productivity – Keeping it creative

art, Bullet journaling, coloured pencil, creativity, goal setting, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling

Setting up my bullet journal for May 2025: Primrose / primula theme

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by Laura

This month, I’ve again taken inspiration from our garden. A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to add more colour out the front of the house, so we went to the garden centre to look for a set of six bedding plants that should come back year after year. I opted for primroses (AKA primula) as there was already one out there which pops up each spring and was obviously set before we moved in over a decade ago. After the flowers had settled in – they went a bit floppy when we first installed them – I took some macro photos to use as inspiration for my spreads. It’s taken me ages to sketch out, draw and colour in all of the images but it was such a lovely, mindful activity that I found it really therapeutic. As I write this, it’s the 2nd May and I still haven’t finished all of the decor but I have drawn up my calendar, finances, goals and first weekly so I can actually fill in events and tasks. I hope you like my finished pages and they inspire you to give florals a go to practise your drawing, colouring or maybe painting skills.

Front cover

The calendar was the last page I finished and took me a long while to complete. I used a photograph of a plant pot of primroses for reference which I found on Google. I used mainly my Staedtler Ergosoft coloured pencils and blended a few shades together to get a nice peachy colour. I also used my blending pencil to mix up the colours and to create a smooth appearance. I also used my Sakura Gelly Roll pen in a size 10 to draw lines inside of the Pigma Micron as the actual primroses had a very thin white trim.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Monthly calendar

I added the decor to my calendar second, after I did the image for my finances record, and, as it had taken me such as long time to finish that one, I opted for a more sketchy appearance to the primroses you see here. I held my fineliner really lightly and tried to create a slightly wobbly appearance so the plants looked more natural. I’m really happy with how they turned out and the colours look so cheerful. I made good use of lots of my coloured pencils and also used my blending pencil to blend out any harsh lines.

Finances record

As well as the pack of six small primrose plants, we also purchased a much larger one for our back garden. The flowers are a lovely, pale pink but I didn’t have a coloured pencil which matched so I’ve gone for more of a peachy colour. I initially did just the flower in the centre but decided there were too many leaves and not enough floral bits so I added the other two and made them a little more washed out so the central one stood out.

Monthly goals

Last month I (yet again), picked far too many goals to be in with any chance of achieving them all. So, for May, I’ve really, really restricted myself and opted for just 5 (go me!). And, I’ve already achieved one of them as I made bread for the very first time yesterday!

Rather than adding some more primrose illustrations, I opted to add some stickers to make the set up much quicker. Some, I’ve made myself and others are from my ever increasing stash (you can never have too many stickers – right?). However, I have just started a new BuJo this month and a not to do goal of mine is to add plenty of my own illustrations straight into my notebook rather than overloading with stickers and making my journal super bulky (my orange one would barely close by the time I finished it!).

Weekly plan

I’ve been using this same style layout for quite a few weeks now and it really works for me. It gives me enough room to write events and add a few to dos underneath each day. I can then add a small illustration at the bottom if I want to, or use the full space for recording. This week, I’ve done some small primrose illustrations but I may not do any next week as I have lots of sessions at the university so I’ll be super busy.

Final words…

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today. I hope you like my finished spreads. I think they look really colourful and provide a great reminder of our new plants and all of the other bright colours of primrose which you can get. The flowers seem to be thriving at the moment but as we haven’t had any rain for weeks, they require daily watering as the soil is getting so dry. I’m hoping they’re going to stay looking good for a least another month and continue to make me smile each time I get in and out of my car!

Wishing you a marvellous May,

Much love,

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 Jan 22, 2025Jan 22, 2025 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…

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!

Anxiety management, Bipolar disorder, compassion, depression management, grief, life hacks, mental health, productivity, Uncategorized, wellbeing

Monday Matters: How writing a ‘done list’ can improve your wellbeing during periods of physical and/or mental illness

Posted on Jan 6, 2025Jan 5, 2025 by Laura

Welcome to my first blog post of 2025. Happy New Year to you all, and a special hello to my new followers! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are excited for what this year will bring.

My husband and I both enjoyed the festive period, which this year (make that last year!) was a double celebration as my brother and his partner got married a few days after Santa had been. The wedding was a joyous occasion and a great a chance to chat with family I hadn’t seen in a while too.

Whilst on the way back home, and with my husband doing the driving, I made the most of being in the passenger seat by reflecting on 2024 and thinking about what I would like to achieve in 2025. I also started to mentally compose a to-do list full of chores and more pleasurable activities to make the most of the remaining three days of the holiday. Little did I know that something would scupper my plans…

Bloody COVID-19 strikes again!

By the time we got back, we both had a bit of a sore throat, which I assumed was just a bit of dehydration from the long car journey. By New Year’s Eve, we felt absolutely dreadful, and so my husband did a test (just in case), and I’m sure you can all guess how that turned out! Needless to say, we’ve barely had the energy for basic self care, nevermind any chores, fun activities or creative pursuits.

We did, however, manage to psych ourselves up enough to take a quick shower each day, despite how exhausted we were and, despite the fact that the powerful water raining down and massaging in my shampoo and conditioner brought actual pain to my scalp! – random covid symptom or what?????? And I’m so glad we did because this idea for a blog post was born – in fact, some of my best content and general epiphanies come to me whilst showering (anyone else??).

Basically, I was busy thinking about how annoying it was that I was too exhausted to do anything and that being ill was a giant waste of time, and then I recalled that during my worst bipolar depressions, I still achieved a few things each day and tried my best to be kind to myself and celebrate small wins. To help me do this, I created something that I call a ‘done list’ and, although my illness was physical rather than mental on this occasion, I realised the same technique could be used to make myself feel better.

