Shatece Haynes

1:30 AM

Celebrating Your Accomplishments... ALL of Them

So I had a completely different topic picked out for today, but I decided that this was something more important that I really wanted to put out there. A few days ago, I was on Tumblr (of course) as I always am and I came across this post:

This post really resonated with me and I really took it to heart and I think a lot of us need to as well. This is such a strong message this is so relevant to my life. Too often, we don't celebrate the things that we've accomplished. I've realized that, for me at least, I don't really celebrate my accomplishments because of my constant need to compare myself to everyone else around me. But the problem with that is that when you compare yourself to others, you'll never feel satisfied with everything you've already done because you start to feel that you can always be doing better. At least, that's how I feel. Don't get me wrong; I do believe that I can always do better and improve myself, but constantly feeling like I'm never doing enough makes it really hard for me to be proud of myself.

I think it stems from a young age as well. Growing up, I never considered myself to be a smart student; I thought of myself as average. I wasn't good at math or science or any of the "important subjects". I loved writing and the arts and those subjects weren't seen as important to other people. So the fact that I performed well in those subjects didn't really seem to mean anything. That attitude that I was never good enough in school definitely stayed with me up until about a year ago and that made it really hard for me to be proud of any work that I had done. I held myself to these crazy high standards and when I couldn't live up to those standards, I'd feel so helpless and defeated. I realize now how detrimental that is to a person's well-being.

I thought I was supposed to graduate high school at the top of my class and then get into an Ivy League university. I thought I was supposed to excel in my major and not waste time switching majors. I thought that I was supposed to have my physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional health all figured out by the time I graduated, which was supposed to be in four years or less. And when I graduated, I was supposed to graduate with honors and having completed multiple internships by that time as well. Now don't get me wrong. If those are your goals, keep striving for them! And if those are all things that you've done, then congratulations and I wish I would have been friends with you in high school because I really could have used that drive and motivation. But the reality is, none of those things happened for me. Maybe if I'd had the mindset that I have now, they would have happened, but there's no point in dwelling on those things anymore.

I graduated from high school with a pretty average GPA. I was probably in the top 30% of my class and I was definitely not a straight-A student. The university that I'm attending now was definitely not my first choice of schools to attend, but I liked it just enough to attend it (There was also no way in hell that I was getting into any Ivy League schools with my ACT score). I switched majors about 4 times and I wasn't accepted into my university as an honors student. Though I'm not performing poorly in my major, it is much harder than I intended it to be and I'm not necessarily excelling in my major at the moment either. I still struggle with my mental, spiritual, and emotional health and I'm just now at the point where I'm starting to finally give a damn about my physical health. I've yet to have any internships and by the time I graduate with my Bachelor's degree, I would have been in school (at this same university) for six (yes, 6) years. Also, I just now (as in last week) got my first real job... and I'm 21 years old with no previous work experience. I'm not trying to ramble on about all the things that I haven't done in life, but I am trying to be upfront and honest about how my life has gone so far. The truth is, I didn't really live up to any of my previous expectations. And that's okay.

At least I graduated high school with a decent GPA. I'm not at an Ivy League school, but I love my university and my major, despite the fact that switching majors is going to push my graduation back a couple of years (thank God for grants and scholarships!). And despite the fact that it took me forever to find a job, at least I have one.

I used to hate the fact that I didn't think I had accomplished anything, but that Tumblr post was right: "Accomplishments don't have an expiration date". No matter how old you may have been when you accomplished something, you still did it! And if you haven't accomplished what you wanted to yet, keep working towards it; you'll get there. Be proud of every single day that you're getting closer and closer to reaching your goals. Every day has the possibility to be a stepping stone and a small victory.

I really hope that this post helped someone who may have felt like me at some point in their life. I'd also like to put out there that if you are doubting your self-worth or your accomplishments (or lack thereof) or if you feel like no one's rooting for you, just know that I am! I think it's so important to celebrate the things that you have accomplished instead of dwelling on the things that you've yet to do in your life. Life's much too short for that. Be sure to leave all questions/comments.concerns in the Comments section below or feel free to hit me up in any of my social media links in the sidebar; I'd love to hear from you guys!

