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Happy sunny, Saturday friends! That’s if you’re in Ontario I guess but if you’re like me, you are SO freakin’ happy it is sunny and warm. This delayed Spring has been so hard to deal with but I think it is safe to say that Spring may finally be here to stay.

Before I spend the rest of the day outside enjoying this fresh air, I had some creative juice to get out this morning. So to my computer I went to write…

I don’t know about you, but I always need to be in a creative mood to write. We all need something to stimulate us. And while I’ve been bad here on the ol’ blog of only blogging when that creative spirit is in full force, I’m continually reminded of this message:

Writing is like a muscle, you must work at it to get stronger.

One thing I’ve tried to do in the last little while is create habits around fostering creativity especially around my writing deadlines. For anyone who designs, wordsmiths, brainstorms or works in the creative/marketing/communications field, we all know that being in a creative mood helps to make the words and ideas flow easier. Or a glass of wine or rye always helps too 😉

And of course when deadlines are impending, that is when creativity usually decides to take a hike.

That’s when habits come in to handy.

One of these habits I’ve been trying lately is creating ‘mood boards’ to help me visually get into the creative spirit. Sourcing photos from fellow bloggers, things I find online or social and capturing my own photos has certainly helped me at referring back to these mood boards whenever I’m in a rut and need inspiration. You could also call these vision boards. Here is an example below of the cottage vision board I created when I knew I’d be tasked with the interior design for our little cotty 🙂

I had mentioned this idea of mood boards/vision boards to a colleague a while ago and she loved this idea and asked that I share an example here on the blog. So voila, here is a spring mood board above I created just this week that may help inspire you as well, like it has for me this morning.

Let’s be serious though, just waking up to this sun and warmer temps this morning was enough inspiration itself. Thank you Spring for making your very late entrance to the party, regardless, we are so happy to see you!

{tulips/robins eggs/split leaf philodendron/coffee/wisdom begins in wonder}

We are 37 days in to 2018. Have you been able to keep your New Years Resolutions or goals, that you so keenly set back on Jan 1? Yea, its hard eh? We all have the best of intentions but once reality sets in, its hard to get out of our already-established routines.

I shared my 5 goals for 2018 in my first ever podcast. I’m happy to report that I at least kept the first one – take vitamins for 30 days – which I did successfully in January. Great goal right?! lol I keep telling myself its the small things! ha Now I can focus on my other 4 goals for 2018 😛

A majority of us hop aboard the ‘new year, new me’ train at the beginning of January. But by the second month in, most of that enthusiasm and willingness to hold ourselves accountable to new goals goes out the window. We tell ourselves, “At least we tried, right?”

One thing I’ve personally been trying to hold myself too, is a system that holds me accountable to executing both my personal to-do’s and professional goals, all in one place, in an organized (less chaotic) way.

Its what I’ve been calling ‘personal infrastructure.’ Its what systems, tools, resources, apps, etc I’ve put in place to help me execute my goals as best as possible. Take a look at the 13 ways I’m trying to maintain this personal infrastructure:

Planner/Organizer – I shared a list of planners to use last year; this is the weekly planner I chose to use for 2018. I am a list-makin’ machine, there really is nothing better than crossing off your to-do’s once you get them done!
Cozi calendar app – I recently discovered and downloaded this app to help manage one consistent calendar, so both Andrew and I can use and update all of our important dates in one place.
Feedly – there are a lot of well-written and inspiring blogs out there. The Feedly platform allows me to read them all in one organized place.
Pocket – I blame the overabundance of articles that I find on Twitter as to why I always have a million tabs open. I fixed this by downloading this app to easily store and read these articles at a later time.
*To Read* inbox rule – I subscribe to newsletters that can sometimes fill up the ol’ inbox. I created a rule within my personal email inbox that automatically puts all of those newsletter subscriptions into a ‘To Read’ folder when they arrive. You can set up any number of rules so all of your emails come in and are sorted in advance of opening up your inbox #genius
Evernote – I have this on my laptop to help organize random chicken scratch ideas and my writing.
Tweetdeck – this platform is what I use to execute tweets on Twitter if I have planned content to send out in advance.
Planoly- this monthly subscription app allows me to organize and execute my Instagram feed.
VSCO – the app I use to edit photos for social media.
Canva – I have this website both as an app on my phone and open and readily available on my laptop, which I use to create images for my blog and social media.
Unsplash and Pexels – two great websites to source free stock images when necessary (remember to give credit where credit is due!)
The Bullet – my morning daily eBlast read to keep up-to-date with all the latest news, and all conveniently in one place!
Notes in iphone- if everything else fails, writing down notes on my iphone has been a saving grace.

Hope you find some (or all!) of these ideas and tips valuable in helping to maintain your own personal infrastructure, whatever that may look like!