Category: mindset

Posted in intentional living, journalling, lifestyle, mindset, Planning and journaling, reflective journalling, self care, Setting goals and intentions

Why I’m ditching The Five Minute Journal and what I’m trying now

Posted on by Laura
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

For the past couple of years now, I’ve been using The Five Minute Journal consistently as a way of recording what I’m grateful for, thinking about how to make my day as good as possible, selecting a positive affirmation and making a note of the main highlights each evening. There are so many positives about this journalling system, which, as the name suggests, can be filled in very quickly using the prompts given. So, you might wonder why I’ve made the decision to stop using it? Today, I’m going to be sharing my main reasons and also talking about what I’ve started using instead.

Why I’m no longer using The Five Minute Journal

As you can see in the photo above, I’ve worked my way through four of The Five Minute Journals lasting six months each. I’ve mainly enjoyed using this guided journal with daily prompts, but a few months ago, I started to think about trying something else. This was mainly because I felt like my practise was getting a bit stale and repetitive and wanted something that I would really look forward to filling in twice a day. Here’s some of the things which have made me fall out of love with it:

The Gratitude section – I found this first bit really difficult to fill in when half asleep in the early morning. I would have preferred to list what I was thankful for in the evening so I could draw from things which had happened during my day.

The ‘What would make today great?’ section – I liked coming up with things that would make a difference to my day but I also felt like I wanted to explain why and the journal did not allow enough space for this. I think I would have preferred it if the section was a little more flexible so that you could maybe write one thing and provide an explanation or 2 or 3 things without going into detail.

The Daily Affirmation section – I liked choosing an affirmation for the day but I did sometimes struggle with coming up with one and had to resort to looking on the Internet for ideas which kind of made the process take a lot longer than five minutes.

Highlights Of The Day section – I continued to enjoy writing my highlights and often found myself writing a fourth one. I would have liked a bit more room to write in more detail for this part but, this would have taken longer than five minutes to complete if it was longer.

What did I learn today? section – For this part, the idea was to write something that the day had taught you about yourself or your situation, so, for example you could write ‘scrolling the news on my phone makes me feel sad’ or ‘sometimes when I feel hungry, I’m actually thirsty and should try drinking water before turning to a snack’. Often, I found this difficult and would end up writing something general that I’d learnt that day such as a new piece of knowledge or some advice that I’d come across. However, I felt that these ‘learnings’ were not really what the section was getting at. I felt like this became a drag and something I dreaded trying to fill in which isn’t how I wanted to feel as filling in the journal is meant to be a positive experience.

Weekly Challenges – these were something I looked forward to, but, I didn’t always have time on the particular day it was presented on and I often ended up forgetting about it when really, it would have been better to do it on an alternative date. Also, I think I would have preferred it if there was a menu of options at the back of the book and you could choose one which suited you at that time.

Despite me not wanting to purchase another ‘The Five Minute Journal’, what I didn’t want to do was abandon journalling altogether. And, luckily, I found an alternative journal in a garden centre whilst I was visiting family. My new journal is beautiful to look at, great to write in (much better quality paper) and allows more flexibility with what you can write about. I create a morning and evening entry and I would say it takes me no longer than ten minutes in the morning and no longer than fifteen in the evening. It’s helped me to fall in love with journalling again and I’m really enjoying filling it in. It also has an extra little prompt each day which changes regularly and, every now and then, it has something different on the next page which you can choose to fill in at some point during your day.

My New Journal

Below, is the journal that I’ve just started using partway through this month. I picked it up at Easter time and was really looking forward to getting going with it. I’ve also photographed some pages to give you an idea about the morning and evening prompts and also some of the extra challenges that are dotted throughout the book. You’ll also see that it has some gorgeous illustrations too which definitely adds to the appeal!

