So, 1 year in as an everyday adult, and I have been reflecting about how I am still going. It has been a weird year. Looking back, I have been wondering how I kept myself going everyday, with the general things that come with living, whilst life was treating me like a rag doll.
Keeping on top of meals
Maybe not everyone has snapchat, but I still do, and the discovery section is so helpful for me. If you don’t have snapchat, there is the option to google the Struggle Meal recipes by tasty. I am not affiliated with Tasty, I am just recommending this based on my experience.
The point of Struggle Meals is to create budget friendly meals, for about $2 per portion. They show that you can make a variety of healthy, nutritious and tasty meals, without having to spend too much. They suggest little habits that you can start making, to make it cheaper and more convenient to eat food.
Habit 1
They suggest seasons where you can take advantage of cheap fruit and veg. they also recommend that if you have take out, keep the sauce packets for later use. When I go to a hotel, I hate going down to ask them for more milk and sugar, as I find they never provide enough for my stay. So, what I do, is bring the many packets I have collected from different places, saving me time, stress and awkwardness. 😊
Habit 2
They offer suggestions of meal prepping for a weeks worth of meals, with minimum expenditure. For example, they suggests cuts of meat which are cheap to buy in bulk, and you can prepare them on one day, and stretch it out into a variety of meals throughout the week. Say you buy a chicken, and roast it with some seasoning. You can continue to make roast dinner, chicken salad on wraps or pasta, chicken and chips, or add a quick sauce to have with rice. There are plenty of options, and that’s just one cheap meat.
Habit 3
Buying bulk dry things like rice and pasta is much more worthwhile in the long term. I don’t suggest doing it when you are skint, but when pay day strikes, go buy those in bulk, because when you are waiting for that next pay check, those bulk buys will be a life saver. Got some tomatoes, make some soup with lentils. Got some beans, make a chilli. They can be eaten with any of the carbs which you have bulk bought as well, and help you stay well fed until the next payday.
These are only a few habits, that I have worked on maintaining in my life, but they are stress relieving methods. I don’t like spending money, and when I know I have tasty food at home, it encourages me to eat, and eat well. Also, I look forward to lunch when I’m at work, which gives me a relief point in the workday, especially when it’s a stressful day.
Managing my time
My regular work timetable
My timetable when my location is stable, is very repetitive. This means when an event that isn’t normal, is added to my schedule, I can easily forget it’s there, as its out of my habit. What I do to minimise that mistake (because I ain’t perfect) is keep all my calendars up to date. Something that would be amazing, is a software that links my work calendar to my personal calendar. However, my work is quite sensitive, so even my calendar being exposed is a bad idea.
Nonetheless, I block out time in all my calendars for events that affect that timetable. So, if I’m going to travel after work, I put a little reminder in my work calendar, that I need to a) make sure I leave my work at a place that I can continue when I get back; and b) to get going at my specific time. That same event would be in my phone calendar, and if I need to prepare for it, I set the reminder a few days in advanced, so I have time to prep.
Balancing my secondment
Since I now work for a different place, it means I have reduced responsibilities from my graduate scheme, but I haven’t stopped all responsibilities. This means I have to balance meetings, workload and anything that is required of my grad scheme, with my new job. Now, meetings easily miss my radar when I am actively working in a role, now I am passively in it, it’s even harder to stay on top.
Thankfully both my roles work on outlook, so when I have important meetings I can’t miss, I copy my other account, so each job is aware of my meeting timetable during the week. Sometimes there are clashes, but most of the time, it works out, as long as I keep it updated.
My blog content
Well firstly, I don’t do it well all the time, sometimes I need a break. Though I’m sure if you follow the odd influencer, you will here, batching content is a good way to stay on top of work. I try to write my blog posts about 2 or 3 weeks in advanced. It doesn’t happen every month, however, it does help on those times that I am busy. For instance, I knew I couldn’t write a post each week, whilst I was in Zimbabwe, so I wrote 3 posts in advanced. Two for when I was actually out of the country, and one for the first Tuesday I got back.
I am learning about myself everyday, however, I made it a serious priority when I started this blog, to get to know my out of work habits. So, at work, I can easily daydream, and know that at least I have 4 more days in the week to catch up. When managing this blog, I have to keep myself in line, and I don’t have 8 hour blocks of time to set aside to work on it. So, I have to know who I am outside of work, to understand how I perform, what motivates me, and know when I have the drive.
My motivation
Each time I come to work on a post or the web page, I thank my ‘past self’ who would have done a small thing in her present time, to make it easier for future me in the present. And I constantly remind myself about how happy and proud I am of myself when I have those moments. I am so grateful in those times, that when it gets hard, just that reminder of how I will feel in the future, is enough to convince me to just do that little bit more. So when those influencers say “When I’m not motivated, I stay consistent”, that feeling I have when I know I have made my life easier, because of a smart thing I did in the past, IS my reason to stay consistent, when I’m not motivated.
Thankfully, I love doing this blog. It’s something I look forward to. If you follow my Instagram, you will know I have not posted for a long time. I do enjoy that too, but my phone is not, and is currently on strike by making it incredibly difficult to post any videos on my Instagram. So, I have let it win for now.
This is a part 1, as I still have a few more things that I do that help me continue being an adult today. Also, didn’t want this to be too long, so next week, there will be another post, with my remaining behaviours.
Moral of my story:
- Struggle meals– Is very useful and helpful for the habits I make with food and meals
- Sync those calendars– Syncing or keeping all your calendars up to date, will make time management a lot easier.
- Content management– Batching content is just beneficial as batch cooking for the week. (Even if I struggle to keep on top of the content)
- This is part 1– Part 2 will come back next week 😊
