Bullet journal spreads, my experiences of trying out a range of craft activities and lots of wellbeing tips to help you get the best from life.
Author: Laura
A creative planning and journalling addict who lives in the North East of England, My current passions are my bullet journal, my Traveler's Notebook for memory keeping, my DSLR for taking nature photos, my new watercolour paints and my papercrafting supplies. I also own and run LJDesignsNE on Etsy where I sell pretty and functional goodies to fellow planner and journaling addicts.
My husband and I are keen birdwatchers and we love going to our local nature reserves and nearby woodland with out binoculars. Over the years, we’ve built up our knowledge of different woodland, coastal and wetland birds are able to recognise all of the most common varieties by sight. However, what we’ve always found slightly more difficult to do, certainly with woodland birds, is to identify them by sound alone. This is because, most of them have several different songs and a repertoire of calls. So, imagine our delight, when we discovered an app that was capable of recording all of the nearby birds and identifying them within seconds! Today, I thought I’d introduce you to the app we’ve been using for almost a week and explain a little bit about how it works.
Merlin Bird ID
Created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Merlin Bird ID is a tool for beginner and intermediate bird watchers which uses a huge database to provide information and identification of literally thousands of different bird species. It is able to recognise birds by photograph or sound, can provide suggestions of IDs based on information you input and supplies details of species which are common to your geographical location. The basic app is free and once you’ve downloaded it and shared and confirmed your email address, then downloaded a pack specific to the country you are in, you’re good to go.
Basic Bird ID button
If you click on the Start Bird ID button, it will ask you five questions about a particular bird you observed. It asks for your location which you can either name, choose current location or select from a Google Map pop up. You then say when you saw the bird (using the calendar), how big it was, the main colours (choosing 1-3), and what it was doing from a choice of options. This particular aspect of the app is very similar to the RSPB bird identifier on their website. Having answered the questions, it will provide suggestions for you to look through and even includes a sound button too.
Photo ID
In this part of the app, you can upload a photo of take a snap of a bird and then zoom in so it fills the frame. From this information, the visual database will try to identify the particular bird. I’ve only tried this once using an image from my phone gallery of a male reed bunting. Although my photo wasn’t particularly good and includes bushes and wire fencing, the app was still able to guess correctly!
Sound ID
This is obviously the feature that I’m enjoying using the most. The instructions say to ‘get as close to the bird as you can, hold still and press record’. The pack that I’ve downloaded includes as database of 867 birds, including a number which are not native to the UK but that you might spot at a centre with bird enclosures such as my local wetlands trust site or a Birds Of Prey place.
What’s great about this aspect of the app is that it is able to identify multiple birds in one recording (it pops up on the screen as soon as it has ID’d each bird) and it highlights in yellow the specific birds it can hear at that time. Also, when you end the recording, it lists all the species that were identified and allows you to read more about them. So far, we’ve often been able to guess most of the birds ourselves but we were excited to see that one of the individuals which we struggled to identify was a nuthatch.
Another plus point of this part of the app is that it includes a red dot next to a bird which is rare in the location or an orange semi circle to identify it as being unusual. This is really cool and it’s so exciting when you spot something a bit different.
Explore birds
This part of the app is great if you want to develop your knowledge of particular types of birds. You can view a range of lists with photos such as waterfowl, shorebirds, finches, warblers etc. You can then select a species by clicking on it to find out more. I haven’t used this part of the app yet but I can imagine it’s especially good if you are a beginner birdwatcher.
Final words…
Although we’ve only been using the app for a week, we’ve both being really enjoying trying it out. It’s super easy to use, seems really accurate and includes a wealth of useful information. I imagine the sound recordings might fill your phone storage up pretty quickly but you can easily delete the recordings when you have done with them.
Let me know in the comments if this kind of app appeals and if you plan to download it to use on your phone. I would also love to hear if you find it useful during trips out in nature.