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Final words…

Any regular practice in life can sometimes get a little boring and become hard to maintain interest in, so it can really help to shake things up every now and then. I’m interested to know if other journallers have ditched a particular form of journalling and tried something new. Sometimes change can be scary but often, it can also be invigorating too. I would love to hear what you think of my new journal and if it appeals to you too so let me know in the comments.

Posted in goal setting, mindset, personal development, planner girl, productivity, Setting goals and intentions

Monday Matters: Taking simple goals and turning them into SMART goals for the month – a mini guide with real life examples

Posted on by Laura

For the last five months, I have been setting a number of monthly goals which I aim to have met by the end of the month. Today, I thought I’d share my process using my actual list for this month as an example. I also want to explain how I make sure that each of them are SMART, even if the original goal is rather loose and unspecific.

Before I share my goals for February, here’s a quick reminder of what the letters of the acronym SMART stand for.

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Achievable

R – Relevant

T – Time bound

Now, obviously, all of my goals are time bound as I aim to have achieved them by the end of the month, but how do I make sure my goals meet the rest of the criteria? Well, here’s an image showing my simple goals laid out in my bullet journal and I’ll pick out two of them to consider in detail so you can see my thought process and actions I take to prepare.

My actual goals for February 2025

Image credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Let’s take the first one:

Learn how to use my diffuser to create perfect nice curls.

I’ve made this goal specific by explaining exactly what I hope to achieve by learning to use my diffuser. I haven’t just said ‘learn how to use my diffuser attachment’, I’ve also stated what I want to use it for.

My goal can be measurable as I’m currently clueless on how to use the diffuser correctly, whereas when I’ve achieved my goal I should be able to use it to create nice looking curls. I’ll deem them to be nice enough if I would be happy to leave the house for the day with them looking like they do!

The goal is achievable as I have the resources required to work towards it, i.e. I own a diffuser attachment for my hairdryer and I can select video tutorials on YouTube to watch to learn the techniques involved. And, you’ll notice I’ve crossed out the word ‘perfect’ – this was intentional as I’m saying that the curls don’t need to look as perfect as they would when I step out of the hairdressers, but need to look nice enough to show them off with confidence.

The goal is a particularly relevant one for me as my hairdresser has been curling my hair with with a wand or straighteners and, although they look beautiful at first, I’m always frustrated with the way they drop out in less than an hour so, I’ve armed myself with curling gel which should help to hold the curl better. Also, I’ve always wanted to be able to create bouncy curls so this is a good objective.

Now, I know I said earlier that the goal is time bound, but, for me, saying I’m going to get all of the above goals ticked off by the end of February leaves too much opportunity for failure, so, I like to get super specific and dedicate a block of time to each project, activity or task involved in my monthly plan. For example, I might decide that on Wednesday 12th February in the morning, I’ll watch a couple of tutorials on YouTube that have been liked by lots of viewers (more likely to be good quality) and then have a go at curling my hair in the afternoon. I’ll also dedicate another 2 or 3 hours to perfecting my new skill until the curls look nice enough to go out with.

I also want to talk about the very last goal in my list:

‘Do two watercolour exploration exercises’.

I’ve picked this one to explain about, because I had something similar for one of my January goals, but I didn’t achieve it. In fact, I didn’t achieve a single part of it because I wrote ‘Do some watercolour exploration each week, using ideas from Painting Calm’ and, although I did a small amount of watercolouring just before the end of January, it wasn’t using ideas from my new book (which I have barely looked at yet) and it certainly didn’t happen every week!

To be completely honest, my goal was far too ambitious as it demanded a lot of time, something that I didn’t have enough of, especially with all of the other goals I’d set for that month. Therefore, it didn’t fit the achievable element of a SMART goal. So, this time, I’ve reduced what is expected of me, and I’m going to write into my monthly BuJo calendar, exactly when my watercolouring sessions will take place. I’ll also pre-pick the ‘watercolour explorations’ I’ll be doing so I can get prepared before I start. They can also be activities from my new book or ones I see in social media if I fancy trying them instead (they’re specific but not too ridged).