As everyone goes through ups and downs in life, I thought I’d share how my done list works. You might not need to apply the technique now, but it’s a lovely, self compassionate activity which you can store in your physical or metaphorical toolbox to use when needed such as when you’re sick or struggling with low mood. It can also be used when you’re not feeling under the weather, as a celebration of how productive you’ve been in general or as you work towards your goals for the week / month / year and so on.

In fact, as I sat on the sofa (on day 3 of COVID-19), soothing my throat with a warm drink, I actually started mentally creating one to help my husband and I feel a sense of achievement because I realised we actually did something that day despite feeling like crap.

So what’s a done list?

A done list, as the name suggests, is basically a list of things you’ve achieved that hour / day / week / fortnight / month / different time frame of your choosing, which can be tailored to how you’re feeling – both physically and mentally. So, for example, your list could look something like this:

Today’s done list

got out of bed (before 10am too!)
got dressed
brushed my teeth and washed my face
planned 3 things to do
made and ate a sandwich (even though I didn’t feel hungry)
worked on my jigsaw
watched TV for 1 hour (and managed to follow the storyline of the drama)

Or, if you’re not feeling too bad (in a bit more pain than usual, or a little tired maybe and not 100%), could include more taxing items such as those found in the list below:

Things I’ve done this week

washed the car
tidied my craft room
decluttered 20 items from craft room!
made 3 meals from scratch
5 gentle workouts (2 x 20 mins yoga and 3 x 30 mins Pilates)
created a journalling page using my crafting stash

As you can see from the above, you can include super-minute achievements (or what would considered to be when well) or more ambitious ‘done’ items at other times. These ‘done’ tasks make a good record of how you’ve spent your time and can help you realise that, yes, you might be on top form, but you did make some progress or make a dent in your mental to do list (or physical one if you wrote a list when feeling productive and then things changed e.g. illness, upsetting life event, overwhelm etc).

If you’re still at work, but it’s been a struggle not to phone in sick, you could even include things that you achieved as part of your job, like biting your tongue at a comment made by a colleague or being assertive and saying no to your boss or team leader!

What are the main benefits of creating a ‘done list’?

These are the main benefits I’ve found of creating a done list, but you may be able to come up with more:

a visual reminder of what you’ve achieved in the chosen timeframe – the smaller the items are, the longer your list can be!
boosts your motivation to do more things (be careful not to do too much though as the last thing you want to do is make yourself feel worse)
acknowledges your small wins during difficult times

Final words…

I apologise if this is not new content and I’ve already written about a ‘done list’ before – I did trail through my posts in a bid to find out, and couldn’t pinpoint anything but I still have ‘COVID brain’. Hopefully I’ve shared something helpful which has given you a new string to your ‘wellbeing bow’, particularly if you have recurrent issues with your physical or mental health like I do. Doing a ‘done list’ can also be a great record of what you’ve achieved over a period of time, so can be a really useful tool for measuring productivity too. However you use it, I’m pretty sure it’ll make you feel a little more upbeat about things and your lists may even bring a smile to your face at a later date if you keep them in your planner and happen to flip back!

Thank you for reading and I wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy 2025,

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, Christmas, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, watercolour painting

Setting up my Bullet Journal for December 2024: Winter foliage theme

Posted on Dec 5, 2024Dec 5, 2024 by Laura

This month, rather than doing a full on Christmas theme, I’ve taken inspiration from an artist whose content I follow on YouTube. In a recent video, she shared some easy watercolour cards featuring winter foliage, and one of the designs was a bauble shape decorated with red berries, leaf stems and pine branches. I had a go at creating my own on watercolour paper and loved how it turned out so I used it for my front cover (even gluing in the thick paper directly into my notebook). For the rest of my spreads I used felt tip pens and foliage stickers using designs found on Cricut Design Space, plus gold paint to create shine. I can’t wait to share the results with you.

Front cover

Usually, I scan and print my watercolour designs but, on this occasion, the finished result was so disappointing that I decided to stick the original straight in. It’s made my journal super bulky, and I’m only on my second month, but I’m so happy with how it looks. I added some gold sparkly paper behind it and I think it makes it really festive (unfortunately, it doesn’t show up too well in the photograph).

Monthly calendar

This is my usual calendar with leafy sprigs, berries and pine pieces created using an array of pens including my Tombow dual tips, Papermate flairs, Pentel brush pens and a couple of American Craft precision pens. Rather than sketching the designs, I went straight in with the colour and I think the pages turned out okay. The December title is backed with another glitter paper, this time in a lovely green colour.

Finances

For some reason, the camera on my phone has made the grid appear a horrible yellowy colour, but it is, in fact and a pale green with just a hint of yellow to it. I would love to know how to correct this so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know in the comments. I might have a play with the photograph settings and see if I can improve it at all.

Monthly goals

Most of my goals for this month are taken directly from my winter bucket list and relate to Christmas. The stickers were made in Cricut Design Space and I used vinyl sticker paper which really easily ripped so I had to be super careful.

Christmas related pages

I created pages like these last Christmas and found them really useful so I’ve done the same again this year. Now that I’ve shared them on here, I can start filling them in!

I also have a Christmas packing list page to set up nearer to the time too.

My first weekly plan

Final words…

Thank you for visiting my blog to look at my Christmas bullet journal pages, I would love to know what you think to them, especially the front cover which I had great fun painting. If you like playing with watercolour, I would definitely recommend checking out the YouTube video that I drew inspiration from.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas time and all the best for 2025,

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

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

Posted on Oct 21, 2024Oct 16, 2024 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’.