Ibyang
Ibyang

Everyday Life

Being More Prepared For Monday

Does this ever happen to you?  You sleep late on Friday and Saturday, then on Sunday night, you find it hard to sleep early?  This is a usual scenario for me.  What makes it more difficult for me to sleep early on Sundays is because I sometimes nap in the afternoon.  Come Monday morning, it’s so hard to wake up, I feel sleepy most of the day, I find it hard to focus sometimes and my energy at work can’t seem to last til 4pm.

Off To Bed Early on a Sunday

Nowadays, I cannot afford to be not on top of my demanding work.  I’m currently having long days at the office and I really need to focus.  Lately too, I haven’t been taking day-offs.  For the past two weeks, I’ve been working five days a week.  If you notice, I haven’t been blogging much too.  Some days, I arrive home late.  When I get home, I still cook (when there’s no more leftovers), have dinner and prepare lunch boxes for the following day.  Some days when I’m feeling exhausted, I just lie down on the couch, drink tea and watch TV until I fall asleep (the Husband needed to carry me to bed). 

So yesterday (Sunday), I made a plan and followed thru it.  Because I wanted to be more alert at work today and I want my energy to last the whole week (yes, another five-day work week for me–still no day-off) I did the following:

(1) Didn’t take a nap in the afternoon
(2) Finished all my chores by 6:00pm
(3) Early dinner at 6:30pm
(4) Took a hot shower
(5) Turned off the computer at 8:00pm
(6) From 8:00-8-:30pm, I just watched TV while I drank my usual chamomile tea
(7) Read my “book of the moment” in bed by 8:30pm

My goal was to be asleep by 9:00pm.  And it worked!  I was asleep by 9pm!!!! I had a total of nine hours of sleep. 

The effect on me was tremendous.  I had more focus at work, I didn’t feel sleepy and I don’t feel tired even if I worked til 5:00pm.  And here I am, able to blog before I go to bed.  I feel great! 
Next Sunday, I’m definitely going to do my plan again because it worked for me.

Have a productive week, everyone! Smile!

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No Going Out, No Spending Month



A Project of the Mr & Mrs
From 8 August to 5 September, the Husband and I will officially have a “No Going Out, No Spending Month”.  Last year, we hibernated for three weeks right after our parents left for Manila.  We called it “hibernation” but in actuality, we avoided going out and rested our pockets from spending.  It was the first time that we were able to observe not going out for three weeks.  In earlier years, we have tried this project for a week…then two weeks…then last year, three weeks.  This year, we are officially tagging this as one our household projects and we’re leveling up to four weeks (!!!).


Let’s Define Things, Shall We?
No Going Out means no parties, no eating out, no dinner out with friends, no road trips, no movie dates.  We will still go to work (just had to clear that hehe) but we will avoid hanging out at restaurants and shopping malls after work.  Also, no overstaying in supermarkets.  My Husband and I sometimes have dates inside Woolworths on Friday nights and before we knew it, we find ourselves at the counter paying for stuff we don’t need yet.

No Spending means we will only spend for the usual monthly expenditures like groceries, bills and maintenance/repairs in the home (if ever something does come up).  It is very critical that we stick to our budget for four weeks so we have both agreed that we won’t shop for unnecessary things (read: things we DON’T REALLY NEED) and we won’t give in to sales (which is usually the culprit–those freakin’ tempting sales).

Reasons That Turn Into Goals

We want physical rest. Initially, we planned this project for the whole month of June because we thought it would be great to re-charge in the middle of year and at the same time get ourselves ready for the 2nd half of 2010.  However we had to postpone it because my mom arrived in June for a short vacation.

We want rest from eating out.  We want to stay away from restaurants for awhile and just observe eating in.  Sort of like a detox.

Exercise the discipline of not spending for unnecessary things.  Last year, one of the things that we learned from not going out and spending for three weeks was the things we have are the things we need and there is no need to buy things just because it is on sale.  Sometimes we want a certain item is one and found out that it is on sale, we immediately think “We’ve got to buy this, it’s on sale already!”  But the truth is, we don’t really need it.  This doesn’t happen all the time but this project is a good reminder to my Husband and I to always count our blessings and always ask ourselves “Do we really need this?” before purchasing stuff.

We want to de-clutter our home.  We have the usual weekly de-cluttering at home but we’d like to do more de-cluttering in the next four weeks.  We plan to sort out our clothes and shoes, pack up some of the things we don’t wear or doesn’t fit and give them to church.  We want to box up some things that we don’t use in the meantime and store it properly.

We want to finish up on our photography projects.  We will take this opportunity to finish up on two events we’ve covered. 

A Bit of Preparation

1.  We checked our calendar and made sure we don’t have family or friends who will be having parties. 

2.  We informed friends about it.  We also announced the project via twitter and FB.   It is of great help when people around you know that you have a project like this.  We really appreciate all the positive reactions and support we got from friends (thank you!).

A Little Provision

The Husband and I are still entitled to a little breather and small pleasures.  The last thing we want is to splurge and pig out as soon as the project is over.  So we have agreed:

To have dinner at least once a week —take note: with a budget.  The dinner should not be more than AUD$20.00, and that covers both of us (so that’s AUD$10.00 per person).