So, for my final goal (i.e. the one at the bottom of my list), although ‘Do 2 watercolour explorations’ might seem a bit vague, it can easily be developed as a SMART goal. It is specific as it states the kind of art I want to do and explains that they’re explorations so basically just me trying out a couple of techniques. It’s measurable as I’ll be able to see the evidence of two exploration style activities on watercolour paper or in a sketch book. It seems to be much more achievable – as long as I don’t get COVID again! It’s relevant, as exploring with watercolour is on my vision board for 2025 and it’s time bound as I plan to do both activities before the end of the month with my sessions identified on specific days (recorded in my BuJo) and time blocks drawn up on the actual day, based on how long I would like to spend doing them.

Final words…

I hope today’s post has been helpful for you and will assist you in turning your simple goals into SMART goals to increase your chance of achieving them. I see so many examples of incredibly unspecific goals when people share their monthly spreads and then, when they come to review their progress, they talk about how they only achieved a small number of them or, more often than not, had forgotten what they had said they wanted to do! As well as making your goals SMART, you should also remember to check back in with them on a regular basis. This way, you can pick out two or three for each week of the month and then outline your plans, first in your monthly set up, and then in your weekly.

I would wish you the best of luck with your goals, but really, what’s required is hard work and paying attention to what matters to you so I’ll just say I hope you’re ready for action and are focused on what you want! Go get em!

Posted in Blogging, crafting, creativity, Cricut, goal setting, Health and Nutrition, Home cooking, intentional living, life hacks, lifestyle, manifestation, mindset, personal development, Planning and journaling, reflective journalling, Setting goals and intentions, watercolour painting

Setting up my 2025 Vision Board

Posted on by Laura

Last year, for some unknown reason, I think I must have decided against making a 2024 vision board. I’m not sure why, but maybe I didn’t feel up to it or perhaps I had a variety of commitments at the beginning of January and decided it was too late in the month to work on one.

For 2025, I decided that, for me personally, it’s not really important to have the board finished in super quick time and it doesn’t matter if I’m still working on it towards the end of January. I wanted to have a slow start to the first month, really pondering over what I would like the year to look like. I found it helpful to revisit a couple of old blog posts of mine in which I’d talked about key questions you could ask yourself to prepare your mind and what to actually do to improve your chances of manifesting everything you’ve visualised for the year.

I decided to create a larger display, rather than using two pages in my bullet journal as then I can have it on my craft room / office wall to look at all year round. I also chose to combine images, motivational sayings, affirmations and a few cute decorative elements to make it visually appealing. I’ve spend days thinking about what I truly want this year, flicking through a huge stash of Psychologies magazines, answering deep questions from my previous vision board posts, journalling my thoughts and closing my eyes to visualise things. I’m so glad I put lots into the preparation as my 2025 vision board is now complete and turned out exactly how I wanted it. I can’t wait to share a photograph of the finished product!

And here it is…

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

My main categories

Diet – The plan this year is to eat more plant-based goodies than ever before. We’ve made so many healthy and delicious vegan dishes this Veganuary and we’ve also found a cafe that has a range of vegan friendly cake options. It’s getting easier and easier to eat a plant based diet and my husband and I have already made a number of changes over the years such as soya milk on our cereal and oat milk in our hot drinks, vegan spread on our bread, lots of plant based alternatives to meat such as soya mince, veggie sausages, VLTs etc.

Creativity – I want to develop my watercolour skills even further this year, whilst also engaging in mindful and calming activity after busy days. I got a gorgeous book for Christmas which provides exploratory activities and projects with a nature theme. I want to incorporate a weekly slot of time to experiment and develop a range of techniques.

Blogging – I want to spend more time promoting my blog posts so that I develop a wider readership. I used to consistently post pins on Pinterest but I’ve let this slide over the last few years. I get plenty of readers but I want to reach individuals who do not have their own blog as well as those who are keen bloggers.

