Work with Me #2: languages, writing and workouts

Hi everyone!

Welcome back to my blog. I took a day off this week because I was meeting up with my friend and I had worked pretty hard in the days before. But, I knew that I needed to get back on the grind the next day and I also knew that I needed a blog post, so I decided to document my day. I'll be telling you what I did and when I did it, and hopefully, it'll give you an insight into how I structure my day and how I spend it productively. It might even motivate you or give you some ideas as to how to spend your time. Enjoy! 

8.00-8.40: Breakfast

I woke up at around 8 o'clock in the morning and had my breakfast: cheerios without milk. I'm a very fussy person when it comes to breakfast food and this is pretty much the only thing I'll eat (besides pancakes and French toast but, unfortunately, I can't have that every day!). While I was eating, I put on an episode of Teen Wolf (I'm obsessed) and watched it. 

8.40-9.00: Checked socials

After breakfast, I switched on my phone and checked my messages and social media. I looked through people's Instagram's stories, my Twitter timeline checked my emails and checked Whatsapp. I don't go on TikTok until around five o'clock because, otherwise, I would be scrolling through it all day! When I check everything in the morning, I don't really feel the need to scroll through things later on in the day when I'm supposed to be working as I feel like I'm caught up with everything.

9.00-9.30: Prepared for the day

After this, I did my morning skincare routine (which, according to Skincare by Hyram, is terrible haha) and picked my outfit out for the day. I put on black leggings and a white jumper and brushed my hair, tying it up in a half-up half-down style (which is pretty much the only way I style my hair if it isn't completely down). 

I also wrote my To-Do List for the day. As you can see from the screenshot, I colour-code my lists: the tasks highlighted in yellow are things that I have to get done, the tasks highlighted in orange are the things I should get done (but it's not the end of the world if I don't do them) and the things highlighted in green are the things that I potentially could get done if I had any time left. I find that this is a great way for me to prioritise certain tasks and it helps me keep on top of things. 

9.30-11.10: Physics

Then, I sat down and studied physics. I need to write up notes about the topics we covered when we were doing online school as, obviously, all my class notes are online. I looked through my class notes, watched YouTube videos and looked up websites with notes specifically for GCSE Physics students and wrote my notes up. After I did that, I did some topic questions from savemyexams (a website with great resources for GCSE science and maths) and wrote all the questions I didn't understand/thought were good questions onto flashcards with their answers on the back of them so that I can test myself at some point in the future. I may do a blog post on how I take notes/study for certain subjects, so let me know if that's something you want to see.

While I was studying, I was listening to One Direction, which is pretty odd for me. I honestly haven't listened to them in ages but, for some reason, I've been getting back into their music. Maybe it's because they might be reuniting (eek!). I put on a Spotify playlist with all their songs on and that helped me focus. Usually, I would listen to Lofi beats or classical music while studying and when I'm doing intense revision I listen to Harry Potter ASMR rooms on YouTube, but this time I fancied a change.

11.20-12.10: Workout

After I studied, I did some exercise. I finished Chloe Ting's 2-week shred program, so now I've put together a list of my favourite workouts from a couple of different channels and that's my workout routine. My list is:

• MadFit's 90s dance party workout
• MadFit's This Is What You Came For arm workout
• Chloe Ting's slim thigh workout  
• Chloe Ting's tight core and arms workout
• Chloe Ting's abs in 2 weeks workout (sometimes) 

These are all quick, beginner-friendly workouts that are pretty effective and, dare I say, fun. 

12.15-12.45: Duolingo

After my workout, I practised the languages I'm learning on Duolingo: a free website made for helping people learn languages. I'm studying French and Spanish at school and this website is a good way for me to keep on top of the basics and build my vocabulary. It also helps me to make sure that I don't forget any of the basics and, when I'm doing French/Spanish past papers I usually recall the vocabulary I learnt on this website. It's interactive and there are different topics (such as travel and hobbies) with translation and listening activities. Today, I spent 15 minutes on French and 15 minutes on Spanish, as per usual. 

12.45-1.20: Reading

I'm an avid reader and am currently reading a book called Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I'm reading it online for free at this website: http://readonlinefreebook.com/fangirl and I'm really enjoying the book! It's about an introverted girl called Cath in her first year of college who loves to write. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes YA books.

1.20-1.45: Lunch

Then, I ate some lunch. My mum made pizza for myself and my brother and I like having mushrooms, olives and sweetcorn on mine. 