That I’ll still have my weekly coffee “me” time.  I will work on a budget of AUD$10.00 or less per coffee date with myself. 

That the Husband is also entitled to coffee “me” times when at work.  His coffee at work is only AUD$2.00-3.00 a cup so in a week, he will only spend about AUD$10-15.00, which is about the same cost as my weekly coffee time.


A Feeling of Excitement
The moment we decided to make this project official for four weeks, we had a bit of nerves about it.  Who wouldn’t, right?  Four weeks of avoiding temptations seems kind of overwhelming.  But we are really excited about this project.  We have faith in each other (teamwork to the max!) and in this project.  We are very positive that we can do it because we really want to rest most of all. 

Wish us luck!  Since this is an official project, I will be taking notes and will share on how things turned out for us.




Thanks the Husband for the very cute logo he created for this project.


 


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Thank God It’s Monday!

“The only difference between a good day and a bad day is your attitude!”
– Dennis S. Brown

At the end of the week, we always say “Thank God it’s Friday”, right?

For a change, why not say “Thank God it’s Monday!!!!!”?
I’m at work today, nursing a very bad runny nose and I’ve been sneezing left and right since yesterday.  My head feels like it weighs a ton.  I have a feeling that I will have a bad case of the flu in the nearest future possible.  Never mind that I would love to just rest at home and stay in bed.
To make my Monday less worse than what I’m physically feeling, I focus on happy thoughts, on work that I love and the blessing that is today, a Monday, a new day, a beginning to another great week.
Happy Monday everyone!  May we all have a blessed, great week!  Smile!!!! 🙂
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Five Blessings on a Monday Morning

I know, I know…it’s Monday once again.

But before we enumerate the reasons why we’d rather be somewhere else but at work, I’ll share with you one exercise I do in order to help me feel better about going back to work after a great weekend.

As soon as I’m at the office and before I dive into work, I take a few moments to count five (5) blessings in my life.

This morning, the first five (5) blessings that came into my mind were the following:

1. My Husband and I starting the day together inside the train on our way to work.
2. A job that I really love.
3. Monday—I love Mondays because it’s the start of the workweek and I like starting it at the office–yes, most of the time I really do.
4. A new week! A new week means a chance to start fresh, to forget about troubles from the past week, a reminder to move on. Don’t you just love beginnings? I do!!!
5. That I had a great week! I was able to find time to rest, bake a cake on my own for the first time (promise, no help from the Husband), cooked hamburgers that tasted good and did some personal errands. On top of that, my Husband & I were able to accomplish a rush job to create a wedding AVP for Saturday (no sleep on Friday night just to beat the Saturday 10:30am call time–super stress!!!). Busy weekend but I had some down time to rest and relax.

This habit of mine gives me inspiration to face my Monday with a smile. It helps me start the day and week at work in a positive perspective.

Try it! Tell me what you’re grateful for on this lovely Monday morning.

For a few more tips on how to have a happier Monday, please click here.

Wishing you a great week ahead!

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The “My Pilipinas” Moleskine Notebook

It was only two weeks after the “My Pilipinas” Moleskine Notebook was launched that I got the nerve to ask my mom if she can buy me one. I was kind of hesitant to ask her because she might negatively say “What kind of expensive notebook is that?”. But when I learned that my uncle’s going to Manila to visit, I can’t help but request her to buy me one since she also asked what I want from the Phils.

So I sheepishly asked her, “Mom, there’s this notebook that I want. It’s called a Moleskine notebook and it has this Philippine map drawn on the front page with the words “My Pilipinas”. It’s a collaboration of Moleskine, National Bookstore and Collezione C2–you know the one that makes shirts with the Philippine map? Anyway, the Moleksine is my favorite notebook and I really really like it, plus it would be nice to have one that has a Pilipinas map on it. Can you please buy me one?”
Oh diba? Ang haba ng explanation. Take note, that I didn’t initially mention the cost of the notebook hehe.
To which my mom replied, “Okay, where can I buy one?’ So I told her, “National Bookstore”.
But of course, I had to mention how much it is so she know what she’s getting herself into.
To my surprise, she just said, “Oh well, you’ve always liked expensive notebooks even when you were little.” Hehe. So my mom knows me well.
Then came a follow-up request of, “Mom, can you buy me one tomorrow? Because it was launched two weeks ago and they said they only made 4,800 pieces…so baka maubos na.”
I know, demanding. I even had to ask my plurkmates on where else my parents can find “My Pilipinas” Moleskines just incase they ran out of stock in NB Megamall (that’s where my Mom was headed to when we talked).
So the following day, my parents trooped down to Megamall and thank goodness, according to my Mom, there were still a lot of “My Pilipinas” Moleskines at NB Megamall. The moment she texted me that she got me one, I’m one happy, relieved camper. Yay!

I’m so glad I got my “My Pilipinas” Moleskine last week. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!!! I now have a second Moleskine waiting to be used. 

I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t made in hardcover but seeing the print of the Philippine map was good enough for me–makes me feel proud that Moleskine made a special edition for the Philippines.

The “My Pilipinas” Moleskine comes in two sizes: pocket size @ P995.00 and large size @ P1,480.00, both in plain and ruled versions. Available in selected National Bookstore branches and Collezione C2 branches.

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