How to handle a busy lifestyle

Hey gang,

In this blog post I’m going to tell you a bit about my busy ol’ life and how I organise it.

I can distinctly remember a phone call I made to my bestie (yes, you Grace) when I first moved to London, where I said that I really wanted to be ‘the London runner’, ‘the London career girl’ and ‘the London party girl’ (and probably about 20 other things), but just how was I going to fit it all in?

Well, I’m not saying that I’m cruising through life managing everything with ease (I wish), but I certainly do try my best. I love being constantly busy and a day off for me usually involves a gym session and a shed load of life admin. Here are my top tips for juggling life:

Sort your work/life balance

We are in a wonderful era where the internet has opened up a world of possibilities. Sadly, it does have its downsides. One of them being that work is no longer constrained to the 9-5 grind. There’s those 7am Skype messages and just ‘peeking’ at your emails on your day off. I believe you can still excel in your job if you only sparingly work out of hours (when you absolutely have to). Making sure you stick to this will ensure you have enough time to dedicate to very important pastimes – for me, the gym for example.

THE MOST ANNOYING PEOPLE YOU’LL FIND ON THE TUBE

Optimise your commute

In order to maximise productivity I try to use my commute wisely – that way it’s not just a hot sweaty void in my day. I tend to write my blog posts on my way to work (what I’m doing right now), listen to podcasts or read my book. You can read more about my commuter hacks over here.

Prioritise!

As I said in my intro, I do want to do everything but I still have to factor in priorities – delegating appropriate time to each thing. Some weeks I might be super busy at work so my regular gym routine suffers, but I’ll be sure to prioritise a workout on my day off to make up for it.

A THANK YOU TO MY INSTAGRAM HUSBAND

Plan ahead

If you’re a busy bee like me, then you’ll need to put dates in the diary for plans way in advance. Dedicating a set date for catching up with certain friends or family is a good way to ensure it happens, otherwise time just flies by and those ‘we must catch up soon’ messages just go back and forth like a game of pointless tennis. My besties Grace and Chelsea both live in Bristol and we plan our catch ups months in advance!

Take a break

Now, this is definitely a piece of advise that I struggle taking onboard myself. However, thanks to my boyfriend being super chilled and loving lazy days I’m often forced to slow down through no want of my own. But I do recognise that sometimes my body (and my mind) just need a DVD day on the sofa.

Be prepared to say no

Now this is something I REALLY struggle with, but there is only one of you to go around which means you can’t attend your workmate’s sister’s choir performance at the same time as showing your face at your boyfriend’s first five-a-side football match of the new season. If your time would be spent more wisely painting your nails and catching up on The Walking Dead, then do it! You do you. I’m much better at this ‘just say no’ philosophy after reading this book.

Phone reminders

Because I’m so busy, I’m not very good at remembering things – those little (but very important things) like submitting a meter reading or posting an Instagram picture at prime time. So I utilise the reminders app in my iPhone, to give me a little nudge about these things. Honestly, try it. It’s a real game-changer.

So those are the main techniques I use to keep my busy life organised. After all of that talk of being a busy bee, I better dash…

R x