When there is a storm

Was going to begin to say that "I hope everyone is well?" but feel that this is a daft question. Having your home flooded and not able to get out, is going to effect you and not be well. I had trouble today in getting to my son's home and couldn't get a train due to a tree falling on the tracks and wasn't sure as to what to do, and those who are in a worse situation, my problems don't matter.

Storms, are not controllable and has caused chaos. They say not to go out but how can you and if your house is flooded it means that there will be shops closed too. If you have mobile access then see if you can still contact your friends and family and then there is the elderly. 

Thank god that we have a fire services that can help and get people out of trouble and be somewhere safe.

So this is a short blog and hope there people are safe and if there are people that can help with those who's homes are affected see if you can provide food and other supplies and work as a nation to help too.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X   

How I organize 2023

It has been a while since I wrote anything on this blog, I have been working on my Wordpress blogs and this is because I have created some different programmes to help support people, like my Life Coaching programme "Summer Project 2023" check out my blog site where you will find these blogs, and may find them helpful. https://everyonecanbuiildacastle.com  and now doing my Autumn Reset to get tasks I need done completed and again blogging on the blog site above. 

Now I am back and have created a more functional way to organize for 2023. 

I am using a Filofax again and watching Terri Savelle Foy she talked about having everything in one place, and so wanted to give it a try, but it is very bulky and for birthday I was given a 2024 diary and it is a nice size, but until I can use the diary I am going to use my Filofax and when I don't feel like carrying my Filofax,  will organize digitally and I am liking the system I use now to keep tabs on my blogs, books and videos, along with my son and other things I need to keep reminding myself of. 

For digital planning and organizing I am using OneNote and calendar templates for my son to keep record of my son's school dates on Word and appointments I have, and another for planning my writing, on Excel, and working really well for me. 

I plan the night before, for each day and go for a walk in the morning has helped me be organized this year as it not good to be on my laptop all day and it sets me up, and tomorrow I have to stay in part of the day as my husband had purchased a new sofa and so need to be here for that to be delivered, so depending on what time it is delivered will use the treadmill to walk and do some indoor exercise. 

Getting back into my fitness has helped because it can take a while for me to wake up. 

I have come to realise that I like getting up early now and not doing anything on my laptop in the evening or limit the amount of time I spend on my laptop at night. It can be easy to go my laptop so  don't go straight on to it until my later on in the morning and gotten errands done first, and in between.

So how are you organizing this year and what you use I would love to know. You can leave a comment below. 

Please check out new book, which is a novel called Mum&Me, and is about Elizabeth living with her mum and see things very differently and Elizabeth's mum is obsessed with TV shopping channels and online, but often not what she actually ordered. It is available in Kindle and Paperback.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X 

Having Reset days and tips on having a reset

I never knew what this was until I was introduced to it via Youtube and now apply it with everything I do and began last year to create a programme called the Autumn Reset, where I go through unfinished tasks, to get unfinished projects completed before the winter and Christmas. I post this content on my main youtube channel, which is gonna change, as this channel will be all weekly or weekend vlogs, but you can see my videos from last year on this channel, and so just put in Autumn Reset and you should find them. 

For me it is about getting my life together and making changes to my life that works for me presently and that I can stick too, to make sure I get stuff done and have time to myself too. 

My first tip is to go through your computer to check out what needs to be finished and setting a deadline to get them done and planning. I have filmed some videos on my Youtube channel   https://www.youtube.com/@typicallondongal/ and my blog site: https://everyonecanbuildacastle.com 

Same thing with doing a make over of your house or a room, doing the garden or doing a declutter and altering your habits to help stay on top of things. 

Go through the most important first, to the second most important to the items that can wait and be done at a later date, but to still get them done. For me that is creating online courses again. Not that I feel I have to do it, but want to teach my skills I have learned to help others, but I want to have other things finished first.

I want to focus on my next book and have this published, getting my son ready for his new school in September and paying off my credit card. 

Tip 2 is to keep it simple and go through the tasks that take less time. Now many I have watched about getting items completed, do longest projects first. For me that makes me want to hibernate and procrastinate, and so I find doing the smaller tasks first to then do the bigger items next is better and I know I am going to get them done. 

At the moment I am spending time with my son who has finished school for the Summer Holidays and so on mum duties making sure we have plenty of fun, using the evenings to write and get tasks done in terms of my content and doing errands. 

This is the reality of life that some things have to be pushed to another day as I want my attention to be focusing on my son and today started to get his uniform ready for when he begins at his new school. 