1.50-2.45: Duolingo Podcasts

Another thing that Duolingo offers is podcasts in intermediate level French and Spanish. I listen to them on Spotify, but I believe that they are available on pretty much any other podcast streaming app. The podcast episodes are basically true stories about anything interesting/inspiring told by a guest in French or Spanish and with a narrator chiming in every now and then in English for context. These are a great way to improve your listening skills and the episodes are genuinely interesting. However, I only listen to them when I have enough time to as they are quite lengthy. Today, I listened to the 7th episode in both the French podcast and the Spanish podcast.

2.50-3.30: Planned and started fanfiction chapter

After the podcasts, I started working on the next chapter in the Harry Potter fanfiction my friend and I are working on. The story is told from 2 different perspectives: when it's Person A's turn to speak my friend writes a chapter and when it's Person B's turn, I write a chapter. It was my turn to write a chapter and, at first, my friend and I were briefly planning out what we wanted to happen in it. Since this particular chapter was more about character development and light-heartedness rather than the main plot and hardcore action, we didn't take too much time out to plan. All I needed to do was come up with a way to strengthen the bonds between the characters in a light-hearted way before the next, heavier chapter. Once I had figured out what I was going to do, I began to write.

3.30-4.00: Piano

I stopped writing around a couple of pages in and started practising the piano. I found the lesson and piece I wanted to practise and spent around half an hour trying to nail it. I'm okay with playing with my right hand, but I struggle slightly with coordinating my left hand with it. I'm sticking at it, and I'm getting better! 

4.00-5.00: Netflix

I finished off playing the piano and watched an episode of Las Chicas del Cable (Cable Girls) on Netflix. My Spanish teacher recommended it to us as it is a Spanish show set in 1920s Spain and it is very interesting. I only have a couple of episodes left and the final season comes out on July 3rd so I'm very excited about that. After I finish the whole show, I'll watch more Spanish Netflix shows such as Money Heist and Elite (if you have any more recommendations, let me know in the comments). If you're looking for a Spanish cultural TV show, or if you just want something soapy to binge-watch, I highly recommend this.

5.00-7.00: Chill

I took a two-hour break to message my friends and spend time with my family. I also FaceTimed some of my family back home in England because it was one of my cousin's birthday, so it was nice to catch up with them. 

7.00-8.20: Continued fanfiction

Because I'm such a perfectionist, I'm a very slow writer! I spent the next hour and a half continuing the chapter. To be fair, I did go on my phone for a little while in between, but at the end of this session, I was almost done.

8.20-8.40: Dinner

I had pesto pasta for dinner and only took around 20 minutes to eat because I was very hungry! I usually take around half an hour or even longer to finish dinner. 

8.40-9.10: Finished fanfiction

I spent a little while longer after dinner finishing off my chapter and making any changes to it (checking the tone, grammar etc.). I'm really happy with the way it turned out (even if it did take me ages) so I can't complain. Before, I would try to stay focused by having a YouTube video on in the background, but I found that when I'm writing, I need absolute silence and no distractions. 

9.10-9.20: Plan article

I'm a writer for an online magazine called The Teen Magazine, which is written by and aimed at young people. I basically pitch an article that I think would appeal to the teenage demographic, write it up and submit it to the editors who make any changes they deem necessary and publish it if there aren't any issues. I'm currently working on an article which will have tips on how to have productive days, and I spent these last ten minutes planning what I wanted to write about.

I plan these kinds of articles by making a rough list of around 10 tips I would give to people, just off the top of my head and based on my experience. I would then look through this list and merge certain tips together (such as nutrition and exercise) and this would leave me with 6 tips that I can develop more research more thoroughly. Today, this only took me around 10 minutes.

So, that was my productive day. After this, I had a shower, watched TV with my family and went to bed. I honestly feel like I got quite a bit done today and I had crossed everything off on my to-do list, which is great. 

Thank you all so much for reading this post and coming along with me today! I probably am going to do quite a few of these on this blog because it has forced me to be more productive and I've genuinely enjoyed documenting this. So let me know if you've liked this because I don't know if this is interesting to read and if it's something you guys want to see. Anyhow, I hope this motivates you in some way or gives you an idea of what I do when I'm productive! Please subscribe by clicking on the button at the top of your page and if you're a blogger leave your blog in the comments so that I can check it out and we can support each other. 

Don't forget to follow my twitter @alishascornerxx as it's a good way for us to connect with each other and I follow everyone back. See you next Saturday!

Stay safe,

Alisha xx