Although I travelled on far fewer planes in 2020 than in 2019, I have heard the saying 'secure your own mask before helping others' used quite a bit recently. With the start of a new year, lots of people are talking about self-care and how taking time to look after yourself is so important. I guess the 'mask' saying has come about more due to our current situation - as of midnight last night, face masks have now become mandatory for adults when visiting indoor venues in NSW - but it really is just a re-wording of another saying that I hear quite often being 'you can't fill from an empty cup'.

Both of these sayings remind us that when we are not at our 'peak' we cannot help others. Now, I'm not saying that 'helping others' needs to be your sole goal for looking after yourself, but as far as I can tell most decent humans appreciate the fact that they are able to help others if need be. Helping others can be something as little as being able to be there for a friend or family member that needs an ear or even being able to take a furry loved on out for a walk.

Over the last few years I have spent a lot more time 'filling my own cup' so that when needed, I am able to help fill the cup of others. The thing I love about being able to help fill someone else's cup is that it often helps to top mine up that last little bit when I see just how much my love, support or inspiration can mean to them.  

I thought I'd share some of my ways to look after myself, you might find something on the list that you haven't thought would work for you to give a go over the next few weeks or so :)

• Get a good night's sleep. This has been the biggest game changer for me. I get an average of 8 hours sleep every night and it has completed changed my mood, my attitude and my motivation to tackle everything that comes up during a day. Our phones have amazing tools such as the 'Bedtime reminder' on the iPhone to help us achieve this!
• Drink lots of water. Skip the caffeine loaded drinks, especially in the afternoon. Majority of people are dehydrated and confuse this for hunger. Improving your water intake also has other benefits such as clear skin!
• Read. Put the phone down and read something - get transported to another place through words and your own imagination!
• Get outside. Even just a 15 minute walk can help to get you away from the source of stress or anxiety. Fresh air and sunlight is so important for your health and your mood.
• Dance. Put on your favourite tune and have a boogie!! Even when you're sitting in the traffic - a quick car jam can lift your mood so much by just belting out your favourite lyrics!
• Eat more real food. Like the caffeine, processed foods make us feel sluggish. Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables help your body to stay functioning on the inside, especially in your gut and there is a lot of research around the brain-gut connection. If your gut isn't working properly, neither is your brain.
• Hug something fluffy! It's crazy how animals just 'know' when you need a hug. If you don't have a pet, think about volunteering at an animal shelter or finding a great friend who has one that you can 'borrow' every now and then!! 

I would love to hear what you are doing today to ensure that your mask is secured first and help fill your cup!! 

 Welcome to 2021... we made it through 2020 but like most people, I'm not quite ready to get too excited about this year until I get to see a little bit more!

I haven't purchased my usual desk planner or even a diary of any kind, simply because I have no idea if it's going to be necessary!! We work using Google Calendar, so my whole life ends up there first anyway. 

I go back to work on Thursday, so a trip to Officeworks will no doubt be in my future - even though I don't REALLY need any new stationery, I can't quite get used to a new 'academic' year without the new stationery to go with it! So I'll probably grab myself a planner of some sort then!

Anyway, the real reason for this blog is to share my 2021 goals with you... note, goals - not resolutions! These aren't things that I am just bringing about because it's the first of January. These are outcomes that I am wanting to check off after the first 90 days of 2021. Last year I wrote yearly goals and due to the changes that took place, some of them were somewhat unachievable.

I like the idea of 90 day goals - this means that after the first 90 days of the year I can reassess where I'm at and then come up with a new set of goals. I don't really think I'm very good at actually writing goals, so doing it 4 times throughout 2021 will hopefully help me get better at it (or at least trust myself more that I'm doing a good job!). 

I found it easier to achieve my 2020 goals by having a 'how' sheet that went alongside my goals. This broke down each of my goals into achievable steps to help me achieve the bigger goal. 

These will both be printed out and stuck above my desk so I see them every day at work. I might also make some visual representations of each goal to display around my office as well. The more you see and read your goals, the more your subconscious will help you to achieve them.  

Lastly, to finish today's blog... I wanted to share my 'one word' for 2021. In 2020, after I had written my goals, I decided that my one word was going to be GROW. I was working towards growing myself in the gym, helping to grow EP Science and growing my relationships - all of which I am happy to report that I achieved.

In 2021, I have decided that my word is going to be MORE - more love, more listening, more movement, more whole-foods, more consistency, more reading, more learning, more of all the good stuff :) 

Well... here we are!