I have been taking my son swimming to help him practice as my son has been doing swimming lessons at the weekend, so want to help him continue to develop in swimming and is getting more confident with swimming as he has his last lesson for this part of the year, but I don't want to lose what he has learned and the same with his reading and writing. 

Tip 3, Delegate duties to your kids. I wrote a blog on my parenting blog about if Kids want to do chores let them: https://theparentingadventurestipsandtricks.wordpress.com/2023/07/14/if-your-child-wants-to-help-with-the-chores-let-them/

This will help them to be independent and so have them help with washing dishes and tidying their bedrooms. Henry makes his own bed and is now gotten interested in cooking and putting the dishes away. 

He decided to do that on his own, and is good to help them develop these skills, as they do need to learn how to look after themselves. 

It all part of their growth and lifts the weight of your shoulders, and like this week I cooked dinner so his dad did the washing up. That is setting a good example for your kids and have it as a family thing. 

Tip 5, start on one area at a time and I watched a brilliant Youtube video today, a cleaning video and I loved her method because she was writing and ticking of areas as she completed each one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9hP449qQxU I thought it was really motivating and will follow her method of tidying the home and getting all clean and tidy again. 

We can get so caught on mess, like my Laundry basket at the moment, so tomorrow I will be tackling the laundry, and we can ignore it, but it will just build and build. 

I am going to see if I can get all my laundry done, and will be a blessing to see my laundry basket empty. 

So I hope this blog has helped you and lets work together to reset and finish those endless tasks. 

Many thanks for reading, 

Carrie X 

  

Getting it all done

Life can be on top of us and feel that there too many things to do and not enough time to get it all done. I like making lists and creating new habits to stop me from feeling that I am behind. Example I do a tidy up of one area each day, make my bed and get dressed.

Anything that can be done the night before helps, like having my shower at the end of each day helps, in that I don't have to have one in the morning, but put my body spray on with deodorant before putting on my clothes for the day. 

The first place to begin in planning and scheduling. I use my diary I got from TK Maxx and OneNote. I have tried several ways, but now I feel I have a good set up and going to see if I can use my Filofax of having everything in one day. I will let you know how I get on with that and if it works to be more organized and productive as that is what I am going for. The idea came from @TerriSavelleFoy

I want to change from being a hoarder to a minimalist, and own less but have more in terms of saving money, have more space and have a clearer working station where I use my laptop and often change is all we need. 

Sort one area a day, rather than doing it all at once if you do have a busy schedule, time yourself and make it into a challenge. Watch Youtube videos on cleaning and tidying and getting it all done. Good for motivation and potter.

I love pottering around and just going around the home to clear any clutter to dust and reorganize. I can be disorganized, but getting better and setting a time to tidy in the mornings has really been a game changer. 

Take time to read. I like to read before bed and because of the weather at the moment going to sit in the garden and read for a bit, and almost finished another book, a video will be made once completed. 

I set my challenge of reading a book a month but because I don't tend to read when my son is on holiday as we are usually out somewhere, been difficult to keep up, but I am not disappointed, and will pick it up again. 

So got some more things to do and so going to leave this blog here and will be writing more so keep checking and have a great day.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X 

Getting your life together/Is it good to multi task

When it comes to multi tasking there are mixed views of is it good or bad. I think it depends on each person. I will when doing things like writing like to put on some music or podcast like I am doing as I write this blog watching @esteelanonde  and it helps me to concentrate and take my time. 

I will give myself enough time because I hate rushing, it just no good for me. I am the person who leaves hour and half before an appointment and so super early, and the person who will be happy to wait for a bus whilst I listen to some music, and ride on the bus listening to a book on audible along with music, it depends on the mood I am in and what I feel like listening to on that particular day. 

I do like to focus on one thing, and have to stop myself as I do a lot of flicking from my blog, to writing my book, doing a life coaching course, checking my emails and so I have to pull myself back and ask myself "What do I actually want to do today?", and go through my lists and then will then stop, and get one thing done at a time. 

If you didn't know I am doing my Life Coaching programme again this year. I have been doing this for the last two years and is called The Summer Project 2023, helping you to have a better life and a better year, check out my blog site out: https://everyonecanbuildacastle.com 

You have to decide what is important and I love lists. I still use a paper diary and find writing things done helps aswell as using a computer programme, OneNote, to help me too. 

Finding a system that helps to accomplishment tasks like what is the one thing I want to do this morning and I now will as soon as I get out of bed tidy up and put any washed clothes away, or put some laundry on and then will take a shower, watch some Youtube and have a cup of tea and breakfast and then my skincare and it just helps set me up for the day to begin to get on with other tasks planned for the day and take breaks. 

