technology: I love you but I don't trust you

Technology is a beautiful thing. Without my mobile phone, I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with friends all over the country and world (iMessage is wonderful!) and without my laptop, I wouldn't be writing this blog post.

However, when it comes to planning and keeping my life organised, I prefer to use paper. I have tried using electronic calendars in the past and I dislike how disorganised it looks. Dots to denote to-dos, birthdays and other events; and then to see what the dots even mean, you have to click on that date. And not much has changed since I first tried to use an electronic calendar two years ago, when that experiment lasted a whole two days.

There's just something wonderful about flicking through a paper planner. As others say, the battery of a paper planner never dies and information (such as contacts) won't randomly disappear from time to time. Personally, I love the visual aspect of keeping a paper planner. Colour is essential to me and an electronic calendar just doesn't give me the flexibility to add colour through stickers, washi tape or even my beloved Muji gel pens!

Although I've not been able to make my phone calendar work for me, I'm pretty sure there will be many who have. And there may even be some who have combined an electronic diary with a paper planner too, so it can be done. I must confess I am biased though; this blog is all about paper, stationery and whatnot and so I will obviously side with paper planners and that is why this blog post has the title: technology: I love you but I don't trust you. I don't trust my phone not to just erase everything one day when it's having a moodswing and I don't trust it to keep me organised! My Smythson binder, on the other hand... Well, you should know how I feel about it already!

How do you feel about electronic diaries? Have you managed to make it work in the past or even now? Or do you use one in conjunction with a paper planner? I know some workplaces insist on using iCal or something similar for various reasons.

my week #55

My diary pages have gone quite downhill of late! However, you can see how I keep my pages looking creative in the past. Hopefully, my creative mojo will return soon!

How has your week been?

how I have kept my journal since the end of 2012

You know when you watch films and people start their diaries with 'dear diary, today was...' and so on? Well, I've always wanted to keep a diary like that. Instead, I used to always end up keeping a mini-scrapbook of what had happened in my life, through train and other travel tickets, photos and what not. So, from November of last year, I decided to try and keep a diary and a journal at the same time, and in the same book. I wanted to keep a (lazy) record of what I had done and also examine my own thoughts and feeling about the events of that day or period of which I was writing about. I decided not to start each entry with 'dear diary' though, as I feel that would have been appropriate when I was in my teens but not anymore as a young adult!

Here is the journal I opted to use; it is a Martha Stewart x Avery x Staples one:

Each day, I would start off by writing the date in a coloured felt-tip pen, followed by what I had wore and the weather at the time too.

And then, I just start rambling. It could be about anything or everything. Usually, I start off with what I had done since my last entry and then I would write my thoughts and feelings in relation to those events (if there were any). When I was going through a rough patch two years ago, I learnt that it was because I was bottling everything up. Writing things down really helps with any negative feelings I have (most of which are about myself) and then I write about how I can 'fix' these negative thoughts and turn them into positives.

In a way, I'm putting what I had learnt during my cognitive behavioural therapy sessions into practice. 

Not only this, keeping a diary/journal also helps me see where and what I need to develop and improve on to become a better person.

I keep writing until there is no more to be said - sometimes this can be a page, sometimes half of a page and other times, it could be two or even three pages. I try and write an entry once every two weeks' or so. I really am quite OCD about how my journal is kept so my handwriting is pretty much all printed as you can see (although blurry, I think my writing style is still obvious):

Ultimately, I keep this journal as a means to improve myself. I hope you've enjoyed this little peek and explanation into how I've kept my journal. 

Do you have one? And if so, how do you keep yours? :)

april review

happiness

My April Happiness Project goal was to have more energy and to exercise more. I think I definitely achieved this through ample netball training and matches. The last time I played netball was in October 2011 as I opted to play squash during my last year of uni instead. Then, after graduation, I had an operation in November (as there is no netball between June and September where I was at the time) so that meant no sport for another two-three months (making it May 2012 the last time I had played any proper sport!).

Anyway, after moving down to Surrey, I decided to get back into the netball swing of things and from the way things have been, I think I have quite a good level of basic fitness. I feel able to run out full  high-intensity matches (60 minutes for those who don't know) but I know that I am still a bit away from my optimal level of fitness.

You might have seen this picture before in this blog post.

With all of this netball in the month of April, I have actually felt more energetic than the months where I didn't do any proper sport. And as a result, I have got a lot of re-decoration done at home. My room is almost finished now (just the wardrobes left to put in - a weekend's work!) and I will be blogging about my room's transformation in a few weeks' hopefully, so sit tight.

essentials

And this month's essentials?

1) Clothes for Painting In

These have been invaluable this month! My washing machine has been quite good at getting paint out of those designated 'painting clothes' too though!

2) Smythson Organiser 

This was quite a important essential for me this month because the use of a planner allowed me to stay on top of any re-decoration I was doing, social events and also netball. Without it, things probably wouldn't have been done in a logical order nor as efficiently as possible.

3) Nail File

Not only was this of importance when it came to netball, it also meant I avoided the dreaded broken nails that would have undoubtedly arisen through all of the re-decoration we are doing at the moment. I'm the one doing most of the painting (my mum only helps here and there as I won't allow her to do too much - after all, I'm the one with a young and agile body :) ) and also the one who stripped the carpets amongst other potential nail-breaking work.