It's been a hot minute since I blogged last. Somehow I feel like I say that every time I start a new post. I did really well throughout January - 22 posts, one a day - but then work got crazy busy again and that all went out the window.

Anyway... December 30th, 2020. What. A. Year - and as everyone keeps reminding me, it ain't over yet!! With the calendar year coming to a close tomorrow I thought it best I reflect on my 2020 goals before I spend time over the next couple of days writing new ones for 2021 

The image above consists of my 2020 goals that were written on December 31st, 2019. After a goal setting session with my coach and the other girls in the program I am working with him in, 'The Minimalist Method', we were given the task to write a set of goals for four different pillars. I chose to display mine above my computer so that I could see them every day when I was at work.

I also wrote about my goals in this post so that I had shared them with others. One thing I have learnt about goals is that sharing them helps them to become 'more real' and you are also able to have others help you to be accountable for them. Another great thing about sharing your goals is that you may find others who are out there who are either working towards the same goal or have recently achieved this goal who can support you!

Another important thing about goals is being able to reflect on them and see how you went - which is the point of this blog. The four pillars that we were asked to write goals around included Career/Business, Relationships/Spirituality, Growth/Mindset and Body/Strength/Progress. Looking back, I am happy to report that I have been able to smash a number of these goals... but others I've dropped the ball on, but that's totally fine!!

So here. are my goals and my reflection on how I went with them this year:

I'm going to start with the ​Career/Business pillar as this is one that I feel that I did great in this year: 
​

• Meet new Science revenue targets - in 2020 I was able to help EP secure it's first government contract. As a result, we will be providing EP Science to every Year 7-10 student in Victoria for the next few years! 
• Meet churn target - throughout the year I've been in touch with many teachers to gather feedback on EP Science to make sure that we are offering the best possible resource. I am unsure what my churn % is just yet as it's not finalised until invoicing season is over!
• Increased engagement with customers - one of my 'subgoals' for this overall goal was to blog every day - well we've already established that this didn't happen!! Also, conferences were cancelled due to COVID and we weren't able to hold networking events, but we were able to pivot and run a huge number of webinars and online sessions with teachers which helped to keep the level of engagement up
• Build Content for the platform - this year I wrote 6 (I think it was?!) Science News lessons that are live on our EP platform. The lesson I wrote about COVID has been completed by over 20 thousand students and our Languages team translated it into a number of different languages!!
• Learn more about the business side of the company - I have definitely learnt more about EP as a whole, however, I haven't completed any courses like I would have liked to. 

​The next pillar I thought I'd discuss is the Body/Strength/Progress one, another one I feel like I did extremely well with this year!!

• Close my rings every day - when I close them today and tomorrow, it will be all 366 days with all 3 rings closed!
• Complete all my monthly Apple Watch challenges - I ended up with 7/12. Some of them this year were insanely unrealistic! I made the decision not to complete some of them for my own mental health more than anything!!
• Drink 2-3L of water a day - done :) 
• Hit weekly calorie, protein & fibre goals - this was awesome until December! HAHA
• Build my strength back up and then increase as the year progresses - once I got the all clear from my physio I was back in the gym and working on my strength. I didn't miss a resistance session during lockdown - exercise really helped me get through those long days at home! I came about 2kg off my goal of body weight squats, was able to complete a series of double bodyweight hip thrusts and I'm still working on one unassisted pull up! Injuries have been niggling here and there throughout the year, but I have been working with an awesome physio! 

Pillar 3 to look at is Growth/Mindset

• Read more, scroll less - I may not have read for 20 minutes EVERY day, but I read 15 books of varying lengths and styles including books for self-development and enjoyment
• Sleep 7-9 hours per night - done :) 
• Less take away, more eating at home - this year we explored cooking at home a lot more, I guess thanks to COVID! We explored Hello Fresh and Marley Spoon and I also learnt a lot about nutrition and food that helps me feel good! We still enjoy probably too much take away, but you get that!!
• Be totally OK with the fact I’m turning 40 this year!! - so the big 4-0 came and went with nothing really mind-blowing apart from a small family gathering at home on a day where we had a huge storm and the weather was shit :P 

The last pillar was Relationships/Spirituality and the one where I didn't get to achieve as much I'd like to due to COVID more than anything I guess... 

