Routine or Ritual? My Morning

5th Dec 2025 | Suzi Tench

Routines are really important for me. As an autistic, I have to have routines implemented into my day, otherwise I forget to do certain things (like drinking or eating). I have routines for weekly events too, such as watering my plants or putting the bins out. I even have a routine for how I get dressed (from the bottom up – socks first!). To me, these are pretty mundane and ordinary and done without much thought or have any kind of real effect on my feelings or thoughts; they are just things I do that help me in my day-to-day living.

Rituals, on the other hand, have a bit more thought and feeling connected to them, are a bit more magical and spiritual. I like to view my morning process as a ritual as it has a stronger effect on my feelings, thoughts and levels of productivity, and each part of it feels meaningful.

I love my mornings now; previously, when the ex-husband was living with me, there was no space or calmness for any kind of routine. Everything was too loud – the noise from the TV and radio, the chaos and untidiness of the house and it was impossible to function or even form thoughts properly. My mornings now are a hella lot different.

I begin my morning by getting up, normally any time between 6am and 8am. I stay in my pyjamas, brush my teeth, come downstairs, let Roxy out for her morning wee, and, while she is busy, I fill the kettle or prepare the coffee machine and prepare mugs for my boyfriend (yep, I have a boyfriend – more on that soon!) and myself.

We sit and have our coffee and a cigarette without the TV or radio on, just in quiet calmness. I often use this morning coffee as a Mindfulness Exercise. We talk about what plans we have for the day and how we slept, our feelings and thoughts, among other things. If it’s a weekday, my boyfriend heads off to work, and if I have an early shift, then I get myself ready for work. If I have a later shift or a day off, then I head to the kitchen.

I check Roxy’s food and water levels, empty the dishwasher and put the dishes away. I reload it with any plates, glasses or mugs that need to be done, I hand-wash any items that have been left over from the evening before (ones that don’t fit into the dishwasher) and wipe down the kitchen units and tidy as I go. This little bit of my morning helps me to feel like I have accomplished something on my list, and makes me feel positive and productive. I like having a clear kitchen, and having this little routine built into my daily ritual feels like I’m clearing away the previous day and greeting the new day.

I put the kettle on and make another coffee, sit on the sofa and have a cuddle with Roxy. I play a game on my phone, mostly puzzle games such as Killer Sudoku, Tap Gallery, or Scavenger Hunt. Puzzle games seem to help my mind wake up and start working properly, and I feel more awake and “with it” so they are really important for my mornings.

After I have done this, I feel like I can start my day. I’m awake and calm, feeling positive, my mind is clear, and I can then do all the things I need to.

How do you like to start your day? Is there anything that you would like to include more in your morning ritual?

Reclaiming My Space

28th Nov 2025 | Suzi Tench

My home hasn’t really felt like my own in such a long time. Not since my ex-husband moved in, and certainly not after he moved his “friends” in after they lost their house. (See this post for more on that). When my ex-husband moved in with me, he arrived with so much stuff…tools, dart boards, furniture, clothes, the list goes on. And while I was prepared to compromise and make space for his stuff, I wasn’t expecting all the clutter and mess that came with it. To say he was untidy is an understatement. My things got reduced and moved, and before I knew it, there was hardly any of me left in my house. And to make matters worse, I could hardly move for his crap taking over every available space.

When his “friends” moved in, they brought their own baggage, and it seemed that, day by day, while I was at work, they were adding more and more of their things to my home. They bought a MASSIVE pouffe/storage thing into my home, packed it with a load of their crap (which never got looked at), and it was sooo heavy that I couldn’t move it. That thing was plonked, unceremoniously, in the middle of my living area and was in the way every damn day. That was frustrating enough. Then I found that they had bought up most of their kitchen stuff too, plates, cutlery, saucepans, all the fucking kitchen gadgets known to man, glasses, mugs, all sorts of crap. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I didn’t own plates or anything. They shoved all my things to the back of cupboards and drawers and dumped their stuff in front of and on top of all the worktops, even using the oven as extra storage space. The most absurd thing was the collection of packets of herbs and spices and sauces, the ones you get from Hello Fresh when you order meals through them…soooo many unopened, out-of-date packets that were kept in a huge basket and shoved on top of the wall cupboards and never used. Space was so tight in the kitchen that I couldn’t even prepare myself cheese on toast for breakfast due to a lack of countertop space and the oven being used as an extra cupboard. On top of that, opening the cutlery draw proved difficult as it was RAMMED full of 174 different knives, forks and spoons, (not counting mine) and when you opened the drawer they would catch, well, my ones would and i discovered that they were getting bent up and misshapen too as no one seemed to be able to open the drawers carefully.