Over the last few months, I’ve read a couple of books on the topic of manifestation – ‘Make It Happen – Manifest the life of your dreams’ by Jordanna Levin and ‘Manifest – 7 Steps to Living your Best Life by Roxie Nafousi. I found both of them really interesting and learnt a lot about the theories behind manifestation and things to work on to maximise your chances of creating the life of your dreams or your best life as mentioned in the titles. Today, I hope to provide a summary of the concept and my key take aways from both books so you can use the ideas to work on your goals for 2023.
Both authors talk about the success they’ve had with manifesting everything they’ve wanted in their lives so far and the steps they’ve taken to get there. They also discuss some of the struggles they’ve had in the past and how they’ve overcome them through the power of manifestation and making changes to their thoughts, feelings and attitude.
What is meant my manifestation?
There are various dictionary definitions available online, but, in short, to manifest is to make something happen. In today’s post though, I want to explore the idea that I believe was first discussed in detail by television writer, producer and author Rhonda Byrne in her documentary film and related book The Secret back in 2006 where she explained that ‘Manifesting is about breathing life into your goals through action, emotions and belief’.
Levin adds to this in her book by introducing her ‘Manifestation Equation’ which is states that:
and is based on four laws – The Law Of Attraction, The Law Of Vibration, The Law Of Action and The Law of Rhythm.
Whilst Nafousi, in her first of two books on the subject, describes manifesting as ‘a meeting of science and wisdom’ and ‘a philosophy to live by and a self-development practice to help you live your best life’.
Finding clarity
The first step of manifesting is to get clear on what you want you want from your life. As Nafousi states ‘…you can’t get to where you want to go if you don’t know where it is you are headed’. A helpful practice for this is to create a vision board filled with your intentions. This can be done digitally on your computer, or physically as a display, and commonly includes inspiring pictures and/or words representing your dreams and aspirations. If you prefer written methods, you might like to write a list in a special manifestation journal and expand on your intentions for each. Another option to try, is following a guided visualisation meditation specifically for manifestation, where you consider what you ideal life would look like and even more importantly, what it would feel like if you already had what you desire. There’s a range available online, some for a small cost and others free. You might also want to think about the kind of person you want to be or take time to explore your core values. Jordanna has two free PDF resources for this which include a comprehensive list of core values and a long list of personality traits. I found both to be extremely useful. Finally, using a Wheel of Life to explore where you are right now and where you wish to be in the future can also help you make plans and set intentions or goals.
Whatever methods you use to set your intentions, it’s recommended that you work on a small number – a maximum of five at a time can help to keep them powerful. Also, the advice is to write them in positive language, keep them short and to the point and use present tense e.g. I am well-organised and productive, I have a happy and healthy relationship with my partner, I feel full of vitality etc.
Take action
As well as thinking about and visualising what you want in your life, you should also be prepared to take action in order to make progress towards those things. As Levin says when describing the Law Of Action – ‘you must do the things and perform the actions necessary to achieve what you are setting out to do’. You play a vital role towards creating your future so you must work to make it happen! So, for example if you want to be happy and fulfilled at work, you might start by considering you current job situation and how you feel about it. You could then take some time to journal about what aspects you enjoy and which leave you feeling dissatisfied. Having considered this, it might lead to you identify potential changes you could make or help you to realise that it is time to move on and try somewhere else or a different role. You would then have to think about and perform the necessary actions to move things on.
Raise your vibration
The scientific principle known as the Law of vibration states that everything in the universe (objects, thoughts, emotions etc.) has energy and a vibrational frequency ( from high to low). With regard to manifesting, according to this law, we need to vibrate at a similar frequency to the things we are trying to attract and the best way to do this is to work on raising our vibe. High vibration emotions include unconditional love, joy, peace, gratitude, hope and optimism, whilst particularly low vibration emotions include jealousy, anger, fear and despair. But how can we work on raising our vibration so we resonate more of these positive emotions? Here’s some of what I learnt from my reading:
Let go of fear and doubt
One of a number of ways of working on raising our vibe is to let go of fear and doubt. If you believe that you are not worthy of what you want or that you are not capable of taking action and making changes then you are unlikely to manifest those things. On the other hand, if you have faith in your abilities and are optimistic about the future, you are ready to receive everything you desire because you believe you are worthy of it. This happens because our subconscious has the power to drive us towards our dreams but also has the power to hold us back.