PCPI work – I thoroughly enjoy my work at the university but it’s really important to me that I’m making as much of a difference as I can to the students. I particularly want to develop my feedback skills for medicine sessions, particularly with young adults who are in the initial stages of their uni course.

Kaizen – I recently started a short book called The Little Book of Kaizen – The Japanese art of transformation, one small step at a time. I’m enjoying reading it and doing the exercises at the beginning. The idea really appeals to me, so, to make sure it’s a focus for me this year, I’ve added a photograph of the mini book on my vision board with a view to working through all of the chapters. I’ve even pick out a cute notebook to use to jot things down and I’m using my fountain pen to write beautifully inside.

Cricut – As you probably already know, I’m obsessed with making stickers and cutting them using my Joy Xtra. However, I also have the smaller Joy machine and also invested in the EasyPress 2 when it was on offer at a discount. I have lots of vinyl and HTV as well as some iron on papers so I want to spend time this year getting creative and using them all up. I have so many ideas but I now need to schedule time to actually get making things. I added a Cricut bug sticker to watch over me and remind me to have more fun playing with my machines.

Getting organised – We have a lot of stuff in our house and some of it needs purging. As well as trying to use up craft materials before buying any more, I also want to re-organise our home so it’s easy to clean and keep tidy.

Final words…

That’s everything on my vision board for this year and to ensure that everything on the display comes into fruition, I will be checking in with it at the beginning of each month and using the different aspects to set mini monthly goals. I’ve developed pages in my bullet journal to list my goals and I’ll make sure at least some of them relate to things I want to manifest throughout the year.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my board and that it’s inspired you to have a go at creating your own. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get around to it for a few weeks – there’s still plenty of days left in the year to take action.

Good luck!

Posted in goal setting, intentional living, life hacks, mindset, productivity

Monday Matters: How writing a Not to-do list can revolutionise your days

Posted on by Laura

We’re all familiar with the concept of a ‘to-do’ list and have likely used them many times in a bid to make our day super productive. We’ve probably tried to make ourselves feel like we’re winning by adding a few things we’ve already finished or got started on so we can quickly tick them off. However, sometimes, we’ll have felt disheartened when we’re approaching bedtime and discover that most of our list needs migrating to tomorrow’s to-dos because we weren’t productive enough, have too much to do, or, we got distracted by other things.

Creating a ‘not to-do list’ can be a wonderful tool to help us identify and eliminate tasks, habits and distractions which prevent us from focusing on what really matters and stop us from being as productive as we would like to be. In a nutshell, a ‘Not to-do list’ is a list of activities you choose to avoid doing so that you can manage your time effectively. This might include things like the following:

  • anything which distracts you on a regular basis
  • things which drain your energy
  • bad habits that you want to remove from your working time
  • things which don’t currently add value to your life
  • unnecessary tasks i.e. things which don’t need to be done
  • other people’s responsibilities

Ideas for items to add to your not to-do list

Your Not to-do list should be highly personalised depending on your own wants and needs but here are some ideas to get you started.

  • Checking your emails repeatedly throughout the day
  • Mindlessly scrolling social media
  • Checking your phone in bed – either last thing at night or before you get up
  • Drinking coffee after 3pm (when you have work the next day)
  • Going to bed later than 11pm (Sunday – Thursday)
  • Spending time thinking about / stressing over things which are out of your control
  • Reading negative news
  • Things that are not my responsibility
  • Doing tasks which would be best delegated to someone else
  • Multi-tasking (or attempting to)
  • Saying yes to tasks or events that aren’t a priority right now
  • Working whilst eating lunch
  • Spending time with individuals who drain your energy
  • Forgetting to take regular work breaks
  • Doing work after 5pm
  • Procrastinating by watching lots of productivity videos (binge watching) on YouTube
  • Keeping ideas, thoughts and must dos in your head instead of writing them down and scheduling time to deal with them
  • Not identifying your top priorities for the day
  • Eating unhealthy snacks which make you feel sluggish
  • Making excuses to avoid / put off difficult tasks
  • Aiming for perfection – forgetting that done is better than perfect
  • Setting too many goals at once

Final words…

I hope you’ve found today’s post useful and it’s helped you to consider tasks, habits and distractions which prevent you from being as productive as you could be. I would really appreciate it if you took time out from your busy schedule to drop me a comment sharing your top three things to add to your ‘Not to-do list’.