If that wasn’t bad enough, my Dysons (I had 2 that my parents had given me) disappeared. I couldn’t clean or tidy properly (too much clutter and no space, hardly any of it belonging to me), I couldn’t get to my shelving units to dust, and if I could, there was no space to take my things off and put them safely whilst I dusted. I couldn’t mop because there was no visible floor to manoeuvre the mop around effectively.

I’m ashamed to say that after they (his “friends”) left after 7 months, things didn’t get much better in terms of cleanliness. By that point, my mental health was spiralling pretty badly, I didn’t have the energy to do much other than exist, and most things just didn’t get done. My “husband” didn’t care enough to help out, not that he ever had. He always saw cleaning and household tasks as “Pink Jobs” so just left it to me to get on with everything, and if I didn’t do it, then he wouldn’t either. To make matters worse, he wouldn’t ever tidy up his own belongings, and the house was littered with tools and other heavy/bulky items of his that were hard to move, so that made cleaning just as difficult as when his “friends” were staying. I had nowhere to put his stuff in the house, though there were sheds and an outhouse, not to mention a summerhouse where they could live. If I dared to move things, then I’d have an earful about how he couldn’t find anything and how it was my fault. Asking him to put his things away was just as bad and I’d have excuse after excuse ranging from “I’ll do it later”, “I need them out because I’m going to use them later” (which NEVER happened), or “I can’t put them in the shed/summerhouse/outside because they might get stolen”. I gave up and just lived with it.

Once he was out of the house and I got the keys back, I started moving and packing up all his things. My house started to feel brighter and fresher. The air quality changed, and the atmosphere just felt so different, more positive, freer, lighter. I was able to see the floors again. My friend bought me a Hetty Hoover. I was able to hoover the carpets and floors, the skirting boards, under the sofa, and all those little places dust and dirt like to hide. I mopped the floors using washing-up liquid, then bleach, then more washing-up liquid, then disinfectant. It took nearly 30 buckets of soap and water to get the grime up and the water to rinse away run clear.

I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the kitchen and hallway linoleum with a brush, which was stained, grimy, and grey-looking. It now looks bright and fresh, and the white within the pattern is now visible again! I then went to town on the bathroom, bleaching and scrubbing everything to within an inch of its life. There is textured, anti-slip flooring in the bathroom, and I again scrubbed that clean. I took the seat off the toilet and soaked and scrubbed that in the bath.

I dismantled shitty, broken furniture that had taken up so much space in the bedroom. Gone now are a massive wardrobe, 2 sets of drawers, the massive, stupidly oversized super king bed he had insisted on that was waaayyyyy too big for the room and was stained with his sick. Every single inch of the carpet was hoovered, the windows cleaned, the window sills dusted and wiped. I replaced the broken furniture with a new Kallax Unit, which I made from a flat pack myself. I reinstated my dressing table and mirror back into the room, removed the old (broken) TV from the wall, and removed shelves from the built-in wardrobes, turning that space into another hanging space for clothing.

I started to redecorate. I had been wanting to redecorate downstairs for years and had chosen the wallpaper and the paint colours that I wanted. He had promised me that he would help decorate, but it never came to fruition; the paper and paint remained in the shop, and no decorating was ever done. As much as I liked the wallpaper and colours I had chosen, I decided not to go with that – too many bad memories of asking and asking and wanting and never getting it done, it felt weird and tainted. I came up with new ideas and colour schemes. I decided on a new wallpaper (this one from B&Q/I Love Wallpaper) and a white, lime green and black colour scheme. I spent weeks and weeks slowly decorating, and the room is nearly finished!(I can’t wait to share some photos in another blog post!).

My next plan is to re-decorate the dining area, again, going with a white, lime green and black scheme with the same wallpaper. The rooms are knocked through and separated by an archway, so it makes sense to decorate with the same theme. After that, I will be removing the carpets. I only have carpet going up the stairs, along the landing and in the bedrooms. Though they are clean, there are soo many stains on them, and they are looking worn and tired. The bedroom and landing carpets have been installed over the laminate, which, I think, is making the carpets smell funny as the airflow is blocked. I’ll be removing the laminate too, seeing what the original floors are like and hopefully, be able to sand and varnish that. Then I’ll be starting to redecorate the bedrooms! I have some ideas and will be sharing these in a blog post coming soon!

