Author: Christina

This year I’ve been trying to re-acquaint myself with some screen free hobbies.

I love working online but it’s important to give your eyes a rest and try something offline. My friend Carly is obsessed with crochet but I’m not that crafty.

I wanted to try something simple that I could do at home without investing too much (you know, in case I didn’t keep it up). I tried drawing and that was ok but I have really embraced reading. I loved reading as a kid and enjoy reading for business but haven’t read for pleasure in a very long time.

I joined my local library and now have a stack of books on my bedside table. I’ve read more books in 2016 than in the last 10 years combined.

A few I’d definitely recommend are:

• Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari – Funny perspective on love and modern dating rituals. Great research combined with a brilliant comedic voice.
• Wild by Cheryl Strayed – An autobiographical book about a painful part of Cheryl’s life then proves you can push yourself beyond your limits.
• The life changing magic of not giving a fuck – While I enjoyed Marie Kondo’s original tome (and my drawers are still organised vertically) I found Sarah Knight’s version so refreshing and honest. Women give too many fucks about things that are not important. One of the best self help books around.
• Love Style Life by Garance Dore – I love supporting bloggers and I bought this rather than borrowing it. It’s an easy style guide with moments of truth, realness and honesty.

Another book I enjoyed but that I’ll save you the time of reading is The One Thing by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan. It’s a book with a beautiful and singular concept that multitasking doesn’t work. There’s over 240 pages to prove that you need to pick one thing at a time to focus on.

For many people, it’s hard to hear but I know it works.

I combine this theory with Todd Herman’s 90 Day Year to set a single 12 week goal. You can build a new habit and make real change in this period which you can build on in the next 12 weeks. This is game changing work flow.

Read anything good lately?

One of the joys of working for yourself is that you don’t have to endure work meetings.

Working in corporate, I felt there was so much time wasting with endless meetings with no agendas (or too many agendas!). Meetings that would go for 4+ hours with so much talking but no decision making. Meetings that would cover up for colleagues who didn’t want to do any work. I was so frustrated by this pointless cycle.

But sometimes meetings can work. Real face-to-face talks can solve problems quickly and stops the endless email tennis.

I have come to realise that the more routine I have, the more creative I can be. I fought the routine for so long but I realised that a system can help me create space.

One of the reason’s (actually the main reason) I love working for myself is freedom. Today I took advantage of this freedom to ignore my schedule and take my mum to lunch.

My mum is amazing but she’s recently become nervous of driving long distances so hasn’t been able to visit her friends. I say friends, but they’re really more like family as they’ve been there for every event for more than 40 years.

I feel so lucky to be able to drop everything and spend the whole day with my family. We laughed, talked and reminisced and ate lots of delicious food.

If I take anything away from today, it’s the power of positive thought.

It doesn’t matter if the doctor tells you you’ve only got six months to live – you have to keep planning for the future. Having something good to look forward to can make all the difference to your diagnosis.

Remember we were struck by lightning?

We took this event as inspiration for our Halloween costume this year. It was a very hasty DIY project on Saturday afternoon before heading to a brilliant Halloween house party hosted by an American friend.

Halloween was never a thing in Australia but it’s starting to gain momentum. I love it and I hope it continues!

I went for a walk tonight and there was a great energy with kids, parents and pets all dressed up. I managed to resist taking lollies from a bowl outside my neighbour’s but I might dress up next year for trick or treating…