Our fears and doubts show up in a number of different guises including worries and insecurities, limiting beliefs, feelings of unworthiness and a lack of trust in the universe to provide for us. These can not only sabotage our chances of manifesting, they can also stop us from being aspirational with our dreams and wishes too.
Of course, ridding ourselves of fears and doubts is not something that can be done overnight, especially as many of us have been accumulating them over many years. It takes constant work and commitment (what some practitioners call deep work). Self development is achieved over time and with perseverance. It might also involve working with a therapist, life coach or mentor. who can guide you on the way and teach you new techniques for managing your thoughts and emotions and working on limiting beliefs. The main ways forward include:
exploring your thoughts and considering more realistic or alternative ways of looking at things (focusing on positive and empowering choices)
being careful about our choice of language e.g. replacing if with when, talking about what we want rather than what we don’t want, choosing positive words such as I can…, I will… etc rather than negative statements such as I can’t…, It’s too hard etc.
using positive mantras to repeat e.g. Life supports me in every possible way. I am thankful for the endless opportunities that come my way. Today I am the best version of myself. I’ll achieve everything I set out to do.
practice visualisation – imagine what it would look like and what it would feel like if you were living a life in alignment with what you desire. This can be done as a meditation or if you prefer creative writing, you could journal what your day would be like if you were living your best life.
cultivate self love and compassion – be kind to yourself and value your wellbeing. Celebrate achievements but also be patient and forgive yourself when needed. Believe in yourself and your ability to have success. Treat yourself as you would a good friend, offering support and encouragement.
Live in alignment
Another part of taking action is to align your behaviour with what you wish to manifest. It’s no good creating your vision on a board or just sitting there thinking about what you want for your like, you need to be proactive in your journey. As you work on banishing your fears and doubts, you will start to develop confidence in your abilities and this is when you can really push yourself and step out of your comfort zone. |Nafousi has this to say:
‘To manifest change, we must first create change. We must do something different, we must challenge our fears and doubts, we must act as our future self would act and we must show the universe how ready and willing we are to step into our power.’
A good way to do this is to behave the way your future self would. So, for example, if you want to be a tidy and well-organised person, you need to act like one. This could include regularly decluttering, making sure you have a place for everything and putting things away in that place when you’ve finished using them, creating a schedule for your day or writing to do lists to make sure you maximise your time, having a good sleep routine so you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to have a productive day, making tidying a priority and a habit which you see as important and of value. It could also include spending time researching and implementing habits of tidy and well-organised people and maybe asking for help and advice from friends who always have a neat and tidy home.
If you’re not sure what steps to take or changes you might need to make, Jordanna Levin’s book has chapters on different aspects of life which are full of ideas and exercises to try.
Develop an attitude of gratitude
Whilst you strive to manifest your intentions, it’s also important to be grateful for what you already have. As I’ve shared in several previous blog posts, gratitude is all about being thankful and showing appreciation for all of the things we have. Nafousi splits gratitude into three categories which I found particularly helpful – gratitude for the self, your life and the world. So, you can appreciate things about yourself such as your health, your ability to listen to others and your crafting skills. You can be thankful for what you have in your life such as a supportive partner, a beautiful home and a job you love. And, finally, you can feel grateful universal things such as good weather, connection with others and the wonder of nature.
Gratitude is a high-vibe emotion which is wonderful for your physical and mental health, your relationships, self esteem and sleep. Being grateful for things as they are now shows the world that when you do manifest something you what you want for yourself and your life, you will be super appreciative of it.