With love from your girl,

1:30 AM

Digital Vs. Paper Planning & My Hybrid Planning System

Well, hello there, beautiful people! As you all may have been able to guess by the content on this site, I get super weird and geek out over all things organization! I love learning about new, affordable, and convenient ways to organize things (thank God for Pinterest). Needless to say, when it comes to my daily planning, I'm usually on top of things (for the most part). However, I do understand that it can be difficult to stay organized sometimes, especially if you don't have a proper planning system. I've definitely struggled with this. I used to think that I could remember everything. I kept telling myself that I would leave a "mental note" to remember to do something later and, of course, I never got anything done. Over time, I began to understand the importance of proper planning and organization. Of course, there's the age old debate about digital planning versus paper planning and which one is better and honestly, that all depends on the individual. I have friends who have desks that are covered in planners, notebooks, and post-it notes, and I also have friends who are glued to their phones. I've tried to do both, so I've compiled a list of pros and cons to both digital and paper planners.

DIGITAL PLANNERS

Pros

Fast (depending on phone)
Planning apps are most likely able to sync to all of your devices
Less likely to get lost
Convenient, less to carry around
Apps are able to remind you of important dates and appointments

Cons

Phone battery can run out while planning
No app is completely 100% customizable or "perfect" (to the best of my knowledge)

PAPER PLANNERS

Pros

Writing things down can help you remember things easier
Very satisfying to physically write things down and scratch things off of your lists
Planners are completely customizable (usually)

Cons

More to carry with you and it can be a hassle to constantly have to dig planners and pens out of your bag
If you lose it, you're pretty much screwed
You planner, by itself, can't really remind you of important dates and appointments
Rewriting things in a planner can be redundant
If you write everything in pen, scratching out mistakes or rescheduling tasks can be a hassle

I've definitely taken both of these planning methods into consideration and I've tried sticking to just one method at a time, but it never worked out for me. In high school (and every grade before that), we were required to carry a planner with us at all times. We weren't allowed to have our phones out during classes and no one really brought a laptop or tablet to school so naturally, when I got to college, I figured that having a planner was the best way to stay organized. However, I quickly found out that the schedule I had in high school, which was very simple and repetitive, was very different from the schedule that I had in college, which is a little repetitive, but there's always the possibility for something to pop up unexpectedly. I kept finding myself rescheduling plans and adding things to my planner after I'd already scheduled everything for that week and it became a hassle to always have to grab my planner out of my bag every time I needed to schedule something while I was on the go.

Similarly, I tried to stick to using only my phone to stay organized and that just got too overwhelming for me. I consider my phone to be pretty reliable, but sometimes my phone (like most phones) experience a little bit of lag over time, so I have definitely experienced that awkward moment when you're trying to plan something with someone and you're trying to put an event in your calendar app and it takes forever to open because you've got too many apps running on your phone at the same time. Not fun. However, waiting a couple of seconds for an app to open is still easier than digging a planner out of my bag. I also find that while I'm trying to get work done at home, it's more convenient for me to write things down when I'm already sitting at a desk where my stationary supplies are right in front of me.

After noticing all of these things, I decided to create a sort of "hybrid" planning system using both digital and physical calendars and that really seems to work for me. Recently (as in, at the end of last semester), I decided to ditch my physical weekly planner, despite the fact that it worked very well for me while it lasted (and it was super cute). I noticed that whenever I make an appointment or whenever I have a rehearsal or an event that I need to go to, I reach for my phone to add it to my calendar because my phone is right next to me about 99% of the time. I decided to use my phone as my main calendar to schedule in my day. However, I do still keep a physical calendar. I no longer use my weekly calendar, but I now just use a monthly calendar to fill in important due dates, when bills and payments are due, etc. It's still great to have a month-at-a-glance view without having to pull your phone out all the time. I'm also an avid list-maker and I love creating to-do lists and more importantly, I love crossing things off of those to-do lists. While I'm working at home, I use post-it notes to physically write out lists... of everything. Whether it's things I need to get done around the house, people I need to email, phones calls I need to make, blog posts I need to type up, homework I need to work on for that day, etc., it all goes on some type of list. However, when I'm on the go, I keep a digital list with me of errands that I may need to run while I'm out of the house. I also keep grocery lists on my phone as well.

Now for the fun part: APPS! Because I am using my phone a lot more to stay organized now than I ever have before, I have been obsessed (I mean obsessed) with productivity apps! Every once in a while, I'll just go to the Google Play Store to browse new productivity apps just to see if there's anything new for me to try out and more often than not, I'm not disappointed. Here are the apps that I use on a (pretty much) daily basis (All the apps I'm listing are available for both iPhone and Android users.):

