On Waking Up Early (Or Even Just On Time)

Image via The Everygirl

I'm not really a morning person. I've always struggled to get out of bed when the alarm goes off, and I'll hit snooze over and over again. I would set multiple alarms hoping that one would be the magic one, but when I'm all comfy in bed it's easy to convince myself that I can sleep for just a few more minutes.

So I changed my tactic. I now have two single alarms - one on my phone that rings first, and the other on my iPad which rings 5 minutes later. 

I keep my iPad on the other side of the room. When my phone alarm goes off in the morning, I know that I've got 5 more minutes before I need to get up to turn off the iPad alarm. The first alarm is my buffer.

I also set my alarm for the latest possible time that I can get up. Instead of trying to get up early and be all productive, I just set my alarm as late as I reasonably can. This means that when I stumble out of bed to turn off that annoying noise, I know that there's no way I can have 'just 5 more minutes of sleep.' 

I've been doing this for a week so far, and I've been getting up on time without fail. This is a huge achievement for me!

I plan on gradually turning my alarm back a few minutes at a time to get up a little bit earlier each day. I'm just taking it slowly though, I don't want to push my luck!

It is really nice to not be in such a rush in the mornings anymore.

Are you a morning person, or do you love to snooze? What tricks do you use to get out of bed on time?

I'm Getting My Routine Back

These past few weeks have been good. I feel like I'm getting into the swing of things and I'm loving everything that I'm doing. 

I know that I've been quiet on the blog front. Now that I'm in a good routine I'm hoping to get back to blogging more often.

I'm a routine person - I really am. Just having certain things to do at certain times makes me so much more focused and productive. 

I've spoken before about my difficulties trying to find work. To go from years of full-time study to having nothing on my plate was a really uncomfortable change and I struggled with staying productive (and not losing my mind).

That's why a month ago I jumped at this opportunity to study again. I'm studying Clothing Manufacture - it's a full-time course and I get to spend my days sewing. I love it! And it's something exciting and uplifting for me to do while I keep looking for work.

I'm improving my sewing skills, but without any pressure. There's no rush to start a business, or create lots of new products. I'm simply taking my time learning and soaking everything in, knowing that I can do everything I want to do in time. 

It almost feels like a stable transitional part of my life - I know I won't be here doing this for long - but I have enough things figured out for the moment to relax. 

Things always work out in the end. And in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy these moments.

Style // Snakeskin & Neutral Colours

Scarf Forever New // Cardigan Cotton On // Top Glassons // Necklace Gift // Maxi Skirt Glassons

I wore this outfit last weekend to the Mosque. I help teach the 5 year olds at Sunday School and in the last class I taught a little boy how to draw a star, and another little girl gave me a flower sticker as a gift. It was a good day!

Neutral colours are my uniform, I've realised. When I first started wearing hijab I would wear lots of bright colours, but lately I've been steering into a simpler colour palette.

My last few clothing purchases have all been items in various shades of brown, soft pinks, pastels, navy blues and greys. What I like so much about neutrals is that they're all interchangeable. Pretty much everything can go together, which works well when you have limited wardrobe space!

What  are some of your favourite colours to wear?

Bit By Bit

This past week has been a bit full on, and the lesson I've taken away is to take things bit by bit.

We finally got all our things moved up and were able to start unpacking and setting up our home. It's been nice to see things slowly come together.

Somewhere between unpacking, my sewing course, and the mountain of arabic work I have to do, I stopped taking care of myself. I was sleeping less, not eating as well, and my environment felt chaotic. 

So naturally, I got sick. I guess it's my body's way of telling me to stop, slow down, take it easy. 

Over the past few days, I've been taking things bit by bit. I've been resting often and when I have the energy I do some work - I unpack a box, tidy up one corner of a room, doing a lesson of arabic.

It's not much, but I can still see progress being made. And sometimes that's all we can ask of ourselves.

:)