Self-Care - January 12, 2017

23 Ways to Get Your Act Slash Life Together ASAP

brighton the day striped tunic and ysl bag
brighton the day striped tunic and ysl bag
brighton the day button up tunic and jeans with brown booties
brighton the day button up tunic and jeans with brown booties

Between the recent purchase of my house, another birthday (I’m officially in my late 20s now, y’all!) and personal growth that came with 2016, getting my life together has been at the forefront of my mind. There are days when I feel so #adultish – like the other day when I bought a washer and dryer, and some days where I feel like I could be doing way more. Do y’all feel the same way?

I think part of it has to do with this transitional time in my life – someone once told me your late 20s are really the biggest shift in life for a lot of reasons. I definitely think I’m at a point where I’m craving a more stable, organized life that feels grown-up, but I know I have a ways to go – and I may never truly feel like I’ve got my “act together.”

After catching myself say this phrase time and time again, I decided it would be an interesting thought experiment to try and actually define what this “ideal” is that I’m comparing myself to or daydreaming about. Like, what does it actually mean to get slash have your life together anyway? It’s such an overused, broad term. It likely looks very different for every person, but I was up to the challenge of breaking it down and sharing my thoughts with y’all. As always, this is 200% up for discussion and in fact, I encourage you to weigh in via the comments below (please!).

Join me! Let’s get our lives together

When it comes to making changes, size doesn’t matter. The way I see it, something is better than nothing. And sometimes the smallest changes can make the biggest different in our lives. I got a little overwhelmed before/during writing this post as I tried to think about what it really means to “get your life together” but I decided to push through my perfectionist (have-to-have-it-ALL-amazing-before-I-press-publish) tendencies and forced myself to just write down what I could. Preaching to myself here – something (a mini blog post) is better than nothing at all (or sitting on this “draft” for months waiting for it to be fully comprehensive). Of course there’s more I could cover here, but these are the first few things I thought of – and things that would make me feel a little better about my life/situation right now. Plus, I’d love to hear your contributions to the list as well!

How to get your life together

Here are 23 actionable things you can do ASAP to get your life just a little bit more “together” – aka how to get your life together:

  1. Write things down. Better yet, get a notebook to carry around with you so you’ll have a place to write it. If you write “it” (all the things) down, you won’t have to stress about remembering it. Just make sure you’ve got it all in the same place.
  2. Simplify your to do list; learn how to separate the urgent from the important and prioritize.
  3. Go to bed 30 minutes earlier – try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time everyday next week (not counting the weekend of course lol).
  4. Embrace batch processing – set times to answer emails.
  5. Go to the dentist – yeah, just handle it. You should be going once every 6 months. I promise, it’s worth it.
  6. Quit hitting snooze – just set one alarm and put your phone on the other side of your bedroom. Snooze is a state of mind – don’t let yourself do it.
  7. Empty your inbox – grab some coffee, play some gangster rap and handle it. Oh, and unsubscribe from stupid stuff while you’re at it.
  8. Plan your meals for next week on Sunday (and do yourself a favor and go grocery shopping). Speaking of meal planning, did you see my announcement yesterday about the very first (of 6) BTD Meal Plan?! Do it with me y’all!
  9. Throw out expired food/stuff in your fridge and freezer. Check weekly.
  10. Deposit money in your savings account, like often.
  11. Check up on your retirement fund. Wait, you have one right?
  12. Review your last month’s expenditures (I could write a whole post about this one).
  13. Quit binge-watching Netflix (or at least give it up for a month or so while you pursue getting your sh*t together).
  14. Start taking care of your skin.
  15. Sort through your snail mail.
  16. Go paperless and put all your bills on autopay so you don’t have to pay monthly. Use the same card (like a CC for travel points if you can afford to pay it off each month).
  17. Clean out your purse.
  18. Sort through your socks and throw away the random singles.
  19. Stretch or go on a walk or something.
  20. Drink less soda. Sparkling water is what’s up. Or just water in general.
  21. Clean out your car and then wash it. While you’re at it, do you need to change the oil?
  22. Floss your teeth!!!
  23. Clean out your junk drawer in your desk/kitchen/etc.

Okay that’s all I got for y’all today – although I could go on. Gosh, posts like these seriously motivate me and I truly hope they do the same for you.

Outfit Details: Striped tunic top (wearing size XS) // Jeans (fit TTS, high-waisted) // Rag & Bone booties // YSL bag

Whatcha think?

I’m sure you’ve got some GEM of a tip to add to this list. PLEASE let us know! Maybe we can build like the “Get your life together 101” super list with these things plus all the things y’all list below.

For starters, think about which part of your life feels like it’s a #hotmess or falling apart. And then consider what needs to be done to fix it. Comment below with the”ideal” that you’re not doing (ha).

What have you done to get your life together? What does it mean to you? Where are you struggling? What would you like to see a blog post about? Talk to me, friends!