Gratitude journalling is something I do every day as part of my Five Minute Journal practice and it something that I feel really helps to develop those high vibe emotions we want to increase. I identify three things each morning to write about and then reflect on the highlights of my day (and what made these things possible) and what I’ve learnt in the evening. It doesn’t take long and it has the potential to make a huge difference to your life.
Use sources of envy to inspire you
When I was young, there seemed to be limited sources of envy. You might feel jealous of a school friend who got 10 out of 10 in her spelling test or your best mate who had pretty much every toy in the Argos catalogue / went on super expensive holidays / had a bedroom the size of the ground floor of your house or a garden full of expensive play equipment. Nowadays though, you can go on social media and be envious of the perfect lives of not only your friends, work colleagues and acquaintances, but also people you’ve never met who have the perfect Instagram feed / the energy to get up at 5 am and be super productive until 8pm / the healthiest body with flawless skin / the tidiest and most well-organised home with all the latest gadgets bought with their huge and effortless income – you get the idea. As Nafousi says in her first book ‘Social Media is a playground for comparison and a fertile land for envy to grow in’. She offers a few tips on how to manage things. One suggestion is to become more mindful of the content you engage with so that you choose only to read / explore content which you relate to, makes you feel good or inspires you in some way. You should also continue to work on removing your fears and doubts which are holding you back, some of which may present as envy and jealousy. Another potentially powerful idea is to recognise thoughts and feelings associated with low vibe emotions such as these and turn them into inspiration. So, rather than believing that they have things that you can’t have (scarcity mindset), you have the opportunity to reframe and choose to believe that you could have the same for yourself if you work hard (an attitude of abundance).
Trust that the universe has got your back
As part of your manifesting journey, you will meet challenges, difficulties and obstacles along the way. You have several choices when these tests turn up: 1) you could admit defeat, become impatient and decide you’re never going to get to where you want to be, believe you’ve failed, believe that other people have all the luck and let envy creep in basically, letting fear and doubt rule, or, 2) you could use these situations and obstacles in a more positive way to build your inner strength, resilience, courage and self belief to keep going and trust in the manifesting process. You might need to take action by do a bit of problem solving, trying different approaches, working things out by journalling how you feel, or using positive affirmations to remind yourself that you can and you will, but ultimately, if you have faith in yourself and the universe to provide for you then you can absolutely get there.
Final words…
Today’s blog post contains just a small part of what I’ve learnt about manifesting. If you want to find out more, then I particularly recommend Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life by Roxie Nafousi as a succinct introduction and her more recent book Manifest: Dive Deeper to further your knowledge. Jordanna Levin’s book Make It Happen: Manifest the life of your dreams provides a much more indepth look into manifestation and also has lots of exercises to try. It also focuses on different aspects of life which you may want to work on as part of your manifesting journey.
I hope you have found the topic matter of manifestation interesting and something which is worth exploring further. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts or related comments.
I promised myself I would keep to a schedule of doing one of these on my blog around every six months so this one is slightly overdue – my last one was August 2022. It’s been nice to check back on my previous one, to see how things have changed, what has stayed the same or at least similar and where my priorities lay then and now. I challenge my readers who also have their own blog to do their own ‘Currently’ with their own categories.
Currently eating…
lots of vegetable rich foods in recipes we’ve found online. This week we’ve enjoyed Turkish ratatouille with yogurt dressing and flatbreads and tonight we’re making vegetarian enchiladas which we’ve made once before and had totally forgotten about! We found that the first recipe wasn’t enough without some form of protein so we’re going to try adding a Quorn Fillet, halloumi or some type of pulse.
Currently drinking…
as I do some kind of workout each day, I’m trying to drink much more water as well as my usual cherries and berries squash. I tend to have four coffees too and I find I get dehydrated if I don’t follow each mug with a large glass of water. I’m also enjoying the Summer Shine J2O which has just made its way to the supermarket – it’s been around for a few years now and I always buy myself a four pack every now and then throughout Spring and Summer.