A Crazy Few Years

25th Nov 2025 | Suzi Tench

It doesn’t seem that long ago since I last posted, but, upon looking, my last post to this blog was way back in 2022 with my piece on Autism Awareness Month. While I had wanted to continue to blog, things were going on in my personal life that made it hard to even think about writing, but now, I feel that I am in a better headspace, and I’d like to start writing again. I feel strong enough to start sharing things and bringing this blog back to life and I am going to start with what has been going on over the past few years.

2022 – The Year I Got To Try My Dream Job

I was still working for the NHS in 2022 as part of the payments team when I was offered a secondment on the Communications Team for 6 months. I seized this opportunity, and in September 2022, I transitioned to Comms, starting my secondment there as a Communications Officer. The team dynamics were completely different from my old team; we felt like a cohesive unit and were fully supported in our projects. We had weekly team meetings, talking about our projects, things we had learned and any hurdles we had faced. The job was varied, with projects being undertaken that involved learning Powtoon, an animation based software, photography work, creating newsletters, organising award ceremonies – from creating the awards brochures, liasing with companies to produce the awards (and collecting them!), photographing and videoing the ceremonies and producing the post awards brochure, setting up exhibitions, working with other departments and healthboards to produce work, updating websites and creating new, more interactive and interesting information, fact sheets and so many other things in between! I had so much fun in that role; no day was the same, and while we mostly worked from home, I never felt that I was on my own. The team managed to create an environment where conversation was encouraged, and my team mates were always available on Teams, whether it was just for a chat or to support or seek advice from. I wish this role could have continued, as I felt like I had found my perfect job role where my creativity was encouraged and my skills were all used instead of sitting stagnant.

Not much else happened in 2022, basically all that I seem to have done is eat, sleep and worked for most of it.

2023 – Everything Starts To Change

The start of 2023 saw the end of my secondment, and in February, I returned to my Payments Team desk job. However, returning wasn’t easy; there were already unaddressed issues from prior to my secondment starting that I knew I had to return and face, which, having generalised anxiety already, made the symptoms even worse. There were issues in the team, a new team leader and a weird vibe of unease seemed to hang in the air. My panic attacks returned, and along with those came a new symptom of fainting. By April, I had been signed off from work with work-related stress. I just couldn’t cope with the atmosphere, the unrealistic expectations put on me, the lack of support, and the attitude of the new team leader (who was pretty aggressive and had a really bad attitude). I was away from work for a good few months and decided, in that time, that I couldn’t realistically stay in Payments, so I started to apply for other roles elsewhere. I applied for, and got invited to, so many Communications jobs, but failed to get hired due to not having any “formal” qualifications in the field, despite having a portfolio of work, having been working as a Communications Officer for 6 months and being able to prove my skills. That was pretty disappointing, and my confidence was shaken.

I returned to Payments after a few months and continued to apply for other jobs around the area, and by December, I had secured employment with an optician in the next town over from where I live. I handed in my notice to the NHS, but quit 2 days before my notice period was up. I started my new role the following week.

Working in the opticians was completely different to my Payments job. It involved face-to-face interaction with patients, welcoming them on arrival, booking their appointments, answering queries, helping them choose glasses, fitting their glasses upon collection, fixing glasses and learning how to do pre-checks and OCT Scans. The job was fun and varied, and each day seemed to pass by in a blur of activity though I was starting to feel stressed in such a busy environment. But by 2024 things were set to change again.

2024 – More Change Ahead

The start of 2024 was already off to a rocky start when my “husband’s*” friends moved in with us. It turns out that the wife had not been paying the mortgage on their house and had been hiding a ton of financial shit from her husband. The repo men turned up and kicked them out of the house, and they had nowhere to stay. My “husband*” and I offered to put them up for a short period of time. That time turned into over 7 months, and along with that came a ton of drama and chaos and the yappiest dog known to man. (* he’s not my husband anymore, read on to find out more!)

I was still working in the opticians and trying to cope with my stress and anxiety due to still learning the job role and being in a high-pressure environment. There was even more stress and anxiety brewing in my personal life, which was starting to affect me. The “friends” that were staying seemed to be cramming more and more of their possessions into my home, taking over every available space, being around all the time, making so much noise, breaking my things and generally just outstaying their welcome. There seemed to be no sign of them leaving, and every conversation with my “husband” turned into some kind of argument where I was made to feel that I was in the wrong.

Again, I ended up being signed off from work with stress and anxiety, which is no surprise, really, due to the circumstances of things I was going through.

