Live Brave: EverydayLife

I have done a combination of working from the office a couple days and working from home the rest of the week for around four years now. I absolutely love the flexibility it gives me but it doesn't come without some challenges. Like everything in life, you have to find a balance with this and here are 5 guidelines and routines that I have personally put in place to help me keep that healthy balance.

Eat lunch away from your desk | At one stage I was finding myself working straight through lunch every single day without fail. When you have a lot to get through and no one to pull you away it is easy to keep going...and before you know it it is four pm, your sugar levels have plummeted and you are in the cupboards looking for a quick chocolate fix. Not only was I finding myself digging into the chocolate tin almost daily but the lack of a break also meant that by the afternoon I was making many more mistakes than what I normally would. One of the ways that I try to keep myself accountable in this area is by adding this to my daily tending list on my monthly PowerSheets and I have been finding that having that reminder there has really helped me make the decision to step away and grab lunch.

Breath fresh air | In my opinion, all five of these tips are beneficial and worth implementing into your day, but for me this one is especially important. I have experienced how easy it is to find that days have passed and I haven't even been out my front door and so I have had to become super intentional about getting fresh air each day. Depending on the weather, I have a list of activities that I choose from in order to get me outside. This list includes a morning or evening walk, eating my lunch or dinner outside while enjoying my garden, doing some errands or even taking my office to the local library or coffee shop if I feel like a change of scenery.

Honor office hours | When I used to work in the office, it was much easier to keep office hours. The office building doesn't open until a specific time and at the end of the day all of your colleagues are packing up to head home. But when at home you can basically work at any time of the day and having your work emails accessible on your mobile makes dipping in and out of work at the weekend or the evenings even easier. Now, from time to time there is a genuine need to work additional hours and when that is the case then it really isn't a problem. It's when the occasional becomes the norm you know that you are no longer living in balance. So the things that I actively do to help keep that balance is to turn off my work phone in the evenings and weekends so that I am less tempted to sneak a peek. I also set myself an alarm 30 minutes before the end of my working hours so that I have a tangible reminder that I need to finish off what I am working on and close things down for the day.

Create a dedicated work space | It is so tempting to spend your days laid out in bed or on the couch working away..... and on days when I don't feel 100% I totally do that. But most days I try to work from my office. I am fortunate enough to have an office that I can use (to be fair it is the office/craft room/spare room) but you don't need an office, just a dedicated workspace which could be as simple as a desk.

Reach out when you need to | Once you get over the excitement of working from home, you can soon start to feel very alone and isolate when it comes to work. These feelings can be amplified even more when you have a lot of changes going on at work or when you are picking up a new project. Communication is key when you have a team of people who work remotely so when you are feeling isolated, unsure or overwhelmed make sure that you reach out to others in your wider team or your manager. Sometimes just talking things through brings clarity and helps you to make progress with what you need to.

These are my top tips and by implementing them I have found that they have helped me to be more productive, more effective and all round happier. If you have any tips that you use I would love to hear them so please do share them below.

This year has been a pretty big year house wise and budget wise. I bought my first house two years ago and since then, I've been saving up to re-do the garden and re-decorate the house. Initially the plan was to just focus on the garden this year and do the redecorating when I had put aside to cover it all but that didn't go to plan....but I will share those reveal photos over the coming weeks.

The garden was my first priority. As you can see from the photos below it was very bland colour wise, and in need of a lot of tender loving care. The washing line had been cemented in which made the garden look and feel much smaller than it was and on the bottom left of the photo you will see a brick box with some plants which jutted out which was more of a trip hazard than anything else.

This project was a first for me. I had never done any sort of landscaping design before and I had a fairly small budget which I needed to keep all this work within. Starting was the hardest part. I knew that I wanted the garden to be low maintenance. I knew that I wanted some colour in there. I knew that I wanted to open it up so that I could make the most of the space during summer time and I knew I needed to keep within budget which meant I needed to do as much of it myself as I could and be a very savvy shopper.

There definitely are a few things that I learnt along the way, and that I will share below, but for the most part I am very pleased with how it turned out. I love looking out in the garden now and my neighbours, who are green thumb retiree's, are also very happy to see the improvements.

Top Tips For Giving Your Garden A Makeover

If you are on a budget do as much as you can yourself. | Painting the fencing is one of the first things that I did and only took a couple of hours to complete. Instead of paying for someone to come and remove the gravel that was down, I advertised on Gumtree and offered the gravel for free to whoever was willing to shovel and take it away themselves. Another trick is to use what you have where you can. Little things like this can end up saving you a bundle.
When hiring, see a few different companies. | There was absolutely no way that I could have done all of this on my own so I knew that a portion of my budget would have to go towards getting someone else to carry out the work. I was very surprised to see how much of difference there was in quotes between the different companies so make sure that you get two to three different companies in.
When obtaining the quote, also ask them for ideas. | One thing that I did with each of the companies who came to give me a quote was to ask them what they would do if this was there garden. It was a great way for me to get some ideas but more importantly, a great way to see how they think and how they communicate this.
Write it down! | This was a biggie for me and I wish that I had actually done this. Once I hired the company to do the work, we talked through what I wanted and then I left him to it, thinking that he would double check if he felt he needed clarity. This was not the case which led to a few instances of me feeling stressed and wondering if it was going to turn out how I wanted.
Have the full design figured out before starting. | This helps to avoid duplicate or unnecessary spending. As I mentioned in the first point, I offered the gravel to anyone who was willing to come and collect...however I later decided that I wanted to put some gravel down the side flower beds and ended up having to go out and buy several bags of the stuff.
Be open to some changes. | I knew that this would be a toughie for me. I had the exact picture in my head of how I wanted it to look once finished but due to a couple unforeseen things, I had to make some changes and be OK with those changes.
Time spent shopping for the best price is not wasted time. | I spent hours on-line and in shops searching for the best prices for my supplies. It saved me a load of cash and I felt better knowing that I was still able to come in within my budget.

Here's to my new garden. May it be used loads for years to come. If you have any other tips to add I would love for you to share them in the comments.

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