how I use my moleskine for university

One of my many problems at uni was time management. Not in the sense that I wasn't optimizing my time but in the sense that I found that I had too much to do sometimes! So, I had to make sure that all my time was optimized and I did this using my Moleskine. Now, my Moleskine is pretty big in terms of the amount of space I had to write things in and I tried to use all that space to my advantage.

Now, as you can see below, I write in what time my lectures are, what the lecture is and also what lecture number it was. From this, I can deduce how much time I realistically have to do other things e.g. write these lecture notes up and revise them and also do other things such as socials, sport, etc.

Every day, I planned my outfits so that I would have one less thing to worry about.

I also used tick boxes for things I had to do - such as renewing library book loans (books are usually on one week loans).

As for the vitamin D and numbers - that correlates to the vitamin D capsules I've been taking. Maybe I just need to be in the sun more as I tend to walk in the shade when I'm out and about!

Any more questions or do you want more pictures? Let me know via a comment :)

thriving on less project: the beginning

Upon my return to the family home from London due to the end of my second academic year at university, a clearout of my room and all the clutter made me realise just how much c r a p I had amassed throughout my teenage years! With that in mind, I started looking for ways to declutter, save money and as a result thrive on less. Googling for ideas on how to achieve this goal, I came across this site: The Power of Less. On that site, there is a free e-book you can download called 'Thriving on Less' and I really do recommend it. The tips in it are good - they are mostly about living a 'simpler' life where we have to recognise that enough means enough and that being able to thrive is more important than more.

So my first stop. My wardrobe. Now, this was my wardrobe at university from a few months back:

Now, at home, I have to confess that I have a far bigger wardrobe than this (it's built in so I didn't (technically) have a big one by choice) and for that reason, I kept a lot of clothes I never wore. I kept ones that held sentimental value and even PJs went into my wardrobe! Instead, I did a clear out (afraid I have no before photos) and this was the end result:

I put clothes I hadn't worn in over half a year into a pile and then clothes that had literally had their day into another pile. I then put the first pile into a plastic box - these are the items I will be selling (an extension of this blog where I have 'listed' the items I would like to get rid of!). The second pile were put into a bag and the items will be used as cloths for washing windows with, etc.

Next, PJs and loungewear went into a chest of drawers which I already had. But, the only difference was the fact that these drawers were full of clutter! Out went the clutter and in went my loungewear and nightwear. The same applied to my sports clothing. In the summer, I tend to go out for runs instead of play netball as my local club has changed so much (in a bad way though) that I don't enjoy local netball here anymore and instead, enjoy university netball much more.

Sorting through all the clothes made me realise just how much money I had 'wasted' on clothes which I never loved for long enough to wear over and over again. As a result, I'm going to be starting a '30 day freeze' where I won't be purchasing any clothes online or offline for 30 days. After this, if I come across anything I want to buy, I'll add it to a new '30 day list' with the date I added that item onto the list. If, after 30 days, I still find myself wanting/craving that said item, I will go and purchase it. But only if I seriously can't stop thinking about it!

The key to this though, is that my wardrobe isn't completely finished yet in terms of 'decluttering' as I'm pretty sure I still have items in there which I won't wear for another six months - but that's fine. One of the philosophies of 'Thriving On Less' was doing things gradually!

Another thing with doing a wardrobe clearout was that it enabled me to see what gaps needed filling in it - hence that purchase of an Aquascutum raincoat in the previous post!

Next stop? Lifestyle decluttering. Stay tuned for that!

P.S. Hope you guys like the new layout and colour scheme. Hope you're also ready for the launch of two new pages on my blog - the money tab - soon to be renamed; and the 'happiness' tab :)

new blog twitter

Credit: Macworld

I've made a Twitter which is specially for this blog instead of spamming some of my followers when there is a new post, etc :)

This is the profile and it will be personalised soon - not to worry :) Let me know if you follow me and I'll follow you back!

university: end of my penultimate year

Yep. You read right. It's the end of my penultimate year at university - which means; only one more year until I graduate! Time really does fly as it feels like yesterday that I first stepped foot into my halls of residence in my first year in October 2009 - hell, it even feels like yesterday that I started high school (I still remember that day like it was yesterday!)

I've had a brilliant year and I've met some amazing people. I've continued friendships from my first year as well as making new ones this year. I've grown closer to some people and grown apart from others - but still, I wouldn't change one second of it for the world. It's been a fantastic year full of ups and downs - the ups being the good times such as birthdays and other celebrations whereas the downs have included exam time. The fact that my subject is one of the last to finish (in the last week nonetheless) when all the other subjects have finished has been tough on my motivation to work but I've made it!

Now, I have three full months of doing some relaxing. I've opted not to apply for any internships after a few rejections (for really competitive internships though, mind you) as I still don't know what I want to do after university, however, I am going to be doing some hospital work experience and also carry on with my volunteering - along with my summer goals.

Do any of you have any summer goals (if you have a free-ish summer)? How does time feel to you? Does it fly or does it go by slowly? Has this year gone by slowly?