By mid-July, I had had enough of the outstayers and made it clear that I wanted them gone and my house back. Funnily enough, after 7 months and not seeing them make any progress towards finding somewhere to go, they miraculously found a house the following day and were packing and gone within the day.

I knew, due to my mental health, that I couldn’t go back to my optician role, and after discussions with the doctor about my mental health and recovery, I was told that I shouldn’t be working full-time, as my stress and anxiety would continue to get worse over time. I quit my optician’s role in October. With it came some relief, but my anxiety and stress were still there. BUT, I had already been thinking about other work I could do while I had been away from work.

I had researched and written a business plan, looked into business loans and secured myself a place on a training course. I applied for, and was accepted for a business loan, and in December I travelled to Barnstaple to begin training to become a loctician! I had training with Jon from Threadloxx and learned so much, and by the end of November, I was able to open my own business creating and installing dreadlocks, carrying out maintenance on dreadlocks and offering services including the creation and installation of temporary/braid-in dreadlocks.

2025 – Escape And Rediscovery

January arrived, and by this point, things had started to escalate pretty badly with “husband”. We were barely on speaking terms, and much of the time that conversations were going on, they ended with him screaming and shouting at me. There were several times that I left my house in the middle of the night and went to stay with friends. I felt unsafe and threatened in my own home. I asked him to leave, but he wouldn’t. I wasn’t sleeping in the same bed as him, preferring to sleep on the sofa. I kept quiet, walking on eggshells, my anxiety working overtime. I felt like I was constantly in fight or flight mode. There was an incident in January which pushed me to make a decision regarding my relationship. (Currently, I don’t want to share too many details about this, but I’m sure that, in the future, I will). I knew I had to make a plan and that leaving was the only option.

While I was busy thinking and trying to come up with a plan, I was still pushing my business, I had 2 clients book in for permanent dreadlock installation and a return client for maintenance.

I had also started a part-time job in a local grocery store just before Christmas that I was enjoying. The job gave me a break from my thoughts and plans, gave me space to start to rediscover myself, regaining confidence that had been lost and helped me to become more sociable.

As part of my business, I wanted to attend festivals as a trader and offer dreadlock maintenance along with selling some items – incense, handmade jewellery, temporary/braid in dreadlocks, offering face painting and hair styling. In May, I took one of my besties to a small festival and set up a stall. We had so much fun, not only did I manage to sell a load of things I also had lots of visitors to my business page afterwards. And I had a break from everything going on at home with my relationship and my “husband”. Funnily enough, while I was away with my bestie, the husband didn’t bother to text or call me for the whole 3 days I was away.

May was also the start of my escape plan. I bought a van that was part converted to a camper, there was an issue with the oil pump that I thought would be fairly easy to fix (the engine should have been fine as it hadn’t been moved or turned over since the oil pump went) and my plan was to get it back on the road, put my stuff in it and go and live in a field on a friends farm for a bit. But, as always, even with the best laid plans come issues. Currently, the van is still sitting in the garage, the engine is totally buggered, and I need to acquire a new engine (and we are talking £6500 or more) or try and find somewhere that will recondition it for me. This shouldn’t be that hard to sort out aside from the garage that I have it currently at not getting back to me with quotes or anything and I feel like I’m constantly chasing them to find out what is going on with it. This scuppered my plans of leaving the “husband”.

By June, things were pretty unbearable. I was spending more and more time staying at friends’ houses, working, doing my own thing or spending time with friends than any time with the “husband”. While I hadn’t discussed any of the issues I was going through with my friends, they knew that something was wrong. I went on the run with a friend towards the end of June, staying in hotels, bunkhouses, a cottage and camping. I left my dog at home and literally had only a bag of clothes with me, though I still managed to go to work. And even though I was living in complete chaos, not knowing what was going to happen, thinking I’d lost my house to him and that I’d have nowhere to go, something inside me started to grow stronger. I started to take back control. It started with gaining access to my bank account that I had set up when I moved to my house in 2018. It may have been a small thing, but it revealed so much to me. And I got angry, really, really, blood-boilingly angry. How dare he take over my home and do all the things to me that he did? I phoned the housing association, explained the situation, the house was SOLELY in my name, and he had no authority to try and take over my house and for me to leave. He was basically a squatter. The police were involved, the locks were changed and CCTV was installed. I got the keys back on the 28th July 2025.