Currently watching…
I know we’re a bit late to the party, but we’ve got really into The Handmaids Tale and watch at least one episode each week. We’re halfway through Season 2 so we’ve got plenty left to keep us entertained. We’re also enjoying Unforgotten season 5 and The Bay which I believe is now up to season 4. Grace is also back on which is based on the novels of Peter James and if you love crime dramas, this is definitely one to watch too.
Currently creating…
the final few pages of my December Daily project. I did want to be finished by now but I’ve been busy doing other stuff and kind of put it off until the end of this month. I’ve been trying out my fuse tool to make shaker pockets and after about 4 failed attempts, I’ve finally made a fully sealed and functional one! The picture is a Christmas card that I cut the front off and trimmed.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Currently loving…
the extra light that comes with Springtime / British Summer Time. We’ve had quite a bit of rain so far since the clocks went forward, so it’s not been super bright but I’m sure sunshine is on the way! It’s also great to see things popping up in the garden – our hyacinths are in full bloom and our tulips and late flowering daffodils should be along soon.
Currently listening…
to songs from Les Misérables. We went to see the musical last year and it was amazing. I debated buying the soundtrack but instead we’ve been listening to the tunes on my husband’s tablet whilst cooking. If you haven’t yet made a trip to see it at the theatre, I would totally recommend it if you enjoy musicals.
Currently feeling…
tired out! I’ve done 3 workouts today – two mini Pilates workouts using a resistance band and my new magic circle and then an aerobic routine with a little bit of core work on my mat afterwards. The aerobics one was a free Instructor Live one which was shared on the NHS website. I was meant to do Zumba today but I got a call last night from the gym saying that the session had been cancelled due to instructor illness. I certainly think I’ve made up for missing it and I’ll be ready for bed straight after watching The Bay!
Final words…
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my mini life update for early 2023. If you do create a similar post yourself on your own blog, do comment and I will be sure to check it out.
This week, as my craft room is very chaotic due to my decluttering, I decided to bring my laptop downstairs and work at the dining table. This has given me the chance to open the patio doors on warmer days and listen to the birds in the garden. As well as it being milder, we’ve also had sun and rain creating rainbows and quite a few windy days. Just outside, we have a bright windmill stuck in a plant pot and it’s currently spinning round so fast the colours are merging! Although the wind here tends to be cold, at the moment, it’s not too bad – making me think that it’s perfect weather for kite flying. It’s this thought that gave me inspiration for my bullet journal theme for April. I’m excited to share my pages super early – it was certainly time consuming to create them so I hope you like them!
My cover page
Before designing my spreads, I like to have a look on Pinterest, YouTube and Google to see if my chosen theme has been done before. I found relatively few examples but my pages were inspired by the beautiful work of Claudia Joseph and her set up video. I’ve made it my own by choosing a different colour palette of primary and secondary colours, an alternative combination of art supplies and a number of pages which I know I’ll make use of next month.
I had the idea of creating a mixed media cover page with a pale watercolour wash and inked kites filled in with felt tip pens. For this, I decided to use my masking fluid on the kite shapes and then create a pale blue using cerulean blue and chinese white watercolour. Ask I hadn’t used masking fluid in my bullet journal before, I decided to test it out in the back of my notebook. I’m glad I did, as, although the watercolour itself looked good, the masking fluid pulled the coating off my page in several places and looked a mess. I also tried using my Tombows to colour in the kites and wasn’t happy with the results of that either!
In the end, I decided not to colour the background as sky and settled for ink and coloured pencils for the kites. I had used them in the past in my bullet journal to good effect with the only problem being colour transfer to the opposite page when completing later spreads. In an attempt to solve this, I popped to The Range and picked up a small can of Winsor & Newton Fixative to spray on my pages. This seems to have worked well and although it has an awfully strong chemical smell to it which permeates the air, I’m glad I purchased it.
