotta take advantage while I can)! I’ll wake up between 8:45-10AM depending on when Lilo decides she needs to use the bathroom. Once I walk her, I stay awake. If Jesse walks her, I’ll lay in bed for a bit until I’m ready to get up. Getting up early on the weekends has attributed to how well I’ve been writing and running my blog. After breakfast, I will spend two hours working on my blog. That time spent makes me feel the most productive I could ever be. It sets the tone for the rest of the day. After I work on my blog, we’ll either go to the dog park or run errands throughout the early afternoon, and then we’re back inside relaxing for the rest of the day.
Food
Overnight oats with berries
This has been my favorite breakfast for a couple of months now. I felt like I was spending too much time in the morning making breakfast, or thinking about what to eat for breakfast that I wouldn’t eat breakfast at all. I would completely skip it, load myself up on coffee and then realize it’s lunch time when I’m starving. Sometimes, I wouldn’t eat lunch until after 1PM. I didn’t like the way I was feeling, especially knowing I was only eating twice a day with no snacks in between. I started researching overnight oats recipes on Pinterest and came across a simple one: oats, milk, chia seeds, maple syrup and cinnamon. When I first made this and ate it the next morning, I fell in love with it! It was the right amount of sweetness and lightness I needed in the morning. My favorite berries are strawberries and blueberries; I add those on top and have a delicious and nutritious breakfast everyday. I’ll make a batch for a full week, so there’s no excuses to skip breakfast!
What are some things you’re loving? Share in the comments!