• Date day/night with hubby once a month - well nope, this didn't happen! But there's always 2021!
• Take my Nan out once a month - we got one outing before she was put into lockdown and I got one visit before the shit hit the fan again! 
• Make the effort to connect with colleagues face to face -  this I was able to do - but it was more via Zoom than face to face than I would have liked!! We made a much bigger effort once restrictions were eased, but we also caught up every day on Slack & Zoom to make sure that everyone was doing ok!
• Reach out to friends & family - again - not so good in this one. No footy games meant I rarely got to see my 'footy fam', Christmas Day restrictions meant that I didn't get to host Christmas Day... but I tried a number of different ways to connect with people via Zoom, Messenger etc!!

So... all in all, looking back 2020 was actually a really decent year for me - despite all of the 'shitstorm' that it turned out to be globally. I look forward to spending some time writing my 2021 goals and being flexible enough to pivot with them if need be... if things don't return to 'normal'! 

There really aren't many better feelings than crossing everything off your 'to-do' list are there?! I know it may sound a tad sad, but I get so much enjoyment from seeing a list of goals and being able to cross them off, one by one!! I also have the memory of a goldfish... so if it doesn't go on my to do list... it will most likely never happen!!

And yes - like the young lad in our meme here - I will add items to my daily to do list and automatically cross them off if they weren't on there from the beginning of the day!

I have always been someone who is a big fan of to do lists. I actually still have a book full of old lists somewhere in my office! Any kind of stationery that offers a different way of creating a to do list usually finds it way into my shopping basket and I have 2 to do list apps currently on the go - mostly because one of them is being phased out soon :(

I have multiple to do lists... probably too many, but they help me to prioritise different facets of my life and my job. I have my yearly to do list, which I have then broken down into a monthly to do list that sits above my work desk on a whiteboard. These are probably the only lists that cross both life and work. They are pretty big 'to dos' - they are actually my yearly goals... but still the same thing!! 

I then have two apps that I use for lists - Wunderlist and Trello. Unfortunately, Wunderlist is the one that is being phased out later this year, so I am making the transition to Trello. Both apps definitely have their pros and cons and I am enjoying getting to know the finer details of Trello and I love the fact that our teams can work privately, but also collaboratively with our boards. 

I will be really sad to see Wunderlist go. It has been a great tool that I have used since joining EP. I have a few boards for different parts of my role and I have boards that I am able to share with others. My husband and I even had a Groceries board that we would add to if we realised we were out of something so if the other was at the supermarket they would know what we needed! The feature I love about Wunderlist the most is the ability to set your own specific reminder dates for tasks that are due, even down to the exact minute the reminder will go off. It is also linked to my phone and watch, so there's no escaping those reminders!

I have really only started to explore Trello in the last fortnight. Our team at work was looking for a way that we could all have our own individual boards, but still have complete visibility over each other. We also wanted a space where we could have a highly visible collaborative board for tasks that were across all of our domains. I have set up my various 'lists' of 'cards' and have been able to include a range of automated features. One advantage of Trello over Wunderlist is that I can see all of my lists at once by just scrolling across, rather than having to click into each board. I can also add visual cues to Trello, a feature that wasn't quite as easy on Wunderlist. I have the Trello app on my phone, but I am yet to find out whether it is compatible with my Apple Watch - something to look into!! I also took part in a really awesome and succinct SkillShare unit on how to maximise your productivity with Trello. I plan on going back and watching it again to make sure I'm getting the most out of the platform!

Lastly - I then ALSO have hand written to do lists... usually for the BIG jobs of the day that MUST get done! It's so awesome being able to physically pick up a pen and scribble a line through a task that you spent hours on once it's done! I have some pretty good to do list stationery, but I'm about to head to Typo and buy a weekly one as I find I waste too much paper on just a daily to do list!! 

Here are some benefits for writing to do lists:

• ​most people can only hold 4 things in their mind. Making lists helps to reduce the mind-juggling and actually helps you to remember more things!
• they can reduce stress as it allows you to visualise what you need to achieve without wasting time of figuring out what to tackle next
• they give us structure!
• they help us to gain a sense of achievement

And a few tips to be a good 'lister':

• ensure your lists have detailed information so you don't need to think too hard to start the next job
• create a system for categorising tasks - use colours or symbols for example
• provide yourself with suitable timelines to complete jobs
• re-evaluate your lists often - don't be afraid to start again with a new list!!

My number one tip comes AFTER you have written your list though and that is... ALWAYS START WITH YOUR LEAST FAVOURITE JOB FIRST!!!!! 

I would love to hear about other people's to do list strategies :) I'm sure I could streamline more a bit better, but I'm just not sure how!!