Here’s the result using Staedtler Ergosoft Coloured Pencils, a Derwent colourless blending pencil, a 0.1 Pigma Micron (which broke on me halfway through but luckily I had a spare in my stash), a grey Zebra mildliner and the small tipped end of a Tombow dual pen for the writing.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
To make sure my kites were neat and symmetrical, I folded a piece of thick paper and cut out designs in different sizes. I then drew around the stencils lightly in a 2H pencil. I’ve always used a HB to sketch out my designs but a 2H is much lighter – you just have to make sure you don’t press on too hard and it easily dents the paper (I’ve realised to my cost!).
My double page calendar page
I decided to try out a slightly different set up for my calendar boxes this month with individual 5×5 squares. I drew it up lightly in pencil first and then used the bullet pointed end of some of my Tombows. Creating the squares was made much easier by using a Helix metric squares template which I remembered I had as part of my supplies. I mostly love how the double page has turned out – it’s so bright and colourful and I think it will be a joy to see each day. The only thing that’s annoying me about it is that I pressed on a little too hard with the colouring in on front cover and it has dented the paper and caused it to be raised on the left hand side of the spread. I tried ironing it flat but it didn’t work as the paper has been stretched. Looking at it positively, I’ve certainly learnt something and hopefully I’ll remember this next time.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Finances for April
If you’re a regular here on my blog, you might notice that I’ve made the expenses section shorter for April. This is because I’ve had very little work at the university in March so my income will be a lot less. For this reason, I hope to have a low spend month. This has also meant that I had some space to do a little more decoration.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Final words…
Just like watercolour painting, drawing and colouring in is are great mindful and meditative activities and both provide a wonderful way to relax and de-stress. Although the pages for April were quite time consuming, it was nice to try something a little different and I like the way they’ve turned out. I might even use the bright coloured Tombows to draw out my weekly plan for the first full week of the month, rather than the usual fineliner.
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my spreads and I look forward to seeing the work of other bullet journalists on social media over the next week or so.
In our current society, information overload has become a real issue for many, if not all of us and one which can seriously impact our mental and physical health and general wellbeing. In today’s Monday Matters, I’m going to consider what is meant by the term, discuss ways in which an information-rich environment can affect us and present 5 ways you can make it easier to deal with.
Put simply, information overload is when we are faced with so much information (much of it irrelevant to us) that our brains become overstimulated and we find it impossible to fully process it all. If I were to make a list of all of the types of information we’re bombarded with every day for most of us it would include texts, emails, news articles, search engine results, news broadcasts, advertisements: online – via banners, pop ups, game and social media interruptions, on TV, radio and on billboards, notifications from social media, the stuff we read as we mindlessly scroll through the aforementioned social media, telephone calls, radio shows, TV programmes, blog articles, discussions in meetings, with customers, colleagues or other acquaintances – the list goes on and you’re probably exhausted after reading just this sentence. All of this can lead to feelings of overwhelm, stress, inadequacy, anxiety, confusion, exhaustion and a general lack of control. It can also result in physical health symptoms such as headaches, increased blood pressure, vision problems and insomnia. It can affect our work quality, decision making, memory, efficiency, self esteem, confidence and sleep.
With that list of unwanted side effects of information overload, it’s pretty vital that we find ways to cope with and control what we consume each day. Hopefully the following tips will help.
Make your morning routine tech free
When I say tech free, I don’t mean giving up on using your alarm clock to wake up, lights to see clearly, or your heating to keep yourself warm, but avoiding the use of communication devices such as your phone, tablet, laptop and TV can help make your morning routine both mindful and productive but also a relaxing and stress free one. On my best days, I will wake up using my new Sunrise alarm clock (so I don’t immediately have to pick up my phone) and fill in my 5 minute journal. I’ll then make myself a healthy breakfast of wholewheat cereal with soya milk, a piece of fruit, a glass of squash to take my morning medications and my first cup of coffee of the day. Whilst eating and drinking, I try to focus on being mindful, showing gratitude for what I’m consuming, thinking about the nutritional content and how this will fuel my body, and not allowing anything to distract me from the process. Next, whilst I’m finishing my coffee, I begin reading, highlighting and completing journalling tasks in my current non-fiction book. At the moment I’m reading Manifest by Roxie Nafousi and I have the hardback edition which feels good in my hands and makes it much easier to mark important points, annotate or complete tasks. My reading lasts for around 20 minutes and is another quiet, slow and relaxed element of my routine. Finally, I’ll get myself ready in the usual way by showering, brushing my teeth, washing my face and doing my skincare before starting on my tasks for the day.
