February 52-in-52 Update

It’s Sunday morning, and I should be doing a workout on my bike.

Instead, I stayed up too late watching the Winter Olympics, still woke up just after 5 am (rude), and now I’m tired and procrastinating on the couch.

So obviously, this feels like the perfect time to write a little update on my 52s.

Journalling

This year, I really wanted to get back into using a planner properly. Towards the end of last year, I noticed that writing things down and actually spending a bit of time setting out my day really helped reduce that constant feeling of chaos.

During the day, I found myself writing things down too. Questions I had, notes for work, random thoughts, or just things that were bugging me. It helped me process everything instead of carrying it all around in my head.

I wanted to properly cement that as a habit this year.

For Christmas, I asked for a Curate planner, and Santa was only too happy to oblige. The Saint Belford one that I bought has since sold out, but this is a similar style (although undated, and mine has a hard book-style cover).

I love my planner. Every morning I start the day by picking a sticker (I bought a set of quotes from Amazon), writing down my habits, my to-do list, and what’s planned for the day. I try to make it look nice with my lettering practice and a bit of decorating.

I’m also using it to track my monthly workout missions, what I’m reading, music I’m listening to, weekly cleaning tasks, and probably a few other things I’ve forgotten. At this point, it’s basically an extension of my arm.

When I travelled for work, I took it with me, and I’m pretty sure it’s one of the reasons my anxiety has been so much lower this year. It helps ground me in the morning before the day really kicks off.

It’s messy. There are errors. Sometimes I look at a page and think, wow, that’s…not pretty.

But at the same time, it’s also helping me embrace imperfection — which is very on theme for one of my 52s. The more I use it, the more I learn what I do and don’t like, and what actually works for me.

Every week, I’ll print out some photos and stick them into the planner as well. By the end of the year, this will become not only a planner, but a reflection of the year that was. The one I have is beautifully bound as well, similar to a hardcover book, so it’ll look adorable on the bookshelf. Definitely a keepsake!

Learn Lettering

I’ve crossed this one off mainly because I’ve started learning it, and I don’t think I’ll ever really stop. What started as a goal to improve my handwriting has quickly spiralled into a full-blown obsession.

Since downloading a simple workbook, I’ve somehow ended up with:

• Two bullet point journals
• Acrylic paint markers (also help with some relaxing colouring in)
• Crayola super tip markers
• Brush markers
• Fine-tip pens
• Erasable pens

I’m definitely getting better the more I practice, and I’m now experimenting with more styles and patterns.

One of my bullet journals is purely dedicated to lettering, making notes on styles and rules that I learn, and showcasing different techniques.

I feel pretty certain that my planner is going to look a lot different by the end of the year!

I’ve even found myself googling tutorials for doodling pictures in my planner too. It’ll be interesting to see where this ends up!

Some other wins

I realised pretty quickly that if I recapped all of these in the same level of detail, this post would be very long. So here’s a quicker rundown of some of the other wins I’ve managed to tick off:

• Practice Gratitude – my planner has a spot for each day to write something I’m grateful for. I truly think this is helping me to change my mindset. I’ve been grateful for my family, the places I’ve been, and even the feeling of disappointment, so that I know the feeling of happiness.
• Learn how to make paper flowers – yesterday, some friends and I went to a paper craft session at the library. We had so much fun! As someone who loves books, it hurt my soul to see pages being ripped out of books or even drawing on pages. These were books destined for the recycling bin, so as much as it hurt, it was incredible to see them transformed into something beautiful. I still have a plan to learn how to do quilling at home as well, but now I can say that I know how to make roses out of paper!

• Start a new book series – I’ve been reading a lot more this year, and some of these books are part of a series. The two more notable ones I’ve read are Quicksilver (The Fae & Alchemy Series), and the Command and Control series (political thriller, imagine the world being at war, etc.). Really enjoying both of these! After I finish my current book, I’ll be reading Brimstone, the second one after Quicksilver. But I’ve heard it’s not as good, so I’ll reserve judgment for later.
• Finish a virtual run and Sign up for another virtual run – I signed up for a Conqueror virtual run at the end of last year, and finished it in January. I then signed up for another one, and with my February iFit monthly workout goal, I’m pretty confident I’m going to finish this one quickly.
• Learn a new hairstyle – I bought myself one of the Tymo hair curlers that Instagram had been rather relentless in advertising to me, and thankfully, it’s lived up to the hype! I’ve now learned how to curl my hair, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Thanks for helping to boost my ego, guys!

• Stop eating lunch at my desk – this one has been harder than I expected, but it’s been rewarding. One of my “habits” that I write in my journal every day is “DELAMD” – don’t eat lunch at my desk. I’m forcing myself to take more breaks from the desk, to reset my brain, and help to maintain a healthy work/life balance. It’s been hard, especially when I’m on a roll with something, but this year I’m determined to find some healthy boundaries, so I’m glad to have ticked this one off so early.
• No social media when I wake up – I actually extended this one out, that I’m no longer allowed any social media on my phone when I’m in bed at all! No doomscrolling, and no “just one more Instagram video”. I find I’m now bounding out of bed more easily, and getting more focused on my “to do” list for the day, instead of just scrolling the time away. Another good one for the mental health to cross off early. Next step is to hide the apps on my phone altogether so that it becomes more of a conscious choice to open them in the first place!

I can’t believe we’re already one month down, and I’ve made such a dent in my list. A lot of that comes back to my planner, I’m thinking about my goals weekly instead of forgetting about them after January.

It’s been genuinely fun, and I’m really enjoying the process.

Now to see what else I can get cracking on, but preferably tomorrow. I’ve got some Olympic highlights to watch.