iPhone, tick! AirPods, tick ! MacBook Air, tick! Good old fashioned Diary, tick tick tick !
Those are just a few of my every day work handbag essentials aside from the lip balm and the Wow face mist which are currently daily life essentials. I love anything that is going to help me showcase full potential productivity wise, motivation wise or just generally in life and I’ve been fine tuning my tools for the last few months so I thought I’d talk you through what I use, why I use it and all the pros and cons in between.
BLOGGING EFFICIENCY
I have my iPhone 11 Pro and my MacBook Air so I can take my blog everywhere with me. I can’t type blogposts out on my phone, for me that's simply impratical . The MacBook Air was the smallest way for me to fit my blog into my handbag and take it everywhere with me on the go, so if I’m on a train, in a car, on a plane or anywhere in the world I can take it out and write whatever is on my mind. I started off with the case that they recommend in Apple, but weight wise I am able to have it on my lap and work from the hotel beds and sofas .This is why you may have noticed I’ve been blogging more recently, because ability, pro activity and efficiency are all in sink. Now I’m sure there’s lots of smaller laptop options with different make and operating model out there but I work off one operating system to ensure all devices are accessible wherever I am on whatever device, so for me, Apple is king!
The only drawback I’m currently experiencing with regards to the MacBook Air is the charger that seems to be little more on the heavier side .
AIRPODS
I have always been a fan of the original cable apple earphones because I was sure I’d end up losing the Apple AirPods in a heart beat, but fingers crossed I still have both safely.in my handbag and they’re so handy for zoning out when writing or working on a project meaning I can have my favourite playlist or Amazon Music just for me and not annoy anyone else in the office. But also for answering calls discreetly when on the move, catching up on podcasts or listening to another Audiobook. Perhaps I’ll treat myself to the Noise cancelling AirPods soon and escape the world around me.
PEN TO PAPER
When planning my days and writing a content pen and paper are my essentials and I think they always will be. I trust that its not going to accidentally get deleted or even worse, hacked and there’s something so amazing about using a really well laid out planner to its full potential.
I use the diary and absolutely love it because it has a full year view which I use for tracking my workouts and for me, thats been a huge impulse for me having the ability to exercise regularly despite not having the ability to induce within the gymnasium daily.I still mange to do my home work out and yoga. Looking at all the days I do get my workouts in, even when I’ve had a super busy week is such a great dynamo to stick at it and not let the days where I don’t, become the predictable. The Diary also has a Weekly view per page with a notes page adjoining; I use the notes page to note down everything I have to do that week in a particular order and then as I write my to do lists for each day I entrust tasks from the notes page by deadline, content schedule and time available. I plan my days right down from the time I have to get up and the time I have to be ready by, there’s something quite definitive about writing something down, its sort of a promise to yourself and because I get such a feeling of fulfilment by ticking things off my to do list, its another big black tangible tick.
IPHONE 11 PRO
I’ve written a review of the new iPhone 11 PRO previously which you can read here and its still very much a part of my indispensable kit as all my platforms operate from there and its camera is now such an important tool with regards to capturing video content that potentially I wouldn’t have captured with my Canon. It cant be just me who feels the iPhone is a little more unobtrusive than literally every other camera so its good to have to hand! I am however, thinking to treat myself with a new camera which I’m hoping to help with content creation in an even more immediate way.
With regards to planning and efficiency, this is where my daily calendar inhabits and all my meetings, appointments, events,trips, blah blah blah get input into my calendar for me to know what I’m doing and where I need to be around my content timeline.
Campaigns and campaign planning and schedule lives in a separate app and has a separate calendar currently although I’m waiting for the day google calendar merges with a campaign management software so that all this information can reside in google as this would be much more coherent. In fact, if it has already been developed, let me know in the comments below because you’re girl needs this in her armaments!
Another app we tend to use as part of day to day business is Notes as again it's possible to have shared lists and categories with the team, and my husband. Most of my blogposts, captions and content synopsis’ is written in there so that it's accessible on all devices at all times.
APPLE ON YOUR WRIST
With all the above listed things ,I could not possibly need more technology in my life but I had always been fascinated by the Apple Watch however, I’d never taken the dive. Mainly because I’m a lover of delicate jewellery and luxury timeless pieces and the selection of straps available with the Apple Watch just worked out for me.
Apple Watch now that I’m almost two weeks in to wearing it on my wrist I thought I’d give you a little first impressions and how I’m bringing it to use.
First and foremost I’m using it for my activity purposes, tracking my steps, workouts and fitness. It is a huge motivator for me, the moment I heard about “closing your rings” while exercising I was already motivated. It’s definitely not easy to do when you have no commute and you mainly work from home so its given me a better understanding of how active I really do need to be. I would also additionally massively appreciate the “Breathe” perform, as whenever I’m stressed or anxious the first thing to go is my breathing so its a handy little ping on my watch to induce my breath back in check again!
The best feature I didn’t apprehend I needed until I had it is the “find your phone” option. My phone is generally on silent because of the kind of work that I do need to concentrate a lot and pinging of the phone numerous times would distract me, but if I misplace my phone or lose it, this can be a bit of a problem so with this function I just push the button on my Apple Watch and my phone makes a noise from wherever i left it, I use it roughly 20000000 times per day which saves me a lot of time I would have otherwise spent finding for my phone! Game changer!
There’s a good few alternative functions like having the ability to regulate the camera on your iPhone by using your Apple Watch as a remote to take images with the view finder being on the watch so I’m able to take my own sneaky pictures should I need to. The Walkie-Talkie function is another one I think it is great and thanks to my husband as he convinced me to get Apple watche first so that he can forever annoy me with all his incoming voice notes. A lot of apps still aren’t accessible, like the Dominos “easy order” function, which I'm agitated about but then thankfully I get my appointments via push notification so I know where I need to be next and am able to reply to texts and answer calls from it so until I can get my food delivered at the push of a button, that will have to do!
HOW DO YOU ORGANISE YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS TO ENSURE PRO ACTIVITY, PRODUCTIVITY AND MOTIVATION ARE OPERATING AT ITS FULL EFFICIENCY