As I said earlier, the above is followed on my best days when my morning routine is a mindful and relaxing start to my day. However, on some days (thankfully not very often since evaluating and making changes), I will pick up my phone, check notifications from in the night, view the content from these, look through my emails, go on YouTube to see if there’s any new videos from vloggers I subscribe to and then watch the content, check the news, pop on Facebook to wish friends or family members a happy birthday (and then start looking at my feed) before taking a second to breathe and think about all of the ideas, things on my to do list and random stuff which is filling my mind from all of the information I’ve already consumed before I’ve even finished my coffee (which I’ve probably barely even tasted!). So, which routine would you prefer to give you a good start to your day?
Of course, I’m not saying that my personal routine would suit everyone, and I’m conscious that some of you will have responsibilities towards others or an early work start, but I think we can all benefit from a calmer, more peaceful and mindful start to our day.
Think about the content you wish to engage with and why
There are certain types of information which we have little or no control over. For example you might tire of listening to your boss and other members of senior management talking about targets or sending you long-winded emails, your colleagues might frustrate you by regularly interrupting you from your flow of work to ask questions etc. but you can’t really tell them that you’re going to ignore them for a week and stop attending meetings because you’re trying to feel less overwhelmed by all of the information you consume (well you could but I’m pretty sure you would be waving bye bye to your job pretty soon). However, outside of work, we can generally make choices and set boundaries which help to limit our exposure to information. Here’s some ideas to think about:
Focus on your current interests Choose content from a reliable source which is relevant to your current interests. For example, you might read non-fiction texts and watch videos about watercolour painting because it’s something you enjoy doing in your free time and want to get better at. You might search for Pinterest content which shows Spring outfit and fashion ideas because you want some ideas on how to update your wardrobe. Or, you might search online for exercise ideas from qualified instructors which focus on building core strength because you’ve heard it will help to improve your posture and make you more toned.
Consider your goals Think about your current aspirations, desires and goals to help you decide what kind of information will benefit you in the long term. For example, if you want to work on creating a vegetable garden so you can enjoy your homegrown produce in your meals, you will probably want to read articles in magazines or online from from reputable sources such as Gardener’s World or RHS. You might also plan to watch YouTube videos for planting tips or buy a comprehensive guide to making the most of your plot. The key is to live in alignment with your current priorities whilst making choices which reflect you values and beliefs.
Ignore information and media content which doesn’t make you feel goodThink about the effect certain information has on your mood. For example, if reading and watching local or national news makes you feel sad, angry, frustrated or anxious, try to limit your exposure or try avoiding it for a while and see how you feel (if there’s anything major happening in the world or your local community, you’re certain to hear about it somewhere and then you can find out more if you need to). If looking at your friend’s social media feed makes you feel inadequate and as though your life is uninteresting and uneventful, try giving it a miss for a while. Similarly, if you follow content creators on YouTube who always appear to be super-organised, productive and well put together and it makes you feel like your life is an absolute mess or that you’re a domestic slattern, it might be time to unsubscribe.
Remember, social media is designed to be addictive The designers of social media platforms and the teams running them want you to spend hours scrolling and thrive on the fact that you keep coming back for more. That’s why it’s so hard to cut down or stop. In their book Make Time, Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky refer to these apps, and other sources of ever updating information, as infinity pools, which provide constant distraction from what we would actually like to focus our time on each day. If you struggle with productivity issues or decisions about what to prioritise in your life, their book is well worth a read. For now, try spending a little time reflecting on your current social media usage, asking yourself questions such as:
How do I feel after using (insert S.M. platform)? Why?