Upon checking Twitter tonight I noticed quite a few more posts than usual about 'back to school anxiety'. Teachers across Australia are either back at work this week or preparing to return to school over the coming days. After just over 4 weeks off, this can be an extremely daunting feeling for a teacher and even more so this year when the Christmas break was so disrupted with highly unusual weather conditions around Australia.

Although this is my 3rd year of not having to deal with the whole 'back to school' thing, I can still remember the sweaty palms and the increasing heart rate that used to creep in when you saw the 4th ad for school shoes or you were walking through the aisles of Woolworths and were surrounded by those dreaded three words! You would think it would get easier to deal with, but with the ever growing demands on teachers... unfortunately this isn't necessarily the case. 

The greatest thing that you can do for yourself in the lead up to that first day back is ensure that you are as prepared as you can be. I used to spend quite a bit of time in the last week or so of the holidays readying myself and my classroom for the return of the academic year. Putting processes in place also helped me to ensure that mornings were not stressful and I knew exactly what I needed to do and when in order to get through the first week!

Here are some tips that you can implement in order to make your transition back into 'teacher mode' a little smoother:

• plan your meals for the week and make sure you are getting good, wholesome food each day. Doing a bit of meal prep on the weekend will also help you when you are tired to not rely on the quickest delivery service to bring you fast food!!
• have your outfits planned and lay them out the night before
• set aside some time for exercise - at least 30 minutes a day - to get the blood flowing and the oxygen moving through your body. The first week back can involve a lot of sitting in meetings
• let your colleagues know your feelings - they are most likely feeling somewhat the same. Be careful though, you want to make sure you are surrounding yourself with positive people who are going to help lift your mood and make your day brighter!
• get a good night's sleep. This is a given for any night. We should be getting between 7-9 hours sleep each night. This may seem like a bit of a pipe dream, but use the Bedtime feature on your iPhone to remind you when you should be going to bed each night to achieve this. Not using your devices for at least 20-30 minutes before bed will also help you sleep better!
• make sure you have a friend or family member on hand to possibly 'vent' to who is not a teacher! You may want to be able to 'get it all out' without having to continue a conversation that revolves around school or teaching! 

Lastly - remember that a new school year is a new opportunity to start fresh. You are going to get a brand new bunch of students that you can help mould into amazing young adults. You have another year's worth of memories to create for them! Seize the opportunity to get to know the students first before you try to 'teach' them anything related to your subject. Relationships are so important when it comes to teaching and can mean the difference between an amazing year and one that is not so great!

I wish you the best of luck as you embark on the 2020 academic year. I look forward to continuing to follow my PLN on various social media platforms and seeing the amazing things that they do with their students as the year progresses! 

As I pulled into the station after my flight home from Dunedin on Friday night I finished my 3rd book for 2020, 'Life After Life'. This was another recommendation from a colleague, Sophie and again it was a 10/10 read.

I started reading it as we were taxiing out of Sydney on Sunday morning with the plan to read a bit before watching a movie I was keen to see for part of the trip to Auckland. Before I knew it I was too far into the flight to have time to watch it all, so I just kept reading... and reading and reading! I read the whole of the flight from Sydney to Auckland and then again from Auckland to Dunedin. I simply didn't want to stop. Each night I read a bit more before going to bed, being totally sucked into the story of Ursula and her life - or should I say, lives. The two flights home were a similar scene to the flights to NZ - page after page - before using the 45 minute train trip from the airport to finish off the last few chapters. 

I was never one to be into history as a student. I was very much focused on the sciences, but as I have grown and traveled different parts of the world I have become much more interested in the subject. I loved how this book incorporated a whole range of different moments in time and it was packaged in such a unique way. 

The story jumps back and forth a little, but that's the beauty of it. What if you could start over and change the path of history? With each fall of the darkness, you wonder how Ursula is going to ensure that she does not suffer the same fate the next time around. Sometime her choices are not much better and result in a fate much worse in the end - don't even get me started on Derek - whilst other decisions result in positive outcomes for not just herself, but a potentially the whole world. 

If you get the chance, this is a must read. I haven't read many books of this size in the short time frame that I did. It was simply stunning from cover to cover, drawing you in deeper and deeper with each chapter. 

Towards the end of 2019 I read 'Atomic Habits' after seeing a number of people reading it on my Instagram feed. It was one of those books that was just what I needed at the time and I had it read within a few days.

