Happy Monday!
{all images via pinterest. clockwise, from top left: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4}
Tips for Having a Good Work Day
Sometimes you go through times where work is really demanding and maybe a little overwhelming, and it can be so easy to just barely get things done that have to be done. No more no less. (Especially when you’re self-employed. YouTube can easily suck hours of your work day away if you’re in one of those particularly bad “I don’t want to work” moods.) I’ve been in one of those times for the past week or so, and frankly I just can’t afford it! Plus who wants to be unenthusiastic about work? I’ve found a couple things that have really helped me get back on track when I don’t feel like working, and I thought I’d share them here! Hopefully you can use one or two tips!
HAVE A SET WORK TIME. I like to get up in the morning and not think about work at all until I’ve gotten ready for the day and had breakfast. Then when it’s time to work, I try to not let myself do anything else. (Like YouTube) It’s really helpful to me to relax and not have to think about what needs to be done in the morning. Likewise, it’s great to have a finish time at the end of the day, where you put everything away and go do something else. I’m still working on that one – but every time I do completely put work away at night I’m glad I did.
DRESS NICELY. I LOVE sweatpants and sweatshirts. Or in the summer it’s sweatpants and tshirts. But dressing nicely, while not always the most comfortable thing to do, helps me feel more ready and prepared for the day. Just because no one sees us self-employed/work-at-home entrepreneurs doesn’t mean we can’t dress up during the work week!
DRINK COFFEE. I am firmly convinced that all true inspiration comes from coffee. So I think it’s pretty obvious that you should partake if you want to have a successful work day. My favorite is a regular latte – no fancy trimmings. Except a pretty design on top. And if you don’t like coffee, try having some tea or even just water. Maybe it’s a psychological thing (it probably is), but having something to drink always helps me.
LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC. Just as coffee is integral to success, I think music is essential to being in a good mood. I’m the type of person who literally cannot start working unless I have something playing. My favorites right now are the Civil Wars – especially their album Barton Hollow, Mumford and Sons, and Gabrielle Aplin. Coffee shop music? I think yes.
BRIGHTEN YOUR WORKSPACE. I just recently realized how nice it is to have flowers and candles on my desk! They do so much to brighten the space as well as my mood. Right now I have buttercups and a cute little cinnamon-scented candle.
What’s your favorite way to get yourself in the mood to work?
Today
A day or so ago I was reading my Bible – I couldn’t sleep and was kind of overwhelmed – and I stumbled across Isaiah 40-44. I mean I’ve read those chapters before, but never all at once. Sometimes you read something you’ve read a million times, and it just has a new weight that it never seemed to have before. Well those chapters are just amazing…they describe the majesty of God, His love for His people, and his faithfulness to them through everything. And they just became my very favorites. =) I used part of Hebrews 10:23 for my #adrawingaday series (He who promised is faithful), which although it isn’t from Isaiah, fits the theme of those chapters so well. I ended up doing a different version for Instagram and Tumblr, but I still liked this one so I decided to post it here!
And I did a little better today on my latte. Not great, but not as bad as it was a couple days ago! ;) Practice makes perfect. Well, at least it better. Because I’m using a lot of coffee and milk to do this thing.
(I’m kind of getting stuck on brush lettering with my Zig marker…I just love all that texture! The last piece in this post is the chorus from “Everything Has Changed” by Taylor Swift. It’s one of my favorite songs.)
Life and Such
My fingers are killing me right now as I type this…last week I decided I wanted to get back into playing the guitar (I started learning when I was seven but after a couple years I gave it up), and getting my fingers used to the strings again is not the most pleasant experience. Right now I’m working on learning fingerstyle – I learned basic picking when I was younger, but I never took it far at all. I want to learn I See Fire by Ed Sheeran…I found this awesome tutorial and was just sitting there wishing I could play that well! It’s fun, though, and I’m enjoying getting back into music.
I’m also trying to learn how to do latte art. Have any of you ever tried this? My family and I are admittedly coffee snobs (we both roast our own beans and have a pretty sweet espresso machine) but none of us have really tried to learn latte art. So far I’ve succeeded in getting the right texture of milk, but I haven’t gotten the hang of pouring/shaking it yet. The photo below is the best I’ve done so far (although I made a couple cups of coffee today and failed with every single one of them. =P)
My name is Hannah. I'm a graphic designer and web developer; I love Jesus, coffee, and music; and snow is my favorite. Welcome to my blog! Stay a while, why dontcha?
Follow Me On Bloglovin’