What times of day do I find myself using S.M.?
How much of my time per day / week is spent on S.M.? (Some mobile phones can track this for you and compare your usage over consecutive weeks)
What impact does my S.M. usage have on my mental health? Do I feel more connected with others who share my interests or inspired by the content I consume? Alternatively, does it leave me with feelings of isolation, inadequacy, dissatisfaction, loneliness (and anything else that makes you uncomfortable)?
Would I describe my social media habits as unhealthy? e.g. is it the first thing I think about when I wake up or do I scroll just before or in bed and end up not being able to sleep?
Make a plan to take control of the information you choose to consume before it takes control of you!
Turn off your notifications and alerts
One of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce the volume of information that comes your way is by turning off notifications and alerts from the various social media platforms and apps you use. Again, you should think about whether the notifications and alerts are a distraction or are useful for you. So, for example, I have a star gazing app and I quite like the messages I’m sent a few times a week which tell me about particular celestial bodies that can be viewed that night and opening the app shows us where to find them in the sky. I also get an alert which reminds me to fill in by Bipolar mood tracker each evening as it’s important for me to see what affect different events or activities have on my mood and wellbeing. Of my two email accounts, one is for professional and important stuff like work related opportunities, Etsy shop sales or messages from customers etc., whilst the other is for all the random marketing emails from various shops and companies which I don’t want to be notified of throughout the day. For online orders that I’ve placed, I’ve found there is the option on Yahoo Mail to received notifications of dispatch and delivery information. I’m not quite sure how it works but I presume it searches for key words within the emails.
The second thing you can do is go into your phone settings and set up a ‘do not disturb’ when you are busy (which you turn off at a time of your choosing) and a sleeping schedule which means that after a selected time in the evening and before a chosen time in the morning, your phone does not send notifications of any kind. You can alter this so that alarms can still go off if you need any reminders. For example, I have an alarm set to remind me to take my evening medications and another one to remind me to book my exercise class for the next week when it gets to 10.15pm (annoyingly, if I don’t book straightaway the class fills up with 1 minute of going live!).
Take a break (away from social media)
I’ve discussed before how I use the Pomodoro technique to be productive during the day but one of the most important aspects of the method is taking regular breaks. It’s tempting to check in with social media at these times but I make a point of doing something different so I’m not still looking at a screen and I don’t end up losing track of time. Some ideas for activities to do in your break include:
get outside or open a window and inhale some fresh air
do a mini meditation
listen to some music with your eyes closed or have a little boogie
make a hot or cold drink
enjoy a healthy snack
read a book or magazine
do some doodling / colouring in
do some stretches
declutter your workspace
Do a brain dump
If you feel like you’re drowning in thoughts, feelings, ideas and to-dos, it’s a good idea to get it all out on paper. This is the idea behind a ‘brain dump’, where you free write everything that is currently on your mind onto a blank sheet in a format of your choosing – in long hand, note form, spider diagram style etc. and it can be a powerful way to relieve stress. When you’ve finished, you can decide what to do with all the information – do you need to add something to your calendar or schedule in a time to explore further? might you need to add a few things to your to do list for the next week? would you benefit from talking to someone about how you’re feeling? maybe you need to seek out some positive news stories or make plans for a self care day or a weekend away?
Final words…
I hope you have found today’s tips helpful and feel inspired to try some of them as a way to improve your health and wellbeing. If you do give any of the suggestions a go, I would love to hear how you get on. I know that it can be tempting to consume as much information as you can through the fear of missing out (FOMO) but remember that a lot of what’s out there is neither useful, helpful, relevant or worthy of your time so try and adopt the joy of missing out (JOMO) approach instead!
Keeping it creative 