James Clear is an author who writes about habits, decision-making and continuous improvement. In his book, he provides a range of different methods for incorporating daily habits into your life that will help to lead to bigger changes. 

The thing I really loved about this book was that it was all about making small changes, not going 'all in' and allowing the compound effect to take place. I have found the process of habit-stacking to be extremely useful for me. This method gets you to find things that are already habitual to you and adding another layer to it to help bring a new habit into your life.

Being 1% better every day is going to lead to a huge change 5, 10, 100 days down the track... as long as you are consistently 1% better every day. If you have a day where you slip and miss a day, don't make it two in a row. You need to make sure you get back on track as quickly as possible in order to ensure that the habit doesn't slip by the wayside again.

Throughout the book he also explores some other extremely easy ways to build habits including priming your environment and using the two-minute rule. Having your habits visually present in your environment as well as ensuring that your environment doesn't lead you astray from them is an important tip he explores in the book. The two-minute rule is one that is quite straight forward... change your habits so that you can achieve them in 2 minutes or less - tying back in with those points about making it as easy as possible for you to develop these good habits. 

James also has a great blog and newsletter that you can sign up to through his website - www.jamesclear.com. Through this newsletter he regularly sends 3 idea, 2 quotes and one question for you to ponder. I have really enjoyed receiving these emails and working out how they can be incorporated into my life as they arrive. 

As well as visiting James's blog, you can also find him on Instagram and Twitter - where he shares regular nuggets of wisdom! 

Today's instalment of 'On this day' is a little bit of a funny one! No long winded rant like my last one, which ended up going much deeper than I had originally planned...

It's been a long week and my brain is exhausted... so here's a little bit of fun trivia for you!

Paul McCartney was arrested at Tokyo International Airport on January 16th, 1980 for possession of marijuana. On January 16th, 1984 Paul McCartney was arrested in Barbados for... you guessed it... the possession of marijuana!!

He didn't quite learn his lesson the first time did he?! 

That's really all I have for today... just a fun bit of trivia for you :) 

A blog prompt I found suggested that I explore the 'Action for Happiness' self-care calendar and use the 'challenge' of the day as inspiration for a blog. So... without much other inspiration today (will explain why in this blog!)... off I went!

Action for Happiness is a movement of people committed to building a happier and more caring society. Their goal is to get people to see a fundamentally different way of life - where they care less about what they can get just for themselves and more about the happiness of others.

Every month they produce a 'self-care calendar' that provides you with challenges each day in order to do just this. Today being the 15th of January means that the red box above is today's challenge. You can see the full calendar at the bottom of this post! 

And it couldn't have come at a better time!!

I am currently in Dunedin, at our head office with the other Global Heads of the different subjects that we offer. There are the four of us working together with our direct line manager and our agenda this week has revolved around sessions to nut out how we are going to meet the goals that the company and ourselves have set for us this year. We have been speaking about things like content marketing, social media presence, product management and how to gather feedback in order to meet the needs of our users. 

While here this week, I have also felt extremely 'off' in regards to my gut. I have been feeling bloated and heavy and just a general sense of 'blah'. I have been trying to stay on track with my eating and other health-related goals - all of which I have been quite successful with, but I just can't shake this feeling. When I really thought about it today, it was like a light bulb went off in my head and I had been struck by a bus... it's a heightened level stress and a twinge of anxiety!

I'm usually not one to stress or get overly anxious. I usually feel in control of what I am doing and how I am going to do it. This hasn't always been the case, I have been working hard at this for a while now. However, this week I have been having moments where I have simply thought that I can't do this and those 'imposter syndrome' vibes began to creep back in. So, as  said, today's 'challenge' from Action for Happiness could not have come at a better time. It was just what I needed to give me the kick in the pants to stop worrying.

We are all in this together. I am not alone in this journey. We are all venturing into the unknown as a team. Yes, we each have slightly different goals for our subjects - but the overall goal is the same - to make our subject's resources the most sought after online teaching and learning resources for teachers and students - globally!! We are the first ones in our company to forge this path. There is really no 'right or wrong' way to go about it. We are all going to be learning together and if we fail... it will be a F.A.I.L - a 'first attempt in learning'. 

Tomorrow will be a little bit of a slower pace. I plan on finding myself some space to just take stock of what we have covered so that I can ask any clarifying questions before heading back to Sydney on Friday. My goal is to leave here with a clear vision of what needs to be done and what it will look like for ME to get it done. 

Do you have a 'worry' that you could put into perspective today and just try to let go of today?