The house was in an absolute state when I let myself in. All my things had been boxed up. The house was filthy and stank. He had even emptied out my studio space and let his child and her husband redecorate it so they could move in too. The police said I should let him have some of his clothes that night, but I wasn’t supposed to let him into the property. I had a friend with me, and with her help, we bagged up some of his shit; he came and collected it from the doorstep. I’ve not seen or spoken to him since that day.

Over the next 8 weeks, with the help of another friend, we packed up all of his belongings and ferried them to a lock-up for him to collect it all from. The police had said he wasn’t allowed near the house or near me, and it was discussed with a third-party representative that this was the best option. During this time, I dismantled broken furniture, filled both my car and my friend’s car (numerous times) with rubbish and did so many tip runs. I have scrubbed and cleaned the house from top to bottom. The floor downstairs needed so many buckets of soapy water before it came clean. I hacked up a stinking old broken, uncomfortable sofa with a saw (really satisfying) and got that out of the house and sat on the floor for weeks. I have redecorated the living area, bought a new sofa, unpacked my things and am starting to live again. I got boxes down from the attic, ones that I didn’t even realise were up there, ones of my things that he had slowly packed away and placed there.

I’m still discovering things that he has done to me and have been hit financially (I can’t disclose much at the moment), and have been left with a huge amount of debt that I’m working to pay off, but I finally feel like I can breathe again. No longer do I feel like I am walking on eggshells; my sleep has improved, I’m eating better and have even rediscovered my love of cooking. My anxiety is still there, ticking away in the background, but it is bearable and no longer is the overriding feeling louder than anything else.

So, what now? Well, I am working on building my business back up. I’m hoping to get back into being a nail technician on a more permanent basis, as well as continuing with my loctician services. I had a hair client a week ago that booked in for maintenance, and I took on a nail client over the weekend, which was good. I’m going to focus on advertising and creating a website with all my services and prices listed, along with a booking function. I am going to build up my jewellery and other stock so I can attend some festivals as a trader in 2026. I am getting my van fixed and running (waiting on a call from the garage, spoke to them yesterday, and they have PROMISED to call me back with an engine recon quote today). I am looking into training to become a team leader in my part-time job. I have had some really good feedback from other colleagues, got awarded a badge for selling the most memberships and had a certificate for some feedback left by a customer too! I am planning on returning to blogging, and honestly, since mulling over whether to post this or not, I’ve had a few ideas for future posts and I have a ton of other things I want to share, including some of my house decorating, food I have made and places I’ve been as well!

Guess Who’s Back? An Update

9th Sep 2020 | Suzi Tench

It’s been months since I last wrote a blog post and so much has happened in that time, I have had a few weeks away from work with an unidentified sickness which was thought to be Coronavirus (this was pre-testing) which then developed into a 4 week, 2 lots of antibiotics, battle with a chest infection. On top of that, I have had to take further time off from work as I had been in contact with someone who started to show Covid symptoms to shield my co-workers and make sure I was not unwell. All of this and the uncertainty of the past few months in general have really knocked me off kilter with my routines and writing which has meant that blogging has been pretty hard to keep up with.

Though I have not been blogging I have still been writing, Iwrote an article for an on-line magazine called The Everyday that you can find here https://theeverydaymagazine.co.uk/opinion/working-from-home-before-and-after-covid?rq=suzi%20tench and I have written another article for them that should be published at some point in September.

I started the 100 Day Project(https://www.the100dayproject.org/), a free art project lasting 100 days, which started on 7th April 2020, where you aim to do something creative each day for 100 days. I started with the good intensions of being able to complete the 100 days but gave up around 20 days because I just felt so unmotivated to do any art. I had started with an idea to work on an 8×8 inch square each day that would link together with other squares to form a bigger picture. In all honesty, though I really enjoyed what I was doing, I think I was overly ambitious in the sizing of my squares that took more than a day to complete. I think I will do the project again next year with the same concept but use much smaller squares of either 4×4 inch or 2×2 inch as they will be quicker to complete.

I found a fab group on Facebook called Frock Up Friday thatwas set up by Susan Sims and Bevali Francis during lockdown and gave members an excuse to get dressed up on Fridays when much of the world was working from home in comfortable clothes. I joined and have taken part in frocking up on several Fridays during lockdown, which has helped me with my mental health during these uncertain times and has given me something to look forward to each week. The Frock Up Friday group are lovely and the outfit’s people post, not just on a Friday, are amazing!