Multi tasking can work, and often like as I finish this blog realised I didn't go through my expenses for the day and so whilst in head do this and so it depends on what is that is important and if there is a deadline. 

So do you like to multitask or focus on one area at a tine? Please leave a comment below.

Many thanks for reading, 

Carrie X 

 

Managing my money

 It has been a real up and down when it comes to me and money and would try to avoid looking at it and so now I check my bank account everyday and write down everything that has gone in and what has come out and got this tip watching a guy name Grant Cardone and if you don't know who he is, then "Hello where have you been?" the man is a billionaire and everyday he still checks his bank accounts, and I don't use any special system, I use a spreadsheet on Excel and a notepad. 

Check out this video I did for my channel My Way Of Living: https://youtu.be/PcJCQ2LrypA

When I was a kid I would hide money and forget about it. My mum got worried about it so cleared and looked for it and I had over a £100 and this was in the 80's as a kid and I was a super saver and then when I first went to America, I began to spend a lot of the money I had and then when I began working I would be out a lot, I began to follow a rugby team every week and stay over at my friends places and buy a kebab or a Chinese and before I knew it my Money went it became a love hate relationship. 

I became reckless and it has taken a lot of heartache to now have money again. Chasing every penny can cause stress and so now I make sure I manage it and this year by being more vigilant, have paid off one debt and that was a amazon credit card and now paying my other credit card. 

Being debt isn't fun, and feels like it is hanging in the air for it to drop and hit you in the face to realise I need to take charge now and still buy the things I want but in moderation and make sure I get rid of items that no longer I felt had a place in my life  and items that do.

I check and go through my budget and money spent each week and make sure I save as much as I can and pay money into my son's account and cut down on spending on clothes and toiletries because I have enough and there are some items I want to buy in terms of clothing and get ridding of items that have gotten too big and worn, and I buy second hand like books and clothing. The stop I wore today was a second hand and finding items that will last and not get worn straight away and make sensible choices. 

Before I fell pregnant I was made redundant and did get redundancy, tried to get a job but my tummy was growing and survived on Maternity and then in back in 2014 I decided I wanted to go back to working and did a bit of work in a Tescos, which I didn't like the managers of it weren't very nice and then got a weekend job which worked better and was on low wage and so used my credit card and it s dangerous cycle to be in, and so now I never want another credit card, and save for the dreams I have as I want to take Henry on a proper holidays and half term was tight but we did manage to do a lot that was free and went to the seaside at the weekend, and not want more time away and near a swimming pool and I no longer want money worries and going to continue to build my blogs, youtube channels and continue to self publish on Amazon, and I am not doing those for the money but because I enjoy it and now want to work outside too, to help with the goals I have and plans. 

You can't let money control you, but you be in control with money and not have a constant fight with it, and build my wealth and invest in my sons dreams too.

Lets do this together and lets build our lives to get our life on track and stop the fears we have financially and I want to give money to charity each month, and invest in doing fundraising walks and runs again as I want to use my money to make a difference too.

So gonna leave this blog here, and let me know what your one financial goals do have and if you have tips too, leave them below in the comments. 

Many thanks for reading, 

Carrie X 

Getting my life together

Life changes and things that matter you can change. This is why it is good to have a good declutter and this month if you didn't know I am decluttering for an entire month (March) and I like doing this to start a fresh new season and go through where I am at. 

Since beginning this blog I decluttered more, and filmed so you'll see this in a video, its just putting them altogether and been a good process. The area I want to change in my desk as this space I use all the time, and fed up of looking at it, because it feels overcrowded and feeling anxious about it. I have journals that I use, but want them to be stored but not forgotten about. 

I checked out storage but going to look around and look at ideas, to help make my desk clearer and have different areas for different purposes. So have a place to work on the computer and write, and where I store my jewellery and places for my make up and toiletries, along with medication. 

I want my room to be cozy and help me sleep and relax and seeing space of having a declutter, has already has eased my anxiety of having so much and put my mind at rest so I can sleep peacefully and want my room to be a home office and a place to get dressed and ready for the day, and in thinking I may keep how my desk as it is, as I have a shelf that stores these items, as I do like to watch videos on my laptop as I don't have a TV in my room, whilst I put my make up on or getting looking good, but still have a better solution I can still do that. 

To me when it comes to getting my life together I like order and with a simple solution so I am not making areas decluttered again, and to keep it clean all the time is tough. so I will be tidying it again this week to find a different way to keep these items near me and easy to reach.

It often is trial and error. 

I hope this helps you too and see that I am not perfectly organized but I make the time to do so, as I like the result afterwards once I have a clearer space around me. 

Many thanks for reading, 

Carrie X