Posted in mental health, Mindfulness, mindset, psychology, self care, wellbeing, wellness

Monday Matters: 8 ways to instantly boost your mood

Posted on by Laura

Sometimes, no matter how positive you feel when you wake up, particular events, issues, frustrations and even certain people’s attitudes can put a dampener on things and leave you feeling deflated. You probably wish you hadn’t let these parts of your day affect you as much as they have but it’s a natural part of life to experience ups and downs. When low mood strikes, there are a number of ways in which you can help yourself to feel better. Today, I’m sharing 8 tried and tested ideas which I’ve found helpful and I promise none of them include eating a gigantic bar of chocolate or any other highly calorific item!

Get out in nature

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of getting out in nature, whether that’s spending some time in my garden, heading to my local woodland park or even going to the beach to walk on the sand or paddle in the sea. It doesn’t have to be for long – just a few minutes of fresh air can make the world of difference to how you feel.

Listen to some upbeat tunes (even better, dance and sing too)

I first wrote about the benefits of listening to music back in 2021 and, as part of the post, I shared a page I’d created in my bullet journal with a mood boosting playlist. Musical taste is incredibly personal but choosing some upbeat songs to boogie, sing and listen along to can put you in a much better frame of mind. Here’s some ideas for uplifting tracks to find on YouTube, Apple Music or whatever happens to be your favourite resource to listen to through headphones or to blast out through your speakers (if it won’t disturb anyone):

  • Can’t Stop The Feeling By Justin Timberlake
  • I Got a Feeling By The Black Eyed Peas
  • Happy By Pharrell Williams
  • 22 By Taylor Swift
  • Walking On Sunshine By Katrina & The Waves
  • Song 2 By Blur
  • Love Shack By B-52s
  • Roar By Katy Perry
  • Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses
  • Good Feelin’ By Flo Rida
  • Watermelon Sugar By Harry Styles
  • Dance Monkey By Tones And I
  • Groove Is In The Heart By Deee-lite
  • Blinding Lights By The Weeknd
  • Havana By Camila Cabello Feat. Young Thug

Whatever your favourite style of music, jot down an uplifting songs list or create a track list on your device and keep it in a memorable location (either on paper or digitally) to refer to when you need it.

Get moving

On the subject of moving our body, as an alternative to dancing along to your favourite tracks, you could also explore other forms of exercise in a bid to boost your mood. Any type of physical activity that raises your heart rate has been shown to release endorphins in the body. These hormones and neurotransmitters, which have been described as ‘a natural high’, will have you feeling better in minutes. Here’s some fun / invigorating summer time activities to try:

  • Spend some time in your garden pulling weeds, breaking up compacted soil in your borders, cutting your lawn, deadheading faded blooms, pruning bushes and shrubs, checking for hidden pests and watering thirst plants with a heavy watering can.
  • Get your bike out of the garage, dust it off and head to a trail of your choice. I like to go to the coast as it’s a straight stretch of cycle path which is wide enough for if I get the wobbles but if you search ‘easy bike rides near me’ you can explore different options available to you in your locality.
  • Play a game or do a physical activity that you used to enjoy as a kid – frisbee, bouncing a ball off a wall / bat / the ground,
  • Clean and or tidy your desk / room / house, then sit back and enjoy the feeling that comes with a neat and dust free space.
  • Take a brisk walk around the block and see if you can notice anything new or different – maybe someone in your immediate area has painted their fence, changed their car, got a new pet, weeded their driveway etc. Maybe the council has added a new sign, planted some young trees or mown the grass in another street. If you can’t see anything that’s changed, maybe you could think of some changes you would like to make if you were in charge!

