My top 4 wins & lessons from 2023 😍 🙌 ✨

Let’s start with the things that made 2023 great.

Me Days - these have been a revelation. I have found them hard to settle into but they have helped me to slow down and reconnect with things I love to do. I highly recommend carving out a day a week/fortnight/month just for you. 💖

Wednesday night dinners - these cheap and cheerful midweek meals out helped to break up the week and gave us something to look forward to. With the cost of living increases, we have had to rethink these but having a midweek circuit breaker is definitely something we will be taking into 2024. 🍔🍷

Reading - I love reading and in the last 3 months I have started reading at mealtimes. So when I am having brekky or lunch and often when Paul and I are eating dinner together, I read. We still chat but I also read. This has helped me to slow down, savour my meals and feel really relaxed. The mornings are more gentle and the evenings are more restful- highly recommend. 📚🤓
Holidays and staycations - do I even need to explain?! Having the downtime, being in a different location with new foods, meeting people and hearing other languages helps to get you out of your ‘normal’ and gets everything firing. I always find I not only come home relaxed and rested but also invigorated, excited and brimming with ideas. ✈️ 🏖️

So what hasn’t worked so well? What will I be changing in 2024?

Admin blocks - I’m learning that I need to stop booking in extra 1:1 sessions and meetings in my admin blocks. I do this because my calendar fills up 2-3 months ahead and I feel bad when I can’t provide that session or attend that meeting. What’s worse though is the stress and overwhelm it puts me under when I don’t hold on tight to my admin time. So in 2024, I am focusing on being disciplined about my admin time so that I don’t get burnt out and I can have a smooth year. 👩🏻‍💻

Planning ahead - I know? Me, who constantly bangs on about planning! This year I was only planning term by term. This was because in 2021 and 2022, planning further ahead was pointless as there were too many curve balls. However this year, sticking to term by term did not help. So in 2024, I am going back to planning for the year and adjusting as needed. 📆

Not understanding how I work best - I work better with lots of small tasks as they hold my attention and help me feel productive, rather than a big task which feels like a mountain and takes me ages to get started. Are you the same? So in 2024, I am breaking down tasks and having lots of small jobs (10-15mins in length) on my to do list rather than listing down a big project (e.g. create a course) that looks scary and I procrastinate on. 📝

Managing my time - my inability to grasp how long a task takes continues to plague me. I think editing a report will take me 15mins when in fact it takes me 35mins or that I can send an email in 5 mins when actually it takes me 25mins. So in 2024 I am going to be timing how long tasks actually take me to do. I will be recording this in my notebook. Then each time I add a task to the ‘to do list’ I can add the actual time it takes, not just my guesstimate. This way I can plan my admin time more successfully and be able to achieve what is on my list. ⏱️

By sharing both the good and the bad of 2023, I hope you get some inspiration and are able to make up your list of what will stay and what will change for you in 2024.