Google Calendar - This app is my holy grail of calendars. I plan out every little part of my day in this app, including classes, meetings, and appointments. If I'm really busy, I'll go ahead and plan the times I'll be eating meals in this app as well as times I'll be studying/doing homework/blogging.
Todoist - I use this app mostly as a widget on my phone, which is incredibly convenient. This is an app that I use mainly while I'm on the go to keep track of what errands I need to run while I'm out of the house (These errands usually consist of remembering to stop at the bank and to remember to pick up groceries.)
Evernote - This app is where all of my extensive lists go. Some of the lists I have in Evernote consists of: movies to watch, websites to check out, blog post ideas, etc. I also keep separate notebooks of various topics. For example, my favorite notebook is the one I have dedicated to photography tips. I also keep temporary shopping lists in Evernote as well.
My Study Life - I've just recently started using this app. I only used it for the last couple of weeks of class last semester, but it's awesome. In this app, you can keep track of all of your classes, homework assignments, projects, quizzes/exams, etc. Every class is color-coordinated, keeping you super organized and it even tells you when you should leave for your classes.

So in a nutshell, that is how I keep my life organized using a hybrid digital/paper planning system and I love it! Of course, there could be many variations of this planning system so if you're not someone who is strictly paper or strictly digital, maybe coming up with a hybrid system of your own is the best way to go. Hopefully, this helped anyone who really wants to get organized, but just isn't sure how to go about doing so. Comment down below and let me know what you guys do to stay organized!

With love from your girl,

1:30 AM

My Summer Goals for 2015

Well hello there, beautiful people! These last couple of weeks have been very successfully kicking my butt, so I apologize that I haven't posted anything in a while, but I'm back! I'm motivated and I'm very happy to say that I'm not as stressed out as I have been. I'm currently watching The Hangover while drinking orange juice out of an unnecessarily large mason jar. I also just starting watching a YouTube channel called Akaydoll (Kayla Lashae), which has been so amazingly inspirational for me. Needless to say, I'm having a great day and I'm so motivated to get this blog post up and start working hard on even better content! The semester is (finally) coming to an end. Actually, it already has ended. Classes ended last week and today is the start of finals week and I am definitely not going to complain about that. Summer is coming up and I have a few things planned already and I also have a few goals in mind, so let's get into it!

John Mulaney Show

My friends and I just bought our tickets to see John Mulaney in Chicago on May 30th and I am beyond excited! He's an amazing comedian who will never know how much he has shaped the relationship that I have with my friends; we quote just about everything he says because he's so hilarious!

Fitness Routine

I'm so ready to get in shape this summer. I've got dumbbells, a yoga mat, and a yoga pillow that I plan on using extensively this summer. I'm getting to that point in my life where I'm starting to realize that I need to be taking better care of my body and I figured that since I'll have a little bit more free time in the summer, I'll be able to create a fitness routine that I will actually have time to commit to.

Employment

In a couple of weeks, one of my best friends and I will be signing the lease to our first apartment! But of course, with any apartment, there's a down payment that's going to be due when we move in. This summer, I plan on working to save enough money for my half of that down payment as well as some other things.

IKEA Trip

I recently went on a spontaneous trip to IKEA with a friend and it was my first time going. I fell in love with that store as soon as I walked through the doors. After a few hours of browsing every section of IKEA, I left with an end table and a serious goal to come back later to purchase basically everything that's going to go in the apartment.

New Phone

I currently have an HTC Desire 601 from Virgin Mobile, which does pretty much everything that most smartphones do, but I'm ready for something new (I'm eyeing the iPhone 6 Plus).

Read More

I have a list on my phone of books that I want to read, but I just haven't had time to read them while being in school. This summer, I want to set aside more time to check off some of those books that are on my reading list.

Shopping

I don't go shopping often. It's actually been quite a few years since I've gone on an actual shopping trip and I think it's time to get myself a few things (preferably clothes and makeup). I'm leaving to go home for the summer on Tuesday, so I've been slowly packing up my dorm and I decided to throw out a lot of old jewelry, clothing, and makeup items that I don't need and/or can't use anymore. I feel great about getting rid of a lot of my old stuff, but now it's time to add to my clothing and makeup storage.

Spending Time with Loved Ones

Getting an apartment is awesome, but it also means that I won't be coming home as often as I do now. I want to make sure that I devote enough time this summer to spend time with family and friends that I won't see in a while.

Possible YouTube Channel (?)

This is a HUGE MAYBE because I currently don't have any good camera/film editing equipment to use, but I absolutely love YouTube and I've been thinking about starting my own channel for a while now. If things work out (financially and with having the time to do it), I'd definitely love to start a channel.

Those are just a few of my goals for the summer, though I'm sure I'll have more. Comment down below and let me know what goals you guys have for the summer. Do you have any fitness goals? Mental health goals? Are your plans to chill around the house all summer with Netflix and Hulu? That's definitely going to be a part of my summer as well. I'm looking forward to seeing the plans you guys have!

With love from your girl,