Soak up some sunshine

Sunlight is a natural source of Vitamin D which has been scientifically proven to regulate your mood. If it’s a nice day, get your sunglasses and some sun protection on and feel the warmth on your skin. I like to sit on our bench or one of our patio chairs in the garden and close my eyes for some mindful listening to accompany the experience. This is a great way to get into a meditative state as it gives you something to focus on and minimises the change of your mind wandering towards the major or minor irritations I mentioned previously. In the summer, there’s generally lots of daytime sounds whether it’s someone mowing the lawn, children laughing, birds tweeting or even distant traffic noises.

What a video of something cute or funny

Open up YouTube on your phone or computer and search for cute or funny videos of, plus the name of your favourite pet or animal. Anyone who’s been following my blog for a while is likely to know my animal of choice is a Syrian hamster, but I can guarantee that there are videos out there to suit all whether that’s woodland birds, different pets or even more unusual choices like sealions, squirrels, polar bears or hedgehogs.

Dig out your photograph albums

Looking back at old photographs (and/or journals if you do memory keeping like I do) is a great way to bring to mind happy memories of exciting life events, people in your life (past and present) and places you’ve been. And if you’re one of those people who rarely print your images off, why not flick through those on your phone and select some to add to an album later. Taking time on your own to quietly sit and view several years worth of photographs can be very therapeutic, as can sharing them with loved ones either in person or by contacting them via phone, WhatsApp, email or even letter (pretty paper optional!).

Practise gratitude

Grab a piece of paper or your journal and make a list of five small things you’re grateful for in your life right now. Research shows that a consistent gratitude practice has so many health and wellbeing benefits so give it a try starting today and see how it makes you feel. Check out this blog post to learn more.

Make a list of things you love about yourself

Whilst you’ve got a pen and paper to hand, here’s another positive exercise to try. Write a title ‘Things I love about myself’ at the top of the page and then make a list of your best qualities. This could include physical aspects such as your smile, your lovely, long locks, your clear skin and healthy looking nails, your character traits, e.g. kindness, good analytical skills, reliability, optimism and so on, and things you’re really good at like cooking, motivating yourself, helping others, solving problems etc. Once you written as much as you can right now, try displaying your list somewhere so you can refer to it when you need a mood boost, or add to it when something comes to mind.

Inhale an uplifting scent

If you know anything about aromatherapy, you’ll probably be aware that some scents are thought to be uplifting and mood boosting. I have a few little essential oil bottles which I got from the Body Shop in strawberry, raspberry and exotic which I love to inhale at any given opportunity. My scents of choice are fruity smells but below are a list of classic options which I collected from various websites via Google.

  • vanilla
  • peppermint
  • jasmine
  • citrus scents including orange, lemon and grapefruit
  • juicy fruits like peaches, pear and pineapple
  • relaxing scents like lavender, ylang, ylang and chamomile
  • spicy scents such as ginger, cinnamon and clove
  • fresh forest options such as pine and eucalyptus

Of course, it’s important to experiment and see which you prefer (and think about the mood you want to create such as uplifting or relaxing) but these should get you started with that. As you learn more about aromatherapy, you might like to try combining scents to create your perfect mood booster!

Final words…

I hope you’ve found today’s post beneficial and the ideas will motivate you to be pro-active next time you find yourself in a funk or stressed by particular events in your day. If I haven’t shared your favourite way to uplift your mood, or relax when tensions are high, feel free to add it in the comments as it may help someone else to manage their mood in the future along with my ideas.

Thanks for reading and I’ll be back with another wellbeing post very soon,