On Motivation

It is the penultimate week of the Easter holidays (Warwick give us 5 weeks; don't ask). I have a grand total of 17,500 words to write (this will be small to some and large to others; it's all relative), three exams to revise for. A CV to complete, job applications to fill in and emails to send. 

I woke up yesterday morning with a horrendous migraine and could do nothing but re-watch Gilmore Girls and drink hot water in bed. I know that the latter part of this sounds pretty pleasant, but the former was awful and in total it left me feeling extremely guilty about having done little to no work. The majority of my deadlines are six weeks away and a good 12,000 of those words have been written. Yet still, I felt guilty. I lacked absolutely any motivation which also added to the guilt.

But motivation is hard to find. I'm one of those people that if I want a break, I'm going to have a break. I know that I'm not going to be productive if I want to watch Four In A Bed or go and make hot chocolate. I have productive periods of about 20-40 minutes at a time; then I need a break. Working like this means that I can then gather a bit more motivation in each break. Read an article about the girl that got accepted into all 8 Ivy League schools. Or the blogger that is in the same position as me but still runs an amazing blog. Or just lust after this bar cart.

Yet when you do have motivation, there are so many things you can get done. You can finish that essay. You can beast that exam. You can finally get rid of all those Law Firm brochures (I recycled all of my Law career hopes and dreams of 2013 yesterday). You can tick off some of your To Do List. And it doesn't really take that much to do it either. If you got out of bed, you're already basically 75% there anyway! 

My diary has become a mass of day to day to do lists. In fact more like day to day goals. Finish Nietzsche Essay. Make revision timetable etc. It's all about those small steps. Once you know what the steps themselves are, the rest is actually pretty easy.

And if you're like me and your main problem is actually making the steps; read: actually doing it, then really the only thing holding you back is you. 

And remember. Today is Tuesday. We've already conquered Monday!

xoxo

On Row, Row, Row Your Boat

It was Thursday. Is it just me, or does anyone else find that Thursdays just have that kind of Thursday feeling? Like, it's not the mid-week. And it's not the end of the week. It's post-mid-week. But that sounds ridiculous. But it just feels heavier than Tuesday. You know?

Anyway, I digress.

I was having the Thursday feels.

I was in the Philosophy Common Room, in which there are sometimes some unusal to say the least, sights. (Two people playing Chess and relating it back to Philosophy. Existentially though, can we check mate?)

I was reading an article that had the words to Row, Row, Row Your Boat in it. It had the final line as Life's but a spiders dream.

Life's but a spiders dream.

I read it over and over. Singing it to myself in my head. (Although it wouldn't have been that out of place to just start singing it). 

I always thought it was Life is but a dream. 

I messaged my friend, source of all reason, and the 'Mother' of our group.

Me: What's the last line of Row, Row, Row Your boat?

Her: If you see a crocodile don't forget to scream.

Me: Nono, the merrily merrily merrily one.

Her: Life is but a dream

I heaved an actual sigh of relief. For about five minutes I had begun to question everything I had known since I was a child, thinking that I had based everything solely on my mishearing.

Are the primary colours actually red, blue and yellow?

Is this actually my left hand? 

I was having an existential crisis (in the Philosophy Common Room, how apt). 

I re-read the article.

Life's but a spiders dream.

Life is but a dream.

They aren't really all that different.

And all it shows is that sometimes people do things a little differently. It doesn't make it, or them, or you wrong. It just makes us different. 

And why would we all want to be the same?

Life is but a dream. 

xoxo

A Day In The Life #1

I'm a bit behind on my post schedule so hopefully there will be another one of these going up very soon!
Not the week just gone but the week before was reading week and most of mine was spent holed up in my room, wrapped up in blankets and scarves with cups of tea working on my essays. This sounds quite cosy but was a lot of work!
I did however discover love for Sleek! And oh was I late on joining that black-cased band wagon. I also managed to get myself a job; hoorah! Look out for me a catering event/bar near you! To celebrate, I took myself off to Starbucks and got myself my first Red Cup. I had a salted caramel mocha with the new espresso base and oh my, it was divine. If you haven't had one of these bad boys, I am telling you to go asap. With cream, caramel sauce and salted caramel on top, you can't go wrong!
At the weekend my parents came up to stay which was lovely. We had a really nice meal at Ask on the Saturday and did some lovely shopping on Sunday (with more Starbucks!). We had a lovely walk through the gardens which had a lot more in it than I ever realised with greenhouses and Eden Project-esque domes! I got a lovely candle which I'm sure I'll be posting about soon.
All in all it was a pretty good week; very productive and lots of treats!

Have you had your first red cup yet?

xoxo