The biggest thing that happened just prior and during lockdown was that I gained a new boyfriend who has moved in with me! I say new, though we grew up together, his sister and I were best friends through secondary school and her family became like my second family when growing up. We have been in contact much of our adult live, mostly via social media, and decided to meet for a drink one evening and didn’tstop talking all night. It has been lovely to have someone in my life who has known me through the years and has shared memories of things we did as kids. A few months ago, we made the decision to move in together, he gave notice on the place he had been living in and moved in with me.

Since Rob and I got together and lockdown has eased, we have been away several times for the weekend, once we went to St David’s for the weekend to visit his mum and other weekends we have stayed in Brean walking along the beach, going out for dinner, having a mosey around the market or playing games in the arcades. We have spent nights in during the week, watching tv, cooking food, having takeaways, listening to music and enjoying the odd glass of cider or wine. When it was really hot, back in July, we bought a large paddling pool that we put in the garden, filled with water and sat out in the evenings watching the sun go down and the stars come out. All this stuff, things that people take for granted in relationships, I didn’t realise I missed until I had it back in my life.

Anyway, that’s enough of the soppy stuff… What have you all been up to while I have been away? I hope you are all well and safe! Hopefully, this post will be the start of more regular blog posts coming from me as I have really missed my blog, blog friends ad my blogging routine!

Top 10 Habits to Make Life Easier

23rd May 201917th May 2019 | Suzi Tench

Top 10 Habbits To Make Life Easier

I don’t know about you, but I am always on the lookout for any tip, trick or help that can make my day to day life much easier and today, I have compiled a Top 10 list of Habits that I have learned which really do help me to have an easier life!

Always carry a pen and notebook. You never know when you may have an idea or thought that could be useful. It could be an idea for a meal to cook, a present to buy, an item to add to a shopping list, something you need to do, whenever you think of something, it is always a good idea to write it down.
Always go shopping with a list. Shopping with a list is a definite for me, I can focus on what I need, only buying the essentials which in turn leads to saving money by not buying anything unnecessary and saves me time and energy! My brain does not need to do all the thinking and remembering and decision making and my shopping experiences are a lot less stressful.
Always prepare your lunch the evening before, especially when you are working or have daytime commitments. This simple act can free up some of your precious morning time and is one less thing to have to think about when getting ready.
Always plan your outfit the night before. This is another simple habit to get into, you can assess your outfit and make sure it is clean and tidy, you have time to iron it if needed or make a repair. There is nothing worse than putting on an outfit to find that the hem has come down or a button is missing and then having to rush around to fix it or find something else suitable to wear in the morning.
Always have a plan and know what your agenda for the day is. This tip has probably been the most useful and life-changing for me. Even on my days off, I like to have a plan of what I am going to do with my time and helps me to remain productive and tick things off my list. I like to plan my day the night before so I am prepared and know what I will have to do the following day.
Always prioritise. It doesn’t matter if you have few tasks or many, prioritising can help you to get the important or hardest, or most time-consuming things done and out of the way first. Prioritising and working your way down the list can help to free up headspace that would otherwise be consumed with worry and thinking about other tasks rather than the task in front of you. However you prioritise is up to you, there is no right or wrong way but it does help!
Practice Mindfulness. I have been practising mindfulness for a few years now, and while I may not sit for an hour, clear my head and meditate, I find that smaller bursts of around 5 minutes, in a hectic day can really help to sharpen my mind and help me to concentrate. If you have never tried mindfulness before there are lots of apps that can help you, Calm is one of my favourites!
Always aim to be 5 minutes early. I received this little tip from my Careers Advisor in school and it has really stuck with me. I hate to be late, there is so much stress and worry created by being late, worry about letting people down, that people are waiting for you, the rushing to get there, all sorts of negative things. Being early means that you have time to sit and breathe, practice some mindfulness and arrive in a calm manner. It also means that if there are hold-ups along your journey then you have time to make adjustments to your plans and still be punctual.
Know when you are most productive and utilise it in your day to day life. I am most productive from mid-morning to the mid-afternoon so I try to plan the bulk of my work at that time. I prioritise the biggest chunk of my to-do list for that time, concentrating on the smaller tasks in the morning and the ones that take up the most of my time for between 11am and 2pm. Knowing when you are most productive means you can schedule and prioritise better, you are less likely to procrastinate and knowing and utilising your productivity to its best gives you a sense of positivity.
Always schedule breaks. It doesn’t matter how busy you are, breaks are essential as they can help us to decompress after one activity and clear out head before making a start on the next. A break can be as simple as making a coffee or going for a short walk. This break makes it easier to transition from one thing to another and is essential in my life.